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STi swap write up....best ever?


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Here it is, quite possibly the best write up for an sti swap.

 

I would like to first thank everyone who has assisted me with information to complete this build and also parts that I have come across on the forum!

 

I am a broke college student who is driving a nice car with 112000 miles on a stage 2 motor and turbo. The turbo has never been replaced and I got pretty paranoid about it going boom. So in October of 2011 my collection started. I knew that I wanted to expand for more power so I went with an sti style turbo. I also came across a decent perrin fmic. I was dead set on having my set up with a fmic but I was thinking about the future and about having to remove the bumper beam and with my luck, I would get into an accent and insurance would deny my claim.

 

After hours of derping on the internetz, I started pricing things out and looking for sti parts for the build.

So here it is

 

Parts list and price(maybe rounded & used)

FP HTA68 turbo/gaskets -$750

FP Oil feedline -$80

Walbro 255 fuel pump (used 2000 miles) -$50

Jecs 840cc side feed injectors (more on this later) -$320

STi manifold -$100

Gaskets for sti bpv, tgv to intake manifold, throttle body -$20 ~ish

Ebay STi style tmic plus TB to tmic coupler -$180 ~ish

Grimmspeed EBCS (used 2 hours) -$80

High pressure rubber fuel line under intake manifold OEM $30 for 2 hoses

STi tmic mounting brackets $free

STi tmic PCV pipe $free

STi header coolant reservoir tank $free

STi bpv $free

Perrin turbo inlet $free

Various size hoses (more info later) $50 ~ish

High temp copper gasket sealer $10 ish

Various size worm drive clamps (lots!!!) $20

Spark plugs $40

B12 Carb cleaner -$6 ish

 

 

The writeup

I am positive without a doubt that anyone who has looked into this swap says its a huge "PITA" or "its not even worth your time" but honestly thats for you. It was a huge pain in the ass and it was not a simple task. It took me close to 3 weekends working on it to get it done. This was due to the fact that the rubber hoses turn to hard brittle plastic over 112000 miles and they were different sizes and they were little things here and there.

Here is what I began with. Not a whole bunch, cusco strut tower bar, spt intake cobb downpipe and OTS stage 2 map.

http://i1146.photobucket.com/albums/o528/cyclozene/223823_263095343705200_100000142094034_1267129_4569725_n.jpg

 

To begin start with detailed picture about what everything is and where it goes and how it connects up to what. After you have your pictures begin labeling and taping vacuum lines, oil lines, pcv lines, coolant lines etc!!! This will make it much easier in the long run.

After you have done that begin here:

http://i1146.photobucket.com/albums/o528/cyclozene/20120203_134153.jpg

Take off the POS tmic, and after you are done comparing it to the new one you have set it aside and begin working on the heat shield. Depending on what you have there should be three bolts. I have the cobb heatsheild. Take it off and keep all the bolts together, maybe put them in a bag. Do the bracket for the heat shield as well.

The next step for myself was to get the turbo off. You may need to get under the car and undo a bolt on the botton or depending on how flexible you are you may not. Undo the coolant lines and the oil lines and keep that all together. Once you remove that, there may be some oil and coolant dripping out so keep it clean!

Now once again stop comparing it to your new one, it know its hard but focus!

http://i1146.photobucket.com/albums/o528/cyclozene/20120204_144412.jpg:wub:gold:wub:

 

The next step! get that plastic manifold off.

One big mistake I made was trying to take the manifold off of the TGVs. Don't waste your time!

Instead undo the entire wiring harness!!! Everything. Take it all off and set it aside. Chances are the wire loom looks like garbage and since you have it off might as well redo it!....later

Back to the manifold. Begin by fastening the manifold nuts back on the TGVs. Now begin by taking all the bolts out of the tgvs. You should do this will two people to keep it clean and avoid bending the bolts.

Set this aside and begin by taking off the 4 bolts and the 8 screws. Place these in a zippy bag and label it for later so you dont lose them. Remove the plastic manifold and clean the TGVs. Changes are they are dirty.

At this point, if you want to go with TGV deletes now would be a fantacular time to put those on or do it yourself. Also with my car having 112000 miles on it, and me being a worry wart, the two fuel lines that connect the tgvs and fuel rails were replaced. I went to the auto parts store to get a nice 8 inches or so of fuel line. Turns out i got 9mm and it was too loose. Im sure it would have worked if I clamped it down but I didnt want to chance it so I ordered 2 of the OEM fuel lines which cost $18 each!! I was able to get them for $30. The next step if it applies to you, go ahead and install the injectors. Be sure to add a THIN THIN THIN layer of silicon lube to avoid damage to the o-rings. Do not get any of the lube inside the injection point, does this really need an explanation....

The next point would be to finally attach the intake manifold. But wait it doesnt fit :( Now i did not take any pictures at this point because the manifold I bought already had the 2 inside screws holes dremeled out. Ill explain it, there are two screw holes on both sides of the manifold, get your carbide dremel tip and widen those out so they fit over the screws on the TGVs. Once you are done with the dremeling there will be a mess of aluminum dust. Clean it out so the dust doesnt eventually end up in the cylinders. Now that it is clean, put the TGV to intake manifold gaskets on and attach the intake manifold and torque down the screws and bolts.

The fuel lines that are coming from the TGVs that connect to the main assembly by the fuel pressure regulator has a nice bracket that can mount to the intake manifold. Here is a picture of what I am talking about.

http://i1146.photobucket.com/albums/o528/cyclozene/20120220_195645.jpg

The problem that I encounter was that the bracket is made for a 6mm bolt and the hole is 8mm. Do ahead and take the dremel or you can get a step drill bit and widen that hole to attach it to the manifold for a nice look. The bracket will need to be bent into place.

Set the manifold assembly aside for later.

 

At this point you can probably attach your new turbo. Begin by taking both the downpipe and the uppipe gaskets and brushing them with some high temp copper gasket sealer. This is optional but might as well do it. As you can see in the lower left corner of the photo both gaskets are covered with the sealer.

http://i1146.photobucket.com/albums/o528/cyclozene/20120205_103658.jpg

Let them dry as they will be tacky as hell. Wear gloves too btw. Now go to the uppipe and downpipe, take a rag and spray some of the B12 carb cleaner on it. This is like the super solvent of solvents! clean the flange points as they may be dirty, mine were as I had a gasket blowout on the downpipe. Once that is clean take the copper coated gaskets and put them in the correct spots. Now take your turbo and the the coolant hose and attach it to the correct place. My recommendation would be to replace the hose as it is probably starting to deteriorate. Set the turbo in place and take your washers and nuts and begin to fasten it on. Take your torque wrench and torque down the nuts to the uppipe. Now finger tighten the downpipe bolts. If you are using a heatshield attach the bracket on later, it will open up some space in the engine bay.

http://i1146.photobucket.com/albums/o528/cyclozene/20120205_093356.jpg

 

Your next step would be to get the old hoses out of the engine bay and get the new ones in place. You can replace them but some are not long enough and chances are they are hard as hell and dont like to be bent very easily. Once you have the hoses replace keep them long so you can make the job nice and clean so you can cut them later. This is the PCV and coolant hose.

http://i1146.photobucket.com/albums/o528/cyclozene/20120220_203309.jpg

One major problem that everyone has encountered is that once the hoses are attached, one of the lines interferes with the throttle body and it makes it a huge pain to work around.

I decided to fab up something else that would work better and clean up the engine. This is optional and may not be totally necessary. Sorry about the lame picture but basically it is a T that connects both PCVs from the header and the center hose.

http://i1146.photobucket.com/albums/o528/cyclozene/20120224_085943.jpg

Im sure you can figure out hose it goes together if you have a good schematic. (I will include)

Depending on where you are located and you climate you could do the coolant bypass to the throttle body. I live in arizona and I felt that I would not like to warm up my air after I just cooled it. Here is a picture of what it looks like. It is the hose that is right above the serial number. This was the stock hose, shortly after the picture was taken, I got a new hose and replaced it.

http://i1146.photobucket.com/albums/o528/cyclozene/20120220_195639.jpg

 

This is the point where you can think about putting the entire manifold assembly in place.

I would highly recommend doing this with 2 or more people as you will need to set the entire thing on a few studs which you do not want to bend. To reduce you frustration and cursing in trying to fit the turbo inlet on later, I recommend doing that now. I went with as you can see a perrin wrx style turbo inlet. This inlet had 4 ports, there were 3 vacuum connections for the PCV, the purge valve and something else, I will remember later. Ive read you can reuse the stock inlet but, after looking at where the ports are, it looks hard as hell to attach any hoses. Also the stock inlet has an addition port for a sensor/PCV. More on this later. My recommendation is spend the money for a wrx style inlet not only for ease but if yours was like mine, there was engine grime and blowby oil all inside it. Now take the gaskets that go between the TGV and the heads. Depending on the condition of yours you may want to get new ones. Or if you are going with the phenolic material ones, use those. I reused mine as they had that rubber or silicone around the ports and they seemed to be in perfect condition. Now put the gaskets down and take the manifold and set it over the studs and take the TGV bolts and attach it to the engine. Torque down the bolts and mark them with a marker or nail polish that they are torqued. Optional.

Here is a picture of my set up.

http://i1146.photobucket.com/albums/o528/cyclozene/20120219_223003.jpg

 

Now, the fun part! Connecting all the hoses!

Depending on how well you labeled them it shouldn't be such a problem but this is part of the experience. I dont want to spoon feed you how to do this so I will include a very nice compilation of schematics that Casopolis put together. Here is the link

http://legacygt.com/forums/showpost.php?p=835660&postcount=78

This was one of the most helpful images that I could find. It shows just where all the hoses connect to the intake manifold. However there were some things I changed. Like where I put some of the hoses. This is entirely up to you how you want to follow it. It just made more sense for me to put the fuel pressure regulator hose closer to the regulator instead of routing it all over hell. Do what works! Here is the link for the pdf schematic.

http://legacygt.com/forums/showpost.php?p=732784&postcount=61

 

Now that you have connected all the hoses to the correct spot, you should have some left over. The PCV hoses that connect to the Y splitter pipe that is on top of the TMIC leave those for later. Now take your header coolant tank, the LGT one will work but it does not look at nice. Try and get either the plastic or the metal wrx one. Attach that to the intake manifold and connect the correct hoses. There is going to be one for overflow, one that is coming from the radiator, one that connects under the manifold and one that connects to the turbo. If you are using the wrx style tank, the hose that connects to the radiator is a different size from the nipple. Rig up a reducer or do whatever works. (More on this later.)

 

Now you can begin attaching the TMIC.

Depending what style BOV or BPV you are using you need to address this problem now. I went with the stock STi style BPV. The size of hose you will need is 1.25 inch. I had the hardest time finding something that would work, so I went with a full silicone hose. I did not take pictures of what I did sorry, I put the hose to the turbo inlet and clamped it down. Next I measured where the BPV would be and I cut it strait across, next I put in a 90 degree copper pipe and clamped that. I took another short piece of silicon hose and put it on the other side of the pipe. I then attached the BPV and clamped it tight. I did this because it would be hard as hell trying to connect the hose to the BPV once it was on the TMIC.

Depending on what kind of TMIC you got you may need to do some adjusting with the y pipe and other things. I attached the OEM tmic bracket to the...bell housing IIRC. (More info later)

Here is my TMIC

http://i1146.photobucket.com/albums/o528/cyclozene/20120203_140739.jpg

No just kidding :p

http://i1146.photobucket.com/albums/o528/cyclozene/20120224_141444.jpg

This is how it went down.

Attach the silicone 90 degree coupler to the turbo and clamp it down. Now clamp the throttle body coupler to the TB and make it tight. It will require quite a bit of work depending on your set up. Once you wiggle that on, you may need to bend the AC line out of the way. It is the pipe that connects to the firewall and is connected with a hose as seen in this picture.

http://i1146.photobucket.com/albums/o528/cyclozene/20120219_223003.jpg

Very carefully bend the bracket.

Now figure out a way to connect the left bracket to the TMIC. I had to bend the bracket by attaching the IC and then moving it where I wanted it. I currently have no bracket on the right side :/

Now connect all the hoses to the PCV lines that are mounted on top of the TMIC. Clamp them well. Again I had to make a reducer to ensure a good seal. In this picture you can see the copper T on the left side of the TMIC. Do what works for you.

Almostest Hostess!

Now connect up you intake which ever one you want to use. I went with my SPT just because that is what I had.

Do a final check over ever vacuum line and every PCV hose. And attach your wiring harness. Connect up all the sensors and injectors and grounds. Now depending on which turbo inlet you used, you may have an additional sensor that does not have a spot. This is the sensor I am talking about.

http://i1146.photobucket.com/albums/o528/cyclozene/20120224_230602.jpg

It usually connects up to the stock inlet. What I did was just connected it to the wiring harness and let it dangle somewhere. I have read that you can take out the barbs and just place it in the connector. Do what you want. Depending on how you want it to look you may want to route it under the manifold. Do what you want.

Here is what my final setup looks like, I hope you all enjoy the write up and find it helpful.

http://i1146.photobucket.com/albums/o528/cyclozene/20120226_100112.jpg

 

That is just about it. Im sure I forgot somethings, ask if you have questions!

Cheers!

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if i was the next owner of that car and found copper coolant piping I'm not sure if I would laugh or cry. or come to your house and beat you with a spike driven 4x2

 

y u no deal with it!? :p

Whats wrong with the copper?

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Nice write-up. Think the membership would be better-served with this in the performance mondification walk-throughs.

 

Copper and aluminum metal particulate will cause chemical leaching from each other - not a good solution for the short- or long-term. A better fix would be an aluminum pipe if you could find one. The best solution would be to run all rubber hoses with resin connectors.

- Pro amore Dei et patriam et populum -
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I was not sure where to post it as it did apply to the gen 4 car but it can be moved!

Also you are talking about the copper above the block? It is connected with a hose. Let me know which one you are Talking about.

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Can you explain how this is an issue? I understand electrolysis.

 

The operative word in this case... See my post above about the leaching issues.

- Pro amore Dei et patriam et populum -
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  • 2 months later...
When you have coolant running through metal lines, you get an interesting electrolysis relationship with engine parts. You basically make a battery when two different metals are used, like aluminum head and copper lines. This can affect the corrosion characteristics, and shorten the lifespan of things like, the radiator - sprouting leaks. I think you want to make sure the copper lines are grounded with metal straps to the chassis, or not. There is some science around this... just be aware.
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  • 11 months later...

Glad you enjoy it....

If you are talking about the shroud that directs the air over the intercooler... It must be removed. The IC that I used was quite massive and filled the scoop quite well... It's on my todo list to make a better shroud but it's not pressing. And the hood liner is left in place

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Sorry didn't see you question earlier. The copper exposure will cause the aluminum (first from the radiator, then from the block) to leach which will, in turn, start to plug the radiator and the rest of the cooling system.
- Pro amore Dei et patriam et populum -
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