Building a 2003 WRX for my brothers first car.

Bigzavs

86.5 1JZ Single Turbo
Apr 21, 2005
2,267
0
0
38
Arlington, TX
This is the car I'm currently working on, its going to be my little brothers first car. I found it at a small dealer in Garland (about 45 miles away), it currently has rod knock on cylinder #4 though. This coming Monday I;m picking up a new motor from JHOT, not sure on the mileage, but as long as its not knocking, its better than whats currently in the car.

We bought the car for $3,000 as it was, and ive found it has pretty close to that much in parts and work in it already.

Car is a 2003 Black Automatic WRX (I didn't even know they made an auto version)

already has:
Built Auto by AWDTuning.com
Bolt-on 16g turbo
STi stock top mount I/C
SS Up-pipe and Down-pipe
Not sure what brand exhaust, has too much mud on it currently
No-name intake (awful green color)
Whiteline sway bars front and rear
16's that are coming off
and a massively blown coupler making a huge boost leak

10 miles from the dealership the coupler gave out on the highway, was barely able to limp it to a parking lot to wait for the tow truck.
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Got rid of a couple gay ass things it came with while waiting for the tow..........first off NOS FLOORMATS!
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And this work of art, a broken up paint stick pushing the wrong mounting kit down enough to clear the faceplate.
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Got it over to my buddies house later that day (bout 30 mins before a huge ass storm). Since its a surprise for my brother, I cant have it at my house to work on, so tomorrow we're taking it about 10 miles away to my great uncles house in the country, he has a metal building on his property that we're going to do the work on it in.
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did some work on it to get it ready to take over to my uncle's (gonna drive it, knock isnt too bad)
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changed the plugs, they were pretty well used
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pic of the turbo, its a tad laggy compared to my buddy mikes stock turbo 04 WRX
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used some cold shrink wrap on the blown coupler, worked and sealed it, but the coupler is worn and has become shorter so it doesnt fit far enough on the turbo and it blew off with just a little boost. only local place with a similar coupler wanted 60 fuckin bucks for a new coupler.
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also changed out this fucked battery terminal
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Plans for the car are as follows
New motor
Coilovers
Gold 17's
Paintjob
Header
Perrin silicone intake pipe
 
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Poodles

I play with fire
Jul 22, 2006
16,757
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42
Fort Worth, TX
I seem to remember that "terrible green" being a big company that did those intakes...

And WTF @ shit battery terminals on such a young car. Damn thing should have the factory clamps on it, but judging by some of the other crap on the car it doesn't surprise me...

Still, cheap as hell for a WRX...
 

Bigzavs

86.5 1JZ Single Turbo
Apr 21, 2005
2,267
0
0
38
Arlington, TX
Poodles;1539014 said:
I seem to remember that "terrible green" being a big company that did those intakes...

And WTF @ shit battery terminals on such a young car. Damn thing should have the factory clamps on it, but judging by some of the other crap on the car it doesn't surprise me...

Still, cheap as hell for a WRX...

Some of the stuff on this car was ghetto rigged, including the stereo system that for the most part was just torn out of the trunk (most likely by the kid that used to own it). You can see the stray red power wire that was still hooked up to the battery when we picked it up, and it was open in the trunk just flopping around.

and the green is just ugly as sin on a black car
 

Suprapowaz!(2)

New Member
Apr 10, 2006
2,870
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50
San Antonio, Tx.
And this is all a suprise? You're such a great big brother! He's gonna love it.
I once offered my little brother my Supra. The deal was he comes over and turns the wrenches, and he can have it. He wasn't interested in working on the car. He just wanted to take it to a mechanic and let Daddy pay for any repairs. I wanted it to be a big/little brother project, but he missed the point. So I kept it.


Oh, and besides the rocker panel ground effects looking a little faded what's wrong witht he paint? Looks good to me.
 

RazoE

Boobs/Boost, my favorite
Jun 13, 2006
4,946
3
38
38
Los Angeles
www.cafepress.com
looks nice..!

throw those taillights as far into the woods as you can, and get some stockers..!!

but it looks like you're going to have your hands full for a while, but once you un-getto rig it, it should be pretty damn nice, cant wait!
 

Poodles

I play with fire
Jul 22, 2006
16,757
0
0
42
Fort Worth, TX
Tails look like they were tinted pretty well, though as a first car it might be smart to remove something that will do nothing but catch a cop's eye...
 

te72

Classifieds Moderator
Staff member
Mar 26, 2006
6,603
2
38
40
WHYoming
So, yeah... this makes you a pretty badass big brother. Probably the coolest thing I ever did for mine was buy him a nice (for the time) tv. Granted, the kid makes like $5 more/hour than I do now, so there's no need to do this sort of thing...

Anyway, looking forward to the build, I like it. A little advice though... if you have access to a good grinder and bits, port that thing. Trust me, the EJ20's in these have a LOT of restrictions from the factory in the heads, pipes, etc... Although, how good can your brother drive? Might not be in his best interest to build him a ~330+hp car for his first. ;)
 

7Matt-GE

Member
Nov 18, 2009
407
0
16
Becker, Minnesota
next motor you should get is a ej257 or a built ej25 turbo :) those 2.0's suck hard...or you could also find a nice ej22T those are closed deck and can handle boost and a beating. Subaru Autos are fantastic they NEVER EVER BREAK. at least from my and 20 other peoples experience with them. it looks like that car is well built looks good man.
 

Bigzavs

86.5 1JZ Single Turbo
Apr 21, 2005
2,267
0
0
38
Arlington, TX
Suprapowaz!(2);1539018 said:
And this is all a suprise? You're such a great big brother! He's gonna love it.
I once offered my little brother my Supra. The deal was he comes over and turns the wrenches, and he can have it. He wasn't interested in working on the car. He just wanted to take it to a mechanic and let Daddy pay for any repairs. I wanted it to be a big/little brother project, but he missed the point. So I kept it.


Oh, and besides the rocker panel ground effects looking a little faded what's wrong witht he paint? Looks good to me.

the paint is a 10ft paint job right now, doesnt look bad in the pics, but get close and theres chips, dents and some oxidation that is gonna be taken care of.

te72;1540477 said:
So, yeah... this makes you a pretty badass big brother. Probably the coolest thing I ever did for mine was buy him a nice (for the time) tv. Granted, the kid makes like $5 more/hour than I do now, so there's no need to do this sort of thing...

Anyway, looking forward to the build, I like it. A little advice though... if you have access to a good grinder and bits, port that thing. Trust me, the EJ20's in these have a LOT of restrictions from the factory in the heads, pipes, etc... Although, how good can your brother drive? Might not be in his best interest to build him a ~330+hp car for his first. ;)

ya, my buddies has ported heads/downpipe/exhaust, otherwise is stock and hauls ass. ive driven it multiple times. but being his first car, the bolt ons are gonna be more than enough, my guess is well build a brand new engine for it and ill port everything then. although i am going to delete the Tumble valve generator and port that part.

7Matt-GE;1540633 said:
next motor you should get is a ej257 or a built ej25 turbo :) those 2.0's suck hard...or you could also find a nice ej22T those are closed deck and can handle boost and a beating. Subaru Autos are fantastic they NEVER EVER BREAK. at least from my and 20 other peoples experience with them. it looks like that car is well built looks good man.

hopefully this will last him a while, probably will do the 2.5 bottom next time around, but he doesnt need anything too crazy right now.

Update from yesterday and today.

Picked up a 98-99 Forrester EJ205 5spd engine set from my buddy Zoon (Zoonwen on here) at Jhot. Has 49K miles on it.

tonight, i ordered:
Gasket kit
Greddy RS BOV/Flange
Perrin Intake
Catch can (universal eBay)
Equal length header

pictures to come tomorrow, starting to tear down to the block and heads of both motors, old motor should be coming out this weekend, followed by a hell of a cleaning in the engine bay
 

Bigzavs

86.5 1JZ Single Turbo
Apr 21, 2005
2,267
0
0
38
Arlington, TX
ya, the runners come up to the front to a single tube that then goes around the side, pretty cool looking, once it gets here ill take pics of it
 

Bigzavs

86.5 1JZ Single Turbo
Apr 21, 2005
2,267
0
0
38
Arlington, TX
theres quite a few videos on youtube comparing EL to UEL headers. that being said tho, the sound is cool, but i prefer efficiency before aesthetics
 

87mk111

Metal Head
Sep 29, 2009
481
0
0
akron/canton, ohio
WRX= happy in the pants. BTW, didn't u know that NOS floor mats add Vtec? LOL, j/k. GOod luck wiht the build, the Impreza is my second favorite car, Supra being the first fav of course.
 

Bigzavs

86.5 1JZ Single Turbo
Apr 21, 2005
2,267
0
0
38
Arlington, TX
87mk111;1542077 said:
WRX= happy in the pants. BTW, didn't u know that NOS floor mats add Vtec? LOL, j/k. GOod luck wiht the build, the Impreza is my second favorite car, Supra being the first fav of course.

thanks, Supra is actually my second favorite behind the Skyline GTR, not sure where impreza's are on my list, i know its on the top of my brothers tho

progress update. spent the whole day today workin on the car. engine is being pulled tomorrow, did a little bit on it before i got to taking pics
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some pics of the JDM EJ205
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and all the stuff that came with the engine
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forgot to get a pic of engine bay at the end of the day, but essentially they look like this, just more taken off of the engine in the car.
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comparison pics of the stock VF23 (iirc) turbo, vs the 16G
VF23
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16G
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and a couple pics of the workspace
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heres the land that its on
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and its a little weird with these two popping into the workspace every so often
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