2002 WRX Wagon

[~Slideways~]

Can I have a prize for the creative title?

Also it's kind of crazy to me that these are almost 25 years old.

But anyway, I am always looking at what is on the market and this popped up, high km's, slipping clutch, reasonably cheap. What's not to love?

It's actually not a 'WRX' its a JDM '20k', which was a weird trim/model in Japan that is really a WRX.

 

So I went to check it out, test drove etc.

Body is decent, needs some dents fixed and paint.

Battery was dead but jump started ok.

New tyres, recent wof.

Not a fan of the 18's on it.

Engine very oily but drives and sounds fine.

1st gear a bit shuddery but then smooth.

Doesn't pull as well as expected.

Only showing 7psi, should be 12-14psi. Thought turbo buggered or boost control issue.

Idle drops and tries to stall some times.

Made an offer anyway and ended up owning it. Life is short etc.

 

 

 

[~Slideways~]

Initial look over it at home.

The good:

5 speed and I think it might be the good 4.4 ratio.

Recent wof.

It has the nicer black headlights, never liked the bug eye's really but the STI type lights look much better. Need a polish or clear coat.

Pretty sure it has an LSD in the back.

Underneath is really straight and rust free.

Still has the cat's in uppipe (bad) and big one in down pipe. So semi un-modified.

King springs of some sort.

Alloy bonnet.

Twin wing and '20k' body kit stuff.

Decent Sony bluetooth head unit and an old rockford fosgate sub amp and wiring. (speakers iffy).

 

The bad:

Drivers window doesn't work.

Heatcore bypassed. I missed this...bugger.

Bit of rust at the back, nothing major.

Interior very dirty. 

Drivers seat stuck.

Some bad paint colour match.

Clutch is very bad, but priced accordingly.

High high km's.

Wheels have to go.

[~Slideways~]

Spent about 3 hours with a carpet cleaner, on seats, mats etc.

Cleaning spray and wipes on all surfaces.

Came up really good. Drivers seat needs some bolster foam and stitching though.

 

Oh and I forgot to mention the gearshifter is super floppy but I knew that would be bushes.

[~Slideways~]

Decided clutch would be best to take the engine out, but before that I'll do a compression test.

While cold it came up 150psi on all four within a few psi, the amazing thing is it's done 311,000kms 😅 

Happy with that! 

 

[kws]

I wonder if the shudder in first, down on power and rough idle is a misfire? My last legacy was missing a complete cylinder (bad coil) and other than being down on power and a wobbly idle you could barely tell it was misfiring. it still drove fine and was surprisingly smooth otherwise.

[~Slideways~]

47 minutes ago, kws said:

I wonder if the shudder in first, down on power and rough idle is a misfire? My last legacy was missing a complete cylinder (bad coil) and other than being down on power and a wobbly idle you could barely tell it was misfiring. it still drove fine and was surprisingly smooth otherwise.

I will have to check coils, good idea. 

Jumping ahead a bit but:

 

I've found a couple of possible explanations for the shudder. 

1. The clutch friction disc was almost on the rivets.

2. The Flywheel has heaps of micro cracks.

3. The clutch fork contact lobes were worn almost completely flat.

 

It's probably 3, but it could also just be a high k's gbox?

[~Slideways~]

For the low boost pressure, I am pretty certain it will be because it has had the vacuum hoses replaced and is missing the 'boost pill' air restrictor.

It may have been getting an easy life for years only running 8-9psi. I originally thought it was 7psi but realised the cheap boost gauge didn't return to zero, more like -1.5psi

My first thought was a gunked up boost solenoid but then I found no boost restrictor at all.

I'll know once the car is back together.

[~Slideways~]

Spot the vent to atmosphere BOV, probably a big part of the drop in idle wanting to stall.

But otherwise a pretty stock engine bay. Which is a good sign.

 

Something weird going on with that intake pipe from the air box, took it out and found this bodge:

 

Less of a good sign...

 

[~Slideways~]

Reasonably modern coil on plug:

 

Plug look pretty old, at least they are platinum but the electrodes are worn.

 

First indicator of rock hard cracking rubber, thought maybe a cause for boost control issue but this will be on the bled off side:

[~Slideways~]

Oh no, heater pipes are looped...totally missed that some how.

[~Slideways~]

Time for the engine to come out:

 

Engine has AVCS and TGV's.

 

Noted that these head castings indicate that it is a big port head, I did not know that was a thing, never had a Subaru. 

The internet tells me this is likely the same as the STI heads of the same generation (probably different cams though and block is open deck).

 

 

 

[~Slideways~]

Clutch off, very worn but maybe not quite on the rivets yet.

 

Unfortunately then found the flywheel has had a hard life! I asked the machinist and he said he could try machine it but doesn't think they will all come out.

 

[~Slideways~]

I had read that this was the generation where they added a catalytic converter to the uppipe, before the turbo. Apparently these fail, break up and go through the turbo.

So I removed the uppipe and can see a cat and it is separating from the outer part. I can literally push it in and out.

 

So I found an aftermarket up-pipe on FB market place:

 

No cat:

 

I originally refitted the EGT sensor which is only really there to check for a blocked cat, but I realised it doesn't seat properly. So I removed it again.

Here you can see that the original uppipe inner diameter is quite small too. About 42mm.

New one is much bigger at 52ish.

From what I read, the removal of the pre turbo cat makes a big difference to turbo response and Subaru only did it for about 4 years then removed it.

The bigger diameter is good in theory but pre turbo it might actually slow gas flow down. But it is what it is.

 

I tried to swap the studs over but a couple refused to come out even with heat:

I cleaned up the threads in the 'new' up pipe flange and bought some fancy new studs and nuts from Sinco.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[~Slideways~]

Photo of my fancy nuts.

 

[~Slideways~]

By this time I was making a list of parts I needed, one was the oil separator plate behind the flywheel. These used to be plastic and known to crack, there is a recommended stamped steel version you can buy new during a clutch job.

Luckily mine has the thick aluminum one so not a problem, I don't think they make these anymore only the cheaper stamped steel version.

 

So I needed to solve the flywheel problem, this quick clutch job to get it back on the road was turning into a much bigger list of things to do. 

I priced up a genuine flywheel, that was going to be almost $1k through Amayama.

So I decided to try a light weight chromoly flywheel. I did a bit of research and some (mostly American) opinons are that it can cause some issues. Like stop go traffic and some even say timing issues. Others love it.

But I did it anyway. I'm hoping it'll make it more rev happy and fun to change gears etc. Guess I'll see.

 

I also bought an slightly uprated clutch, about 15% more clamping force. The friction disc is also bigger diameter. 

I then discovered that the clutch fork was very worn, possibly explaining the bad condition of the flywheel and clutch. 

This is what prompted me to check (I hadn't removed the fork yet).

 

So I ordered a box of bits from the local subaru, the prices weren't great but I really wanted to get it back on the road and not have to wait for Amayama shipping (spoiler alert, I ended having to order more stuff anyway).

 

Brand new genuine subaru fork, last one in the country apparently.

 

[~Slideways~]

In that box of Subaru genuine stuff was

- cam cover gasket set (including bolt washer seals)

- intake manifold gaskets

- clutch fork

- water cross over pipe o-rings

- front inner cv boot kit

- rear main seal

- oil filter

- air filter

- 3 x water hoses (crunchy)

- sump oil return o-ring

- oil pick up o-ring

 

 

Oh how naive I was with Subaru stuff thinking this would be all I'd need.

 

 

[~Slideways~]

Rear main seal job. 

3d printed this tool to help press the new one in the correct depth.

Old one out:

New one in, as you can see someone has previously been a bit rough with a hammer but it's only on the face so doesn't matter.

Also spent quite a long time cleaning everything here.

 

[~Slideways~]

These brittle rubber hoses are a sign of things to come, is it a Subaru thing? I have never had so many brittle hoses.

 

[~Slideways~]

Leaky cam cover gaskets are the big cause of leaks on EJ20's.

Genuine seal kit instead of aftermarket since they are a pain to replace. Much easier with the engine out right now.

Drivers side was first, all bolts come out nicely until the last one which just spun. Noooo.

You can see that last person in there silicon glued the washer and bolt onto the cover....

Gaskets have been silicon sealed to death, they were hard and brittle:

 

One pre-snapped bolt:

 

And the bit left in the head is in a difficult spot:

I managed to get a few turns on it to get it close to the surface then ended up welding a washer to it, I cut the washer to make it into a sort of wing nut. Mainly to try not to damage the sealing surface as well as more of a chance of getting a good weld:

Got the bugger out:

 

Cleaned up the threads:

 

Cleaned cam cover and new gaskets installed:

 

Heads are pretty damn clean and cam lobes look good for such high km's:

 

Subaru genuine washer seal jobbies:

 

Borrowed a bolt from the other side (pick a part visit for a spare later that week).

Cleaned outside of cam cover and sealed up:

 

 

Both of the breather hoses from this cam cover were rock hard and cracked as soon as I removed them. The further I went the more I realised I will need a 'big' order of hoses from Amayama.

 

 

[VitesseEFI]

Not particularly a Subaru person but always good to see an oldish car getting a good going through. Looks like you’ve arrived just in time to save it.

High miles and still ok condition usually means that someone in ownership trail was good about maintenance, probably the same person who added most of the miles.  High miles also tend to be long distance miles, so reasonably low hours.

Keep up the good work 🙂