Subarutex
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Posts posted by Subarutex
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I got this email from Ken at All Wheel Drive Auto earlier this week:
Hey there Tex,How's it going? I took a quick to Cashmere this last Saturday...I like to go on drives...took a couple photos of the Gate area without snow and then went across Hwy 2 and up to the FS roads and went as far as I could go comfortably by myself.I have made it all the way down to Peshastin when it was dry but it was pretty slick and deep in spots this time.
take it easy.
Sorry not a real great photog.
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Looks good, but IMO it needs to be lower in the rear (is that where you were having the coil issues?). Other than that, the fitment looks pretty good.
Any plans for other wheels?
The first picture of it was right after the swap. I have since dropped the rear coils down. Its at least sitting even. I'll try and grab an updated pic of the stance today.
Sweet car! Hey' date=' I have an ej20G ( '93 ) at home eventually bound for my '89 RX. Been shopping AU and Japan for ecu and harness. How did the Haltech and wiring work out for you? and costs?[/quote']I bought the car with the Haltech installed. DR. RX originally put it in. That being said, I bought the car non-running because nobody spent the time to get into it with the Haltech. With some fiddling I got it drivable, then I had a local tuner do a road tune on it.
I feel the technology that is in my Haltech E6K is good, but outdated. If you look at something like a ViPec that Suberdave is running, its bounds and leaps above mine.
For a standalone, I'd budget atleast $1k for initial purchase unless you find deals. Then, plan on spending $500+ for some tuning.
If I was to do this, I would find a way to run the motor with the USDM WRX harness, and use the stock WRX ECU with open source tuning on it.
'Tex,How do u like the Ksports?
Kaz
The Ksports are decent. I'm not the kind of person to spend real money on real deal coilovers (like KW's or Ohlins). I found these coilovers for $180 shipped. Spent another $150 to replace the 2 blown shocks. $330 coilovers are hard to argue with.
When installed, I set them to full stiff. Not sure why I did, but it seemed a good idea at the time. Driving the car made me physically hurt. I have since turned the dampening on the fronts down to half. Its a lot more comfortable. I still need to adjust the rears, but unfortunately you have to remove them out of the car to adjust them.
If you are looking for budget coilovers, i'd look at these brands: Ksport, Megan Racing. If you want to step it up a bit, looks for Stances. I've heard great things.
Whatever you do, get some with adjustable dampening!
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Ok... I've only used coilovers up front, not any stock spring setups. I could see how big springs would not fit, its pretty tight.
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Unfortunately the EA81's and EA82's are pretty different.
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I also used WRX brakes and FK coil over struts with EA81 top hats (you can't use the EJ strut stuff 'cause the strut tower is too narrow).
What part was narrow? What year stuff did you try?
On my brat I have mounted GC camber plates (05+ LGT ones were too large)... which leads me to believe that regular mounts would work... Maybe depends on year?
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Basically you are looking at this for an EA81
Front:
Ream Front arms to fit larger EJ ball joint.
EJ knuckles/brakes
EJ Struts (with either EA81 strut tops, or redrill car to fit EJ strut tops).
Axles do not exist that I know of. I'd take an EJ, and EA81. Hack them apart, sleeve the shaft, weld it.
Rear:
Should just need xt6 hubs/brakes.
Feel free to call.
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So this must mean you've decided to keep the car?
I'd sell it if I got what I wanted for it. Its a fun car, and I love to drive it. But part of me wants to build something else.
The problem is, I do like it enough that my price is firm.
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Yeah... Carbon stuff was like $200 for a 4' x 8' piece.
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Bump this thread up. The good ole days!
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EJ20G, EJ 4.11 Tranny, EJ 4.11 LSD, Haltech Standalone EM.
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The other project... Was the hood. My glorious plan was to wrap the hood to use it as a demo piece to show off my vinyl wraps. Don't let me forget that I was trying to do this by a deadline of Sunday.
My starting line...
DR. RX's body work was cracking after its age, and I wanted to smooth it out before I wrapped it.
Monday Night. I sanded the cracks down, and stuff started to hit the fan.
Tuesday Night. I'm not sure why I took it that far, I shouldn't have, but it happened...
Pieces off, old bondo removed. At this point, i'm confident and excited.
Later Tuesday Night.
Sheet metal is hard to weld, especially for novices like me!
Wed. Night. Took the hood down to my buddy's shop. He happened to have the welder out working on a friends car, and fit me in.
Thursday Night. Grinding.
Late Thursday Night. First coat of the mystical stuff called BONDO.
Friday Morning. Up early before work to sand, and apply more BONDO.
Friday Night. Right after work, get about an hour of work in. More Bondo.
Some Primer so I can see what I'm doing.
Friday Night finished with dinner, then installing graphics on high end NSX till 2am.
Saturday is a blur. Bondo, sand, Bondo, sand... Sunday morning fast approaching.
Finally decide I need to move one to paint.
Attached hood, decided to go wash car.
I pray to the gods that the vinyl hides my noobness.
$150 worth of 3M Dinoc Dry Carbon Wrap Vinyl, slightly nervous. Tired from the previous week. Hopped up on caffeine.
Wrapping away
Trimming
Done with scoop in the garage
Sunday, day of the car meet that was my deadline.
Ultimately, had good response to the vinyl. I was able to laugh off most of the bad body work comments. Arguably its about as good as it was before. Toss up between cracking bondo, and badly applied bondo.
I'm going to pay for body work from now on.
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I bought this super pricey wrap vinyl for another project, but decided to test a piece out...
No more color matching issue!
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Then next project was on the interior. Since i've owned the car, there has been NOTHING around the shifter. In that time, i have replaced the shift linkage (old stuff broke!), installed a weighted Prodrive shift knob, and a Kartboy short shifter. Obviously, the car is running 100% EJ linkages/shifter.
Before my project:
After a trip to my local Pull-A-Part and NASIOC, I had these:
EA console from an automatic, EJ console w/ leather shift boot from an 06 WRX.
Let the cutting begin!
Almost time for epoxy... wait for it!
Plastic Weld epoxy at its finest
Sanded! (note the ridge)
Filler epoxy goop
Sanded again...
Filler primed and sanded
Last primer coat
Painted!
Back in car... not as close of a color match as I hoped for
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Its been quite awhile since I've posted about the RX here... or anywhere for that matter.
For quite sometime it was in my sore spot. I went through a lengthy battle to get it to pass emissions, and I just got fed up with it.
However, for whatever reason, the last couple of months I've been thinking more about the car, and spent some time working with it. Here are some pictures and descriptions of my progress.
Nearly a year ago, I picked up a set of Ksport Coilovers of the LGT forums. They are for a 05+ Legacy GT. I found 2 of the struts to be blown, but in that time, I've happened upon a good deal for some replacement ones.
Dan (danbob99) and I spent two evenings installing the coilovers on RX. Unfortunately, this was pre-new camera, so I don't have any pictures of the installation process. If there is sufficient interest I can grab some pics of the changes... Most notably, I redrilled the front camber plates for the slightly smaller EA mounting holes. Its also necessary to swap over the rear shock upper mount off the old EA shocks. Pretty easy stuff, and pretty in your face of what needs to be done.
Also, to note, front coilovers work best with EJ knuckles, but can be fitted to XT6 ones... In other words, you need to be 5 lug converted!
This is what it looked like after the swap:
In this pic, the front in my opinion is sitting perfect... however the back needs to be lower! I had already bottomed out the height adjustment... so I decided to do what the cool kids do, and unload the spring.
As you can see, I physically have no more adjustment room left. Bottom mount is all the way up, spring perch all the way down. I was wary of the spring making noise if it happened to pop in/out of the upper perch, so I did this:
While I don't think thats the perfect solution, for the time being, it got the car to the ride height I wanted it at.
More to come....
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Smart Service is highly regarded in the area, as well as Pacific Import Auto.
Smart Service has 2 locations, one in Shoreline, and one in Mukilteo.
PIA is located in Tacoma/Parkland.
On the east side in Kirkland, All Wheel Drive Auto are the ones to go to.
There are lots of other shops, but these are the 3 I trust the most.
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Welcome back!
Nice Rex. -
Have you tried just hitting it with a hammer/chisel?
I got MOST of my sound deadening out without needing to use dry ice.
Might be worth a shot before you go driving.
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Drivers side cam has the cam sensor.
On the back side of the cam pulley, it is supposed to have marks (bumps) around it.
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I would bet inside the tape deck is a simple switch, a manual one that probally completes a circuit when closed.
Figure out which 2 wires lead to that, and connect them. One wire is probably ground, and the other is the "on" signal. The third unused wire will be the power wire for the deck. I would guess that the simple switch just puts the "on" signal to ground.
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Yeah, I would try to just hook it up. Should work!
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Some trial and error, you should be able to figure out what 2 locations on the plug are the signal wires.
Once you know that, you just splice in there!
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Did you rebuild the motor? At any point did you have the cam pulleys off?
The cam pulleys are unique to each side. The drivers side cam has the marks for the cam angle sensor. If that sensor isn't reading the marks, it won't light.
It took me 3 months of trial and error, and repeated rewiring to figure this out when I did my swap.
Good luck!
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I miss my SSR's.
Had I known you were looking for a daily, I would have made you a deal on my RX
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Same.
I'm running a EJ22 behind a 2 row EA radiator. Never a problem.
My other car has a 2 row EA radiator and a EJ20G that I regularly beat the piss out of it. Only in the heat of battle or super heavy traffic do the fans cycle.
Both motors have OEM thermostats, Paruit (sp?) water pumps, and good hose routing.
Ultimate RX - Update (hella pics, hella flush)
in Old Gen.: 80's GL/DL/XT/Loyales...
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Even KYB AGX's and ground control springs add up quick.
The trick is to find them used, and in decent shape.
I found perfect megan's for my brat for about $500 used. Where as more quality name brand coilovers will still be over $1k used.