Tidgy's Type R

[Tidgy]

My car is a 1998 Version 5 Impreza WRX STI Type R to give it its full name hahaha







For the folks who don't know the Type R are a 2 door speced up version of the classic STI. The biggest difference are 2 door (not that it's not obvious haha), removed sound proofing to reduce weight, DCCD short ratio gearbox, bigger R180 rear differential and drive shafts plus few other bits and bobs.

Mine is in steel grey and was imported into the UK about 4 years ago. Its now covered just over 105k miles. When i bought it it had a few mods,

Uprated rear antiroll bar
Uprated rear drop links
Retrimmed steering wheel
Optional Suaru OZ wheels
Rear new age brembo conversion
Front 4pot 330mm AP brakes



When i picked it up it needed a full service, rocker gasket's and rear crank seal. It had never been undersealed which int he UK cna mean the death of a car very quickly. Lucky for me the underside was spotless, not a single bit of rust anywhere on it other than diff case and exhaust. Pic is from about 3 months after i got it,

 

[Tidgy]

One thing i noticed when i picked it up is was very quiet (still on stock exhaust) and a dyno run showed it was running safe AFR's but the boost was down and the power was way down at about 250bhp when should have been up at 280bhp.

So list of mods was put together and it went back into scoobyclinic for sorting out. Mod's list,

Full SCR decat
Gt spec gen2 headers
Walbrough 300 fuel pump
Syvecs ecu










Car went back onto the dyno and was mapped. The bad news was that the results were dispointing again, only made 290bhp where as is should have easily crack 310-320







After some conflab and head scratching was decided it was most likly the turbo starting to give out. Was booked in for a week a few weeks later for turbo change and a map.


Dropped it off the saturday then get a call monday to tell me there a problem. When the mechanic fired it up in the car park to put it in the workshop over the weekend he heard a faint rattle from the engine. They looked into it mopre monday morning first thing and sure enough at 2k rpm the crank could be heard rattling. I got the phone call to tell me the bad news

After a chat decided plan A was to strip the engine down and evaluate the damage.

 

[Tidgy]

Unfortunatly the engine workshop was mental busy so they didnt even get time to strip it for 3 weeks. Given the budget constraints time frame was gonna be a long term thing anyway. When the report came back it wasn't great reading.

All the bearings had worn down to copper and had deep wear patterns, valves showed wear, valve seats worn, crankshaft is marked and worst of al the block was tapered. Nothing had failed parsay, just age and milage had taken its toll.

One of the damaged valves,



then the bearings





for camparison, old vs a new acl race bearing (the new one looks gunky cos it still has its protective coating from the factory), wear damage is very evident,




Given the amount of damage while the engine could be salvaged for a simple rebuild it wasn't going to be suitable for my future plans (high power build). which left a few options,

2.1 forged rebuild 500ish
closed deck 2.1 rebuild 500-600bhp
2.5 forged rebuild (good for about 450bhp)

I had a hawk wrx with a forged 2.5 in it before and was a really nice road car so in the end decided to go 2.5. So new block, new crank, new rods and new pistons along with new bearings and any other components needed.
After a week more pondering after choosing that route I then decided to get the block converted to closed deck as well ready to push it up to 550bhp in the future. Yea the garage hate me hahahaha

The block got sent off and came back looking rather sexy, my converted block vs a standard block ,





After the decision was made and work had begun a few more issues were found. Heads were in alot worse condition than thought so needed new valve guides, new valve buckets, new valve shims and new valves.

So a supertech valve kit was added to the list of things.

Final decided engine spec was,

Closed deck converted 2.5 block
Mahl pistons
manley rods
2.5 crank
rebuild V5 sti heads with supertech valve kit







While engine being sorted few parts were identified as needing to be replaced. The inlet pipe had shrivelled in the heat then split, radiator looks like it was still the original one and the usual loads of clips etc that needed replacing after going hard and brittle.

So then came the wait, which due to workshop time and the funding delays my end meant it was going to be a good few months at least.

 

[Tidgy]

Couple of months later work began,





(yes that is the mrs so i have got management permission to get the engine rebuilt hahahaha)



nice repainted inlet manifold







hope someone knows where all that goes

then a few weeks later about to be loaded back onto the dyno for the base map ready for running in



and the next weekend,



back on my drive

Been a long long 6 months to get it back, but o does it feel sooooooo good to be back driving it I can;t thatnk scoobyclinic enough for their work and putting up with my massive amoutn of questions during the specing and building of it.

Running in process they use is 500 miles on crappy mineral oil with turbo actuator disconnected, oil change and 500 miles on semi synthetic againw itht eh actuator disconnected and then back for fully synthetic oil and full map.

I'm currently on about 150 miles of the second 500 then its back for new turbo (old one is whining), reconnecting the actuator and full map

Shall update the threads as and when

 

[CSF707]

Thanks for sharing! Great pics and sweet ride

 

[Tidgy]

Cheers man. hoping to get the last 350 done in a few weeks then back up to get it mapped up then i'll update it with the results

 

[HolyCrapItsFast]

Friggin sweet build man! :tup:

 

[Reverend]

SO much want! Man, between the color, the bodystyle, the mods, and just the car itself... I'm incredibly jealous. I've got a N/A Impreza RS Coupe that I do rallycross with. If I had a chance to get something like your ride, I'd be all over it. Congrats and keep up the good work! Definitely keeping an eye on this one.

 

[Tidgy]

cheers for the kind words guys

 

[Grinder34]

Im jealous of your brakes, and pretty much the whole car.

 

[Tidgy]

cheers

 

[Tidgy]

So finaly picked it up last sat, was no rush to get it back due to moving house,

Had a few issues during mapping, running out of fueling t top end so ended up having new fuel pump (Walbrough 400lph), new injectors (nismo 740's) and a new fuel pressure reg. Had a few other bits while it was in, bluetooth module for the syvecs ecu, oil cooler and few other maintenance bits.

But now its back and duck me, pulls well. Power levels have had to be held back (alot! lol) to try to keep the gearbox in one piece but satill mega happy with the result.

 

[IGOTASTi]

So finaly picked it up last sat, was no rush to get it back due to moving house,

Had a few issues during mapping, running out of fueling t top end so ended up having new fuel pump (Walbrough 400lph), new injectors (nismo 740's) and a new fuel pressure reg. Had a few other bits while it was in, bluetooth module for the syvecs ecu, oil cooler and few other maintenance bits.

But now its back and duck me, pulls well. Power levels have had to be held back (alot! lol) to try to keep the gearbox in one piece but satill mega happy with the result.

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a312/Tidgy05/Type R/IMG-20160108-WA0000_zpsuxxwqkbm.jpg

Nice numbers.

 

[Tidgy]

Nice numbers.

cheers, really please with it given how far its reigned in lol

 

[Tidgy]

Not had much to update until now. bank balance finally recovered to a point where could do some more spending

So month or so back car went back up to scoobyclinic for some more fettling. Gearbox was swapped for a 06 Hawkeye sti box, front mount was fitted, competition clutch twin plate clutch, induction kit and then mapped up to suit. Was a slight delay due to some parts on back order (drive shaft conversion kit). Parts finally arrived from japan and car was finished and mapped on the dyno.

rather pleased with the result



but damit, 1.8bhp short of 400 hahaha, just have to make up with the 465ftlb of torque haha

 

[Alin]

Wow!!! Very smooth graph!!!

 

[Tidgy]

thanks. i pick it up on sat so can't wait. early christmas pressy hahaha

 

[Alin]

Pictures and videos!!!! :bow:

 

[Tidgy]

I'll get some up asap.

prob be filthy though, weathers shocking over here at the min.

 

[Alin]

We like them dirty and clean! :lol:

Isn't that right, [MENTION=1]IGOTASTi[/MENTION] ?