My 99' Liberty Heritage Wagon EJ25 SOHC Turbo

[footsoulja]

Hello from Adelaide fellow Subaru owners!

Just wanted to show everyone here my current daily

Its a 99' Liberty Wagon in Royal Silver.

Mods as of today are:

Engine:

EJ251 SOHC fully rebuilt with EJ257 Internals (Pistons+Rods)
ACL Race Series Bearings
ACL Rings
WRX Oil Pump (12mm)
Cometic 1.8mm MLS Head Gaskets
Standard SOHC Heads
Standard EJ251 Block
Stock Y Pipe with custom turbo up pipe
WRX TD04 turbo
WRX Injectors
SARD Fuel Pressure Reg
Trust 17 Row oil cooler
EMS Stinger 4424 ECU - Ignition and Fuel Control
RX7 BOV Plumbed back
3" Turbo back exhaust
Front mount intercooler (600mmx200mmx65mm)
Bosch 044 Run inline with the standard pump
Catch can
Wideband O2 Connected to the Stinger

Hasn't been on the dyno yet as it was road tuned but seat of the pants estimate is about 140 -150 kW at the wheels on 12 psi. Torque is ridiculous and turbo lag is very minimal.

Driveline:

Unfortunately is an Auto
Big trans oil cooler
However I am going to modify it by adding more resistance to the line pressure dropping resistor in an effort to firm up the shifts
And also use the Stinger to control the torque split
Only cheap, temporary measures until I can do a manual conversion

Suspension:

Whiteline rear sway bar
Bilstein Coilovers all round (adjustable height)
Anti-lift kit
Whiteline Strut Brace (front)

Brakes:

WRX 4 spots and discs at the front
Standard rears (looking to upgrade to WRX 2 spots)

Wheels:

Lenso RS5's 18 x 8 all round wrapped in Federal 215/35's

Interior:

Bugeye WRX front seats
Full Charcoal RX Interior
Racetech 52mm Boost Gauge
Racetech 52mm 4 in 1 Gauge (oil pressure, oil temp, water temp, volts)
20% Tint all round

Exterior:

Jap front bar lip
Jap Legacy Grill
Jap rear tailgate spoiler
Factory side skirts
2003 Headlights with 10,000k HID High Beams
Ultra white 5000k Halogen Low beams and driving lights


Near future plans are:

Change to WRX exhaust manifold with WRX crossmember
VF30/34 maybe even TD05 20g
STi Pink Injectors
Mild cam upgrade (WANTED TO BUY EJ22 ones are the same)
5 Speed conversion
WRX STi Mechanical Rear LSD
Retune (on a dyno) aiming for a mega responsive 180 - 200 kW at the wheels with massive mid range torque

I have done all the work on the car myself (apart from the tuning) and I can safely say there is probably only a handful of nuts and bolts I haven't turned on this car (Mechanic by trade). The car was 6 months in the build and has now been on the road for over a year and have put 15,000 k's on the motor with no issues so far, however I have already killed one auto trans (split the front diff housing) I dare say from stalling the engine up to full boost on the brake and then launching it

If anyone has any questions about any part of the build, feel free to shoot me a PM or post below

Thanks for looking!

[Surge]

Impressive.

Did you fab up your own custom up pipe?
If you ever go with the wrx xmember and up pipe I would be interested in purchasing your current one

What was the hardest part of the turbo build?

[footsoulja]

Thanks!

I did do the up pipe myself (wasn't the most fun part of the build) and it is based on a design that used to be available to buy in the US, saw a few photos of it and basically went from there.

In hindsight I should have just done the WRX manifold and cross member to start with!

But I will definitely be changing it over the the WRX manifold etc, its just a matter of time. I've got my eye on a setup at the moment, just need to save a bit more cash.

I would have to say the hardest part was fabricating the up pipe and dump pipe to suit and getting the right placement of the turbo, there is not a lot of space to work with there and you have to fit the up pipe and dump pipe in the same area. The other hard part part was finding information on the wiring of the factory ECU as I found much conflicting information and then wiring it all in and getting it to work as it should. In the end the easiest way to wire it all up was to use the Stinger to control timing and fuel and leave the idle/idle up control for the standard ECU. This also made it easy to make sure the auto still worked as it should - I did have help from a few good mates with this though as it was quite a challenge.

They were definitely the hardest parts but I am very pleased with the results.

If you are keen for the up pipe when I convert it to the WRX gear, I'll send you a PM and we'll go from there

[Surge]

Thanks!

I did do the up pipe myself (wasn't the most fun part of the build) and it is based on a design that used to be available to buy in the US, saw a few photos of it and basically went from there.

I think I have seen that one. I actually made contact with the guy in the US who made them, but I decided it wouldn't be worth getting it due to frieght.

In hindsight I should have just done the WRX manifold and cross member to start with!

Why is that, so you can fit a better turbo?

If you are keen for the up pipe when I convert it to the WRX gear, I'll send you a PM and we'll go from there

That would be fantastic, it's my only missing major piece to my puzzle.
Other than oil and coolant lines.

Also just regarding the coolant and oil lines, where did you end up tapping the oil and coolant, and where did you feed it back?

What is the car doing now 0-100?

[footsoulja]

Thanks for your reply!

Reasons why I should of used the WRX setup:

1) this setup took a lot of time to get right and fabricate

2) there is minimal clearance between the up pipe and the driveshaft CV, not that its a problem of it ever hitting or making noise but more a matter of the heat eventually getting to the CV because of the close proximity. I have heat wrapped the up pipe and at this stage it has not killed the CV or the grease boot but grease does not like extreme heat in any case and will eventually start breaking down and not performing the job it should. I have not yet had a problem with it though so it may take a while for any issue to become apparant.

3) Exhaust flow - I want to maximise the exhaust flow when I upgrade the turbo and I think I may run into a bit of a restriction with the non-turbo y-pipe due mainly to the diameter of the pipes from the head. I figure if I use the WRX manifolding then I really won't ever run into an issue. The WRX stuff is not quite straight fit as I'll need to take a little bit of material off the head to clear the up pipe properly and cut the turbo flange and rotate it it as I think I will have clearance issues with the turbo intake pipe and the intake manifold by leaving the turbo facing directly forward but I won't know for sure until I go to do it.

Oil is fed to the turbo via a braided line tee'd into the oil pressure switch on the top of the block. I'll get a photo of it for you in the next day or 2. For the oil drain I welded a 16mm hose fitting into the sump and used high pressure flexible hose from the turbo to the sump. I used the high pressure line because it was the only hose I could find in the right size that was suitable for oil - dont use heater hose as the heat and the oil will perish it.

Coolant lines are taken from the heater hoses via a 5/8th size tee then reduced to 12mm or 1/2" line to feed the turbo using the stock turbo hardline on the bottom and one i made myself on the top. I actually want to redo this and not tee it off from the heater hoses but use the coolant feed to the throttle body instead - less joins and less chance of something failing and also use braided lines. My original setup has had no issue at this stage but it looks very busy with all the tee's, reducers and hose clamps. The way I want to change it to neatens up everything in that regard and reduces the chance of something failing.

I have done a couple of 0 - 100 runs by stalling it up and letting off the brake when it hits about 5 PSI and it makes about 6.7 secs at 12 PSI. Wind the boost up to 14 PSI and that will knock off another one 10th of a second. What kills it is the auto, it shifts so slowly between 1st and 2nd. If my idea with the dropping resistor works then that should shave another half a second off I reckon as it will shift much faster (hopefully lol).

[Surge]

Any consideration towards running ethanol?
Is that something reasonable for this generation lib?

[footsoulja]

Any consideration towards running ethanol?
Is that something reasonable for this generation lib?

I did consider it and I'm still undecided which way to go. I know the advantages of it but one disadvantage is thay there are only 4 or 5 servos in Adelaide that sell it.

it would also mean spending more money on bigger injectors and an ethanol ready fuel pump which will blow out my budget. If I can find the parts I need for a good price then I will definitelygo down that path.

I can't see any reason why running ethanol with these engines would be a problem, but i don't know for sure - I haven't researched it either

[bigBADbenny]

Outstanding diy

[Surge]

it would also mean spending more money on bigger injectors and an ethanol ready fuel pump which will blow out my budget. If I can find the parts I need for a good price then I will definitelygo down that path.

What about decapping your current injectors.?I've read that after decapping the spray pattern isn't too badly effected and isn't a concern if running ethanol.

That seemed to go well on my ethanol tuned vw Passat b5 before it was stolen. I plan to decap my injectors when I get my turbo in as I don't want to have that additional cost either.

As far as the fuel pump goes, I'm running an aeromotive 340 for a year now and it hasnt missed a beat over that period other than just in the beginning when I got my o rings mixed up.

Considering its not an ethanol compatible pump officially I think it must mean the ethanol in my area is free of contamination.