The Struggle 2015 Vol. 5

At this point during the 2015 build we finally starting seeing some very important items start to show up one being our closed deck block from Outfront Motorsports as well as our new spare transmission. Many people believe the 6 speeds are indestructible but let me tell you they are not! I have managed to kill 3 of them in the last 2 years, 2 of the 3 times it was 4th gear and 2 of the 3 times were at Buttonwillow Raceway. 

  
The short block came assembled from Outfront with a Scat Crankshaft, ACL Bearings, Manley turbo tuff rods, and JE Pistons. We were very excited to get it in the car and crank it over for the first time but first we had a lot of assembly to do. Gil and Oscar got started by assembling the heads that SoCal Porting did an amazing job making sure we would be able to flow as much as possible! They then started to add the Supertech Valvetrain and GSC Power Division S2 cams. 

   
 Now although we have yet to have any Headgaskets issues to date with the car we decided to utilize Outfronts 1/2 ARP headstuds, this was decided based on the application which was going to be a Subaru making around 600WHP. The year prior we were using the ARP 625+ with the JE Pro Seal Gaskets and they held together all year without an issue. This time using the 1/2 and the Pro Seals we expected no issues whatsoever. 

  

  
Now as we dove deeper into the engine build other items started t show up like our Killer B Motorsports Oil Pan, Pickup, Shift Knob, and water neck. As you might be able to tell by that little list Killer B has a great selection of parts that greatly help the reliability and performance of any Subaru. 

  
    
As you might notice from the picture above the oil pump is not the standard silver. It is an Orbitz oil pump, we have been using them on the car for the past 3 seasons to perfection which go great with our ACL Race Bearings.

 
 Flat Performance got the long block all put together at Yimi Sport and ready to slide into the car. This included our Full Race Motorsports exhaust manifold and BorgWarner turbo. After we slap it in the car we will have a few misc parts to put on and then we can crank it over for the first time!!!!

  

Thank you to all my sponsors and supporters!

<a href=”http://www.yimisport.com”>Yimi Sport Tuning</a>

<a href=”http://www.lostartliquids.com”>Lost Art Liquids</a>

<a href=”http://www.full-race.com”>Full-Race Motorsports</a>

Borg Warner 

<a href=”http://www.scatcrankshafts.com”>Scat Crankshafts</a>

<a href=”http://www.jepistons.com”>JE Pistons</a> 

<a href=”http://www.supertechperformance.com”>Supertech Performance</a> 

<a href=”http://www.killerbmotorsport.com”>Killer B Motorsport</a>

<a href=”http://www.advancedclutchtechnology.com”>Advanced Clutch Technology</a> 

<a href=”http://waspcomposites.com/blog”>Wasp Composites</a>

<a href=”http://www.swiftsprings.net”>Swift Springs</a>

<a href=”http://www.aclraceseries.com”>ACL Race Bearings</a>

<a href=”http://www.mil-spec.org”>Mil Spec</a>

<a href=”http://www.aprperformance.com”>APR Performance</a>

<a href=”http://www.mackin-ind.com”>Rays</a&gt;

<a href=”http://www.mackin-ind.com”>Project Mu</a>

AP Racing

<a href=”http://www.gtspec.com”>GTSPEC</a&gt;

<a href=”http://www.whiteline.com.au”>Whiteline</a&gt;

<a href=”http://fuelinjectorclinic.com”>Fuel Injector Clinic</a>

<a href=”http://www.outfrontmotorsports.com”>Outfront Motorsports</a>

<a href=”http://socalporting.com”>SoCal Porting</a>

<a href=”http://aeromotiveinc.com”>Aeromotive</a>&nbsp;

<a href=”http://www.power-division.com/home.php”>GSC Power Division</a> 

<a href=”http://www.koherentworkz.com”>Koherent Chassis Workz</a>

The Struggle 2015 Vol. 4

Some of you keen observers may have noticed that the hood new hood was already on the car… Well ya that happened as well. Thankfully in the background of all the cutting and chopping and wiring and welding Wasp composites was working on our new and much lighter carbon fiber hood. Along with the hood Singular Motorsports and Rami were working on the hood louder design in an effort to ensure that we have the best available airflow and move the most amount of heat out of the engine bay.

   
These were designed after we did extensive testing on the body to know exactly where we would get the most amount of heat extraction. Some might thing that oh they are just louvers that could not have taken that long… Well let’s just say that we like to ensure that our designs are going to be successful. That is why Rami was the head of this task, he has constantly proven himself in these situations proving to be the best organized as well as the greatest level of detail covering all the angles.

  I was lucky enough to have Richard help with the most fun part of the project… Cutting the carbon fiber to fit in the new louvers.
Richard also stuck around to start the next task which was tryin for a 3rd time to add the fender flares. A side note, I attempted to get another set of flares from a dealer online which I asked numerous times about fitment and low and behold they were complete crap. Even better was after I received them and reported back about the poor fitment he then sold them for half price indicating poor fitment but wouldn’t help me out… So screw that guy. This time I finally got we a company that cared about their products fitment and looks. Juggaurnaut Aero Designs came out with a very good looking set of fender flares that are tailored to fit my year (as well as basically any other year or model of Subaru).

Check out those Snap On tools in action!

  
Occasionally we all start to lose our minds…. The build process is starting to really get to everyone as we are all dying to get back to the track and get on the part where we go fast. Although things are about to take a very interesting turn and then we have to get ready for Subiefest in a hurry!!!

   

Alex and Oscar on the other hand were just prepping for the new power plant and working on their Fast and the Furious faces.

 When the new Full Race Manifold and BorgWarner turbo shows up and people get a little excited!
   

One thing to note, everyone on this team has a full time day job which means everyone is working on this project voluntarily and without any compensation. Every drop of our free time goes into this and when I say that around May we started to work on the project every Saturday and Sunday every week for 10-14 hours a day. Some are planning, some are building, some are just beating our heads against the wall. But without a doubt each member of the team is giving it their all. I cannot thank them enough or show enough gratitude to them for the amount of energy that they put into this team. 
Thank you to all my sponsors and supporters!

<a href=”http://www.yimisport.com”>Yimi Sport Tuning</a>

<a href=”http://www.lostartliquids.com”>Lost Art Liquids</a>

<a href=”http://www.full-race.com”>Full-Race Motorsports</a>

Borg Warner 

<a href=”http://www.scatcrankshafts.com”>Scat Crankshafts</a>

<a href=”http://www.jepistons.com”>JE Pistons</a> 

<a href=”http://www.supertechperformance.com”>Supertech Performance</a> 

<a href=”http://www.killerbmotorsport.com”>Killer B Motorsport</a>

<a href=”http://www.advancedclutchtechnology.com”>Advanced Clutch Technology</a> 

<a href=”http://waspcomposites.com/blog”>Wasp Composites</a>

<a href=”http://www.swiftsprings.net”>Swift Springs</a>

<a href=”http://www.aclraceseries.com”>ACL Race Bearings</a>

<a href=”http://www.mil-spec.org”>Mil Spec</a>

<a href=”http://www.aprperformance.com”>APR Performance</a>

<a href=”http://www.mackin-ind.com”>Rays</a&gt;

<a href=”http://www.mackin-ind.com”>Project Mu</a>

AP Racing

<a href=”http://www.gtspec.com”>GTSPEC</a&gt;

<a href=”http://www.whiteline.com.au”>Whiteline</a&gt;

<a href=”http://fuelinjectorclinic.com”>Fuel Injector Clinic</a>

<a href=”http://www.outfrontmotorsports.com”>Outfront Motorsports</a>

<a href=”http://socalporting.com”>SoCal Porting</a>

<a href=”http://aeromotiveinc.com”>Aeromotive</a>&nbsp;

<a href=”http://www.power-division.com/home.php”>GSC Power Division</a> 

<a href=”http://www.koherentworkz.com”>Koherent Chassis Workz</a>

 

The Struggle 2015 Vol. 1

Super Lap Battle is the largest Time Attack event in North America and the preparation is just as large. For instance you could easily say that it took from SLB 2014 til SLB 2015 for my STI to be prepped for this event… Or you could say that we made so many changes and ran into about every obstacle possible going through the build we thought would be completed in just a few short months and it turn into a year. This volume of articles will cover the struggle that was our build out from the 2015 season or event as it turned out. 

   

We also were prepping to bring the car back to Pierce Motorsports and have him add on to our cage as Mod/Limited then allows for more additions that will help with ridgity. 

  

The motor needed to come out as well for a check up. It was a very good thing that we did this being what we found… All four of our rods had been bent and the cylinder bores had been damaged. If we did not break 5th gear during super lap battle and tried to run Redline Time Attack ACS Roval the likelyhood of a catastrophic failure was very high.
  
We started with great optimism and tons of pizza working on changing our dominant street class car into a dominant Mod/Limited class car. This process involved cutting weight on the car as much as possible, adding larger and more aero components, and why not add more power! Now when I saw that doesn’t it sound like a weekend or so worth of work? HAHA boy when you start to really write out this list of items to be accomplished it really begins to take on a new meaning.   

  

We had to tube the front of the ar being how much rubbing that kept occurring throughout the last 2 years, although we were going to be pushing the wheels and tires out wider with a different offset and flares we decided at this time it would be better safe than sorry.

 

We began with the items that would cost the least, which is busting out the sawzall, grinder and drill and taking off anything and everything that we didn’t need. This is where things can get a little tricky, you are making decisions that could easily cost you more work later on if you are wrong so keep in mind we always thought about it quite a bit before cutting. Although I must admit this is the part that I particularly excel at especially the part where you get to cut and hammer. Along with cutting weight with metal reduction Gil and Oscar also went to town working on the wiring harness cutting out any unused wires and connectors. 

   

Most people would run very very far from this task but Gil and Oscar jumped on it and worked through the entire harness cutting off what we did not need.
 
The next item on our list was to install our new Fortune Auto Dreadnought Pro coil overs and then try to figure out how to fit our new Yokahama Advan RGIII wheels and more importantly 295 wide tires! As anyone with a GD Subaru knows fitting 255 or 265s are difficult so going wider than that is down right a pain in the ass. So I looking around and found some overfenders but being the company that made them were crap and wouldn’t back up their product. So I then had to buy another set but that was only after we made the attempt to make our own which really did not go very well.

 

 We chose a set of Yokahama Advans wrapped in Hankook TDs.
 Everyone got into the mix as cutting and hacking is a great stress reliever.

Next up we actually put something on the car!!!

Thank you to all my sponsors and supporters!

<a href=”http://www.yimisport.com”>Yimi Sport Tuning</a>

<a href=”http://www.lostartliquids.com”>Lost Art Liquids</a>

<a href=”http://www.full-race.com”>Full-Race Motorsports</a>

Borg Warner 

<a href=”http://www.scatcrankshafts.com”>Scat Crankshafts</a>

<a href=”http://www.jepistons.com”>JE Pistons</a> 

<a href=”http://www.supertechperformance.com”>Supertech Performance</a> 

<a href=”http://www.killerbmotorsport.com”>Killer B Motorsport</a>

<a href=”http://www.advancedclutchtechnology.com”>Advanced Clutch Technology</a> 

<a href=”http://waspcomposites.com/blog”>Wasp Composites</a>

<a href=”http://www.swiftsprings.net”>Swift Springs</a>

<a href=”http://www.aclraceseries.com”>ACL Race Bearings</a>

<a href=”http://www.mil-spec.org”>Mil Spec</a>

<a href=”http://www.aprperformance.com”>APR Performance</a>

<a href=”http://www.mackin-ind.com”>Rays</a&gt;

<a href=”http://www.mackin-ind.com”>Project Mu</a>

AP Racing

<a href=”http://www.gtspec.com”>GTSPEC</a&gt;

<a href=”http://www.whiteline.com.au”>Whiteline</a&gt;

<a href=”http://fuelinjectorclinic.com”>Fuel Injector Clinic</a>

<a href=”http://www.outfrontmotorsports.com”>Outfront Motorsports</a>

<a href=”http://socalporting.com”>SoCal Porting</a>

<a href=”http://aeromotiveinc.com”>Aeromotive</a>&nbsp;

<a href=”http://www.power-division.com/home.php”>GSC Power Division</a> 

<a href=”http://www.koherentworkz.com”>Koherent Chassis Workz</a>

  

New Season, New Class, Big Upgrades

After the amazing 2014 season the build for the 2015 season started instantly at Yimi Sport Tuning although first we had to fix what we broke at Super Lap Battle which was the transmission as it tends to be, although this time it was 5th gear instead of the usual 4th. 

 

With the transmission pulled the decision then came to pull the motor and send it to Outfront Motorsports to evaluate the condition. An interesting piece of usual Forum talk is about the use of GSC cams and there wear on different items in the head. Lets just say that it appears to be just another form of some of the usual garbage that you find on the forums from guys that improperly installed or broke the new parts in.  Now GSC Power Division is producing Billet cams for the EJ series motors as well as many more. My JE Pistons, Scat Crankshaft and JE Pro Seal head gaskets all looked perfect. 

 

Now one of the largest upgrades the car will see is a larger set of wheels and tire and being that I wanted to use a set of wheels that will be able to withstand the abuse from berms and dropping tires which is why I called up Mackin Industries and got a set of 18×10.5 +25 Yokohama Advan RGIII’s. Besides the fact that they are astonishing to lay your eyes upon they are some of the strongest wheels available. They are going to allow for the use of tires ranging from 275-295.  

 

The next big item to allow for more grip to be added was a set of the Fortune Auto Dreadnought Pro 2 way adjustable coilovers. We were lucky enough to team up with them and with their amazing product support, customer service and overall product we have high hopes for what these will give back to us. As well as new coilovers we installed a few other of the few Whiteline suspension products such as the rear anti-sway bar mount seen below.

 Now before we could add anything we needed to take out some items to allow Pierce Motorsports to go through and add to our cage that they had done for us last year. One of the items was going ahead and doing the dash bar and connecting to the front suspension mounts. Now besides the cage we pulled the wiring harness out and did some custom cutting and pulled what we could off of it in efforts to get rid of some weight and complexity.  Thinking oh just cutting some wires is easy right… yaaaa  With all the wiring being cut we called up AEM Electronics for their AQ-1 Data logger and a slew of gauges which will help our understanding of what is going on in the motor as well as what our aero package is doing. We are just about finished with the installation with much more information coming on this.  These AEM Electronics digital gauges are amazing and with the ability to be changed to whatever gauge you want (within reason such as oil temp to water temp) or switching the gauge faces from black to white. I would also imagine creating your own custom faces would be a very easy task.  The wiring continues, and with everything tested out a permanent connector would then be applied.

 

Much more to come… So stay tuned!