Chris's Brighton Swap

Chris's Brighton Swap (Updated 2/25)

Car is now being parted out

 

Current parts:


02 EJ205 dressed longblock
Sti rods
King race bearings

4 inch downpipe
3 inch catless turboback
98 RS 5 speed tranny
02 Wrx crossmember
04 Wrx Wagon sways
02 Wrx axles/rotors/springs/struts/brakes
02 Wrx driveshaft
Legacy Snowflakes

02 Wrx complete dash/interior
02 Wrx wiring harness (bumper to bumper w/ all sensors and ecu)
02 Wrx steering column w/ignition, clock spring w/controls
04 Sti steering wheel
02 Wrx pedal box






To Do list:
Merge tranny harness
replace shifter bushings
Align steering wheel

 

Heres where I started:















The car needed a windshield, so that was the first thing I had done (thats not me):









Over the months, Ive watched the various forums and craigslist for what I thought to be cheap/good deals on parts. I used rs25 stickies as a guide for what I needed to be on the lookout for. Most of my engine/interior stuff came from a wrecked 02 bugeye, my tranny came from a junkyard, and my wiring came from nasioc. Osbourne519 really hooked it up with the majority of the engine/interior parts.












$20 with y pipe and recirc


from junk yard, still full of clear fluid, shifts fine

 

and so it begins...













For some reason I had a red painted driveshaft? Top is stock auto, bottom is wrx 5spd, notice the slight length difference.





Interior removed, WRX pedals installed.












NA crossmember and front suspension removed.









Comparison of fuel pump assemblies, impreza on left and wrx on right.












And this is what happens when someone steps in your oil waste pan before you have a chance to dispose of it........



I wonder which way they went...

 

Painting the Wrx stuff:







Thanks Talktojin for the great deal on the wheels






Finally got all the timing cover stuff I needed from B reel












4in to 3in exhaust compared to stock





Got this hood for cheap, in pretty decent condition. Needs paint and has a small dent down on the front left. Heres a test fit




Interior stuff

 

Well, after a failing hard from a bad bearing the 1st time around, the car is back up and running (sans knock)! Lots of thanks to B reel for his time and energy getting my shortblock done.





















This is the very first start up attempt. Sorry for the terrible audio

 

good lookin'!

 

That's awesome and LOL at oil feet print!!

 

Awesome build man! Your gonna have to come over and do my dash swap? haha. I want to do one, but don't want to deal with the wiring on it lol

 

The wiring has been 100% plug and play so far, Im trying to swap every single electronic thing I can to cut down on things needing to be merged. I think Ill only need to merge the:

rad fans
wiper motor
door ajar sensors
door speakers
e brake handle ground
headlights
tail lights
transmission (speed sensor and the 2 tranny plugs, should be too bad)

Im sure Im forgetting something, hopefully its something small

 

awesome progress, keep the thread up to date! looking good!

 

Thanks!

No progress to report today, I spent over 3 hours trying to remove a stripped bolt that holds the motor mount to the cross member. Its in such an odd place I cant get to it with the angle grinder... My ears are ringing like crazy today after using impact tools for that long, I will wear hearing protection from now on!

lol

 

Sweet!

 

Well, it's ready to try a test crank. All I need to do is figure out where the clutch pedal ground is and hook it up. Ill hopefully try tomorrow afternoon, I'm going to record it. Wish me luck!

 

Does anyone know how to override the need to press the clutch down to crank the car?

 

your gonna have to mess with your nutral safety switch that is right above your clutch pedal. Here is a DIY that you can do to bypass that.

http://www.rs25.com/forums/f105/t125523-diy-neutral-safety-switch-disable-5-speeds-trans.html

 

Thanks, thats exactly what I was looking for.

 

Let me know how it goes!

 

Ended up checking a few connections and taking the night off. I can't get it to turn over yet, the relay clicks but the starter doesn't turn. Probably a ground I missed, I've still got a good bit of wiring connections to do before I can make legitimate try at starting it. Just need pace myself!

 

Well, i guess i have a small update. I've not worked on the car in several weeks, I've yet to crank it.

I've been tracing down grounds and I think I have them all, I may need to check and see if the starter is getting the correct voltage. Does anyone know what voltage should be getting to the black pillar on the starter? It's the yellow wire, not the one going to the battery.

 

Ok, figured out the starter issue (thanks B reel).

Connected all the vacuum lines, pulled the ignition fuse, then turned it over a few times to prime the turbo and what not. After adding the fuse back, I tried several times to crank the car with no luck. It was backfiring like hell so at least I'm getting some spark and fuel. Battery was getting low so I put it on the charger and called it a night.

Tomorrow I'll add some fresh fuel and clean the plugs and see what happens. Does anyone have any advice to get this thing cranked for the first time?

 

Fresh gas will certainly help, but backfiring usually occurs if the timing is off.

 

The timing lined up perfectly, would there be any other reasons for that?

Edit-
I'm running an open 4 inch down pipe right now, could the lack of back pressure be causing it?

 

You're running a turbo, so backpressure doesn't really decrease running only a downpipe

 

I mean lack of back pressure with open dp versus full turboback exhaust.

 

Maybe a grounding issue? I know when putting everything back together, I missed a couple grounding points that caused my car not to start. Just a starting point....

 

That was the first thing I checked, Im almost positive that all of my grounds are connected. I hope its a fuel/plug issue and not something serious.

 

Wait your fuel pump is priming right?

 

The turbo creates enough back pressure, running open downpipe versus full exhaust won't make the difference of why it's not starting. I started my old setup before I made my downpipe (twinscroll with USDM catback) and it ran, just really loud.

Start off with the FACTS

Fuel
Air
Compression
Timing
Spark

If you are certain Fuel and Spark is good, that leaves Air, Compression or Timing.

 

^^ the man speaks the truth =)

 

Ok, I know the fuel pump is priming for a fact. I will pull the fuel line off the manifold and try cranking it just to verify that fuel is actually reaching the engine bay. I will also add fresh gas today.

The intake isnt collapsed, I worked the tgvs before installing them so hopefully theyve not locked up since then. The throttle cable/body are both working fine.

As far as compression, I did a leakdown test before installing the engine and it was good. If all else fails I will buy a gauge and do a true compression test.

Timing? I guess that will be the last thing I check if I have to pull the engine back out.

I can ground the plugs on the frame one at a time and turn it over to check for spark, right? I highly doubt I messed this up but I have read about people putting on coil packs in the wrong place, Ill take a look at that too.

*edit*
I do get a slight car exhaust smell in the garage when Im trying to crank, plus its back firing, so it must have fuel and some sort of spark, right?

 

Ok, good news and bad news.

Good: Car cranks

Bad: Idles rough as hell, also has a deep banging sound on passenger side.

CELS:

P0340 Camshaft Position Sensor (plug was crushed, will fix tonight)
P0031 Front oxygen (A/F) sensor heater circuit low input (this is the one after the cat from what ive been reading, not concerned with it ATM)

all of these are surely because I am running my original gas tank
P0463 Fuel Level Sensor A Circuit High
P0447 Evaporative Emission Control System Vent Control Open



I was told the short block was inspected prior to me purchasing it, I think its coming from cylinder 3. The heads were in tolerance and from AllPro so it cant be that.



This all sounds like shit news but I am kinda relieved that the wiring is correct enough for the car to crank. I can finally start replacing the interior and buttoning things up. If I cant get it to stop making the horrific noise Ive already got a 257 :naughty: shortblock to replace it with. Ill make a video of the noise tonight if I cant get it figured out.



**edit**
Rod bearing is F'd, looks like the engine is coming back out. At least all the wiring is done, I can finish the interior while I'm waiting on parts.

The question is...... Should I do rods and pistons in the 205 short block or go ahead and replace it with a 257 short block?

 

Finished the interior today, everything came together rather nicely. I'm pulling the enginethis coming week and hope to have it back in the car by mid February.

Pics coming shortly

 

Pulling the engine today, getting it fixed over the weekend and I should have it back the following weekend. I got the interior in, pretty nice dash gap on the sides but that was expected. I think Im going to cut some plastic and mount it in the gaps.

Also did some work on merging the lights/wipers/rad fans. Ive added 2 pics at the bottom of the op to show the interior. Ill add some more of the engine damage once I figure out exactly what it is.

 

I was going to do a dash swap until someone stole all the wiring I had from my WRX donor car. I might plan on that in the near future. Hope you get the engine sorted out.

 

Thanks man, Im sure Ill get it sorted out eventually. In hindsight I should have just had it rebuilt before installing it, but I was told it had been inspected prior to me purchasing it. Thats what I get! :hsnono: I needed to clean up the firewall from where I hacked it up anyways, having no engine will make that easier.

I heard you were finished with your swap, we'll have to meet up sometime so I can see it in action!

 

if you have a 257 ready to go, why waste the money rebuilding the 205 back to anything other than BUILT??

 

Using the RS tranny or I would.

I was saving the 257 to go with a 6 speed down the road but Im getting rid of it this weekend.

 

The EJ205 will be way more reliable than the Ej257.

 

this is true, but didn't see the reasoning behind fixing a broken engine when you had a running engine waiting to go in

 

That is the most logical thing to do, youre right Jake. Im just ready to get this thing on the road and I figured the 205 would be my least expensive option for the time being. This car will be a daily driver, at the most it will get is a tbe/injectors/vf39/fuel pump/ap.

The 22t or 257 hybrid w/ 6 spd will come down the road :naughty:

 

Went beast mode and got the engine pulled and broken down in about 4 hours tonight. I found out that the timing hadn't slipped and all the valves and cylinders still looked good.

The short block is getting broken down this weekend and getting new bearings. Maybe I'll have it fixed, dressed, and installed by the 12th or 19th ::wishful thinking::

 

I rebuilt my 2.0 in a few days (first time doing so). It is not hard as long as you have done the proper research and have the factory torque numbers and some time. Proper clearances! King bearings! AllPro!

 

Updates posted!

http://wrxatlanta.com/forums/showpost.php?p=419827&postcount=6

 

Alright, ended up using Wrx rad fans so no merge was needed there. Let the car idle for 30 minutes and changed the oil. I found out that my steering rack is shot, dumped an entire reservoir of fluid onto my garage floor so that's gotta get swapped out.

Car is coming out of the garage tomorrow for the first time since August (under its own power lol) and I'll drive it around in the drive way a little, the brakes and clutch master need adjusting. More to come

 

o.o seems like a lot of work


nice

 

Good Job!

 

Got a new crossmember from Mike @ killshot, start removing mine, and sure enough one of the 4 frame bolts that hold it on is spun. I guess I'll work on getting that off this week, probably gonna be a huuuge pita. Looks like my tranny needs a rear gasket too, fun stuff!

 

Got around to finishing things up this past weekend, finally drove it around the block today! It drove really well, just gotta start tying up the loose ends now (ie wiring in speed sensor and replacing shifter assembly). I'll make a better video in the next few days.

The end is in sight!

 

0447 evaporative emission control system vent control low input

1400 fuel tank pressure control solenoid valve circuit low input



Anyone know anything about the 0447?

Got the TGV fixed already, swapped the sensor with a spare.