Decision time (just finish the thing)

My significant other cracked it when it was revealed that I have 16 wheels for this project. It really is time to work out how to get this done.

So I picked up two more wheels just to get me by. I need them to get it to the expert who decides if we're legal for the streetz.

The Impreza with CRV front wheels and forester rear wheels

Check out my sick ensemble of base model crossover steel wheels.

In other news:

Fans are in, coolant bled. I even remembered to reverse the power supply to the fans so they push rather than pull.

Now just to finish the top radiator mounts and we're ready for a trip.

Quick update:

That'll do.

Old is the new rad

Fun fact: I didn't know that there was a difference between the first and second gen ez30 radiators. The main difference being that the filler is offset toward the engine on the first gen which means it clears the bonnet.

Now I know what the internet was talking about when all the posts said “use the stock rad with pusher fans”.

I've tried it and it fits, so now we have the final, final radiator setup (bonus: see my flashy new hoses).

Next I made some brackets as my brake lines were for the old style shock brackets with a clip. Tidy.

Another recent fun discovery is that Mercedes E class rear abs rings work with the Subaru sensors - well, I get a speed signal at least. Soon I'll find out what happens when you try to use them together with the stock 2015+ Subaru front setup.

Subaru abs sensor near a Mercedes abs ring

More news as it happens (slowly).

Knuckles and uprights

Last update mentioned GR sti knuckles which have been harder to come by than I thought.

2015+ Subaru Liberty/Legacy/Outback knuckles are pretty easy to find though and might be exactly the same - 5x114.3 hub which accepts our driveshafts and everything bolts up except the coilovers, which need to be replaced anyway.

2015+ liberty upright/knuckle installed

Huzzah.

Abs sensors temporarily connected and the old Bluetooth OBD2 module proves that we have a speed signal. This looks like it will work!

Speaking as we were about coilovers, I now have some brand-spanking-new Shockworks coilovers which fit the new knuckles and are super pretty.

Unsolved problem: what to do with the rear? They are still 5x100 and have an incompatible abs setup.

  • Ignore it, run two separate bolt patterns and no abs?

  • Upgrade to 5x114.3 and ignore abs?

  • Tssfab bolt-on bearing conversion knuckles?

Postscript: Honda CRV wheels fit and I like the cheapness but I'm not sure I can face running it like this.

Rake like a red bull 🐂

Maiden voyage

Last post we were about to sort the radiator and feeling pretty good. We didn't realise but things were able to get slow - even for us.

Indecision, changing plans and covid left us with not a lot to show for all that time spent stuffing around in the workshop.

Time to button some stuff up.

Access to the workshop was limited during covid so we need to get it good enough to drive over to my backyard.

Important things first, the antenna and housing is ugly and useless - no radio here.

The internet served up an STL for a blanking plate and someone to print it, so ~$30 and a wish were sent.

This is the result. Fits nicely, that'll do.

The liberty battery is huge, heavy and doesn't fit well in the Impreza, so we replaced it with a small AGM unit.

Add some steel bent roughly to battery shape, reinforcement plates and fresh cables and the battery is now mounted under the passenger seat.

One problem: it's a long run to the fuse box from here (and that doesn't fit nicely either)…

This seemed like a bad idea but required surprisingly little work extending or rerouting wiring. I'm unreasonably happy with it.

We added a battery isolation switch while we were in there, which is nice because it is an uncomfortable job disconnecting the battery now.

We did also get the radiator plumbed in and fans connected and it made the (admittedly short, although very wet) journey easily!

Now that it is at my place and I've been able to get a raft of little things sorted like g-sensors mounted, wiring tidied and trim replaced.

Next up - fix speedometer and ABS:

  1. A little more tidying up - mostly better radiator and dashboard cluster mounts.

  2. Swap front knuckles/uprights to GR STI including active ABS sensors. That should get us a speed signal for the speedometer.

  3. Custom rear knuckles/uprights to complete the set and get ABS and traction control operational.

  4. Talk to the engineer

  5. Track days? Turbo?

Quietly, slowly, more rad

It's been a long time between posts and a lot has happened. Unfortunately you can't really tell by looking, here's a breakdown:

  • Wiring tidied up and dash ready to be finally bolted in

  • Combination switch (indicators, etc), switched… back to the Liberty version

    • This was good 'cos we got to redo all the crappy wiring we did the first time

  • Added steering angle sensor to match

  • Replaced steering column with gd WRX version (liberty one don't fit, this one did with a little work)

  • Mounted Impreza charcoal canister in the engine bay

  • Mounted fuel pressure regulator and filter (off a Mazda 626)

  • Mounted the power steering reservoir

Most importantly though, we cycled through four radiators and found one that might not be too small but isn't to big.

Now to mount and plumb in this radiator and fans.

Then phase 1 is done!

Chasing codes

Holy crap this thing is actually running and driving OK. Now we are going to have to get serious about the error messages, flashing warnings and check engine light.

The first issue is the most obvious: "ER SS" showing on the odometer. The internet says this is most likely an ABS sensor fault, which is a concern because it may mean that the Impreza ABS sensors are not compatible with the Liberty ECU.

Or it could be because I forgot to wire in the rear ABS sensors... yep, that was it. Sorted.

Next we have the flashing "Sport" mode light which relates to a transmission fault (which I annoyingly didn't catch in the first image). We're not surprised about this error since we don't have an auto transmission for the TCU to talk to. This one requires an ECU reflash which goes like this: 

  1. Buy Tactrix OpenPort cable
  2. Download ECUFlash, configs and standard Liberty H6 manual ROM
  3. Backup the existing ROM
  4. Flash the manual ROM (panicking slightly because this could really screw things up)
  5. Be confused because nothing has changed
  6. Recheck codes and find that it is still throwing transmission errors
  7. Unplug TCU and retry
  8. High five, no more TCU codes!
  9. Do a double take because the check engine light is off too!
  10. Beer

All that remains is a tricky little ABS light which may clear itself once we get it up to speed. Apparently these might not show up through OBD2 readers so we'll keep looking at other options.

(I'd love to show you a picture of the cluster with only the abs light, but I forgot step 11: unplug the battery before you go to the pub so that it doesn't go flat in between workshop sessions.)

 

Make some noise

Up to this point our auditory impact has been limited to the house attached to the garage, due to the stationary nature of the vehicle.

Now we have the chance to extend our reach to include annoying the whole street, because it's finally time to roll out of the garage and take it for a spin!

In truth we're just getting it out of the way to do other things, but I'm still excited!

First a bolt-check - we mark all the bolts with a paint pen so we know what we've missed. Then we clean all the crap off it, run it up to temperature, check for leaks and do a quick brake check.

Add some cable ties to keep the wiring out of the pedals, then we roll! 

(If you have sharp eyes you'll notice that we have a "small" exhaust leak - but at some point you have to call it done and go make some noise).

 

 

New Plan: just keep going

You remember that plan from a few posts ago? It went something like: "1. Tidy it up inside, 2. Send it off for turbo, 3. blah, blah, blah".

Yeah, forget that, let's just get it driving. The new plan becomes: "do as little as possible to get it off the lift and moving under its own power" which I like a lot because we can do it ourselves and we get to make some noise.

Exhaust manifold doesn't fit so we get choppy and weldy, new ez30 radiator is bought and installed (you won't be able to shut the bonnet, but meh, we'll get more choppy later), coolant is in and the whole thing is warmed up and idles great! 

Pay no attention to the warning message and check engine light, it's all fine.

All the small things

Most of it is bolted together and tidied up and the inside is pretty much done - barring final fixings, heater controls and all the other crap that doesn't matter 'cos I just want to drive it. The new cluster actually looks pretty great in there and I'm tickled by that view through the old steering wheel. 

I'm back at the self-serve wreckers to pick up a few stray bolts and plugs then it's time to look at the exhaust. 

Time for welding! First buy a welder and then hit YouTube...

Coming together, visually at least

We have the body harness tucked away, the important things wired in and seats again! That feels better.

After experimenting with the TCU disconnected we found that all we have to do to get it to crank is give it a neutral signal (or ground). This is dangerous, because now we have hope that we'll be able to throw the TCU out and have everything work... Add this to the list of things that we'll forget about but will bite us later on (update: just found the CAN communication code that it is throwing without the TCU connected *sadface*).

'Tidy it up inside' is a work in progress

So we started the tidy up and ... things may look to have gotten out of hand. Don't worry we'll have all this sorted out in no time.

The good news is that the windows now all work - which is particularly pleasing because that's one better than when we bought the car. It also looks like the mirrors will be easier than expected and we now think using the original dash is the better option because heater controls and  dash vents will work without fettling and, yeah, it will actually fit in the space we have - won't be as cool though...

The bad news is that we've made a huge mess of the interior and run out of crimps. I thought that 100 would be plenty, but no, our rate of wastage has been staggering... There's nothing for it though, I'll just have to wear it and order some more (should be OK at slightly less than eight cents each).

Impreza to Liberty and back again

After throwing in the bulkhead harness (or sqeezing it behind the heater box then quickly bolting in the dash bar to hold it in), we decided the easy option was to do the same for the body harness inside the car. This way the important items like fuel pump controller and ABS sensor wiring should be straight-forward. That leaves us just needing to merge Impreza lights, wipers, etc into the Liberty harness.

I'm super happy because now the ECU is super-happy. The cluster lights up, the fuel pump primes (after a quick splice) and we can even turn the engine over! We are starting to believe that we might just pull this off.

Next we start merging from Impreza switchgear on the steering column to the Liberty harness and then back to the Impreza lights (for a start). As you can see from these pictures, this is fine... there's always a few wires and stuff left over when you DIY... right?

Still to do: 

  1. Tidy it up inside
    • Finish wiring lights, wipers, windows (maybe mirrors) and hide it behind trim
    • Install dash (we'll try for the liberty dash, otherwise ¯\_(ツ)_/¯)
  2. Send it off for turbo/exhaust/intercooler - I've been waiting to see if someone produces an off the shelf turbo exhaust manifold. No dice.
  3. Figure out the final details of the auto to manual swap - should be easy
    • Pull pin X to ground
    • Remove TCU (apparently)
    • Steal wires for reverse and neutral switches
    • ???
    • Done
  4. Tidy it up under the bonnet
    • Mount Liberty ABS pump
    • Mount Impreza fuel filter
    • Mount Liberty FPR
    • Mount fuse box
    • Radiator and fans
    • all the other stuff that I'm not thinking about now 'cause it's killing my buzz

To be continued...

Will the Liberty ECU like the ABS signals from the Impreza? Will we be able to work out how to get this ECU to work with a manual gearbox? Will we ever track down all of the codes this thing is throwing? Are we missing any more key components? Will we run out of money before we get to drive it?

Tune in next time to find out.

Out with the old

In with the massively more complicated. 

We stripped the old dash/bulkhead/engine-bay wiring harness out of the Impreza ready for the Liberty harness to go in. Notice the elegant simplicity of the Impreza wiring vs the mess from the Liberty.

Everything falls vaguely in place though and we should be able to squeeze it all behind the heater box. We'll need some new brackets for things like the fuse box near the drivers door and of course a heap of cable ties to clean it up.

Subaru miracles from this installment include: All of the holes in the bulkhead are in the right place and the Liberty bungs* fit (again, close enough for brute force), even to the point where an extra hole existed where needed on the passenger side for a branch of the Liberty harness that doesn't exist in the Impreza harness.

* We had a lot of fun saying 'bung' and 'bung-hole' during this process.

Not seen in pictures:  The harness in and around the engine-bay fits pretty well - headlights, radiator fans, ABS and engine connections shouldn't be an issue - although side indicators, fuse box and gearbox connectors will need a little work.

Goodbyes can be so difficult...

...especially when they involve dragging hundreds of kilos of scrap metal off the concrete floor of a single width garage.

It's a little sad to see this go, it's almost a complete car - it has an engine (ej18), gearbox (FWD), sub-frames (FWD), even some airbags. All it needs is some assembly, wheels, suspension, brakes, pedals and steering.

Oh and a fuel system, ECU and wiring.

And seats and doors and windows.

Then just a little bodywork and it's good to go*.

* Nearly: it'll still need some panels and I've probably forgotten one or two things.

The internet was right

The time has come for the true test of my Google-fu - the internet says all of this will bolt together and fit in the Impreza.

And holy crap it does fit... at least close enough that we can brute force it.

Anyway, to recap: H6 out of liberty, onto GDA WRX crossmember, flex plate off, flywheel and clutch on, gearbox attached, all then bolted into Impreza. And we only ruined one engine mount doing it.

Subaru miracles from this installment include: H6 drops onto WRX crossmember using stock H6 mounts, manual gearbox bolts straight up to H6, 6 speed gearbox mount bolt-holes exist and are threaded, ej18 starter motor appears to fit(!), both the H6 and the 6-speed gearbox fit in the impreza (although we did have to remove all of the brackets on the gearbox).

Not seen in pictures: We also swapped the drive-by-wire Liberty accelerator pedal (which will require a new mounting hole in the firewall) and Liberty ABS module (which will need a new mount bracket) including all hydraulic hard lines, all of which should mean that we can have traction and stability control!

Some problems are best solved with power-tools

We couldn't lift the engine out with a crane because the liberty was a little bent around it and also we didn't have a crane. So we used a power-saw to lop the front off the car and then we could just roll then engine out.

Next to remove the flex-plate from the engine. It was secured with stupid torx-plus bolts, which stripped even when using the proper tool (yes, we were using it improperly, but at least we tried), so we drilled them out. It took hours.

Now we just need to bolt it all up!

Hahahahaha, no.

Told you it'd fit*

Subaru was nice enough to provide threaded bolt-holes even where they weren't needed for the FWD drivetrain, so they deserve most of the credit. Props go to me for cleaning over 20 years worth of road grime out of them out though.

*The rear struts have a slightly different bolt spacing on the top mounts so they don't bolt up. We should be able to swap the top mounts and solve that.

Not seen in pictures: Install GDB Sti pedal box (minus accelerator), includes: conversion from cable to hydraulic clutch and brake booster swap.

For reals

The lift is finally in and I have to admit it is pretty sweet.

Car goes up, engine... doesn't!

Everything at this point is about removing stuff, which is heaps of fun. You can see we have the engine and the whole FWD drivetrain out. What you probably can't see is the exhaust, rear sub-frame, suspension and fuel tank which come out as well.

Don't forget the tape and Skerples.

Finger tight for now