Project: Rumble Wagon (05 WRX)

[RawrImAMonster]

After searching for months I finally found a car to replace the Xterra as my daily driver.

It's a 2005 Subaru WRX Wagon with a manual, of course. Overall, the car is super clean and since it was a Raleigh car its whole life, there is basically no rust on it, even under the car. It looks almost as good as my M3 rust wise and that's saying a lot.

So far the only issue that I've found is that it has a leaky valvecover gasket on the passenger side. I knew about this before I bought it and I'm planning on fixing it tomorrow evening as long as the gasket shows up. Right now, smoke pours out of the hood scoop while it's not moving.

The only mod that it has at the moment is a STi hood scoop. Since this is my daily driver, I'm probably not going to do any sort of power mods since I'd rather keep it reliable at this point. I'll probably put a catless uppipe at some point because why the hell would they ever put a cat before the turbo. Otherwise, some planned mods are a catback for the boxer rumble, STi wheels, and maybe the STi splitters on the front bumper. Since these cars are prone to paint fade, I'm also planning on having it detailed and applying Opti Gloss coat (Opti Coat 2.0 replacement) to keep the paint nice and fresh. This should also help keep it clean since it's going to be serving as a daily driver and I won't want to wash it constantly.

Initial driving impressions are good. It's a far more relaxed car than the M3 to drive. The gears are long, it has plenty of torque without revving it out every gear, and the suspension is a good mix of sporty and floaty for a daily driver. Overall I'm going to enjoy driving this thing way way more than the Xterra and as long as it doesn't give me a lot of problems, I hope to keep it for a while.

On to pictures. The first mini project I did with this car is take care of the yellow faded head lights. I spent my Sunday afternoon wet sanding, polishing, and clear coating the headlights and they came out pretty good. There is still some sort of fading going on inside the headlights, but the outsides are now very clear and I'm happy enough with how they look to leave them as they are now.

[davej]

nice! headlights look a million times better.
I'll keep an eye out for it around town

[WRXtranceformed]

Very nice! Still such a soft spot in my heart for that generation of Subie. Here are my old ones:






The first scooby:




Edit: Looking at your headlights, yours may have been baked and taken apart to get those housings blacked out. I believe they were chrome from the factory (see my STi). I took the headlights apart on my WRX and painted those housings black (see pics). That could be part of what is going on inside your lights.

[Maengelito]

Since this is my daily driver, I'm probably not going to do any sort of power mods since I'd rather keep it reliable at this point. I'll probably put a catless uppipe at some point because why the hell would they ever put a cat before the turbo. Otherwise, some planned mods are a catback for the boxer rumble, STi wheels, and maybe the STi splitters on the front bumper.

"I'm probably not going to mod it. Here are the mods I'm going to do."
The Subaru force is strong in this one. :lol:

[RawrImAMonster]

Edit: Looking at your headlights, yours may have been baked and taken apart to get those housings blacked out. I believe they were chrome from the factory (see my STi). I took the headlights apart on my WRX and painted those housings black (see pics). That could be part of what is going on inside your lights.

They changed the headlights to the darker ones in 05 as far as I know.

"I'm probably not going to mod it. Here are the mods I'm going to do."
The Subaru force is strong in this one. :lol:

I did say no power mods :lol:. The uppipe is a reliability thing and the rest are for looks/sound.

[WRXtranceformed]

Ah that could very well be, I have been out of the subie game for quite a while! That is odd to have oxidation or moisture on the inside of a headlight lens unless the seal has been broken somehow

[ScottyB]

1st: TUNE TUNE TUNE. its a reliability mod that happens to have a performance byproduct. even an off-the-shelf (OTS) tune is safer than factory (look up closed loop/open loop delay to get an idea of why its a problem, among other things in the factory tune). don't even think about the uppipe before the tune.

2nd: put a 40 weight oil in it, or a heavy 30 weight. some easy AdvancedAutoO'ReillyNAPAParts choices:
- Castrol 0W-30
- Mobil 0W-40
- Rotella 5W-40
- Castrol 5W-40
etc etc. more here: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2497181">http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthr ... ?t=2497181</a><!-- m -->

the key to keeping a subaru pancake engine intact and happy is keeping it rich when it needs to be so it doesn't detonate. the tune corrects this and in turn helps a bunch of other stuff that stems from the shitty factory tune which was optimized for fuel efficiency and reduced emmissions. detonation is what kill the already fragile ringlands, and hammers the already small rod bearings which is why the #1 and #2 killers of EJ engines is busted ringlands and spun bearings. det also doesn't do any favors for the head gaskets which is the #3 killer.

get that straight and enjoy it.

They changed the headlights to the darker ones in 05 as far as I know.

true story. my '05 is the same.

[RawrImAMonster]

1st: TUNE TUNE TUNE. its a reliability mod that happens to have a performance byproduct. even an off-the-shelf (OTS) tune is safer than factory (look up closed loop/open loop delay to get an idea of why its a problem, among other things in the factory tune). don't even think about the uppipe before the tune.

2nd: put a 40 weight oil in it, or a heavy 30 weight. some easy AdvancedAutoO'ReillyNAPAParts choices:
- Castrol 0W-30
- Mobil 0W-40
- Rotella 5W-40
- Castrol 5W-40
etc etc. more here: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2497181">http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthr ... ?t=2497181</a><!-- m -->

Are there any good shops around here for a stock tune? Especially ones that don't require you to buy access port first.

I'm planning on running Rotella T6 changing it every 3k, so hopefully that should be good enough to save the rod bearings. I'm not going to be driving this car particularly hard so it should hopefully be OK.

[JPolen01]

I'm planning on running Rotella T6 changing it every 3k,

Every 3k miles seems like overkill and waste of money with the oil technology today. Scott can probably elaborate on this as I know he sends his oil out to be analyzed every so often.

[RawrImAMonster]

Eh, on cars that are somewhat prone to rod bearing failures, I think the cheap insurance is worth it. Plus Rotella T6 is cheap and I really don't put that many miles on my cars.

BMW recommends 15k oil changes for the E46 M3, but I'm sure as hell not doing that. 5k is about where oil analysis shows it should be changed on street driven M3's.

[SlimKlim]

Lol yeah BMW's service recommendations since the E46 generation are designed to make you buy a new BMW as soon as possible, not to make your current one last.

[ScottyB]

[Are there any good shops around here for a stock tune? Especially ones that don't require you to buy access port first.

are you in Richmond or up near DC? i can't keep track of all you young'ins. the good news is that there are excellent shops in the DC area, such as andrewtech or element tuning.

my guess is that you will need to buy an accessport to tune with, since those devices "marry" to your ECU, but their shop may know a way around that. i'd give them a call to see.

I'm planning on running Rotella T6 changing it every 3k, so hopefully that should be good enough to save the rod bearings. I'm not going to be driving this car particularly hard so it should hopefully be OK.

3K is definitely overkill unless that's your total yearly mileage or you're beating the hell out of the car. a good synthetic should take you out to 4k+ easily. i run 8k changes on my N/A EJ down here where triple digit heat indexes are "normal warm weather" and the oil analysis reports show wear is almost nonexistant...i'm shooting for 10k now.

however...Rotella is super cheap and the turbos are hard on oil, so if 3K is your comfort zone, then do what feels right...you certainly aren't going to hurt it by changing the oil more often :thumbup:

also, be aware that you will want to be sure whatever filter you use has the correct 23psi bypass pressure. many aftermarket/autozone filters do not. the OEM blue filters are just fine (even though they're made by Fram and OMG THEY'RE GONNA GIVE YOUR ENGINE AIDS) and you can get them at any dealer. i also use the WIX 57712 and/or the Purolator PL14460, they're a little bigger and built a little tougher.

[RawrImAMonster]

A lot of people run open source tunes on WRX's. The software is free, you just need a cable. Same kind of thing people have always done with Evo's. Cobb AP is not at all worth it for what I'm going to be doing with the car.

I'm still in Harrisonburg. I know IAG in Maryland does the open source tunes, but if there is anything closer that would be nice. I guess there is always the remote tune option, but I think dyno tunes usually end up being a little better.

[SlimKlim]

Mach V in Sterling specializes in Subarus, might be worth giving them a call. It's still 2 hours from you but it's closer than Maryland.

[ScottyB]

A lot of people run open source tunes on WRX's. The software is free, you just need a cable. Same kind of thing people have always done with Evo's. Cobb AP is not at all worth it for what I'm going to be doing with the car.

I'm still in Harrisonburg. I know IAG in Maryland does the open source tunes, but if there is anything closer that would be nice. I guess there is always the remote tune option, but I think dyno tunes usually end up being a little better.

i run opensource on my RS. i built the Tactrix cable for $20 from a VW VAG cable i got off ebay, and you can get the Romraider tuning software for free. all that's necessary is your time to learn the programming and troubleshoot a driver or two depending on your laptop. i'm an idiot and i even figured it out.

agreed, the cobb stuff is super overpriced but its easy, so most people suck it up. i didn't want to.

some tuners travel around a bit and do "road tunes" for like a day...they aren't 100% up to a dyno tune, but if all you really need is a decently sorted alternative to the stock junk its really fine unless you need every last HP.

Phatbotti Tuning does a remote tune that supposedly a lot of people are pleased with.
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[*insertusernamehere*]

Very nice! Still such a soft spot in my heart for that generation of Subie. Here are my old ones:

Was that like..YOUR car or something you just found on the internet?

[ScottyB]

:lol:

that was actually his, and it was one of the first STi's in the US to get a 2.7 litre cosworth block (do i have that right?). this was in like, 2006 right Lee? back then most of us thought the bodykit was pretty baller.

it made a shitload of power, Lee got scared (of the power and his wallet catching on fire), sold it to another MM'er and i think its sitting in a garage somewhere in the midwest in pieces. or so the legend goes.

[D_Eclipse9916]

That was back when MM had a bunch of real "builds" instead of of guys calling shocks and springs on their economy cars as "builds".

[SlimKlim]

DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMNNNNNNN!



(I will never get tired of this gif)

[WRXtranceformed]

Very nice! Still such a soft spot in my heart for that generation of Subie. Here are my old ones:

Was that like..YOUR car or something you just found on the internet?

Yeah that was actually my car 8) Scotty was close, it was the first 2.8L STi in the states. The motor was fully built by a company called Ultimate Racing out in CA (now defunct?) and installed at Andrewtech in MD, along with a carbon kevlar clutch. I had fun with it but was definitely afraid of something else other than the block breaking. I was also was getting ready to buy a house so I sold it to Travis (MMer) so I could free up the funds and the liability. Travis raced it some and as far as I know he still has it. I want to say it ran 12.1 @ 118+ on the pump gas map

Had to dig deep in the Photobucket archives to find some more pics:

EDFC:

CarPC installed under the seat with touch screen:


TurboXS DTEC displayed through a GameBoy Advance (still so sick!):









Race gas dyno (tuned on a standalone Hydra EMS):

Pump gas dyno:


Motor was supposedly built to handle 900whp, I ran out of fuel system at those numbers on 110 leaded. I did have some fun times in that car, hooning around H-burg, smoking some guy in a Civic with indiglo gauges with Ryan T in the car after a MM dinner :lol: I wish I still had a video of it, it sounded like a freight train with its open dump tube and catless exhaust