Thread: My 1993 Impreza AKA the daily - UEL header, STi catback, and white WRX wheels!

so you can be super uncomfortable in a daily?

Originally Posted by kyle99gtp

those look like the same rims heavydogre has on his GP

They're Motegi MR7s. All I know is that they have to go, they're killing my fuel economy. I need to find some 15" or 16" RPF1s. The 16" ones are easy to find and weigh 13.5 lbs a wheels, the 15" ones are amazingly light at 9.8lbs/wheel but I don't even know if they make them in 5x100.

Originally Posted by Odi

so you can be super uncomfortable in a daily?

Slightly uncomfortable and super fly is more like it. Up until a few weeks ago my daily was a STi on coilovers with solid mounts, huge swaybars with solid links and whatever else I did to ruin it. I need to figure out what color I'm painting the wheels (any wheels) as well.

Actually from what I've been reading now I guess AWD springs will work. Lots of vague information is out there. None of the coils will fit, but if drop springs at least fit that might work.

Well I don't even know where to start with what all we did to the car this past weekend. My friend Matt and I turned wrenches on this thing for three days straight.

Here's the list on what I got:
Front brake calipers replaced with calipers from a 2005 WRX
Front brake pads replaced with Wagner Thermoquiet 2005 WRX front pads
Front brake rotors replaced with Wagner rotors for a 2005 WRX
Rear brake drums replaced with Centric drums
Rear brake shoes replaced with Centric shoes
Rear wheel cylinders replaced
Rear brake hoses replaced
Rear brake lines replaced (I'll get to this later)
Wheel cylinder bolts replaced (broke 2 when removing them)
Brake fluid bled and flushed (it was very dirty)
Rear brake hardware replaced
Transmission filter changed
Transmission fluid added
Transmission pan bolt extraction (get to this one later as well)
Differential fluid changed
PCV valve changed
Valve cover gaskets changed
Oil changed
Oil filter changed
Oil and trans pan plug gaskets changed
Fuel filter replaced
Spark plug wires changed
Oxygen sensor replaced (Waiting for UEL headers to install this one)
Timing belt changed (saved for another weekend)
Water pump changed (saved for timing belt job)
Thermostat changed (saved for timing belt job)
Building a cold-air intake:
Filter (on car now)
Intake couplers
Bolts for intake to MAF plate
Pipe for intake
MAF sensor adapter plate
Ball joints replaced (New OEM Subaru, I had them left over from the STi build and they use the same ball joints)



Here's the parts:




Here's the old front brakes compared to the new ones:




Old rotors were 9.5" with single piston calipers, new ones are 11.6 with dual piston calipers. Brake fluid capacity is basically unchanged, pedal feel is slightly different but not too bad. The car which barely stopped in the past now locks the brakes up if you get on them too hard. The front brakes are entirely from a 2005 WRX, it's direct bolt on replacement.

I ended up having to run brake line from the wheel cylinders to the rear brake hoses because the line was seized to the wheel cylinders. I also found that the rear passenger side brake was blocked off using a small nail crushed inside a fitting and had to run about 52" of line from the block under the car to the brake hose. I blew ones of the lines up while heating the fitting to get it to break loose (must have had water in it from being disconnected) so I had to replace a rear brake hose and just got both.



That's a proper union, not a compression union, above the gas filler neck. i got the shorter piece of line because I though I could get away with routing the line differently than stock. I ran into clearance issues so I had to extend it another 12".

The car is running great now, it's happy to have all fresh parts. I'm actually considering selling it and turning around and buying a 2.5RS to fix up.



I've got just about $1500 into the car now, minus $490 in parts that I've sold or things I've done to offset the price of this car.

Everything went pretty smoothly except that 5 of the transmission pan bolts broke off while removing them, but the next day a coworker got them out at his shop:



I have to thank Matt for all his help, I'd still be working on it if it weren't for him.

If you sell it look for a 99-01 impreza coupe they have Phase2 ej22 that was the highest hp of the ej22 and is easily swapped out for a phase2 ej25

This was the exhaust on my ej22
99 Legacy Borla Headers - YouTube

lower it.

Holy crap thats a lot of work, good job. Id love to find a 90's hatchback civic and do basically the same thing, but I dont even have the money for that. (well i do, but it wouldnt be smart)

Originally Posted by wa04compg

This was the exhaust on my ej22
99 Legacy Borla Headers - YouTube

That sounds sweet! You had single port headers? I though all the newer Subarus were dual port? I know the EJ18 in my car is dual port.

Originally Posted by Bio248

lower it.

I want to, just don't know how. Springs are too expensive and AWD struts/coils don't fit the FWD rear spindles.

Originally Posted by JoRoW99

Holy crap thats a lot of work, good job. Id love to find a 90's hatchback civic and do basically the same thing, but I dont even have the money for that. (well i do, but it wouldnt be smart)

Yeah I probably went overboard but the car should be good to go for a long time now if I decide to keep it.

aw, damn. i coulda sold you my springs next spring once i took them off the car. but apparently they dont fit?

I don't know man. I've seen posts saying that GC springs fit and posts saying they don't and no confirmation one way or the other. No idea if GD springs will fit or not.

Looks good for a DD and by the sound of it you should be all prepped for the winter months soon to come. Will the tires you have on it be good for snow/ice tho or will you have to buy new ones for it?

Originally Posted by kyle99gtp

That sounds sweet! You had single port headers? I though all the newer Subarus were dual port? I know the EJ18 in my car is dual port.

Yeah real deal borla single port headers kinda got lucky when I bought them hadn't seen any new ones in almost 4 years...most all the new ej22's where single port I think the change was 95 or 96...all ej25's and ej18's are dual port...you could actually do a ej22 swap for real cheap

Originally Posted by TLSheff

Looks good for a DD and by the sound of it you should be all prepped for the winter months soon to come. Will the tires you have on it be good for snow/ice tho or will you have to buy new ones for it?

I put these same tires on my Cobalt SS and they were great in the snow and if this winter is anything like last winter we'll get next to no snow anyhow. $800 on Blizzaks was money poorly spent haha. If I drive in the snow and end up not liking them I'll get some cheap snow tires but they should be fine.

Originally Posted by wa04compg

Yeah real deal borla single port headers kinda got lucky when I bought them hadn't seen any new ones in almost 4 years...most all the new ej22's where single port I think the change was 95 or 96...all ej25's and ej18's are dual port...you could actually do a ej22 swap for real cheap

I though about doing a swap but I'd want a 5 speed and AWD too. At that rate I'd be better off just buying a newer L with the 2.2 or a RS.

You can multi quote you know, right?

Multi-post is betta!