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Ari's WRB GC8 Turbo Build - Lots of Pics!

239K views 1K replies 78 participants last post by  Ariii 
#1 · (Edited)
Hello there, since I am pretty bored I decided to do a Members Journal.

My name is Ari and I live in Iceland. In 2011 I found this car wrecked outside a garage in a town close to where I live. It had no engine, no gearbox, no exhaust, and every single window, light and body panel was smashed. Right away I wanted to buy it and use the hood, bumper, seats and such to make my Outback nicer.

A few months after I found it I bought it and got it home. When it was home I changed my mind and decided I wanted to rebuild it, thought it was going to be easy, cheap and quick, well in short... I was wrong hah. I finished it two years later, took such a long time because I didn´t want to spend too much money on a turbo engine and tranny so I got a cheap parts car with a 2l N/A and swapped everything over to the GT as we call it here. Then when it was time for bodywork my friend talked me into buying a turbo swap. So I started again... Swapped everything back out again, don´t regret that at all now lol.

I´m not going into much more detail about the process since I already did a build thread on another forum. But I will show you some pictures though :)


When I found it and got it home. Both front wheels, 4pot brake calipers and something more was missing from the car. Might have been stolen since it was there for 2 years or something...



Home sweet home















I´ll skip over to the turbo stuff... Bought an 2l turbo engine, orginally from a Impreza GT and just like the engine orginally in the car. With the engine I got: 5speed GT Turbo gearbox, 3" exhaust, XS Power headers, 4pot brakes, wire harness, ver6 MOMO Steering wheel, ver6 seats (front and rear), orginal RS/GT 5spokes and some more stuff I´m most likely forgetting.









Did some basic maintaince on the engine, timing belt, waterpump, valve cover gaskets, spark plugs, fuel filter changed all oils out for Motul and more.

















Then it was time to swap the harness once again...





Sandblasted and got the wheels painted







Then it was time to take it to a shop where I work were my co-workers helped me with the body work.







All ready for primer and paint









Then the assembly







Painted the lower half of the interior black. And yes, I also painted some parts blue, and I personally like it











Custom made licenceplatelightholderplate (is that even a word?!? :lol:)



Custom gauge pod





Gettin it all together



And on the streets for the first time after rebuild! Oh the joy!





And first time back home after rebuild



New lights arrived





Custom licence plate holder I got made for me





On a local carshow last summer



And here is a roof spoiler I bought way back, it is a bit shorter than the window it self so I wasn´t sure if it would look good enough...







This fall I had a minor accident...



But thats fine, I just got a new fender and it gave me a chance to paint some new stuff, new parts, new look











8000k Xenon installation





Blitz BOV istallation with a custom made mounting plate











New gear knob





Got LED´s for the park lights to match the Xenon







Sparco pedals









And the last thing for now, I started making a trunk lip. Made a thread for that here




Mods

Engine/Drivetrain
XS Power headers
Complete 3" exhaust from turbo
Vibrant Muffler
New radiator
K&N Air filter

Suspension/Wheels
Team Dynamics Pro Race 1.2 17x7"
GT 4pots in front
GT 1pot rear
ABS disconnected
PB Coilovers

Exterior
World Rally Blue
Antenna Delete
Full trunk debadge
Black DEPO´s
Black DEPO turn signals in bumper
Black DEPO turn signals in fender
Fog covers
GT/RS spoiler
WRX Roof spoiler
Spare trunk, Debadged
Ver6 Grille
Blue Logo in Grille
8000k Xenon

Interior
Ver6 Seats
Short Shifter
Sparco pedal covers
Auto Gauge Boost Gauge
Auto Gauge Oil Pressure Gauge
Auto Gauge A/F Gauge
Custom painted interior parts
LED´s in interior lights

Radio
JVC Headunit
Pioneer 400w Speaker in the rear
Stock speaker in front for now
JBL 1200w Subwoofer in the trunk
Toxic 2000w Amplifier

Future plans
Megasquirt and a Remap
Manual Boost Controler - Owned
V6, P1 or C-West lip
17x8" +35 Wheels
STi Taillights


Soooo... Hopefully you enjoy reading this thread and viewing the pic´s. The other thread I made is on a Icelandic car forum. My thread is in Icelandic but it has some more pic´s and details.

Icelandic Members Journal
 

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#225 · (Edited)
Soooooo, I lowered the front a tiny bit more (about 1cm) and tooks some pics while the car was inside the shop. I also kept it idling for a while and rev'd it to listen weather my flutter was actually coming from the turbo or the bov (it was coming from the turbo ofcourse). While the car was idling there I noticed a rather large amount of oil on the floor so I decided to put it on the lift and check. In the progress of turning the car around the shop filled with white smoke. So, the news are, my china turbo crapped itself after 1830km or two months lol. Currently mailing the seller attemting to get it replaced since it is still under warranty





And it was at this precise moment, that my turbo took a piss lol



 
#235 ·
Of course it came from a Honda forum lol. This seems to be the consensus. I had found a Youtube video as well a while back with a guy showing the internals of one. Couldn't find it.

"The chinese stuff is not so badly spec'd. Its more of the bearings, oil seals, and especially the thrust bearing that are lacking. I would venture that they do not have a quality checkpoint and just pump out quanity instead. The oil seals are crap and really need done with quality pieces.

At the RPM's these things create they really have to be right.

I firmly believe that you can take any chinese turbo that has usable parts and make a turbo that will last from it. You just need to balance and rebuild it properly with quality parts."
 
#236 ·
Holy crap I've been lazy... Jeeeeez... So, let me find out where to start, altough nothing has really happened so far but winter is coming soon which means storage which mean modification time :naughty:

First off, yes, the cams came in plastic containers. Change of plans may cause them either not be installed this winlter or be sold to fund other stuff (I'll get to that, keep reading lol).




I swapped trunks just because I could and rocked wingless for a week...









Also swapped wheels just because I could. The monster tires on the white wheels eventually caused me to bend my fender a little bit but that got fixed alright so it is barely noticeable



Wing went on again and eventually the wheels too




Got white leds for super cheap and installed them. Lasted like a week so back to normal bulbs now




Polished my tails real quick

Before


After





My xenon bulbs went out so I replaced them and the park light led's aswell. Installed led's for the license plate lights






Cleaned the interior real quick too






Test fitted some 18x9.75 et35 xxr's... which where huge...
















I really like this pic, my car next to my dads 38" Land Cruiser




And my garages driveway got fixed finally! I can almost drive the car in without having to drive it on planks lol









Sooo thats about it... Anywho, about the cams possibly having to go for me to be able to fund a way cooler stuff, I have decided to do a complete STi 6 speed drivetrain swap this winter. I have no money for it as of now but I am saving up for it and all my spare cash goes into those savings. Hopefully I will be able to make it by the summer but it is a super expensive package especially considering shipping and taxes... I am going to focus on the 6 speed swap so in that case buying valve springs and other stuff needed with the cams is on hold.

I am also planning on painting atleast both rear quarter panels again and if needed the front fenders too. Since this will be happening (hopefully) I think I might fix the lip up a little better and paint it to match. The engine will also be removed to fix leaks and engine bay will be painted. I would prefer removing the ABS completely to clean up the bay prior to painting it but time will tell how much I'll get done...
 
#237 · (Edited)
Hey there, anybody still following this crappy ass journal? I wanna wake this thread up again so I'm going to fill in the gaps since last update.

Nothing really happened since then, I took some pics of the car and my friend did too. Some of mine turned out okay and all of his turned out sick! Those of you who follow me on instagram have been getting better, more regular updates. I'm gonna drop a few pics but not all of them, since they are prolly around 50 haha!























Soo basicly I didn't do much else than enjoy it and take pics. But I did finish painting my Outback finally so it wasn't so horrible looking, and my friend gave me spoilers for it so that was nice too.






On the pictures above I had just taken the GT off the road, therefore my Outback is in them, it took over for the GT for the winter. Then snow came...





And with these last pics we are up to date. Front end coming off, engine coming out, tranny+drivetrain coming out and the engine bay and rear quarters are gonna get some love. Aaaaaand, bue car is gonna love this, the P1 lip is PROBABLY gonna get painted to match too. Anywho I'll leave you guys with this, hope somebody will still bother to read this and hopefully I'll be more active on here :sunny:





 
#243 ·
Fixed the pics! And I'll add this, got this thing and I'm tearing it down for parts to earn some cash for the 6 speed swap! Turned to have nice UEL headers and some cheapo intake haha! I'm keeping the headlights and selling everything else :)









 
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