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2001 Impreza L | WRX swapped | Rust repairs and weight reduction!

189K views 1K replies 66 participants last post by  bue car 
#1 · (Edited)
This is mostly the progress of my srp 2001 L coupe, but also some 98L and 2018 brz stuff.



Backstory:


I got the car in August 2011 with 100,500 miles. It was my first car, and it had lots of problems at the start. Almost sold it a few times, but once I read about all the swap stuff, I decided I had to keep it.

I messed with weight reduction, and fixing/upgrading the suspension while I gathered funds for the swap...lots of maintenance too...although the ej22 ran strong the whole time. It really was bulletproof. I had to have the transmission rebuilt, but was finally was able to start the swap summer 2014 and I got an ej205 in and running.

Fall of 2015 it was totaled (not my fault) and I spent a year slowly fixing the car myself with no collision experience. After tons of spot welds, test fits, wiring, and double checking......I got the car inspected and legal to drive again in November 2016, with a reconstructed title.

2017 and on will be dedicated to rust repairs,weight reduction, and self tuning.




Here are some up to date pictures, regardless of the different seasons:

















The goods:


ENGINE:


-USDM 02/03 ej205 (6/28/14)

-TGV deletes

-Grimmspeed catless uppipe, ceramic coated

-Cobb catted downpipe, ceramic coated

-02-05 wrx, Invidia q300 catback

-STi oil pan

-KillerB oil pick-up tube

-Avo turbo inlet

-lighter crank pulley, and no p/s or a/c pulleys

-Protune by Jermaine @TurboXS

-v3 accessport

-iWire merged harness



TRANSMISSION:


-'01 5mt (3.9) and cable clutch;
AndrewTech rebuild

-custom reinforced clutch fork

-'01 (oem) TOB, and pivot ball

-'06+ wrx clutch

-'06+ wrx pressure plate

-'06+ wrx flywheel

-TiC shifter linkage update and pivot bushings



SUSPENSION / HANDLING


-KYB excel-g struts (2/2/14)

-Eibach pro-kit springs 2/2/14)

-Group N front top hats (2/2/14)

-3/8 saggy butt spacers (2/2/14)

-18mm Outback rear sway bar

-20mm WRX wagon front sway bar (6/28/14)

-JDM GC8 crossmember (6/28/14)

-Whiteline steering rack bushings (6/28/14)

-Whiteline rear endlink bushings

-group N front-of-trailing arm bushings

-power steering delete



WEIGHT REDUCTION&DISTRIBUTION:


-Currently about 2690~ lbs.
-***Was at 2590, but the turbo engine swap and a full-size spare added well over 100 lbs back.

-Aluminum jdm gc8 hood

-USDM front bumper beam cut in half

-deleted a/c

-deleted power steering

-washer fluid tank relocated to trunk

-battery relocated to back seat

-removed hunk of metal from glovebox and under dash

-removed most sound deadening

-stripped trunk besides spare

-lighter wheels

-removed keyless entry system

-random little things. More soon.



----------



Here's the progress from the beginning mostly in order. I'm going to add in some dates/mileage later on. Bear with the potato pictures for the first few pages. I eventually got a digital camera, and now a DSLR, so the pictures get progressively better in quality.







Warning, picture heavy:







-Bought late August of 2011, bone stock.















--some actual wheels to replace the steelies and decent tires too.







16x7 with 205/50-16 Conti DW















--This is the oldest pic I have of my car, and the only pic from the beach driving I have left.























--Rally armors, which get used on a daily basis on PA's crazy roads :unamused:























--Homemade light bar that mounts 2 hella 500's























How it looked last winter:























--Polyurethane rear end link bushings







This is when I learned how hard pressing bushings is.....















--New outer tie rods, ball joints, and front wheel bearings.







This is when I learned to hate wheel bearings and ball joints......















This is a ball joint removal tool......mine were really stuck.















j
 
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#482 ·
Yea, if they didn't have to be cut, they'd be a great option for some DIY links. I'm gonna keep looking around, because I'm convinced there's some other factory links out there that are closer to the length we need. Or a way to make these work without cutting....

....and they're straight....at least as straight as they were out of the box. I made a little jig to hold everything square while I tacked them back together.

I was standing right there for the alignment and he had no issues getting it in spec. They're really easy to adjust too.....once the jam nuts are broken free you can spin the threaded coupling by hand if you want.
 
#484 · (Edited)
Just wanted to pop in and say thank you for post #446, helped me diagnose an annoying squeal that had been getting progressively worse. And yeah, it was ME who put the damn things in backwards. You can see the rubber has worn away and there is bright shiny metal sitting right up against the rotating axle. Fun times.

Fortunately I rebuilt the whole rear suspension recently with mostly brand new hardware and everything nicely greased so it all came apart pretty easily.

 
#486 ·
Im just glad some of the nonsense I post in here could help someone out. Really though, I should be thanking the first dude that posted about the issue, because without that who knows how long it would've taken me to figure mine out.

And yea +1,000 for antiseize. When I put my rear end back together, I buttered everything up real good. Should be no issues later removing stuff if needed.

...except the lateral link bolts. They will always suck.
 
#487 ·
So....lightweight batteries. Anyone have a particular brand or model they like or use? Something that'll last and not die after a year would be nice. Are the lithium ones worth the price point yet?

And preferably 10 lbs or less.

It'll be mounted in the same battery box I already have behind the passenger seat.
 
#488 ·
Installed a lithium battery and removed some other dead weight from the interior this weekend....as well as just enjoying the car and going for some nice long drives. Still making up for lost driving time from last year's repairs.

Real quick before the battery stuff....Today, I was about to leave for a drive, and randomly noticed the clutch return spring was broken. Who knows for how long. Don't know how I always seem to stumble into finding these weird issues, but its good I do.

So I stole the return spring from my 98 L sedan. :lol: I love having cars to swap parts between if needed.



Tossed the spring on and did a quick fork adjustment, and we're right back to driving. Gotta love an easy fix.

 
#491 ·
As soon as fall comes around and it's not disgustingly humid here, I'll have to dive into the rust repairs. But for now, just some small easy projects, and driving (hopefully).

i keep breaking that spring too. i usually i notice when the clutch starts feeling weird. luckily, they keep snapping within the 1yr warranty period via sibaru.
This was the first time it's happened to me. The pedal started feeling a bit odd. When I reached under the tmic to check the cable/fork, I noticed the cable was really loose but the jam nuts were still tight.....so I figured the cable finally snapped.

Was definitely relieved when I saw it was the spring and not the cable. Just need to order a few spares to keep around.
 
#493 ·
Yea, I have no doubts there's some random spring readily available in a hardware store that's almost identical and works perfect. I found one that "works", and a bunch that are an identical design just too long...so I know there's something out there. Not that the oem spring is expensive or hard to find. I just like other options.
 
#494 · (Edited)
2001 Impreza L | WRX swapped daily | Damage repairs and weight reduction!

Went with a Shorai lithium battery. Been reading good things about them for years, so I figured I'd give one a try. I think I could've gotten away with a smaller and therefore cheaper one, but went with a larger frame size for more cca's and better peace of mind.

-Old battery- 29 lbs
CCA- 575
-Shorai battery- 3.8 lbs
CCA- 405

It has a fancy charger that's supposed to balance the cells and give diagnostics, so we'll see how long I can make it last. Being inside the car away from the hot engine bay temps should help too. Bonus points since I can monitor the battery voltage with the accessport and not have to drag out my multimeter to check it.






A lot more room in my battery box now. Need to re-do the wiring....the electrician in me doesn't approve.

....and no, the orange thing isn't a shoelace. It's a ratcheting bungee cord type thing. Kinda cool.






Total weight reduction last weekend was about 55-60 lbs. 25 lbs for the battery, and another 30+ from interior stuff. Car weight should be well into the 2600's again.

I'd estimate 2650.

Still have some more interior items I want to remove, then a few things to make the it all presentable looking again.




Also resprayed the RS wing.

Used my last can of 94H and some clear to give it a quick respray. With the car sitting last year the clearcoat started to peel....then over the last few months it pretty much all fell off. :lol: (see below)

It's not perfect, but much better than it was....and finally no more 2.5rs sticker.





 
#496 ·
Starts great (and quick), just like the old battery. Can't really notice a difference.

There's quite a few frs/86, and corvette people I saw using the same brand, just one size larger than I have.....500 cca's vs 400 cca's. So I figured since the turbo Subaru engines are lower compression, I would be OK with less cca's. One frs guy used one with 315 cca's for years without issue.

Actually just came across 1 review from a Subaru owner, and they had the same exact one I bought. Said ej25 but didn't specify n/a or turbo.
 
#499 · (Edited)
2001 Impreza L | WRX swapped daily | Damage repairs and weight reduction!

I saw lots of people on nasioc using that Odyssey pc625 (and similiar) battery. I almost went with one for the price and weight alone. The low rated cca (220 I think?) worried me though.

The Shorai ones don't require a special charger, but they say it's supposed to help maintain it and balance the cells or whatever. I kinda regret spending the extra money on it, but if it does what they say, the battery should last a long time. So we'll see.

The other lithium brand, Earth X, has very good reviews as well and they DONT need a special charger, ever. It's all built in with fancy over/under voltage protection and stuff.....but they cost more.

So.....six one way, half dozen the other.


As far as prices....they are a bit high compared to lead acid and agm. The smallest Shorai ones I think would work are between $180-$215 with no charger.
LFX21= $180-$190 @ 315 cca's
LFX24= $205-$215 @ 360 cca's
....so at least $80-$100 more than the PC625.

I have the LFX27 @ 405 cca's that I found for $220. I spent more than I originally planned, but considering the price of an aluminum/carbon hood, it's really not that expensive for weight loss stuff. The FRS and Corvette owners were using the LFX36 @ 540 cca's.....but it's damn near $300 for just the battery, and IMO, overkill.

According to Shorai's website, to compare their batteries compare to standard lead acid, you multiply the CCA by 1.5......so a 315 cca Shorai, would equal a 470 cca lead acid. Not sure how much truth and testing there is to that though....





From what I've been reading, cca's for standard lead acid, agm, and lithium aren't all equal. So maybe they need less....who knows.

The lack of actual information on these newer batteries is annoying.
 
#498 ·
I might want to make the switch to this battery. I've been using the Odyssey PC625 for a while on 3 different cars (2 Subaru). I think I've bought 7 of them over the years.

At 13.2 pounds, its about half the weight of a std battery, but man are they temperamental. They hate to be discharged and also prefer (read: require) special chargers. But they were only $75 when I started using them, so not a bad entry to ownership. The price has since creeped over $110, so if I can get better performance AND less weight for a few bucks more, I might do it.

The footprint of the PC625 is really similar (and a tad larger) than Shorei case #3, so it will fit right into the tray I made.

I will definitely stay tuned for progress reports.
 
#500 ·
The cca hasnt been a problem, even on a V8 with decent compression. Then again, I live in Los Angeles where weather extremes are anything outside of 65-89. I did notice that Shorai says their cca equivalent is much higher than other batteries, energy discharge rated differently due to chemistry or whatever.

One thing that does concern me is the A/Hr. I saw in a thread on some other forum that Shorai greatly over states this spec. Something like the lead acid equivalent is 1/3 of their stated number. Dont know if this is true, but parasitic drain could flatten a battery quick @ 8, 9 or 12 A/Hr rating.

I did see the LFX36 on Amazon for $255. Cheaper, but not cheap.
 
#502 · (Edited)
2001 Impreza L | WRX swapped daily | Damage repairs and weight reduction!

Pretty sure I read that same exact thread where people talked about the a/hr ratings being exaggerated. That worried me as well, but my car is pretty good about parasitic draw. Just checked and it's 3.3 mA....so well within the normal range I think?

I've also gotten used to just not using electronics when the car is off....no radio, lights, charging a phone, etc.

....and yea, I keep reading about the "different chemistry" and stuff. Shorai claims less internal resistance and more "useable" capacity than lead acid.....then there's people saying that's not true....and others just saying "who cares" because they haven't had any issues. For me, it just goes back to lack of real world info and testing. Lots of "he said, she said", that no one can confirm.

That's why I just wanted to try one and figure it out myself.
 
#503 · (Edited)
Here's a quick video showing how that little battery starts the car. This was 5-6 days with no start. Not the best way to tell since it fires up so fast, but that's how it was with the old battery.

I'm impressed so far. Even lots of short trips with little or no time in between starts to charge the battery, it still does great. Also, the voltage displayed on the Accessport is about .30-.50 volts lower than a real multimeter shows.

Edit: idk why the video won't embed. I don't post videos much and can't get the links to work right

2001 Subaru Impreza start up with lithium battery - YouTube


Crossed over 185,000 Saturday.




Also on Saturday I made a seat bracket to hold a fire extinguisher. I know it's unnecessary for a street car....but with my bad car luck, questionable battery, lots of splices, and hot turbo stuff...it makes me feel a little better. I'll take it inside when the car sits on super hot days and stuff.

Used velcro tie straps for now. Don't worry, it's not going anywhere and still very easy to release. The thing only weighs 3.5 lbs. The metal straps were slightly too short.....so close that it was annoying.








Also diy'd an equally cheap and lazy radiator shroud. Sharpie and tin snips. This was like 2 weeks ago. I want to re-do it with thicker gauge aluminum. Metal selection sucks around here.



 
#508 · (Edited)
I'm decently happy with how the shroud turned out. Just need to re-do it with thicker aluminum, but it'll do it's job for now.

I like how yours extends over the grille.

Yea my original template didn't cover the grill opening, but i changed it last minute and I'm glad I did. Not that it makes a huge difference but might as well cover any gaps I can.


also, your engine bay would look killer with a black intercooler and intake mani.

I do have a spare wrx mani sitting around I want to clean up and paint. Black is a possibility......or a gold/bronze, or just polished bare aluminum. Red would go well with the car, but it's sooo overdone because Sti.

Intercooler will be changed somewhat soon but probably just to a used Sti one. So it would probably stay bare aluminum. Painting would be pointless because I use the TMIC as a toolbox/work table when working in the bay, so it would get all scratched up. :lol:


Engine bay looks killer!

Thanks!
 
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