508's stroker build thread

[508wrx]

My father and I received our 818s kit yesterday!!! Now let the built thread begin. The donor is my old 04' wrx that had 100k miles on it. This is our first factory five build and the whole thing will be a learning experience. I owned my wrx since 07' and auto-crossed it for many of those years. I've met a lot of awesome people thru auto-cross and even ended up running the crew of a rally team of a guy I met thru auto-x. I can say that I know a lot about Subaru's (deff not everything) and both my dad and I are looking forward to learning more about the 818.

picture of said donor
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The list of notable parts going on the car:
- Stroked ej205 to 2.125liter (built by wicked innovations) with a 16g
- built 5 speed with PPG gears and a Modena torsen lsd
- Wilwood BBK

I'm sure there are more and I can't think of them… they'll show up as the thread evolves.

[Frank818]

Kit received yesterday and I see the alu control arms are already installed! loll

So what was the dyno result of that auto-crosser?

[508wrx]

Kit received yesterday and I see the alu control arms are already installed! loll

So what was the dyno result of that auto-crosser?

We were like little kids with a new toy. Had to play with it now!

My old wrx made 287hp/290tq. I'm expecting a bit more with the motor rebuild and less drivetrain loss.

[Frank818]

That's nice numbers. Excellent start! I thought you had 508whp, following the username. lolll
Now I wonder if big tires are going to shed off some of that power... I mean, depending on your rear wheels, but if you go big, you may end up with taller wheels and heavier ones. I wonder how big a difference it makes though.

[riptide motorsport]

Sweet...........let the games begin!!!

[508wrx]

That's nice numbers. Excellent start! I thought you had 508whp, following the username. lolll
Now I wonder if big tires are going to shed off some of that power... I mean, depending on your rear wheels, but if you go big, you may end up with taller wheels and heavier ones. I wonder how big a difference it makes though.

508 is the local area code… I wish I was more creative with usernames.

I plan on using the wheels that were on my wrx which were Enkei RPF-1's with 245's on them. I'm expecting to run into problems with the fronts as everyone else has but i want to use that width in the rear. Even with that i'm still expecting considerable wheel spin. I will just have to learn how to tame it.

[68GT500MAN]

Congratulations on the delivery, now the fun will begin.

[508wrx]

Congratulations on the delivery, now the fun will begin.

thank you sir!

I'll be posting more pictures later as well

[metalmaker12]

Congrats dude.

[508wrx]

On installing the front lower control arms there were several problems. The front of the control arm is smaller than the bracket on the 818 frame, leaving a gap. I put an M12 washer behind control arm to fill the gap (shown in photo).

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The instructions say to use the hardware from the donor car to install the rear of the control arm. My donor car only had M14x1.5 bolts with no nuts as the donor car had threaded mounts rather than nuts. You can either go out and buy four M14x1.5 nuts or as I did, buy 4 M14x2.0x45 bolts with lock nuts and flat washers to install the rear of the control arm.

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The rear of the driver’s side control arm hits right up against the firewall. I had to adjust the firewall to make a gap between the rear of the control arm and the firewall.

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The instructions for the upper control arms aren’t exactly intuitive. After reading through the other posts, I decided that the right way to install the control arm appears to be to install it with the long adjustment and welded arm in the front of the control arm. On one of the control arms, you will likely need to remove the end bolts and swap the control arm upside down over the way it comes. The decision of whether to put the grease zerks on top or bottom appears to be personal preference (I’m hoping that after the body is installed, the zerks are readily accessible by opening the hood – otherwise, I will swap them later). Time will tell if we got all of this right.

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Our kit came without the ball joints and front springs, so we’re stalled on the front suspension and moving on to the rear.

[Frank818]

Interesting to see how different the builds are from FFR's build.

[RM1SepEx]

I had to make a spacer for one LCA mount on the right front

We all had to grind down the length of that left lower LCA threaded area. If you move the right lower foot well aluminum to be in front of the tubing, you need to do that one too.

Ball joints are 79-82 Chrysler New Yorker ball joints, Moog PN K772.

[508wrx]

I had to make a spacer for one LCA mount on the right front

We all had to grind down the length of that left lower LCA threaded area. If you move the right lower foot well aluminum to be in front of the tubing, you need to do that one too.

Ball joints are 79-82 Chrysler New Yorker ball joints, Moog PN K772.

Awesome info! Thank you.

I've probably read right over this info in other threads.

[metalmaker12]

Yeap they get buried, we have a lot of stuff posted

[07FIREBLADE]

Is that the upper ball joint that is in back order for some right now?

[RM1SepEx]

yes, Moog PN K772. The rubber boot is black though

[first time builder]

Heck that ball joint goes back to 1957 Plymouth, fits over 2000 different Chrysler products.

Kenny

[508wrx]

Since I'm being help back by a few odd parts my dad and I decided it was a good day to get the axles done. 2 roles of paper towels and a box of gloves later and they are done.

[riptide motorsport]

You're storming along! Nice work.

[Racebrewer]

Hi 508,

I'm a Subie Newb and I'd like to know more about your stoker engine. What's inside and why did you go this route?

Thanks,
John

[michael everson]

That trailer on your first post looks real familiar. Congrats on a great start neighbor.
Mike

[RandyB]

I am the father referred to by 508wrx in his posts.

We made some really good progress over the weekend. We installed part of the rear suspension until lack of retaining rings for the coilovers stalled progress there. We moved on to installing the side panels and under seat tray on the passenger compartment and installed the pedals, brake master cylinder and steering wheel.

We’re debating whether to permanently attach the under seat tray or leave it temporary in case we need to do some serious work on the interior that may be easier if we install it later. Any opinions by those that installed it early – Did you wish you hadn’t?

Also, all of the drilling on the undertray was into the frame rails. Any opinion on whether we will need to rivet into the floor board or is the silicone sealer enough to avoid wind from hitting the front edge of the aluminum plate and whistling?

Sidewall.jpgUnderTray.jpegwSteerandPedals.jpeg

[RM1SepEx]

I would hold off under the seats. You need to mount them and leaving it off makes many options easier!

[Mechie3]

I haven't done my undertray yet, but mounting my seats was much easier with it off.

[508wrx]

thanks for all the answers guys! This should make this process go a lot easier.

[508wrx]

Hi 508,

I'm a Subie Newb and I'd like to know more about your stoker engine. What's inside and why did you go this route?

Thanks,
John

We decided to go this route since my stock internal 2.0 had a hard 100k on it that it was time to freshen it up. Originally I wanted to build a hybrid motor, which would be a 2.5 block and 2.0 heads. Though to get it to work would require some machining of the head. Many of those engines die early. Stroker is the safe way to get a extra bit of torque while still being reliable. The big internal change would be the use of an 08' nitride crankshaft, everything else is 2.0 liter spec but aftermarket. The final displacement will be 2.125 liters.

[Racebrewer]

Cool. Thanks for the engine info.

Trying to get my head around this. I take it you can use the 2.0 liter rods without pistons hitting the heads? Different pistons?

Much appreciated,
John

[508wrx]

Cool. Thanks for the engine info.

Trying to get my head around this. I take it you can use the 2.0 liter rods without pistons hitting the heads? Different pistons?

Much appreciated,
John

The connecting rods are EJ257 length with EJ205 pistons. I don't know the difference in length of the 2 liter and 2.5 liter rods so I can not say weather or not they would hit.

I'm using Manley products for the internals.

[RandyB]

We've been pretty busy since the last post. We have most of the brake and clutch lines run, installed the gas pedal and started the wiring harness on a diet. We've been relying pretty heavily on data provided by mechie3 and rm1SepEx - thank to both of you for the information in your threads and PMs. We're getting stalled by missing parts. We found that if we installed the gas pedal as is indicated in the manual, it doesn't have nearly enough pedal throw nor is the pedal in a comfortable position, so we adapted and installed the pedal directly on the firewall using the plate provided as backing support. I'm including a photos of the finished pedal and a before and during shot of the harness work - which takes more time to de-bundle than it does diet the harness.

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[RandyB]

After trimming the harness, here's the box of debris that was removed. We were conservative, focusing on removal of the door cards and center console controls (air conditioner, radio, etc.) that won't be reused on the 818. The central portion of the harness is about an inch less in circumference.

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We received our Wilwood brakes today and got a hint of what it looks like with the brakes and wheels. I don't know why, but I was expecting the brakes to be a straight bolt on. After removing the shroud and grinding down the mount, the adapters and rear brakes are installed. It wasn't really too bad, special tools are a plus - we used a hand grinder. Here is a picture of one of the rear wheels after install.

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[michael everson]

Are those the front or rear brakes?
Mike

[RandyB]

Those are the rear brakes. The front brakes look like an easier install, but I am awaiting the ball joints before installing the knuckles and brakes on the front.

[RandyB]

We've made some progress. After getting the transmission modified to add a limited slip differential, some more progress was logged today. We have the engine and transmission installed and the rear suspension has been assembled. Variations over the kit include 7 inch control rod instead of the 6 inch rods that come with the kit (Thanks Mike) and we cut and ground off the sway bar brackets from the lower control arms. Attaching a couple of shots with the engine and transmission installed.

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New lesson, the wilwood brakes come without any brake lines and you cannot reuse the stock Subaru brake lines. The Wilwood brakes come with 1/8-27 NPT threads and the Subaru brake lines have metric (M10x1.25 I believe) banjo bolts. We had to separately order brake lines and adapters (1/8-27 NPT to 3/8-24). The Wilwood web site recommended brake lines for the rear of the car calls for 14 inch brake lines. We ordered 14 inch brake lines and found that if you install the mounting brackets on the frame where recommended in the manual, the lines are too short. It looks like we have the option of either getting some 16 inch lines to replace the 14s or move the mounting bracket to the rear of the frame rail instead of the front. We'll probably go for the 16s to assure enough suspension travel without damaging the lines. The photo below shows the 14 inch line partially installed on the rear and also shows the control arm with the sway bar bracket removed. The Wilwood site calls for 18 inch lines in the front. Not sure yet whether they are long enough, but will update once we get the front knuckles installed.

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[metalmaker12]

Looking good, you live near Mike Everson, I am planning on go by there soon.

[RandyB]

Two miles. Love to compare notes if you're in the area.

[RM1SepEx]

We've been pretty busy since the last post. We have most of the brake and clutch lines run, installed the gas pedal and started the wiring harness on a diet. We've been relying pretty heavily on data provided by mechie3 and rm1SepEx - thank to both of you for the information in your threads and PMs.

U R Welcome, I think that Craig and I wanted to be as helpful as possible to future builders. I've seen a bunch of great ideas that we didn't use. It would be real nice to somehow throw them all together as a roadmap for builders. I did the same as you with my pedal after communicating with Erik and Wayne

[RandyB]

We are a set of coil springs and sway bar bushings away from a rolling chassis. As a number of others have learned, the stock sway bar mounting brackets from the rear of the Subaru are significantly different in spacing that the mounting holes on the chassis. We will replace the stock bushings with universal bushings which are specified so the mounting holes will line up. Here’s a photo that shows the difference between the bracket hole spacing and the frame spacing.

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In my last post, I indicated that I hadn’t yet tried the front brake lines, so I was sure about the fit. The 18 inch lines in the front are good. Here’s a photo.

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And now a few photos to show some of the current progress and build status to date.

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[metalmaker12]

Cool stuff, I am looking at next Sat or Sunday to drive up to mikes and pay you a visit if your around. Pm your contact info and I will call you.

[longislandwrx]

Did you order your Wilwoods from FFR or somewhere else? I was under the impression that the WRX kit came with lines as it is marketed as a bolt on kit.

[Brando]

I ordered my Wilwoods from FFR and they did not come with the lines either.
Just to make sure I am understanding this correctly. 18" in the front and 16" in the back and a 1/8-27 NPT to 3/8-24 adapter.
I am about to order these myself, any recommendations outside of this?