mj_1985 Posted February 26, 2016 Share Posted February 26, 2016 Hi all New to the forum so be gentle. Just wanted to document this journey somewhere, hope this is the right place... So after many years of wanted to own an Impreza, watching Colin McRae in the WRC, having the posters on my wall etc as a boy, I have finally taken the plunge. It came about completely by chance and a family member sold me their Impreza 2.0 sport for £100!!! BARGAIN... Ok so... obviously not one of the turbo models which would have been more desirable but baby steps for me and to be fair I probably couldn't currently afford the running/insurance costs of a turbo model at the moment, so this will be my first with a view to getting a more desirable model further down the line. Anyway back to this car. It drives really well for a £100 car!!! No fault lights or any drama's to speak of. As far as I know the mechanical work it needs is a possible rocker head gasket and some attention to the rear suspension. My brother is a mechanic so he will be sorting me out on these. We will have a good look round it in the next few days to see what it needs but for now it seems ok!!! On the why it was only £100... the paint job isn't great. Patches all over the place where the finish is poor with some paint having come away from one of the doors. A few bits of missing trim and some poorly fitting panels means that there is lots of work to be done on the cosmetic side but again for £100 I'm nearly coming at this from nothing spent!!! The plan then is to first of all check the mechanical state of the car and make any repairs there. This isn't my main run-around so I'm not in any rush. I also intend to remove the stickers as I don't intend on pretending this car is an WRC... which it isn't. Next up will be beginning the cosmetic work. A full respray is the intention (perhaps the popular blue but unsure yet) but to keep the cost down I'm going to do all the prep myself and get a friend to do the spray. Then I may look into a little bit of modifying but it will be mainly all cosmetic, from what I know (which is fairly limited tbh if that isn't obvious already) there isn't much point in doing much in the way of performance upgrades as this will be costly and wont yield too much in the way of actual performance improvement so it will be mainly maintenance, cosmetic and eeking out what I can through good/regular servicing. Oh and the exhaust will have to go, it is WAY too loud. I like a sporty grumble as much as the next person but doing 70mph on a little run down the local dual carriageway it was rather loud!!! So a sports exhaust yes, but a reduction in noise is desirable. Thanks for reading and I'll update when I can, but I warn you I won't be working on this every week so it's more of a slow and steady project :-) Matt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mj_1985 Posted February 27, 2016 Author Share Posted February 27, 2016 Ok, so we've given it the once over today and remarkably it looks very decent underneath for its age. A little more investigation to do around the knocking on the suspension but nothing alarming at the moment. The only bit so far which you folks may be able to help with is that we found a small oil leak originating from the front of the engine just above the thermostat housing and dip stick tube. Any ideas on this? Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay762 Posted February 28, 2016 Share Posted February 28, 2016 Wotcha and welcome Matt - what a result - a right bargain and its got some styling modifications STI esq already completed. Def right place to stick a build thread - easier to keep track of your work all in one place. I would agree with the performance of the NA engine approach - filter and pipe + a decent service, oil, brake fluid, plugs etc to get it running spot on then if you still want to improve things look at power to weight ratio (ditch rear seats etc) and chassis improvements brakes, ARB's suspension 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mj_1985 Posted February 29, 2016 Author Share Posted February 29, 2016 Hi Jay762, thanks for that. Do you have any idea on the oil leak described above? Or does anybody else? Thanks Matt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay762 Posted February 29, 2016 Share Posted February 29, 2016 Hi Matt - not familiar with the classic layout myself - any chance of some photos - Savage and the others will probably have a better idea than me Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
savage bulldogs Posted February 29, 2016 Share Posted February 29, 2016 I'm unsure if the na is the same as the twin cam turbo but here's a few things that might leak in that area . There's a small o ring in the join in the dipstick tube . front camshaft / crankshaft seals and cam cover gaskets are also a possibility. Have you had the passenger side cam cover off to investigate? If it's not broke .....upgrade it 😊 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mj_1985 Posted March 7, 2016 Author Share Posted March 7, 2016 Hi, Sorry for the delay Not had any chance to look into it anymore yet, will try get a few photos in the next few days to show where its coming from a bit more... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Momo Posted March 8, 2016 Share Posted March 8, 2016 Welcome to the forum! I own a sport as well, iv replace the rocker cover gasket on mines just a few months back and had a missfire which meant new sparks coil packs and ht leads and cables. Wer abouts is the leak exactly? Can you take a picture? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mj_1985 Posted March 17, 2016 Author Share Posted March 17, 2016 On 08/03/2016 at 8:34 PM, Momo said: Welcome to the forum! I own a sport as well, iv replace the rocker cover gasket on mines just a few months back and had a missfire which meant new sparks coil packs and ht leads and cables. Wer abouts is the leak exactly? Can you take a picture? Hi Momo Thanks for the reply I plan to get underneath it again next week so i'll get a picture, i'm a bit limited as to how much time I can spend on it with having a young family and work and stuff, but i'll defo get a pic up next week Thanks again, much appreciated Matt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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