mosquitocoils

Wow that's good to hear. I read that you need about 3 bar base pressure for it to work with 740cc injectors which I figured was close to standard spec, but I figured an adjustable FPR would let me fine-tune it if I needed to. I guess I can leave it and only get one if I need to change the pressure. Which injectors were you running for that?

So I've been looking into the whole upgrade path a little more and I've decided to do this in two big phases... I'm not the kind of person to amass $20k worth of parts over 5-10 years to fit all at once. I'm an incremental kind of person. So I'm going budget build for now with the eventual aim to manual swap, standalone ECU, e85 etc. So I picked up a cheap turbo setup. It's all ebay spec stuff but it should do the job for a while. - GT3582 spec turbo - High mount manifold, doesn't seem to have any cracks - 38mm EWG with screamer - Dump pipe to suit the high mount I'm pretty happy considering what I paid and if it lasts a little while I'll be happy enough, and if it doesn't at least I didn't waste much. I've decided to stick with the auto + AWD for now and get a piggyback ECU and just see what I can achieve that way. In the meantime I'll keep saving for the manual conversion but that's about $2200-$2800ish so a fair way off. I've also found out that 740cc injectors could be enough to get me 300-350ish kw and generally the Nismo or DW 740cc can be found for around $300 and fit the stock sidefeed rail which looks like a pretty good alternative to a $1000-$1500 top feed conversion. So really my "to-buy" list as of now consists of: - Fuel pump - 740cc injectors - FPR (?) - Piggyback ecu - Wideband sensor

Following GTSBoys advice I looked more into bleeding the ATTESSA system and have now (put the fuse back in...then) disconnected the plug under the dash, tapped the brake pedal 5 times and then got the 4WD light flashing after hearing the pump whirring away. So now the system should theoretically have all the pressure bled out which means the clutch packs can't potentially be frying while driving. Hooray! For the record the plug under my dash was a plain black plug with one wire going in/out, not a green plug like in most guides. Maybe just an early/S1 stagea thing.

I came across some 3 inch stainless steel 90 degree bends as offcuts for $10 each from an exhaust shop nearby... figured I could make an intake from one for a bigger intake sound, and it definitely worked. The intake swooosh is much, MUCH louder now and as I'm running no BOV (due to the forward facing plenum) that fluttering now turns almost into high-pitched pigeon dosing at 10+ psi ? It's so wanky but I giggle every time hahaha

Everything I've found kind of mentions the other way being more important - people asking if only pulling the fuse is enough, or if the shaft needs to be removed as well... to which everyone says "definitely also remove the shaft". Then people argue over if the fuse is also needed or not. The wire under the dash is I believe to bleed the ATTESSA system out... but apparently just driving the car will bleed the pressure as well... according to many people on this forum. I'm always happy to be proven wrong though and if I need to also bleed the system to prevent damage I'll do it. Wouldn't be hard at all.

I went out the night I made it RWD to test it out... drove for a couple of km with no problems, then suddenly she died and wouldn't start again. Without knowing exactly why, I was repeatedly cranking to try and start it... and in the process drained the battery and killed the starter motor... what an eventful night. I'm pretty sure that outer gear is supposed to have teeth... While I was waiting for my 'new' starter motor to arrive from a wreck I figured out my issue was an injector seal had worked its way loose (probably from when I first got the car and replaced a couple of dodgy injectors) and was just dumping fuel into one of the cylinders which the RB didn't like very much. Replaced that, checked there were no leaks from the injectors/rail and we were all good! Behold the import in its natural habitat -

Oops, I didn't mention that in the post but yes I also pulled the fuse as per everyone's instructions.

The next thing I did was 'convert' it to RWD just for shits and giggs... completely pointless but hey, it was free haha. This really just involved hopping under the car, undoing the 4 bolts holding the front driveshaft/propshaft to the front diff, then pulling the shaft out of the transmission as it's not really held in by anything. Took about half an hour. It hasn't really made a huge difference to anything... I reaaally have to push it to chirp the rear tyres and even then the auto transmission really makes it difficult to build any power on takeoff. All the more reason the manual swap...

Hahaha that's actually amazing. I pretty much cbf with it either but some of those rattles were super annoying and turned out to be easy fixes... so win/win haha

Thanks for the turbo advice guys. I'll come back to that in a bit. In the meantime I spent a couple of hours getting the audio setup a bit better. The first step was running power and RCA cables for a 2ch amp to power my sub (ironically this sub is out of my R33 from 8 years ago!). It was a pretty straight forward process - run the power cable from the battery, through the firewall and down under the kick panels next to the doors all the way to the boot. RCA cable always goes on the opposite side to avoid noise. I picked up this no-brand 2ch 200w amp for free from a local Subaru group and it does a great job of pushing my sub. Bass just sounds so good in the back of the Stagea, it was made for a big sound system haha. But my little amp+sub combo will do the trick for me. Once that was done I wanted to tackle some rattles. It has aftermarker speakers all around but 2 or 3 of them rattled badly on bass hits even at low volume. After taking the doors off and checking them out I realised I just needed something behind the speakers as they were largely sitting on metal, save for a small plastic bracket that didn't cover much. Some leftover Autobarn sound deadener from my forester boot install came in handy for this, I basically made a gasket for each speaker as you can see from the pic. Screwed everything back in and I can go muuuch louder before rattles start, in fact so loud it's painful - so I will be fine now haha. Loving it.

Next up it was time to get the OEM front lip fitted properly. The previous owner fitted a standard size FMIC but the piping coming off it didn't leave enough room for the lip to fit. I picked up a couple of different silicone joiners which bought me some clearance room, but even then the FMIC had to be moved back about an inch, AND then the lip still needed some trimming. Unfortunate to do this to an OEM lip that actually looks really good, but now that it fits better most people would never know.

Once we were up and running nicely it was time to tackle the electrical issues. Firstly there was a squeak coming from the belt area which was there (and really loud!) during the test drive. I figured it was either a belt or a pulley... luckily it turned out to just be the alternator belt. This also in turn meant the car wasn't charging properly. I verified with my multimeter and sure enough it was only getting about +1v while running (around 13.6v) I then noticed there was no tensioner on the alternator at all... so I picked up a new Gates belt and had a quick trip to a local guy parting out his RB25 to get the tensioner and we were back in business - squeaking gone and charging sitting around 14.2 - 14.4v. Then it was on to the alarm... It came with a Mongoose alarm/immobiliser installed, however it had really high parasitic drain, (I figured due to tiny battery, low amount of driving it was getting + the bad charging setup). Seeing as this is just a project car that stays hidden in the garage most of the time I just figured I would rip it out. It took a bit of fiddling but I traced every wire back to origination, cut then soldered back to stock. I'll end up putting some form of safety back in but for now at least she starts, runs and stops all under her own power which was my first goal

So this is where it all started. This is the pic the previous owner sent me to tempt me. You can see it's missing the front lip altogether. That was fine, I knew I could make it fit with the FMIC piping with my handy dremel (seriously best tool out there for doing anything custom). Those with keen eyes will spot a couple of tasty mods like S2 tail lights and the NA front grille which everyone wets themselves over... though I'm not a huge fan of the slats. It had a few issues for roadworthy - one front corner light was smashed, tyres were bald etc etc... this poor dude just ran out of money and had to choose between commuting in his daily or spending money on fixing this poor girl up First things first though, it ran like a pig. It had sat unregistered and unmoved for about 2 months so I put it down to bad fuel/carbon buildup etc. I wanted to give it a full service and hope that fixed it, although in the meantime I kept smelling fuel... so I pulled the rail off, turned the key to ON and watched fuel spurting out of #6 injector! It was leaking as soon as there was any pressure to the rail, which means it was flooding #6 cylinder, causing it to run rough. A new injector OEM injector later and she idled great but was still a bit rough in gear/driving. So I went ahead with a full service - oil, filter, spark plugs, cleaned AFM with the proper stuff and pod filter with the K&N recharge kit. The oil I drained out smelt of fuel which explains things a bit. After that, she was running beautifully. You can see the damage to the paintwork on this freddy plenum from fuel leaking out of #6 so I'd say this had been happening for a while and old mate couldn't figure it out so wanted to sell it off cheap haha. At some point in the future I plan to pull the plenum off and either strip it to bare silver, or have it professionally painted/coated in the same red as the rocker covers...

Interesting that it's linear in delivery... Usually 'big' turbos are nothing then BAM exponentially rising graph... What else is in your setup? How are you controlling boost? I'd really like about 10psi by 3000rpm if possible as I want it to be fun on the street. 10psi is subjective of course but I've found anything below that hard to feel. I don't know if that's possible with a 35 series turbo but maybe with a 0.83 or smaller 0.63ish rear. I could be dreaming though.

What, seriously? I thought there was a difference between the GTR boxes and the GTS4 awd boxes... and therefore the Stagea awd boxes as well? Although now that I look into it again there's a bunch of forums posts from people saying "they are basically the same" and it appears they share some internal part numbers... Very cool... I guess it's settled then

Interesting... In my mind I'm tossing up between a 3076 or 3582 so you could be onto something with the 3576. This is still a fair way off so I have time to keep reading haha... thanks for the tip

Ahh the previous owner never quite made it that far... he had plans to go big turbo and slowly got all these mods done in preparation for that. Then he got low compression and thinking it was the head, took it off and had it rebuilt. When he put it back on he dropped something down into one of the cylinders but didn't know at the time which made it worse... Ended up pulling the bottom end out and having another shop rebuild the block. At that point he was 10k in debt after rebuilding the top and bottom ends (all verified with both shops who did the work) and work wasn't doing well so he ran out of money to throw at it. That's where I enter the picture... And yessss I would love the go manual box! However I'm going to need to figure out which route is best, I can get a full AWD manual conversion kit for about $2000-$2200 landed which would be awesome for ease-of-install - kit includes stagea S2 AWD manual box, manual pedal, cylinders,, shifter, console surround etc but then I'm stuck with the AWD box and from what I've heard it's not as good as a RWD big box? Or the other route of course is pick up a RWD box and RWD sump but I think that needs more work. Still looking into this!

Ok awesome! Made a build thread in there Haha yeah it was definitely a big forum at the time. It seems to still be pretty active which is awesome! I always liked the stags but probably wouldn't have ended up with one unless someone offered it as a trade. It can definitely get up and move though that's for sure, even on about 10psi and running super rich haha. I can only imagine at this point how it will feel with a proper tune and some more boost, should be awesome.

Hi everyone, I used to be on these forums quite a bit going back 6-10ish years ago when I had my R33 GTST (avatar) and this was a great place where I found guides on how to do everything imaginable, and really as a 19 year old with no previous mechanical knowledge that was what taught me how to work on cars. I lost my licence being silly (well ended up on 12 month good behaviour...) so I sold the skyline and drove boring cars for a couple of years. After about 4 years I ended up with a stock Forester XT that was only ever meant to be a bit of a fun car, but that turned into a beast as now I've done every possible bolt-on mod for (big turbo, big intercooler, full exhaust, intake and heaps of smaller supporting mods) and almost doubled it's power (127kw -> 214kw). If anyone's interested in Subarus and my build I have a very comprehensive build thread here: https://www.subaruforester.org/threads/mosquitocoils-black-06-xt-lux-my-daily-driver-aus.531441/ I also bought a motorbike to commute as fuel was adding up. Long story short we moved closer to my work again and when I listed the bike for sale, someone offered me a S1 Stagea RS4 auto awd as a swap... after thinking about it and going to inspect it we went ahead with the trade. The Stagea was definitely not in showroom condition but did have a few things done to it like a rebuilt motor which interested me and of course I saw the potential of the RB25DET So far it has: - CP forged pistons and rings - ARP head studs - Cometic MLS head gasket - Head stripped, acid dipped, blasted - Revalved - 1mm oversize exhaust valves (from XR6T) - Timing belt kit including tensioners, water pump - New harmonic balancer - New thermostat - New spark plugs - Alloy radiator - Freddy forward facing plenum - FMIC 600x300 - Pod filter for hectic flutter - Boost tee 12psi, turbo very healthy no shaft play - 3 inch turbo back exhaust to twin tips - Tein coilovers (very comfy, one or two making some faint squeaking) - JVC Double din touch screen - Boost gauge sitting loose in the leftover single din slot in dash - HKS turbo timer cause it's the 90s - 17 inch Rota Grid style wheels - Tint - Body kit (believed to be the Day Z rear bar and skirts with a stock lip which has been cut to fit the big FMIC) - 2 MASSIVE SUNROOFS that both work - Japanese parking sticker on rear window for extra JDMs Anyway here are a couple of photos of it now... I'll add bits and pieces to this to go over what I've done already, and then as things change from here as well. My plan is to get something around a gtx3076 size turbo, e85, haltech ecu, and do all/most of the work and tuning myself. Should be a fun ride. Cheers!

Thanks mate. Definitely have some plans for it once I can get it running reliably! Forged motor is one thing but fuel and battery/charging have needed some work just to keep stable... hopefully I've got it all sorted out now and once I get the starter motor swapped (died on me last week...) she should be apples until it's upgrade time. I'm thinking a 3076 turbo, e85, 1000-1500cc injectors and a haltech ecu. Maybe the ecu first so I can get a tune going for the timebeing an get rid of some of the rich and retard feature which should liven things up a bit! The biggest issue will be having to run it as a piggyback due to the auto... Money and time permitting I'd love to manual swap it as well because I think they look ridiculous and awesome drifting! What would be the best section to start a build thread? EDIT: Nevermind, I just found the "Projects" forum

Hi everyone, I used to be on these forums quite a bit going back 6-10ish years ago when I had my R33 GTST (avatar) and this was a great place where I found guides on how to do everything imaginable, and really as a 19 year old with no previous mechanical knowledge that was what taught me how to work on cars. I lost my licence being silly (well ended up on 12 month good behaviour...) so I sold the skyline and drove boring cars for a couple of years. After about 4 years I ended up with a stock Forester XT that was only ever meant to be a bit of a fun car, but that turned into a beast as now I've done every possible bolt-on mod (big turbo, big intercooler, full exhaust, intake and heaps of smaller supporting mods) for and almost doubled it's power (127kw -> 214kw). I also bought a motorbike to commute as fuel was adding up. Long story short we moved closer to my work again and when I listed the bike for sale, someone offered me a S1 Stagea RS4 auto awd as a swap... after thinking about it and going to inspect it we went ahead with the trade. The Stagea was definitely not in showroom condition but did have a few things done to it like a rebuilt motor which interested me and of course I saw the potential of the RB25DET Anyway it's good to be back... I'll shortly go ahead and make a build journal here, which is the best place to do that? Are members galleries a used thing these days or am I better off making a thread in a specific forum?

That is badass, my dude. Very keen to see where this goes haha.

Damn that would be great news. Currently in the process of starting a parts list for my new S1 and a Haltech Elite was the highest priority but from all my reading and researching, the auto trans keeps getting in the way.

I had already checked there and, strangely enough, there was only 4 posts in there last month. Thanks GTSBoy, I've had a look at some of those already but will keep looking, I haven't had time to go through the yahoo japan auctions yet haha

Hi all After having my R33 many years ago, I have now returned to the RB world with a rundown C34 S1 Stagea. I'm in the process of fixing up its mechanical issues which is the easy part. But it needs a new front bumper and 1x front corner light (as it's smashed) and not having much luck finding either of these. I'm looking in all the usual places (FB, ebay, gumtree) for second hand items but I guess it could take some time for them to pop up. Is there anywhere, here or OS, that would sell these? I'm happy to buy a new bumper if it's a nice looking aftermarket one but it seems like no one makes them anymore Cheers!