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Junkyard Journal | A 1999 RS rescue mission

11K views 105 replies 18 participants last post by  Vanna_White 
#1 · (Edited)
HAPPY THANKSGIVING DAY

My Goals:

  • ID Vehicle: To simplify repairs/fixes/etc I'd love to know the cars history.
  • Main focus: handling, functionality, reliability.
  • End goal, yes the beaten horse "22b" exterior styling.
Technical Research (I'll post all my reading/research material links here):


How it came to be:

It was a Monday 11/18/19; as I drove past the junkyard I thought to myself I should stop by and see what's new, but it had just rained the weekend before so I drove past it. Wednesday rolls around, my buddy who loves to hit junkyards for random goodies comes into the shop, he says to me, "hey Joel, I know you like subarus. I took these badges off of one for you. There's two of them there."
As I turn my head and spy the badges, I ask "was it a coupe, are they complete?" He replies, "a 2dr I think so. I saw an engine and wheels, but it's missing a seat." I reply, "cool, I'll go check it out, right after I finish up some work." An hour passes, then another buddy and I head over to the JY.

We stroll the yard not knowing where it was but once we spot the car, I get excited. I see STI BBS', no trunk, rear diff etc as I approach from the back. I look under quickly drivetrains there, sweet. Walking alongside the car heading for the engine bay, I see misc interior bits missing, that's ok...I was more excited to find out what engine was in it. Seeing the TMIC meant something cool. By code I at least know it's an EJ20. The Turbo? Gone! Intake? Gone! P/S? Gone! Passenger side engine harness, Sliced! All in all, I felt I could save this. We walk with a brisk pace back up to the front with intentions to buy this thing. As we are up negotiating purchase of the car, another JY'r is mobbing out with the trunk and wing! He must have beat us to the punch by moments. LMBO my luck. Long story short, we buy it off of him in the parking lot. The staff and I encourage my buddy to go back to the car, to make sure no one else comes to take pcs off the car as we have purchased it. When he gets back he tells me a story about a guy undoing the strut bar; we conclude small potatoes, my interest was the car. What was funny to me, as the employees hear and see us buy the trunk back, they begin to tell us more about the car and the parts that sold the day before (tuesday), and the kicker.....they had set the car out MONDAY, haha, moral of that story, "trust your gut." If I wasn't being so prissy......

- With all that said, any help from the community in identifying this car would be greatly appreciated. If you have any pcs, parts, that may help please LMK. Hoping by the end of the week, the car will be cleared for me to bring home.























My Current Bugeye RSTI
 
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#88 ·
07/08
Crank for the EJ hot tank and polished, but I fear I may have put the cart before the horse as I plan to balance the bottom end.



I've also been working on the cylinder heads, focusing on radiuses as much as I can. I started with the most challenging cylinders first. Far from complete, just sharing where I'm at.





07/010
short block is officially at GE.
 
#89 ·
nothing fancy just some porting updates. I do not know why I'm obsessed with porting cylinder heads, it just is what it is.

Exhaust sides are almost done, but I'll need to get some more finishing bits. then I'll look into some chamber coatings.



and because I was missing the finishing bits, I started the intake side today.


 
#90 ·
Made some progress on the heads this week, I'd like to haver them finished up and off to the machine shop by monday.



random snap of the seats as I start the bowls. This set of heads were horrible from the factory compared to the others I did for myself.




almost done.
 
#97 ·
They best way to learn is by breaking your own parts right? so why not! LOL. I for one would never try any parts swap in car, I don't trust myself. Since the engine is out and apart, I'm ready to give out all I can.

TY

That looks like automotive porn! Amazing
HAHA. Just getting older and picky. When I see "rebuilt" and dirt, I call BS. Glad we can all enjoy such toys.

Amazing build thread. Loving the whitebox photography.
TY!! Trying to help myself keep it clean or uniform.

TODAYS SHENANIGANS
Came home trying to tackle some rod clearances and failed, my old trusty 1/4" Tq. wrench made its last click at 20 ft lbs before croaking. I'll spend my lunch break tomorrow at HF...:D

After it failed to click, I gave it what I thought was 30-35 anyway, I was curious to see what the plastigauge would read. Looks promising. Anyway, while I'm out grabbing a new tq. wrench, I'll grab some new calipers for home use as well.

 
#98 ·
tools yeah


some POV footage, I suspected the calipers to be off minutely as there was play in the mic. I was able to confirm the specs with a 3rd set of mics and some plasti-gauge. I used the spare sti crank as a co-witness.

crank journal 52.18-52.20mm, w/ bearings 52.05mm. Plastigauge Tq. 35ft lbs, left me with a .0015 squish. Im not sure what the Tq. spec should be using sti rods on a wrx crank should be, but I've decided to follow the spec designed for the rod.
 
#105 ·
#teamnostart returns...

Time to build a "high grip"/ "old style" tensioner setup and add the idler. Basically the poor mans RCM/IAG mod. All parts on order.



Backstory: Jumped timing again. Now on it's 3rd tensioner.






timing set, fires right up again.:eek: I'll be taking it home and parking it until all components arrive.



best part of that day, was I got to clean up the engine bay. Before the jump. I'll be adding a battery tie tie too :lol:


 
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