My 94 WRX Offroader

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Nov 17, 2010
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Udon Thani Thailand
Sort of taken from another forum as I'm lazy.;)
I bought this about 6yrs ago & it sat under a tarp for 4ish years after I had the 97 STI rear end grafted on....Well it's painted & running now, thanks for the help to get it going again seagull.

I've fitted Forrester struts all round & GD alloy front arms so I don't need to mess around with steering extensions or blocks (atm).

Took me ages finding all the bits after 1 house move & 4yrs of stuff being moved around but finally got there.

It still needs a few minor things done like a new silicone hose kit (on order) as it sprung a leak so I may as well replace the whole lot for peace of mind, also waiting on a guy over east to get back to me with some Foz parts to sort the donkey end out & get the rear wheels further back & fix the camber a bit, if not I'll just get some 1" blocks made up, I still need to fit the skirts & put a standard exhaust system back on it too.

About the only things left of the original car will be the engine, front rails, firewall & floorpan, there are bits from over 40 different cars on it so far ............Five alone on the bonnet lol.

I've also got a Hi/Lo 93 Lib box to go in & I've just bought a brand new front LSD to shove in it also so I'll sell the 4.1 set up that's in it once it's fitted to cover cost of the LSD.

I'm still undecided on tyres yet as I have 2 sets 1/. the GT Foz 16's with 205/60 tyres or 2/. 02 WRX 17's with 235/45's......same rolling diameter & nice & fat but I'd need to mod the wheel carrier to fit the latter spare because of width & offset.

Well here's some snaps for your pleasure
Hope to get on some Wedge type cruises with you guys once it's going.

As I bought it 6 yrs ago.
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AGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH
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With the 97 STI bum grafted on.
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New paint
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Getting there
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With the new struts in.
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Bit higher than my Lib now lol.
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Comments & criticism welcome.
Tom.

A bit later, 4th month last year.
Update...........Took it over the pits today %^#&&%$# that's all I can say, they failed it on a missing brake clip on the rear strut (cable ties won't do & I'd forgotten to fit it) & a loose bolt on a ball joint at which point he refused to test drive it (I borrowed a 14mm spanner & tightened it but it was too late by then) while he was under the car he called me down to ask why I had only put a lift (1") in the back & not the front, I explained I had put GD WRX front alloy swing arms in because they are 1cm longer to compensate for the camber adjustment & stop the need for steering knuckle lengthening, it didn't sink in to him that I hadn't raised the rear of the car but lowered the sub frame etc to stop the wheels tucking in & to put the rear wheels back a bit so they don't scrub on the back of the skirts.............So then they decided that I need to send a modification form in to the big boys at Welshpool to get authorization to have the suspension mods AGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH.
They also made me take the spare wheel carrier off (2 second job) because they reckoned the angle you can see the tail lights from is not right, I've ordered a set of LED's from ebay & I'll either place them under the top spoiler or in the bumper so I can retain it legally...PITA.
One thing the silly old fart missed was the external boost controller, it's amazing what some black electrical tape will cover lol.
I decided to go with 205/60/16's in the end, some Japanese brand street tyres at $140 per corner with a 92 rating, from the drive in soft sand out the back of Kewdale a couple of weeks ago they are pretty good too.
So let's hope the guys at the Mod dept let it pass or it's back to stock struts.
Because it sat with normal tap water in it for 3yrs while it was hiding under a tarp just about everything rotted away, I've had the intake manifold off 3 times in the last 2 weeks trying to fix leaks, what a **** of a job that is.
I've also managed to find a huge 5mm thick bash plate that goes from the front bumper right back to the end of the gear box but I'll fit that after it's regoed.


Hose kit in, the pod passed no problems as I'd put a bracket on it, you can see the blue boost controller that I covered in tape hiding under the alloy pipe.
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Before the front roo bar was found.

Just washed & ready to go over the pits, I've still got to sort out a better bracket for the front bumper to hold it straighter. Might see if I can borrow a Forester bumper & see if I can get it to fit for better clearance.
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For the rear 1" body lift.

Thanks to Seagull for doing a bit of machining & some more cuts & letting me use his bench drill to make the holes.
 
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A recent update after a few drama's with the pits a year or so earlier.

Well I guess it's time for a bit of an update, Neil (seagull) & his useless assistant (me) have made quite a few mods over the past couple of weeks.

First off was the dual range gear box taken from a 92 Liberty wagon, ripped it apart to find it had recently been re-conditioned so everything was good, I ordered a helical LSD from the States - landed here in a week for $480 and also found a 4.44 cw & p, after a minor mod to the cw it went together well, I now have similar ratio's to a WRX RA box pulling about 3,400 @ 100kph in 5th & of course the 20% lower range, also obviously fitted a rear Viscous & 4.44's, it's a bit noisy but I guess that's to be expected, especially on over run.

Next was the clutch, the WRX is 2,500lb, std dual range is 2,200lb but I managed to get a 3,000lb out of a 09 WRX, these work in the same way as the pull clutch & we tried putting hydraulics in but couldn't get enough throw (1cm) so ended up going the old cable (3cm throw) and so far so good.

Other things done were to re-mount the roo bar welding it to a piece of 30mm square tube mounted between the tow/tie down points which is braced back to the X member on each side for extra strength with a new tow hook mounted to it also.

Fitted a set of Outback X member lifts (32mm ish) and a 25mm lift to everything else as far back as the center tail shaft mounts...the rear was done before.

Mud (sand) flaps.

Changed the weird pod filter intake set up to something closer to a standard Gen 2 set up.

Fitted a VF8 instead of the laggy TDO5 & sorted all the vacuum lines.

Fitted/made a 3" TBE back to the diff & running a std WRX muffler for quietness.

Modded & mounted the huge alloy bash plate and also fitted a diff plate.

Modded the wheel carrier so it sits further away from the rear spoiler.

Modded the center console for the extra lever....

Still on the to do list, put a nice shiny polished bit of alloy at the front from the bottom of the bash plate to the center bar on the roo bar with lots of holes, fit a fan under the bonnet scoop to blow air over the top mount and blow hot air out of the engine bay, probably a set of KYB struts & 1" higher hd springs.
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98 Libbo with V3 STI running gear. 13.09 @ 105mph with CAI & 3" Zorst
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MY94 WRX.... Offroader..Ready for the dirt.
 
Tow hook
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Roo bar sits pretty close to center now & much stronger

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Stick

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hopefully I'll fix the lousy boost soon, I'm only getting about 8.5psi, hoping for closer to 12-13 & I got an IAVC? code 24 last night so I guess I'll have a go at cleaning that out tomorrow.
I also had problems with the speedo reading about 18-20% higher than it should because of the new gearing but pretty much solved that yesterday by taking the face off a 220kph Liberty speedo and adapting it to the original WRX 260kph speedo by cutting the outer number area off that and placing the 220 one over the top so the needle isn't reading the higher 260 numbers, seems fairly accurate going by what other traffic is doing & the light still shines through because I cut the old back off ( I removed the 220 needle without a problem but didn't want to risk breaking the WRX unit)
 
Its come a fair way from the begining. Nice work :biggrin:

Does the dual-range gearbox make a big difference driving on sand? With the turbo and the low range that would be unreal for offroading.
 
Spare wheel carrier and sump guard nicely done. Let me know if you need an MY99 TMIC! Be careful with the clutch- the MY06 box is stronger than earlier boxes and definitely stronger than a D/R box and all of them are too weak for a turbo IMO. I had to laugh about the cable ties and the brake line. When we built the rally car, the coil overs had no provision for brake lines and I had to secure them with cable ties. Just had to be careful there was no binding on full lock , full compression or droop. No issues there after a number of rallies. If you are only getting 8.5 boost then it seems you are only getting wastegate boost- something is wrong with the boost controller or the lines to it. What boost controller are you running? Have you considered running a TD04? Also, which ecu are you using? All in all a good effort
 
Hey, yeah I thought about a TD04 but the VF8 was free & not that much bigger, I also needed the bent entry so it was easier that way, I've tried putting olives in different lines but it hits overboost straight away, it's got the old 3 bolt solenoid.

The boxes actual gears are identical in thickness as all the other boxes apart from 1'st gear which is a good 20% thinner so as long as I don't launch it off the line it should be fine + you can pick them up for a couple of hundred each so not such a biggie if it blows but I'm pretty gentle on them, the 4.44 has lasted 6yrs in my Liberty with a pretty hard life. The 4.1 box that was in it was fine but way too high geared for sand work, I guess this was the only real option.

99 TMIC won't fit on the early manifold, it sits too far back, I've got a couple here I think, hence the idea of the fan as the motor has been dropped 32mm so plenty of room for one.

Yep, the box is great so far, Two rocks is notoriously bad as a soft beach, the dual range is perfect with the 4.44 cw&p grafted in.
 
I had boost issues with my car- most times you'd get boost, but at other times it just was not there. I ended up getting a GReddy Proflec B2 and that issue has gone.

Re the turbo- can't beat free parts, can you! You are running a similar set up we had on the rally car- although we did have an early TD04 with the angled entry. That car was a JDM MY96 I think- well the front half was anyway.
 
The wheel carrier is a standard Subaru item from the 96JDM Gravel Express.
Gravel Subaru

Thanks Mr Turbo.

Rally, this is the opposite, 94 Aus front & 97 A pillar back JDM STI, I've got a Blitz dual EBC sitting in my Liberty but it's too good for this thing, even though it's been in there for about 3yrs and never hooked up lol.
 
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Subaru have real difficulty identifying a target demographic for individual models. Or a story / theme for each model. An OEM fitment rear tyre carrier for the Outback would seem a bit 'Captain Obvious', but not to Subaru ... "I know, don't bother putting it on the Ausie Outback ... fit it to the Japanese WRX ... ?!*
 
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Yeah but they did do weirder things to Impreza's than put wheel carriers on them instead of the cars they should have gone on like the OB & Foz, check this little beauty out.















Called the Casa Blanca from 99 & 00
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Someone get a gun and shoot it and put us all out of our misery. Or maybe it was this front end they designed for the front and rear impact tests?
 
Rally said:
Someone get a gun and shoot it and put us all out of our misery.
Click to expand...
It's not the poor car's fault.
I'd have the designer's & engineer's shot instead. :bananagunner: :bananagunner: :bananagunner:

Which leads me to a couple of questions.
Where did they find these people & what were they thinking. :huh: :shake:

Regards
Mr Turbo
 
I realise that Damo, but the poor thing looks like it is in agony and it seems the only right thing to do!
They obviously found them at the local funny farm and let them loose. I don't think any thought went into it. Maybe it was an April Fools Day joke?
 
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