Adam

The project is very much achievable. The version 5 and 6 Impreza (the P1 is version 6) was based very much on the Generation 3 Legacy that came out a year or two before, and when Prodrive converted the type-R to the P1 for the UK market many if the parts they used, including the 5-speed manual gearbox, came directly from the Legacy. If I were doing the work, the first thing I would do is find a Legacy auto as a donor car (look for one with a failed engine for under £1,000) and I'd expect to get 90% of the needed parts from that.

I understand... I'm a driver too, but I shift people and not boxes!

I'm free Sunday.

A box from a Subaru Legacy RS-K (saloon) or GT-B (estate) - 3rd Generation, model code BE5 for the RS-K or BH5 for the GT-B - will fit but you will also need to change the drive shaft as it's a different length, and rear diff as the front diff is a different ratio. You can use the diff direct from the auto Legacy but as the Impreza is a few inches shorter you will probably have to find a drive shaft from an Impreza auto, which are very rare in this country. The manual clutch and brake pedals are the same for both cars so in theory the Legacy auto pedals should be a straight fit too. You may have a problem with the ECU as you won't be able to interchange those... I would see if any of the aftermarket ECU manufactures support an auto option.

Well it's not looking too good for this week... Finish at 8pm on Tuesday and just before 9pm on Wednesday. I can try to swap for something better but it'll be difficult at short notice. Do you have somewhere that is well lit where we can have a look? I can see this having to be done in the dark.

The gap has closed over the years, but JDM cars are always better than the "General and European" market cars we get. Back in the days of the Impreza classic we never had any version of STi, type-R or type-RA over here, and the car we did get, the Turbo 2000, or GT as it was called in mainland Europe, was just a watered down version of the JDM Impreza WRX with a less powerful engine and less equipment. On the Legacy side, we did get a turbo version of the first generation car but again that was a watered down version of the JDM Legacy RS and we didn't see any of the type-R etc that made Subaru famous in rally with their first wins. From Generation 2 onwards we haven't had any turbo version of the Legacy and from Generation 3 we even stopped getting the quad-cam cars :( So in answer to the question... Yes, JDM cars are ALWAYS better!!

When the ECU decides the boost level has reached the limit it will party open the turbo wastegate to hold the boost at that level. This is totally normal and very smooth so you probably wont notice it as you drive. If the boost continues to rise, the ECU will not cut the fuel but it will then open the wastegate fully to fully bypass the turbo and reduce the boost. This is usually quit rare unless the engine has been "tuned" without being mapped for the modifications. I do know some people who bypass the boost solenoid to stop the ECU from opening the wastegate, and thus letting their car overboost. If you do this you will not get fuel-cut, but obviously you run the risk of your bottom end giving up. If you are getting fuel-cut it is much more likely the ECU has detected knocking and has cut back to prevent damage, so make sure you always use the best quality fuel (highest RON) you can get. Or it may be that your fuel pump is getting old and not able to supply petrol quick enough at the higher boost levels.

I do like Defi gauges... They just seem better than other brands. I have acquired a set of Defi GeNome gauges for my car. These are basically standard Defi gauges that were made for Subaru and sold by them as official extras. As such they do not say Defi on them, but instead they have the STi logo and the colour nicely matches the OEM dials. Needless to say, these are quite rare and fetch good money when they appear on eBay! I haven't fitted them yet, but the job is on my to-do list!

It is generally agreed that the maximum safe level of boost for a standard Subaru turbo bottom-end is 1.4 bar, assuming everything is in good working order. Once the engine starts getting a bit older (say over 10 years) I would drop that down to 1.2-1.3 bar to be safe. The reason you get higher boost in higher gears is simply because the engine is under more load in higher gears, and therefore producing more exhaust gases to drive the turbo. If you change your turbo (or any other major upgrade) you MUST get the ECU re-mapped. If you don't you risk long-term damage to the engine. Depending on the size of turbo you fit you may need a new fuel pump and injectors too. This is because you will be forcing more air into the induction chamber and to keep the correct fuel/air mix you may have to upgrade these to be able to provide the correct amount of fuel. Personally, I would say always upgrade the fuel pump as the standard one hasn't got much room for upgrading, but the standard injectors should be OK unless you plan a huge upgrade. Either way, if your injectors are not up to the job it will show up when you get the ECU mapped so upgrade then if needed. You do not need to upgrade the boost solenoid, but I would. It won't make your car any quicker but it will give the ECU more control over the boost levels so you will get quicker response and a smoother power curve.

I'm too broke to take part in this thread :(

Maybe I should add that the car was later recovered to the UK. The engine was stripped and a hole about the size of a penny was found in one of the pistons. A new engine was built by the owner, and the car still survives to this day, although it is off the road at the moment for a single-turbo conversion...

OK, will check my shifts Monday and let you know.

On another thread Tlag said he and I had seen a piston fail at high speed... Well I don't want to highjack that thread but I thought you may like to know more, so this what happened. While running out of Germany to catch a ferry a friend of ours decided to do a max speed run on a section of unlimited Autobahn. The car is a 1996 Subaru Legacy RS Twin-Turbo. I was behind in my GT-B and gave chace and at about 145 mph (SatNav speed, the car was off the clock at about 175 mph!!) there was suddenly a huge amount of smoke from the exhaust of the RS. Luckily we were less than a mile for a service station so we were able to pull over and stop in a safe area. Also, both cars were running dashcams so it was all recored... Enjoy!

I work all sorts of odd hours, mostly days but sometimes lates/nights. I only work one Sunday every two months, so a Sunday would be good for me. I'm not sure when my next late shift is so I will need to check on Monday and get baxk to you. It's not easy to say without looking at the car, but any oil in the exhaust would burn and you would see lots of smoke. The colour of the smoke (if you have any) is also a clue... Oil burns almost white with a hint of blue. If the smoke is black it's running rich so you have a fueling issue. Edit: just seen your latest post. I'm starting to think maybe an air leak on the inlet side, or maybe an idle control valve problem.

Hey chap. I'm just down the road from you in Worcester... Would you like me to come over and take a look?

Well lets be honest... That's the real reason I posted it! All the footage we took on the run came to about 2Tb and was edited together by one of our members into a full length film. The end product was about 2 hours long so way to big for YouTube and alas there isn't really much footage from the trip available on line. However, I have found two more clips. The second clip was an advert for the 2013 run, but alas this was cancelled when several people had to pull out due to lack of money, cars, engines... etc. Enjoy!

Another one from that trip... This is a short clip that hasn't been edited from the Col de Torini. My silver GT-B is the car in the shot and you can see one of the video cameras mounted on the roof.

I can relate to all of that, although my budget would never stretch that far. I have carefully selected but low-cost components in my systems. You should maybe tell your friend that HDMI is a data cable, not a sound or video cable, so unlike the speaker cable spending big money will make no difference to the quality at all!

Optical is a bit out of date these days and doesn't support some of the newer formats. Not a problem if most of your kit is over 5 years old but something to avoid if you have newer stuff.

Now that wouldn't bother me at all... ...because everything run into a surround amp first so the TV only needs one!

I was on the trip Tlag mentioned above and I ran two cameras on my car... My own Contour HD and a friends Go Pro. Both filmed in 1080p but on looking at the end footage it was clear the Go Pro had the better picture quality.

Hello. I'd say find yourself a turbo bonnet and fit that instead. If you get a fake scoop it will just act like a huge air brake bolted to the from of your car, and no matter how carefully you fit it, it will always look fake. At least with a genuine turbo bonnet the air will have somewhere to go and it will look like a turbo.

Wasn't too difficult for access as you can also remove the rear wheels to get in from the sides. The example I worked on also had a fake VW camper front fitted and this obstructed the cooling vents giving the rear engine some overheating issues.

I worked on a Subaru Domingo van once... Very similar but fitted with 1,189cc 3-cylinder engine from the Justy. It was a great little van and I was really impressed with the way it was built... The layout was basically the same as an Impreza AWD but turned around 180 degrees, with the engine in the back.

OK I've been out of the game for about a year, but £1,800 for a 6-speed DCCD sounds like a bargain to me. You couldn't get one for less that £2,200 so either the prices have fallen through the floor in the last year while I've been away, or that is a great find.