Great to hear! thats really soon. Thanks for invite i will look you up when we come up.
I heard from a local thst the cars and coffee scene is changed due to the coffee joint Fuel Cincinnati closed, did they find a new place to meet? There were a lot of really nice cars last time i was there.

I agree with what mark said the attention is in the details and does not compare to a standard build for sure its awesome to see such attention to details.
should be a very dependable driver once finished.

See page 17 of this thread... unless that's a different transmission, it has been converted to 2wd.

Tom

Correct. It's been converted properly to 2WD.

I was only saying that I didn't rebuild any of it, and to make sure that you put trans fluid back in it before you go tearing down the road.

The car and the craftsman that is working on it are both located just north of Columbus Ohio, about 2 hours north of Cincinnati, Ohio.

If it is not reliable it will not be do to a lack of craftsmanship. It could be due to Murphy and the Some Times Happens Rule.

Just needed to confirm after you mentioned that you did not do a thing to the transmission...taking it apart, removing the AWD parts and installing the spline couple definitely falls in the category of doing something!



I will be seriously angry if anything is problematic with this car...details matter.

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Finished up the engine side. Once it is terminated at the bulkhead connectors I will take it out and wrap it.

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Time for the ecu side...setup and ready to go.
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Some hours later. Could have been quicker but weather pack connectors are really fussy to properly crimp on the seal.

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Lets vote...does Grey need a party mode?

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I vote YES for pahty mode!

to ANTILAG

It would at least put a quick end to the turbo so that Tom would be forced to upgrade.

Please explain this for the non turbo people like me.

Nevermind - looked it up on Wikipedia

Yes. He should nuke it so the car is worthless and I can buy it back for $1.

Man, I remember programming the heat-shrink printer with all of those wraps. Then making sure I had the right one with the right wire. Then crimping all the wires. What a royal pain in the ass. I hope it made it easier for you, though!

Labels make the world go round!

With the ECU wired and the engine completely terminated it was time for the bulkhead connectors. I was really struggling to figure out how to wire the connectors neatly without bring stuck in the engine bay for hours. Now that I did it the solution seems super obvious but it took a lot of mental energy to get here. I made a bracket off of the trans mount to the chassis side of the connectors. Pulled it out and bolted it to the cradle.

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Much cutting, stripping, labeling, crimping later and the engine is fully terminated.

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Dime bag of adulthood.

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Those go over a small section of the braided shield and are heat shrunk.

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The ring of solder melts connecting the lead to the shield. Life was so much simpler when proper wiring included the use of bullet connectors "crimped" onto the wire with channel lock pliers.

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Next the harness comes out and get wrapped.

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Also painted this guy.

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And powered up the ecu. It was a little cranky when I first powered up and freaked me out a bit. Turned out that the firmware on the ECU didn't like the updated version of the tuning SW. All better now.

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That all looks SO outstanding. Great job, as ALWAYS, Scott.

Those shield terminators are awesome. So much easier than soldering directly to the shield or forcing it into a pin.

Just out or curiosity, why did you decide on the WeatherPack bulkhead vs. say a Deutsch HDP20?

Why did we go with WeatherPack...back when I was discussing the bulkhead idea with Doug I just didn't know that it existed. I was familiar with WeatherPack and the higher end motorsport stuff. We went with WeatherPack due to cost and general availability. I have since fallen in love with the DT series and use it exclusively whenever I can't use an OEM connector. If I were to start over, HDP20 would be used.

Gotcha. That's why was curious-I used to use WeatherPack stuff (vs. the mil spec we use at work) and once discovering the DT series never went back. I'm also a huge fan of the solid pins vs. the open contacts. Somewhat expensive, but assembly is so much faster with the indent crimping tool.

The best thing about the solid pins is that you can put the heat shrink label over them when you forget to put it on before crimping.

The wrap ferry showed up tonight!

I left the transition into the bulkhead connectors free just in case I need to swap some locations.
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Karmann the garage hound says that it is time to go inside.

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@DRPHIL914 The Porsche crowd is now hanging out at the Liberty Center Parking lot across from Starbucks for the cars and coffee. I understand the coffee part is subject to taste.

@914forme thanks , good to know, might have to check it out when we come up

Engine is just about finished. Went through and checked/marked all of the fasteners. Gave the IC/and piping a rub down with green and white pads to even out the finish and installed all everything.

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...except the fuel line. I wrestled with push lock fittings for an hour. If anyone is thinking that you are going to save money using push lock over proper AN fittings with fuel lines...don't. You will just end up buying the $300 assembly tool like I just did. Push lock is OK for the lower pressure rated hose but apparently impossible with proper fuel line.

The push lock pusher arrived and while substantially easier than without it (as in possible to assemble)...it was still remarkably difficult. I can confidently conclude that this is a really bad application for the product. Anyways, it turned out really well.

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Ohhh, shiny.

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And more wiring. Much, much more wiring. Pretty sure that I doubled the wires in the harness, not counting the connections between the ECU/engine.

It is ready to wrap and go into the car but I want to go through it one last time to make sure that I didn't miss any wires.

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Also almost doubled the fuses and relays.

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There were a few areas of the harness that I extended to get to the new ECU and I wanted to keep all of the original colors, luckily I have parts of 3 harnesses to pull wires from. Also fixed quite few overly dry and modified/cut/nicked wires.

This car is going to be an absolute masterpiece. I can't even believe it.

In the last post I left the harness complete but wanted to take a night to sleep on it before wrapping. Good think I did, I missed a couple of grounds and one power.

Much has happened since then, will share what I took pictures of.

Harness was completely wrapped except for a few areas to make it easier to get through the firewall grommet. Only have a picture of partial wrappage.

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Removed a few random bracket leftovers and a few other unused bits of metal from this area and then repainted. Also cleaned up and painted the front of the longs that I modified.
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Skip forward a 4 day weekend and the harness is in place, fuel lines made for the engine compartment and other lines/wires organized and mounted.
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Everything is held in place with these ty-rap tabs rivet in place except the fuel lines which use these double clamps modified for a through bolt into a nutsert.
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I added a number of things to the harness to make it easy to add features that the ecu supports that are not on the current to do list. Flex fuel connection in the engine compartment, clutch switch by the pedals, and several inputs for switches/dials by the shifter....(ecu has dial a boost capability )
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I measured off of a mostly complete original harness to get the positions of where the battery connections and ecu bundle would exit the harness but the area where the harness goes into the back trunk was a bit tighter than I anticipated and required quite a bit of rework to make right. I had to remove the trunk spring bracket and open up the passage into the rear trunk as well as unwrap and rework this area of the harness. Luckily I left enough extra wire.

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It was surprisingly fussy getting the harness to the stock locations. A few extra wires and a fully wrapped harness limited the flexibility quite a bit. Still not completely happy with it.

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I left a bit too much of a service loop to the aux fuse/relay box.
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Funny seeing my "Happy 30th Birthday" steering wheel there. lol

As always, great work Scott.

I am shocked that it still has the original fuse block. That Jwest engineering one would add a blade fuses to the operation instead of the old round ones.

Looks great, and a lot more progress since I last saw it before the 4 day weekend. Great work.

Well, the car is now in Massachusetts. I drove out to Scott's last week to put some finishing touches on it for final delivery. Doug came down to give his blessing and a proper send-off.

Stephen brought the refurbed gauges and stayed very late on Friday to get them all hooked up. I'll share pictures in a bit. It's going to look awesome.

Still a long list of things to do, but all the BIG stuff is done! the motor starts and runs, but needs a final tune. Interior needs to be installed along with a bunch of little things (door handles, LED lights) I'll call final assembly.

I huge thank you to Scott for his meticulous work on finishing up someone else's project. He takes great pride in his work and it really shows. At every opportunity, he made suggestions of a "better" solution if there as one. I appreciate the extra effort on all the little things, which made more work for him, but were truly the right thing to do and will make working on everything easier down the road.

And a huge Thank You to Stephen for all his work on getting the Porsche gauges to talk to the Subi ECU (including a rare 930 tach with factory boost gauge.. so cool!).

Finally to Doug, who had to let the project go, but has always been available to answer questions and provide the history & context of all the decisions made over the years .

Thanks - I couldn't have done it without you... and I'll be needing more help getting her roadworthy this summer. Stay tuned.

Tom

After only 4 years I must say if that car ever makes it back to Cleveland area somebody owes me a ride

When you get it up and running, I'll be on the first plane to come get a ride. It was SO nice to see the engine running. Nearly brought a tear to my eye.

I'll second what Tom said aout Scott: He's quite literally the best there is.

...and while I'm waiting patiently for the Tom to enjoy the car for a few years, I'm going to be spending some time on the "Dark Side" with my new friend.

Meh. It's just a NNARP, after all.

Congrats!

Agreed. It’s no 914. Especially yours. It had the right stuff to satisfy my cravings while I wait for you to get bored with Grey though. ;-)

Come on Tom! I KNOW you have updates for us...

Yep- I’ve been chasing gremlins.

1) surging idle. I spent hours trying to figure out why the idle would surge up and down, up and down. I was convinced it had to be the EMS since everything on the motor is new, right? Yeah, no. Turns out the idle air control valve was stuck (common problem on WRX motors). Scott had sent a spare in one of the boxes of part. Cleaned it up, replaced it , good to go. Happy little motor.
2) but wait... why is the battery voltage so low (10-11 volts)? Poke around with the voltmeter, sure enough the alternator is only putting out 11 volts at the power stud. Needs a new alternator, right? $83 next day delivery from Amazon. Out with the old, in with the new.... and no change.

Here’s a clue: I’m an idiot. Just like the 914, the WRX needs to have the eejit light circuit complete to excite the field, and make power (voltage). Installed the bulb for the gen light (thanks @mepstein ) and now have a perfectly good spare alternator if my cheapo Amazon unit craps out.

Picture of both culprits:

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I also added a remote + post so I can jump/charge the battery without electrocuting myself. Probably won’t need this ever again, now that the alternator is working properly (see previous post)...

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other misc (not picture worthy) tasks:
- installed Doug’s newly recovered seats. Very nice, but getting the tracks mounted to the seat bottoms was way more trouble than it needed to be.
- filled the coolant systems (engine and inter cooler).
- installed door handles (now with matching lock cylinders)
- installed various 914 Rubber seals
- AND thanks to @Spoke- installed a complete set of led lights- front and rear (picture worthy)
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Couple more pics of LEDs:
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Looking good man! Can't wait to see videos of it on the road!

Picked up a pair of 3rd gen Miata side mirrors, which should be the last thing needed to get it inspected and road-legal, if not exactly road-worthy (missing door and rear glass and a bunch of other bits & pieces).

Miata mirrors have been done before, but does anyone have pictures & how-to advice? Holes will need to be drilled, and that's making me nervous.

I did first Gen Miatas on a build, but not the 3rd gen, should not be a huge issue. It has been so long since I built the car, I have forgot most of that build. I remember getting them out of a Miata, and using the gasket to build a brake, and installing them in the doors. 3 holes to add, non-electric. The rest is a bit blurry.

It’s been a while since I posted an update. Finally got it to pass inspection! They didn’t notice the missing rear and passenger door windows

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Now I need help from the Subi-conversion guys...

Something in the engine bay was making a gawd-awful noise- like rocks in the laundry dryer. Turns out the turbo is shot. The shaft connecting the turbine and compressor wheels broke.

Now I need a decent (stock) turbo to get her running again. Any suggestions and recommendations where to buy? Or is this the time to upgrade?

Thanks,
Tom

Bummer on the turbo but you're making progress! Try the classifieds of NASIOC:

NASIOC engine stuff classifieds

You can post a WTB there also. Probably find a "take-off" stock turbo fairly easily.

I would say upgrade your engine was built to take added boast.

You may be able to rebuild what you got. New Shaft Bearings, and seals, inpellers as long as the housing was not harmed, it should be good.

You reach out to Scott @Amenson he might have one sitting on a shelf right now, I am sure he is looking for a reason to upgrade, and off set his costs.

Thanks guys!

Scott is already aware- he’s got his motor out already. Could be a possibility... hmmmm.

Doug (PO) says the turbo was actually rebuilt before installation.

Rebuild is not likely with the shaft broken. I didn’t see a rebuild kit which includes the shaft & turbines. Also, the turbines were banging around in there so the housing is likely damaged.

A dangerous question: what else is needed to upgrade the turbo?

Ahhh, I will not be upgrading my turbo at this point. Primarily because the turbo plumbing will need to be modified to fit the new turbo...which is what will be the issue with your car as well. There may be some bolt in options but to make a noticeable improvements something bigger is needed. I think that it has a VF39, already an upgrade for the EJ20 and should get you pretty close to 300whp...especially if you enable flex fuel.

Tom, search for VF39 Cartridges, that gives you everything but the housings.

Correct. It was a VF39 out of an STI. Upgrade from the one that came with that motor. I tried finding the place that "rebuilt" it for me but their website is dead, so there's nothing we can do about that.

A new/used VF39 will bolt right on to the plumbing that's already been custom made.

well, it's been quite a while since my last update. Winter in New England.. no snow this year, but it has been too cold to work in my unheated garage.

I found a nice VF39 turbo from a local Subi tuner and finally installed it last weekend. Took a test drive this weekend. Who-weeee! I don't think the original turbo was ever working properly! Broke the tires loose every time in 1st. This this flies!

The rear window is not installed yet, so the spooling and snorting of the turbo and waste gate was... spine tingling to say the least.

Next up is to install all the glass (rear & passenger side) so I can take it out sooner.

I have an annoying clunk in my pass side strut. Driver side is fine. I can induce it by simply pushing down on that corner. Can't tell immediately what it is, but probably a rubber piece missing on that side or the nut needs tightening.