My built, widened and bagged 06 WRX Wagon

[John@BagRiders]

Made me laugh. Very happy to see this entire build being documented on here. Have subscribed and keen for more updates.

Making me miss my Subaru more and more John!

Haha glad you liked my story

Hope all is well with you man, your Subie was awesome!! There is always the option of doing another one

[_Dirty_]

Wow John I had no idea you had done all of this to your whip! Looking great!! Can't wait to see it in person

[John@BagRiders]

Wow John I had no idea you had done all of this to your whip! Looking great!! Can't wait to see it in person

Thanks Gary! Hope all is well with you man. Yeah it's all going down in my garage at my condo!

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Well, I've got some more not-so-exciting updates.... more wiring stuff yay!

I finished looming up all the wires that come out from under the brake booster and was able to zip tie them up far enough on the inside of the firewall that they don't interfere with the travel of the clutch pedal, so that's good. These will run along the firewall under the steering shaft retained with clip in zipties like most OEM harnesses are retained. If for whatever reason that doesn't pan out, my backup plan is to reroute the engine harness plugs through the grommet above the clutch master cylinder but I don't think that will be necessary.


Last night I secured the wires for the battery to starter, amp (under driver seat) as well as my air lines and e-Level sensor lines to this brace that runs under the rear seat. The battery wires will run up through my management wiring zone and to the battery which is near the passenger tail light now.


I love using PTC elbows when air line needs to make a sharp bend. The DOT-approved PTC connections (the ones with the inner sleeve) are super reliable and basically never leak, so I have no issue with adding them when it makes sense even though one might argue it adds additional leak points... that's a non-issue. Also as you can see I use plastic cable loom wherever it is appropriate to shield the primary wires from abrasion.


I picked up this kinda pricey but very well built upper coolant reservoir from Killer B motorsports. I'm in a bit of a unique situation with my WRX in that I have a stock location turbo and also shaving the engine bay. So, given that the OEM upper tank looks like hell IMO, it needed to go. I couldn't make a custom tank and mount it on the strut tower for example because I want to keep everything shaved, and most every other OEM fitment part adds volume and is thus larger than the OEM part, also not desirable for me. I think this piece is low key enough that it won't detract from the bay, while also maintaining the OEM cap which is critical for the cooling system to function properly according to their engineers, and I tend to believe them since they are way smarter than me!


So the plan is to yank the motor this weekend so the car can go off to the body shop to have the engine bay smoothed and painted! Much excite!! While I have the engine on a stand I'm going to wire bush and paint the valve covers and give my garage a much needed sweeping since the area under my WRX is covered with kitty litter from cleaning up spills.

[saturnstance]

Updates are updates. Looking forward to seeing the finished bay, it's gonna look slick with all the black.

[John@BagRiders]

I got the engine bay pretty much all ready for paint last night, pulled the pitch stopper/dogleg, clutch master/slave/etc and some other random stuff. I think I'll re-loom the tranny harness before it goes to the body shop and also paint the trans black like the engine, but I'll do this weekend with the motor out.


Here's a little spread of the recent wiring and also how I'm doing the air lines/sensor wires in the wheel wells. I think they'll be pretty unnoticeable in the engine bay, maybe one day I'll redo them to run under the car or something but for now this will have to do. I'm switching my leader lines out in favor of male straights in the bags and regular old air line from the bag to the elbow.


More updates to come on Friday/Saturday

[hinrichs]

Looking good John, wasnt sure at first on the all black engine but I think it looks great. Cant wait to see it with the shaved bay.

The loom you are using, is it split or just slips over? I also would have never thought to use the ptc 90s for running air lines where you need a bend.

[SebastienPeek]

This will forever make me happy.

[Fleetlin49]

Dang! This is an incredibly awesome build!!!!

[John@BagRiders]

Looking good John, wasnt sure at first on the all black engine but I think it looks great. Cant wait to see it with the shaved bay.

The loom you are using, is it split or just slips over? I also would have never thought to use the ptc 90s for running air lines where you need a bend.

Thank you! I was planning on leaving it brushed but now I love the black.

It's split loom for the wiring, "TechFlex F6" which lists a temp rating of 460* F, so it should be legit. And yeah, I love using elbows

This will forever make me happy.

Thanks man, me too

Dang! This is an incredibly awesome build!!!!

Thank you very much!

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Popped out the motor last night, shes about 99% ready for the body shop just gotta button up a couple things and off she goes! While I have the motor on a stand I'm going to paint the valve covers and probably assemble it a bit, maybe use some different hose material for stuff, we'll see! Either way, productive evening- I also got everything poked through the firewall in prep of the bay being smoothed

[John@BagRiders]

So much room for activities! Forgive the hipster washout instagram filtered photo :P The firewall is all clear except for the transmission harness which I couldn't manage to jam through the firewall cause of some part of the HVAC stuff blocking it on the cabin side. I don't think that will be an issue for the body shop, though.


Gonna pop off those fuel quick connect fittings tonight and finish plumbing the front air struts (the lines with inflation valves on them are obviously a temporary thing) then its onto a flatbed and off to the body shop! Much excite!

[saturnstance]

Closer and closer! I'm sure your overly anxious lol

[John@BagRiders]

Closer and closer! I'm sure your overly anxious lol

Haha yes very much so, I'm so excited to start putting stuff back together, I think it's going to be a very rewarding process

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Alright! So with the motor out I stripped down the tranny and valve covers with a wire wheel like I did with the motor.




Then of course I painted it black


No pic of the valve covers for some reason but yeah, they're black too.

Just about an hour ago I had the tow truck come and give me a ride to the body shop to have the engine bay smoothed/painted/tubbed! Hurrah! Can't wait to see the progress, will keep this thread updated as much as I can with pics of the engine bay process.

[John@BagRiders]

I had a nice Saturday out in the garage working on my longblock. Finally got to bolt up all my wrapped exhaust bits! They look so nice with the freshly painted wrap, almost a shame to put it on lol


Big ol' 3" turbo inlet means business


In all its glory! The tape on the crank pulley is there because I used the crank pulley removal tool I have to hold the pulley while I removed the bolts holding the clutch to the flywheel


I cleaned and replaced the o-rings on my fuel injectors


Then got my billet TGV runners and IAG fuel rails all assembled. Love the quality of these parts!


You might be wondering why I would buy the IAG billet TGVs when I already had ported/polished TGVs before? Well, the answer is because I'm ditching the powder coated intake manifold / TGV setup in favor of something new... here's a sneak peak


The other runners are keeping the posts on them to mount the upper coolant res, ya know, functionality... But yeah, shaved and polished intake manifold I think will look sick!

Annnnd last but not least... some serious headway has been made on the engine bay! Tubs are all mocked up and ready to be tacked in, it's gonna be sah-weeeet!!!!!


That is all! Moar updates to come!

[Jfuerte]

Holy poopcicle this thing is bad ass

[Fleetlin49]

OH. MY. GOODNESS!!!!!