With all the other build threads on here I figured i'd start up my own. My name is James and I run a small (just me) Subaru shop in Woodinville, WA (Seattle Subie Service near Seattle). I specialize in performance, engine building, tuning and the fun side of shop work, but also do a lot of service work as well. I'll update the thread as progress is made, but my brother and I are building a 818S model and have a July 2013 delivery date scheduled, so this should be one of the first 10 completed 818's in the country! We found a low mileage 07' WRX sedan locally from a nice gentleman who had a tree land on the rear end Got it for a great deal rather than overpaying through copart! Just had it towed in on Saturday, plan on getting it stripped down over this week!
Plans for the vehicle-
Stock block (for now)
Turbo inlet
equal length headers/uppipe
high flow cat downpipe
Decent responsive (peak torque at < 3,700rpm) turbo (I recently finished a motor build for a customer who's running a DOM 2.5XTR, but i'm leaning towards something a little smaller for this one maybe the 1.5XTR or nice rotated setup with a Borg warner) Maybe something in the 40-50 lbs/min range. Might do a custom twin scroll/low mount (same as my forester) depending on budget.
Modified stock injectors
TGV delete
Air pump delete
Fuel Pump
Intercooler set-up is going to be dictated by what kind of air flow the 818S allows. But I expect something custom.
Stock 4pot/2pot brakes w/ upgraded lines/pads/rotors and fluid.
Upgraded bushings throughout (steering rack, lateral links, control arms etc etc etc)
Here's a few pics just after getting it rolled inside. Enjoy!
-James
1998 Subaru Forester
Full 06' STI conversion
Twin scroll low mount headers
HX35/40 turbo, ITB Custom intake manifold
Looking forward to following your build! I'm from across the water (Kingston) but I'm currently stationed in Japan. I get back in February of next year and my dad and I are going to build an 818S. I requested an April 2014 delivery date so ours is a long way out still. Hopefully around February or March we will be able to come by your shop and check it out!
i love seeing all the hawkeyes being used for this gonna be sick! you should run a dom 1.5xtr twin scroll...lol im starting out on a ported, polished and coated vf43 first then changing it up at some point to something twinscroll or rotated
Can I come take a look after kit arrives? I live in Portland and my 818R is not due until November. I'm not going to do a build thread because a friend asked me if he could post my build on his website where2race.com he is adding some eye candy to his site soon & quite a few people in the local race community want to see (& drive) it. My budget is fully out of pocket & only me so may not be as radical as I would like, but won't be a slouch. & yes I will let you drive mine for comparison once I'm done.
plus I'm not originally from PNW & never been past Tacoma gives me a reason to see Seattle.
Hey Sean,
You're welcome to come by anytime and take a look at it once the kit arrives. I expect to have it assembled and licensed pretty quickly after delivery!
God some time to put a few hours in on Tuesday and this fell out of the donor car!
1998 Subaru Forester
Full 06' STI conversion
Twin scroll low mount headers
HX35/40 turbo, ITB Custom intake manifold
Well I guess that makes sense a tree falling on the donor car, Washington and all. Was it a Fir, Redwood, Madrone, Pine, Oak :-) Look forward to your build.
Well I guess that makes sense a tree falling on the donor car, Washington and all. Was it a Fir, Redwood, Madrone, Pine, Oak :-) Look forward to your build.
I'm here is Western Washington too (Kitsap). I'm going to say it was one of two trees - Douglas Fir (they're everywhere) or Alder (they fall with a slight breeze). Looking forward to the build!
Teardown continues steadily... since we've got one of the earliest orders, it's high time that we get down to identifying & collecting the desired after-market components so we're ready to build as soon as the kit arrives. I'll let James chime in with any interesting details / photos although I don't know that there's much to report as of now...
I've caught up a bit on a few other projects to start getting the shop ready for the delivery, but not much progress just yet. I'll post updates soon as more is made
1998 Subaru Forester
Full 06' STI conversion
Twin scroll low mount headers
HX35/40 turbo, ITB Custom intake manifold
I will be building a "R" version this year, not sure what my plans on yet. This will most likely be my daughters race car. I live in Kirkland so not far from you. Soon I have to start to look for parts, but race season has just started so my time will be limited.
Tony Nadalin
2018 SOVREN Big Bore Champion
2015 SCCA Oregon Region VP3 Champion
2012 ICSCC ITE Class Champion
FFR MkII Challenge Car, Spec Racer, Street Legal, SCCA, ICSCC and NASA Racing
818R Build in progress
I just moved to Edmonds from SoCal. My FF Cobra is still down there but I am looking for a shop that has experience in the "car and feeding" of this product. Does can anyone give me some insight?
Good times starting! My wife is in Seattle now, but leaving tomorrow. When my inlaws say "so....what exactly are you doing again?" I'll just point them in your general direction. lol.
Do you work at Turn 10 along with your shop? That would explain the next 8 weeks being busy (I'm there with ya in the Studios). I'm hoping that Turn 10 starts putting in some cars like the 818 and Murtaya (since they've got some nearby; they've already putting in open-wheeled cars, so why not?).
Do you do any fabrication in your shop? Fiberglass stuff?
Yup, in addition to the shop. I was emailing with you and Clint the other day regarding your Murtaya (still really want to check that thing out!) A little surprised they never did a GTM, there's always DLC though!
My personal fabrication skills are limited, however the last two shops I worked for specialized in a lot of custom fab work, so I just go through them for anything specialized (my low mount twin scroll set-up and ITB manifold on my STI swapped forester).
1998 Subaru Forester
Full 06' STI conversion
Twin scroll low mount headers
HX35/40 turbo, ITB Custom intake manifold
[QUOTE=JRach;119784]Which explains why he didn't show up until 5:30pm.... something something about the customer in Renton and low hanging tree branches.
Hehe actually the guy before me in Portland had the low hanging tree branch problem and the driver didn't show up to my place until 3:00
which did allow us to unload in the peak of the hurricane downpour
Guy in Portland?!? mrvwcastner and sponaugle aren't scheduled until later (at least according to the list of volunteered information). Do we have another Oregonian building an 818??
fabrication skills are limited, however the last two shops I worked for specialized in a lot of custom fab work, so I just go through them for anything specialized (my low mount twin scroll set-up and ITB manifold on my STI swapped forester).
info and/or pics of the itb setup please along with your input please
info and/or pics of the itb setup please along with your input please
The car is a 98' Forester, did a full 06' STI swap a couple years back (swapped everything down to the dash, 6spd w/ dccd, ABS, Brembo's, etc etc etc) Blew the stock EJ257 motor making 260whp/302tq at the wheels (conservative mustang dyno) which originally had simple bolt on mods (equal length header/up-pipe, VF39 Turbo, Turbo-back exhaust, FMIC, Short ram intake, Wallbro 255lph fuel pump).
After Finishing the swap I drove the car for about 6 months and then had all the body work fixed (small quarterpanel dent, pulled ALL the door dings) and painted it Audi Aviator grey. The day after I got it back from the painter I was accelerating up an on-ramp quite spiritedly when the motor blew. I decided to do a full motor build if I was going to have the motor out, so I did custom Wiseco pistons, rods, ACL race main/rod bearings, lightly port and polished the heads, cleaned up the oil passages, upgraded oil pump and a few other little things.
Once the motor was done I decided if i'm going to have a built motor I might as well push it a little bit. I wanted something that would make decent power above stock but also be as responsive as possible. To do this I wanted a twin scroll turbo set up, but the only ones available still retain the stock/rotated turbo location which makes for really long exhaust runners, and then a ton of intercooler piping to go to the front of the car and back to the intake manifold. To minimize the length of ALL the piping from exhaust ports of the engine -> Turbo -> Intercooler -> Intake manifold I had to go with a custom fabbed set up. So I did a low mount twin scroll header set-up, which feeds a HX35/40 turbo, from the turbo to the Front (high mounted between the headlights) mount intercooler is only about 8" of piping, then from the intercooler to ITB manifold is only another 10" of piping. At the same time I wanted to relocate my radiator to the rear of the vehicle in the spare tire well (feeding air from underneath the vehicle and out the back. Hopefully this offsets some of the weight of the giant turbo hanging off the front of the car, as well as aids in cooling with the piping running from front to back. As it sits I haven't started it yet. But expect between the ITB manifold and the reduction in all the piping/exhaust runners etc I'm shooting for 375whp on pump gas and certainly something well above that on E85, but really hoping to hit peak boost around 4,200ish RPM (most rotated style turbo's in that lbs/min range hit peak boost closer to 5k-5.5k rpm).
1998 Subaru Forester
Full 06' STI conversion
Twin scroll low mount headers
HX35/40 turbo, ITB Custom intake manifold
Guy in Portland?!? mrvwcastner and sponaugle aren't scheduled until later (at least according to the list of volunteered information). Do we have another Oregonian building an 818??
COME FORWARD GUY IN PORTLAND!
I'm not 100% sure but I think the driver may have said that the Portland delivery was a '33 Hot Rod or a Type 65 Coupe instead of an 818...
That's like the Legacy setup on steroids. Are the itb's custom made or did they come from somewhere? When do you plan to have that beast running? Sorry for the threadjack.
That's like the Legacy setup on steroids. Are the itb's custom made or did they come from somewhere? When do you plan to have that beast running? Sorry for the threadjack.
ITB's were custom made by Kito of "Tuned By Kito". He does great fabrication work and is the only tuner i'd use for my subaru powered anything. I was planning to have it done months (18 months!) ago. But other projects/life changes have come up along the way. But realistically shooting for mid-winter.
1998 Subaru Forester
Full 06' STI conversion
Twin scroll low mount headers
HX35/40 turbo, ITB Custom intake manifold
Hah, here's an update for you (and everybody else) ... only 8.5 years later!
James (my rascal of a younger brother who launched this thread) got married, had kids, and moved away, more or less in that order, leaving me with sole custody of the kit and zero skills with which to build it on my own. Also, I live in the city & have no garage, so the kit went into storage.
But somewhere around 2016, I started learning to work on cars. Within a couple of years, recreational wrenching was a full-blown filthy habit, and so I became a member at The Shop. Here's a picture of the kit rolling into the Shop way back in 2018:
And there it sat, mostly untouched, because of all the other projects I prioritized ahead of it. Until now.
Coincidentally on the 10th anniversary of the day we took delivery of the kit, I resumed regular work on it. If and when it gets done, I suspect it'll be the earliest 818 kit ever finished from here on out...
The EJ255 engine is fully refreshed with honed cylinders, new rings, new gaskets, new clutch, new bearings, planed heads, and a resurfaced flywheel. Pictured here on its way to the refresh in the rear of our '82 Brat:
This project is now 100% on my front burner, and I'm hell bent on moving it forward every day I can spare. It's just me working on it now, with the occasional help of friends who drop by, and I don't know how long it'll take me, but I'm just going to take it one step at a time until it's done. Or at least until it's road legal and capable of moving under its own power.
That’s great to see you’re making the big push on your 818! I have one that I got over two years ago that due to many work/life responsibilities I haven’t made very much progress on. Although lately I have made a weee bit. Once I get a few things done that’ll make for good pictures I’ll put some up
I know the feeling of life changes slowing things down since I'm in the same boat. Glad to see/know who's working at The Shop too.... I've seen the Type 65 Coupe there but that was in the front section; never had a chance to walk the back section to see your 818 and the other cars stored there.
I remember that Type 65, but I haven't seen it around in quite a while. This 818 kit spent much of the last 5 years gathering dust in the most remote corner of the north warehouse, but now that it's an active project it hangs out in the main showroom within better reach of the work bays.
A little more progress - got the front CV's separated and cleaned up. Found a hairline crack in the steering knuckle that I'm not willing to live with. And got the steering rack preparations underway. Getting very close to being able to fully assemble the front end suspension, steering, sway bar, and brakes.
Nothing major, just slow, steady progress. I haven't run into any major challenges or covered any ground that aren't old news to this community of builders. My goals for this build are much less ambitious than my brother had originally envisioned. He was coming at it from the POV of a young guy with his own Subaru performance shop and the desire to build the hottest example economically possible. Me, I'm a much older guy who's just tired of leaving business unfinished, hoping to build a clean, presentable car in time for spring without cutting corners.
Immediate next steps are getting the front end finished and the new timing kit into the engine. After that, mate up the engine and transmission and drop them in. Here's hoping for more steady progress.
Thanks: 
Likes: 
Got it for a great deal rather than overpaying through copart! Just had it towed in on Saturday, plan on getting it stripped down over this week!
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Originally Posted by Mechie3
