Legalization of RHD JDM cas

there are a various number of ways a car can be legalized, sometimes half legit, etc. there are alot of legalized cars running around California (i.e. noble M12, B10 alpina, M5 wagon, 996 GT2, the S15 down the street from me, etc

it can be done. I can assist those who are very serious, alot of money will need to be spent. i suggest you diy, because it is not that hard. if you dont have alot of cash to waste, don't even bother about it because theres no cheap easy way to do it.

basic ways to import a JDM car to the usa:

2 ways to do it:

ship in:
sneak complete / sneak disassembled

Drive in: buy Canadian car, somehow drive it into the states legally, go through paperwork to transfer CDN to USDM VIN/reg.

Loophole: Florida/ Bermuda triangle style, some small island + port customs loophole, etc. evolution imports is in this game. many many many JDM cars in florida, some legal many not.

If its worth it or not, i cannot say, seemly the price of a second hand 911 (or M3 or M5) is close to what many of these importing projects (or full RHD Conversions) end being..... performance with higher level cars is ultimatly always better. the better the starting DNA, the better the evolutionary product (esp in enthusist hands).

honestly, with avalibility of JDM parts stateside, and the relative cheapness of a GC8 shell, theres no point in importing a jdm impreza of any sort, the same performance can be found stateside in an 04-06 sti.

the really really nice GC8 imprezas pop up often in europe, but importing and duty and dealing with USD weak sauce is exactaly that.
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FF impreza rear sway bar conversion

If you happen to have a FWD impreza, here are some things of note:

FWD impreza was never sold stateside with rear sway bar or rear disc brakes.

Rear sway bar conversion:

parts needed:

2 rear lateral links w/ sway bar mounting points -OEM is easy, or many aftermarket adjustible arms to choose from
2 sway bar links w/ hardware -oem or aftermarket
2 sway bar mounts + sway bar clamp (05+ usdm WRX parts are direct bolt on and an upgrade in strength). Aftermarket like notec or MRT comes to mind as well.
1 sway bar -oem or aftermarket, you pick
2 sway bar bushings - to sit the sway bar in its mounting point in the c clamps.

FWD cars have different rear X members than AWD. the ID of the FF rear X member mounting hardware is larger than the mounting hardware of the AWD, so the original AWD inner bushing must be pressed out before a proper FWD inner bushing is pressed in to fit- This requires a hydrolic press or building your own bushing install tool with C clamps and pipes. Not for noobies or those unwilling to look for a local shop w/ hydrolic press- you will not be able to physically remove or install OEM subaru bushings w/o some proper tooling.


the good news: new oem inner bushings are $17 each at your dealer (at least back in 2000 when I did it it was :P)

confusion about ej20g varieties

hey-

contrary to popular belieft, subaru rarely does anything special in the engine department. a ej20G is like a USDM E36 M3, its nothing special, and even less trick than the 1 throttle single vanos (as compared to the 6 throttle 320ps, smg, Eurospec double vanos car).


the wagon engine is BETTER than the sti, BETTER than the sti-RA, Better than the wrx-ra.

ej20G= all 1992-1996 2 liter turbo engine. all were DOHC 4 valve, all had same heads, same block casting (there were two, the open deck is much better than the oldass garbage closed deck). All cams were same, all valves were same, ONLY the 1994/5/6 Sti-RA and Sti-RA V-limited ONLY (none others, and i mean NONE others), had a mechanically actulated valvetrain instead of the hydrolic lifter. This was a high performance modification, not a street car part. Those parts are not designed for daily driven car use. you would be best to leave them in a track only car, not street car.

the wagon motors are less beat on bc of the smaller turbo. Everything else is the same, all eletronics, only the turbo and ecu are the difference between WRX, WRX-RA, WRX wagon, STi, Sti wagon. All longmotors are the same for the most part, all cranks and rods are forged, some pistons are forged, some are hypercast - the hypercast ones are more durable and weigh the same. they also can take on limit 30 psi of boost before other things become unhappy.

if you read the post, it pretty much details the entire part structure of the car. Its custom combination from the best of subaru OEM offerings, diff and corners from 2004 ver8 gdb, trans from ver2 sti-ra v-limited, engine from low abuse wagon, you would be upgrading the turbo and fuel system regardless of which ej20g varient you picked, as they are all the same and all fall short at the same power output (which oem hits easily) at 320 crank ps. Injectors are all 440cc and max 98 duty about there.

Gc8 aluminum Control arm install

Aluminum control arms install just like the steel oem parts, as they are OEM subaru and their only difference is Aluminum contruction instead of steel. Uses the OEM subaru identical pn ball joint with a small aluminum adapter sleeve to fit the ALU countersunk arm instead of the steel taper welded into the steel arm.

Direct bolt on, to all GC8 (if the arm is from a GC8 - GDB and others are differnt).
Many people who go aluminum arm also go with 6 gun or Zerosports style Extended Lower ball joint (to alter Mac Strut geometry to allow for lowered car)- very much like NCRCA on AE86 or spacer for short stroke conversion.


ball joint goes to knuckle, ALK goes to chassis- different point entirely, has nothing to do with each other.

the front control arms on a subaru are attached at 3 points:

17mm@ front X member (nut+bolt long)
19mmx2 @ ALK bracket position
14mm ball joint pin bolt to knuckle
14mm @ sway bar link

the removal is done as thus:

1. Jack up car, remove wheel (ideal to jack both sides and put on stands, so no compression on front sway bar)

2. Remove 14mm bolt pin that holds the ball joint to knuckle. use pickle fork or hammer + screwdriver to force balljoint out of the knuckle- gets rusty in there.

3. remove the 2 19mm bolts that hold the ALK bracket to chassis.

4. remove 17mm nut and bolt that hold control arm to front crossmember

5. Re-install.

6. Get alignement.





[QUOTE=spinninhye][QUOTE=supermoose][QUOTE=spinninhye]I could give you 300 shipped for the ra aluminum control arms. Not tryiing to lowball you but it's all I can afford. Thanks[/QUOTE]

hey-
I have an identical set (without ball joints- you can re-use your existing ball joint if good, as steel/aluminum arms use the same ball joint.)

i can do $300 shipped that pair. Direct plug and play into your car

h[/QUOTE]
I don't have that much knowledge on these, I have a whiteline ALK so I guess I don't really need the bushings at the end.... any way to get them with the balljoints but without the lift bushings? Where do the ball joints go exactly and how is the removal/installation done? Is it easy? Anyway let me know man.

Thanks,
Rick[/QUOTE]

ej25 dohc heads vs JDM WRX ej20K version3/4 heads

Turbo heads are differnt than NA heads in port shape, chamber shape, and valvetrain sufficiency. turbo's are obviously cammed for turbo, NA heads are cammed for NA power output.

[QUOTE=Sarra;1289638]Well, I've got DOHC 98 Legacy GT heads. I'm not sure if they're the same or not, but I've also heard that the 98 DOHC Legacy heads are very similar to JDM WRX heads as well, so they might be the same.

I'll eventually be upgrading to turbo cams and a better valvetrain setup. I just want to get this ****ing supercharger on finally![/QUOTE]

The heads are similar in original casting, un-similar in the fact that:

cams are differnt. - less aggressive - the ej20K 97/98 head which shares basic structure has ~252 deg cams in some varients.

most dohc ej25 heads found in usa pre 98 are older style rocker arm / hla dohc setups. the ej25dohc in 98 RS has the ver 3/4 ej20K wrx style valvetrain with under cam shims.

ports are completely different. there are no similarities, except for if you had a lot of time and the machine shop to do it, you could port and shape a ej25 dohc 98 rs head into a ej20K 98 sti head. I have had both engines and both heads in my hands (in my car).



V

ej20g ecu codes of sort

7K - 95 sti ra version 2 (and v-liminted)
6K - sti normal (sedan and wagon)
z4 - normal wrx sedan (one of a few)
Z5 - WRX-RA (non sti)

how to replace a broken subaru lugnut

stock stud changes are piece of cake. if you are fitting ARP extended longstuds, the front will go on pretty straightforward with a bit of wiggling, rear dosnt work unless u pull the hub apart.

Tone ring can be replaced by getting a replacement, Cutting the circle into 2 semi-circles, bolting on and then JB welding in place. You an get a tone ring for free if you ask around enough. better than tearing the hub apart to replace a perfectly good bearing (if your bearings are going then its a differnt story)

studs are easily replaced:

Wheel stud replacement DIY:

Cost : $1.50

Buy stud at local auto parts store, cost you $0.99 each (last time i checked)


lift/jackstand car
remove wheel
remove brake caliper - 2- 14mm (rear) or 17mm (front) bolts
remove rotor (may require some bam bam if rusty)

take your 5 lb mini sledge ($15 at home depot) and bash the broken one out. a couple nice taps and hes out.

Subaru wheel studs are press fit. Wiggle it into place from the back, give it a couple taps with a mallet to center it (there are little splines)

get 1 lugnut that you dont want anymore (or buy a $0.50 one from your local auto parts store- they have this stuff in stock).

put spacer over the stud- i have used open end wrenches before, be creative. put lugnut on, tighten . make sure goes on straight and bottoms out- will take some force to seat-

after its good, reinstal rotor, caliper, wheel. torque caliper bolts to 40 lb-ft, lugnuts to 85 lb-ft.

drive.

check torque on lugnuts after a short drive and in a week, as the lugnut may settle.