Brandon's 818R Build

[blomb11]

Good idea I will check out HF! I might be able to borrow a bandsaw as well since I just need it for this one project. I always think they are big and clunky but there are some cool portable ones now.

[blomb11]

Yes! I swapped both AVCS solenoids with OEM ones and it seems like I have resolved the P0011 and P0021 CEL I was getting for cam position error. I swapped the last one Tuesday night so working from home today I had to take a quick break to see if that did the trick. I did buy cheap solenoids from a parts center online so from now on it will only be OEM sensors and solenoids. One of the cheap sensors looked like maybe it was off center like the OEM one looked. Now I feel more confident on taking a longer drive. I am still waiting on the RTV of my flex fuel module. I can't imagine what it will feel like with E85 on board

[Bicyclops]

I always buy OEM electronic stuff. Unfortunately, I sometimes have bought it from less than reputable sources (Amazon) and, though it looked like OEM, threw codes after just a few thousand miles. Cheaper not always genuine. Same happened with my AEM fuel pump from Amazon. Never pumped a drop of fuel.

I have a lowly 2L non-AVCS stroked to 2.14 with a 2.5L crank. E85 turned it into a monster. 310whp on 91 octane and 386 on ethanol! You're gonna love it.

Ed

[Dave 53]

I tested about 8 PCV valves. Cheap and easy to return. Easy test - blow, suck, does it leak? Subaru OEM was the clear winner. Some we absolutely worthless.

I recently pulled it out of the car for inspection and cleaning after about 18,000 miles. I had the car apart for a different project and it was exposed, so I took the opportunity. Still as good as new.

[blomb11]

So resolving the cam position CELs I felt more confident going for a longer drive. I drove down one of the major roads by my house about 14 miles round trip in stop and go traffic. The car felt great and quick! This is definitely the fastest car I have driven and it’s still on a 91 time. I should get my flex fuel module back next week and can’t wait to see the difference. I missed a downshift as one of the lights was turning and pretty sure I bounced it off the limiter. A few minutes later I could audibly hear a different exhaust note and the CEL was flashing. So I limped it home and pulled P0245 and P0302 for a misfire and waste gate circuit low. I tried looking at the log and there was definitely a weird behavior around the missed shift in mass air flow, timing, and waste gate duty cycle. Time to investigate.

I did take a short video of when everything was going smoothly.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/C96Hc...M1YmI2Ng%3D%3D

[driveslikejehu]

Congrats on the drive! Was so satisfying to finally drive it for me. As I'm exploring the potential at track days, I'm continually impressed with the power and grip.
Enjoy!

[blomb11]

Nice! I have been trying to figure out when I can sneak away from the fam to do a track day. Might have to wait until the fall down here in SoCal anyways since it’s pretty warm right now. I will drive it around town to get used to it since it’s very different than my old STI. I will finish up the aero next month…hopefully.

[driveslikejehu]

I'll share a recommendation I got; maybe do an autocross first. I wasn't really thinking of it as it's been years, but it was a good shakedown. Helped find a few bugs before committing to a full track day.

[blomb11]

Definitely not a bad idea. I started with autocross a few years back. I can see how it could help with seeing the braking and weight transfer is with a mid engine vs front engine. There are a couple of events coming up for that too in the next couple months.

[blomb11]

Progress has been slow lately waiting for parts and lots of things going on at home. I finally got the flex fuel module back and installed so things are running well on E85. I am still waiting to get the Professional Awesome racing splitter rods and mounts to finish the front splitter. I did receive my 9 Lives Racing wing or wang as they call it so that is what I am working on now. The last two weeks I was able to fab an aluminum floor under the engine and trans. I first tried making it two pieces but then realized there was not enough room for the fasteners for both sheets on the cross bar under the trans. I tried to braze the two pieces together to salvage the metal and cost but at 0.040" thick it was comical how quickly the metal warped. I had to suck it up and buy another sheet, cut it out as once piece, and then fit it up. It came out pretty decent and then I left room for future diffuser mounting pickups.

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I went to Harbor Freight and picked up a portable bandsaw and a portable bandsaw stand to help with the wing structure. It worked like a charm so you can see my little set up last Friday. I got most of the structure cut and welded in the car. I need some more weld tabs to integrate it and then need to rethink there the oil cooler will go. I forgot about the shifter cable on the left side which is exactly where I had the oil cooler modeled up. I modeled up an oil cooler duct so I am going to try a website I found to 3D print one since I did not find one that fit my requirements.

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[driveslikejehu]

Looking good!
I'm planning to add a wing over the winter; I like your support plan. I'm starting to feel it get loose powering out of corners, so I think the wing is needed.
I'm considering the second cutout in the rear bumper like you have. Does it help air flow out of the engine area? It's not really clear, looking at the few wind tunnel vids out there. Seems like it might stagnate in that flat bumper area.
I may try it anyway; when I come off the track, the engine cover is so hot I can barely touch it.

[blomb11]

Credit to Hobby Racer for the wing structure inspiration

I have not tested the rear cutouts yet but from many people on the forum and the few drives I have taken the engine bay heats up quick. So I want to try to move as much air through there as possible to try and keep things cool. I am hoping with the flat bottom and forcing the air through the enlarged side vents will help push it through the bumper openings.

[blomb11]

Making progress on the rear wing. I know the roll bar is going to disrupt the air going to wing but I am not sure how high it should sit. I am open to feedback from the forum on this so any suggestions? The rear roll bar measures 16” and the pylon measures 20”.

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[Hobby Racer]

I have no scientific data to back this up but I used an airfoil off an ultralight landing strut to smooth out the air around the top roll bar.

Starting the air foil for the upper roll bar

[lance corsi]

What he said! The drag from a round tube is greater than the drag from an airfoil shape.

[blomb11]

I have no scientific data to back this up but I used an airfoil off an ultralight landing strut to smooth out the air around the top roll bar.

Starting the air foil for the upper roll bar

I remember reading that in your build and have it bookmarked too. How high are you pylons? 14" APR pylons?

[Hobby Racer]

Yes, 14" APR pylons.

[blomb11]

I can’t stop starring at the car anytime I am in the garage! I finished up the wing structure, mounted the 9 Lives Racing wing, and finished the front splitter. I just put a couple layers of fiber glass over the elevator bolts in the splitter to keep them secure and then filled in the lip around the splitter to hopefully help with the air flow. The splitter really lowers the front and I scrapped big time getting out of the driveway. I am battling the same misfire in cylinder #2 CEL. I am working with my tuner to see if he can decrease the sensitivity for the light weight flywheel. I also had an overboost which is odd. Trying to get it stable so I can take longer drives and get to the track. The e85 in the tank is over a year old so that probably doesn’t help so I pumped it out and got some fresh e85.

Next up is to plumb the trans and oil coolers.

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[Hobby Racer]

It is nice to see the fruits of your labor. I often times catch myself staring at my car and thinking, Wow, I built that!

[Bicyclops]

Beautiful!

I did a lot of research and settled on a Fluidampr. I've got a lightweight Perrin if anybody wants one.

Ed

[blomb11]

I thought about the fluidampr. If I keep having issues might scoop one of those up.

[driveslikejehu]

The fab work looks great!
I actually ended up moving my splitter in an inch after a couple of track days. I think it's still working well, the front is really planted on turn-in, but the farther out the more it scraped, hinders loading etc. Don't know if there is an optimal position or "more is better?"
A wing will be one of the winter projects.

[blomb11]

It has been a frustrating few weeks. I am still trying to diagnose my cylinder 1 and/or 2 misfires. It is an odd behavior because the car starts up and initially runs fine. The first few minutes of the drive everything seems fine, pulls, and sounds normal. Then after a few minutes of driving and at random intervals I see the CEL flash and the exhaust tone is vastly different. It changes to a muffled rumble which is odd because I have an equal length header. Sometimes the CEL will go away but then it will come back after a couple minutes. I have verified the plugs, coil packs, injectors, and fuel pressure are all good. I ran a boost leak test which did show a couple loose fittings so I fixed those, but the next drive I still saw the CEL. I am on a MAF tune and the MAF seems fine after looking at the log showing good measurements. It is not an OEM MAF so there is that too. The first time it showed I was running 45% e85 and now I have 75% e85 in the tank. I am down to it either being an issue with the flex fuel tune or a bad ground in the wiring harness. I was talking with someone who had similar issues and it ended up being an issue with the spliced ground in his engine harness. So I think I will drain the tank and try one last time on 91 to see if it is the tune. Otherwise I will pull the engine harness, fill the grounds with solder, and strain relieve them.

[Dave 53]

I just got a code P0031 over the weekend. Wasn't too hard to diagnose. But now I need to pull the header off to fish out the broken off parts.

o2 sensor.jpgP0031.jpg

[longislandwrx]

ooof thats a wild failure

[blomb11]

I think I finally figured out my cylinder 1 and 2 misfire issue. I feel like I thrown the kitchen sink at this over the last few months trying to figure this out. I had some cheap chinese sensors from when I rebuilt the engine still installed. Over this few month process I swapped to new 0.028" spark plugs, already had new Delicious Tuning coil packs, verified the fuel system, changed to OEM MAF, changed to OEM cam position sensors, good compression check, and a good leak down test. I feel like I verified the engine and engine sensors were all good. So then I moved to wiring and verified all of my grounds. I pulled the engine harness and filled all of the coil pack grounds and reinstalled it. I checked my frame ground connections as well. Then I moved on to see if it was tune related. I swapped back to previous tunes from when I knew the engine was running fine but still had the misfire issue. My last thought at this point was maybe the ECU was going out. While I was trying to flash to a different EcuTek ROM the car died and would not start. In the process of trouble shooting this is when I noticed I was not able to communicate to the ECU via the OBD2 port with my scanner or the EcuTek. I tore apart the cockpit to get to the ECU and verified the wiring between the OBD2 port and the ECU was fine. I had a spare ECU on hand so I decided to plug it in and see if it would allow me to communicate with the OBD2 port and boom it did!

Of course when you buy an EcuTek it is only good to flash a single ECU so I had to buy more flash points, or license basically, as EcuTek calls it so I can flash a second ECU. So another $250 gone poof ha so I was super anxious to flash the ECU and take the car for a spin. I did a first short drive around the neighborhood two weekends ago and there was no CEL. I did a second drive this past weekend with a short stint on the freeway. After getting on the freeway and passing two exits I saw a CEL pop up but it was steady and I did not notice any change in performance or sounds which was always a tell of the misfire. Thankfully it was just a evap code and no misfires. Really hope this is the end of my misfire issues. I need to get my oil cooler line leak sorted and then without the fear of misfires I can actually drive the car more!! Family life and work have made for slow progress on this troubleshooting. I feel like I have wasted months but hopeful to be able to start really driving the car.

[Hobby Racer]

Good to hear you have tracked it down! I had many similar issues with ECUs/wiring/sensors in the past, no fun.

[blomb11]

I also learned that the EcuTek tuner allows you to reprogram keys with your immobilizer which is awesome! This was another huge headache when I wanted to try switching the ECU. I thought I was going to have to tow it to a shop with a Subaru Select Monitor but thankfully I was able to reprogram the key/immobilizer with the spare ECU I had. The car fired right up after too phew!

[driveslikejehu]

I also learned that the EcuTek tuner allows you to reprogram keys with your immobilizer which is awesome! !

Wow, that's good to know. I've been scared of any problem coming up related to key/immobilizer/ECU, figuring I would brick the system

[blomb11]

I was still making some progress even working through my misfire dilemna. I was able to mount and plumb the trans and engine oil coolers. I deleted the OEM oil cooler/warmer from the block to try and give me more space to route the hoses. Of course the sandwich plate with thermostat I got was a tight fit and only allowed it to be installed one way. So this resulted in me having to extend out my oil temp sensor close to the firewall. I tried to route the oil cooler hoses down the side of the trans along the frame and then up through the EL headers. This was a very tight fit but I was able to squeeze it in and use the fire protection silicone liners on each cooler line. I am not really sure why I thought to put the oil cooler fan switch midway down the line but this just caused an unnecessary leak. Maybe it was to keep the wires out of the fan exhaust, but it required multiple AN fittings and I just can't get the leak to stop. So now I will have to rebuild this line and just put the switch at the cooler outlet up top. I mocked up a simple oil cooler duct in Creo and then I found an online print shop that sent me the part for $60. I routed a PVC dust vac line to the left side vent to get fresh air. I am not in love with my aluminum bracket and I think the hose will pop out at high speed. I am debating making a 3D printed part that I can attach the hose to with a proper clamp.

The trans cooler was pretty straight forward with the 6sp trans I have with the external oil line. I copied what Hobby Racer did on one of his trans cooler iterations so thank you for the inspiration.

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[driveslikejehu]

Yeah, it was tight routing the oil lines from the sandwich plate, and positioning pressure and temp sensors. You may know about this; Auto-Meter (probably others) make a shorter temp sensor which can help in tight locations
temp sensors.jpg

[blomb11]

Interesting thanks for the info. Because I removed the oil cooler/heater it brought the sandwich plate to the block and thus the front cover is very close to the sandwich plate now. So I had to use two 1/8" NPT male to female couplers to move it out to not interfere with the plastic front cover. Looks kinda funny but at least it is not leaking.

[Bicyclops]

Is that an oil pressure sender cantilevered way out from the sandwich plate? I'd be worried that vibration might break it off.

Another solution to the tight space down under there might be a remote oil filter takeoff and hang an oil filter on the firewall where it'd be easier to change. A sandwich plate on that would go to the cooler. It does make for some longer hoses tho. Improved Racing makes some nice ones. That's how I did mine.

Ed

[blomb11]

I was just talking about this with my brother in law. I am going to use a -4AN line and remote mount the oil temp sensor on my rear firewall. Thanks for looking out!

[Bob_n_Cincy]

I was just talking about this with my brother in law. I am going to use a -4AN line and remote mount the oil temp sensor on my rear firewall. Thanks for looking out!

A hose will work great for a remote pressure sensor. It will not work for a remote temperature sensor. Think about it.


My pressure and temp sensors are on my remote oil filter. oil sensors.jpg

[blomb11]

Correct I meant pressure sensor sorry. When I removed my headers I noticed I was melting through the fire sleeve. I had the oil lines pinched between the header and block. I wanted to keep the lines away from the turbo and DP, but to route it down the left side of the engine/trans required the lines to take a 180 deg turn exiting the sandwich plate. I ended up routing the lines down the right side, kept them as far away as possible from the turbo/DP, and this allowed for a straight in/out from the sandwich plate. I put new fire sleeve over the lines and now nothing is touching the headers. Kind of a shortsighted first approach but hopefully this works better. While everything was apart I used a 4AN hose to remote mount the pressure sensor on the rear first wall.

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Took the car for a drive to down the freeway a couple exits and everything seems to be working nicely. Car pulls hard and it was only on 21% E85 in the tank. Now I need to adjust the brake bias, get it corner balanced with a proper alignment, and then I am ready for the track. Finally!

[Dave 53]

Looking good! Good luck at the track. Looking forward to a debrief.

[Hobby Racer]

... Now I need to adjust the brake bias, get it corner balanced with a proper alignment, and then I am ready for the track. Finally!

Great news. I'd love to meet you at VIR again so we could both get some good laps in!

I'll be back there on June 18 & 19.

[blomb11]

I am still down in SoCal but my wife and I have been talking about relocating because the cost of living with 3 young kids is getting out of control. She is from Rochester so this would be in your neck of the woods. TBD and highly dependent on finding a new job. Of course right when I get the car ready but hoping to get to Chuckwalla or Willow Springs first.

[Hobby Racer]

Rochester is only 1.5 hour drive to Watkins Glen International. That is my home track, I'm there many times a year. If you do end up moving, contact me and we can meet up at the track. It would be nice to have another 818R. Presently I'm the only one.