Dan's 818C (Lightweight818)

[BigDanSubaru]

First picture is just showing the turbo sitting on the engine while I was mocking up the barb location on the crossover pipe (before I cleaned the turbo). I then started sorting out all of the hoses and wires connecting to the intake manifold. It was a bit of a puzzle with all of the routing of the wires but it slowly starts to make sense once things are in the right place. It helps to have lots of pictures of the engine from before (I wish I took more). Once I was sure that everything was taken care of under the intake manifold, I torqued it down to spec. Absolutely love how the engine is turning out!

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[Dave 53]

[QUOTE=BigDanSubaru;509915]I have been procrastinating on assembling the rear drum emergency brakes. They can be quite the pain in the butt. Spring-loaded puzzle of clips that love to pop apart and make you wish you had 6 hands to hold all of the pieces in place while assembling them. I finally got them put together and that allowed me to finally install the rear brake calipers. I absolutely LOVE the way these turned out. I have since been informed that the rear brakes on the 818 are a bit undersized now that the engine is toward the rear. I already sunk a ton of time and a reasonable about of money making these look nice so I am going to run these brakes for now. I may upgrade the rear brakes at a later date if I find them to be lacking performance. I do plan to use this car for spirited drives on street and Autocross. I would like to take it to the track, but this would not be done very often. If I can even man up enough to take my pride and joy out on the track at all and risk destroying her. Either way, there is always something better out there. For now, these will work and as long as the car can stop, I am happy for now.



Those wheels look great!

The brake bias might be more rearward than the donor car, but it's a much lighter car than the donor, so your rear brakes will be fine. My brake bias knob is under the hood. I wish it was in the cockpit. Something to think about before you run your brake lines, especially if you're going to autocross or track your car.

I had capped lug nuts as I see you do and I've never counted how many turns of the nut I did. I went to open nuts and realized my wheel studs were too short with a 5mm spacer - I couldn't see it with the capped nuts. Since you won't be able to see the thread engagement and you have a spacer, make sure you can get at least 9.5 turns on the lug nuts.

[BigDanSubaru]

Those wheels look great!

The brake bias might be more rearward than the donor car, but it's a much lighter car than the donor, so your rear brakes will be fine. My brake bias knob is under the hood. I wish it was in the cockpit. Something to think about before you run your brake lines, especially if you're going to autocross or track your car.

I had capped lug nuts as I see you do and I've never counted how many turns of the nut I did. I went to open nuts and realized my wheel studs were too short with a 5mm spacer - I couldn't see it with the capped nuts. Since you won't be able to see the thread engagement and you have a spacer, make sure you can get at least 9.5 turns on the lug nuts.[/QUOTE]

Thanks Dave! I installed extended wheel studs to ensure that I have adequate thread engagement. I like the idea of putting the brake proportioning valve inside the cockpit. Just not sure where. I don't have enough of the interior in yet to really sort that out. Other than for burnouts, I probably won't touch it once I find a setting that works right. Maybe I'll just keep it under the hood for simplicity.

[Bob_n_Cincy]

I like the idea of putting the brake proportioning valve inside the cockpit. Just not sure where. I don't have enough of the interior in yet to really sort that out. Other than for burnouts, I probably won't touch it once I find a setting that works right. Maybe I'll just keep it under the hood for simplicity.

Just a note on "burnouts"
The 818 puts all the torque through 2 wheels as compared to the wrx 4 wheels.
I'm only running 200whp and 200 ft/lb torque and I'm on my 3rd set of axle shafts caused from autocross launches.
Bob

PS: I'm on my second transmission. With all the torque going through the front diff, the ring gear bolts loosen and shear off.
Also on my second engine as high lateral g force uncover my oil pick up. I now have a dry sump system.

[BigDanSubaru]

It has been awhile since my last update. The winter has been rough with everyone getting sick all the time so progress has been rather slow. I am also very busy with finishing up my degree so unfortunately, working on the 818 has been moved to the backburner until graduation. Here are a few update pictures of the progress I have been making towards getting the engine installed.

In these pictures, I continued bolting parts onto the engine. I attached all the hoses that will eventually meet at the IAG Air/Oil separator. I left them all long for now so I could trim them to length once I have the Air/Oil separator located in the engine bay.

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[BigDanSubaru]

Sorry all the photos in this collection got rotated. I installed the heater core loop hose that Factory Five provides. I did some reading about the cooling system on the EJ25. A bunch of owners started running this mod that helps introduce another coolant flow path to cool cylinder 4 a little more effectively. I picked up this cylinder 4 cooling mod online and tapped it into the heater core coolant loop hose. Install went pretty smoothly and I am hopeful that it helps keep the engine a little happier, for a little longer.

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[BigDanSubaru]

More engine work. Installing the sensors and their associated wiring harnesses for the gauges to monitor oil pressure, oil temperature and coolant temperature. Wrapping the exhaust manifold in titanium heat wrap. Installed the alternator and the belt. I was going to tear down the alternator and paint the cage, but decided against it. I figured you wouldn't really see it since it sits up near the firewall. I put a fancy cover over it too to help hide it. Maybe I cut a corner here, which is a rare thing for me to do with my build. I don't plan on doing it often, but I had a feeling that I would break something when trying to dismantle the alternator. Wisconsin rusted the hell out of everything else from my donor. I didn't feel like fighting with it.

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[BigDanSubaru]

Started installing some 80mil Kilmat that I got from Amazon. I am pretty impressed with this stuff considering that it is much cheaper than Dynamat. I considered other alternatives, but after watching some review and test videos on YouTube, I was sold on Kilmat. It reduced the tinny sound that results from tapping the underbody. Hoping that it will also reduce/limit vibrations as well. It is pretty cold, and this stuff is much harder to roll flat when it's cold. I have been using a heat gun to pre-heat the metal before I apply it. Then more heat while I roll it to make sure it is applied per the manufacturers instructions. I got tired of rolling, so I'll wait for it to get a little warmer out to roll over the rest of what I have applied so far. Also, my windshield finally arrived from Factory Five. They shipped it in a huge box chained down to a wood pallet. TONS of bubble wrap in the box and the windshield appears to be unharmed. I moved it into my basement with all of the other large body panels that I keep walking past wishing that I could put on the car already.

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[BigDanSubaru]

After reading through a bunch of people's build threads, I decided to add the additional rear firewall that most builders have made. I think it really improves the look of the engine bay. I was also interested in providing a barrier between the engine and the fuel tank (just seems to make sense). On top of this, I figured I would wrap it in gold heat reflective tape to help keep the heat from the engine from soaking into the cockpit. I am not adding A/C in this car (yes I know, I'll probably regret it). So keeping as much heat as possible out of the cockpit is something I am interested in.

I finished the lower panel. It was a little tricky getting the cutouts the smallest they could be and still being able to install it without having to unbolt any suspension components. I also added a thin layer of adhesive-backed foam on the backside of the panel where it attaches to the frame. I plan to rivet this lower panel in place because I don't foresee having to remove it again. For the upper panels, I will be bolting them on using rivnuts so I can remove and modify them as I need to throughout the build to route wires or whatever. I will use the same foam strip between the rivnuts to keep the rattling away. And completely wrapped in gold tape of course. I think it looks awesome! Kinda like a supercar where they use gold flake in the engine bay.

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[BigDanSubaru]

I used M6 rivnuts and black button head hex bolts to attach the upper panels so they could be taken on and off if needed. The lower panel is riveted on. For the ones in tight corners of the frame, I used the nut and bolt trick to insert the rivnuts since the large rivnut tool would fit. This method is kind of a PITA, but it worked. I used adhesive-backed thing foam weather stripping between the rivnuts to keep the panels from vibrating against the frame. They sound very sturdy when you tap on them even without sound deadening which I will add on the interior side later.
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The finished firewall installed. I will make cutouts for wires, fuel lines, shift cables, etc. later on. I think it came out pretty good and it looks awesome on the car.
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[BigDanSubaru]

One of the bolts for the block-off plate was bottoming out before contacting the plate. Not sure if there used to be a bracket in there or what, but I couldn't find any information on it. I zipped off a few mm of the bolt and now it's tight.

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Next I took some reference pics of the trans so I could remember where things went. I then removed the old transmission mount.
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I stood the trans up on a pallet, degreased and power washed it. Then painted it with AlumiBlast paint. Installed the new Group-N transmission mount. Looks way better now! Just need to throw the couple wires & brackets back on.
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[BigDanSubaru]

It's no secret that the transmission in the 818 is not at the same angle of tilt that it has when installed in the Subie. The motor needs to be higher, or the transmission needs to be lower. This allows for more effective cooling and lubrication to 5th gear. Some have just overfilled the fluid and been fine, but I wanted to give this a shot now while the car is apart. I may still slightly overfill the trans just to be safe.

Lowering the transmission requires either cutting the transmission mount on the frame and welding in some lowering plates to drop it down. Then you run into clearance problems with the diffuser and other parts. You also could modify the transmission mount by hacking it up and pouring your own rubber vibration isolator. That didn't seem like the path I wanted to take. I trust the OEM Group-N mount more than one that I would make myself.

I chose instead to raise the engine up slightly. I know...I know... bUt WhAt AbOuT tHe C.o.G?!?! Yeah, I'll admit that I am not skilled enough as a driver to notice or make use of a center of gravity that is less than 1" lower. So, I created these 1.5" aluminum spacers to go between the Group-N engine mounts and the mounting platforms on the frame. The aluminum spacers have a counter-bore hole in them where a thread adapter was used to hold the spacer to the mount. This also extends the threads of the mount down far enough to reach through the frame platforms. Below is a screenshot of the hardware I used from McMaster to secure the motor mount spacers.

Screenshot 2023-04-28 161810.png

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It is hard to tell how much space there will be around the turbo/downpipe housing when these are installed. I may have to modify the crossmember to allow for more space as some have done on here.

[BigDanSubaru]

The OEM clutch still had some life in it, but I didn't want to have to pull the motor again to replace it so soon if it went out. I replaced it with this ACT Heavy Duty clutch and lightweight flywheel kit. Came with a new throw-out bearing and strengthened hardware for the flywheel which I applied red Loctite to as instructed. I also replaced the rear main seal as it was leaking previously which left a huge mess. That kinda sucked because it was hard to get the new seal to press in evenly. Once you get it stated, the battle is over and you can just gently tap it in using the old seal as a barrier between the new seal and the rubber mallet.
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I also made this little bracket that holds the alternator belt cover secure. Typically, this end is secured by a bolt on top of the power steering pump bracket. But since I don't have the power steering pump anymore, I had to make something up.
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After lots of fussing around, wiggling, pushing and swearing, the motor and the transmission are married again. I need to clean up the starter because it looks like crap. But for now, it's just bolted on so we can get the motor in the car. I found some pool noodles at Lowe's and cut them to length to slip over the rear frame members to keep them from getting damaged as we lower the motor down in.
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[BigDanSubaru]

This took 4 of us quite a while. 2 people up by the motor, 1 person operating the lift and 1 person standing on the back of it to make sure it was steady and didn't topple forward. It took many attempts, at many different angles, but it just barely slid in. In hindsight, I would have installed the motor without the exhaust on because that caused most of our fuss. The motor mount spacers also didn't do us any favors here. As you can see in the last picture in the row below, the tabs on top of the intake manifold where the coolant de-gas tank mounts are like 1/2" from the frame crossmembers that are above the engine. I planned to mount that de-gas coolant tank somewhere else anyway because you can't really service it when the cap is below that crossmember. I just loosely tossed the intercooler on the car to get cool pictures. I still need to clean it all out and make it look shiny again.

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The motor mount risers also did me some favors by giving me more ground clearance for my larger aftermarket exhaust manifold and oil pan. I will be doing a lot of street driving and autocross with this car, so the extra ground clearance really makes me feel more secure. I would not have felt comfortable driving a car around where the oil pan is hanging down lower than the frame rails surrounding it.

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[lance corsi]

Big Dan, it’s looking good! Just remember that nearly everything you change may have an impact on everything else. It’s a packaging nightmare. By raising your engine, it may prevent the rear removable brace from going back in.

[Bicyclops]

It's no secret that the transmission in the 818 is not at the same angle of tilt that it has when installed in the Subie. The motor needs to be higher, or the transmission needs to be lower. This allows for more effective cooling and lubrication to 5th gear. Some have just overfilled the fluid and been fine, but I wanted to give this a shot now while the car is apart. I may still slightly overfill the trans just to be safe.

Lowering the transmission requires either cutting the transmission mount on the frame and welding in some lowering plates to drop it down. Then you run into clearance problems with the diffuser and other parts. You also could modify the transmission mount by hacking it up and pouring your own rubber vibration isolator. That didn't seem like the path I wanted to take. I trust the OEM Group-N mount more than one that I would make myself.

I chose instead to raise the engine up slightly. I know...I know... bUt WhAt AbOuT tHe C.o.G?!?! Yeah, I'll admit that I am not skilled enough as a driver to notice or make use of a center of gravity that is less than 1" lower. So, I created these 1.5" aluminum spacers to go between the Group-N engine mounts and the mounting platforms on the frame. The aluminum spacers have a counter-bore hole in them where a thread adapter was used to hold the spacer to the mount. This also extends the threads of the mount down far enough to reach through the frame platforms. Below is a screenshot of the hardware I used from McMaster to secure the motor mount spacers.

Screenshot 2023-04-28 161810.png

336133135_3568416003445494_9209574953554771608_n_6303096346409079.jpg

It is hard to tell how much space there will be around the turbo/downpipe housing when these are installed. I may have to modify the crossmember to allow for more space as some have done on here.

I tried raising the engine and the cross brace fouled the turbo. My AWIC wasn't going to fit under the humps either. I bit the bullet and cut the transmission mount out. No matter which way you go you're going to foul something. The FFR exhaust using the WRX cat wasn't going to work once the bumper was in place. Didn't care cos I didn't want to use that anyway.

Ed

[Dave 53]

While I have my tranny opened up, I just took this picture. What you can't see is the other side of the ruler is just below the axle, presumably the full fluid level. What it shows is the bottom of the axle, 3rd, 4th and 5th gear are pretty much in line. The geometry isn't prefect. I get that the pivot is at the mounts, not the axle, but what it tells me is, if 5th gear is dry, probably so is 4th and 3rd. Said another way, if 3rd and 4th are good, 5th probably is too. Maybe all this worry about transmission angle isn't as big of a deal as it seems. Seems the fluid is sloshing around as the car rolls keeping everything wet. If a full cup of coffee on the dash is spilling everywhere, I'm willing to bet 5th gear is wet. That and I hear of (and experience) only 3rd gear failure and pinion / ring gear failures. Not hearing of any actual 5th gear failures. 13,000 miles and my 5th gears look just like the rest of the gears - no signs of unusual wear. At this point, I'm no longer gonna worry about it. gear line.jpg

Having said all that, I did raise my engine 1/2" for Killer B oil pan clearance.

[J R Jones]

Col Red has weighed in on this and did temperature research, a good reference. The coffee analogy does not hold water (ha). The gears are in a viscous liquid and act like water wheels pumping oil in radial patterns. Each gear spins at a different rate with various loads. The trans gears spin oil to the side, the ring gear spins if forward. The dynamic oil level can not be measured Gear failure suggests localized starvation.
jim

[blomb11]

Dan, you can check out my build thread for how to deal with the downstream effects of raising the engine. Nothing really fits like the manual says so there is always some tweaking required . Looks good though and you are making quick work!

[BigDanSubaru]

Thank you for all of your collective feedback on my recent posts. I know the transmission angle/fluid level topic can be a bit of a battleground subject. I didn't mean to kick the hornets nest again on that one. Let's all work together and have some effective and productive discussions on it. As a soon to be graduating mechanical engineering student, I have learned that working as a team involves consideration of all member's opinions or concepts. This typically yields the most appropriate solution.

Anyway, for now let's all just enjoy the photos of how hilariously small and low this little car is. My dad and I were smiling ear to ear from the moment the tires touched the concrete, all the way up until we packed up for the night. Clearly I have some suspension adjustment to do here. This is just how it sat with no changes to the settings from when the suspension was first installed. One of my favorite pictures is the one where I am standing outside of the garage door and looking in. The car looks like one hell of a machine in there with how low it is and how wide the rear tires are. People going for walks in my neighborhood are always staring at it as they stroll on by. I heard one person walking by say "holy S***!", which is funny, because that's basically my reaction every time I walk into the garage and see it again.

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[Bicyclops]

It won't seem a lot bigger even after you put body panels on it - just cuter. I wish my garage was as roomy as yours seems to be. You'll find a ton of threads on ride height. I can only get in and out of my driveway at an angle at 5 1/8". I still managed to scrape on a city street dip a couple of days ago.

Ed

[BigDanSubaru]

With the engine finally in the car, I can start working on a few things like the shifter cable routing. I mounted my Zero DB Motorsports 5 speed bell crank. I also just placed my Zero DB Motorsports shifter inside the cockpit so I could play around with the position as see what felt right. I think I will wait to progress any further on this until I have the seats bolted down and the E-brake handle mounted. I don't want to get ahead of myself and end up mounting this in a position that doesn't fit right with those other components.

I had one of these COBB shift knobs on my old WRX before. They are made from delrin which is a material that does not get super hot which was nice when the car was parked in the sun for awhile. Since this car will not have A/C, I think this was a good choice of knobs.

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[BigDanSubaru]

I am planning where to run the brake, clutch and coolant pipe down the driver side of the car. The manual says to stay at a certain height so the side panel will fit on the car, but it kind of vague still. I decided to mock up the panel just to make sure it would fit where I plan to run the lines. Even if it is only temporary, it's really exciting to see a body panel on the car. The wheel fitment on the back looks awesome. That may change once I adjust ride height and properly align the body panels. But for now, I am just gonna look at it in awe.

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[cob427sc]

Looks great but...... what happens when that rear tire moves up when you hit a bump? Looks like it might have a significant rub on the fender. Just a thought.

[Hobby Racer]

Looks great but...... what happens when that rear tire moves up when you hit a bump? Looks like it might have a significant rub on the fender. Just a thought.

Nah, when you hit a bump the tire's camber curve pulls the top in, he has plenty of room. Mine sticks out more and I have no issues.

[driveslikejehu]

Nah, when you hit a bump the tire's camber curve pulls the top in, he has plenty of room. Mine sticks out more and I have no issues.

Agreed, same as mine. But it is a "must" check; to move all wheel/tires through full motion (without springs is easiest). It took a bit of balancing with wheel spacers for me to get clearance of trailing arm and fender.

But I did forget to do it again after finishing the front fender tops/air extractors. Looks like the upper ball joint took care of it at my first auto cross last weekend, lol.
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[BigDanSubaru]

Thanks for looking out. I will definitely be checking for clearance before the go-kart stage. It's worth noting that the side panel was not resting on the mount on the back. I was in the middle of modifying it to clear the turbo outlet. So the position that it is shown in may not be what it ends up being when properly mounted. This was more or less just to check for clearance of the coolant and brake lines inside the tunnel on the driver's side.

[BigDanSubaru]

After reviewing the manual and seeing the amount of fittings involved in the brake system as designed by FFR, I decided to go a different route. I just didn't like that there were so many unions and thread adaptors in the system. I am sure other builders have done it this way and it has been totally fine, but that was just too many potential failure points in a critical system for me.

I decided to run my lines in 3/16" NiCopp line. It is much easier to bend than steel, and supposedly lasts longer too. I picked up a nice brake line flaring tool which is a bench vice mounted turret type devise. I did not trust the harbor freight one (again, I am sure someone has done it and had success). This tool took some getting used to with the NiCopp line. I tried cutting and flaring the steel line provided by factory five and it did great. Perfect and consistent flares each time. But when using the NiCopp, the softer material would sometimes jam if too much pressure was applied when flaring. I ran through a couple of test flares until I felt comfortable with the results. The first couple that I did, I applied too much force and it kinked the line just before the flare. The NiCopp is soft, and doesn't require near as much force to flare. I also used anti-seize on the turret to keep the material from jamming and binding which helped.

Once I got used to flaring, I started salvaging the standard flare nuts from the factory five steel lines, and used metric ones that I purchased separately for lines that connected to a Subaru component. I also used the Eastwood brake line de-burring tool which really helped to get nice flare results.

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[Bicyclops]

I'm with you on reducing the number of fittings. When you go to bleed the brakes, any one of them can cause you fits. It took me 2 days to get all the leaks fixed. Most leaks succumbed to extra tightening, but one just wouldn't seal and I eventually remade the line. I used the NiCu line too. It is much easier to bend to fit the car while routing.

Ed

[BigDanSubaru]

The stainless lines for the front calipers have been installed. It was recommended in the manual to restrain the line at the midpoint if using the stainless lines. I fabricated a little bracket to hold the line out of the way.
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The hard lines have all been routed and secured. I used two of the brake line mounting brackets back-to-back with a bolt and nut to couple them together. I ran them down the passenger side in the location that I checked before when I test fitted the side panel. The coolant pipe is just hanging there from when I was checking locations. There are no unions in any of the straight brake line runs. I used as few fittings as I could to eliminate possible failure points. The rear stainless lines have this circular sliding mount in the middle which has a little e-clip on it. I don't really have a place to mount this, nor do I feel it's entirely necessary. I guess it won't do any harm just being on the brake line, but I would like to at least restrain it from sliding up and down the line. I am not really wanting to zip them off with a Dremel tool. If I cut too deep, I could nick the brake line which would really suck.
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I realized that I skipped the page in the manual where it tells you to drill the hole 1/2" above the OEM location for the brake pedal push rod. Luckily I was still able to reach in there with a drill and drill the hole out without having to remove the whole pedal box again for a 3rd time.
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The brake system has been bled and I have no leaks from any of the fittings. The only leak I found in the system is at the driver side front caliper. It is leaking at the top between the two halves of the caliper. I came to find out that 2 of the caliper bolts were loose. I could not find a torque spec for these online, but I torqued them all down even to 45ft-lbs. The leak still remained, but was significantly better. I increased the torque to 55ft-lbs and it is almost gone (just barely visible at the seam between the caliper halves when pressing hard on the brake pedal). I believe one of my helpers when disassembling the donor may have mistakenly broken these bolts loose when trying to remove the caliper. I know there is a little O-ring in there between the halves, and I hope that didn't somehow get damaged. Apparently those are not able to be purchased new from Subaru either which is great. Has anyone had experience with a leak in this location?

[BigDanSubaru]

Sound deadening has been applied to the inside of the rear firewall and also to the panel beneath the fuel tank. I made sure to leave the openings for drainage open so that if there is a fuel leak, the fuel can escape and not form a huge puddle. I am running the Boyd welding fuel tank which I will be installing soon. I need to flip the fuel level sending unit float so it reads correctly. Apparently it comes shipped where the fuel level reads empty when full and full when empty. Seems like an easy fix though, based on other posts I have seen by builders on here.

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[blomb11]

Nice work as I learned the hard way to double check all fittings to make sure they were tight . One thing you may want to evaluate is installing the sheet metal piece that goes behind the front control arms (your 3rd image) because both the front left/right lines go through that panel. Plus as you go further in the build your access to the frame gets difficult. This suggestion is in the 818 assembly sticky in the general tab. Since you have already bled the system it might be a bit more challenging or you will just have to notch the panel to account for the line and your bracket already being installed. Food for thought.

[BigDanSubaru]

Nice work as I learned the hard way to double check all fittings to make sure they were tight . One thing you may want to evaluate is installing the sheet metal piece that goes behind the front control arms (your 3rd image) because both the front left/right lines go through that panel. Plus as you go further in the build your access to the frame gets difficult. This suggestion is in the 818 assembly sticky in the general tab. Since you have already bled the system it might be a bit more challenging or you will just have to notch the panel to account for the line and your bracket already being installed. Food for thought.

There is always something. Just when you think you have thought ahead, there is always something else you should/could have done first. Thanks for pointing that out. I will likely just slot that panel. That is kinda nice anyway, because then if I need to remove the panel to get access to something later, I don't have to disconnect the brake line and bleed the system again.

[blomb11]

I can't tell you how many times I have had to remove and reinstall things because I did not know what was coming later in the build process. The manual is a good start, but it really diverges after you get the big pieces on or in place.

[driveslikejehu]

To build on what blomb11 said, I was timid about the sheet metal assembly. I installed most of it first time with Tek screws. I laid it out, drilled holes for rivets, then used a few screws to hold in place. As I start to finalize things I go back and use rivets. The Tek screws didn't open up the holes, so rivets still fit.
Just a thought, if you're not already doing something like it...

[BigDanSubaru]

To build on what blomb11 said, I was timid about the sheet metal assembly. I installed most of it first time with Tek screws. I laid it out, drilled holes for rivets, then used a few screws to hold in place. As I start to finalize things I go back and use rivets. The Tek screws didn't open up the holes, so rivets still fit.
Just a thought, if you're not already doing something like it...

I have a huge pack of 1/8" Cleco fasteners that have been super helpful in temporarily mounting the aluminum panels to the car. Super easy to take on and off to make adjustments. They were especially helpful in doing the dead pedal aluminum pieces since those required a little trimming and bending to get the fitment up to my standards (which are entirely too high).

I have had to drill holes in tight spaces so many times that it became worth it to pick up the $20 right angle drill chuck from Harbor Freight. It works really well and comes in handy quite often.

[BigDanSubaru]

Finally took on the task of assembling the axles. I bought new boot kits from fastwrx.com because my donor boots were either torn, or they were old and brittle. I didn't want to risk buying cheap universal knock-off boots either. Plus these new boot came with the pre-measured amount of grease to pack them with and the oem clamps which I think work better than the metal zip ties that don't like to get tight. I painted the parts black because that OEM green color was rather hideous and it bothered me. Painted the axle shafts too so they would not get all rusty over time.

Little tip if you are using the oem swing style metal cv clamps; use a little bit of WD-40 where the clamp goes so it can slide when swinging the clamp arm over. If the clamp arm pinches the boot, it won't seal correctly. You also only get one swing of the arm so DO NOT attempt to open the clamp again once it is even partially closed. I broke one doing this because the boot was getting pinched under it (that's when I learned the WD-40 trick).

Also, the hose clamp trick takes a little fidgeting when trying to slide the axles into the one end past the spring ring clamp. But it's definitely worth the effort because once you get it right, it makes this process so much easier. That tip is something I read in the assembly tips sticky thread. Thanks for posting that one!

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[BigDanSubaru]

I got the Boyd fuel tank bolted in and it fits great! Had to bend the lower tabs down just a bit but that was no big deal. I installed the AN fittings and capped them until I figure out my fuel line routing. I then moved onto getting the firewall fitted up. I am skipping around a bit in the manual because I am bringing my 818 to Boxerfest 2023 and I want the seats, ebrake and shifter installed before then. I can always circle back for other things, it isn't that hard to remove those things once they are installed.

The firewall was contacting the top of the fuel filler port on the Boyd tank. I knew this would happen because I saw another builder have this occur and I solved the problem in the same way. Just a piece of aluminum tubing underneath the driver side firewall panel to raise it up about 1". I used my air saw (new favorite tool) to zip off the excess firewall from the top so it would not overhang the top frame tube.

I was then left with a small gap midway up the firewall between the passenger and driver side panels. I bent up some of the piece that was cut off the top of the driver side panel and bolted it in to fill that gap. It is not perfect, but it's way better than what it was when it was fully open there. When I officially install the firewall, I will feed the bolts up from the bottom, but for now I just have them from the top down because that's easier with 1 person.

Oh, and I also had to trim the endcap piece that goes on the end of the passenger side firewall piece. It was hitting the fuel tank, so I made a carboard template and traced it onto the FFR supplied endplate and cut it to fit. I left a small amount of the flange at the top so I could put one fastener through the driver side firewall and into the endcap. I am pretty satisfied with how the firewall fits and am moving on to the ebrake and shifter soon.

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[BigDanSubaru]

Since I raised the engine up (see engine riser post), the turbo outlet flange is now contacting the rear engine crossmember. I had 2 helpers hold it in place where it should line up and I taped out where I planned to put the new metal tubes. I plan to cut out the existing metal in-between and reroute across the engine bay while avoiding the engine components.

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To keep the bolted endpieces in place and properly aligned, I bolted the whole cross member down to a piece of wood. This ensures that the bolt holes will line up with the ones on the car after the modifications are complete.

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I bought some tube steel from Home Depot and cut it out to the lengths and angles that I needed (by hand with a hack saw). I marked the alignment of the pieces and taped it onto the frame using Gorilla Tape. I think it's gonna be strong enough like this so I am just going to throw it back on the car and call it done. KIDDING! I am going to take it over to my uncles house and weld it up. Come on guys, you didn't honestly believe that I would do that, right?!

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[BigDanSubaru]

Turns out that the tube steel from Home Depot is basically Chineseium. It welds like crap so it must have some crappy alloy or something. It was also a little thinner than the FFR tube steel and I didn't really notice this until now. Anyway, my uncle is a far better welded than me so I let him handle it. I burned through the scrap piece that we tested on so I didn't feel comfortable welding on the actual part. It still turned out very rigid, just not the prettiest. I did not want to grind the welds down flat because I thought that might reduce some of the strength of the welds and that wasn't done on the rest of the FFR chassis so I didn't really care. Once it is pained it wont look quite so rough.

The main point is that it FITS! Plenty of clearance for the turbo and the transmission dipstick. It also clears the clutch slave cylinder and doesn't get in the way of the intercooler.

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Painted the crossmember with black chassis paint and inserted black plastic endcaps in the open ends of the new sections. Looks pretty good and I don't think you could tell it was modified unless you really knew what you were looking at, which is what I was going for.

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