Adding a STi scoop to a 3rd gen hood. . pics

Put my big boy panties on today and cut a hole in a perfectly good hood.

 

I should probably back up a bit. . . I have a 05 Baja turbo that I'm upgrading to VF43 and intercooler from an 07 STi. Got the splitter with the intercooler just to see what it would take to make it work, and that's what spawned all this.

 

I'm rebuilding said Baja (it was hit light in the right front, needs a hood, bumper, and fender). Before I got all these fancy STi goodies, I bought a brand new from the dealer Baja turbo hood ($385). After getting the goodies but thankfully before having the hood painted, I test fit everything to see how it would work. Couldn't find an easy way to make the STi splitter work with the factory Baja hood without seriously compromising airflow. . .so I grabbed a regular NA hood and started thinking. Also ordered up a STi scoop (because the only used ones I could find were insanely priced. . ppl are nuts), cost about $150 delivered to my door.

 

With a flat hood, new scoop, and used splitter in hand, the fun began.

 

As the pics don't really show it, I had 3 hoods to work with: the original (damaged) hood that came on my Baja (which I didn't really do anything to), a lightly damaged (but still not worth using) hood from an 02 Outback sedan, and a used hood, also from an Outback. I did the complete start-to-finish operation twice. . .once on the damaged test hood, then again on the good used one. Unfortunately both the flat hoods are white so you can't tell the difference in these pics. . . but you really don't need to know which is which if you're just reading this as a how-to.

 

Made a cardboard template to locate the splitter mounting holes with the intercooler:

 

 

 

Two of the holes on the splitter are shared with the scoop. The rest are pretty much independent of each other.

 

Figured out the centerline of the hood: (it's 28 3/4" from either edge)

 

 

Made a cardboard template of the proposed cutout for the scoop, with bolt holes located (forgot to take a pic of that, use your imagination)

 

Located the template off the 2 shared bolts from the splitter template, transferred the cutout and bolt locations to the outside of the hood and set the scoop on it to double check. Things lined up pretty well. .

 

 

 

Time to cut my teeth on cutting hoods. Safety is. . . somewhere on the list. Top 5? I dunno. Sounds right.

 

 

 

 

Made the cuts to the top of the hood and peeled that section out (it's attached to the inner structure with blobs of adhesive):

 

 

 

Didn't cut through both layers as I need the inner structure to use as the attaching surface for both the scoop and splitter.

 

Test fit the scoop, hurrah!! it fits!

 

 

Flipped the hood over and made some extra cuts to clearance the inner structure and test fit the splitter: it fit.

 

 

 

Snapped it all together and threw it on the car to see how well it lined up with the STi intercooler. . .no pics but it was about 1/2" too far forward. Fair enough. . that's why we did the first one on a $hitty hood.

 

Laid out the new/used hood and moved the template back the appropriate amount.

 

 

Double checked all my measurements, bit my fingernails for a few minutes trying to decide if I really wanted to do this. Decided I did, and I'd done worse things to perfectly good parts before so, yeah. . .playtime's over.

 

http://gifrific.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Kangaroo-Drops-Ball.gif

 

Spare you the deets but second time was the charm. Fits right over the IC and looks as close to factory as you can get. . . without actually finding some weird Outback/Legacy STi prototype hood (wouldn't that be cool).

 

Installed some rivnuts to allow me to mount the splitter with screws to the underside of the hood. Factory uses nylon wedge anchors. . they require a square cutout which is kinda hard to make with a drill. . .so, rivnuts.

 

Finished splitter:

 

Finished scoop:

 

 

It's off to the body shop now to get pulled and painted. Blue tape is to indicate areas that need attention on that hood. It wasn't perfect to begin with. I'll update with pics after it gets out of the body shop, but that won't be for a few weeks.

 

Upside to this is it's a good way for all you 3rd gen guys to get a scooped hood without having to pony up $600+ for a B4 or Baja Turbo one. You don't need the STi splitter if it's just cosmetic. . . buy an OEM STi scoop and you're in business. They go for about $160 from online Subaru parts wholesalers. . . about the same if you're in good with your local dealer.

Looks good. I'm in to see the final results.

please keep us updated, that looks pretty good! Also, a if you have the cutout still, you can make a template as well as measurements of the hole in relation to the hood to post online for other guys to use - less measuring for those who follow your footsteps !

Good thread!

A+ will read again!

+1

where did you get the scoop?

Dealer. It was about $150 my cost.

 

Found a few aftermarket and used ones . . usually around $120+, plus all the usual "asshole" taxes (paypal, ermahgerd yer gonna make me find a box and drive to the PO, shipping, etc.) it was a no brainer.

so you can just grab one from a subie dealer? im thinkin bout addin one to my secound gen

Yup. They sell 'em all day long.

 

 

GRILL HOOD F ASSY - Wrx model, 2004-07

HOOD »Exterior trim

Subaru › Impreza › 2006-2007

List Price : $210.50

Your Price : $154.09

 

That's just the scoop. If you want the splitter, you've gotta buy that separately. . .but you don't need it unless you're running a TMIC.

 

It's a lot easier for you to just buy a 1st gen Outback hood if all you want is the scoop, tho. . . won't be as tall as the STi one but it's still a scoop. Tons of them in the junkyards and all Outbacks from 97-99 had them.

but i want the style of the 3rd gen scoop i think it will look really nice with the long hood. and when my car is eventualy turbo ill run a front mount intercooler

Nice work man... I am always looking at my hood thinking about doing what u did here but my hood has scoop already 05 LGT.. just want BIGGER ONE for my stage 3 build TMIC.

From your work here what u think about cutting out the scoop on 05 to mount a STI type scoop??

If you were gonna do that I'd say do the same thing: start with a flat non-turbo hood. the bulge in the sheetmetal behind the LGT scoop would make it pretty tricky to get it right with the STi scoop. Grab a used hood off a regular non-turbo Legacy or Outback and pull the insulation off and science it out :-)

 

Guessing you'll lose the aluminum hood when you go to a base model but if you want the big scoop, probably worth it.

 

You could pretty much swap to STi intercooler, turbo, and intake manifold once you did the STi scoop, but that'd be kind of an all-or-nothing deal. The throttle body is in a different place between the LGT and WRX/STi, and the turbo outlet is different, etc. etc.

 

No idea if there are better/cheaper options for TMIC for the STi versus LGT. I will say it's nice going to full aluminum tanks that aren't as prone to blowout as the stock LGT units are.

you wouldent happen to have a part number for the scoop would you?

There are a few different ones used over the years. . mine is an 06/07. I bought that specific scoop to match the splitter I was using.

 

If you want the same one, it's 90821FE120NN. 04/05 is 90821FE080NN. Not sure what the difference is. There are also some JDM ones out there too. . .

 

Found part no's here:

 

http://opposedforces.com/parts/impreza/us_g11/type_5/body_equipment_exterior/grille_and_duct/illustration_1/

thanks for the info

Got an update on the final result? This might be something I want to try!

Got it out of the body shop last week. Haven't finished putting it all together yet but pics forthcoming.

 

Looks pretty good but the body shop did a crap job of adding foam between the hood frame and skin so it's a little wavy at the front edge.

 

I was pretty specific: take the scoop off, add foam to stabilize it, primer everything, and replace the scoop. What'd they do? Squirted some foam in around the edge and shot it.

 

Shop is a 2 man crew that are my work neighbors, and I was trading them rather than paying (I did some electrical work/remodeling inside their shop) so i guess they just didn't give a shit. Still pisses me off. They're very capable of turning out nice work, they're just burned out and the work they're turning out lately reflects that.

 

rant over.

 

I'll probably pull the scoop back off and try to level it out myself and hope I don't damage the paint.

Im doin the same thing to my 01 Legacy GT...but I dont have an intercooler for it to be useful. All in due time...

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