Hi everyone, just wanted to share a project I’ve been working on for a very long time. I know it's nowhere near as fancy as 90% of the builds here but maybe someone might appreciate it
I was a Subaru fan from as long as I can remember. A friend of mine took me for a spin in his Group N WRX in the early 2000’s and I was instantly hooked. He let me pull it up the starting line for rallycrosses, even though I had problems with the stiff 6 puck clutch, as a 12 year old I knew I had to have a fire-breathing Subaru of my own. GC’s always appealed to me more than the GD chassis, no doubt due to it’s rally heritage.
In about 2005, my father managed to find an immaculate ’95 GM6 in Florida for less than 500$. We drove it back the same week, thrilled to start our first ever build. Even with the piddly stock 1.8 and ancient tires the lightweight chassis had me excited. We didn’t have much of a budget to complete a full build immediately so things took quite some time. Sourcing a EJ255 from a wrecked LGT through Copart was the official start of the project. I still remember the day we started salvaging parts and my father standing over me, teaching me everything I needed to know about wrenching. We painstakingly took apart the donor car, making note of every bolt and hose location. A couple busted knuckles and lots of “I told you so’s” from him and we managed to get everything lined up and positioned in the engine bay. Wiring was another obstacle. iWire wasn’t even on the map when we sat down and spent dozens of frustrating hours going through schematics of the LGT harness and the 04 STi ECU we were going to run our motor with. I learned to solder, terminate wiring, and most importantly patience during that time.
Trying to fire it up for the first time was a disappointment, an errant wire spliced in the wrong place prevented the ECU from getting power. Countless hours later we got it running with an open downpipe and bunch of angry neighbors. As a young teen that was by far the proudest moment of my life, a memory I’ll never forget. With smiles all around we took it for a spin, my childhood memories finally coming true. Even though it had a stock tune I felt I could take on anything on the road and win.
After a few months of driving, the stock motor dropped a valve, splitting a piston in half and scoring the cylinder walls. Frustratingly we pulled the motor, took it apart and started calling shops for options on how to properly build it up again.
Unfortunately school and other priorities got in the way of our build, and our Subie sat undisturbed in a garage for the better part of a decade. A year ago I saved up enough to fully build a longblock, and this time it was my turn teaching my dad how to gap rings, assemble heads, and time the motor. It took us a while but we got it together and running last summer. A few hiccups along the way and we went on our first test drive in the new motor on a hot July day, no AC of course. I still remember him yelling at me for throwing on a silly burble tune that sounded like an M240 as we drove down residential neighborhoods. Unfortunately, the drive was cut short by a total loss of power, SBF-5 was blowing. Swapping them out didn’t help so we pushed the car 2 miles home cursing the whole time. We spent days trying to figure out what was going on, the heat didn’t help at all so decided to wait until the cooler fall months to take out the wiring harness and try to find out what was going on.
My father died of a massive heart attack on September 11 of last year, a few days before we were set to pull the dashboard and harness.
I couldn’t bear to even look in the garage for months after without completely breaking down. I’d never again pass him sockets and wrenches as he racheted underneath the car for those lower downpipe bolts or have him hold up the fifth iteration of an exhaust we were trying to make fit. Everything related to the car reminded me of him, how I could always ask him for advice at a moment's notice, knowing that if I screwed anything up he'd always have my back. Now I was on my own, it was all up to me to keep going. This might sound silly but until this this day I can still hear his voice every time I work on our projects, as if he never left my side.
Earlier this year I got it running again. It was something silly, just like he said it would be. The main relay was faulty and only one contact was clicking, providing power to interior electrical systems but not to the ECU. A stupid 10-dollar part prevented us from enjoying our newly built motor together for months, something we will never do together again. That first fire-up was bittersweet; I was elated that it fired up on the first turn of the starter, but he wasn’t there to hear the gravelly rumble of the 280 cams.
Since then I threw on parts we didn’t get to last year. I was dreading pulling rear knuckles due to the rear lateral arm bolt, but of course my father predicted this and slathered it in anti-seize over 10 years ago so they slipped right out to my surprise. Everything I touched reminded me of something he’d teach me, from spraying some WD40 on exhaust hangers to get them in easily to not bolting down one side the intake manifold down fully before hand tightening the other side so everything lines up.
I don’t know what my future plans are with the car, it could use a good coat of paint after 26 years and maybe some flares, but I’m sure as hell not selling it for as long as I’m still around.
Miss ya Daddy.
Here's some shots from last year, ill throw up some new ones soon.
Engine
EJ57 case halves
Turbo Tuff I-Beams
CP pistons
ARP 625 studs
D25 Heads
Ferrea Beehive Springs
BC Stainless Valves
BC Stage 3 280 Cams
ID1000 Top Feed Injectors
V1 Perrin Fuel Rails w/ OEM FPR
Radium fuel rails/dampeners/fuel pressure regulator
Direct-wired Aeromotive 340 pump
Custom TGV Deletes
IAG 8mm phenolic spacers
11mm STi Oil Pump
Killer B Oil Pickup
Perrin Catless Up-pipe
Nvidia Catless Down-pipe
Vibrant Catback
Moroso Alum Oil Pan
TD06 20G Deadbolt Turbo
TurboXS Front Mount
MAC 3 port EBCS
AEM 3.5 Bar MAP
GM IAT Sensor
K&N Short Ram
eBay GC Radiator
Spal Fans
Evap Delete
TurboSmart Vee Port Pro
Group N Engine Mounts
Electronics/Control
ECUMaster Black with custom patch harness
Autosport Linear Oil Temp sensor
Lowdoller fuel pressure sensor
Lowdoller oil pressure sensor
Prosport Water Temp
Prosport Boost Gauge
Mech. Oil Pressure Gauge
AEM UEGO with 0-5v output to ECUMaster Black
CANChecked multi-gauge
Shorai LFX36L Battery
Drivetrain
Stock Clutch
Stock 5 speed
WRX 4 Pot Fronts
LGT Vented Rear rotors
LGT single pot rear calipers
1 1/16" 4 port master cylinder
Braided Lines
Hawk HP+ All Around
Group N transmission mount
Kartboy Shifter Bushings
Kartboy Trans Bushings
Kartboy rear outrigger bushing inserts
Whiteline Rear Subframe Lock Bolts
Whiteline Steering Rack Bushings
Suspension
DMS 40mm Coilovers
Cygnus Performance X-1 Coilovers
'04 STi Steering Rack
'05 STi Front swaybar
JDM STi alum. LCAs
Sparco Front Strut Bar
Whiteline Front Endlinks
Whiteline Front Swaybar Bushings
Whiteline Rear Endlinks
Whiteline ALK
Whiteline Roll Center and Bump Steer Kit
Whiteline Rear Swaybar Mounts
Whiteline Lateral Link Bushings
Whiteline Trailing Arm Bushings
Whiteline 22mm RSB
Moog Adjustable Rear Lateral Links
ARP Studs
Exterior
JDM STi Ver. 2 Aluminum Hood
JDM STi Ver. 2 Front Bumper
JDM Clear Taillights
JDM Front Bumper Beam
Interior
Old school OMP Wheel
NRG Quick Disconnect
Custom CF center console panel
Stereo/Airbag Delete
To be installed
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