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Spec R's 99 STM Coupe *REST IN PEACE 05/19/2020*

51K views 168 replies 40 participants last post by  FryphaX 
#1 · (Edited)
Hey guys, since its sort have reached a level of completion (if we could ever call it that), I thought I'd put together a journal for my RS. Here is a short history of the cars I've owned.

My first car in one of its many stages. i had this car for 5 years (the longest stretch I've had a car). This car eventually got a Greddy 18G turbo, shown here.

taken a month before I sold it

My 2nd car, I bought from my sister who was going to donate it. It needed some love, and I enjoyed having my first daily driver. I got used to having two cars because of this car. Since then, I haven't had one car by itself.

taken 2 months before I sold it.

The teg and 240sx together - see the black FMIC on the integra?


It was always a dream of mine to own an Evo. Luckily my friend was selling his, and after I quick test drive, I immediately started making for sale threads for my silver integra. Eventually the teg was sold and the evo was in my possession. I modded it, tracked it, and then got sick of it. Awesome godly performance, but I was never able to fully take advantage of it, except on the track. Going to the track gets expensive, and I just wasnt will to drop the cash on it anymore. With no intentions of street racing, I sold it.

Taken 2 months before sale.

Driving only the 240sx for a couple of months, I sorely wanted to have 2 cars again. A close family friend to my GF was selling his 97 teg. I spent a little over a year and half restoring it. No big plans like the first integra, just an OEM restore, and a car to drive around in to get good mileage. driving an integra feels uber natural to me.


2nd teg and 240sx together


Having two 12-14 year old theft magnets/boy racer/compacts was kind of difficult. I tend to do a lot of driving, and more often than not, I have passengers. One at a time was fine, but two or one by themselves I couldnt do anymore. So I went looking for a more practical car. The requirements were OEM HID's, RWD, and sedan. I was looking at IS350's and BMWs. I overlooked the G35 thinking it would be too expensive. I eventually stumbled upon this car. I got exactly all the options/packages I wanted, plus a killer deal.


Here's all three together.

The 240sx was up for sale before I got the G35, but I wasnt able to sell it until after.

I had the maroon teg and the g35 for a little over a year when I found out the previous owner of the 99 RS was replacing his car for a more practical one due to the start of a new family (wife was pregnant at the time). So the Teg was up for sale.

Here they are together.


I bought this RS from my girlfriend's brother in January 2010, and here is a picture of it during the wiring harness install and the thread I made documenting it. Spec R's wiring harness and build thread




Special thanks to RS25.com contributors/vendors - Zealous Interiors, I-Wire, JDM Gary aka Gary's Garage, 7L Autosport

Special thanks to the Subaru friends 181stleader, HighRevImpreza, OUScooby and everyone else that I might have forgotten

Current Mod List - items in Italic are items inherited with the purchase of the car

Engine:
-2002 USDM EJ205 Longblock - stock internals, stock heads, TGVs still functional
-CA BAR legal - at the time of inspection, the swap had all cats and associated hardware in place - 100% stock dyno'd at Yimi at 205whp/205wtq in stock form
-I-Wire Harness merge (I-Wire #43 - thanks Brian)
-Blouch TD04-19T Turbo
-Cobb Accessport v2 - Protuned by Steve @ 7L Autosport 8/12/14
-Cobb catted downpipe
-Mishimoto TMIC
-Mishimoto turbo inlet pipe
-AEM Cold Air Intake
-Injector Dynamics ID1000 injectors
-Deatschwerks DW301 fuel pump
-Sun Auto grounding kit
-Interstate Megatron Size 51R Battery (Honda Civic size)
-Grimmspeed BCS
-Grimmspeed AOS
-NGK Iridium Spark plugs
-Autometer Phantom Oil Pressure Gauge (Electrical)
-Innovate Wideband O2 sensor/Gauge
-Motul 5w40 / Mazda Rx-8 Tokyo Roki oil filter
-Greddy Magnetic drain plug
-Kartboy rear exhaust hangers
-JDM in-fender coolant overflow tank (Thanks JDMGary)
-Autometer Phantom Boost Gauge (Mechanical)
-Unknown brand Catless Up-pipe
-stock WRX B-pipe / Prodrive Oval axle back

-Apex-i Intake sold to def09
-Go Fast Bits adjustable BOV - sold to Flyboynextdoor

Drivetrain:
-stock 99 RS 5-speed, Motul Gear 300 75w90
-Exedy stage 1 clutch/pressure plate
-Kartboy short shifter

-TIC shift linkage update
-Kartboy rear and front linkage bushings


Exterior:
-JDM v5/6 Grill
-JDM v5/6 Replica Front lip (GSMotortrends)
-UKDM smooth rear bumper with spats
-JDM taillights
-JDM corner signals (thanks JDMgary)
-Kakumei OEM clear bumper signals
-Ebay OEM clear sidemarkers
-Scoobyparts UK foglight covers/brackets
-Scoobyparts UK blue Subaru emblem
-PIAA Night Tech headlight bulbs
-LaminX yellow foglight film - Mtec ion yellow H3 bulbs
-Full exterior repaint in Silverthorn Metallic with PPG paint
-JDM GC8 RA engine and transmission undertrays
-06-07 STi rear lower diffuser with Cusco tie bar/mount

Suspension/Brakes:
-Feal Suspension 441 Coilovers 7k/4k Swift springs - installed/corner weighted by Odi Bakchis
-Tanabe front and rear upper strut bars
-WRX 20mm rear sway bar
-Goodridge SS brakelines

-Stoptech ST40 Big Brake Kit front (328mm)
-Stoptech slotted rear H6 rotors
-Stoptech StreetPerformance pads f/r
-H6 rear caliper brackets
-Rebuilt rear calipers (OEM seals 06/14)
-Motul RBF600 brake fluid
-2004 STi Brake Master Cylinder and Brake Booster
-Grimmspeed master cylinder brace
-Whiteline Steering rack bushings (30mm)
-Whiteline Roll Center Adjustment kit
-Kartboy Botox subframe bolts
-Paranoid Fabrications fender braces
-Cusco GC8 4 point TYPE2 front lower tie bar

Wheels/Tires:
-Volk LE37 18x7.5 +48 (re-finished and machined)
-Michelin Pilot Super Sport 225/40/18
-Muteki Lugnuts
-3mm 5x100 PE-Motorworks front wheel spacers (for BBK clearance)


Interior:
-JDM Ver1/2 STi Front seats
-JDM rear seat fabric (professionally installed on USDM rear seats) (thanks Longitude)
-JDM Ver7 Steering Wheel (thanks Longitude)
-JDM Ver7 Shift knob (thanks Longitude)
-uninstalled extended armrest for regular height armrest (thanks skyline4me)
-Impreza floormats
-CG-Lock seatbelt anchor
-Zealous Interiors JDM Gray door inserts (thanks Andrew)
-Zealous Interiors Shift boot (thanks Andrew)
-Zealous Interiors EBrake boot (thanks Andrew)
-Zealous Interiors trunk carpet (thanks Andrew)
-Bakemono Triple gauge pod (thanks Trey)
-relocated compass pack
-Euro 7k redline 160mph gauge cluster (thanks JDMgary)
-Rallisport Direct accessport holder
-custom A/C lines (Lucas AC, Van Nuys, CA)
-Subaru OEM cabin filter option (3/13)
-Subaru OEM trunk light (3/13)
-Subaru OEM floormats (3/13)

Audio:
-Kenwood Excelon X998 w Bluetooth
-stock 2008 6.5" STi speakers front and rear
-Streetwires RCA/4GA wires
-Dynamat in doors, rear shelf

Items in storage but could be for sale/loan if anyone specifically needs them:
-Samco Intercooler hoses/couplers
-OEM P1 springs/strut/tophats
-HKS Super Sequential blow-off
-stock TD04 turbo with blown seals
-Kartboy shiftknob
-stock RS steering wheel
-stock RS gauge cluster
-stock WRX intercooler (2x)
-stock WRX up-pipe with cat (with 181stLeader)
-stock WRX downpipes with cats
-stock WRX dual tip axle back
-stock WRX 04 BCS
-stock WRX 02 BCS
-stock WRX BPV
-stock RS windshield washer pump
-Kenwood Excelon Head unit X790
-NRG EPAC3 voltage conditioner

Sorry for the long list, but its nice to actually see an inventory of all the stuff I've acquired over the years.

Items sold on RS25/Nasioc from when I purchased the car
-stock 2.5 RS front seats (dohtem8)
-stock 99 SOHC 2.5 RS longblock (lardass)
-5zigen fighters
-stock 2.5 RS MAF


Future Plans - in order of priority and likelihood of happening in 2013
-some sort of brake upgrade (DONE, 6/2014)
-bigger injectors, fuel pump, re-tune (DONE, 8/2014)
-STi 6-speed of some sort
-full re-spray (DONE 09/2017)
-aluminum hood
-re-built EJ205 longblock
 

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11
#2 · (Edited)
This is how the car looked when I bought it in February 2010



The parts that came with the car that I sold right away.
Stock front seats


The 5Zigen Fighters


stock RS motor



The car had some glaring issues that needed immediate attention, namely a MAF CEL and a mean water leak in the trunk. I purchased an Apex-I Intake and stock BOV from Yimisport and had them change the spark plugs and peform a compression test (145psi across). The MAF CEL went away after uninstalling the Blitz filter.

That day at Yimi


The first time I saw underneath it - being a California car, no RUST!


The water in the trunk was caused by faulty seals of the taillights and a hack/fix that probably channeled the water directly into the trunk. Yes that is probably a 2 liters of water in the spare tire area and corner areas of the trunk.






Me and friend cleaned it all up and used proper rubber/foam seals and the trunk hasnt seen water since.

engine bay shot at that phase - added from first engine bay shot are the belt cover, stock BPV, WRX air splitter, Apex intake, red alternator wire boot
 
#3 · (Edited)
I had originally made an appointment with Paul at Yimi to tune the car as it was running on a stock tune with a stage 2 setup, but when I arrived he couldnt get the car into test mode, and was only able to take a baseline dyno. This was the first hurdle with wiring harness that I faced. Luckily, I met Ray (HighRevImpreza) that day and he referred me to I-Wire. I drove down to Brian's place the next day and he was able to sort out the test mode issues.

I was able to return to Yimi in march 2010, with the original TD04 - Paul at Yimi said it couldnt boost over 14.5 psi for some reason - either age or something else (6-7 months later it started smoking)

DynoPull 9 - YouTube

Decent numbers for the parts involved, but it didnt stay with this setup too long - maybe 6 weeks. exhaust was too loud and flashy (Invidia G200) and the catless downpipe smelled terrible and really made my eyes burn.


I decided I didnt want to drive around without the swap being certified, so in April 2010 I made it a mission to get the car CA BAR approved. I bought/bartered a bunch of parts so I could be 100% 2002 WRX stock. I passed so I was able to get this sticker!



I was enjoying driving the car around bone stock, but I started to get intermittent check engine lights for random issues - MAP sensor, BCS controller and some others I dont remember. Things really hit the fan the couple miles after I took these pictures. I went to get gas down the street a couple miles, and the car shut off leaving me stranded in the middle of the street. I knew it was time to do something about the wiring harness.



I knew this existed under the hood but was hoping it wasnt the culprit. Of course it was, thats the super mega junction of all the engine harness all T-tapped.


I made arrangements with I-Wire to see what my options were. He drove to my parents place and helped me start with the tear-down for the rewiring (see threadlink in the first post).

His beautiful car next to mine! July 26, 2010


That day we took the top part of the dash out, and the next 2 months the car sat in the garage as I tried to chip away at the large task at hand.


I eventually finished the car by the end of September of 2010. A lot of things happened in my life between July 2010 an March 2011 - I got a new job, I moved out of my parents house, furnished a new place from scratch and a few more big life steps - so the subaru mainly sat idle under a car cover after I finished the harness install.

Once the move-out and new job started to settle, I brought out the Subaru from storage mid March 2011. I was greeted by a good amount of smoke coming out of the center hood vent. I immediately pull over and find the smoke coming from the turbo. I guess it was the car being mad at me for not driving it.

Yeah thats a bit too wet with oil for my liking.


Given my new living and work situation, I couldn't do the work myself, and had left it with my friend's shop who specialized in Evo's. Big power was never a priority for this car, so I opted to buy a used TD04 to get rebuilt by Blouch for their 19T compressor upgrade. At this time I had purchased the Grimmspeed AOS and BCS. Money at the time was pretty tight, so I opted to have the car re-tuned (via opensource) with the stock downpipe and catless up-pipe. 50-60 hr work weeks and a level of work stress I've never experienced before led me to trust my friend to do the install unsupervised since he's done heavy car work for me before. When I got the car back it felt "okay" and since I don't really drive the car hard, I really didn't notice anything out of the norm. More on that later. I drove the car in this state until March 2012.

At work with some alley cat on my hood (in that time period)


I bought some really clean WRX wheels and a really clean WRX intercooler at this time. Fog light covers, clear corners, corner lenses were also purchased in this time window.



Here's all 3 cars in one shot. I had bought the 330i from a friend to replace my G35. Instead the BMW replaced my girlfriend's CRV, hence why I have 3 cars.
 
#4 · (Edited)
Spring of 2012 was very busy at work, so lots of overtime. The upside of all that stress and work is extra pocket money. Sure, time to drop some coin on the Subaru.

I had re-visited some of the old Subaru friends I had made at the NASIOC Krispy Kreme Burbank meet, and spoke with Steve at 7L Autosport about taking a look at my current tune. I made it out to his shop and he did some datalogs and found that the tune was all sorts of wrong. Good thing I don't beat on the car. I'm not placing the blame on my friend's shop, I should have known better to supervise the tune better. He also doesnt necessarily specialize in Subarus, but I knew that going in. It didnt help that I was sticking with the stock downpipe and stock injectors which would give even the more experienced subaru tuners trouble.

We agreed for Steve at 7L to road tune the car, and I took the opportunity to do some upgrades. So I bought a Cobb catted downpipe, Cobb accessport, and some gauges...



No real pics of the install - the parts were brand new, so we all know what they look like from their manufacturer's site. Now I'm not made of money, but I wanted to reward myself for doing so much overtime.

Steve at 7L was very pleased with the new tune of the car after he was done, and was impressed with the car's new output. His dyno simulator aproximated 300ft lbs, but I won't know for sure what the numbers are until I hit another dyno. I will most likely go back to Yimi since I have baselines and tunes in their database from this Subaru and prior cars. Thumbs up for Steve!

So now that all the mechanical/engine stuff was handled, I wanted to focus on aesthetics. I had purchased some JDM rear spats from Mad Ra88it and they sat in storage for over a year. Ever since I got the car, I had wanted to paint the stock side skirts and basically have the OEM+ look. I wanted a quality prep and re-spray, and wanted the JDM rear spats to fit without the gaps on the USDM bumper. My hood vents were peeling badly and I wanted the fog light covers painted as well. I found a local body shop that specialized in OEM repairs for luxury marques and had them do the work.

in process



end product - I really wanted to throw the Volks back on, so I did right after getting the car back from the body shop. This was around early July 2012.


I was pleased at this stage in the car's life, but then the interior really started to bother me. I'm sure this would be bother a lot of you too. The extended armrest latch was completely broken as well.

Look at that shift boot!




So I luckily came across some rare JDM items for sale by Longitude, and also picked up a non extended armrest from skyline4me around October 2012. I also placed an order with Zealous interiors - got my orders rush status even after dealing with Hurricane Sandy.

The JDM rear seat fabric I picked up was for a sedan - notice the bottom cushion has rounded corners.


I had a local auto upholstery shop handle the work for me. I had the shop re-use the squared off USDM bottom cushion with the JDM fabric.


Better pics later, but here's one for now. See Ver7 Steering Wheel and Shift Knob. Zealous shift and ebrake boots.


I did a test fit with Zealous door card fabric, but just didnt want to chance messing it up, so I had the same shop do the inserts for me.



While the door cards were out, I took the time to do this:



I did replace the plastic sound barriers as well. That black rubber is indeed a yoga mat material from WalMart. I got the idea from another RS25 member on here who's user name I forgot. I tried to keep the dynamat use at minimum not to add too much weight. The doors close a lot more quieter, but we're not talking luxury status here. Wind and road noise was improved a good amount though.
 
#7 · (Edited)
From the wiring thread -
Open speed sensor plugs - i spy butt connectors.


Cruise control


Piece de resistance - everything from the SMJ is butt connected :eek:


after struggling with tamper resistant SRS plugs, I finally got the dash bar out.

oh the humanity.

a reason why I gutted the car completely was to look for the wrx fuel pump controller. apparently when the harness was made, the recepient plug wasnt available. so what did they do? they cut the plastic, and soldered directly to contacts.


Blower motor out. Time to disconnect the AC line core and the associated coolant lines for the heater core.
Intercooler out - older pic for reference



heater core out...revealing more butt connectors

a whole section of unused wire, just hanging out

a closeup of where the bulkhead harness meets the body harness. this was supposed to be a plug and play affair with the new merged harness, but that would have been too easy.



this part really shows the space that two harnesses are sharing
 
#9 ·
I had the dyno graph on my previous phone, but the usb and thumbdrive both took a dump so i cant even retrieve the pictures. i just remember it making the same numbers as bone stock evo 8's did on the same dyno. my old evo made aprox 195whp on it (dyno dynamics). so probably in line with what it made before the upgrade on yimi's dynojet. aprox 245whp/245wtq. I'm running stock injectors, and they're maxed out.
 
#18 ·
Nice silver car, looks just like mine. I've been thinking of adding the coupe wing back on since there are not many other smaller wings out there for the GC.

Where did you get the replica lip and how is the fitment on it?

I live in San Diego and I'm going to take the car to get the BAR sticker eventually. I'm currently stock, except for the oem STI UpPipe. What type of testing do they do to give you the sticker? Would having an aftermarket muffler prevent you from getting the sticker?
 
#19 · (Edited)
damn i just went through all my PM boxes and i thought had the link to where i got my lip. i picked it up in el monte from one of the ebay retailers a while back. fitment isnt great to be honest, but you get what you pay for.

the BAR inspector guys are pretty slick, and they have enough guys off the street trying to cheat them that they know 99% of the tricks out there to get cars to pass. if you have the catless STi up pipe in there, they'll probably know it and fail you. I dont know about the aftermarket exhaust causing you to fail, I was bone stock 02 WRX longblock/exhaust, stock 99 fuel pump/canister at the time of inspection. I almost failed because of my boost gauge.

EDIT: found the receipt for the lip, and its a GS motortrends replica lip.
 
#22 · (Edited)
Some older shots to add to the build process.

Pre-Coilover-Install shots taken 12/21/12 - Sitting on Subaru P1 Springs/Struts






You can tell from the side profile shots that the rear sits lower than the front (saggy butt), but is worsened by my tools/subwoofer box I have in the trunk.

You can also see the almost positive camber on the front wheels.

I forgot I had this pic lying around after I got the car corner weighted. There's probably about 50-60 lbs of stereo equipment and tools in the trunk that could get taken out for more weight reduction, but I don't really track/autocross/etc this car, so they stay in the car.


3/28/13
Trunk light added






3/29/13
Cabin air filter added

Parts




Before:


During: - used my butane soldering iron and its flame attachment to heat my utility knife. Still took a bit of effort to cut through the thicker sections


Not as much debris as I was expecting, but considering the car hasnt been parked under a leafy tree over the last 2.5 years - this stuff must be old.




There was a bit of animal hair, so that probably caused the odors when using the A/C. I used compressed air to blow out the area, and sprayed some lysol in there before putting the filter in.

Done:


That rubber seal gave me a hard time but it finally went in.
 
#24 · (Edited)
Thanks Gary! I'll have some updates on that dash pocket in a bit.

swapped in some new floormats. not exactly the same fit, but I dont mind.




and the cabin filter sticker


I havent posted a recent engine pic because I havent had a chance to do a decent cleaning of it, but oh well here's a shot as-is.


And some side profile shots in case you're wondering what the car looks like without the front wheels turned. The wheel gap does lessen with me in the car. I had Odi set the car up with more rake on purpose.



 
#31 · (Edited)
I did some car shopping. its been a while in the making, but well worth the wait. the stars aligned and i had to jump on the deals while they were presenting themselves. sold the g35 and the 330i posted earlier in this thread, got 2013 BMW X5 xDrive50i, 2013 Chevrolet Volt.


 
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