Member Profile - Karl's Gen2 Wagon.

[Dropz]

Thanks, Mark.

Wheels are way down the list. Mods will continue to be slow as I'm about to get a mortgage!

Basically in just over a week I'll be doing the single turbo, manual swap. Next planned will be brake upgrade, then finish off suspension, and finally wheels.

But I'm planning on BBS RS replicas in a 17x9 or 17x8.5.

[cruisn]

Good luck fitting those spec wheels under the arches.....

What tyre size you plan on running with them?

[Dropz]

Guards will be fun. I plan on folding the lip out and rolling it to give me extra width.

Tyres I was looking at 245s. But this is at least 18months off so I have plenty of time to change this and investigate further.

[cruisn]

Im currently running 8" +44 with a 205......

Rears scrubbed with rolled guards without a camber kit.

Fronts camber set at -2 deg and it was scrubbing on full turn and straight on large bumps so I raised it 10mm. Fronts not rolled.

Food for thought.

[Dropz]

Thanks

[Dropz]

Story time.

Ok so this week (we started Friday 18th at about 6pm, and finished tonight about 6pm) the liberty has become COMPLETELY transformed! It did house a 2.0l TT backed by an auto, and now holds another 2.0l T reared by a 5 speed.

Friday after work a mate and I set to ripping the engine and auto trans out of the Lib ready for its sex change.
Starting at about 6pm we had it all out by around 11pm.

Over the course of Saturday Richard set to playing with his spaghetti (the new WRX wiring loom). Since I had yet to find wiring diagrams for any of the work we had begun he had to pin out every connector on the ECU and make a judgement call on what else had to stay and what we could chop out. Whilst that was underway I swapped out the auto rear diff for a manual and put in my gear linkages, clutch pedal, and manual brake pedal. This night I was up until 2AM checking over my new engine, removing the sump, cleaning it up, fitting another one and resealing everything I could short of headgaskets.

Sunday brought around the first big step to the Libertys new look; Putting in the manual box. This proved a right prick, giving us troubles with a bent gear linkage support rod, the gc8 WRX tailshaft was too short, and my clutch would not bleed up. Over the next few days I set to righting all those wrongs through various trips to the wreckers, sorting through my random spare parts and buying new clutch master and slave cylinders along with a braided clutch line. After putting the motor in, we found the thrust bearing wasn't locking into my pressure plate and it took 3 attempts at removing and installing the engine and clutch assembly to find a broken circlip and replace it with a spare I had from an old clutch laying around. Finally I had a decent clutch pedal.

Monday was lubrication day, again whilst Richard continued to play with his spaghetti, I replaced the rear diff oil, gearbox oil, filled the engine and started fitting random accessories around the engine bay.

The rest of the week was almost lost due to the heat and Richards car breaking down. A considerable amount of effort was put in each day to the wiring and bolting on parts, making sure everything fits etc. It wasn't until Friday again we started to make good progress. We had to pin out the old twin turbo ECU and my cars wiring loom, and start to mate in the connectors for my WRX ECU. Friday night was inevitably lost to the pub with work mates as I promised I would be there, however not in the wagon as I had hoped.

Yesterday brought about the last of the wiring, however my old twin turbo starter motor wouldn't fit, and the only spare I had laying around was burnt out. After rebuilding the burnt out one I got it to engage, but it wasn't enough to get it to crank very fast. Things were not looking promising. I was hoping it was just a fried ECU stopping it from starting, so headed off and bought a known working ECU. Unfortunately this didn't help.

Today we realised the ECU I bought needed an immobiliser, so off I went again to buy the matching immobiliser system from the same car. After wiring it all up, I borrowed a starter motor off a mate and 3/4 a can of "starting fluid" later SHE RUNS! It took about 10 minutes on and off to get it to start as we believe the injectors were blocked from sitting for a while, and the cranking and starter fluid eventually got them to free up. After we achieved idle things started to look down again, the engine was noisy, and it sounded like ALOT more than just lifters, and coupled with the billowing smoke from my back end we thought the motor was fried. With high hopes we set off around the block. After a 3 minute drive we returned, no smoke, and no noise. We rushed to get the car together and set off to get a new starter motor. After all the hell I put it through today my battery has finally died, completely. So a new one is in order this week, and to solder all my ECU wires and neaten them up.

From here I need to iron out some kinks, so as each issue gets fixed updates will follow. In short I need boost control (I have none), a new exhaust (I redid the flange to make mine work just to get the car running), and to check and fix all my check engine codes and my ABS code.

Pics to come once I sort through them all.

[alessandro132]

Awesome work Karl! Looking forward to lots of pics and a video or two!

[Dropz]

Videos will come after my track day. 2 weeks tomorrow!! My first time on a track, and I really get to stick it to the manual!

[cruisn]

Nice work Karl.

A manual really brings them alive.

[Dropz]

Thanks for the comments guys.

Photo bomb. As promised.

Unfortunately no photos of me or my mates working as I only photographed when I remembered to, and nobody wanted to be featured.

Check engine codes before my conversion


New clutch kit and machined flywheel


Manifold off


Tiny turbos



Tiny turbo outlet


Engine out



Just MAYBE I had a SLIGHT boost leak on the twin turbo setup


Manual shifter and linkages in


Clutch pedal and manual brake pedal in


Manual box mounted and lubed up ready for a clutch


Preparing the new engine


My old engine with the timing belt kit, water pump and tensioner mounting bracket removed


Spaghetti


Here it stands


The workshop



Turbo comparison, old vs new


Water pump mounted and the tensioner brackets comparison, old style on top, new on the bottom.


Comparing the tensioners, new on the right, old on the left (2 piece tensioner)


Old intercooler and piping


New intercooler and piping


Auto shifter


Auto gearbox crossmemebr AND MOUNTS


Crossmember mount - Just a bit torn?


Gearbox support rod, stock (below) vs new (top)


Before cleaning the new engine (by hand!)


After cleaning it


Sump fitted


Clutch fitted


Engine assembled


Ready to drop in


Engine fitted (the first time)


New slave cylinder and clutch hose


New master cylinder


Tacked the dump pipe with the new flange for welding


Blocked off the flange for the second dump pipe (this is only a temporary dump to make sure the car runs first, new custom one to come later)


On the ground and ready for sleep


More spaghetti


New wiring loom on the manifold


The tacho during the conversion, to record the klms of the conversion


Manifold fitted to engine


Wiring in the new ECU


Resecured my grille whilst I was fiddling


Dump pipe hanging low as the twin turbos are fitted higher in the engine bay than a single turbo


ECU wiring in and the immobiliser is wired in also. This will all be soldered and tidied up one wire at a time over the next week or so.


Battle scars


Birds eye view of battlescars


Boost gauge


Starter fluid that saved the day


It was a HUGE week, but definitely worth the effort. And the car isn't even 100% yet! Can't wait to spend more time fiddling with it and getting everything working smoothly.

[cruisn]

Battle scars.......

[Dropz]

I know! I have no idea how they got there, there was a guard cover all week. The engine was removed and fitted over that part of the car, but we ensured there was a gap each and every time! To get scratched through the guard cover is interesting...

Oh well, if that's the worst damage I caused this week (minus the bank balance) then I guess I got out well. We would have put in over 100 hours work on the thing and I've seen people to more damage in a one hour service at work.

[cruisn]

Only thing i would have done is get an STi box with a 4.44 ratio. Better box than the standard WRX and your auto diff is already 4.44 so no need to change.

[Dropz]

On a tight budget, the coilovers and this conversion have come in under $3500

If I had money for the conversion I would have worked 2.2l heads, rebuilt 2.5 bottom end, much bigger turbo, huge TMIC and STi 6speed with DCCD.

Note: I choose the 2.2l heads because I'm not chasing power, and I am the only person who will service the car, so I want it to be easy to work on. 2.2l heads are easy to change spark plugs on, rocker covers, headgaskets, timing belts etc.

[HoFF]

Great to see all your work coming together Karl.