Topic: Reid183's WRB 2000.5 WRX Bugeye Import

[Reid183]

Build start date: October 6th 2017
Build start Kilometers: 180568

Hey everyone, so as some of you may know I have been looking at getting a later model WRX or STI for quite some time now. Well, last Friday I decided to finally pull the trigger on a 2000 (2001 model year) WRX Bugeye import. The car does have above average KM's but after doing about as much research about the car as possible I figured it was a good deal. The price we settled on was $7000 flat with $800 tax on top of that with no additional fees as my insurance was able to transfer right over.

The car is pretty much as clean as they come on the interior with not a single rip, stain, scratch, or rip anywhere. The front bumper does need a little but of work here and there but the rest of the body is mint and that's really what matters. I don't really have too big of plans for the car as of yet as I will be dailying but I am needing to winterize it soon as winter is going to begin to hit Vancouver Island quite soon.\

On another note, I really don't get what all the commotion about is with RHD... I mean maybe it's because I've only been driving LHD for about 2 years and am not really set in my ways but right when I sat down in the car I was pretty much instantly adjusted other than having to look to my left for my rear view and hitting the wipers once in a while.


IMG_0346 by Reid Turner, on Flickr
IMG_0365 by Reid Turner, on Flickr


Current Modifications:
Whiteleine 30mm steering rack bushings (148389)
Kosei Racing K1 A1's Wrapped in 225/45R17 Signal TR968's (Summers)
Tecnocast Corsia's Wrapped in 217/60/R16 Toyo Observe G-02 plus' (Winters)
Blitz Nur Spec cat back
Greddy turbo timer
Engine bay grounding kit
Unknown boost guage
Quick releases
Full Hornet alarm system
Pioneer MVH-X560BT Stereo
Mishimoto Upper and Lower Rad hoses (181780)
Mishimoto ancillary hose kit (181780)
Koyo killer blobeye STI aluminum big rad (181780)
Yakima Q tower roof rack with Powderhound snowboard mount
RallyArmour mud flaps


Current Fluids:
Engine- Royal Purple 5w30 (177398)
Trans- GL5 75w90 Synthetic (175006)
Diff- GL5 80w90  Penzzoil (175006)
Coolant- Beck/ Arnlet premium 50/50 (180696)
Brake- DOT 3 (171575)

Major maintenance:
LH and RH JDM OEM Valve cover gaskets (147331)
Timing Belt (102184-22/9/15)
Alignment (148389)
OEM steering rack (148389)
OEM tire rod and inner tie rod assembly (148389)
Re-Man both rear brake calipers (171575)
Premium enhanced rear brake pad set (171575)
LH and RH Premium rear brake rotors (171575)

(All major service and millage indicators just for my personal reference)

[Reid183]

So last Saturday (the day after I bought the car) I wanted to tackle one of the only things that came up on the inspection; the lower rad hose. It was about ready to burst and I didn't want to be driving around with that in the back of my mind so I just did it right away. I headed over to Lordco and picked up a Gates branded hose and did the swap which other than a speed bump would have been the easiest job on a car I've ever done in my life.

This was the build up from antifreeze leaking onto the thermostat housing before and after I cleaned it and replaced the hose:

IMG_0306 by Reid Turner, on Flickr

IMG_0307 by Reid Turner, on Flickr

The thing is, when I got down there to drain the coolant, I gave the drain plug a twist and the head was snapped off. Obviously someone tried to do the lower rad hose before me and had a bit of troubles getting the plug out and snapped it in half. I got a new plug from my local Lordco but the threads were still INSIDE the radiator. After about 2-3 hours fumbling trying to get it out using a vacuum (lol) etc. I finally decided to pull the rad. I never realized how easy pulling the rad was and withing 20 minutes the rad was out and I simply flipped the rad on its side and the threads of the plug came right out.

Pics of the pulled rad and the snapped drain plug:

IMG_0337 by Reid Turner, on Flickr

IMG_0340 by Reid Turner, on Flickr

ass-well as the old hose vs. the new hose:

IMG_0304 by Reid Turner, on Flickr

All in all would have been a simple 20 minute job if that damn drain plug wasn't split in two...

[Reid183]

Also last Sunday (10/8/17) I started off the day by changing out my cabin air filter, which im glad I did because it was quite dirty and a very easy swap.

Old filter and the dash with the glove box removed:

IMG_0318 by Reid Turner, on Flickr

IMG_0317 by Reid Turner, on Flickr

After changing out the filter I headed over to a friends house with a few buddies, one of which owns the '97 STI I came very close to buying, and I helped them fix a few things as well as detailed my car.

Then after that just as the sun was coming down we headed downtown for a joyride and took some beauty shots along the inner harbor.

A few half decent handheld Iphone pictures I took.

IMG_0365 by Reid Turner, on Flickr

IMG_0374 by Reid Turner, on Flickr

IMG_0377 by Reid Turner, on Flickr

IMG_0363 by Reid Turner, on Flickr

[Reid183]

Finally no rain today so that means wash day!   

Also going to get the car dyno'd in 7 days time at the new shop that just opened here in Victoria.

thumbnail_IMG_0417 by Reid Turner, on Flickr

thumbnail_IMG_0419 by Reid Turner, on Flickr

[jellynuts]

Oh jeeze, you want to get a dp ordered and installed in a week's time?  Maybe re-book your dyno date. 

[Reid183]

Oh jeeze, you want to get a dp ordered and installed in a week's time?  Maybe re-book your dyno date.

Negative, dyno is just a subaru event to celebrate the opening of the first awd dyno in town. Everyone is just doing pulls, no tuning etc. I am going to get to know everyone at the shop and figure out a later day for the tune tough. Pretty much Sunday is just for a base line number/ for fun.

The shop is having multiple pulls and free bbq/ meet and greet for $50 so it's well worth it to me.

[jellynuts]

Oh ok. Nevermind then. Yes, I'm all for baseline runs.

Find out what dyno they have too

[Reid183]

yeah, already found that sort of stuff out. They have a Superflow dyno which from what I heard reads about 14-16% low of a Dynojet.

And yeah, we only really get snow 1 week out of the year here if any and it doesn't drop below 0 until around late November-early December.

[Reid183]

Just a quick little update, Saturday I went out and picked up some rims to mount winters on because it's starting to get about that time of year and I will be taking this car in the mountains for some snow sports in the near future. Ended picking up some Tecnocast Corsia's, currently have some 215/60r16's on them right now but they are bald as and I already have some fresh winters ready to mount on them so i'll get to that when I get to it.

New wheels: IMG_0438 by Reid Turner, on Flickr

Sunday came around and I went to the dyno/ subaru meet, all in all had a great time. Met some great people, saw some great cars, free BBQ, and $50 Dyno pulls. Ended up making 190Trq, 172HP, decently happy with the figures considering what everyone else was dynoing, and I was able to exactly keep up with a fully tuned v5 STI running a standalone etc.

This good news does come with some bad news though. When we were doing pulls, both times the clutch would slip at high hps (in 4th). So this will need to be addressed in the future, my dad said he would probably be willing to lend me his garage and a bit of his time for a weekend in the future (probably post new year) and we can bang a new clutch in. My dad has done a bunch of transmission/ clutch swaps in his old '68 firebird drag car he had years ago so he thinks even though it is quite different, nothing we cant do together in a weekend.

Video of the 1st pull:

Shootout board: IMG_0470 by Reid Turner, on Flickr

1st pull sheet: IMG_0479 by Reid Turner, on Flickr

[Reid183]

quick little update. Decided to change out some hoses because a set of upper and lower rad hoses as well as an ancillary hose kit came up for sale locally and I was just about to order the set anyway. All went well and in my opinion makes a bit of an improvement in the engine bay.

IMG_0517 by Reid Turner, on Flickr

Near the end of the install I had yet another issue with my stupid radiator... The radiator fitting that connects the hose to the coolant reservoir decided to break off on me.

IMG_0521 by Reid Turner, on Flickr

I had enough with that brittle plastic POS so I decided to go aftermarket. Ended up going with a Killer Koyo Radiator off of some guy locally that totaled his blobeye STI.

IMG_0537 by Reid Turner, on Flickr

(Condition looks a lot worse/ really dirty in the pic, trust me it's just the angle, it's a lot cleaner in person)

Since it did come off of a blobeye STI the radiator has the extra cap on the top of the rad so I did need to do some retrofitting to make up for that. From what I can tell the hardline that runs across the length of the radiator and connects to the rad overflow has two fitting at the end of it; one that goes to the rad cap, and another that goes to the overflow tank itself. On the wrx's there is no extra cap so that hardline only has one fitting and it connects to the overflow bottle.

Not a problem, nothing a simple T fitting cant solve.

IMG_0535 by Reid Turner, on Flickr

The subaru also got it's first snow but by the time I purchased the new rad and got it in, everything melted so I missed out on my fun

IMG_0546 by Reid Turner, on Flickr