great progress, suby plumbing is complicated and hard to keep clean. I want to emphasize the importance of a updated breather system on a hot-rodded suby. If you have time try to study up on the big turbo applications. The simply way is a catchcan but it really means a lot closer check of the oil level in the pan on every filup. the hot oil breaks down and goes out the exhaust and also into the catchcan. a lot of suby motors went bad from low thin oil. the thing with a turbo is the lower pressure or vaccum below boost and then the pressure in the intake at boost. one sign of too much crankcase pressure is the dipstick rising in the tube after a hard run. you have gone to a lot of nice high tech parts so don't leave the breather stuff out. also the longer the breather lines the better to keep the oil in the sump.

Engine is out and upgrades are in progress. It is amazing how much can be accomplished when not fitting body sections.

Took 360 pictures of the starting point just for fun.
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I picked up a earlier cooling cross over because it has fewer connections to deal with. The heater core outlet has been plugged but decided that I would hook it back up using an AN setup that is on Grey. The hole is perfect size for 3/8 NPT!
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First AN cooling fitting. AN all the things.
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TGV Deletes installed. So much cleaner than the EOM setup. I will tuck the wires under fuel railes to clean it up a bit more.
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Two of Subaru's crappiest ideas all in one...TGV's and side feed injectors.
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Threw on the top of the intake to start fitting/routing.

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The fuel pressure regulator is huge but I think that I found a good place to mount it. Just have to make sure the ethanol sensor will also fit.

I'll spoil the ending right at the start...PorSTI did not get finished in time for Power Tour. Even taking an entire week off plus several other days to create long weekends...I cut it too close starting the work, added to many while I am in there projects, had some equipment failures and one huge mental failure.

Going back through he pictures reminded me just how much I did and how much I did that I did not take progress pictures of. It will be easier to make the post by systems instead of chronologically. I'll only show the highlights, if anyone wants detailed pictures of a certain thing let me know and I can post them.

Cooling System:
This was a colossal amount of work but so nice now that it is in. In retrospect I probably would not use tube down the center. Or, if I did, not use the double gasket. They area awesome and will seal nicely but spaced the tubes further apart than necessary and they just barely fit down the tunnel. In a car with a stock pedal assembly with added clutch MC, it would not fit. Also, the cost of the additional fittings almost offsets the price of the AN20 hose. Also, welding on the fittings, while fun, also added an incredible amount of time.
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As did machining each fitting to match what it is interfacing to...stock on the right.
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I also cut out and replaced (again) the firewall so that I could start fresh.
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Full.
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Can see the new fuel line routing here too!
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Path through front. You can see the new mount for the pedal->tunnel soft lines for brake/clutch. I always hated the routing of the hard lines. to the pedals. All of the lines in the tunnel are new as well.
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This is so incredibly tight but there is clearance. Had to order 30 deg. fittings, 45's just would not work.
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I spaced the fuel tank up 10mm to give the lines a bit more space to avoid kinking.
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That is enough for tonight will post more tomorrow.

Looks amazing. You're an artist with a welder, and have an amazing engineering mind.

great pictures, nice Heli arcing too, I bet getting the wrench on those fittings was tricky. Is the aluminum tubing apt to bend when you tighten the fittings? My idea is to get my ac guy to form a 11 ga u channel and cut the bottom of the tunnel out to form the channel in the bottom of the car for the tubes, that way the air can help cool the coolant and maybe get the lines for the wtaic in there also. course talk is cheap. now that they have fuel feed setups that don't require return fuel lines to the tank it might help some. I wonder now if you ever thought about putting a clip board on the wall and record your time? I know it's fun but we each only have so much of it. Oh yeah somehow I missed the part about the mann provent install.

"I'll spoil the ending right at the start...PorSTI did not get finished in time for Power Tour. Even taking an entire week off plus several other days to create long weekends...I cut it too close starting the work, added to many while I am in there projects, had some equipment failures and one huge mental failure."

Thanks...lots of practice!



There is pretty good clearance to get to the fittings. I did have to buy a few new wrenches for the big guys. I think that Tygaboy is going to make a removable bottom center tunnel. Could be a good idea if executed properly, I am sure he will. Recording my time would take the fun out of it.



Ya, so about that. During the next to last week before PT I was cranking through the stuff that needed to be completed before the car went on the dyno the last Monday before departure. On Saturday I was wrapping up the last few things and planned first start. I had just spent over three hours modifying the thermostat housing/lower radiator hose to firewall. The part welded like crap even though it was perfectly cleaned, figured that the housing had some crud from casting. While it was cooling I drained the oil.

Next up was relocating the BOV. Welded up the old location and got the new V-band flange fit for the new one. Put a really nice tack, flipped it over and the made the crappiest charred looking tack I could ever imagine. Started inspecting the torch and noticed that it was spitting out coolant! The flex part of the torch failed allowing coolant to get into the shield gas connection. It is Saturday so there is no option to find another torch so I jump onto the next tasks prior to startup....check for fuel leaks and test the new sensors. I got the wife to help with leak checks and in the few seconds of the fuel pump running during the priming cycle I pumped fuel all over. Turns out that I did not tighten the plugs on the bottom of the fuel rails for the optional dampers. Another two wasted hours of cleanup and disassembly/reassembly later and I am ready to test again. No leaks but the fuel pump will not run long enough during the short priming cycle for the Accessport to startup and show the flex fuel and pressure sensor data. The pump will only run again when it sees the crank signal. The intercooler is uninstalled so I figured that I could bump the starter without worrying about the engine starting. Give the starter a quick bump and not only the fuel pump start but so did the engine. While I was enjoying the sound of a running engine and wondering how it was actually running I had forgotten that I had drained the oil and in the chaotic previous hours sopping up welder coolant and fuel...never put fresh oil in. After about a minute I realized this terrible fact and shut off the engine.

After I regained a bit of composure, I put oil it it and started it. Sounds fine, compression check looks fine but after a few beers I decide not to take any chances and consider it in need of a rebuild. Plan is to pull it apart and confirm that machine work is not necessary and then put new bearings, forged rods and forged (slightly higher compression) pistons. Not something I wanted to do in the short term but was necessary to get to my reliable 500 whp target with a new turbo down the road.

There is a ton more stuff that I successfully accomplished.

Engine:
I now realize why I had not installed AN fittings previously. Box full of gold...
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I added the flex fuel setup and "while I was in there" reorganized and rewrapped the engine engine harness.

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Wiring sorted and sensors mounted...just before running the new AN lines/fitting. Didn't get a picture due to time constraints.

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AN all the things...including the return lines from the header tank and heater core bypass.

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IAT Installed just before the throttle body.

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Old BOV location, so much cleaner on this side of the engine. Air filter much lower now with only the suction side of the Provent plumbed pre-turbo.

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New BOV. Should sound great!
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New fuel pump.
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Front trunk is much cleaner now.
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Pedals:
The clevis for the clutch pedal was wearing through the pedal and had a really bad feeling. I cut it apart so that I could install a proper heim join.

Also replaced the ball joint on the bottom of the throttle linkage with a quick disconnect joint to make it easier to adjust. Also added a threaded adjuster to the end of the linkage so that I can adjust the stop position. No good pictures of any of these mods. This is what it looks like finished.

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I also reorganized and rewrapped much of the cabin harness while I had access.

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Will get a post picture, you can see some of it in the first pedal picture.

Still have the body to post but don't have the motivation to go through the pictures of carnage tonight.

Cheers,
Scott

We have all done it in the excitement of thrashing a project. At least I have, part of the reason I started using check lists and paint pens. I used to get in a rush to get prepped for the races. And well, stuff happens, great progress even though the ending is not what you wished for.

BTW, that is why I have multiple MIG Torches, should get a second for my TIG

And should have called me, I have two friends that work at two separate welding supply houses, chances are good one of them had access to a few Miller TIG torches, even after hours. Or knew of someone who could get you a torch on short notice.

I couldn't stand not having the PorSTi to drive so I replaced the daily driver! Not a particularly imaginative choice to replace my '05 STi with a '14 STi but I really wanted a hatch.

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It is amazing how much more refined yet how familiar it is. The whopping 5 additional HP barely offsets the additional 100lbs....it really needs another 200whp.

Now I need to deal with all of the vape kids trying to buy the '05.

This vape kid loves the 05, PM sent.

Wow congratulations, that is a nice looking STI

You know how to make more HP

No progress on the porsti as I have been focused on Grey matter. I did take a couple of weeks to insulate and put up proper wall covering in the shop. Looks much nicer now and is substantially more efficient to heat.

The parents visited over the holidays and helped decorate!

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I did get hooked up by Mike (ruby914) with a carbon version of his low profile dash.
Much too nice for my car....

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That's all until Grey is finished....

Cheers,
Scott

The shop looks great. Almost looks ready for a new project.

Very close to being ready for a new project and looking forward to doing a 6. Had lunch with Stephen a few weeks ago and was picking his brain on flipping the manifold

My manifold is flipped so let me know if I can help. Also check out ThePaintedMan's thread. He has some good pics of how he did it.

https://www.outfrontmotorsports.com/accesso...tor-bracket-kit

I have been checking out your thread...thanks for the tip on ThePaintedMan's. His pictures with notes filled in a few blanks.



That is a great kit, we are using it on Grey.

Looks great Scott! Will you have PorSTi at Okteenerfest this year?

Yes I can give you a pretty good idea of what to do and one or two things not to do. Fairly detailed discussion so PM me when you're ready and I can give you my $.02. I might be pulling the engine to do a final cleanup of wiring and the engine bay which will allow me to take some better pics.

There is a pretty good chance that I will be able to make it with PorSTi this year.



Will do, Thanks!

Scott the flip is not hard, some of the stuff just needs to moved to make it happen, like we talked about. Once you see the EG you will know. The IRIS system is what clutters up the flip.

I don't think You're going to have an issue with it. It is very easy if Mark is not going to have AC in the car, becomes harder if Mark is.

Workshop is looking great, let me know if there is anything you need from me to help these along. Yeah I know of 5 little round items you need all ready

I don’t want to turn this into a thread for my car but...I do want a/c & heat. I was hoping the bulkhead mount might make things a bit easier with positioning but that might not be the case. My plan is not to micromanage the build but to turn it over to Scott A and let him do his thing. The only challenge I see with the build is Scott likes to build to a high standard for both looks and functionality and I’m looking for a good running conversion but not a showcase car. I’m sure it will work out. The nice thing is with my car is there is no fresh paint to worry about.

Fresh paint, and yes this is about PorSTI, we just started talking about EG33 intake flips. I am a huge proponent that the bulkhead mounts for the EG, if anything it allows for even better positioning of the engine giving the clearance needed for the flip.

Mark I am sure a build thread will be started to discuss your car, once the process starts.

After getting Grey Matter Back to Tom and the C10 back on the road I found myself wandering aimlessly around the garage. Then this stuff showed up this week.

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I guess that it is time to open up the engine and see if I did any damage when I started it sans oil. Need to figure out if I can order standard clearance components this week so that I can take advantage of all of the sales on Cyber Monday.

Gratuitous shop shot.
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I see some bare floor space that I should fill with lots of parts

Don't worry, I took care of the free floor space problem.

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Looks like some sort of demented satanic ritual circle.

In preparation for the engine disassembly and general tidiness I went through the random collection of parts and fasteners that was strewn around the garage. That let me into the random collection of stuff in the drawers. Three days later and I am almost finished.

Wow, been a while since I updated this protect. While it is still not on the road quite a bit has occured.

Engine Rebuild!

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Initial plan was rods and pistons as it already had ARP headstuds...that got derailed when I found a crack in one of the bores. A few winters ago I had significantly diluted coolant in the system and I am guessing that it actually froze causing the crack.

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With that found a new block was ordered and while I was at it, new crank, stiffer valve springs, Ti retainers, and 11mm oil pump and kevlar timing belt to handle the 8k rpm redline.

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Also modified a few things to clean up the install a bit.

Added a AN drain.
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Redid the turbo oil feed.
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Who doesn't need a twin disk clutch?

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Mostly back together.

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Also did some chassis stuff.

Raised rear shock mounts.

Custom adapters to maximize the height of the top of the shock. Goal is to keep the springs in the perches when i jack it up.

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The car is getting fast/stiff enough that a cage for safety and chassis rigitity is necessary. Will be a 10ish point cage eventually. Being a street car I am going to extremes to keep the cage as tight as possible to the existing structure. Step one in that, remove the pinch weld on the targa bar.

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I am designing the cage in CAD and it took three tries to get used to the bender/SW but I think that this is as tight as I can possibly get it.

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Of course this deleted the rear top latch so I am working on an alternative.

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The rear trunk hinges were nasty so new ones.

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I got sick of fighting with the lugs on the trunk mounts while installing the hinges so I modified them.

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In case anyone is interested, here are the parts that I used in the engine. Pistons are higher compression...hopefully it gets me to 400whp with the current turbo and to above 500whp with a sensibly sized upgrade in the future.

Oil pump: 11mm Subaru 15010AA360
Pistons: Manley Performance Platinum Series Piston Set 99.5mm 9.8:1 (Part Number: 612100C-4)
Rods: Brian Crower bROD Connecting Rods Model #: BRIBC6609
Bearings: King Engine Bearings Standard Crank Main Bearing Set Model #: KGNMB5382XPG
King Engine Bearings Standard Connecting Rod Bearing Set Model #: KGNCR4125XPG
Valve Springs/Retainers: Brian Crower Single Spring/Titanium Retainer Kit Model #: BRIBC0600
Crank: Subaru OEM Forged Salt Bath Nitrated Crankshaft Model #: SUB12200AA430
Subaru OEM Complete Gasket Kit (Including Head Gaskets) Model #: SUB10105AA590
Head studs: existing ARP
IAG Stainless Steel AN Breather Fitting Set Model #: IAGIAG-ENG-7301

I saw the engine when I was as Scott's house. It was sort of stunning for a water cooled engine. Smaller than I expected and though I imagine it wasn't cheap, just think about what it would cost to put a 400hp Porsche engine into our cars.

Agreed. Can't wait to see the completed project. Is that yours in his garage?

Yes. I'm lucky that Scott was willing to take on my project and turn my pile of crap parts into a driver.

Can’t wait to see it when done. It will be perfection. It looked fairly solid from what I remember.

Some fine work dude

Completed! This car will likely never be finished. I do hope that once it is back on the road from this round of work that I can manage to keep it that way at least until the winter of 2022.



It is a good base for a conversion. Not too nice but pretty decent.



Thanks....go back to the start of the project and you will see what it took me to get to a point where I can make somewhat respectable parts. I started not even being able to weld my own parts. Luckily I have some very tallented friends that got me going in the right direction.

Impressive shop, love that C10.

The new motor looks great and should be a blast.

This thread reminded me I still need to make something for you...

The C10 is great. Can hardly drive the thing without someone wanting to talk to me about it. If things go well with Mark's car and the Porsti, next winter it is getting swapped with a drive-train that has never been installed in one of these.

As for the other thing, I have a spot still reserved for it and would be honored if you would take the job of making it for me. Haven't followed up on it because you have been making such great progress on your project and didn't want to distract you from it.

Some of you may have seen the reference to some issues with this project in my post on Marks thread. Well, let's kill the suspense, it runs and is stupid fast but is far from where I planned on it being this summer. On to the details.

As is customary, my annual trip with my buddies to participate in Hot Rod Power Tour pushes progress. In order to force myself to be ready for Power Tour I signed up for Airstrip Attack Indy for the weekend before. That will really push the issue and give me an opportunity to find issues on a closed course and could trailer it home in case of breakage.

With the car mostly apart and a completely fresh engine to install I decided that I needed to get everything in the engine compartment "done" so that the drivetrain could stay in the car, hopefully for quite some time.

Big thing was the cage from the main hoop to the rear shock towers and then down to the transmission mounting points. (The front part of the cage can be installed later.)

Before that can go in…
-Fill in any unused holes
-Remove any unused brackets
-Install the new trunk hinges
-Seam weld and pretty much shave the horizontal seam in the firewall
-Clean up some of the seams from the previous rust repairs.

Also In the spirit of having the engine compartment "done":
-Remove the intake on the engine and unwrap the engine harness (yes, again) so that I could remove all unused plugs/wires and run the new sensors through the subaru engine connectors.
-Unwrap the harnesses in the engine compartment and run the new wires to the ecu/dash
-Also decided to put a new center section with billet compressor wheel in the turbo

Not to mention tidying up all of the new stuff that had been installed since the last time it was running like a basically entirely new cooling and fuel systems, updates to the pedal box plumbing and the new shifter setup.

Oh yeah, and after it is driving again, finish the rust repair around the a pillar area and fit the fiberglass front fenders.

You kind of get the point, a shit ton of really fussy work to be done.

Also part of getting it ready was putting the car on the dyno to get it to run with the new flexfuel system, external BOV and turning it up to make proper power. I made an appointment 5 weeks from Airstrip Attack with a very reputable tuner, the same one that tuned it last time but at a different shop. He said that we would make a startup and break in file for me.

As was somewhat predictable I wasn’t ready for the first appointment on the DYNO and had to cancel the night before the appointment. When I canceled I fully expected to pay a cancelation change but the tuner said that it was fine and he had plenty of other cars to work on (this is foreshadowing). The next appointment I could get was only 16 days before Power Tour. Not great and will make it impossible to attend Airstrip Attack but better than nothing.

So I plugged away and got pretty much everything done but found while I was doing the final welds on the cage that I didn't leave enough slop to move the cage enoug to fully weld all of the tubes. I didn’t have enough time to wait for the micro tig torch to arrive so I left the cage unwelded and pushed on getting the drivetrain installed and running. I got it running 5 days before the appointment to give me enough evenings to get one trip around Columbus and an oil change each night so that the engine would be somewhat broken in for the Dyno.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tktUowQCInM


The first trip out really highlighted how sensitive the engine is to not having the recirculating BOV. The startup MAP wasn’t converted to speed density so it would not idle. I had to keep the rev's up to keep it running or let it stall and restart it at every stop. It is really loud and I have to go through an area with a bunch of nice restaurants with patios so I went with the stalling/restart. The restarts were still pretty rowdy because of the higher RPM's to keep it running and a completely fresh twin disk clutch. Finally get it onto the highway, enjoying the sound of the turbo and general satisfaction when the hood comes unlatched. Window is cracked, hood is mangled and the hinges both tore through the cowl. Whatever, smash it back down and get my miles in for the evening. The rest of the break in drives were uneventful.

The appointment at the dyno was planned to be a full day plus a bit of the next. I took the first day off from work so that I could stay at the dyno and support any issues that came up because there was no time for delays. I arrive at the shop, drive around back and there is another car there. The tuner went to the office and came back after a while and the dyno was double booked for the morning. He said that he could get other car finished pretty quickly and then get mine on directly after lunch. He would call when he was strapping Porsti down. I took an uber home and stared at my phone for the next few hours waiting for it to ring. Around 2pm with no call I decided to drive back only to find my car still in the parking lot. The other car was gone but he had not started mine. I stayed around until 6 and he managed to strap my car to the dyno and spent some time working on updating my map to SD plus the other changes. Car was started once before I left. He said that he would get it finished tomorrow.

This started 3 weeks of little to no communication about the status of my car. I popped in a few times only to find other cars on the dyno and left with no commitment on when my car would be finished. Best way I could find to describe the experience was being stuck in an airport in another country because your flight was cancelled so you are super angry but the gate attendant is holding all of the power so you had to be nice in order to have any chance of getting home.

This killed any hope of having it ready for Power Tour so I transitioned over to getting the C10 road trip appropriate. Before leaving for Power Tour I had to grab my road trip gear from the Porsti and while picking up the gear I had a very frank conversation with the shop and they committed to getting my car finished before I returned from the trip.

Power tour with the C10 was great except it needs 500whp more to hang with my buddies. I'll fix that during 2022 winter. Does great burnouts as is though.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNoQbCEqp5k


To give you a halftime reward during this way too long post, here is a video of my buddies LSA powered extended cab, long bed dually doing doughnuts in a drift competition at one of the events that I took with my 360 gopro. You should be able to rotate the view during the video.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jsh94iOcMI



When I returned from Power Tour Porsti was ready for pickup. Dyno chart is much better than the last but a bit disappointing.

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With the higher compression and billet compressor wheel, closer to 400whp on E85 should have been possible. He didn't think that the billet compressor did anything and thought that my header was also hurting output. He also pointed out that the intercooler is heat soaking terribly so it was hard to get runs without having timing pulled.


Drove it home during rush hour so I couldn't really push it but it felt quite nice. There was an annoying rattle in the cabin and when I arrived home I found this in the passenger side.

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I couldn’t figure out what it was…until I was returning from Cars and Coffee and was able to give it a proper rip onto the interstate. Whole bunch of wheel spin with every shift and beautiful noises until a huge woosh and loss of power. I blew the BOV off.

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The fastener that I found on the way home was part of the t-bolt for the v-band. This had apparently come loose while on the dyno and somehow made its way into the cabin. My theory is that the shop found it on the floor and tossed it in there because even without the rear window, it is highly unlikely to have flown in. The tuner was not sure how it got there and dismissed my concern that it was tuned with a boost leak but assured me that even if it had, the tune was robust and that it would be safe.

I did some testing and confirmed that it was safe. After studying the boost/wastegate targets in the tables and the data in several logs, I convinced myself that the gains that should have been coming from the billet compressor where still there to be had. So I cranked up the boost and wastegate targets in all areas except peak boost and went out for some more testing. I definitely found some more midrange power and the limits of my resplined axles!

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This happened ~ 40mph in third coming out of a roundabout…wasn't even launching it!

This already turned into much more text that I could have ever imagined and there is a ton of cool details to share so I'll just skip to the current state of the new axles installed and a video of axle testing.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42TIK2RV8vU


This wasn't in Mexico so I won't disclose the speeds. But to give you an idea, the first shift was at redline into third and the second at redline into 4th. Yes I bounced off the rev limiter both times…it gets there a bit quicker than I am used to.

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I've only driven it a dozen times or so but have already decided that it needs wider/stickier tires. Last drive I got a bit confident with the loud pedal on an uphill swooping onramp and exceeded traction at about 60mph in third and had a fair amount of tire spinning drifting to deal with unexpectedly.

I'll make posts of detail stuff in case anyone wants to borrow, refine or criticize.


Cheers,
Scott

wanted to see what rear springs are you running?

Just wanted to give a small update if anyone on here still follows the car. Scott passed away unexpectedly earlier this summer. I bought the car and spares from his wife last week. He and I were coworkers at Bosch over the years. Another work friend of his and I will keep PorSti in the PowerTour group of friends.

It's still a bit of a mystery as to what state it's in. I do know last summer the plastic cam timing pulley came apart in Tennessee and wiped out the heads. It appears to be fixed, but we haven't pulled the belt covers to confirm yet. Also, it doesn't start so could be that, or something else. It will be an adventure.

John
84 928S

John -

I recently was at Scott's house and met his family. I told Tara it was a really cool car and would hopefully be picked up by someone who knew him. I'm glad it's in good hands. Please reach out if there's any Porsche parts needed. I'll help out with whatever I can. mark