My built, widened and bagged 06 WRX Wagon

[SebastienPeek]

Rock on!

[John@BagRiders]

Alrighty, update time!

I've spent a lot of time doing boring stuff like figuring out hose routing, but I think I've got it all figured out. For cleanliness sake, I'm going to tee the intake-side of the crankcase breather assembly in with the valve cover breathers (post tee) and then into a baffled catch can. This will be all -10 black braided hose and is looking damn fine!

I chose this simple baffled catch can with nice large fittings. I bought two just in case, so one is up for grabs if anyone is interested lol


For those familiar with AVCS cars, there is a second bung on the valve covers (5/8 OD) as well as another 5/8 bung almost dead center on the crank case, which according to various forum threads is used to equalized pressure between the valve covers/heads and crankcase.

The OEM assembly for these hoses includes two formed hoses coming off each valve cover which connect to a hardline assembly that is connected to the coolant line which runs from the water pump to the upper coolant reservoir. This setup (the hard lines in particular) was not playing nicely with the 3" turbo inlet and various other stuff, so I stole an idea from the APS 3" hard inlet install guide which instructs the user to cut the metal which mates these two pipes together, and I did just that.

Here's what I'm talkin' about


And replaced them with soft lines, routing the OEM hoses slightly differently than how they were with the hard lines.



The -10 hose for the valve cover breathers are teminated with these "AN-style" finisher clamps which I think look really nice


As for the PCV system, the OEM routing as most of you are aware has a "Y" assembly on the crankcase breather with one side going to the turbo inlet and the other side to the intake manifold which a check valve inline preventing boost from flowing out to the turbo inlet. Unfortunately with the larger compressor housing of the Dominator 1.5XTR, clearance for the PCV is a little tight!


So, I flipped the OEM hose on the vacuum side of the crankcase breather around so it makes an immediate 90* turn off the "Y" assembly, and pointed the hose in the same direction as the line that goes to the manifold. Off the barb fitting will be 1/2" hose that will terminate with a "tee" in the hose leading to the catch can which I plan on mounting somewhere near the starter.


Since the strut towers are all shaved, I made a little bracket for my GrimmSpeed Boost Control Solenoid which mounts where the purge control solenoid used to be (I deleted the entire EVAP system, sorry environment). This tucks the solenoid nicely out of sight under the intake manifold runners.

[John@BagRiders]

More exciting stuff now!

Through the wonders of the internet, I found myself in touch with a community member selling his mildly polished manifold. When I first contacted him, it wasn't fully shaved but that was good for me! Since I wanted to retain the upper coolant reservoir, I needed at least the two posts on the OEM driver side (passenger side in my configuration) for the reservoir to mount to. Fortunately for me, this guy is one of the nicest folks I've ever run into (so to speak) and offered to shave the manifold exactly to my specifications.

Here is the manifold the day I got it. This pic doesn't show it fully, but there was some considerable pitting in the grooves of the manifold which is understandable seeing as this is the "back side" of the manifold in OEM configuration. Since I have my manifold facing forward, this needed to be cleaned up!


After removing a little bit of pitting.. still a lot to go, at this point I decided to use a more aggressive dremel attachment


Here I've removed all of the pitting and it is ready to start being tediously sanded. You can see the grinding/sanding paths left by the dremel



I found that 220 grit was the highest I could go to effectively clean up the damage done by the dremel. Here we are after a very thorough pass of 220 grit.


I think this was after 320, maybe 400 grit



I got really excited and just had to see how this was going to look with the reservoir in place and the hoses pretty much all set. Plus, I was really sick of sanding haha


And WHABAM! Here we are at 2000 grit, ready for polishing! That will be tonight I think, I've got a bench mounted grinder that I borrowed from a friend that will hopefully make my life a little easier


That's all for now!

[John@BagRiders]

Update time!

I borrowed my buddy Kevin's bench grinder and polished the manifold pretty well. It needs a little more love but it looks super awesome already I think!


Got new bolts for literally everything I think, I love McMcaster!


I've been making more headway with the long block! The shell is still at the body shop for the tubs/engine bay work so I've been trying to get everything as reconnected as possible before I get it back.

I'm happy, everything is coming together pretty well in terms of fitment and such.

Here's where I'm at right now:


I was able to chop down and reorient a couple of my charge pipes and they look like they will work out perfectly!

I'm hoping that by running a older style radiator with the bung for the crossover pipe over on the passenger side, the pipe coming off the throttle body will fit like that and I think it will.

In the picture I have the mocked up bracket to mount the catch can snuggly near the pipe in the back coming off the turbo. I've got some DEI fireproof wrap for the lines that will be near that pipe, can't hurt ya know! I haven't finalized the exact routing of the hoses on the "dirty size" of the catch can but now that I've got the position of the can figured out that is next on my list. I'm going to finalize the bracket tomorrow and paint it black so you won't really notice it behind the shiny intake manifold.

I'm going to add a 3/4" throttle body spacer with NPT ports in order to provide manifold pressure readings to the MAP sensor and FPR. That will push the throttle body out a bit which I can take out of the silicone elbow so win-win. I think I'm going to paint the throttle body black.

I'm really not looking forward to polishing those pipes!!

[saturnstance]

This all makes me jealous lol

[John@BagRiders]

Let the games begin! Car is back home, time to start putting it back together!

[saturnstance]

sweeeeeeeet!

[Fleetlin49]

[TWM Performance]

Lovely setup and nice McMaster order ;P

[John@BagRiders]

Sorry for lack of updates, been busy... but the motor is in and everything clears! Haven't been posting pics on social media, waiting to hopefully show it at Wicked Big Meet on June 12th... but I think a forum post is OK


Lots of small stuff left to do, but it's the home stretch!!

[nishy]

Yo, those tubs are so strangely sexy. I cant stop starting

[fackinsteve]

Looks so properly done. Love the tubs

[John@BagRiders]

Fired it up last night!! Wooo!!!

[TruTaing]

Man, these subie motors have never been good looking, but this engine bay is pretty damn amazing. Great work!

[Fleetlin49]

Oh man, this thing is just a work of art!