Bent and Broken

Last night I was joined by Mr. Doug who helped me disassemble the rear end. It was a lot easier with two people trying to remove the damn stuck and stubborn bolts. An hour or so later we had the rear assembly in pieces and closely inspected the parts. We found the lateral links as well as the sub frame to be bent. My assumption is it may have slid into a curb or something enough to tweak the sub frame. All is well though as I have about 4 more rear subframes in my shed and a set of new lateral links. Hopefully I can get my bushings by the end of the week and start stiffening this bad boy up.

Rear Down

So, decided to remove the rear yesterday as well. Would have been out within a half hour if not for breaking a tacked nut on the back side of the rear uni-body loose... There was a grade 8 bolt that holds the sub frame in that started to bind - and of course the only thing I could do was put a nice breaker bar/pipe extension on and turn. Ended up having to hole-saw though the side of the frame rail to get access. I don't think the hole will hurt the structure's integrity of the car, but I'll weld it up down the line.

Front Removed

Today was pretty quick - removed the front suspension in preparation to swap bushings and parts. I ended up pulling the whole thing down as a unit so I could disassemble it out from under the car.It's always easier to get the proper leverage on rusty and stuck bolts without trying to turn a wrench in the 6 inches of space between the cement floor and the bottom of the car, haha.

I'm going to need to replace all the bushings, steering rack, a-arms, and even the cross member. I'd prefer to use the "GD" (2004 STI) A-Arms to widen the track. With that I'll use the GD cross member to support the wider A-Arm mounts. Since I've collected a ton of extra STI parts, I figure I might as well use them.

Only bad part about today was the damn axle stuck in the hub... It's totally seized. I went as far as throwing it in my 2 ton press with no luck. I guess I'll bring it to the machine shop along with the motor stuff, haha.

Motor Breakdown

Since we decided to stay with the 2.5 N/A block we settled on rebuilding it so keep it reliable. Last thing we want is to pop a motor on the first race of the season!

Most of the motor removal was routine - Removing the fuel lines, drain the radiator and oil, move the power steering aside and pop off the motor mounts.


After we removed the clutch and flywheel (why I might add was in very good condition... totally reusable) we put it on a motor stand and started to disassemble. The intake manifold came off easily by removing the 8 bolts and disconnecting the various sensors. Next we took off the timing belt and other "front of the motor" pieces including water and oil pumps. After that - off came the heads and we dove into the block.


I had to make a quick trip to Sears to pick up a 12-point 3/8 socket to get the block bolts out. Once they popped loose, we tapped out the wrist pins and pulled the block apart. Everything looked pretty good... crank wasn't scorn too bad, pistons look reusable... rods fine... I do feel a lot better about the decision to rebuild it though because the rod bearings looked very discolored which could be a sign of poor oiling.

Back To Work!

So back to work. It's been awhile since I last posted mainly due to trying to keep the finances coming in. Economy kinda put a hold on extracurricular activities for awhile. So we're back in the swing of things now and need to get this baby done by March. We decided based on cash availability to stay with the N/A motor and 5mt for now... But we will rebuild it. Stay tuned for some "inside" shots.

Bad Wiring Phantom Guy... Grrr

So over the weekend we made some additional progress with gutting the car. We needed to remove the dash to get at all the crap behind it (Heater Core, Blower, AC junk, etc.). We still haven’t decided how we want to proceed with the dash, but I believe we’re leaning towards a aluminum sheet metal flat dash. Something similar to a Nascar style.

We removed the remainder of the trunk interior and insulation before moving on to mounting the new door and side mirror. Every piece of covering we remove has a chance of uncovering some gremlins. We’ve already identified a few areas of very minor body rust we will need to repair. Luckily, most of the rust is localized to spots where we can just cut the metal out without even having to weld in new pieces. An example would be on the inside of the trunk where a weather strip sits to prevent water from coming into the car. So far we haven’t found anything structurally compromising (Thank god).

So to get to the title – Bad Wiring Phantom Guy – Curse you. We had to remove and re-wire a botch job on a car alarm. There were random, non electrical taped connections as well as they had the unit integrated into the ignition as a “lock out” for any potential thieves. All I have to say is thank god it wasn’t the cause of an electrical fire – because that’s where it was headed, haha.

Wheels!

Ok - been a week or so since I last posted. We've been trying to source some new wheels, tires, and brakes. The problem has been sizing. We need something that can fit over a 4 pot front brake but also is small enough to keep the unsprung weight/rotational mass low. That being said - I've been trying to find a buyer for my 17x7.5 SSR Comps but I think they will be ideal for our needs.

We're moving towards using a 245 wide tire for the remainder of the season and next season - Any more will require extensive fab work to widen the fenders. Still, 245 meats are going to need a little hacking to get the job done and will squeeze onto these 7.5 wide SSR's just fine.

Moving along - I sourced some used G-Forces which we'll use for the time being to test fit and be able to roll the car once we bolt up the brakes. I also think they will be pretty good for a few Auto-X days. The previous owner blistered them very bad so I wouldn't trust them on a track - free is a nice price though. :)