The inaccurately named "Blighter", Regular car reviews, WRX seats, and front lip 27/04/19

[Reuben]

So, about 7 months ago, I saw something of interest on the interwebs. A BC legacy for $500.

Upon further inspection, it was in bloody nice condition, though a bit run down, but otherwise quite good. And less than 99,000miles on the clock I might add.

So, well... I bought it!

I have since found some cool things about the TI Type-S. They got quite a few little feautres borrowed from the GT's, like power folding mirrors, the auto HVAC/aircon controls (complete with flip down control panel), got the rear spoiler, central locking, and almost completely blacked out, black handles, no chrome strips along the doors, none in the rear light garnish either. Only chrome on it was the strip around the bump strips.

Here's some brochure material.

Got a PM from DacerX last night regrding a lovely looking BF N/A down here in QT he wanted to have a look at, but we found it was sold already. That got me browsing trade me last night... And i found this: http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing ... =372003835

Sent the guy a txt, it was still avail, so i organised a viewing time at around 4pm today. Went over after my flight, had a look, she seems fine, no bad rust anywhere, just those wof items. I offered him $500 cash, as is, where is, and it was a deal

She's mint, the clear coat is in better condition than the GTB, the shocks are fine, the engine is perfect, the auto is fine, the wheels need swapping, and i might have a rear wheel bearing fucked, but other than that, and the wof items, she's actually in damn nice condition!

Going to be a nice fix'n'flick, or i might even keep it for a runabout, so i stop treating beastie as a shopping trolly!

And i'm just going to post my shopping list here for easy reference

Interior:
Front Seatbelts and buckles

Exterior:
Passenger door lock

Drivetrain:
Front half shaft

And the mod list, getting ever longer! Half of the work done has been resto stuff!!

Suspension and braking:
GDA Red 4-pot front brakes (Have 2-pot rears, just waiting on hubs to fit them)
TRW XSS slotted rotors front (Have rears also, again waiting to fit)
BG GTB bilsteins all round, donated from beast.
BG GTB rear sway bar and 'solid' rear lateral arm conversion. Donated from beast.
Rear subframe locking bolts
Rear alloy sway bar links
GTB 19mm sway bars
Front turbo subframe to fit the 250T style exhaust, to allow a K-brace to be fitted
Cusco K-brace
STi Alloy Arms with balljoin style sway bar links.
Cusco rear strut brace

Engine:
Converted to EJ25D, HLA from a BG9A
Converted to Manual, 5spd N/A VZ-R BF5C
STi EJ20K Intake manifold and large bore throttle
250T BG9A Intake pipe
BF5B Turbo headers + 250T Up and down pipes.
BF5B GT Turbo engine loom
Possum link G1 ECU

Cosmetic
Full face lift GT black leather interior.
Ver. 4 STi front seats
GT momo steering wheel.
GT front bumper
GT shagpile floor mat set
GT fine thread carpet

Wheels:
Temporary (to clear 4-pots) Ver. 8 STi BBS 17x7.5 wheels in gold. Some random shitty neutron 215/45R17's
Usual summer: BG GTB optional 17x7 BBS mesh wheels with 225/45R17 Potenza RE003's
Usual winter: BP 2.0R stock 16x6.5 winter wheels, with Blizzak MZ-01 snow tyres.

As she sits now:







IMG_4625 by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr


IMG_3907 by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr


IMG_3894 by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr

[CFK]

Looks Awesome Dude, Coming along Very nice. Can't wait to see it " Complete " :iroc:

[Reuben]

This page has been left rather neglected... Well so has the car. The venerable daily known as Blighter saw no real modifications over the summer, just commuting duties and pipe dreams. The 2.2 is fully disassembled, and oiled, and wrapped in cling film - essentially mothballed. the EJ20D has also suffered, and about a month ago, it finally cooked its goose, the headgasket is finally 100% poked rendering the car uncommutable. Much thought has been put in to it however, and it is decided that I will fix the headgasket in the 20D, finally get off my arse and install a wideband and knock light, and tune the feck out of the 20D. This will tide me over, and allow the 2.2 RS-RA project to go forth proper, and not on the cheap. Going to wiseco it.

So yes, I am carpooling with our flatmate as Blighter sits and thinks about what he did to that poor headgasket, and hopefully before winter sets in, he'll be on the road with a new lease of life. Again...

[Reuben]

Still no good news with this thing sadly, hence my slow posting. Head gasket may be getting done this month though! My mate is going to help me do the head gaskets, but he's concerned with rust in the bores and the pitting that may cause. He has another EJ22 lying around we can scavange for parts if we need to. At this stage I'd be happy slapping the DOHC heads on one and rolling with it, anecdotal evidence on the net suggests there's no fouling between valves and pistons when this is done, so it'll be interesting to see what the go is... So hey, I might be getting a DOHC EJ22 afterall... Just a non turbo one...

I'm fine with this... I continue to allow this car to chose it's own destiny, I'm just along for the ride picking up the parts bill.

A question for you American folks... Down here in NZ, we are spoiled little brats when it comes to jap performance cars to pick from. so naturally the N/A's are left un-touched, while modified scene revolves around the turbo stuff... But I like the idea of fucking about with a non turb... How do you guys get extra ponies out of your EJ25's? I'm not talking about a nice intake and leave it at that, I'm talking stuff like what aftermarket camshaft options are there, and any resonable tuning maps out there for me to look at so that I can figure what kind of advance I can dial in, and what are good a/f ratios to be targeting for good power... You talk to anyone in NZ about tuning a non turbo EJ, and they look at you cockeyed, and tell you to buy an RS...

Help a brother out!

Only problem I think I might strike though is the compatibility of camshafts with the direct HLA motors... Direct HLA DOHC's were prolific in japan, spanning from 1992 to mid 1996, with 3 generations of WRX using the 20G, the Legacy TS and TS-R 20D's, the 250T's 25D, and the early twin turbo GT 20H's all using the head design also. But from my understanding you only had them for one year, in one model... the 1996 2.5GT... is this right? I need to find if the post 96 solid lifter cams can fit a direct HLA head... If so, sweet. If not I may be up shit creek, with only factory bits to choose from! And I think I might already have the best cams for my purposes if that's the case, given my 20D is a TS-R motor (7500rpm redline, these engins were turned for revving, with 0 low down torque which suits me if that's my only option)

Regardless, throw some brand names at me that make N/A cams for EJ's, I want to see what's out there, but have nowhere to start! Only place in NZ is Kelford cams, and when I said non-turbo EJ, they glossed over and dismissed me... Apprently you're not allowed to have fun with N/A's here in NZ!

[Go Mifune]

http://deltacam.com/index.php

Their website doesn't have a lot of information but they do have performance cams for our Subarus.

[Dead91silvia]

http://deltacam.com/index.php

Their website doesn't have a lot of information but they do have performance cams for our Subarus.

Reuben, these guys are actually about a 30 minute drive from me, if I remember right. Lot of people use them for getting custom cams done. If you need a bit of help with them, I can help ya out. For the most part, people dont do much to N/A motors unless adding a turbo, however a few people do.

I dont know a ton about all the heads and all, but there was one year (1996) were we had a different style head in the Outback and one other model that escapes me. We didnt really have GT's till 97. That being said, GT and Outback motors are pretty much the same. Like I said, I dont know a ton about them, just enough to know how to fix them.

The other upgrades people seem to do is throttle body swaps, injectors, header, coil pack and maybe some other bits. They cost so much to build over here, just going turbo is easier and cost about the same.

[Reuben]

Will check em out, thanks!

[Reuben]

Ah sweet, that one year outback head will be the one I need cams for, the Direct Hydraulic DOHC, as apposed to the solid lifters after that, and the roller rocker hydraulic lifters of the first gen DOHC's... I'm going to look at the spec sheets and see if the journals are the same dimensions. If so, then I can run any ol DOHC cams for things like the 2.5 RS etc. If not, maybe a grind would be the only way.

[CaleDeRoo]

Hmm. There's a bunch of things you can to to N/A EJ25s for incremental HP increases.

Light Weight Pulleys
Phenolic Manifold Spacer
Throttle Body Spacer
Grounding Kits
Better EL header
Cams as mentioned
Hybrid build

and if you don't mind you can go for a shorter axle ratio

[Reuben]

Well I got a Hi-Lo box kicking round, Instant short ratio box at the flick of a lever

Earthing kit is a valid point on an old first gen for sure, but I don't buy the phenolic and throttle spacers at all, engine bays are hot places, shits going to get hot no matter what.

As for equal length headers... The one place I'll sacrifice power in favour of sound track!


Did a bit of flicking through the service manuals, and camshaft journal size is the same between motor generations, but the cam profiles change a bunch. Dunno if that's due to the design of the lifters, but I'm guessing it is. The older cams have WAY more lift! Like 5mm more lift! I also know that if you use thin headgaskets on the early motors like what I have, the valves 100% contact the Pistons, to the point the engine won't turn... (Thankfully a mistake I have witnessed, but not performed!). I now wonder if that's due to the extra valve lift

Interestingly the later motors make a bit more power though, with the lesser lift, but thin gaskets (and higher compression).

[Reuben]

This poor little BC is still hibernating, but plans are afoot once more. Over the last 6 months I've sorta come to terms with the EJ25D... it's not a bad engine, it's just unlucky. I got two dead headgasket examples just sitting in my storage unit (BG9A hydraulic)(same generation as my current 20D), so I figure why not just have a crack at that. You guys might swoon for the EJ20's, but fact is they make less power, and that power is only delivered above 5000rpm (non turbo. Different story for turbo 20's, they rock). 25D's are actually more fun. I've been dailying my 20D converted 250t for almost a year now, and the 20D just is so gutless in the low revs, I just want the sensation of torque back!

So yeah, all the rebuild kit I bought for the 20D works on my 25, since the are the same generation, and I just bought some EJ25 gaskets, so all is go! Just learned how to do headgaskets myself too, so this is a DIY engine rebuild. Nice.

If you're wondering what happened to the 2.2 DOHC plans... that's still a future project, for now I just want my daily BC back! Nothing like BC swag!

[fwa2500]

Dat blighter goodness! Such a lovely wee car, will be good to se it back on the road for more than short little jaunts! Well...as long as it isn't a hill start in the dark with a vintage Aston Martin of all things suddenly appearing behind you...

[Reuben]

A wild Aston appears! It uses creep-up. It's super effective!

[Reuben]

So I’m terrible at updating this thread...

August 2017: having decided once and for all that I was going to take this thing on the racetrack in October, I had set about looking for an EJ25 to slap in. My attempts to get a facelift 175ps solid lifter EJ25D
failed, so I settled for a running prefacelit 160ps hydraulic EJ25D.

September 2017: Got the EJ25 out of the donor outback, a farm hack with 300,000km on it. Figured we ought to do the headgaskets on it as a matter of course, which proved a wise idea, because it had chewed out a set of MLS gaskets. So this engines third set went in, and away we went. Did a base tune and got on the road.

Early October 2017: track day looming, got the road tune a bit more polished, slapped some mags with RE002 potenzas on it, and we were ready for the track!

Late October 2017: track day a success, car didn’t skip a beat on the 500k road trip there, or on the track. I utterly cooked the 260mm front rotors though. Also got the ECU tune tweaked up by a tuner on the dyno, and managed to get 110hp at the wheels.

November/December 2017: tracked down some 277mm calipers, chucked new rotors and pads in front and rear, and wow what a difference, the old 260’s were stuffed!! Did the final tweaks on the tune to smooth out the power curve, she runs sweet now! Also found it uses a litre of oil/1000km (1 quart per 600mi!) oh well. Will just have to get on with building a new motor for it! Bring on a facelift 25D!

2018: daily driving, this thing rocks. EJ25 Lyfe yo, gimme dat torque!

[fwa2500]

That engine is so well suited for the BC chassis, very impressed with it given how it was previously!

[Reuben]

Yeah, the 2.5 reallly comes alive in such a light car, the sensation of torque gets a few surprises! Almost has me considering getting another old link ECU for the turd to liven up its lump with a bit more ignition advance.

[Reuben]

Small update.


IMG_2909 by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr

This thing has been great, frickin love the launches a tuned EJ25 can do, jumps off the line! Sure revving it out feels a bit pointless, but it drives so nicely, and is just fast enough that you’re not bothered. Everyone that takes it for a drive comes back chuffed about it, not disappointed like they do after taking the turd out (WOW context much - I of course mean the green Turd, my ‘200T’).

The other day I had a mechanic from another shop call me up and say
“hey, I got some 4-pots here, you want em?”
I say “sure, how much?”
“Hundred bucks”
“Deal”

So I got some old school Subie 4-pots then! They’re pretty rough, but Blighter is a first gen, very few don’t have rough edges, so that’s ok. It’s a story to be told, not a museum piece! Sadly they had been painted black, but you could see they were originally red ones, so, I won’t be cheating if I sand blast em and re-paint em red. So in the blaster they went, and much to my surprise, the blaster stripped the black paint off the red, and bam, I had red 4-Pots! Hah, excellent! Sure it’s a matte finish now, not gloss... I did try polish the paint back to gloss, but no joy, so it’s kinda funny looking matte red, but hey, original unrestored paint, hahahaha.


Untitled by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr


Untitled by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr


I forgot to get my old 294mm rotors out of storage that I took off the Beast when I did his slotted rotor upgrade, so I threw caution (money) to the wind and picked up some nice TRW slotted 294’s for blighter too. They’re extra heat treated and all that guff, I really enjoy those rotors, they don’t warp under heat like the standard TRW’s can, and the slotted thing is nice when you get a bit excited with the ol brakes and get into fade territory. No race brakes, but I’ve yet to get fade or warpage with em, so what more can you ask for!

Clamping force is signifigant, I'm glad I've got a large BH5 GT brake booster in this car, it’s meant pedal feel is good - not stellar, but good... they can quite readily lock up the shitty newton tyres I have without too much pedal travel and pressure. It would be nice to have a bit stiffer feel though, I really liked the solid reaction I got with the large booster, on the wee brake calipers... might have to see if I can fit up a turbo 1 1/16th master, instead of the 1” master I have currently, to get some firmness back.

Anyway, here it is:


Untitled by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr


Untitled by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr

Meanwhile ol Beast has been relegated to the older BBS's... It's classy, sure, but I think the gold BBS's are better on the Beast, and the old BBS's better on the Blighter!


Untitled by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr

[Reuben]

Updated last post. And today I did some snooping around my mates farm where there are some old busted BF GT's. Two had ABS, two did not. I was looking for a 1-1/16" non ABS master, but turns out, there isn't one! 1-1/16" was for ABS. 1" was for non ABS, and non turbo...

So gotta do a bit of research and see if a GC RA 4-pot non ABS car had a 1-1/16" non ABS master. If I have no luck, I might get my 1" bored out and a 1-1/16" seal kit put in, to give me the larger style, but for non ABS.

And bonus footage:

[webberjames95]

this thread is awesome.

[Reuben]

Thanks bro. Yeah, I love what this wee low spec we has become. It may be more common in the US to work on non turbos, due to the lack of any real performance models from this era, but here in NZ... Nobody would touch something like this, unless they had a crashed RS to transplant in... makes it all the more special to me, and a fun thumbing of my nose to the performance car elitists that are so pervasive here...

What’s next on the list for this car... I have a track day in November that I’m taking this car to, I’d like to get some bigger sway bars by then. Doubt I’ll be able to get anything else done... I would consider doing a turbo 2.5 if the opportunity arises in the mean time... (I mention this because the opportunity very nearly did come my way this week...)

I’d still like to explore a high power port and polished N/A though...

[Alucard]

Got a hybrid for you if you are interested. It is an evolution based off the EJ22D I ran in my silver BD LSi.

EJ20D heads (late/clover chamber style).
EJ251 block.
EJ257 head gasket (first version/0.5mm thick).

With bolt-ons, it should make for a lovely riot, especially in a lighter car like the BC chassis. I know my EJ22D BD pulled on two 2.0L WRX's here.

[Reuben]

My starter has been sticking for a few seconds before kicking into life, so I took it off last saturday morning and rebuilt it. Brushes still looked new, replaced the plunger, contacts, and bearings... Bench tested fine. Chucked it in the car, tested fine with 20 out of 20 starts. Mint... Next morning, same issue... So next up is use the trigger wire to trigger a relay, and give the starter a direct feed for the trigger from the battery, that should sort it out proper.

Then I polished it. Just a one step, better than a no step though!


IMG_3840 by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr


IMG_3850 by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr


IMG_3857 by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr


IMG_3869 by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr


IMG_3871 by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr


IMG_3894 by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr


IMG_3907 by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr



Then I promtly got it dirty again, underground carparks are not a BC's natural habitat... Can't keep a dirty ol BC clean for too long!!!


IMG_4026 by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr

[fwa2500]

From FlatNats '18 last weekend:

[2002jm]

Great thread, just went through it and now I want a first gen subie!
jm

[Reuben]

https://mobile.twitter.com/regularca...48606598356992

Aaaaw yeah.

[Reuben]

Blighter got on YouTube!







And some more pics.

My dad:

IMG_4025 by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr


IMG_4026 by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr


IMG_4622 by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr


IMG_4625 by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr


IMG_4633 by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr


IMG_4653 by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr


IMG_4656 by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr


IMG_4660 by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr

[thenines']

Great pictures

[Go Mifune]

Congratulations on making it to Regular Cars. Kind of a big deal here in the States.

[Reuben]

So I've got the mod bug going HARD right now, swigning back into it...


First up, earlier this week I finally fitted up my V3/4 STi seats. I had already done the seatbelt conversion for the driver as I had a BG bucket seat in there since last year, but I had to convert the passenger side still. The conversion is as simple as fitting the seatbelt out of a BG, and put the matching BG buckles onto the WRX seats. I had aftermarket belts installed so the belt buckles weren't clicking into the BG buckles on the seat. Thankfully the BG seat buckle is close enough to the impreza belt buckle (they are different from each other), that the BG ones bolted to the impreza seats just fine.


IMG_4998 by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr


BG seat buckle attached, old impreza buckle next to it for reference. Reason for swapping is the actual shape of the belt buckle that goes into is different between legacy and impreza belts, and I had a set of BG belts from a car I was wrecking.


IMG_5000 by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr

BG web-clamp style belt ready to go into the passenger side


IMG_5001 by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr


All done and installed!


IMG_5002 by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr


IMG_5004 by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr


IMG_5005 by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr

[Reuben]

Then I got onto the next job today... Front lip time. I posted up on the DOBC facebook page looking for inspiration for lips to fit onto S1 BC's.... There are actually a lot of different ones out there! More than I had even known before, these old girls were not spared the JDM body kit trends in the 90's for sure!!! But yeah, good luck finding any. I found inspiration from a BC bro in Australia, whom had fitted a V6 STi lip to his, with plenty of modification of course, but it looked sick. So I went to the yard and pulled a lip off a pre facelift BG, and a facelift BG. The facelift lip is just part of the bumper moulding, so the only way it was coming off was with the angle grinder, and that will make mounting it up a bit more challenging, but I'm keen, challenge accepted. Got it home and tidied up the mating surface, trimmed the excess, re-shaped the god damn thing, putting in a sharper curve nearer the vents, and straightening out the centre section. Had to chop it in half, shaved a good inch out of the middle, and well, yeah, she's looking pretty sick if I do say so myself! Re-forming it with a heatgun proved exceptionally easy too.


IMG_5006 by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr


IMG_5007 by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr


IMG_5008 by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr


IMG_5009 by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr


IMG_5010 by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr


Comes up a bit short on the sides, bugger. I shall ignore this for now


IMG_5011 by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr


IMG_5012 by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr


IMG_5013 by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr


IMG_5014 by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr


IMG_5016 by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr


IMG_5018 by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr


IMG_5023 by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr


Result!!!


IMG_5025 by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr


IMG_5026 by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr