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Monsterwagon 2.0

Hi all. Introducing Monsterwagon 2.0 as she currently sits.

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I will write up a massive build thread at some point soon - I have a heap of photos from along the way. But basically, I wrecked the previous Monsterwagon as the body was stuffed. Purchased another wagon of the exact same model (white MPFI touring wagon) in Feb 2014. This one already came with a bodgy 2" lift, 14" muddies, EJ22 with adaptor plate setup to 5speed. Generally the mechanicals were in terrible condition, and the body was "okay" but had particularly bad rust in one area. Over the last 2-years I've made a few changes. I'll include a heap of details. Here is a brief summary.


At this point I have the car fully driving and have literally just had it dyno tuned yesterday. It's now at the point where I can drive it daily, which is what I'm going to be doing starting Thursday this week. There is still a HEAP of little things to finish off but now that I'm daily driving it, I may as well put the specs up here.

Specs are as follows:

Engine
EZ30
From a 2007 Liberty
This is the one people refer to as the EZ30R - the later model one with 3 exhaust ports per head, the plastic intake manifold, and AVCS.

Radiator
Originally a brand new Series1 Mazda RX-7 radiator. Brass tanks, copper core (triple core), fairly heavily modified for clearance, filler neck location, inlet/outlet pipe locations and numbers of.Two 10" slimline Davies Craig thermo fans between the radiator and motor.

ECU
Vi-pec V88 standalone unit. (Only the engine loom for the EZ30 remains from the donor vehicle - no original ECU loom at all).
Dyno tune by Sean at ASG - 181hp at the wheels.

Exhaust
Raptor performance full replacement EZ30 headers, stainless.
2 x high flow CATs
Y-piece behind the CATs into a single 2.5" pipe to the rear of the car
2.5" Varex rear muffler (so I can make the car totally silent at the push of a button)

Body
Re-painted engine bay.
Windscreen surround rust repairs and re-sealed windscreen.
Otherwise generally an average condition/looking L series wagon, all the usual shabby bits and dints here and there.

Gearbox
SF Forester 5speed dual range (has 1.4:1 low range), 4.111 final drive ratio.
DCCD centre diff (from some kind of STI) fitted.
"DCCD-Pro" manual controller (not yet connected).
Plan to upgrade this to a stronger SG box later, add front LSD and SF low range etc.
Shifter linkage and mount are cut about 1" shorter to fit the L series.
Dual range selector retro-fitted inside the car.

Tailshaft
Brand new custom tailshaft from "Final Drive":
- Front section 65mm shorter than normal (to suit longer Forester gearbox)
- All Holden replaceable uni joints (the same ones they fit to drag cars)
The only thing they used from my existing tailshaft was the centre bearing assembly which they rekoned was as-new.

Wheels/tyres
As pictured, it just has a crappy set of 16s with crappy road tyres on it at the moment.
There is a set of 4 x 15" Audi wheels, with brand new Kumho KL71 mud terrain tyres sitting in the shed ready to go on, but I need to cut the guards nicely and get some flares before I can fit these.

Brakes
Front: RS-Turbo calipers with brand new slotted and ventilated disks and pads
Rear: RS-Turbo caplipers with brand new ventilated disks, pads and handbrake shoes

Hubs
Front: RS-Turbo front hubs
Rear: Cr0ss-b-r-e-d hubs & backing plates

Front end setup
Full Liberty engine crossmember with Liberty wishbone control arms (no L series radius rods etc). Whiteline anti-lift mount brackets used for Control arm mounts.
Custom 1-piece lift block / adaptors to act as lift blocks where the radius rods used to mount, and provide an "adaptor" to allow the control arms to mount.
Note that this means the front end wheel-track is Liberty spec, so slightly wider than L series. I have put bolt-on wheel spacers on the rear end to match the track.

Steering rack
Standard SF forester steering rack (ultra low kms, apparently ~30,000kms somehow).
Power steering lines are the EZ30 ones, they plug straight in to the rack.

Body lift kit
3" Strut tops (not the best, they came with the car, I'd like to get them re-done some time).
2" Engine crossmember lift blocks with offset mounting holes to allow the slightly wider Liberty engine crossmember to bolt in.
No tailshaft centre bearing spacers (I had a fair bit of tailshaft vibration before removing them, all good now).

Rear diff
R160 open diff, 4.111.
I do have a clutch-pack diff from an old RX I could chuck in but I'm working on an idea for an air-locker setup so the open can stay in for the time being.

Driveshafts
Front: SF forester shafts. Boots look like they might let go soon, have a pair of brand new "Chinese" E-bay shafts I'll put in sometime soon and see how they go.
Rear: Brand new L series "Chinese" E-bay shafts. Quality seems great.

Interior stuff
Front seats: Black leather from 2007 Liberty, both with full electric movement. (custom mounted).
Centre console: SF forester console. Not finished fitting up, just kindof sitting there at the moment.
Double Din Android head unit (GPS Satnav, media player, reverse camera etc etc), not wired in yet.
Brand new Momo steering wheel, not fitted yet.

Other stuff
Suba-extreme steel full rear bumper replacement, with swingout jerry can and spare wheel holder.
Rola roof racks (not on the car at the moment)
Rola large roof basket to go on the racks (not on the car at the moment)


After picking it up yesterday, I can say that it drives pretty damn nicely. Considering there is no kind of boost involved anyway, this thing really moves. Can't wait to get it offroad.
The exhaust is ridiculously loud with the muffler open when flogging the car, I will need to get two "hotdog" resonators fitted asap. From the outside there is absolutely no hint as to what bits the car is running. It just looks like any old 2" lifted L series with 5stud conversion.

Really long list of stuff still to do - tidy up wiring, fit rear seats, sort out airconditioning, fit roofracks, fit stereo, fit new steering wheel, fit inner wheel well plastics, custom make a bash plate, fit towbar etc etc etc.

I'll put a bunch of placeholder posts in next so I'll have room to write up all the details of the build, with all the photos.
 
sounds like an absolute weapon!

What's an L wagon curb weight ? About 1100kg ?
 
sounds like an absolute weapon!

What's an L wagon curb weight ? About 1100kg ?

I remember hearing about 1150 at some stage but I'm not really sure. The EZ30 is about 40kg heavier than an EJ25. My steel rear bar is probably easily 50kg so I expect my car might be something like 1250. I will certainly take it over a weigh bridge at some point just for interest, there's one not far from my place I think.
 
SO MUCH WIN...

Awesome build mate
 
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