Well I've been tearing down my E30 for a short while and now that I'm finally starting to make a little bit of forward progress I figured it would be a good time to start a build thread.
I previously built a turbo swapped wrx with a 20G turbo and all the bolt-ons which is now my daily driver. The Subaru is a blast and I love it but the whole build was "take off stock part, bolt on bigger part" and I'm looking for more of a challenge/learning experience with this build.
I'm not trying to make some awesome 500hp monster (yet) but I'm also not a guy who wants a turbo setup for under $1500. So here is my effort at a somewhere in the middle, hopefully not so generic turbo build haha. Enough talk, onto some pics.
The day I brought it home
The first thing I started on was my manifold. Im not a fan of the ebay turbo manifold and I wanted to learn how to tig weld so what better opportunity?
The design
The latest picture I have of it. The turbo flange is now attached.
The turbo is a Borg Warner S251 that I got through AGP. It has a billet wheel and AGP .63 AR ceramic coated turbine housing. AGP was awesome to work with and really helped me make my decision. I know many of you will probably say that's too small but I disagree. After building my Subaru I always wished that I had gone a hair smaller on the turbo so I'm giving it a shot this time. Sure 400 awhp is a blast but for this car I want it to be a lot more responsive and more linear broad power band.
Anyways, once the manifold was finished and test fitted I began ripping the car apart.
Before
After
Then I spread the engine all over the basement haha
I don't have any crazy plans with the engine just giving everything a nice refresh, new gaskets and seals everywhere, ARP head studs, Goetze head gasket and a few other things. I wanted to have the block dipped and also wanted to check out all the bearings in the bottom end to make sure I wasn't doomed from the start. Everything in the bottom end looks pretty good I'm having it checked over by a local engine builder who my uncle knows just to be positive. He will also shave the head for the new head gasket, dip the block, and resurface my flywheel for new clutch.
While the engine is being checked out I decided to pop out the front subframe and freshen that up a little bit. I ordered the subframe reinforcement kit from Harrison motorsports. I know theres tons of different reinforcement kits but I was already ordering the e36 steering rack spacers through them so I just threw the reinforcements in the cart too.
Engine mounts before
And after... the fit on these wasn't so great but it was good enough after a little tweaking. I'm assuming these would be much better when installed with a mig welder but I'm on a tig welding kick so I did my best and just left some gaps. I'm sure it is plenty strong and I'm not worried at all.
And finally the disgrace of a sway bar mount
I previously built a turbo swapped wrx with a 20G turbo and all the bolt-ons which is now my daily driver. The Subaru is a blast and I love it but the whole build was "take off stock part, bolt on bigger part" and I'm looking for more of a challenge/learning experience with this build.
I'm not trying to make some awesome 500hp monster (yet) but I'm also not a guy who wants a turbo setup for under $1500. So here is my effort at a somewhere in the middle, hopefully not so generic turbo build haha. Enough talk, onto some pics.
The day I brought it home
The first thing I started on was my manifold. Im not a fan of the ebay turbo manifold and I wanted to learn how to tig weld so what better opportunity?
The design
The latest picture I have of it. The turbo flange is now attached.
The turbo is a Borg Warner S251 that I got through AGP. It has a billet wheel and AGP .63 AR ceramic coated turbine housing. AGP was awesome to work with and really helped me make my decision. I know many of you will probably say that's too small but I disagree. After building my Subaru I always wished that I had gone a hair smaller on the turbo so I'm giving it a shot this time. Sure 400 awhp is a blast but for this car I want it to be a lot more responsive and more linear broad power band.
Anyways, once the manifold was finished and test fitted I began ripping the car apart.
Before
After
Then I spread the engine all over the basement haha
I don't have any crazy plans with the engine just giving everything a nice refresh, new gaskets and seals everywhere, ARP head studs, Goetze head gasket and a few other things. I wanted to have the block dipped and also wanted to check out all the bearings in the bottom end to make sure I wasn't doomed from the start. Everything in the bottom end looks pretty good I'm having it checked over by a local engine builder who my uncle knows just to be positive. He will also shave the head for the new head gasket, dip the block, and resurface my flywheel for new clutch.
While the engine is being checked out I decided to pop out the front subframe and freshen that up a little bit. I ordered the subframe reinforcement kit from Harrison motorsports. I know theres tons of different reinforcement kits but I was already ordering the e36 steering rack spacers through them so I just threw the reinforcements in the cart too.
Engine mounts before
And after... the fit on these wasn't so great but it was good enough after a little tweaking. I'm assuming these would be much better when installed with a mig welder but I'm on a tig welding kick so I did my best and just left some gaps. I'm sure it is plenty strong and I'm not worried at all.
And finally the disgrace of a sway bar mount
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