DieselMonte

New Lamps looking nice Taking it out for runs, fairly good so far. Very smokey. Boost wont come on until 3000, only wants to make .5 bar according to my gauge. Double checked lines to vac box and all seem ok. But starting, stopping, steering and changing gears. Having a problem with the oil pressure sensor, comes on after 2000 rpm, Didn't do it in the vrs, and changed the sensor for an identical one off the old ASY Lump, so presume wire. Since it's a simple tap into the oil cooler I don't see why I shouldn't fit a gauge of my own there too with a fitting, to be sure. Wiring around the coolant temp sensor into the rad is rotten and the plug for it basically pulled off, looks fixed before. Can grab some loom from the SDI loom and make new. Wiring for the fans is hooked up, as is the bonnet catch (can't remember if that's ever worked on the vrs) Gave it a lube service, genuine filter of course. Fresh fuel, air and Pollen done previous and no miles so no point changing them. Used an oil flush and coolant flush, no harm in it. Oil was black but fine, coolant (water) was very slightly mucky. Filled up with G12 now. Oh, New Ball Joints and Track rod ends on it too. Lemforder units. Abs Fault in it seems to be a sensor and map sensor fault also.

Moved things around to have a section for parts cars Carbs on Can do it with my eyes closed. Couldnt find a gasket set so had to wait to get material and make one. Gave it a service while I was waiting for the gasket stuff to come. Oil change plus fuel filters. Some gunk in old ones but not major like I'm used to seeing. All looking nice and standard. Fitted the spots but didn't wire them in yet. Took it for a run and it drove very well, filled it with fresh fuel plus used an E10 additive. And took it to a local car show yesterday. Only gave it a quick wash as it was raining, just to get the dust off. Going very well so far so.

Mine fell off so Iirc I used a jack to wedge it together and tightened the clip

So got some of the vrs' panels on And a new set of lamps Nice DPA ones with black inserts.

There's another word Ive been using too but it's not for a family friendly board such as this.

These are autoplas ones. Friend with a sunny had the same make on his funny enough

I am yeah and the 4WD turbo one.

So full exhaust on, need to fix the way the backbox mounts. And got sick of the barn dust so took it around for a wash. Got a jack and lifted it up to clean better underneath too, should have done a long time ago. Few more odds and ends on the way too. Also cleaned up the handbrake cables, just tied them to the beam.

Not terribly low, not a whole pile of cars sold in Kilkenny in the 90s. Logbook says 4th of February 92 Dublin was and still is where most cars are sold Something about Dublin regs Some manufacturers here register their demos in Dublin for the dealers Ive noticed. Logbook came. No months long drama on this one. And I gave it a wash. Came up suspiciously well but the paint is VERY flat. Leaked water for hours, because of all the holes the pressure washer forced water into. And took an inkling one day to give It a quick wipe down inside, so it's less of a biohazard. Lots of mould came off the headliner. Not a whole pile I need off it REALLY, but it's cheaper than the Weber kit I was looking at. Really just carb and starter will do me for now. Oh and the grille of course. They seem very very rare so I do want it. Can take a blank switch out of this so I don't have to butcher my wiring completely. Not entirely sure if they're fogs or spots however, guessing spots.

Just some more photos I've come across One from Melbourne and another a Friend took on the most recent run to the UK. Now have another car on the road so this won't be taking so much stress on its own. No point selling it, don't want to so I'm swapping between.

So long one. This thing wrecked my head with no spark Changed the coil first, nothing Changed the points, nope Plugs? Nope Condenser? Nope Checked the wires, nothing odd So I got annoyed and it sat in the garage. Saw an accuspark kit for the the older ea8X series Subaru's and bought it to try. While it didn't work, it included a new coil so put it on and it started. So most likely I ordered a dud coil first and didn't check it properly. That was fine. Got it driving, tried to take it to work one morning and got to the bottom of my hill before it started acting weird. Got halfway back up said hill and it died. Which caused this. So spark was fine, but wasn't working right Timings fine, spark is wrong. What could possibly be wrong. Have spark, have air, guess what wasn't getting through properly? But it would start and drive, then sputter and die when accelerating. So the C word once again. Almost made good on my promise to put a Weber on it, when by sheer chance a friend sends me a link to a listing of someone selling odds and ends, an MR2 some escort parts, and NSU Prinz and. Another 1992 Subaru Justy. What are the odds. It has never had an NCT (introduced in 2000) but was driven and used (taxed and insured) until 2022. 3 owners on the logbook, the dealership, the owner who owned it to 2022 and the man I bought it off. So for 200 euro, I got it. 90000 odd miles, 1L GL (5door) but same colour and spec as mine otherwise. Runs and drives, drove onto the trailer. It is completely rotten, there is no saving it. It makes the vRS I got for the SDI seem solid. Got it back home and took it for a spin. It starts on the button, engine is perfect. It is complete but as I say rotten. It has a very nice grille on it. An autoplas grille with spotlamps. It's in good shape and will find it's way to mine. Not a looker but all there. To drive, it's pretty good. Clutch must be new it's very strong. Carb is working perfectly. Even though it's got nearly triple the miles of mine the engine is strong. From what I know about it, it was well cared for until it got took off the road. Bit of a shame to strip it but there really is no saving it. Also bought this parts catalogue to boot.

So finally took it for its first spin outside in a long time. It runs, and drives. Had an issue where it died, not sure if it's the battery that was in it (very possible) or a charging issue. Well used to this from it's original incarnation. Put a bigger battery in it and seemed fine. Issue with the power brakes, seem to want to suck down and hold the brakes occasionally. Brakes work fine thankfully, clutch is very low but works fine. Just different to what I'm used to. Would say finishing stretch but not quite yet. Certain other projects detracting from this as usual. But we're getting there.

More pain Abs pump wasn't communicating, and the brakes weren't really working, pump appeared to be airlocked and since it couldn't communicate, I couldn't bleed it. To the point i was ready to rip it out and put the non abs kit in it. This evening I said I'd give it one last go, stripped all apart, then back together again and it's communicating. Ran through the bleeding process twice seems better. Not driven it yet but we'll soon see. Getting there. May invest in a stud and nut conversion sooner or later. Very annoying fitting wheels with no locating screws for the discs.

No dropped the engine off way before Meeting friends along the way, Stirling was one of them. Cold and normal predictably unpredictable weather.

Thought my second half posted Anyhow. Off the ferry, dropped off the engine and went up through Scotland. Up to Stirling,through Glencoe, then to Fort William, then Inverness. Fair spin. Next day we did the Isle of Skye which was fantastic. Day after that we went to Durness, which was also fantastic. And on the last day it was Applecross pass. Stunning views the whole time Roads up to the top were quite steep and not helped by people dicking about doing 7 up the hills. Next day it was the trek back to the ferry Aside from the views, there wasn't much drama, Just ticked 165k as I got home. Got decent Economy the whole trip, didn't make a fool out of myself I don't think, car took the roads quite well all said. The ST suspension is fantastic, it's really the best of both worlds. Even with an engine in the back it didn't bottom out. It held the road well throughout.

So, long week. Went on a trip to Scotland, doing my pre trip checks, came across this. Pad separated, on a bank holiday no less so couldn't get bits. Ended up getting some textars to go on in. Gave it a checkover again, and a lube service. Picked up some stuff for a friend, Quick wash and off to the UK on the 5th.

So got some parts of a wrecker mk2 and finally am bastardising a mk2 subframe into this. Few odds and ends, full subframe a mid body brace and some decent condition cladding for the middle, SDI didn't have them, vrs were broken and had a hole for a fuel cooler. These ones should be just right. Stripped and cleaned all up, wishbones looked ok but didn't use them. Used the spare wishbones with SuperPros castor Increase bushes, gave them a cleanup with the rest of the stuff. So like the monte the subframe and arms went Scania Chassis Grey. The brace went stone chip black. And the 20mm anti roll bar (size up from a vrs) I did something special with. Had some cayenne metallic in a can so sprayed it that. The results are fairly impressive for an evenings work. Did end up reusing most of the old hardware, Arb bushes were new and brackets were in decent shape so kept them for now. Will be getting new ball joints these are temporary. Good evening in all. Also put the vrs shell on a pallet to move it around. Works very well

So after much heartache, it finally moves. Brakes still having issues, clutch is low. I'll bleed em through again. Might need to use VCDS to bleed the abs pump. So with great difficulty, I got it on the pit to make life easier. Have to keep at it now of course. Glad it's moving don't get me wrong but Christ I should have been here a year ago. I really can't express how everything that could go wrong has. Pieced together a few other small things too. But the gearbox has been the main thing.

So a long while since I've updated. This thing has broke my heart, everything that could have broke did. Could not get the clutch to bleed at all, kept trying for ages until I spotted Slave gone. So of course that meant box off, the one thing I didn't want to do. Got it out myself, barely. Brand new Sachs slave gone in, clutch looks fresh, so I didn't touch it. Painted some stuff when it was off. LH inner cv boot was toast, so got a new boot, didn't end well, cv was pretty cooked so I had to get a new driveshaft. Getting the box back in was horrible, made an engine brace, worked well enough but still far too difficult. Dropped the subframe to get it in. May change out the subframe for a FL mk2 one, despise trying to line up the consoles and steering rack.

Another Trip to the UK Went to Melbourne for straight liners. Not a terrible run, mostly straight shot on the motorway so fairly little trouble. Got there VERY early so hung around York for a bit and then went to the air museum nearby. Even loaded with stuff it sat fairly well. Ended up sleeping in it, didn't bother taking a tent. Was a fantastic place, they even had a Saracen Did a few runs on Saturday And set some mediocre times. Soft limiter stopped me revving high enough so kept bogging off the line. First run was fastest and kept getting slower as the day went on. Exhaust would start rattling every time I finished a run and would stopped when I pushed it. Help from a friend bending the rearmost bracket solved most of it. Fastest time was a 10.61, slowest being 10.99 and the rest of the day was struggling in the 10.8s. Amazingly original clutch took it fine, aside from injector tick it ran fine the whole time too. Car drove very nicely over and back with the new suspension, even got 60 mpg on the way over. Pretty good weekend in all, definitely going again. Injector tick is getting worse and worse but still driving fine. It will need changed when it goes.

Cars tracked and all done there. Now a full service kit, all genuine. Genuine Air, Oil, Fuel, Pollen and wipers. Quantum oil of course. Only 10k on this. Been tracking down a few leaks, boost mostly. Seen weeping here. So put a new seal on the damper, genuine of course. Cleaned all up well and replaced. Egr seal on the intake manifold was suspect too, so again changed it for genuine. All back together and tightened. Tightened and replaced some suspect boost clamps too. Cleaned them all out when I was at it. Replaced the MAF for one off the parts car too. Running much better now, a lot more responsive Replaced the undertray and tec screwed the back onto the subframe as it was lower than I'd like. Plywood somehow holding up still Got some new steel rivnuts for the BAF K brace, seems a better job than the soft aluminium ones, somehow. Sitting well on the new suspension, rides very well and has fantastic roadholding. Can't recommend the ST shock and spring kit enough. Solid rubber wishbone bushes feel fantastic, roadholding is very good too. Few other small things, but bulk of it is up to scratch for now.

Last few things to finish off the weekend. One of my rear buckles has been missing a cover for ages. Got one off the parts car to fix it. And got a hold of some red seats.finally. mostly in good shape but the drivers bottom bolster was wrecked. Got a brand new seat base to do it All in easy as. Had my laptop ready to clear any airbag codes but none came up. So aside from a proper tracking it's basically done. Well, the stuff that requires a lot of downtime anyway. Driven some more and have been VERY impressed so far. The new seat bolster feels fantastic and hold you in well. The suspension is still very confidence inspiring, it holds the road very well. No weird knocks or rattles, suspension related ones anyhow. Forgot to mention I've replaced all but one exhaust mount, and that last one I suspect is causing the exhaust to rattle around too much over bumps. But other than that, great result. Had hoped to polish it and fit some more genuine goodness I've been buying up, but that'll have to wait for a minute.

Painted all the suspension. Stripped and regreased the rack with genuine grease, fitted track rods. Subframe In New shocks and springs in. Also fitted some air ducts I found on etka. They were cheap and available so bought them Here's how it sits now. Again sits much of the same but will probably settle some more. Should still be a respectable height and with new everything should drive out great. Not done much driving in it but first impressions are good. Want to sort alignment a bit more.

So been assembling a couple of three things over the past while for this. Suspensions been annoying me with bumps and rattles, so decided it was high time for another mid life rebuild. Ordered the Full meyle HD catalogue, and new shocks and springs. Got a VERY good deal on an ST setup, new in the box. So this time it has received: -ST Shock and Springs -Meyle Rubber Top mounts and bearings -Meyle Rear Top Mounts -Meyle HD Ball Joints -Meyle HD Track Rod Ends -Meyle HD Inner Track Rods -Meyle HD Drop Links -Meyle Shock Boots Front and Rear -Meyle Anti Roll Bar Bushes. -Febi Bilstein Rear bump stops (Sports susp) -Lemforder Bags of Bolts -TRW Steering Rack Boots -New Top mount caps (top of struts) -Mk5 Golf Rear spring rubbers. -Genuine Top Hats -Genuine Top Mounts Caps -Genuine Steering Rack Grease -Genuine bolts (where possible) -Genuine Solid Rubber Bushes -Genuine Air ducts for the Wishbones. Did Rear suspension First. Spent some time stripping away some rot and under sealing. New Springs are Similar to the old ones in appearance, Might sit a hair lower due to the Mk5 golf top rubbers. New Shocks too, top mounts and bolts. Here's how it sits after. Basically the same to be honest. It should settle after some driving so I'll post a picture later. Fitted solid rubber console bushes to some spare arms Stripped the subframe, Wire wheeled and painted all. Used Scania Chassis Grey that I found in the shed. Came on alright, hasn't really dried hard, hard to describe really. It's more like a thick coating than hard lacquer. For 160K, it's not too bad, really .

New clutch master now too. Couldn't get the clutch to bleed right. Got a Sachs one in it now. Seems to be bleeding fine and behaving, pray it's not the slave as it's concentric. Intercoolers on too.