818R "Glynman Style"

[Scargo]

Progress is slow, but, it is progress. I think you may get an idea of what I am going through with the following pictures.
I now have a rear suspension that doesn't rub the body. I am within 1/8" of the theoretical 95" wheelbase and the wheels look good in the openings.
On the front, I am waiting on expert advice about whether to go with one inch or one and a quarter inch DOM tubing and five-eights or three-quarter inch Heim joints. I'm basically ready to cut steel.
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[Scargo]

I know you all have been waiting with bated breath...
Here are my Stoptechs. The front is good. The rear is in mockup form. I have to move some holes in the fancy, custom brackets they gave me. I was surprised that Stopech had a "racing version" of a caliper mounting bracket for the STi rear. All the work I did to the stock, steel backing plate is for naught (unless someone wants to buy them off me) because Stoptech makes a fancy aluminum mount. The only problem is, it's for the stock location and, per my request, Stoptech setup the bleed valves for the clocking I wanted (at 8:30), as shown. Now, I need to shift a few holes in their beautiful bracket to make it work. Had to pull the spindle out, too.
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Additionally, I have ordered some 17.5" trailing arms and 7" upper arms for the rear. I have my 245 x 45 x 17 Conti slicks fitted nicely under the rear. My high-HP STi rear axles fit with almost a half-inch to spare (before they bottom-out).

[AZPete]

Wow. My brakes don't look so good now.

[Tamra]

Looking great, Glyn!

[Scargo]

I know. Nobody knows what to make of what I'm doing. It's painting outside the lines.
Today I ground on the pretty, new Stoptech rear brackets for a race STi (that I wasn't expecting) to make them play with the uprights . Now I have the calipers re-positioned to nine o'clock. When I say I wasn't expecting, I mean I thought the caliper adapter brackets would be "plug-n-play" brackets like the ones I put on the front of my STi. I modified my stock rear backing plates just for the occasion. Now, I don't need them. Ah, well... they're steel and heavy! Good riddance.
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I was told that to minimize knock-back the calipers should be at 9 or 3. Here's what I had to do to get the calipers at 9 o'clock. At the highest point (under the top caliper mounting stud) there might be a tenth of an inch removed. Then it tapers down to 0 as you go down the upright.
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[Scargo]

I pulled off the car for a bit to make some new, adjustable sawhorses to hold it up. I put t-nuts into the sawhorses and with a wrench I can adjust the pads and level the frame.
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[Rasmus]

I love you.

[Scargo]

What a pair we'd make, eh?
Today we're bonding nuts and studs to the body panels. I hope to pick up DOM steel for the arms, too.

I bought this 3"x 3" sanding drum. Has 1/2" shaft.
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I normally don't rave about tools unless they are special or like, "how could I have missed this one all my life?". I mean, I've been working with tools since I was nine... so, that's over fifty-five years. This is $25 via Amazon Prime. It uses regular sandpaper or you can buy a 3" roll. You can cut three strips from a full sheet. With 80 grit Norton aluminum oxide paper, it cuts the fiberglass like it were balsa wood and the sandpaper lasts forever. I've used it inside my fenders, where I did the lightening holes and elsewhere. Certainly some advantages to it over an orbital pad sander in the right spot.
We wear masks, use a shop vac, right at the point of where we're working, and I have a home-made air scrubber going at all times. No ill effects at all so far and I can barely smell the FRP when we sand it.

Now, I have to go hunting for a bolt stretch bracket...

[longislandwrx]

I love you.

will make the coolant tubes easier to access that's for sure.

[Scargo]

Knocked off three more pounds of FRP today. Sails all full of hardware.

Edit: I now have almost all the steel I need to finish the suspension.
I will save about three pound per LCA over the weight of my '08 STi, aluminum LCAs.

[Scargo]

Latest activity. I should be welding in a day or two. Ends are made and threaded. I went big: 5/8" Heim joints. Tubing is .083 wall x 1"D. DOM. I'll reinforce it with .075 plate to triangulate it and box it in. Am waiting on the 5/8" plate for the end eye piece that receives the tapered Honda S2000 ball joint rod-end. The rear of the car is a roller and I can roll it around.
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[Scargo]

FullSizeRender (39).jpgWhat could these be for? Hint: they're big.
I got sidetracked momentarily from the LCA fabricating with the checkout of the STi for a March 28th track day. Now the semi-roller 818 is now out in the cold.

Here's the answer:
FullSizeRender (40).jpg Custom UCA. I took some short lateral link rods (like I have in the rear) and cut them up to make these. Stock Factory Five arms are less than half as long. These are six and seven inches long. Bigger is better! Howe racing ball joint.

Found the STi's rear suspension toe was not what I thought it was. Also with the new HVT recessed camber plates I am struggling to get past -3° of front camber. Don't want to grind on my fancy Motion Control Suspension strut brackets. Well, heck, why not?
Now, with the 5-6 inches of snow we just received I am keeping my fingers crossed that LRP can get the track ready in time. I do have winter tires that will fit...

[Scargo]

I guess an edit does not earn you a trigger as a new post. I edited the above and perhaps a few others. I'm still working on it.

[Frank818]

I missed the point Iguess, but why longer UCAs? Wouldn't that screw up front alignment? Or you need longer ones to match with your STI or S2000 parts?

They don't look adjustable, are they?

[Scargo]

I do not have numbers in front of me but my mounting points for the UCA are about four inches lower than stock 818. My LCA mounting point is lower than the S position for me to have the correct geometry for a 3.25" ride height. My spindle is farther out. All because of the S2000 upright and the fact that it is not based on a modded McPherson strut design.
I have no STi or Subaru parts in the front. In the rear I am using STi uprights, a six-speed and Driveshaft Shop HD rear axles for the STi.
I don't have rear (or front) shocks yet, but the rear is a roller and the correct geometry is established.
With the tire/wheel combo I am using I have elevated the bodywork a little in the front and have removed all excess fiberglass from the fenders (while retaining the stock exterior flare). So far so good.
Track season has started so work may slow a bit on the 818. I plan on taking the de-stroker engine components to Larry's, the most local Subaru specialty machine shop, on Tuesday and the heads ( by HeadGames) should be done.

[Tamra]

Larry's Power out of Groton, CT did our machine work and did an excellent job. I'm assuming you're referring to the same?

[Scargo]

Yes. I've been talking to Gary and I am taking my de-stroker motor parts to him in the morning. Get it bored, decked, honed and the crank assembly balanced. I'll probably build it myself. Same setup as Rasmus has. Micah, the designer (and now engineer for Rousch-Yates) says all the reciprocating parts are light. Says it will do 9K RPM! My DVACS heads will have stock-sized valves but everything will be lightweight. It's going to make some bad-as* low-end torque.
Andrew/Tamra: When you painted your case did you deburr it, bead-blast it or anything like that before painting? I just spent two hours smoothing up mine. I did a little blending on the oil feed passage. I don't have a single plug in the case and am afraid to blast it. I don't think you could ever be certain that you got it all the media out. I'm not going to paint it but I don't like working on a rough, sharp-edged case or heads.

[Tamra]

We sealed off every hole and bead blasted it, then rinsed it out for what seemed like forever just to be sure it was perfectly clean. We then sent it to Larry's for the machine work. Larry's then also cleaned it before doing the machine work (if we would have known that ahead of time we probably wouldn't have spent as much time cleaning prior to sending it, as it didn't get us any sort of discount).

After we got it back, we spent another couple of hours cleaning, rinsing, etc. to make sure it was spotless. It took a lot of effort, but we were probably being paranoid since it was our first motor build.

If we did it again, I think we'd just pay Larry's to do the full bead blasting and full cleaning. You have to pay for 1/2 of the cleaning anyway since they clean it before machining.

We also had Larry's balance both the crank and the flywheel/pressure plate assembly (the full rotating assembly). Are you doing the same? We did the rods and pistons ourselves.

So are you imitating the Honey Badger build then? We did the Beefy Badger. Theoretically the Honey Badger will rev higher, but is rated for lower hp, and the Beefy badger is higher hp, but slightly lower rev limit. TIC still said our set up would be good for 10k rpm (because we built up our heads so much also) and 650hp, assuming we went dry sump (disclosure: these are the numbers if they built it, since they have proprietary bearing tolerances).

[Scargo]

So the look is purely bead-blasted? It looks great... whatever.
I was impressed with Larry's. Clean, organized. well-lit shop. I met Kenny, the Subaru motor builder extrordinaire. And, doh! I forgot to take the flywheel and clutch. Actually, I put that in the Subaru! I'll have to get another flywheel. The clutch I took out is plenty stout for the 818. I did tell Gary that even though the crank is new and nitrited that I want it checked for run-out.
If I'm really going to turn nine grand I bettered do it right. I'm getting it decked and checked to see if it needs line honing.
Micah, the Honey Badger designer, and who put the now extinct kit together, tells me 9K. I think low 300 crankshaft HP would be loafing for this combo. The rods, as Rasmus pointed out, are beautiful. You can't even make out the separation of the rod cap from the rod. They have ARP bolts.
I did the radius on the oil passage myself and Gary said that Kenny "works his magic" on the case above and beyond that. I did not ask Kenny for specifics. I think some engine builders want to keep a bit of what they do to themselves.
Now, to order a dry-sump kit...

[Tamra]

We painted our engine, although I've seen pictures of the engines that Larry's bead blasts and they look nearly as good!

Sounds like you're going to have a great engine! You'll have to bring it out to autox at some point and we can face off with our Honey vs Beefy badger setups Then we'll have to get Rasmus to join us.

[Scargo]

I've been busy. I took time out to modify my bandsaw to run at 250 FPM so I could cut steel with it.
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I've made all the front suspension mounts and welded up the first lower control arm. I still have to reinforce it with .075" steel. The cardboard is fairly representative of what I'll add to both sides and then I'll close off the open end. Mock-up PVC arm and original sketch. LCA in position. Tapered hole to accept the S2000 ball joint stud.
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Heads came in. These were done by Headgames, in NJ. Ferrea valves, Beehive springs and Ti retainers on the Pocket Ported heads. New Bronze valve guides, seals, etc...new buckets and stock D-AVCS cams. The buckets are 'bench' lashed.
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[Wayne Presley]

That looks great Glyn

[Frank818]

Wow, awesome!

[Scargo]

Forgot to show the fans atop my GR STi radiator.
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Before you flame me, the photo distorts this a bit. The blades of the 13" fans actually cover the coils. Only the ring and housing extend beyond the cooling core. I'll make some aluminum brackets and epoxy studs to the bottom to hold it. I hope the radiator is up to the task...

I ordered SS hard brake line, metric, male inverted flare nuts (no bas*tard mix of fittings), SS braided, PTFE-lined hose for the Tilton reservoirs to Tilton master cylinders and adapters from -3 AN to female 10mm inverted flare. I guess I will use the Wilwood proportioning valve but I'll have to cut off a couple of SAE nuts from the provided FFR lines to adapt it.
For more on my brake work see this post.
Also got break-in oil and various and sundry parts which kept me from doing more welding today.
Whew! Figuring all that out took a lot of time and investigating. Tilton didn't make it any easier. The Tilton reservoir to pedal box cylinders uses -4 AN fittings and exits on the pressure end with -3 AN female. Finding the transition fittings to metric took time. Terminology or naming also slowed me down. Just learned that JIC and AN are the same except for tighter thread tolerances for real AN. Seems most stuff called "AN" is really JIC grade.
10 x 1.0 MM is the normal Japanese brake thread size (can you say Subaru?) and also what's on my Stoptechs. I wished FFR would ditch the US standard/SAE adapters and fully base the kit on the Subaru compatible parts and Metric. They had to include a couple of metric bolts for the suspension. Why the mix and adapters?
I hope everyone got their fill of eggs today!

[Scargo]

Thought some might like to see a preview of the front suspension.
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This is a modified Howe suspension plate. It was 6" between centers. Now it's 5". Now the FFR upper arm fits it. Cap screw bolts come in from the rear to hold the arm. I will be doing a little reinforcing to the square tubing area on the right since surgery on the one inch tube was fairly invasive from the rear...

[Santiago]

Glyn, glad to see the progress being made.

One thing to look out for is that UCA mount. I know you're planning to reinforce the tubing for what was removed, but you might want to also consider the load path that's going to be applied here now. FFR's original design places the UCA mount in a very highly reinforced point. That diagonal bar you're using wasn't intended for direct lateral loads, so I'd be concerned with how it will hold up (even if it was not cut into to accommodate the mounting plate).

Something to think about. [I've been thinking about this lately because I just had my entire front SLA conversion kit on the Mustang recalled precisely because they miscalculated the load path and it's been bending K-members on some cars. Who knows if/when I'll have the car on track this year.]

Best,
-j

[Scargo]

Yes, I understand and agree it must be reinforced. Perhaps I put this picture up expressly for the purpose of feedback, which I welcome.
I have been pondering how I will gain enough strength in that area. The Howe plate (which takes the adjustment "keys" or "slugs") is 1/2" thick. So, in the front it will be tied in quite well. On the other end I cut into the tube carefully, so the plate will replace all lost metal, save for the 5/8" bolt access hole on the back-side. I had thought I'd use 3/16" plate and tie it to the other 1" tubing to the right. Still, that does not seem like it would do an adequate job of resisting compressive or tension loads. A tube traversing from behind one side to the other might do the job. Even the inboard shocks would not get in the way of reinforcing the area.
I'm open to structural engineering savvy advice.

[Wayne Presley]

Glyn, see if you can find someone with AutoCAD to do a FEA on your mounts.

[Scargo]

I now have pieces welded in place for checking fit and alignment; hopefully for the last time. I''ll get a wheel on it pretty soon and do that.
You can see the extreme measures I went to to accommodate the floor mounted pedal box and the master cylinders. I may approach Jim at FFR with my suspension reinforcement issues, but I can't see having someone recreate the frame and suspension to do FEA on it.
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[flynntuna]

You sir have some serious fab skills!

[Scargo]

Thanks! I made a mistake. For the edification of anyone attempting this... I did not include any angle in the end of my LCAs. When I go to full droop the lower S2000 ball joint binds. I need to angle the ends up around 8-10° so it will not bind. That is based on a total travel of less than five inches. There are ratios involved so it is different for different setups. Learning as I go along.

[Harley818]

Nice work.
There is alot going on there with the LCA mount, access for brake lines etc.

[Scargo]

I bought an LGT ('05+ Legacy GT, '08+WRX) plastic manifold for my motor build. Now to work port matching it to the TGVs and heads and doing the TGV delete. More fun!

[Scargo]

Latest plan is to utilize the late model STi intercooler as shown. I'll start with the stock VF 48 turbo which I will port and polish. It should,if nothing else, give me a good baseline for an upgrade after tuning and testing.
Note deepened side openings and fully opened hood openings. Will likely add canards and raise the wing.
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[305mouse]

If you're using the plastic manifold you should also use the plastic tgv's that go along with it. Grimmspeed used to offer that deleted I thought, but I just checked their site and cannot find it. It also looks like they stopped their port polish and coating service.

[Scargo]

Why "should"? I have metal ones on hand and, frankly, I've never had an issue with the stock STi metal on metal on metal in my race car.
Worst case I will use a thin phenolic spacer off the head but I've not understood why the gasket doesn't provide thermal insulation. More is better? Four more mating surfaces to leak, too. Isn't the plastic manifold supposed to run cooler?

[Santiago]

Latest plan is to utilize the late model STi intercooler as shown. I'll start with the stock VF 48 turbo which I will port and polish. It should,if nothing else, give me a good baseline for an upgrade after tuning and testing.
Note deepened side openings and fully opened hood openings. Will likely add canards and raise the wing.

Glyn, looks like you are ditching half the windscreen too? That would make a nice clean path into the main duct (and give it the feel of an homage to CanAm racers).

When you say "deepened side openings" are you thinking of cutting the inside panel and bending it deeper towards the frame? If so, great minds keep thinking alike. I know side-scoops are all the rage these days, but it seems to me there's a good bit of extra room to be found going towards the frame not away from the body. You just need to be willing to do more body work than bolting on a pair of scoops.

Best,
-j

[longislandwrx]

The composite TGVs let you have the benefits of a phenolic, without the extra gaskets (although people use both) there's also an additional weight savings which should be up your alley.

The oem gasket is too thin/conductive to provide any insulation.

Why "should"? I have metal ones on hand and, frankly, I've never had an issue with the stock STi metal on metal on metal in my race car.
Worst case I will use a thin phenolic spacer off the head but I've not understood why the gasket doesn't provide thermal insulation. More is better? Four more mating surfaces to leak, too. Isn't the plastic manifold supposed to run cooler?

[Scargo]

Thanks! As I said, I've not had a problem (that I know of) with heat. I suppose the timing might be getting retarded on a hot day and I have some power loss. With the 40 row Setrab oil cooler, nine quart capacity oil system and Ron Davis radiator I've never been close to overheating, but I've never really put it to the test on a 90+ day. I'm typically on the track in spring and fall and miss out on July and August since I'm in Canada then.

As to weight, I am "somewhat" after low-hanging fruit when it comes to weight savings. The plastic manifold is for performance gains and compatibility with the goals of my engine build. I like having options and make trade-offs on occasion. I will have an un-sprung weight number soon for the front and I would be surprised if it's not 10 pounds lighter per side than "stock" components. I am hoping to have a very light car, but it will give me balancing and power options for ST-2 since I only weight 165.

Santiago:"are you thinking of cutting the inside panel and bending it deeper towards the frame?" Exactly! There's some space there to be had. While I wouldn't mind the outside, vertical line of the inlet to be out farther, I see that there are plenty of cars "making do" with the openings recessing inwards and not bulging outwards.
With some finessing of the frame corners more room could be gained but I don't know whether FFR designers thought that far in advance towards radiators/heat exchangers in the sides.
I'm sure not up to speed on airflow inside and out but Palatov's work is inspiring.

[305mouse]

When using a plastic intake manifold, the plastic tgv's create a better seal and less heat transfer than the metal tgv's. So it really has two reasons. If you're using the metal intake manifold, stick with the metal tgv's and use a phenolic spacer.