Welcome to my journey from patience, headaches to chills, cheers and joy!
History
My daily driver being a 2015 Subaru STI Launch Edition i had accumulated 60k in about 2 years and boy was that car a trip but that's another story to tell. I later on bought a 97 Civic Hatchback as a daily and after a year i decided to look around for a GC and here's the story..
Found one Black GC9 in NYC but it was about double the price but i saw pics and it was quite clean with no mods. Though as in the middle of working with the seller, i had a friend who just so happen to send me an ad for a White GC that was lightly modded for just a little less but the location was just in my backyard. So i figure why not, since im saving 8 hours round trip, why not check out the local one and save some money and spend on parts instead.
Owner stated the motor was WRX swapped, he blew it and swapped with a stock 2.5rs engine. The car had idle issues and 100 CEL codes. This car came with a ton of surprises, it came with a fully loaded audio system but the dude decided to tear everything apart and dumped into the trunk. (Seriously?) Came with a fire extinguisher, (The incorrect one that will destroy your engine) "RS6" Front brakes (German sticker), Headers and mid-pipe were held on by one bolt on each side but not even fully tightened and that sounded extremely loud and terrible.
Got the car towed out of an air force base and boy was that a hassle. Attempted to do some troubleshooting to figure out the idle issue but had no idea where to start. Once we started digging deeper and analyzing his swap, we noticed missing bolts, nuts, hoses connected to incorrectly, some missing and all sorts of WTFs like no wonder he insisted on giving me the fire extinguisher.
As tempting as it was to go WRX/STI swap i ended up going with another 2.5rs engine that i know for a fact works.(Thanks to a friend for his donor engine) Thankfully we did the swap because all the shitty things i saw on how they "ghetto" installed it.,only one engine mount and wasn't even tight, brake lines weren't connected which then made sense because the car rolled down the tow truck after unstrapping... slamming on the brakes but slid all the way till my bumper made out with the concrete to a stop.
After pulling the engine, we started tearing the interior apart and HOLY i don't know what this guy did but maybe dropped a bottle of cologne but GEEZE as soon as you opened the door it just slapped you in the face of stank. Anyway, after tearing down the dash to get to the dash harness we noticed that the harness was never touched to merge for a WRX swap as he claims. So no idea how he managed to do that but we noticed the engine harness on his motor was all kinds of cut and merged of some mess.
All in all it took about 3 months to get this bad girl running, coordinating with a friend and also the end of fall towards winter was just a bumpy road. I thought i was a patient person but after this first engine swap, there were so many times i regretted and wished to bite on the black GC in NY but after all the headaches, stress, pain and blood it feels to get it running decently knowing that i put work into it.
At this time I'm going to enjoy using regular gas, light autoX, daily drive and hoping to have her properly function till a house is secured. THEN I will be ready to drop an STI engine in but this is going to be a slow and steady build. ?
--------------------------THE MOD LIST-------------------------
Engine
2017
07-10/17 #2 146k/175k Exchanging her Soul
11/17 #12 Goodbye Rice LEDs, Hello Ambers
11/17 #13 Goodbye Stinky Seats, Hello WRX interior
11/17 #14 Goodbye Stockies, Hello New wheels
2018
01/18 #15 Goodbye Windows, Flaccid White & Pinstripe
03/18 #22 Hit and Run but new LED Ambers
04/18 #16 p0440 p0446 EVAP BS
04/18 #23 149k/178k Driver Side 4pot Seized, new seals, Oil change
04/18 #29 149k/178k Goodbye front pads, hello brembo pads
05/18 #33 Goodbye OEM Tails, Hello JDM
05/18 #34 Hello WRX STI PU Lip
05/18 #43 150k/179k Hello Slotted Rotors
07/18 #XX 151K/180k Rear diff, trans, oil change
2019
01/19 153k/182k Dropped off unicorn for thermostat replacement & Inspection
05/25 154k/183k Oil Change
06/06 154k/183k Replaced Thermostat, flushed coolant
06/07 154k/183k Still overheated
2020
03/01 155K/184k Head gasket & bolts, throttle body gasket, coolant flush, oil change, valve cover bolts, 4/2 pot calipers, slotted rotors, pads
History
My daily driver being a 2015 Subaru STI Launch Edition i had accumulated 60k in about 2 years and boy was that car a trip but that's another story to tell. I later on bought a 97 Civic Hatchback as a daily and after a year i decided to look around for a GC and here's the story..
Found one Black GC9 in NYC but it was about double the price but i saw pics and it was quite clean with no mods. Though as in the middle of working with the seller, i had a friend who just so happen to send me an ad for a White GC that was lightly modded for just a little less but the location was just in my backyard. So i figure why not, since im saving 8 hours round trip, why not check out the local one and save some money and spend on parts instead.
Owner stated the motor was WRX swapped, he blew it and swapped with a stock 2.5rs engine. The car had idle issues and 100 CEL codes. This car came with a ton of surprises, it came with a fully loaded audio system but the dude decided to tear everything apart and dumped into the trunk. (Seriously?) Came with a fire extinguisher, (The incorrect one that will destroy your engine) "RS6" Front brakes (German sticker), Headers and mid-pipe were held on by one bolt on each side but not even fully tightened and that sounded extremely loud and terrible.
Got the car towed out of an air force base and boy was that a hassle. Attempted to do some troubleshooting to figure out the idle issue but had no idea where to start. Once we started digging deeper and analyzing his swap, we noticed missing bolts, nuts, hoses connected to incorrectly, some missing and all sorts of WTFs like no wonder he insisted on giving me the fire extinguisher.
As tempting as it was to go WRX/STI swap i ended up going with another 2.5rs engine that i know for a fact works.(Thanks to a friend for his donor engine) Thankfully we did the swap because all the shitty things i saw on how they "ghetto" installed it.,only one engine mount and wasn't even tight, brake lines weren't connected which then made sense because the car rolled down the tow truck after unstrapping... slamming on the brakes but slid all the way till my bumper made out with the concrete to a stop.
After pulling the engine, we started tearing the interior apart and HOLY i don't know what this guy did but maybe dropped a bottle of cologne but GEEZE as soon as you opened the door it just slapped you in the face of stank. Anyway, after tearing down the dash to get to the dash harness we noticed that the harness was never touched to merge for a WRX swap as he claims. So no idea how he managed to do that but we noticed the engine harness on his motor was all kinds of cut and merged of some mess.
All in all it took about 3 months to get this bad girl running, coordinating with a friend and also the end of fall towards winter was just a bumpy road. I thought i was a patient person but after this first engine swap, there were so many times i regretted and wished to bite on the black GC in NY but after all the headaches, stress, pain and blood it feels to get it running decently knowing that i put work into it.
At this time I'm going to enjoy using regular gas, light autoX, daily drive and hoping to have her properly function till a house is secured. THEN I will be ready to drop an STI engine in but this is going to be a slow and steady build. ?
--------------------------THE MOD LIST-------------------------
Engine
- AEM CAI
- DNA UEL Headers (Amazon)
- 2.25 Custom Midpipe
- Stromung Axleback Dual Tip
- 5% Sunstrip to ASA line
- 35% Driver side tint
- 20% tint all around
- Amber Turn Signals
- Amber Side Markers
- Hella Horns
- JDM Taillights
- Retrofitted Mishimoto Bixenon Headlights
- Rhino Roof Rack
- WRX STI PU Front lip
- WRX Front Seats
- WRX Rear Seats
- WRX Carpet
- KYB AGX Struts
- Eibach Springs
- 06/07 WRX 4/2 Pot & Rotors
- StopTech Slotted Front Rotors
- StopTech Slotted Rear Rotors
- Braided Front Brake Lines
- Volks Racing CE28 17x7.5 +50
- Muteki SR35
- Riken Raptor ZR (Better summers later)
2017
07-10/17 #2 146k/175k Exchanging her Soul
11/17 #12 Goodbye Rice LEDs, Hello Ambers
11/17 #13 Goodbye Stinky Seats, Hello WRX interior
11/17 #14 Goodbye Stockies, Hello New wheels
2018
01/18 #15 Goodbye Windows, Flaccid White & Pinstripe
03/18 #22 Hit and Run but new LED Ambers
04/18 #16 p0440 p0446 EVAP BS
04/18 #23 149k/178k Driver Side 4pot Seized, new seals, Oil change
04/18 #29 149k/178k Goodbye front pads, hello brembo pads
05/18 #33 Goodbye OEM Tails, Hello JDM
05/18 #34 Hello WRX STI PU Lip
05/18 #43 150k/179k Hello Slotted Rotors
07/18 #XX 151K/180k Rear diff, trans, oil change
2019
01/19 153k/182k Dropped off unicorn for thermostat replacement & Inspection
05/25 154k/183k Oil Change
06/06 154k/183k Replaced Thermostat, flushed coolant
06/07 154k/183k Still overheated
2020
03/01 155K/184k Head gasket & bolts, throttle body gasket, coolant flush, oil change, valve cover bolts, 4/2 pot calipers, slotted rotors, pads