So after about a year and a half of saving (High School into College budget), a year of research, a summer of ordering parts, and a month of work. My swap is finally done!
The motor was out of a 05 saabaru wagon (same as WRX) with about 37k miles on it, came completely unmodified, and from the looks of it wasn't beaten on at all (it was out of a saab after all). Everything totaled out to be about $4700, and of course, looking back on it I could have saved about $1k but hindsight is 20/20 right?
Anyways, I just wanted to say thanks to Keener at GT for the wiring, everything was absolutly perfect and SOOO clean, and also Kevin and Frank at GT for putting up with my dumbass questions over the phone haha. They were a huge help and I will soon be rockin the GT stickers in their honor.
Here are some pics of the finished product and some afterthoughts:
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This has been one of the best experiences of my 19 years of living. I did 95% of the mechanical work myself. The parts I had help on was physically pulling the motor, and putting the new one in. Of course GT did the wiring Job (thank you again. Completely worth the money and more!)
Even after the solid year of research I learned so much about the car from getting hands on with it its not even funny.
Some of the mods:
Turbo XS full turbo back exhaust
Gutted Up-pipe
05 STi Steering Rack
GM BCS
There are a couple issues that still need work. I noticed a good amount of oil leaking from the spark plug galley which was a HUGE wtf moment, when I first started it up (thought the motor was bad, never heard of oil there before). After some research it looks like I need new gaskets under the valve cover. I'm glad it will be a somewhat inexpensive fix, but its going to be a bitch. The way the motor sits, I will probably have to jack it up to get where I need to.
The other issue is that I'm running no cats, no resonator and an aftermarket boost control solenoid (the stock one broke). So I got when I got on about half throttle it I was having big boost spikes and saw about 21 PSI in second at one point and immediately got off. So it definitely needs a tune before I even try and push it.
Once this is all taken care of I will clean up some of the lines and get everything lookin pretty again.
Comments and questions are appreciated let me know if you see anything funny, I'm still looking over everything and making sure its all straight!
P.S. I can't believe I put this thing up for sale a few months ago... what was I thinking??
The motor was out of a 05 saabaru wagon (same as WRX) with about 37k miles on it, came completely unmodified, and from the looks of it wasn't beaten on at all (it was out of a saab after all). Everything totaled out to be about $4700, and of course, looking back on it I could have saved about $1k but hindsight is 20/20 right?
Anyways, I just wanted to say thanks to Keener at GT for the wiring, everything was absolutly perfect and SOOO clean, and also Kevin and Frank at GT for putting up with my dumbass questions over the phone haha. They were a huge help and I will soon be rockin the GT stickers in their honor.
Here are some pics of the finished product and some afterthoughts:
This has been one of the best experiences of my 19 years of living. I did 95% of the mechanical work myself. The parts I had help on was physically pulling the motor, and putting the new one in. Of course GT did the wiring Job (thank you again. Completely worth the money and more!)
Even after the solid year of research I learned so much about the car from getting hands on with it its not even funny.
Some of the mods:
Turbo XS full turbo back exhaust
Gutted Up-pipe
05 STi Steering Rack
GM BCS
There are a couple issues that still need work. I noticed a good amount of oil leaking from the spark plug galley which was a HUGE wtf moment, when I first started it up (thought the motor was bad, never heard of oil there before). After some research it looks like I need new gaskets under the valve cover. I'm glad it will be a somewhat inexpensive fix, but its going to be a bitch. The way the motor sits, I will probably have to jack it up to get where I need to.
The other issue is that I'm running no cats, no resonator and an aftermarket boost control solenoid (the stock one broke). So I got when I got on about half throttle it I was having big boost spikes and saw about 21 PSI in second at one point and immediately got off. So it definitely needs a tune before I even try and push it.
Once this is all taken care of I will clean up some of the lines and get everything lookin pretty again.
Comments and questions are appreciated
let me know if you see anything funny, I'm still looking over everything and making sure its all straight!P.S. I can't believe I put this thing up for sale a few months ago... what was I thinking??
