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Getting a fairly good pay rise in the new year.
Decided to do abit of a side project.
Yep, another EJ20(turbo) conversion.

Basing it on the 1986 RX Sedan I've had sitting here.
I plan to make this a total wank-fest show car. Lowered streeter.
It's simply crying out for a turbo EJ conversion...
Fuel system - bung a VL turbo pump in and it's done.
Wiring - splice in like 8 wires to the EA82 EFI harness and it's done.

Here's a rough plan;

1 - Restore the body.
I ripped the driveline out after work yesterday and started to prep the engine bay for respray. The rest of the body has a fair share of minor dints and scrapes and some slight surface rust here and there. The chassis has a small area of rust holes around the radius rod mount on the passenger side but it hasn't taken hold yet so should be an easy fix to cut/weld that up.
It's currently white and I intend on keeping it that way but I will spray it in 100% pure white so it's as bright as possible.
Rear spoiler needs replacing - I might see if Clark rubber can somehow make a copy - its only made of black rubber but its all old and perished.
I'm hoping to keep the standard RX interior (love it or hate it) - its abit grubby but hopefully should scrub up okay. Drivers seat needs some stiching repairs done.
Roof lining needs replacing.

2 - Purchase a complete written off smashed WRX. I should be able to pick one of these up very cheap from the auctions. If I can get an STI for a good enough price I will.

3 - Basically rebuild the WRX into the RX's body. These days there are ways to use almost all the parts and get them to work in an L series.

Engine - will drop directly onto the RX's turbo crossmember
Gearbox - I will copy the custom modded crossmember currently used in my wagon to get this to fit. I'll need to get a shortened tailshaft made up.
Rear LSD diff - the wrx rear diff will bolt straight in now that OS has come up with a way of putting L series male stubs into them.
Clutch hydraulics - Can get the whole WRX system to fit.
Brakes (front and rear) - using the Bratgebah Crossbread conversion kit these will bolt on including the brake master cylinder. (yes this means the standard RX rear discs will be up for grabs hehe).
Mag wheels - After the Crossbread kit these will bolt straight on.
Front struts and springs - After the Crossbread kit these will bolt straight on.
Seats - the WRX front seats can be used with minor rails mods.

The RX is lacking power steering and aircon but these will easily be ganked from another unsuspecting L series from somewhere.

I figure getting a whole WRX is going to be more cost effective than a frontcut because of all the extras that you get which can be used.

Once the bodywork is done I'm expecting a pretty quick build time for two main reasons.
1 - I've already done one conversion and learnt all the in's and out's and I've got that car (the wagon) to refer to.
2 - I'm actually getting a complete car to work off - unlike the wagon where I sourced all the enginebay components separately. Took ages!

So for now I'm going to be working on the bodywork here and there (thats fairly easy and not too expensive).

At the end I should be left with a car thats relatively good on fuel, looks great, is reliable (no mods that really push anything beyond it's manufacturer intended limits - cept mabey rear CV's), and is blisteringly fast!

sounds like a plan will be good to see it when its done!!

for your rear spoiler have a look at a 84 model prelude i fitted one to a vortex and looked good with it coming off the end of the boot lid

I'd like to keep the car looking basically original with the only change a brighter white, bonnet scoop (possibly) and mags. So I'll be trying to replicate the original RX rear spoiler as close to original spec as possible.
I won't be getting a respray done, I'll be doing it. I think white will look good, and it will be very cheap to do (cheapest colour).

Never fear of course the wagon will keep going

I think maybe we should organise some sort of RX conversion day at AndrewT's house if he's serious about going ahead with it.

I'll have to come help. I think I owe Andrew about a week of work on his cars.

For the moment I'll just be tinkering with the body work.
Basically after that I just need to organise abit of cash and find time to go buy a smashed wrx.

hehe .. are you driving around trying to run wrx's off the road andrew?

i beleive so ...hehe

I'm so envious... i would have liked Ruby Scoo to have something like this hiding under her bonnet last night so i could show these two P plater clowns in big 6's how to really drive...
Cutting people off an trying to hang wheelies is something any thick head with a car can do... And a subie sleeper would have made them sit up

Good luck with it all, i'd love to see the end result - and i too hold the opinion of going something a little more fancy than just plain white...

Spent a couple of hours standing inside the engine bay. About 35% of the bay is now sanded back (to the metal in some parts) ready for primer.
Took quite a while to get it smooth, especially where the brake system goes. Removed the brake master cylinder, brake booster and all wiring and boost solenoids from that side.
I know you'll never see it but underneath the brake booster is gonna look sweet!

El_Freddo wrote:I'm so envious... i would have liked Ruby Scoo to have something like this hiding under her bonnet last night so i could show these two P plater clowns in big 6's how to really drive..

yeh me too!...i had 5 big people in my car last night..came next to this VY commodore..if only my car could back up its exhaust note with abit of power! Yeh we just sat at the lights, i was reaming the crap out of my car, but to no avail, the suby almost stalled when i tried to launch it

niice andrew, cant wait to see the RX in awesome order!

alex

Well well, here is an old thread.
Over a year and no progress at all on this project...the RX is still sitting there with no driveline

So now theres a possibility I will be doing this conversion very very soon, I have a timeline of only 4 weeks from now to get an EJ20G frontcut with AWD conversion done - and the car registered over the pits.

Rekon it can be done?

And finish the wagon off. How many holidays and sick days do you have? ghood luck with it

bloody more side projects- you have more chance of getting wackbug road registered than doing all that in 4 weeks

Ok well I just bought a frontcut so it's gonna happen now.
It's a Legacy with ABS, comes with hubs, springs, struts and driveshafts.

Slightly abbreviated conversion now due to time constraints but the rest will happen later.
In a few weeks I hope to have these specs;

- EJ20G turbo motor
- Custom dual core L series radiator with 2x Davies Craig fans
- 5spd AWD gearbox (the one that matches the engine)

Still going to be running the RX's original brakes and driveshafts for the moment, I can't afford a Crossbred kit just yet.
I'll update as I go - can't start doing anything until next week.

Hopefully should end up with a pretty tidy little RX to drive around in!

So here's what I think I have to do now to get this sorted...
A quick brainstorm in a very very rough order...
There's bound to be alot of extra little things I will think of later.

Conversion itself;
- Remove from frontcut....engine (with all required to run it!), gearbox, wiring loom, gearbox crossmembers, hydraulic clutch master cylinder, clutch pedal, ECU.
- Remove power steering rack from frontcut
- Split the engine and gearbox apart
- Check condition of clutch and replace if neccessary
- Clean up the engine bay of the RX (I plan to respray the engine bay).
- Get a custom dual core radiator constructed with Lib sized outlets and install it with two 12" Davies Craig fans
- Put new spark plugs into the engine
- Drain the oil and put on a new oil filter
- Transfer the tie rod ends off my spare L series power steering rack onto the Lib rack
- Install liberty power steering rack into the RX
- Remove power steering lines from the EJ20
- Connect the power steering lines to the steering rack
- Remove the RX front guards
- Slightly massage the engine crossmember to ensure it clears the bellhousing
- Drop the engine in and do up the engine mount bolts, two fat washers required to clear engine crossmember
- Connect up fuel lines (fuel in, return, evap)
- Connect up heater coolant lines
- Connect the power steering lines up to the pump
- Connect the top radiator hose (trim as required)
- Connect the bottom radiator hose (gotta buy a Toyota Corona one from memory)
- Install new battery leads and terminals
- Buzz off part of the platform in the spare wheel well to allow room for the intercooler
- Mount intercooler water pump behind passenger side guard
- Mount intercooler front radiator
- Fill intercooler with coolant
- Mount the stock air box (use half Lib airbox, half RX metal air box for this)
- Reinstall the MPFI fuel pump (once I get it back off somebody).
- Take the tailshaft in to a place I know, have all worn uni's replaced and the front section shortened
- Custom modify the gearbox crossmembers, I have one already done I can work off as a comparison
- Install gearbox, bolt up custom crossmember
- Drain and replace gearbox oil
- Install 4.111 Viscus LSD rear diff
- Drain and replace LSD diff oil
- Install shortened tailshaft
- Replace front wheel bearings with a new set
- Replace front brake discs with a new set
- Replace front ball joints
- Replace radius rod bushes
- I have a pair of good turbo L series front driveshafts but one needs a new boot, gotta fix that up, then can install the front driveshafts.
- Remove shifter linkages, cut and reweld a few cm shorter, reinstall in car and check shifter operation
- Remove clutch pedal from RX, mark pivot point in relation to the point on the Lib clutch, weld on a bracket and drill hole
- Reinstall modified clutch pedal to car
- Drill extra hole in Hydraulic Clutch master cylinder, mount on firewall, bolt in with bracing plate on inner side, connect to clutch pedal and check operation
- File out accelerator cable hole in the firewall to accept the Liberty accelerator cable, install and check operation
- Install Liberty brake master cylinder
- Bleed brake system, check operation
- Cut down the EJ wiring loom
- Install EJ wiring loom to the RX
- Hook up all sensors
- Make sure engine starts and runs
- Bleed the radiator
- Quick test drive to make sure everything works

Other stuff;
Chuck the car onto the car trailer and do the rounds....
- Exhaust shop, get Liberty turbo dump pipe adapted to the existing 2.5" exhaust system
- Tyre place, get a cheap set of new 13" tyres fitted to the factory RX alloys and get a front wheel allignment at the same time

- Touch up the little bits of surface rust with paint, give entire car a very harsh cut/polish
- Take the roof lining in to get re-done (it's sagging at the moment)
- Get two new seatbelts for the front (current ones are slightly frayed)
- Install a CD player in the dash to fill the gaping hole
- Install new speakers in the rear parcel shelf to fill the two gaping holes

- Make sure all lights are working and correctly alligned...
TAKE TO PITS TO GET REGISTERED!

BTW please post up stuff I've missed!

Picked up the frontcut today and started dismantling it.
Everything is now disconnected from the engine, just stuck with one difficult nut and she will be ready to pull out.
Found a cool turbo timer under the dash :P

good stuff andrew! should be shweetos!

oh and thats a big list!

alex

ill bring round my spiff camra and take some nice shots! go the wacky workshop!