PorSTi Project Thread…, Well that was fun, time to make some upgrades! Options

[Amenson]

As the title states my project has turned a critical corner. After may months of planning and measuring and prognosticating how great it will be, I put down the sand blaster and stripping pad and got down to real work.

I purchased my 914 with the plan of dong this swap. The motor is from my ex-daily driver that I managed to shorten a bit. The 914 that I am starting with has been restored once before and had a decent autocross suspension. The first thing I did to it was to upgrade the front calipers to 3-series BMW. It is not perfect but is pretty clean and straight. The only part that had not been repainted was found behind the heat/sound pad in the engine compartment. The plan is to repair some shoddy patch work in the battery tray area and repaint the engine compartment once all of the fab work is complete for the swap.

Project details:

Engine:

’05 Subaru STi

Trans:

Stock…for now

Adapter Plate/Clutch:

Kennedy Engineering adapter plate and Stage 3 clutch.

Engine Mount:

Modified Small Car Performance mounts bolted to the stock engine bar. The solid body mounts at the ends of the bar have been replaced with stiff 911 mounts. The engine bar has been modified to accommodate the mounts without changing the position of the bar.

Oil Pan:

I will probably take the easy way out and have Small Car Performance shorten and box out the stock pan.

Exhaust:

Custom exhaust will be made starting with Outback stub headers. 2” tubing will be run to the turbo from each header. Exhaust from the turbo will be 3” SS to a straight through MagnaFlow muffler. The exhaust will exit in the stock location (maybe people will not notice anything unusual about the car when they pull up next to it).

Electrical:

The entire electrical system will be taken from the STi harness with unnecessary parts removed. This may seem like a lot of effort but it will provide a much needed update to the old stock harness and allow me to still develop my digital display product. It will also make it straight forward to use the throttle by wire.

Cooling:

Ron Davis 28” x 16” x 3” double pass radiator mounted in the front vented through the hood like wbergtho’s. The current plan is to run the cooling lines through the center tunnel.

Steering:

The stock steering column will be replaced by a shortened STi column. This will allow use easy use of the of the stalk switches and more importantly, the RF ID security key system. Initial measurements show that this will be fairly straight forward to do and will also give the benefit of adjustable steering wheel height.

Seating:

Momo Start. These seats were chosen because of the FIA certified seats they have the thinnest seat cushion and are bottom mounted to allow for the lowest possible seating position (they are also quite economical). I tried a set of Corbeau seats that I had from another project and I hardly fit in the car at all much less with a helmet on.

Belts:

For the road I am going to run Schroth Rallye Cross 4-points. They are DOT approved and have a quick latch mechanism. I will install 6 points for track use.

Intercooler:

A 25” x 12” x 3” Ebay bar and plate front mount intercooler will be mounted to the top of the engine. While this is not ideal, the intercooler will get quite a bit of fresh air from in front of the engine. The engine lid will be modified to a GT style so that as much air can flow through the area as possible. 3” Al tubing will be run from the turbo to the intercooler and on to the throttle body.

Oiling:

A remote filter/cooler is necessary because the stock oil/water cooler does not quite fit with the engine mount in place.

Unresolved Items:

Turbo placement.

It is awfully tight under there even with some of the sheet metal removed. We will find out on Saturday, that is when the exhaust will come together.

Cooling lines:

The plan is to run them through the tunnel in thin walled Al or SS tubing. With the heater control and throttle cable tubes removed, two 1” od test tubes fit to the front of the tunnel. I would like to use slightly larger tubes and still need to fit the fuel and brake lines. The tightest spot is right at the shifter. I am considering widening the tunnel at this point.

Throttle Pedal:

I am not sure how to mount the STi electronic throttle. In the Suby it is top pivoting. This may be uncomfortable with the floor pivot brake and clutch pedals. I have also considered linking the throttle sensor to the stock 914 pedal. This will have to wait until I have seats in the car again.

Starter:

Not really a problem…just have not picked one out yet.

Wipers:

I have not yet checked if the STi wiper control system will run the 914 wiper motor.

As much as possible items will be mounted to the engine in a way that will allow for minimal disassembly when removing the engine/trans. The current exhaust/turbo plumbing plan should all come out with the engine with the exception of the supply to the turbo.

Timing….the goal is to have it ready for the track day at Mid Ohio on Oct. 6th. This is a bit aggressive, especially considering that I will be vacationing in London for 8 days at the end of the month. I have been making great progress the past month and I have most of the critical parts already. Just need to keep plugging along and hope that my friends keep helping. Without them this project would not be possible.

Now for the important stuff…the pictures.

This is the engine that I started with, it came out of my daily driver STi that came to an untimely death:


When the timing belt broke 2 valves were bent so a teardown was necessary:

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/www.digitaldash.org-4154-1328899178.1.jpg)

Due to the obscene cost of the Subaru tools to remove the valves I, made my own:

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/www.digitaldash.org-4154-1328899179.2.jpg)

Put the engine back together and attached it to the trans:

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/www.digitaldash.org-4154-1328899179.3.jpg)

Slipped it into place and attached the trans mounts:

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/www.digitaldash.org-4154-1328899179.4.jpg)

Here is a picture of the unmodified Small Car Performance engine brackets mounted to the bottom of the engine. They wrapped nicely around the oil pan. There was a slight interference between the water line from the oil/water cooler that required a notch.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/www.digitaldash.org-4154-1328899179.5.jpg)

[PeeGreen 914]

That's awsome you found a good lady. My wife likes me making my 914 better. She wants me to win. Rather competitive woman;) Even when the kids come along I am sure you will have 914 time. You have to get away from the for sanity sake sometimes. I also have my 10 monthy old with me all day, and he likes making car noises.

On the belly, you have to be very folded up to sit in there. They had one at an air show near my house when I was 10, and when they found out my grandfather was killed in there they let my dad and I sit in it. I could fit as I was a little kid, but my dad was too tall at 5'6". I guess my grandfather was 5'6" as well but very thin. Sounds like a very creative way to propose. Nice work and congratulation.

[GS Guy]

...

Modified the stock turbo flange for the 3" ss exhaust.



...

Man - you've got to get one of these to to finish off that awesome turbo exhaust!



PM me for details.
Conversion is looking good - can't wait to see how you plumb the intercooler.

Jeff

[Amenson]

Very cool turbo outlet, I sent you a PM to find out where you got it.

I made a bit of progress this weekend. Finally got the turbo apart so that I could port the waste gate hole. It took a torch and a big soft hammer and then some very careful prying. The porting is necessary to avoid boost creep with a low back pressure exhaust.



Made a frame to mount the fuel cell. Still need to weld it in and make some straps to hold the cell down to it.



I have the engine out so that I can cut the engine shelf out of the engine bay and fix some rust. Could not resist to pose the PorSti engine with my daily driver...'05 STi II. Hopefully I do not make this one into a donor car also.



This pic shows the engine compartment w/o the engine shelf. I ordered some POR-15 and plan to seal everything up this week.



Scott

[mrdezyne]

Excellent work! Love the mount, much easier than what I had planned and it looks like it provides plenty of room for exhaust. One quick question.... I think the Renegade mount raises the motor and moves it forward so you can use the stock Suby oil pan, if you had not notched the Small Car mount do you think it would have raised the motor enough to keep from cutting the oil pan? Difference might be using the 2.5 NA as opposed to the 2.0 STI turbo model. Any insight would be appreciated. At this point I'm looking for ways to cut my build time down and get mine rolling again. Your mount looks straight forward enough it should save a ton of time.

[Amenson]

I mounted the engine so that the crank is parallel to the floor of the car, which turns out to be about as low as you can go and still use an oilpan. My STi engine is also an EJ25 although you may have a different oilpan as the late model engines have a different oil pan. Maybe your pan is shorter. It seams like you would have to raise the motor a whole lot to use the stock oil pan and not have it be the lowest part of the car. The Outback pan is only 4.25" deep and it is just barley above the bottom of the car.

This is the best picture that I could find that shows the position of the oilpan with respect to the cross bar and the bottom of the car. The cross bar is in the stock location.



Scott

[Amenson]

Made some more progress cleaning up the engine compartment. Man, does it take a long time to cleanly remove all of the extra brackets, etc. I would probably be done with the conversion by now had I not decided to do some extra cleanup and restoration work at the same time. Tis' the right thing to do though.

I finally built up the guts to cut out the hell hole rust.



I also figured out how to hold down the fuel cell...use the stock fuel tank strap!!



I will need another one for the other side. Anybody have an extra one lying around?

Should make some serous progress this week because I took the entire week off of work (IMG:style_emoticons/default/mueba.gif) Won't get to spend all 9 days off on the car, I will be going up to Mackinac Island next weekend for a quick vacation.

Scott

[Amenson]

Made a couple patch panels today. I am really pleased with how they turned out. The large one fits better than it looks, I could not hold it in place and take the picture at the same time.



Will weld them in tomorrow.

I am going to Por15 the entire engine compartment tomorrow as well. Does anybody have any experience with por15 over paint. The instructions say that it is OK but warns that it adheres better to rough metal. I would prefer not to have to remove all of the paint but if the por15 is not going to stick I will have to.

Scott

[PeeGreen 914]

Hey Scott

I would just rough up the paint. Paint adhears to a rough surface the best. Doesn't need to be barfe metal as long as it is rough.

[Chris Pincetich]

Nice photo of the side by side STIs (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)
I also have a potential donor Suby as a daily driver. I really hope it never gets totaled, leaving me a free/salvaged EJ25 for my 80 HP 914 (IMG:style_emoticons/default/happy11.gif)

[RoninEclipse2G]

Awesome work!

this thread really makes me want another teener to do a suby swap in, I love the handeling of the creamsicle but I also love the power the WRX gives me.

[TonyAKAVW]

Your pictures of the engine bay look nearly identical to mine. I sanded mine down to almost the identical level of remaining paint. Instead of POR15 I used ZeroRust. I ahve used both ZeroRust and POR15 now and I definitely prefer the ZeroRust over POR15. When using POR15 I have always prepped the surface properly and still have adhesion problems after a year+. By and large the POR15 sticks but there are spots where I've had to retouch it. (this is for the interior primarily)

I sprayed the engine bay (with a paint gun) with two coats of ZeroRust. First coat was black, and the second coat was grey. I purposefully used two different colors because it allowed me to really make sure that I had the right thickness. So far (going on 10 months of continuous use, most of that with an engine bay radiator and its associated dirt, etc.) the paint is holding up perfectly. You can buy ZeroRust in spray cans as well.

-Tony

[Brian Mifsud]

Scott,

This is really nice work. Are you a fabricator by trade? I am planning on getting a stainless exhaust system ceramic coated.



It appears you had the flex coupling ceramic coated. Will that crack and break down the coating for interfere with the "accordian" pleats inside? How about on the braided stainless. Is the coating "bridging" the weave, or is it adhearing to individual 'wires'?

This is part of my custom system for an non 914 vehicle, but the application is similar:

(IMG:http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid225/p0376dd5f11c57be94da754a278a8a416/e9221c4a.jpg)

[GTeener]

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/happy11.gif)

[JPB]

You are one sick and twisted individual!!!! How can I be like you? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beer.gif)

[Amenson]

Scott,

This is really nice work. Are you a fabricator by trade?

Nope, not a fabricator...I am electrical and mechanical engineer by training, currently managing software development for a living. I do almost all of the fab work, up to tacking parts together, myself and then have one of my friends do the finish welding. If you look closely at todays picture, you will see that my welding skills are not so great yet.

I made some more progress today (need to take more days off of work to work on the project!). The hell hole is repaired and part of the engine compartment is painted.



I did find some more rust by the driver's side jacking point. Will need to fix that...later. I have had enough rust repair for this week. The goal for tomorrow is to get the rest of the engine compartment painted and while that is drying, weld in the fuel cell bracket so that I can start working on the radiator mount.

Scott

[Amenson]

Sorry, forgot to answer this question...

Scott,

It appears you had the flex coupling ceramic coated. Will that crack and break down the coating for interfere with the "accordian" pleats inside? How about on the braided stainless. Is the coating "bridging" the weave, or is it adhearing to individual 'wires'?

I am not sure how the coating on the flex joint is going to work out. The guys at the coating shop said that it will be OK...they have a very good reputation. For the most part each wire is coated and it still flexes fine. We will just have to wait and see.

Scott

[Amenson]

Took a big item off of the to do list this afternoon. Pretty much finished the exhaust!!

Here is a picture of it on the ground:



Installed!!!!!



As always, I still need to have one of my buddies finish welding it.

Scott

[Amenson]

I fit the engine cover on tonight to make sure that the intercooler fits beneath it...it does!!!





I am going to make a GT style, fully vented engine cover to allow the air to get through the intercooler a better. Is there a source (Grainger or somebody) for the expanded metal that matches the stock stuff?

Scott

[MrKona]

Nice work, I'm really enjoying watching this thread. Maybe this topic from the classics by Eric Shea will help you with the GT-style lid.

GT Style lid

[fat73]

Scott

Is this engine a "drive by wire" throttle body? Wondering why you swapped out the steering wheel? I'm building an '02 stock body also. Thinking of going twin turbo and moving the turbos back to the rear end similar to a 935.

Ed aka W9R1
'73 914 w/2003 WRX EJ20
'06 Subaru Forester 2.5 XT