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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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#278 ·
So I've made some progress in the last few days, not much but it's something atleast.

All those wires and hoses are a freaking MESS!










Brake lines out, and it makes a huge difference








Need to repaint those... Or, preferably, get brembos...




Really wanna reinstall the fuse box somewhere over there. I'll look into it when the time comes..




Getting somewhere




I tend to always make a huge mess in the garage when I'm removing so much stuff...








Did some cleaning before calling it a day










And when I was on my way out I decided I had to remove the clutch slave cylender since it was so simple. Having removed that I think everything that can go out of the bay is out. For except those plastic fasteners everywhere and the tranny








Pretty sure this will all be worth it when it's done :)
 
#280 ·
Haha I would man, but they'll be super expensive for you due to shipping. Plus, I'm not sure I can afford brembos before summer so I'm not getting rid.of these just yet :)


Got the engine on a stand today. Discovered headed flywheel and clutch press, and a crankcase seal leakage I think. Got the car down to the shop again and will be putting in work tomorrow :)














And we got some fresh snow yesterday too :)

 
#283 ·
Some pics of the slow progress. Tranny is out, engine bay got cleaned and the rest of the crap removed






Took the fenders off prior to rolling them to clean under the lip. Just to make sure I wouldn't have rust problems later, and the inside of them will prolly be covered with underbody coat or something.











The passenger fender had some cracked paint since this summer but other than that, I managed to roll both fenders without cracking it at all. The are however not in perfect shape so I'll probably just paint both of them aswell.


Rear bumper and sideskirts came off and I took some pics of the flaws that will hopefully all be fixed now




















Current status of the car, rally status haha!





 
#285 ·
Soo, I got permission to keep the car at the shop so no longer towing it each weekend... I started looking at the rust in the rear quarter panels, the left wasn't to shabby but the right sucks.. I'm now looking for a wrecked car to cut a part of the right rear fender and replace it. Eventually, after a few years I hope to completely replace both the rear fenders but until then, I'm going to try to make it decent.


Left








Right...



The ****ery you see here is since me an my dad replaced a part of the sideskirt(?). It didn't go to well and the welding ****ed up the metal, so covering it was the only option at the time. Hoping to fix this now.




Also I took the IM, headers, oil pan and spark plugs out. The spark plugs don't look too pretty, and I'm gonna get some colder ones to replace these. Probably 8's. I seem to have managed to bang up the headers alittle, and the oil doesn't really look good... Seems to have some metal in it...










And this just happened



















 
#290 ·
Tiny update!

Remember when I showed you the pic of my glittery oil? Yeah well I was worried that my rod bearings were done and my engine prolly just had a couple thousand kms left (it still might), but then I realised it's probably my lovely China turbo that took a piss. It had a little extra shaft play, nothing major but it felt a little too much... Anywho, took the bottom of the engine hoping I could inspect the bearings, which I can't but they felt solid, no play whatsoever, which isn't a surprise since the engine ran great and had zero knock. Soooo, I started taking the turbo apart, I had never done this before so I was excited to learn new stuff :) It was super simple and within minutes I had the shaft out and was looking at the bearings. They seem to be a little worn but nothing dramatic, but possibly enough to glitter the oil? I have a rebuild kit ready from the seller but maybe I can get some stronger bearings elsewere or something, any insight on that would be great :)

Picssssss:

This is the oil that was on the splash plate under the crankshaft, looks alittle... Off... But maybe thats normal idk

Edit: It's prolly just some sludge do to improper crankcase ventilation?










And now for the turbooo



(It has oil since this summer when I accidentaly closed all the ventilation for the crankcase...)

















If you have any knowledge on this stuff please share, I know we have some gurus on here :)
 
#303 ·
Thanks guys! Got some progress to show. Primered the outside of the enginebay and underbody coated the whole thing long with the wheelwells :)















What is left on the engine bay is just sanding down the primer and then paint. And in other news, I am getting a full DCCD STi 6 speed swap, including brembos and 5x114.3 hubs! Don't know how I'll sort out the wheel matters now, but there is a slightest chance I might be trading mine for OEM Enkei STi wheels but it's not decided yet. The best thing about this whole thing is that the stuff is all located in Iceland and I might even have it by the end of next week :)
 
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