crazyhorse001

So I just realized I haven't done a build thread on my "Little Bit" FWD 87.5 XT GL. I've had her a little over a year now, and have done quite a bit of work on her. I got her cheap and didnt realize that the front end was twisted from a ditch incident by the previous owner. She drove straight and true with no odd tire wear. A few months later the hood latch gave up. This wiped out the hood and windshield. It also spurred me to go ahead and pull out the previous damage. Before After Now she's back on the road to a full recovery. I have a cool paint color picked, and all the stuff to do a 4x114.3 hub redrill, so i can have some nice 15" wheels and low profile tires to make it handle as good as it will look

The key code should be on the drivers door lock cylinder.

An ej "frankenmotor" swap is a hot setup. Stays under the hood, and with no turbo, under the radar

I haven't pulled the panels yet, but yeah some banging on the core support will be necessary. Hope i can find some white panels for it, but they keep coming up green lol Not new to pulling out bent sheetmetal... fixed this I did

Running on a bad hg=bad juju. If it severely overheated it could have siezed, and broken a cam

Its a long shot, but try putting some dielectric grease on the plug wires, and coil connectors. Sounds like moisture is getting into the electrics somehow. Just for giggles, you could put the grease in the cam/crank sensor plugs too

So we picked this up the other day. An '00 obw limited. Its got some miles, but runs and drives beautiful. It does have an appearance issue tho. A tangle with an suv left some ugly on it We got it cheap enough to afford to fix it

The thought occurred to me to do cams, but budget right now says no way!

I have the timing advanced to the point of requiring premium now. It does not like regular at all now. Im hoping with a fuel pressure bump i can add a little more timing. I could redo the headpipes, but i really dont want the expense of new cats. I'm on a budget, but i have some spare cash to invest. I'd like to keep my mods simple, and reliable.

So i'm thinking about doing some minor mods to my xt, just wondering if i'm on the right track. Ill be doing an exhaust, catback. A glasspack in the midpipe, and a good muffler at the back with 2" pipe. An adjustable fuel pressure regulator with a walbro 255 pump so i can add fuel. Then bump the timing up to take advantage of the extra fuel. A true cold air intake mostly to smooth airflow and get rid of the accordion pipe. I'm not expecting huge gains, maybe 3-5hp. Anyone taken a similar path? Will the ecu freak out?

+1 on what Dave t said. It should run with the cluster unhooked completely. If you're referring to an XT, I'm sure it will. If it starts then dies, I'd be looking at fuel delivery first. These are relatively simple engines, even with the fuel injection.

Once these maps are available, would they be compatible with the n/a "spider intake" xt ecu? I kinda doubt it, as that engine has an optical distributor. Not the reluctor setup the loyale used

Not included in this: swapping inner cv's, or trans to the fwd turbo trans i have. I'd either have to do this or source some early fwd impreza axles to have the proper spline counts on both ends. I really have done my homework on both possibilities. This is my daily driver, and honestly will probably never be upgraded for high horsepower. The 4 wheel disks should be more than enough upgrade to handle my needs. (Its currently disk/drum) It has a rear sway bar, bigger than the one on the turbo. Thanks for the input, I think for my needs the redrill (by competent machinists) is the best soution for a stock(ish) ea82 fwd car. Being >100hp I think it'll be just fine Anyone wanna buy some fwd 5lug parts?

Something is burning out the rectifiers. Double check the alt wiring. If it looks crispy its probably pulling high resistance. This will put a huge load on the alt and battery.

A battery can show 12v and still be bad. What does it show when you turn the key on. If it still shows 12v you need to start following the wire checking for voltage. Wherever it stops, that, or the last part will be your problem area. Either the component, or the wiring between them. Electrical troubleshooting is a process of elimination. When you rule out enough possibilities, you end up with the culprit.

I have xt6 front knuckles, 2 pair actually. E-brake is a non issue Honestly I'm more concerned about the amount of labor and downtime. i can have the hubs redrilled, and swapped out in a weekend. But then i hafta buy wheels...kinda have my eye on a set anyway.

Wrx are nice cars. In your prics range you can expect some issues. Being in MI, rust will likely be the hardest to avoid. Also in your range are the xt models of legacy, and forrester. Both can be had with 5speeds. These are much nicer cars, and less likely to have been beaten on. A lot of wrx aren't played with very nicely. A legacy or foz xt will run with a stock wrx, but not an sti. All the while keeping you bathed in luxury. Edit: Its worth mentioning that the same mods can be appiled to the xt models, as the wrx, so there's the "sleeper" factor

I have access to a full tool and die shop at work, so the machine work isnt a huge issue. I can toss a free lunch at our machinist to get everything kopasetic. Keep the advice coming its really appreciated

Bearing in mind I'm staying on road, talk to me about my options for getting off the 13" rims. I have all the stuff to go either way, 5lug, or redrill for a smaller 4lug pattern (prob 4x114.3) My XT is fwd, and i have a fwd XT6 for parts to 5lug. I also have a set of fwd rear disks. I know labor wise, redrilling is easier. I also know that for future performance upgrades the 5lug gives more options. Help me make up my mind so i can settle on a course of action

Heres my thoughts for the exhaust on my xt gl. 1ft of pipe into an old school glasspack muffler. Then plumb back to a magnaflow in the stock location. Out of that will be a 2" chrome tip. This should net a deep, quiet sound that implies much more power than i actually have lol

So a squirt of starter fluid, and the motor fired off. Then to my amazement stayed running on the craptastic stuff in the tank! It ran well enough to unload itself off the trailer with 4 flat tires! It idles well, and came up to temp with no signs of coolant leaking, or headgasket issues.

Motor spins, and makes oil pressure. Havent tried any fuel yet. Unfortunately the body is pretty swiss cheese from the broken back glass. Also the sunroof tray is rotted from some idiot stuffing plastic bags around the seal.

Pics for the curious Back window is busted out. Not sure just how bad the sheetmetal is under the interior yet

No real clue on when it last ran. Could be 10mo could be 10yrs. Car shows 114k miles on the odo. The motor is free, so its anyone's guess lol.

Check the diagnostic connectors under the back window at the ecu. It may be in test mode still