SixStarCars' 818S Build Thread

[Canadian818]

What wheels are those?

[SixStar]

What wheels are those?

Tires & Wheels:

The larger ones are - 295/30-18 Hoosier R6 on 18"x10.5" Custom CCW C14s

And the "smaller" ones are - 245/40-17 Hoosier A6 on 17"x9" Enkei RPF1

[SixStar]

Great news! Car #80 has a client and will be built to his specifications over the next 10 weeks.

The kit will be built pretty much by the book with a few Six Star Cars touches here and there. Paint, wheels, interior and brakes will be left to the customer.

It will be getting a rebuilt EJ20 engine, rebuilt TD04L turbo, rebuilt transmission with a Quaife LSD. We will also be installing the FFR soft top when it becomes available. Stay tuned as we will be continually updating this build thread to follow the progress and highlight any issues or parts availability delays we encounter.

[Kurk818]

Do you have 295's up front as well? Any issues with turning radius and sway bar/sheetmetal?

With the 295's in the rear, did you end up getting an offset trailing arm or just get offset to push out? Plans to modify the wheel arches and/or flares?

Tires & Wheels:

The larger ones are - 295/30-18 Hoosier R6 on 18"x10.5" Custom CCW C14s

And the "smaller" ones are - 245/40-17 Hoosier A6 on 17"x9" Enkei RPF1

[SixStar]

No, 275s up front on 17x9s.

They're just for looks at this point, an 818 with factory WRX arms and bushings won't even allow the stock 205/55-16s to turn lock to lock without contacting the sheet metal.

The rear arms on the car are stock, we have 10mm spacers behind the wheels and they're the correct offset to clear. No plans to modify the body work.

[metalmaker12]

I have stock arms(aluminum 06) and I have 17x8 215/40/ tires and it barely touches on the drivers side at full left lock. It's not bad enough to even really worry about and a simple bump stop will work.

[SixStar]

The increased caster of the aluminum arms helps a ton. Pile some offset bushings and the proper offset wheels on that and there shouldn't be any issues.

[SixStar]

Some pictures of #80 - she saw the Colorado sun for the first time today!









And the super exciting cling wrapped short block, ha ha

[SixStar]

With the chassis and small parts off to paint we're focusing on cleaning up and cutting out the panels for kit #80. Here's some of what we've done so far

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[SixStar]

We spend a day last week and most of yesterday de-powering and building racks. Turned out like I'd have hoped, a few snags on the 06-07 rack, not sure if we're going to use it for the R now.
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But onto the progress on #80!

Frame is back from paint and it looks amazing! They really do a fantastic job on everything we bring them. We will be picking up all the small parts later in the week, lots to do on the frame before we need all the other bits.

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Thanks for checking in! Keith

[SixStar]

Lots done today. Throttle pedal mounted (it hits the pedal box though.... more on this later) Cable mounted (sort of, instructions are muddy at best), front and rear suspension is on. Still debating the spring rates, not sure if the manual has a typo or not and the jury is still out according to another thread on here. Firewall is on, tank is in, column is in. Engine and transmission should be together this week and dropped in ASAP so we can get onto wiring, fuel, and coolant connections.

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[SixStar]

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[Frank818]

Nice pictures, tnx.

[longislandwrx]

My throttle goes full right before hitting the box... I put a meter on it, you should be fine.

[SixStar]

My throttle goes full right before hitting the box... I put a meter on it, you should be fine.

Perfect! Thanks!

It's one of those, "should we fix this now or hope it works later" things. Glad to know it's a non-issue. Moving forward!

[SixStar]

Long delay in the build. Two big races this past weekend in Lincoln, Nebraska with another this weekend means lots of race cars in and out of the shop! But here's some progress on the rebuilt engine and transmission.

Engine is an EJ20. Bottom end is fresh from the builder with OEM rings, ACL Race main and rod bearings. Gaskets are all OEM. Heads are machined locally and rebuilt by yours truly. I actually really enjoy assembling heads and engines, it's a zen thing for me. As for setting lash.... there's a special place in hell for the person who invented the shim bucket.

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Our transmission builder is one of the best in the state and does a great job on everything we give him. This is the 5MT from the donor car and has been gone through, inspected, cleaned, any worn parts replace/exchanged. While he was in there he threw in a Quaife from Erik at The Race Line.

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I will try and get more done and posted this week but we're only here for another two days then it's off to Heartland Park in Topeka, Kansas.

[SixStar]

Found some time to get a bit further on the build. Brakes are done and work very very well even just rolling around the shop.

Cooling lines are almost done. Once the engine and transmission is installed the clutch system can be buttoned up and bled. Run the wiring harness and she SHOULD be ready to start.

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We're full blast into the racing season so I'm having to find time for that, keeping the shop running, installing the new AWD dyno, and building #80 and #85. Both my employees quit too so it's just insane the amount of work that's getting done by ONE MAN!

Car WILL be running and driving by the 20th and will be on display at PPIR for the SCCA Match Tour all weekend. I urge anyone local to come by and take a gander.

[SixStar]

Found some time today to button up the engine. Waiting on one silly little gasket before I call it done and bolt the transmission on. Then she's stabbed!

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[metalmaker12]

Long delay in the build. Two big races this past weekend in Lincoln, Nebraska with another this weekend means lots of race cars in and out of the shop! But here's some progress on the rebuilt engine and transmission.

Engine is an EJ20. Bottom end is fresh from the builder with OEM rings, ACL Race main and rod bearings. Gaskets are all OEM. Heads are machined locally and rebuilt by yours truly. I actually really enjoy assembling heads and engines, it's a zen thing for me. As for setting lash.... there's a special place in hell for the person who invented the shim bucket.

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Our transmission builder is one of the best in the state and does a great job on everything we give him. This is the 5MT from the donor car and has been gone through, inspected, cleaned, any worn parts replace/exchanged. While he was in there he threw in a Quaife from Erik at The Race Line.

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I will try and get more done and posted this week but we're only here for another two days then it's off to Heartland Park in Topeka, Kansas.

Feel you on the shim bucket

[Frank818]

You don't seem to use 0 Decibel's front rad supports and obviously not OEM's. Your own?

Also I'd like some close up pix of your front LCAs' rear bushing installation, the one with the double tabs closer to the FW. I'd like to see if you moded the chassis holes, tabs holes, both or none. tnx

[SixStar]

You won't find us spending money on all the trinkets people have been making for these cars. It's a blessing and a curse of the forums, lots of neat ideas coupled with lots of folk trying to make a buck. Nothing wrong with it, just not what we're about. Yeah the stock tabs simply will not work the way FFR wants them too, the rad sits too high. These were hand made from some 1" aluminum strap, pretty simple. There are a lot of little tweaks on this car to make it safer, prettier, and easier to work on. Good eye by the way.

There was no modification to this frame for the LCAs. Just flipped the bushings left right and TQ'd the nuts on with the arm and the bushing flat on the ground.

You don't seem to use 0 Decibel's front rad supports and obviously not OEM's. Your own?

Also I'd like some close up pix of your front LCAs' rear bushing installation, the one with the double tabs closer to the FW. I'd like to see if you moded the chassis holes, tabs holes, both or none. tnx

[Jaime]

As for setting lash.... there's a special place in hell for the person who invented the shim bucket.

I don't get Subaru here. I heard that they went to shim buckets to save weight, but a shim-under-bucket design is exactly the same weight but is a thousand times easier to deal with. You end up with one set of shims for everything the manufacturer makes, are really cheap, and you can keep a full collection in a small plastic box. It's also really easy to verify the size of pill-shaped shim than these stupid buckets.

[SixStar]

It gets better. They had a roller rocker head that kicked *** and was scrapped before it ever came to America.

[Jaime]

I know you were talking about rocker vs cam-on-tappet. But, there are some real advantages to eliminating rockers - more freedom in choosing valve angle and less mass come to mind immediately. What bothers me is that their design is the least user-friendly version of cam-on-tappet I have ever seen.

[SixStar]

Master wiring tech Tommy is here this week making the harness for the 818S. He's going through it plug by plug and wire by wire because we're going to start offering fully built OEM harnesses for the 818 for those that want to keep the factory ECU and OBD2 port for use later with a Cobb/ViPec/ECUTek/AEM etc. We're so close to this running and driving it's exciting!!! Goal is to have it in "go kart" mode for the big race next weekend.

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[icky]

Goal is to have it in "go kart" mode for the big race next weekend.

when and where?

[SixStar]

when and where?

http://www.scca.com/events/index.cfm?eid=7002

Car won't be raced. I'll be in a 2014 Ford Focus ST. There will be some fun runs at the end of each day and I plan on taking it around a few times if Tech passes it.

[SixStar]

It's alive!
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We had some people from NASIOC in here today doing a short write up and shoot on Six Star Cars and the 818 kits. It was GREAT timing, we were starting the car for the first time right as they got here.

As expected all the fuel system that's missing has turned on the CEL and we expect more codes as it's driven. Only solution I see is a Taxtrics and a tune. Not a huge deal, just not something that was planned. We do have a few minor issues but I'm going to start another thread on that. In the mean time we're buttoning up some wiring and grounds to get the panels all mounted and work on the shifter next. Goal is still to have the car running and driving by noon on Thursday.

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[Frank818]

I never realized the shifter cables were going all around from the left side, I thought they were channeling out from the center tunnel and above the fuel tank. Well, on the K-Tuned shifter the cables are coming out from the back of the shifter, but I think they are coming from the front on the FFR shifter?

[Mechie3]

Yes. The K tuned has the front/back cable mechanism reversed. If the FFR goes front/back you'll invert your shift pattern.

[SixStar]

Still not sure why an MR2 shifter wasn't used. But this works and I'm sure it was cost or parts availability.

[wleehendrick]

If the FFR goes front/back you'll invert your shift pattern.

That would make a good theft-deterrent if you could get used to driving it.

[CptTripps]

Still not sure why an MR2 shifter wasn't used. But this works and I'm sure it was cost or parts availability.

That's what I have for my build. $25 for the shifter on eBay and it's already set up with a much shorter throw, and the pattern will be right.

Used one in my 914 and it's pretty brilliant.

[SixStar]

First test drive went great. Car runs amazing. Took it easy since it's all brand new. We're going to break it in on the dyno here later today.

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[Frank818]

I have a measurement question, if you will. How high above the cross v-bar the IC sits? I mean the top of the IC is how much higher than the V-bar in front of the IC?

[SixStar]

Well.... of course since everything was going so well there had to be some sort of issue. Once the coolant bleed issue was solved we ran the car through a heat cycle, then another, then a short test drive around the block. Racked the car and changed the oil. When we cut the filter open there was some metal in the filter. Rather than run the risk of damaging the entirely new engine and turbo we will be removing the engine and replacing it entirely. If all goes to plan this time next week it will be up and running again and ready for break-in and shakedown.

Setbacks suck but they happen.

[SixStar]

I have a measurement question, if you will. How high above the cross v-bar the IC sits? I mean the top of the IC is how much higher than the V-bar in front of the IC?

Maybe 1/2". I'll check tomorrow.

[Mechie3]

Still not sure why an MR2 shifter wasn't used. But this works and I'm sure it was cost or parts availability.

Cost and availability. Mr2 spyder shifters dont work. Only the older mr2 ones.

[Doowop]

I was planning on going the MR2 route. Mechie, can you specify which MR2 shifter would and would not work and why? Thanks

[Frank818]

Maybe 1/2". I'll check tomorrow.

So little? On the pic it looks like a good 2", but that's actually why I asked.
I must admit that measure is a pretty important one for my specific build, I spent many mins looking at your pix, which are helping a lot understand and brainstorm on stuff, btw.