Project Scubaroo (picture heavy)

[scubaroo84]

As the title states this is a build thread of my car that i call the Scubaroo. It is an 84 GL wagon ea81 dual range. I bought it May of 2013 and have since started as of June 2014 building it. This was my second vehicle i bought and is the most involved project i have ever had. I have had a lot of obstacles while building this car but hopefully you all will like it. Also remember that i built this car with my money and built it to how i wanted it so the negativity can stay out of it. Enjoy.

 

The start May 2013

 

The day after i got it and had cleaned it up some.

 

Cleaned up and painted bumpers and wheels

 

painted door carpet black

painted center console

 

started fabbing carb hat for cai

 

Made a recovery point out of scrap

 

The first time i rallied it

 

New front brakes

 

Little photo shoot with my buddies 78 F250. Back then it had 13" lift on 42" swampers 390fe and c6. Now it has a 410fe and np435

 

First winter up on the mountain

[scubaroo84]

Start of the actual build: Interior

 

Insulated roof when i wrapped the headliner

And my badass headliner, credit to my mom for sewing the visor covers

 

Kicker 4x6's in factory places behind dash with modding to brakets

 

All led dash lights

 

Tinted tail lights

 

Glowshift gauges (boost, AFR, Fuel press) tinted 7 color series

 

 

Painted this little spinny thingy in prep for the build

 

Start of engine/ lift build

 

The exhaust port

Novice porting work i did but it is a lot less restrictive 

 

turbo mockup

 

 

building the header

 

relocating battery

 

new battery tray

 

rear lifted

 

welded diff

 

rear diff skid plate

 

5" front blocks later on i ended up doing an extra 1" engine crossmember spacer i tried 5/4 but axle kept popping out

 

mostly hooked up minus turbo

 

compared to my van

 

temp boost piping

 

down pipe with screamer pipe

 

 

very first test drive and it roasts tires in 2nd gear  even when you ease into it

 

 

most recent in the last month

temporarily installed my saab intercooler

 

Installed fog lights in high beam buckets with no modification

 

still need to drill hubs

outgrew my jack stands and smaller jack

 

 

fuse block in glovebox, not done yet

 

ignition switch went out so i put in a new one and a push button start

 

duct tape camo console

 

idea for my cargo area

 

just an idea of what it will sound like with cat and a 18" long obx resonator

[scubaroo84]

Ok. Now that i got all of the pictures out of the way i will list all of the mods to date.

 

Interior:

Legacy seats (in there when i bought it), slanted radio console, led dash and dome light, aftermarket stereo and speakers, glovebox fuse block, aftermarket ignition switch and push button start, back up  camera, camo headliner and back seat cover (need front seat covers), glowshift gauges, custom short throw extended shifter by me, custom 4x4 shifter by me, rubber stall mat in cargo area, insulation on floor ceiling and in doors, new dash harness, cb radio.

 

Engine:

Ported and polished heads, new gaskets and seals, factory turbo, custom header and exhaust be me, spfi intake with welded egr holes and webber adapter welded on, aftermarket oil filter sandwich, new hd radiator, russell performance -6 fuel return line, red horse -6 AN fittings, mallory 4309 rr fpr, msd coil, webber 32/36 dgav, custom carb hat, saab intercooler, legacy cooling fan, screamer pipe.

 

Exterior and suspension/drivetrain

5" front lift 4" tranny and rear end lift, welded rear, rear diff skid plate, trimmed fenders and wheel wells, 7" baja champions with 130w bulbs, grote work lights up front, yellow fogs with 100w bulbs in high beam buckets, back up lights with 55w bulbs, trimmed front bumper, tinted lights.

 

Future mods:

Front and rear bumpers, roof basket, rock sliders, full skid plates, hood scoop, 6 lug conversion, window tint, finish exhaust and probably other things i cant remember.

[bratman18]

Nice build. Are the front lift blocks built to account for camber? They look like just a straight drop from the pics, that may be why you had axle issues.

[scubaroo84]

No I cut mine at 15 degrees. I had originally only done a 4" body with 5" suspension so the geometry was off too much it pulled the doj joint out under. Heavy acceleration. I fixed it now.

[scubaroo84]

No I cut mine at 15 degrees. I had originally only done a 4" body with 5" suspension so the geometry was off too much it pulled the doj joint out under. Heavy acceleration. I fixed it now.

[92loyale59]

oh i was thinking thats the only other person it could be . im the guy with the lifted loyale that you have a picture of at ski bowl . cars looking sweet man cant wait till you can hit the trails with it .

[Prwa101]

Haha! yeah drew and i saw you at Big NW subaru meet at PIR!

 

Patrick

[scubaroo84]

I remember. I found Drews build thread and realized it was him.

 

Tried to see how much flex i could get.

looks like it might but it doesnt rub

 

finished my exhaust. new cat, obx resonator and 1/4 of the case from a gutted glasspack for my 4" mbrp tip i had on my old truck. The tip makes it slightly deeper.

[ryot1]

awesome !!!!! keep em coming...i like how u udalized the rear trunk space!

[scubaroo84]

Ok havent updated in awhile. Been busy on it. Ill write out a summary of what ive done then post pics. Got a used tranny from Forests hatch that i will be putting in tomorrw. I went ahead and went spfi because i just couldnt get enough fuel through the weber for the turbo setup. I also got some six lug hubs from Forest that I installed and put my big wheels back on. Made a switch panel fro all of my lights, radio, cooling fan and when i get to it a rear heater because my rear window defrost doesnt work and it fogs up really bad when it rains. I moved my radio to my glovebox. Got that installed today. Hooked my Kicker 6x9's up in the cargo area. Sounds great. Hooked my spfi up to my turbo after first getting the spfi running on its own. Will install a second injector later on but the spfi handles 7psi just fine and it has an amazing amount of power. Plus it just sound cool when my dumped wastegate opens. ok now onto some pics and videos.

 

Getting the spfi hooked up

 

Hooked up to the turbo. You can kind of see i used a ammo can to house the ecu in the spare tire spot.

 

First start with spfi

 

After i got it ironed out. Actually sounds like a subaru now and not a tractor.

 

My fix for the iac valve so the hose doesnt kink

 

Yesterdays drive. Need better tires.

 

Little video of the interior

 

Six lug hubs and and big rollers back on

 

What a beast

[silverhelme]

Be sure and document how you do the extra injector. This is an interesting build although I wonder if the same thing could be done with an ej22.

[SubieGal1989]

You're making me want to make a swamper out of mine. Keep updated! 

[Pooparu]

You're not too far from me. You should hit me up next time you go out off roadin'

[Sapper 157]

Sweet wagon man. I have the same year and everything it is just blue and not decked out with all the cool gadgets and upgrades you have. I love your ride though. I wish I could find another wagon so I could do all this to it.

[turbosubarubrat]

Mines coming along slowly and will be on the road shortly. Ej22 swap is almost done i had to pull the motor and do head gaskets last weekend.

[scubaroo84]

Sorry for the late reply. my computer has been giving me trouble and showing it's age so haven't updated it in awhile. I'm on my phone now and will try and post new pics tonight or this weekend. I've been busy. Got new tires on. Got a trip permit but then I think I busted another driver front axle. One thing is for sure, it's not very street friendly. It will spin both front tires if you give it enough throttle to get into boost. Even at 3psi they will break free and they have good tread. Extended my strut rods an inch installed a hood stack and rerouted my screamer pipe through the hood. It passed deq with flying colors to took the good cat off and put a gutted cat on amd made a side exit exhaust. Sounds gnarly. If any of you have instagram my username is project_Scubaroo I have all my updated pictures and videos on there. Thanks for all of the interest! It's been a fun slow process.

 

Forest, your hatch is looking good!

[scubaroo84]

Ok now for an update.

new fuse panel

 

Wiring it up

 

Switch panel installed

 

Blue moon seasonal tap handle shift knob

 

The interior minus my second park brake

 

Extended strut rods

 

My turbo setup. Not very clean but it works.

 

Now for some pics out and about.

 

And some videos

my deq exhaust all 2.5" turbo back, new cat and obx resonator, 4" mbrp tip.

 

Screamer pipe, the vent was a bad idea that's why I went with a mini stack.

 

The new exhaust. 2x6 tube tip and gutted cat and obx resonator.

 

Deceleration video and going under a bridge

 

Getting on it in second and 4wd so I didn't spin the tires. can't remember how fast I was going started at about 30mph listen to the turbo flutter when I downshift to second.

 

Well that's all I have for now. Enjoy! Feel free to ask any questions.

[el_freddo]

Awesome build mate!  Got any more details on the turbo SPFI setup?

I'm keen to know if it runs well with the second injector setup to keep the engine from running lean.

 

Now I'm wondering if I can do this with my brumby and an SPFI setup...  evil, evil thoughts!

 

Cheers

Bennie

[belacane]

What incredibly cool work! Love your soob!!

[scubaroo84]

Haven't been on in awhile. New job and other projects and I was trying to sell the scubaroo. BUT I decided to keep her. The rings on 1 and 3 went bad and was burning tons of oil. Bought a short block from forest (turbosubarubrat) and out my ported heads on it. Took the turbo off. Still running the spfi. Has much better low end torque but not nearly the top end it did with the turbo for obvious reasons. I installed a factory roof rack that I also got from forest. I got her all registered so now she is my daily again. I have to replace the alternator but the one forest have me is a different model maxima alternator than the one I had so I need a longer belt and extended the tension bracket forward. I'll eventually build a bracket for a gm 120amp unit. Still have to install things I had taken off when I was gonna sell it.

 

I did a harness tuck in the engine bay. The headlight harness is in the fender now and the spfi harness was stripped down more and I combined the wires to one connector to the intake and stuffed the excess harness in the ammo can. The maf and dizzy wires go under the intake.

 

Before tucking the harness

 

After

 

The loom that I took out after thinning the harnesses and shortening

 

Fog painted my ea81 red, blue and silver. I wanted to do something different.

 

 

[Crazyeights]

I like the paint job on the engine!  Cool idea

[scubaroo84]

Update time. It's been eventful to say the least since I last posted. I took her on a hand full of wheeling trips to the mountain over last winter including an over nighter that I slept in the back of the car. Unfortunately the phone that had those pictures had a melt down so I don't have any. I did however take it to the beach/dunes back in March for my birthday weekend. I trailered it down to Florence with my pickup so I could actually have some fun and ended up having too much fun and rolled her on the beach while doing really tight cookies. But I tell you what, the friends I was with were amazed at how good this car handled (until it rolled) it was like a go cart, I jumped it and rally the hell out of it and it just wouldn't quit. I pushed the car to its absolute limits, hence why it rolled. Even after it rolled we up righted it and my buddy towed it to the beach access, It had not been ran for half an hour. It fired right up and I drove it back to my truck. The only thing that kept me from still playing was the broken windshield and my core support pushed my cooling fan into the thermostat and broke the upper hose and the fan. It made it a half a mile back to the truck without over heating though. It's sat for months now. Trying to figure out what I was going to do with it. I pulled the lift off and sold it. Then the other day my buddy (who has a 3rd gen wagon) told me to turn it into a rally car so we can rally together. So here it is the start of the 3rd build I've done on this car. The plan: build a bare-bones budget rally cars. No bells, no whistles and barely even street legal (for winter fun if it snows or I want to show off any other time of year). No hood, no fenders, half doors for the summer, cutting the back off to make a four door brat but I'm welding the rear doors shut. No dash. Custom wiring harness. Trailer lights front and rear. Roll cage. Wider offset wheels with smaller tires. Custom front fenders. Custom switch panel, fuse panel and gauge setup. I found a gm style aftermarket Guage will work for the fuel level and I will be using a gps for the speedo. Here are some pictures, because what's a roll over story without pictures?!

 

My tow rig: 98.5 Ram 2500, 24v cummins, 5spd, 4.5 inch lift on 35's, 4" down pipe with 5" straight piped from the dp back.

 

After the roll

 

Here are current pictures of it

[jono]

Bumped this for fu.n

[Loyale 2.7 Turbo]

So, what happened to this Awesome Subie, nowadays?