savage bulldogs

Haven't updated this thread for a while , so here goes . When I bought the bug it had a dent in the driver's side rear door and I'd been looking locally to find one for ages, finally a local breakers had a blob in for breaking in the same colour . So £30 from "Suffolk jdm solutions" door and a swap over of the door loom and it's sorted 😎. Although its running sweet and hasn't used any fluids in 3k miles it's done since the rebuild, I finally found the time to take it to Clive attowes for a dyno health check. First pull showed the afr to be a bit out and it only made 280hp 226flbs 🤔 which is strange for a mapped sti .... Attowe isn't just a good mapper, he knows his diagnostic stuff too , so started off with a smoke test ,to make sure no intake air or boost was leaking , all good . Then cleaned the maf , which improved afr 😎 Followed by starting to find out why it wasn't making "mapped boost targets " , finally found that 1 of the pins in the aftermarket boost solenoid lead plug hadn't been crimped properly from the factory.... and 1.5 bar 😊 He commented on how quiet the engine was on boost through the det cans and whilst idling too 😊 The afr is still slightly out but seeing as cleaning the maf had helped ,he suggested to buy another genuine maf and change the fuel filter . I left with 311hp and 278flbs which has made a massive difference to how it drives 😎 So few pics of the bug and the parts from icp and another trip to attowes when I can find the time 😉 The "daily " is starting to grow on me now with it's dentless door and new lease of power 😊

We'll see once you've owned it a while . I said I wasn't going to mod my first scooby 🙄 9yrs later all that remains of the original v3 UK is the dsr door ,front n rear bumpers and a few interior plastics 😂 Even if you don't intend to do any power mods , I'd recommend a dyno health check at some point . some faults don't necessarily show ecu codes or running issues and it's always nice to know it's running healthy and safely.

LOUD PIPES SAVE LIVES Doubt anyone would walk out in front of either of my scoobs , they'd definitely hear me coming lol

I much prefer the built not bought route ,myself too 😊 Will admit my v3 UK got scrapped due to tin worm and I re shelled my mechanicals into a clean 94 jdm sti . But I either used the rare v1 sti shell or that would've gone to the scrappy instead . There's certainly a shortage of early classics and UK cars over here , so glad you've saved her . As for the stone guards, Jdms don't have them or the holes in the arch "dog leg " for them to fit too . So I'm sure you'll be fine without them , unless you drive on a lot of gravel lol

Hi n welcome. I'm sure if you keep up the s/h , warm it up cool and it down (before and after Boost) , it will keep you smiling. Don't forget some pics , we like pics and it helps local members keep a eye out for you

I tend to use a couple of cut down scaffold boards to drive onto to get a Jack under mine . Also they came in handy when my car had to be picked up by a transporter, when it had to go to the body shop last year .

Always nice to see a scooby getting some TLC, instead of being scrapped . Nice work ,fella 👍 As far as the stone guards go I'm fairly sure they're only a UK or euro thing . Have you tried speaking to Luke at import car parts? As even if he hasn't got them in stock or listed on his website, he might be able to order some in.

Cheers James, I dug the spare alternators outta the very back of the scooby scraps shed and I guess I must have a leak somewhere 🤔 As they both look like they've come off the titanic (rusty as fook) 😂 Glad most of my other spares are in plastic storage containers. So If I can't make a good one outta the 3 I've got , I might take you up on that 👍

Took the bug sti for a dyno at Attowes in Norwich and on the way back took a bit of a detour and Dropped the turbo off to Essex turbos for a rebuild . I used Essex turbos about 20yrs ago when my Brodie Britain tuned Renault 5 gt turbo popped its standard turbo seals 😏 Strangely enough the turbo came back with a few upgrades ceramic shaft ,bigger comp wheel ect . The chap that deals with the upgrades isn't in till next week and I need to discuss costing and availablity of upgrades first .So we'll see if it comes back better or just fixed 😉 Since parking it up for the winter I seemed to have gained a alternator squeal on start up which lasts about a minute. I've tried , brake cleaner ,electrical contact cleaner and even wd40..... its still squealing 🤬 Trouble is ,that I had to hack my alternator about to get it to work with alternator relocation kit that come with my 2nd hand reversed inlet. Tbh I don't fancy having to "convert " another alternator to fit again 🙄 Don't get me wrong its working and has been for the past 4yrs or so but it's tweaking my ocd lol . Alternator relocation kits used to be over £200 and the 2nd hand inlet kit ,throttle body and icv cost almost half that when I bought it 😋 . I have had my eye on a proppa relocation kit for a while and now they're more sensibly priced ,I decided to get one from Chris at cdf in anodized black to match the rails 😊 Got a few local meets next week and the week after , so doubt I'll find a alternator and clean it up or get the turbo back in time , so for now here's a pic of the kit.

If your sure the sensor is ok there's only the engine loom ,harness and clocks left to check . Maybe try checking the multi plug (by the battery) and the dash plug is plugged in and making good contact , same with the engine loom earths. You could try tracing the wire from the sensor plug to the multi plug near the battery . Test this for a break in, with a multimeter , then do the same from multi plug to the back of the dash . Not sure how to test the clock gauge other than test fitting another set of clocks .

Was the dash coolant sensor a new genuine Subaru one ? Does sound like it's possibly the sensor at fault and it's going straight to ground

Tbh I've always fitted the new pumps when building a short block ,then fitted the heads afterwards . I'd imagine it would be difficult to hold the cams in position to remove the belt and remove then cam pulleys .There might be enough room to undo and pull the timing belt backing plate forward to get to the pump ? But that's only a guess , maybe someone like @Mr B would know ? As he does much more maintenance to other peoples scoobs than me .

No problem bud, always nice to hear a classic being saved rather than scrapped . Unfortunately, I personally haven't done much to the rear end of mine bar suspension and arb upgrades . So can't be much help , if you need any info on engine and drivetrain I can probably help there though 😉 Most of use use import car parts for any genuine oe Subaru stuff , gaskets ,bushes, sensors ect 👍

Assume yours is a 2.5 ltr ? Ive never worked on 2.5 but from what I understand it's only mainly a 3mm bigger dia piston and a slightly longer throw on the crank , that is different in order to make more displacement . Otherwise the blocks are very similar and have the same outside dimensions. If that's the case, you'd need to lock the left bank cams with a tool and remove the cam belt but the pulleys can remain institu on a 2ltr . Here's a pic of my ej207 single avcs engine with cam lock in place and water pump fitted , you can see the cam pulleys aren't close enough to be in the way of water pump removal . I can't say 100% for the 2.5 but cam pulley removal is definitely not needed on the ej20g, ej20k,ej205 and ej207 . The timing belt bottom "toothed" idle pulley/sprocket might have to come off but tbh I've always fitted fitted full belt kits and pumps at the same time .

Abs sensors can be a pita to remove and the abs rings (on the hubs) can get very fragile , the one on my old v3uk turbo shattered when pressing the bearing out of the hub 🙄 So loads of wd ,maybe even a bit of heat might help and definitely be careful with the abs rings , mine was nearly £100 just for a new replacement abs ring . If you need any replacement panel sections Ray at "automotive repair panels" on f.b , sells numerous classic and newage repair panels and is well worth a look 😉

The sensor with the single wire plug is for the dash the one with a multi wire plug is for the ECU. You could try unplugging the single wire dash sensor and see if the gauge still reads max .this might indicate a fault with wiring or dash connector if it still rises straight away 😉

As above ,definitely sounds like a boost or vacuum leak. Have a visual check of the small vacuum lines for cracks ,splits and see if there's anything not connected. If your running the standard top mount intercooler there's not much to leak tbh ,so try checking that there's no pipes split or loose from the turbo (y pipe) or between tmic and throttle body .also if you have a aftermarket dump valve check it's not stuck or leaking

Don't think Haynes do a manual for the classics but there's a few free pdf downloads for v1 to v4 (yours will be a v4 afaik) Failing that let us know if there's anything particular you need to know and we'll help if we can 😉

Well seeing as I booked in a dyno session for the v1sti and wont be using it until the turbos rebuilt and re fitted, I decided to take the v7sti for a dyno health check at last . Glad I did, as first run showed low boost , afr out and low standard 'ish power at 280hp 226flbs 🤔 I use Clive Attowe as he knows his engine's and diagnostics, not just a good mapper . Although both power and boost were down ,he started by cleaning the maf to try and stable the afr's first (better) Then set about finding out why it wasn't making mapped boost targets and found that a pin hadn't been crimped in properly on the boost solenoid plug (got more boost back) I need a new maf and will probably fit a new fuel filter , then go back to see if numbers improve but the end result was 311hp /278flbs . At least I now know it's running safe and the extra 31hp and 52flbs , has made a world of difference to how it drives 😎

After the last few test drives I was getting a bit of white with a slight hint of blue smoke and feared the worst . That the Rings ,valves ,heads or head gasket were fubar 🥺 But compression was fine ,plugs were clean , no fluid loss or smell coming from the exhaust 🤔 I'd ruled out turbo seals , as there was no smoke on boost and in fact , the only time it did smoke was when pulling away from the lights . Didn't do it at cruise , idle or if the car hadn't been driven . So if it sat stationary I could rev ,idle for as long as i liked and it wouldn't smoke or have erratic afr 🤔🤔. After resigning myself to letting Clive attowe look at it , cos hes not just a mapper , he does diagnostic , maintenance, engine builds ect too . I had some time to think and cast my searching further on the net .... never heard of it before but ..... apparently if the rear turbo seals go ,it can drip oil into the exhaust. This means the oil is not burnt in the engine combustion, so you don't get blue oil smelling smoke . You get white smoke with a tinge of blue that doesn't smell oily ,as the oil evaporates from heat rather than burns 🤞 So ..... Out with the new'ish aps sr40 and in with the spare trusty 25 yr old tdo5..... No smoke and a stable but slightly rich afr 😊😊😊 fairly sure the oil "mist" was clouding the exhaust gasses in the down pipe and giving a erratic afr reading, due to the wideband being positioned after the turbo . Confident that a map fuelling tweek is needed since fitting the better flowing rails and that will sort the afr now . I'd already booked in a dyno at attowes Monday but wont get the v1sti tweeked yet , I'll wait until the bigger turbos fixed and refitted . So Monday I'll take the bug sti to attowes for a health check and drop the aps sr40 off to Essex turbos for a rebuild instead . Few pics of the weeping turbo , my box of bits needed to refit a standard turbo and the tdo5 , albeit a bit botched but back in the bay 😋

Cheers , its my labour of love n blood sweat n tears . Doesn't look factory fresh in the flesh but hey she's been my daily up till when I got the bug on the road and cars are ment for driving (hopefully lol) Meister r's and whiteline stuff keep it planted and although 360hp ain't high hp from my over engineered engine, at 1230kg it's plenty fast enough for me . It still drives fine atm , no misfire or rough running and on boost the afr is fine but when idling at the lights the afr can drop to 12.6 . So I've been driving the bug and trying to suss it for over a month now . Rich idle can strip the bore walls of oil, which can cause excessive wear to rings and thin the oil with fuel ( bore wash) .I changed the oil recently and don't want to risk driving it too much until its 100% sorted . So hopefully I'll be able to drive it again soon , rather than just look at it lol .

So still got fingers crossed for Monday, that attowe finds a simple air leak or it's a fuel adjustment issue and finally finds the fault 🤞 I the meantime I've polished the bug sti to within a inch of its life and started to get bored .... Started tidying up the scooby scraps shed and found a hel red braided clutch line 🤔 been a while since I refreshed the 6 speed clutch slave fluid , so looks like I found something scooby to do 😎 The clutch slave reservoir is located above the turbo hotside and although it has a heat shield, it does degrade with the heat rising from the turbo . So I took a couple of pics I'll post at the end to show my method of changing the fluid , using a Turkey baster to remove the main of the old fluid then flushing and bleeding the system into a glass jar (sat on the chassis leg) with a vac line . Rain stopped play so I've still got to fit the new line and bleed it but you should get the jist, just don't get brake fluid on your paintwork as it will strip the paint down to bare metal 😉 Also While sitting in the garden looking at the v1sti and not being able to drive it , its been difficult .So I've been searching the net looking at scooby stuff to cheer me up 😥 and somehow ,just in case I do decide to do a rebuild soon.... I might have accidentally bought a set of v4sti heads at a reasonable price that need a bit of work 🙄😊 But I'll leave the 500hp capable heads explanation for another day 😉

You'd have to Google ECU numbers and cross reference them with.... engines UK and wrx cams are the same ,sti are high lift . Turbos ,variety fitted to each model ,so too big = lean (melty stuff) to small = rich (bore wash) Injectors pretty much same as turbos . If you find a engine first ,then see if you can find ECU, injectors and turbo to match . Would probably be the cheapest, safest option ,although any second hand engine (especially 20 yr old ones) are obviously a bit of a gamble . Full rebuild is probably the best option, pretty much a new engine but that's gonna cost £1k minuim in parts /gaskets alone . All the best with it , feel free to start your own build thread or ask anything else 👍

My 52 plate sti type UK is running about 340 /340 (not dyno'd yet) with intake pipe ,panel filter and de cat . Wouldn't thought a standard cat would hold it back too much but either a aftermarket or 2nd hand prodrive sports cat would help flow , plus pass a mot fine . We've got a few members your way , so hopefully someone will be able to recommend a tried n tested mapper.Then they'd be able give you a better idea of gains with the standard cat , compared to a sports cat so you can decide if it's worth the extra cost .

No problem, bud 👍 I don't own a garage either, engine built on the kitchen table and fitted in the back garden lol . The ecu would need to match the injectors and ideally turbo to get the most outta a sti engine swap