EG33 Brighton Mods so farindicates complete The Heart and soul EG33 3.3L engine 2.5rs 4.11 5 speed Outback 4.11 Rear LSD Front mount radiator Oil Cooler Custom exhaust Turbo Custom Top Mount The Handling JDM 4 piston fronts Stoptech Stainless Steel lines Whiteline bushings 2009 GR STI front sway bar Rear Sway bar setup On the inside JDM WRX front seats Flocked dash Weight reduction mods Sparco steering wheel 04 WRX Gauge cluster retrofit Cage On the Outside 17X7 wheels (from previous owner) New FUZION ZR1 tires Agressive 17x9+ Wheels and rubber Overfenders Custom Aero I've been holding off on posting a build thread here out of pure laziness but then I figured I should contribute something to the community and share my new adventure. Back in February my wife (yes, I joined the Navy and got married last year) encouraged me to get another project car since we are both car people and she has her Mustang. After searching and searching I found a 1997 Brighton in NC and bribed Bixs into driving me up to go pick it up. Stock except for 2007 Sti seats, facelifted headlights, and KYB GR2's and H&R springs. The car seemed to have barely made it home I think due to a bad fuel pump and it wouldn't stay in 5th gear on the highway, I literally had to hold it in 5th the whole drive back lol but it drove smooth minus the occasional hiccups from the fuel pump. The next day I took it over to Bixs for a fluid change and just as I was about to refill the tranny (found a piece of metal) and oil we looked at each other and decided to begin swapping it. Within 24 hrs of owning the car it became a shell. After a lot of arguing we finally got this in in its place EG33 out of an SVX. Whenever I work on the car I get distracted by tools and random tidbits. Rather than change out my driver side axle to replace a boot I polished the engine bay still some work to do to it but I'll save it for another day I get bored. After pooling my resources in the community I swapped the busted tranny for a 2.5rs 4.11 5 speed and matching rear LSD out of an Outback. Only problem is I forgot about my cable clutch system before putting the engine in and so now decided to swap the cable to a hydraulic clutch out of a 2001 RS. I have the master and slave cylinders in but sourcing an RS pedal box to complete that swap. Ditched the rear drums for WRX rear discs and calipers and JDM 4 pots in the fronts You can also see I got on awesome deal on some BC Racing Coilovers for my like new struts and springs. Stoptech lines became a hassle because the hardlines were so rusted we broke 3/4 of them. I replaced 2 of them which sucked because I kept breaking the new lines :rofl: Everyone says to do this swap you have to lose the hood latch and cut the core support because the Crank Pulley sits where the Impreza radiator used to but I decided to get innovative and fab up my own setup using a '91 Jeep Comanche radiator I found at Pull-A-Part. this radiator isn't pretty but I plan on getting the aftermarket aluminum replacement in the future. Very front mount esque if you ask me. Sold the Sti seats and picked up some JDM Wrx seats that fit the car (and driver) a little better. The sound deadening has been stripped out and while the dash is removed I plan on flocking it smoke gray to match the seats. Also prepping the backseat area and floor to be painted light grey (my current ADD side project). Bad fuel pump has been switched for a TopSpeed 340lph pump that was literally half the size of the stock one. Installed a GR STI front swaybar and replaced the steering rack with a cleaner one and Whiteline bushings as well. Still undecided on going with a rear sway bar, this car doesn't have the mounts for one just the bolt holes with grommets in them. I am sure I am forgetting something as I have literally loosened every bolt on this car all the way down to the gas tank in the first 2 months of ownership. Hopefully with Bixs help on the wiring it will be at a meet soon :bowdown:
Awesome build man. What do you mean by custom top mount in the mods list? What is going to be involved with the wiring to get it running?
The eg33 has a twin throttle bodies instead of one. There isn't a TMIC on the market right for that setup so I plan on picking up a large one and have another outlet cut in and welded next to the outlet of the original one. Will take some skill but there are some talented welders in the Atlanta car scene I can utilize. I want to go with a top mount to keep weight distribution from the front of the car. Other setups I've seen for turbo 3.3's is trunk mounted radiator/ FMIC or Water to air. Just trying to be innovative. The stock airbox got sold off before I picked up the motor so I spent a couple of hours yesterday cutting into my stock Brighton Airbox to put a coupler in to work with the EG33. I'll post pictures up later of this setup. As far as the ECU goes, the SVX ecu will piggy back off of the Impreza ecu and run only the engine. So essentially I'll have two ECU's until I can get a standalone next year depending on tunability of the stock ECU.
Ah so you are gonna turbo it. Awesome. Is there any off the shelf options for a turbo'd EG33 or will you also have to utilize fabrication of custom headers?
I will have to fab up custom headers. I picked up a spare Impreza cross member to put on the spare motor on a stand and fab some up. Turbo will come in about a year, I'm just getting it running for now and build up the spare motor on the side with ported heads, EJ22 pistons, oil pump, etc. With the current suspension mods and at 2600lbs(ish), the 230 hp should be fun until then.
Yep obd I. I saw the chips, they are pretty pricey. I'm hoping we can opensource tweek it. If not I'll drive it stock until I get a standalone. The Megasquirt setups arent much more than the Ecutek chips.
Sure do, Ive got a whole dash to go with it if you want that too. Theyre still in the car but will be coming out this weekend.
My pedals are from a bugeye actually, and I think Im keeping them with the body until I figure out what Im going to do with it
Are RS and Brighton pedals the same? Any pre-02 RS had the same black rubber pedals for all 3. I swapped mine to WRX pedals.
Sweet bro! you two need to come hang out soon. I should have the wifeys shades next week. Maybe sooner :sx:
I need the pedal box with a pivot arm that reaches over to the master slabe cylinder. My clutch pedal just has a cable that goes to the clutch fork but Im switching to a slave cylinder setup because I forgot to switch clutch forks lol
I'd look for WRX pedals then. As you know, they're aluminum. I never had good luck with the clutch and brake pedals when I changed from rubber to alum. They would randomly slide off. Unless you want the normal rubber pedal.
Spent all day in the garage today, finished grinding down the floor boards of the sound deadening residue and then painted it gray. Then while that dried I moved onto the oil cooler. That bracket in front of it is my front mount radiator bracket. As you can see I upgraded from zip ties to safety wire Here's a shot with the front grill in place, minus the radiator and bumper And oil filter relocation homage to the BRZ, now to order some 45* AN fittings to finish plumbing the hoses.
I don't understand why people flip out over easy to reach self draining oil filters, manufacturers being doing that for damn near a hundred years. Freaking n00b
Need a pedal box, a few couplers, and hose fittings and plug in the wiring. Oh yea sometime this week I need to relocate the battery to the rear but that can wait until after first start up.
it runs, drove it up the street and there is a video on fb, I can't link here though It idles then dies after a couple of seconds, we think the shutting off is a massive vacuum leak in the throttle body, it idles smooth though. I'll investigate it tomorrow. Looks like it needs the aluminum radiator afterall as this one has a small leak. It'll look even more like a fmic once that's in. Also, the rear brake seems to be locked up. Either the caliper is fubared, ebrake is too tight, or I need to swap out master cylinders to compensate the 4 pots and wrx rear drum to disc conversion. thought?
you'll want to use these, Single Stage Brake Booster 26402FA071 Corresponding Master Cylinder 26401AA231
Turns out the Brighton already comes with a single stage brake booster, all I needed was a wrx bias distributor. My actual problem ended up being a bolt that was over extending into the rotor
Wow I haven't updated this thread in awhile. The eg33 failed in November and so I decided to take the time to change it up quite a bit. Unfortunately I have been really busy this year and haven't been able to work on it too much but here is a teaser of how it looks now. And to sum it up, I bought a low mileage eg33 from Allpro and then changed my mind and decided to sell all of my SVX for a wrecked outback with an ez30 in it.
Love these old coupes. I have 2 even older Scoobys, '84 GL wagon & '89 Loyale, I really need some help doing something cool with before they rot. The guy that was keeping them at his shop passed away unexpectedly and now I have to find a place for them and figure out what to do with them. Keep us updated on this coupe. Don't let it fall into neglect mode like my poor wagons!