fiid are we racing to see who gets their suby running first.

i am aiming for next week end about 2 weeks, the radiator will be in on tues ( i hope ) then its on to electric. i was wondering how you are dealing with the shift bar, mine i think is going to have to curve slightly around the oil pan, or i might put a long dent in the side of the oil pan. but either way it will work.

what did you do for the engine bar would you like a drawing with my numbers.


basicly what i have left is:

make the radiator support frame ( 1 hour ) weld it to the car ( 1 hour ) build the shouding for the radiator ( 1 hour ) come up with the scoop for underneith ( 1 hour thought 1 to 2 hours making ). then make the harness pretty and finish the harness hook ups ( 4 to 8 hours ). a little welding to mount the body engine mounts ( 1 hour but my gas rig wont do it its not big enough ). make the support for the one side of the alt. ( 1 to 2 hours ) fill tranny with fluid ( 1/2 hour ). drive car with no tail pipe to exhaust shop ( 3 hours not the drive total )

finally figure out all lose ends and trouble codes on the obd2 computer time unknown but should not be long

I've been doing a little work to ready the engine to go in the car. Made this bracket for the coilpack.

Here it is - complete with EDIS coilpack.

Here is a shot of the front of the engine. Here you can see the belt required to run the alternator w/o the power steering pump. You can also see Muellers awesome EDIS wheel adaptor (super-THANKS!), and the bracked I made for the VR sensor (which needs a little adjustment). I also figured out I could fit a 914 oil pressure & idiot light sender (dangling to the left). The splice is where a TypeIVTurbo project almost happened.

Here is a new bracket I made for the throttle cable. I think a stock 914 throttle cable should work now :-)

I deduced a way of mounting the Megasquirt using the EDIS bracket :-). You can also see the nice new Walberg 255LPH fuel pump under the battery.

Here is a pic of my radiator install. I still need to make some more shrouds and get some fans.

Here are my water lines. For simplicity's sake I used 1.25 inch pipe in both directions, since that fits directly on the radiator.

I made a fiberglass shroud for underneith the radiator as an experiment. I may keep this or try and make it a little better. I used mesh to form the shape.

I bought these fantastic cookie cutters from SynthesisDV- they arrived today. I am very happy! Uh - interesting choice of packaging materials though

Mister Tire of very large Rack sent me 4 Kuhmo Ecstas today as well

There was some interest around engine mounts. You can see the two uprights in the following pic.

The two uprights bolt to the following bar in the trunk:

And I'm Spent.

The 914Club sticker fell off, btw - need to get some more since I gave all mine away to the $(*#&*$&( - uh - other 914 owners in my neighborhood who never showed up here.

Fiid, we still havent hooked up tp wrench. PM me or somthin'....I have a few extra stickers too

I just had to show my support. Looks like a sweet build. I want to do the same myself. I think I will start with the base EJ20. Do you know how much the mounting location varies from motor too motor, speceficly EJ22, 25, ER27 EA82?

all of the newer motors have the same mounting points ie anything from 96 and up but the you get to deal with odb2. but it is not that bad to do obd2 you just want to fake a few signals with resistors. as for engine mounts stay away from any mount that uses the stock 914 mounting locations they are 14 inches forward of the motor's mounts.

I think Eric used stock mounting locations with his ER27

the 2.7 liter uses the old locations they are a bit further forward

my engine bar pics this thread has pics of my engine bar set up, many people at the wcc saw how solid it is

This is a 3" (rice) stainless turbo downpipe from a WRX. It's a little too long for use on a 914 (no space for a muffler) but provides the right flanges and stuff. I will use it as a base to fab up my exhaust system. I need to get an appropriate muffler for this (I'm trying not to get that rice "farting in a large steel chamber" sound - I would like it to just be fairly quiet - except at WOT).

This is the other end of the downpipe. The "bellmouth" interface to the turbo seems to be fairly well constructed - I think it will create good "turbulent flow" in the pipe.

This is how you do turbo plumbing with DWV pipe from the despot. This is designed to get me to the point where the car is drivable, then I will get it replaced with proper silicone/silica/whatever pipes and get the intercooler setup working.

The new megasquirt firmware I have can also do boost control which I will probably get going as well.

BTW: I tested the DWV rubber fittings with compressed air. They are good to about 20lbs - and usually fail because they slip off the pipe they are clamped on to. You have to make sure the fittings are very tight.

This turbo has no wastegate control - so as soon as there is enough pressure to actuate the wastegate - the pressure will stop. It is estimated this will provide about 5-6 pounds of boost - which should be enough to be moderately exciting whilst not destroying anything (esp without the intercooler). I don't want to get too aggressive before I've done too much tuning either.

I got my nice new aluminum pedals installed, along with a new throttle cable. The standard 914 throttle cable can be made to fit a subaru engine with a little cutting and a correctly fabricated bracket.

NB - In the previous shot you can also see the scars from clutch tube surgery. Thanks to Brad's article, I was able to do the clutch tube correctly - my first attempt was not nearly as secure, and has the wrong cable length to it.

Check out the new Forza seat and the laptop - used for Megasquirt tuning.

I also stripped the interior of carpet. I started pulling the tar out - but it got to be too much like hard work and I can finish it after the car is drivable on a weekend sometime.

This is my cooling system setup.

It's a 91/92 Golf radiator with a set of "universal" fans I got from the "Gotelli Speed Shop" in South San Francisco. The air will be vented out the bottom of the trunk, and some sheet something will be added to retain some usable trunk space. The spare will live in the rear trunk. There are side baffles for the radiator, and a fiberglass under-baffle - I need to add something at the top.

Inspection of the radiator on the Turbo 2.5 engine in our legacy was interesting - it's about half an inch thick and not much larger than this one, so I think this might be adequate to cool the engine. The MS can do various things based on coolant temperature as well - so we can cut boost in overheat situations.

The brakes are bled and the front wheels are on the ground. This is a big step and is making the project feel like it might actually be complete one day. One learns to ignore the condition of the paint on the car.

This is the megasquirt. I am running the megasquirt-extra code. It has been modified to support spark timing (for edis) being controlled by the LED17 line, and for PWM idle modulation. I set the idle speed in the software (for cold and warm) and it adjusts the idle valve to suit. I am constantly amazed by the quality and ease of doing more things with the Megasquirt. It's also very enjoyable to know how everything on the engine works.

You'll notice the 914 oil pressure sender unit in the previous picture - this is hooked up to the subaru engine and will drive the VDO oil pressure guage.

I got hold of the Innovate Motorsports LC-1 Wideband Controller. This is an AWESOME product. Not only is it very clearly documented and comes with all the accessories you could possibly need - it also came with starch environmentally friendly packing peanuts which I dissolved in my sink. Very happy to have an excellent product and not to have to add to the 20 gallons of styrofoam I have in my basement.

This is the knock sensor input circuit for the megasquirt. I made it out of parts from radioshack. This will be mounted inside the megasquirt box and hooked up to the stock subaru sensor. should be very cool.

This is the worst bit of rust on the car these days. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to best tackle this??? I don't really know what to do about it. I'd really like to avoid taking the whole fender off.

The shift rod is hooked up. My engine is quite high, but the shift rod still had to be cut and rewelded to sit lower so that it would clear the sump and the exhaust manifold. I went with a rice header from "Megan" racing - it's not equal length, but it sits reasonably tight with the engine. I seem to be able to get all the gears - which is a good start.

I am concerned though since my reversing lights seem to stay on all the time. Hope I didn't f**k up the transmission.

Last shot. This one shows the new header setup. At some point I need to get all this metal out of the car and get it powedercoated or painted.

The header, turbo, and downpipe all came off ebay. All the tubing is stainless and the cost was very low since they are all far-eastern mass produced rice parts. Rice and Bochwurst.... tasty.

Great progress Fiid! Thanks for sharing...

Last thing I recall was that this project was up for sale. Good to see tha you are going to finish it, and looks like you've made some excellent progress!!!


-Tony

I got pretty disillusioned with it for a while there. It's hard to balance a job with a startup company, raising a child, and trying to do a project like this. It made things a lot easier doing what everyone suggested way back and going to a single-turbo setup.

Thanks to everyone for the continued support and help with various problems I've run into. Also thanks to everyone who didn't buy the car when it was for sale. I think it'll run soon

Oh yeah... the engine does actually run now!! It idles nicely with the megasquirt idle control activated

QUOTE (fiid @ Oct 16 2005, 09:30 AM)

I am concerned though since my reversing lights seem to stay on all the time. Hope I didn't f**k up the transmission.

Sorry if this is too obvious, but just in case...

It looks like the two wires that control the reverse lights are hanging loose in this picture. Do the lights still come on with them disconnected ? If so, they are shorted together somewhere "upstream". If not, do the reverse lights come on when the two wires are touched to each other ? This is what they are supposed to do. Provided the transaxle actually does shift in and out of reverse (which we all hope is the case !) then the switch should make contact only in reverse. I haven't replaced this switch (just messed w/ connectors) but I'm sure it's straightforward if you can find the part. If you do, be careful 'cause there's a little pushrod that falls out when you remove the switch, and you'll need that for reassembly.


I'm also glad to see that your project is moving forward again. You've done all the really hard stuff already, you definitely deserve to enjoy the ride.

QUOTE (jsteele22 @ Oct 16 2005, 10:40 AM)

QUOTE (fiid @ Oct 16 2005, 09:30 AM) I am concerned though since my reversing lights seem to stay on all the time.  Hope I didn't f**k up the transmission. Sorry if this is too obvious, but just in case... It looks like the two wires that control the reverse lights are hanging loose in this picture. Do the lights still come on with them disconnected ? If so, they are shorted together somewhere "upstream". If not, do the reverse lights come on when the two wires are touched to each other ? This is what they are supposed to do. Provided the transaxle actually does shift in and out of reverse (which we all hope is the case !) then the switch should make contact only in reverse. I haven't replaced this switch (just messed w/ connectors) but I'm sure it's straightforward if you can find the part. If you do, be careful 'cause there's a little pushrod that falls out when you remove the switch, and you'll need that for reassembly. I'm also glad to see that your project is moving forward again. You've done all the really hard stuff already, you definitely deserve to enjoy the ride.

I unplugged those wires so that the reversing lights don't come on for my test firings. The reversing lights are overpowered for the surroundings so they get really hot if they are on too long, and I think they can melt stuff.

Shifting feels reasonably good for 2-5. 1st and reverse seem to be a little less "positive" in their engagement. This might be because the clutch isn't adjusted yet, or it could be something more sinister.

The lights do come on correctly when the wires are touched together. Excellent catch though.


another question for the group.

My downpipe has about 3 inches of clearance around the inboard CV joint. Should I be worried about heat radiating into the joint or is this a non-issue?? I suppose plenty of people run headers right under there and they don't have problems.... so.... ???????????????

Thank again for the support, help and kind words.

cv joint should be just fine that close. thats how far the factory one was.....

I bet your shifter just needs to be adjusted better...

I've found it takes 2 people...

One to hold it in perfect neutral with their hands, and one to place it in perfect neutral on the trani side and tighten down the bolt on the shifter linkage.. 5 mins and your done...

Looks like your making some progress!!!

cant wait to see it finished.

or, undo the bolt at the shifter base that connects it to the tunnel rod...
put the tranny in secon manually from underneath...
then... put the shifter straight up (with no spring preloading) into second.
tighten down aforementioned screw... and drive.

might require a little tweaking.
AA

fiid,
I'm really glad to hear you kept the project! Glad you are making some progress and feeling good about it.

-Ben M.

For the first time in over a year - I drove my car around the block.

I got the fans installed, fabbed up some exhaust bits, got the LC1 hooked up, ran some wiring for some guages, and fired it up.

There are some pics - I'll post them later.

The engine is in an appalling state of tune - very much like the 1.7 was when i first got it squirted. It makes REALLY cool (and slightly eerie) noises as the turbo spools and dumps it's waste air... (I have a dump valve to put on it yet).

Feels good to get it rolling again!



I'm going to open a bottle of wine

Congratulations! Now you need a sound clip for us. It's always awesome to get a car running after a long project.

Glad to here it's moving!

WAY TO GO FIID!!!

I want to see it. Can I stop by next time I'm in the city?

Jeff: Of course you can stop by - just call me on my cell and let me know in advance! Email me if you don't already have my cell number!


Progress:
I did some reading yesterday. I had not fully examined the LC-1 manual. By default - the first analog output acts like a narrowband sensor and not like a wideband. This probably caused some megasquirt confusion.

Also - if you don't have a MAT sensor - the line floats such that the MS thinks that the air temp is -40 degrees C - which has quite a radical effect on air density (like 1.5 times).

So I think it was running REALLY rich. I'm super psyched to do another test run with some logging and see how things go this time. I might get a small hint this time of how fast it's going to be .

Anyways - here's some pictures...

This is my RICE MUFFLER. Turns out it's quite loud. Ooops.

Vanilla Rice Rice Baby.

Lowering the car for the first time. I think the new engine is a little heavier than the stock engine; which means that my ride height was way low at the back - this was taken while adjusting it. I think the 175lb springs may not be sufficient with the heavier lump; but that should be reasonably easy to fix since I'm running Eibach coilovers at the back.
I might go to like 250s.

Reversing out for the first time in a REALLY long time.

I have no wing mirrors at the moment - so this was made harder than it needed to be .

Just about to take off up the street. Car is showing it's best side.