Subaru Impreza GC8 & RS Forum & Community banner

Dnut's Daily Driver 2000 RS

8K views 25 replies 7 participants last post by  Hands 
#1 · (Edited)
What's up guys? Now that I'm starting to slowly mod my daily, I figured that I'd start a member's journal.


----- Table of contents -----


Post #2 - When I first bought the car

Post #3 - Some pictures from '08

Post #4 - Don't buy mods for your daily (Or it could start to get out of control)

Post #12 - Updated pictures from August '09

Current modifications:

Engine:
- Stock EJ25 (Current mileage: 175,816)
- "Ganzflow" replica intake
- Modified WRX catback

Suspension:
- JDM STi carbon fiber front strut bar
- No-name rear strut bar
- Trunk x-brace
- KYB GR-2 struts w/lower mileage stock springs
- Front/rear Group N top hats
- '02 WRX 20mm rear sway bar, '04+ mounts
- Stock RS front sway bar
- Whiteline HD front/rear endlinks
- my4isflat fender braces

Brakes:
- '02 WRX front calipers/brackets
- H6 rear upgrade
- Braided stainless lines
- MC brace

Interior:
- V4 front/rear seats
- WRX carpet
- Weathertech floor mats

Exterior:
- Coupe spoiler
- Mesh foglight covers
- V6 front lip
- S201 carbon fiber hood scoop
- Version 6 grill
- Rockblocked tail lights
- 2006 WRX rims with 215/45/17 RE92s (Summer)
- 1998/1999 2.5RS goldies with 195/60/16 Nokian Hakka R's (Winter)
- Wicked hot RS25.com stickers

Misc:
- Hella Supertones
- Fumoto valve (I love this thing)

Future modifications:

Engine
- Eventually do a USDM turbo drivetrain swap

Suspension:
- Upgraded lateral link/trailing link bushings
- Steering rack bushings
- Sub-frame lock kit

Interior:
- Nardi steering wheel

Exterior:
- Rear spats (Purchased, just need to stop being lazy and install them)
- JDM clear corners
 
See less See more
#2 · (Edited)
When I first bought the car

I started looking for a new car in August of '07.

My other car (Monte Carlo SS) was a great spring/summer car, but since I was going to be driving 100 miles a day to work and back (Yeah, I drive a lot) and my workplace was about 5 miles from the NH border (Good amount of snow), I wanted a more economical car that I would also enjoy driving.

I knew that I wanted a Subaru and I wanted it to be white. I originally started looking at WRXs, but I really fell in love with the GC bodystyle and once I learned how relatively easy a swap could be in the future, I decided that I would go with a GC over a GD. The fact that a GC was cheaper and less to insure helped with the decision.

I finally found my car on craigslist in September of '07 in Southern NH. It was almost perfect: White, lower miles (77,xxx), and stock mechanically. Why almost?

It was a 4EAT, and one of the previous owners had installed hideous altezza tail lights and Ebay projector headlights :(

I decided to go look at the car anyways, and after having a dealership give the car a once over to make sure that nothing was wrong with the car, I ended up buying it. Being a 4EAT wasn't a show stopper as it was a great price and I planned on swapping the car anyways. In addition, I figured that having an auto might be easier during those long commutes home in stop and go traffic.

Also, the car came with the stock headlights/tail lights, which I planned on immediately putting back on the car once I got it home.



Here she is the first night I got her home:






Those tail lights.... :barf:


At least the interior/engine bay are in decent shape:






The projectors were kinda cool at night, but the wiring job was a complete hack job (I was seriously worried that my car would catch fire driving home that night :lol: ), so they had to go. Plus, they fit like crap anyways.




I had to wait for my registration to come in the mail, so while it was parked
for a few day I swapped back in the stock lights and did a minor tuneup (belts, plugs, wires, fuel filter, pcv, oil change).

Ah, MUCH better:








One funny thing:

When I was swapping the tail lights I noticed that the trunk wouldn't always close properly and the lining was bulging
in really wierd places, so I pull out the lining to find this:



Seems like the kid was too cheap to buy dynomat when he had subs installed, so he stuffed this everywhere instead.
 
#3 · (Edited)
Couple of pictures from '08

- Summer:


Pictures on a semi-abandoned overpass near me









(Taken at 11 at night):




- Winter: (My car was filthy that day)









The RS 6 spokes that came on my car had some serious curb rash, so I bought a much nicer set and used my original set for snow tires (Nokian RSi...I LOVE these tires)
 
#4 · (Edited)
Don't buy mods for your daily (Or it could start to get out of control)

I told myself that I would hold off on modding the car for now as it's my daily (And has almost 130,000 miles on it at this point...yup, over 50,000 miles in a little over a year since I bought it), but I stumbled on a couple of deals in December of '08 that I couldn't pass up:


- 20mm sway bar
- 04+ sway bar brackets
- Whiteline HD front/rear endlinks

A couple of weeks later I found a great deal on a couple more things:

- V6 STI spoiler (Since sold for a coupe spoiler)
- Group N front top hats
- German made Hella Supertones

...Then a set of V4 STI seats (front/rear) popped up on ebay for $500 shipped:



...The same seller had a sweet deal on a great condition JDM STI carbon fiber front strut brace

...My stock carpet was trash, so I bought a '04 WRX one to replace it, along with a set of Weathertech floor liners so the new one won't get destroyed.

...Bakemono hooked me up with Mesh foglight covers and a V6 lip (And now a S201 hood scoop)

...T3hWIT sold me his old rockblocked tail lights

...I bought a set of fender braces from my4isflat

...I sold my nice set of 6 spokes to Roadrunner and bought a mint set of '06 WRX rims with newer tires for cheap

...I bought set of KYB GR-2s to replace my blown struts this week along with rear Group N top hats from CVR motorsports and subaruwrxparts respectively.

...Had a front caliper seize, which was enough of an excuse to upgrade to WRX front/H6 rears and braided stainless lines.




So, now that it seems like not buying stuff for the car is out the window, I'm working on doing a mild NA build for this summer. (A swap is out of the question for now as this IS my daily driver after all :lol: )

Build plans :

I picked up a Cobb EL header/highflow cat for $150 off of Nasioc, and a '02 WRX catback for a couple of bucks. Also going with some "mad tyte" red Kartboy exhaust hangers will make up my exhaust, as I wanted something that would be a little less restrictive without being too loud.

That, along with the ever popular Ganzflow intake mod, some Delta 2000 cams, lightweight pullies, and possibly an iSpeed reflash to finish it up.

Nothing crazy, but it'll at least have a little more pep than it does now.


I'll take some new pictures of the car this weekend now that I've installed most of this stuff if the weather holds up.
 
#7 ·
Bump for the lip, fog light covers, and coupe wing installed:






Now I just need to install the rear spats and paint/install the S201 hood scoop to finish it up.


I'm planning on a paint job in the near future as I have rock chips everywhere. :(
 
#10 ·
Yessir! Much better than the $200+ the dealer wanted for a new one.

Wow very nice DD my friend, also nice to see another RS from MA. I really like what you have done so far, and your commute is insane, wow. I am curious though, why it is that you had purchased a v6 STi spoiler but then got rid of it. Why? Good luck with the rest of your car and check out my journal tell me what you think. Thanks.

I was on the fence about the STI spoiler since it always seemed a little big for the GC, but I bought it anyways because it was a good price and local to me.

After realizing how huge it actually was in person, I ended up deciding that the coupe spoiler was the way to go for my car.

Basically, my car isn't fast enough to back up the look that the V6 spoiler gives it. :lol:
 
#9 ·
Wow very nice DD my friend, also nice to see another RS from MA. I really like what you have done so far, and your commute is insane, wow. I am curious though, why it is that you had purchased a v6 STi spoiler but then got rid of it. Why? Good luck with the rest of your car and check out my journal tell me what you think. Thanks.
 
#12 · (Edited)
Installed a new exhaust, S201 hood scoop, and new pics

I finally had some time to work on the car last week and installed my Cobb EL header and WRX catback, along with Kartboy exhaust hangers (Which were a little bit of a PITA to get over the hangers)

It's a little raspier than I like, but I'm beginning to get used to it and the car does seem a little more responsive now.

I've got a light-weight crank pulley from Group A and a set of Delta 2000 cams waiting to be installed, although the cams will be sitting for awhile until I find a free weekend to install them. The crank pulley should only be an hour or so to install.

I also finally painted my S201 hood scoop using paint from paintworldinc.com. I bought flexible primer, 51E (Aspen white) paint (Although it seems to be a little closer to the JDM feather white or whatever that color is as it matches the Version 3 spoiler I picked up), and clear coat. Definitely came out alright for a spray bomb job.


Finally, I took some pictures of the car today as I washed/waxed it for the SubaruWRXparts.com Show and Shine that's happening this Sunday.

Nothing special about the location and they're As-is off the camera, but I think the car is starting to finally look like I want it to. I still need to install the rear spats I have laying around and I'm dying to get the Version 6 grill I ordered, but that will have to wait for another weekend.


Anyways, on to the pictures:


'03 WRX catback (Yes, I know there's a huge scratch on the bumper..my paint is terrible :( )









Close up of the painted fog covers (Don't mind the fact that my bumper is more paint chips than paint :lol: ):






I need clear corners:




The rear (Spats would really help...need to stop being lazy and get on that):
 
#14 ·
Thanks! I was hoping to do the spats this weekend but we'll see how that goes seeing as it's supposed to rain.


I do agree that the car would look better lowered a bit, but the stock ride height is nice during the winter once the snow hits so I'm sticking with it for now.
 
#17 ·
wow, its looking great Dnut. I wish I got the chance to see your car before I left NE. I really like what you did with your fog covers, where'd you get the template for it? lol, anyways great work so, far looking forward to the future of your car. oh and I know what you mean with MA winters and ride height, its perfect!
 
#18 ·
Thanks man!


I actually made the template from a vector graphic of the STi lettering that I resized and printed out on stiff paper. I cut out the letters themselves to make a stencil, lined up the middle of the stencil and middle of the fog light cover, taped it all down, and sprayed away with black spray paint.

One of them isn't 100% straight, but it's hard to notice unless you're looking for it.

If you want I can email you the graphic that I used; Just shoot me a PM with your email address.
 
#19 ·
Just picked up a set of RS goldies from MattB tonight to use as new winter wheels...pretty pumped about that :D

Now I need to decide what size tires to go with (I'm planning on buying another set of Nokian Hakka R's): 195/60/16 or 205/55/16. I'm leaning towards the 195 width tires as I think they would do better in deep snow, but I'm not sure if they're a little too narrow for a 16x7 wheel.
 
#21 · (Edited)
Looks like I may have some new plans for the summer while I’m driving my other car:

Manual transmission swap

I picked up a pretty much complete 5-speed swap on here a few weeks back for a great price, along with a new Exedy clutch and ACT Streetlite flywheel.


The actual transmission swap itself should be a piece of cake, but I still need to read up on getting the ABS to work. Might be as easy as swapping to an ABS module from a car with a manual tranny; I still need to do some reading as I’m getting conflicting info.

Still trying to decide if I want to keep my 4.44 rear diff once I finish the swap in case I ever find a 4.44 5-speed, or if I should sell it and make a little bit of money.

And the other project :D


Going RS-T

Yeah, yeah, I know that the general consensus is that swapping the car is a better idea in the long run, but I like a challenge.

Here’s what I’ve got so far:

- Complete ’99 EJ251 from a Forester
- Brand new STI rods and pistons from Crawford Performance
- TD04

…And, that’s about it for now.

I’d like to see 250 or whp with a focus on low to midrange torque. I really have no desire to rev past 6000 RPMs to make power. May not be possible with a TD04-13G (And be efficient); I need to look at the compressor map and do some quick math. The modification to make it a TD04 19T does seem interesting though:

TD04 19T Upgrade Discussion - NASIOC

Here’s a tentative plan:

- Complete rebuild of the EJ251 with the STI internals and all new gaskets. Crawford recommends using all OEM for the rings, bearings, head gaskets, etc, so I might just stick with that even though I’ve read good things about the ACL bearings. Still have to get prices on everything.
- Find a crossmember from a GC8
- Check out the compressor map for the turbo I was given. If it’ll work, great. If not, I’ll look into other turbos. Love to go twin-scroll, but I’m trying to keep this low budget
- Full-standalone control with the Megasquirt PnP: http://www.rs25.com/forums/f72/t114341-megasquirt-pnp-opportunity.html
- Still need to decide on exhaust, FMIC vs TMIC, and a ton of other “little” things that will keep me researching for months before I start this


I’m hoping that by using a standalone that is a plug-and-play, I’ll be able to plug the stock ECU back in, drive around with the wastegate open, and be able to pass MA OBD-II emissions.

Otherwise I have two options:
- Buy a clean OBD-I Impreza shell and put the motor in that instead (Possibly trading my car for that plus cash)
- Keep the stock motor and exhaust and swap that in once a year for testing (Crazy, I know)



Thoughts?
 
#22 · (Edited)
Well, haven't done anything to the car since my last post (Except for going back to the stock hood scoop).


The good news:

I still have that 5 speed in my garage, so that will be the next project for the car; This will probably keep the car off the road for a little while once I start it as I don't have a lot of free time at the moment, which is why I've been putting it off in the first place.


The better news:

I'm buying a new daily driver this weekend :D

What is it? A stock 2003 WRB 5 speed WRX wagon with 120,000 miles on it from my uncle. He bought the wagon brand-new, and is now selling it as he's picking up a 2011 STI hatchback this Friday.


What's going to happen to the RS?


After over 175,000 miles, it's going to live out its intended purpose: I'm making it into an Open Light class rally car with a buddy of mine. :)
 
#23 ·
Pictures of the WRX and RS side by side:






I swapped the wheels on the two cars this weekend, so the RS now has the '02 wheels and the '02 has the '06 wheels.

Not a big fan of the '02 wheels on the RS after having the '06 wheels on there, but it's only temporary while it's parked waiting for the tranny swap.



I drove around the WRX for a few hours today; Man is that car faster than the RS!
 
#24 ·
How did you like the switch to the wrx seats? you have the same car as i and have done the things im looking at doing. how was the increase in power with the air intake and exhaust mods? im brand new to working on cars. i was a computer specialist before i got into cars haha
 
#25 ·
I absolutely love the Version 4 seats. Probably my favorite modification I've done. They're comfy and a ton more supportive than the seats offered here in the US.

I couldn't tell you how much power I gained with the air intake and exhaust, but it was a noticeable difference in terms of acceleration. Definitely worth the $300 or so that it cost me.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top