Time attack beetle

[Humble]

Got some more parts in this week. Finally got my transmission, and TY754VBAAA from a ver 5/6 sti.





After doing some research the flywheel I picked up is for a modern subaru 6spd which has a larger 228mm clutch disk and beefier pressure plate. It'll work with the trans but not without some modification. There's a bunch of webbing in the bellhousing that will need to be clearanced and i'll have to do lots of test fits with the motor off the stand.



I also got my new megasquirt MS3X ecu this week. I opted for a prebuilt unit with a couple mods, the mapdaddy 4bar dual baro sensor, and the real time clock to time stamp logs. I've temporarily turned the dining room table into a lab and started testing and programming the MS3X. I'm looking into a lot of new features I didn't use/have on the ms2.





What I've setup so far:
waste fire ignition
batch fire injection
radiator fan control
tach output
boost control through table blending
water injection pump control
water injection valve control
front axle VSS input
transmission output shaft VSS input
VSS output to drive speedo
traction control with dial-a-slip

That's it so far, I'm still configuring everything. I need to get a couple 3 wire potentiometers to use with the adjustable boost and traction control settings. I have the wiring looms ready to go and once the motor and tranny are ready the fun can begin!

[Humble]

The subaru swap hit the skids while I work on Joy but that doesn't stop me from going out and racing. Event #2 was this past sunday and boy was it nice. I was running in the afternoon, which was pretty hot until the wind picked up, and it was a light crowd thanks to competing events. I didn't have a co-driver this time so the car only did half it's normal amount of runs... which taught me a lot. Oil, tire, and head temps were all down, heads stayed around 375, oil around 150F, and the front tires never got sticky. Without a co-driver I had to wait longer between runs and in that time the front tires lost all temp, which means all grip. I was .9 sec behind my nemesis in the turbo miata which means I was losing about 1 sec from cold tires.

I was going to add a little more front shock to see if it would help stabilize the car under braking, but I was also thinking I might decrease the front camber as well and go back down to -1.5 or -1.3. I'm not getting onto the front tire shoulders at all even with low tire temps, so I can probably dial out some camber.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xYVSlOUVuM

[Humble]

Event #3 for 2013 and another double points grab. I was running in the afternoon again, and the weather was great. Well, except for the random 40-50mph gusts and large dust devils that wrecked the course a few times. I played with the tire pressures a bit, raising the front to 18psi and the rears to 17psi. That got a lot more grip out of the front than I've had in a while but the rears were now sliding around. She was a handful but with the front sticking better I was able to go faster than before. The fun was short lived, however, since after each run I could hear the exhaust note changing. I had a small exhaust leak, not that big of a deal, but the car started to lose power which was very noticeable off boost. By the end of the group we were pretty much hot-lapping the car, and after my 3rd run I knew something was off. I tried to get a 4th run out of her anyway since I was about 1.5 seconds off top time of day, but halfway through the run the oil light started coming on and I shut her down. I ended up with a 44.4 which should have put me in the top 10 raw times with my 3rd run, and still beat my nemesis by .3 sec which was good for 1st place.

The victory is bittersweet though, and I think the cam might be going as well as the exhaust gasket. There's now a rush to get the sti motor and trans in the bug before the next event in June. I don't think it'll happen by then but we'll see.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjRO2UR_-gQ

[Humble]

Moar updates!

Despite racing and breaking things, work does actually continue on the car, but I have to apologize for not updating in a timely fashion.

I finally got some parts in over the past couple weeks. I got my cast aluminum 2 piece shortened sump, and I finally got my transmission conversion goodies from the land down under. Subarugears makes a flip ring & pinion kit for the 5sp and I'm way impressed with the quality. Besides the R&P the kit comes with a setup tool, center diff spool, plug for the shortened center diff housing, output shafts (mine are type2/porsche pattern), a machined shift knob and a couple of stickers for good measure.



This week I've been working on the transmission and tearing it down to see what I bought. It's a TY754VBAAA from a 99-01 ver. 5/6 STI and supposedly one of the strongest 5sp built, or so I've read. It came apart in short order, found lots of corrosion on the through bolts that clamp the transmission together, not sure if that's normal galvanic corrosion or what. Before tear down I checked the shift action and it was still tight and notchy which gave me hope.



Looking at the gear stacks, they didn't look bad at all. First and second syncros got beat up pretty good but I've definitely seen worse. I tried to get close up pictures of the synchros but dropped my camera instead. :P I never did take the pics and now the stacks are off getting rebuilt with the new pinion shaft.

Another quick project that didn't get photos is rebuilding the OBX lsd. I got the rbryant kit, tore apart the OBX expecting to resurface it and was pleasantly surprised. The OBX wasn't perfect but was very serviceable in the shape I received it. The bolts and washers were replaced anyway as a precaution and everything bolted back together just like it should.



Last night I modified the case to accept the flipped differential. This is going to look so wrong to subaru guys I used a grinding disc to take care of most of it and I have some flap discs that I'll use to smooth things out later. I accidentally ground through the case on one of the bolt holes so that will have to be patched up later. For now the diff fits and spins easily with no contact and plenty on clearance.







Next on my to do list is to clearance the bell housing for the sti clutch parts. I have an Exedy stage 1 STI pressure plate and disk on the way and once they are here I can check for interference.

[Humble]

Big holiday weekend means lots of car work! I started the weekend by working on the other project first and finishing up the rear suspension. I finished the weekend by pulling the motor out of the race bug.

First up, got my gear stacks back with a collection of new gaskets, seals and shims.


Also got the new pressure plate and clutch, Exedy stage 1



Lastly I got some wiring components in, 100' of 8 colors, 14ga, chemical and heat resistant wire, and a couple of 22pin bulkhead connectors.





"I should have this outta here by dinner!" Nope. Drained 2.5 gallons of oil from the tank, then some from the motor, then some from the lines... and there was still oil dripping from here and there. I didn't get a picture of it but the header had separated at the slip fit. That would cause all the symptoms I was having right before I trailered it. Still going to check the lift at the valves to be certain.







It took a while to get the header, intake plumbing, and oil lines out of the way. Besides where the header separated there was only a bit of an exhaust leak on #4 and everything else had sealed tight.

Sunday, I started pulling everything else to get the motor out and on the stand before BBQ time. Fuel lines out, and manifolds off, and the motor pops out nice and easy. I wheeled the EJ25 out of the garage for some good comparison shots before cleaning up.











Transmission comes out next then it's time to pull the seats and the oil tank. The subaru trans needs to be finished up in the coming days, and wiring is also on the horizon, which will be a tedious job, but should be easier with the wiring diagram I've been working on.

[volkdent]

Maybe get some A/B weights of those things while you have apples and apples to compare?

Jason

[Humble]

I wish I had a scale that could measure them, but I can already say that the type 1 is easier to move around with a couple guys than the ej25. I'm hoping the ej25 gets a little lighter once it's drained (it shipped full of oil) and the header/turbo come off, but I don't know if that will even things out.