grassroots motorspoorts $2000 challenge turbo baja build

[dusterbd13]

I picked this car up a few weeks ago for $400. The seller is moving out of country, and was given an extensive fix it list by a local shop when she was going to give it to her niece. Hence the “fire sale” pricing. On the list was rear brake lines being rusty to unsafe, rear crossmember being rotted, exhaust rotted, trans leaking, oil leaks, coolant leaks, timing belt due, mice in car. Car is from the rust belt to boot. Supposedly had the pistons swapped for more boost by the second owner(I’m 4th or 5th) but nothing past that was ever done. No records of maintenance or modification available.
I knew this list going in, but for $400 for a clean title turbo Subaru that ran and drove that still has catalytic converters, I figured I couldn’t lose!! So I bought it based upon the following pictures. Sight unseen, sent PayPal and scheduled a week later to go get it.
IMG_0266 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
IMG_0267 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
IMG_0341 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
IMG_0810 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
IMG_0813 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
IMG_0812 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
IMG_0814 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

So, my brother Dallas and I went to pick it up. I planned to drive it home, but he talked me into taking the trailer. I feel kinda like I wussed out, but with sketchy rust reported, he was the voice of reason. Seller was an AWESOME person, and the car was actually way better than advertised. Hope she enjoys her new chapter in life.
20230916_154934 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
We cleaned it out, and got it up on the lift to see what the rust situation really was. The brake lines make my southern self squeamish, the exhaust can easily be removed via boot, crossmember isn’t all THAT bad (tongue in cheek), everything is hosed in fluids. Trans mount shot, rear seal leaking profusely, valve covers leaking, hoses all need done, rear sway bar bushings shot, its filthy, ac needs charged, seat heaters inoperable, drivers seat only occasionally moves via switch, stereo needs either speakers or head unit, cats are rattling, has hesitation like vacuum leak, it smells pretty bad inside, and its silver. Not a bad list, all things considered!
20230916_181936 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20230916_181940 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20230916_181947 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20230916_182002 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20230916_182050 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20230921_180424 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20230921_180427 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

So, we have a list, a car, and a toolbox. Now’s probably the time I admit that I’ve only ever owned one other Subaru to speak of, a 2002 legacy 2.5gt wagon when my daughter was in a rear facing car seat (she’s in drivers ed this week) and never anything with forced induction. I was a nitrous junky in high school and college with my 70 duster, but never had anything cramming more air in. I’m generally a domestic guy, generally a v8 rwd guy. No stranger to weird shit though (rotisserie restore an ACR neon? Yup. 3400 v6 swap a Miata? Done it. Winston cup chassis 71 duster? Different build thread, but its coming along) so I figure I can figure this out with some help. I decided that the end goal of this is the GRM challenge in 2025. I’ve done a few challenge cars that have hit top 10, but I’m going caveman this time. back to the roots of the challenge. $2000 all in. no exemptions, recoup, trades, etc. also, it’ll be my daily (I have a company work truck. I generally only do about 100miles a week in my own stuff, so I could pretty much daily anything. And frequently do!)
I have a method I work to: safe. Reliable. Cool. In that order. Dad taught me that at 14, and its served me well since. Sometimes those lines blend these days, as it doesn’t make sense to redo some things later, or buy parts twice, but it’s a general plan to live by.
First order of business was to sell the tonneau for 100 bucks. That made me happy! Then, I put about 500 miles on it before the first real failure. Enough time to get a feel for the car, its needs, my wants, etc. I really, really like it. And you’ve seen the list of needs already if you’re not just looking at my crappy pictures.
The first failure to address was the trans leak and mount that became significant quickly. Right onto the catalytic converter. I had read the FSM section that stated that you have to drop the exhaust, so I first sourced a new exhaust due to the rotten pipe and flanges. In reading around in the internet, it seems that the baja turbo uses the forester XT engine and downpipe, and an oversize bh legacy catback. No stock parts seem to be available anymore for a price im willing to pay. In further reading, it seems that he whole forester xt exhaust can be used with a little work to the hangers, and some possible extension to the midpipe. Soa search of my favorite parts vendors (facebook marketplace, ebay, amazon, craigslist) turned up a 3 inch exhaust, catless downpipe, catless uppipe, and unequal length header for a forester xt in used condition down in Fayetteville. I messaged the seller, and got to talking as all car guys do. In the end, I bought the whole exhaust, a maxflow intercooler, and he threw in a supposed bolt on intake manifold upgrade for $250.
20230924_165600 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
Screenshot_20230924_165853_Messenger by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
I haven’t installed any of it yet. I was fortunately able to install the seal and trans mount without dropping the exhaust. This is doubly fortunate, as the rear seal failed entirely at the outskirts of town, and I wound up doing the job entirely on my quickjack. This is actually where I decided that I’m going full caveman on this build. Sheer roots of the GRM challenge. No fancy fab equipment outside a welder and portaband and 4-inch grinder, no real lift, no CNC, etc. I want to show what is actually possible with a strict 2k budget by a redneck in his garage with a rabbit’s foot and no fear of failure. I hope to encourage others to try the challenge as well, as lately I have heard way too much of folks saying that they can’t compete, it’s not real, etc.
Anyway, here’s my caveman shop. On my quickjack. And a picture of the failed trans mount, but no picture of the failed trans seal. Sea was 3.99, 6 quarts of ATF was 38, mount 35.35, filter 5.79
20231005_071316 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20231006_194448 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
Car drives way better now. Seems to be faster, shifts better, no more nasty noises under acceleration, no more billowing clouds of smoke….

While I had it inside, I decided to tackle the stereo issues. I figured first that it was probably the head unit, and since I had one in my stash, id use it. Its an old kenwood hd headunit with Bluetooth that’s been in a few cars. For 25 I scored the silver cubby from an earlier baja, and 9 I got the adapter bracket.
20231004_190142 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20231004_190139 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20231004_191126 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
Unfortunately, I’ve discovered that the front door speakers are also utter crap. I have a few options in my stash, so well see what happens there.
To round out this initial drivel, well talk about the rust situation other than exhaust. The rear crossmember hasn’t failed, nor does it seem to be at imminent risk of doing so. however, its heavily corroded, and definitely thinner in places than it should be. Additionally, all the fasteners are seized due to rust, and the brake lines make me twitchy. Up front, it looks like a southern car that got parked in the grass every day and driven to the beach way too often. Nothing to worry about. In my research, it seems the baja used legacy parts, and outback spacers to lift the chassis some more. Soin theory, I can use a legacy rear crossmember and suspension, pull the spacers, and be in business with rust free parts and an inch lower ride height. The different parts appear to be the hardware, spacers vs washers, steering column and coupler, subframe braces, front control arm bushings, driveshaft spacer, and apparently exhaust hangers. At least from research. So, I went down to the junkyard and go the parts of a legacy L to lower to normal height (no subframe spacers). It will still be higher than the legacy L due to the outback struts and springs however. Again, this is all in theory, so take with a shaker of salt. I also got a b9tribeca 25mm front sway bar and trans tunnel heat shield while there. It wasn’t a fun pair of junkyard runs, but I got it done. I got the bonus of spare rear calipers and rotors, however, and a TON of free hardware, a seat switch, clips, body plugs, etc. all the piddly stuff they didn’t charge for.
20231001_104214 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20231001_104220 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20231007_095013 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20231007_110813 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
So lets end with a real world challenge budge summary
Car: 400
Trans mount: 35.35
Trans filter: 5.79
Rear trans seal: 3.99
Trans fluid: 38
Exhaust/intercooler/intake: 250
Stereo harness: 6
Storage cubby: 25
Crossmember/suspension/column/grille:234.61
Swaybar/control arm bushings/ heat shield: 55.30
Total: 1053.93 (minus the cores I turned in for swaybar and steering column)

Next up is a huge rock auto order for timing belt, hoses, bushings, etc, lowering, etc.
Please, yall. Impart knowledge and wisdom here. I’m learning these things as I go, and would love to not grenade this thing by being cheap or dumb or ignorant.

[AssYriaNrocKer]

400 dollar win. I see massive fluid leaks but rust?? I would not qualify that vehicle as remotely rusty! looks great. Of course my mid western eyes are a little more resilient to rust. lol

looks good.

-RONI-

[dusterbd13]

i grew up in NW PA. this thing is PA showroom as far as rust goes, but ive been in the south long enough to know that its totalled down here. the exhaust, crossmember and rear lines are really the only things im remotely concerned about. otherwise its minty! the previous owner was getting sold a longer list of bad than was really there.

[AssYriaNrocKer]

Dang too bad you already purchased a trans mount. I have a healthy trans mount with a Rallitek trans mount insert sitting pon a shelf collecting dust.

-RONI-

[dusterbd13]

Thats what i get for waiting to start the build thread, ain't it!

Im honestly wondering how long lived this "cheapest trans mount i could find" will live.

I think my next biggest hurdles will be timing belt replacement and learning romraider for the catless downpipe. I also need to find a cheap tactrix cable....

[AssYriaNrocKer]

Tell you what....if you'd like, DM me I'll ship the trans mount to you, FREE part you pay shipping. I've gotten a lot of freebies from the community, the least I could do is give back once in a while.

DM me shipping address if interested.

-RONI-

[dusterbd13]

youre an awesome guy, roni!

[AssYriaNrocKer]

Hey no problem. I don't imagine you'll have any fitment issues. I cleaned it up a little and included a healthy washer bushing that goes on the bottom. Free shipping! Can't beat the price!

-RONI-

[dusterbd13]

it came in. thanks again!!

i added it to the rather large pile of service parts for after i get this dakota RT out of my bay. i may be a mopar guy, but this thing is aggravating.....

[dusterbd13]

Previous total:
Car: 400
Trans mount: 35.35
Trans filter: 5.79
Rear trans seal: 3.99
Trans fluid: 23
Exhaust: 100
Intercooler: 100
Intake: 50
Stereo harness: 6
Storage cubby: 25
Crossmember/suspension/column/grille:234.61
Swaybar/control arm bushings/ heat shield: 55.30


This update:
I returned all the pullapart parts, so remove all that from the budget except 25.51 swaybar
Removed intake and intercooler from budget for now, as no intent to use
Roni sent me a free trans mount with an insert in it, so remove the trans mount cost. I also got one with the parts car!
My half of the Parts car: 225
Rock auto order (minus stuff that wont be in the car at the challenge, listed in the actual update): 304.90
Nicopp: 29.99
Brake Unions:5.00
Exhaust gaskets: 31.59
Gauges and pillar pod (had) 20 fmv
Silicone Hose kit: 42.31
Rustoleum: 9.98
New total: 1258.06
So, when we left off I thought I had the trans leak fixed, and the car was soldiering on as a rolling project. That was a couple months ago. It got pressed into daily driver duty for the wife while I had her van down, covering about 3k before it popped a brake line. At that point, I pulled it offline for proper repairs. Looking at it, it seemed that to do the brake lines right involved dropping the crossmember, so I anticipated doing both jobs at one time.
And then my friend brett called me with a 2001 legacy 2.5gt parts car deal that he found. 450 for the whole car. He needed the drivetrain for his legacy (building an earlier legacy with a Frankenstein 2.5 swap for the challenge) and I could return ALL my pullapart parts and replace them for 225, thereby saving money while investing more effort. Well, all except the b9 tribeca front sway bar.
As Deadpool has taught us since I was a lad reading his comics, its all about maximum effort.
So we went to Fayetteville, paid our money, and took our chances.
Screenshot_20231102_210405_Facebook by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20231104_133842 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

Got it home, and gutted it for all its worth. I kept all the suspension, interior, brakes, front lights, hood, etc. all the stuff that I could MAYBE use on the baja, including cv axles, while brett got all the wiring, computers, engine trans, etc. we then traded the leftovers to my scrap guy for used tires. A set of nearly new 205/55/16 for the gt snowflakes, a set of well loved 275/40/17 for my sawblades, and a set of 215/50/17 for the srt4 wheels. We’ll get to the wheel whoring in a while, so keep that thought.
Anyway, stripping went like this…
20231128_170220 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20231128_170157 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20231128_170501 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20231203_072709 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20231206_072002 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20231208_120456 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20231208_122259 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

Not shown is that I saved all the hardware, all the interior, the front and rear impact beams, all the bulbs, etc. everything I could think of for reuse in my car for challenge budget savings. This thing even had a newish radiator in the trunk, an underseat sub, decent headlights up front, and good heater hoses! Like I said, I saved EVERYTHING I thought I could use, and now its clogging up my shop and storage.

With the parts car gone, I readied the baja for surgery. I dropped the spare, and limped it to the local coin op car wash where I pressure washed the underside the best I could with castrol superclean while it was on jack stands. Tried to limit the amount of dirt and rust and crap that will be falling in my eyes and on my floor.
Got it home, on the quick jacks, and started soaking the subframe hardware in penetrating oil. The rust looked way less bad after cleaning. I hit it all with some rustoleum rust converter, just to slow it down.
20231209_113418 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
Pulled the crossmember and rear suspension. Most of it came apart easy. One bolt didn’t, on the drivers front cossmember mount. Snapped flush with the frame.
20231215_070931 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
Which I then proceeded to make worse on myself by breaking a drill bit off in the broken bolt.
20231217_081833 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
Tried the trick of using a carbide tipped masonry bit on a hammer drill, tried welding a nut to the chunk of bolt, tried drilling beside it, etc. finally grabbed the plasma cutter and cut the whole mount apart.
20231219_162449 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
Made a new spacer/mount nut from an old cv nut and an extra m14 nut welded together, then welded to a chunk of 16 gauge that was welded and hammerformed to the frame rail. Its not pretty, but it’ll outlive me or the rest of the car. For alignment purposes, I bolted the patch to the crossmember, then bolted the crossmember to the car. Welded the patch to the car where it landed, dropped the crossmember and finished welding.
20231219_161444 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20231219_162341 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20231219_171941 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20231219_171935 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20231219_175809 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
Then top coated everything to prevent future rust back there
20231217_081815 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20231219_180838 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
I’ve ordered a thread chaser for the m14 hardware, as I don’t have one and I want to clean all the threads in the body prior to reassembly. I’m also going to use never seize on all of them. Being nice to the next guy that has to service this thing.
In doing the rear subframe, I’m deleting the factory body lift ang going to standard legacy GT height. The changes in this swap include, but aren’t limited to: diff mount, remove spacers and add locators, different driveshaft, different LCA supports, different sway bar supports, different trans mount, different heat shields, different bolts, different springs and struts, different steering column and coupler, different inner fender mounts, different front lower control arm bushings different rear upper control arms, different rear bump stops. All these were retained from the parts car. If I’m doing it, I’m doing it RIGHT. Half measures availed us nothing. I went ahead and swapped the front struts already to get them out from underfoot, as well as to make sure that the baja sized tires would clear the legacy get struts. They do. Need to turn the car around after finishing the rear to do the rest of the front suspension work. The parts car had fresh-ish ball joints, steering rack and tie rods as well as one new cv joint. So ill be swapping that stuff over too when the time comes
20231222_184605 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
On the baja, to remove the rear shock you have to disassemble a lot of the rear seat. This is also need to access a good place to splice the leaking rear brake lines, and I’m swapping to the non-crunchy emergency brake cables while I’m in here. This means that essentially the whole interior is coming out, which is good for cleaning and replacing broken clips and using the best parts from both cars. Id also like to delete the DRLs, change the fog lights to independent operation, and rewire the seat heaters that just the back comes on on low (no tutorial for that, so no idea where to start yet). Probably put the good stereo stuff in while I’m here, etc.
So were halfway through with all that. Most of the interior is torn down, first round of carpet cleaning is done. I debated using the carpet from the parts car, but after sitting them side by side the baja carpet was in better shape. Its still bleached in a few spots, and I haven’t figured out what color dye is the necessary color for this.
20231222_200149 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20231222_200124 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
While here, I pulled the cabin air filters out to inspect. They were reasonably clean, so I knocked the leaves out and looked at the evaporator. Then cleaned it the best I could. I debated running some coil cleaner through all the fins, but don’t know if the condensate drain is plugged, and decided it wasn’t time to worry about it yet. Vacuum is good enough for now.
20231222_193719 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
While under the drivers side of the dash, I pulled the malfunctioning remote start. That made me happy.
20231222_191641 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
One of the side projects I’ve been working on is a pillar pod for a boost gauge and an oil pressure gauge. Using leftover gauges and a universal pillar pod to start. The pod doesn’t fit the a pillar for crap, so I used my heat gun to reshape it, Dremel to grind clearance in it, and woodworking bandsaw to trim it to size.
20231120_181946 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20231120_181957 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20231120_182121 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20231120_183312 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20231201_071835 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20231222_195943 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

Well finish off this update that’s wholly unsatisfying due to nothing being actually finished by discussing my addiction.

I’m a wheel whore.

Currently there’s close to 30 sets on my property NOT bolted to anything. 6 sets for the baja alone in total…

I don’t like the factory wheels. They do nothing for me, but have newish tires. Brett claimed the gt snowflakes when im done with them. Regardless, I had to do something for wheels. So I bought a few sets….
20231126_184032 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
From left to right: $100 set of 17x9.5 corvette sawblades, $80 17x7 srt4 wheels, $125 16x9.5 z51 salad shooters. Only the srt4 wheels will bolt up. So I grabbed a single 5x100-5x4.75 adapter in 1 inch thick based on my best guess.
The salad shooters just aren’t gonna work. Look neat though!
20231209_175030 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20231209_175023 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
The sawblades on the other hand, are perfect. May not fit in the challenge budget, but they look amazing (to me). Picture makes it look like they poke more than they actually do. Pardon my craptastic photo abilities.
20231209_174440 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20231209_174532 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

Merry Christmas yall!

[Muse]

I am absolutely stoked to see this build, I love budget racing that encourages innovation like the GRM challenge and 24 Hours of Lemons. Keep up the good work, and make us Legacy nerds proud!

[dusterbd13]

Thanks! Ive built a few cars for the challenge over the years. All top ten efforts.

I fully expect this to be the top of the bottom third of the field. Unless im willing to risk the car by cranking the boost to the stratosphere, hitting it with nitrous on top of boost, etc to pick up a buch in the drags. Hopefully some experiments with spring rubbers and ok tires, sway bar shenanigans, the 2.5 gt parts, and the driver mod will make it respectful in the autocross.

Im going to get killed in concourse with it being essentially a stock baja.

[Muse]

Thanks! Ive built a few cars for the challenge over the years. All top ten efforts.

I fully expect this to be the top of the bottom third of the field. Unless im willing to risk the car by cranking the boost to the stratosphere, hitting it with nitrous on top of boost, etc to pick up a buch in the drags. Hopefully some experiments with spring rubbers and ok tires, sway bar shenanigans, the 2.5 gt parts, and the driver mod will make it respectful in the autocross.

Im going to get killed in concourse with it being essentially a stock baja.

Okay, I'm genuinely curious what your other entries have been, and also, I can see you getting some concours points for the sheer brazenness of it being essentially a stock Baja.

[dusterbd13]

so, the first chllenge build (to make it to the challenge) was a wide bodied, seam welded and caged ford powered amc spirit. full build thread here: https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/fo.../118042/page1/


next was a gm 3400 swapped seam welded 99 miata. full build thread here: https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/fo.../134260/page1/

i built (twice) and never actually made it with a 1997 dodge neon ACR. full thread here: https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/fo...d/50461/page1/

and just because it makes me giggle, and everyone else shake their heads, ill share the other mild build im doing concurrently with the baja. this one is just a simple body swap on an old nascar chassis. for hillclimbs. thats also street legal. https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/fo.../194590/page1/


hope you enjoy your light reading, and feel free to ask any questions. these are not all the cars ive done, but the ones i feel are the best answer to your question. with documentation!

[Muse]

so, the first chllenge build (to make it to the challenge) was a wide bodied, seam welded and caged ford powered amc spirit. full build thread here: https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/fo.../118042/page1/

Oh, crap, I remember this one! I've kinda vaguely followed the $2000 challenge for about a decade, on and off. Absolutely love the way that AMC looked. 10/10, would daily.

[dusterbd13]

thanks! it was an amazing car that really pushed my skillset. if it wasnt for that build, i never would have been able to do the nascar or miata, or had the confidence in my abilities to tackle many of the things i do frequently now.

[dusterbd13]

Previous total: 1243.06
Car: 400
Trans mount: 35.35
Trans filter: 5.79
Rear trans seal: 3.99
Trans fluid: 23
Exhaust: 100
Stereo harness: 6
Storage cubby: 25
25.51 swaybar
My half of the Parts car: 225
Rock auto order: 304.90
Nicopp: 15
Brake Unions:5.00
Exhaust gaskets: 31.59
Gauges and pillar pod (had) 20 fmv
Silicone Hose kit: 42.31
Rustoleum: 9.98
New stuff:
Throttle body gasket: 6.99
11.46 30.25 45.99 25.29 28.90 31.63 for various PCV and breather hoses (173.52 total)
Valve cover gasket 16.30
Pcv valve 34.99
2005 Wrx intercooler, airbox, and reusable air filter: 20
Misc shop supplies line item (zip ties, push pins, rtv, grease, hose clamps, etc that I have floating around and just grab without thinking about it) :20
CURRENT TOTAL: 1514.86

Last update, a month ago, saw the rear subframe out, frame rail repaired, rear unibody painted, and ready for reassembly. I really don’t feel like I’ve made all that much progress since then, but it appears that I actually have despite only getting 15 minutes to an hour at a shot to work on this thing. I’m way too busy for my own good in this season of my life.
First, I had to replace the popped rear brake line that started this whole cascade of Subaru rebuild. The lines had rotted at the little block under the passenger’s rear floorboard. I used about half a roll of nicopp to run new lines the whole way from the caliper to the rear seat area, and then used some double IFF unions for the junction
20231227_185537 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20231227_182358 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
A trick angrycorvair gave me to limit the amount of bleeding needed after repair was to compress the pedal and hold in an inch or three into travel. This prevents gravity from draining the master cylinder dry, and slows gravity draining the lines. I cut up a scrap of 1x4 on the bandsaw to make a dead leg to do that with, and it worked beautifully! Thank god for friends that are engineers and smarter than me.
20231226_180426 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
So, my wife daughter and I slid the subframe under the car, and lowered the car down on the quickjacks to meet the rear suspension. This was after multiple failed attempts to raise the assembly to meet the car and a thumb I thought I broke; my wife is wiser than me sometimes. The rear subframe was installed with all the legacy GT hardware, deleting the spacers and longer bolts to remove the body lift and lower the car about 2 inches. I also retained the legacy GT rear diff as its supposedly the same ratio and limited slip. If someone has different information, please let me know ASAP!!
Also, you may note my mistake already.
20231228_181906 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20231228_204346 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
Sitting on the ground, I figured out I hit it hard with the lowering stick.
20231228_205136 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
The mistake I made (and have yet to correct) is that I used the LGT sedan struts and springs at all 4 corners in untouched states. The back rubs HARD, and the front is an inch and a half higher than the rear. Plan is to put the Baja springs on the LGT struts. However, I’m looking for a set of maxpeedingrods adjustable damping coil overs for this for way less than new price. $300 is more than the challenge budget can stand, but the performance will be much appreciated. And I have experience with that brand and series of coil over in other platforms, and quite like them.
Anyway, I assembled the interior next to get rid of the massive pile of parts that used to be a Subaru. Working with all the parts from the parts car, and the parts from the Baja, I picked the best of them. Then to clean, I used chemical guys cleaner and the blue scrub pads intended for Teflon pans. Then, another spray with the cleaner to float the filth scrubbed off, and wiped with microfiber. Its kind of amazing how much filth comes off, and how nice the interior cleaned up. Take a look of the untouched left side vs the cleaned right side of the wheel. Also, not pictured, is that my daughter steam cleaned the carpets a few times to make them the best they could be, which turned out to be pretty damn nice! It’s a really nice interior now!
20240114_172345 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20240114_171130 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20240106_171344 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
So, I turned it around at that point, and had planned to find the vacuum leak and remove the front spacers. Shouldn’t be too bad, right?
20240106_170333 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
The smoke test went way worse than I expected. My regulator was set for 3psi, and it was unable to build that pressure due to the amount of leaks. Every hose, the intercooler end tank, throttle body mounting gasket, silicone turbo inlet tube, pipe between maf and turbo inlet, the list goes on. Pretty much every rubber component in the engine bay was baked and leaking vacuum pr boost. The intercooler caught me off guard though. Regardless, it was time to fix it. I hunted down all the PCV and breather molded hoses and ordered them as there’s no way to make those out of cut to fit hose. I also ordered the throttle body gasket instead of making one because I’m not THAT cheap. The rest of the hoses were made from my box of belts and hoses, which is all leftover remnants from other jobs and part outs collected over the years and included in the misc shop supply line item. I also added hose clamps or zip ties on every single hose, as most hoses didn’t have anything on them, including the intake tract and turbo inlet. I also went ahead and cleaned the electronic boost control solenoid, as it wasn’t making any noise when triggered or flowing any solvent through it. After working with it, it now flows. I also replaced the PCV valve assembly because I’m already there, and it’s the right thing to do.
To replace the intercooler, I pulled the hyperflow out of storage. I swear it got bigger while I wasn’t looking.
20240106_185320 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
unfortunately, its not going to fit the engine bay easily, and I’m not willing to do the work to force it to fit. So its going back in storage.
20240118_065252 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
I sourced a $20 wrx intercooler that I will get put in instead of the cracked baja piece. Id have rather found the STI stuff, as Id ultimately like to upgrade the intercooler for better charge cooling, but ill take what I can get at my budget. Hopefully the afe air filter fits the baja box!
Screenshot_20240122_130816_Facebook by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
While waiting on hoses and intercooler and other stuff, I decided now was the time to pull the front subframe spacers, fix the leaking valve cover gasket, change the plugs, do the timeing belt, and change the coolant hoses. Seemed like a good idea at the time.
Pulling the font subframe spacers was pretty simple, but I have to pull the column back out as I forgot the firewall seal when I put it back in. otherwise, drama free. I have the LGT fender apron extensions to put back in yet as well as the front sway bar. While I was in there, I swapped the spindles from the LGT with the LCAs, as the baja LCAs had some significant pitting, and one spindle had the head of the balljoint pinch bolt missing. Additionally, I swapped the bad CV shaft for the new one that came with the car. Had my 14-year-old helping me by handing tools and running jack and camera. These were the two pictures she took that didn’t involve my butt crack or her fingers blocking the camera. Damn kids…. (on the bright side, its evident that the 20lbs I’ve lost is making a difference in my pants being looser!)
20240114_162658 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20240114_165259 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
Next I did plugs. They were definitely due to be changed.
20240117_065503 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
And the leaking passenger’s valve cover. I was pleased by how clean the inside of this engine is!
20240119_202559 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20240119_202606 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
On to the timing belt job (which is still in process by the way. Were up to real-time, as I’m writing this in a dealership service department waiting on my work truck to be fixed). I pulled the radiator, condenser, and front bumper to make it easier. This job scares me with the 4 cams, vvt, flat motor, etc. so I’m giving myself the best chances I can. And the best access to see timing marks, etc. upon disassembly, I found the front impact beam fairly crusty, but the inner fenders flawless.
20240120_082705 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20240120_082720 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20240121_090435 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
The timing belt itself wasn’t visually too bad, but some of the idlers were surprisingly rough. Also, the hoses going to the water pump were at risk of eminent failure. Seriously rotten. I had purchased an eBay STI silicone coolant hose kit a while back, and I’m finding that the hoses in as delivered form aren’t a match to many hoses in the Baja like I believed they would be. But, cut up they are enough to redo the cooling system!
20240122_063810 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
Hopefully this week ill finish the timing belt job, and start on the rest of the long list of tasks to finish so I can drive this pile again.
Say your prayers and hug your families.

[dusterbd13]

Previous total: 1514.86
Car: 400
Trans mount: 35.35
Trans filter: 5.79
Rear trans seal: 3.99
Trans fluid: 23
Exhaust: 100
Stereo harness: 6
Storage cubby: 25
25.51 swaybar
My half of the Parts car: 225
Rock auto order: 304.90
Nicopp: 15
Brake Unions:5.00
Exhaust gaskets: 31.59
Gauges and pillar pod (had) 20 fmv
Silicone Hose kit: 42.31
Rustoleum: 9.98
Throttle body gasket: 6.99
11.46 30.25 45.99 25.29 28.90 31.63 for various PCV and breather hoses (173.52 total)
Valve cover gasket 16.30
Pcv valve 34.99
2005 Wrx intercooler, airbox, and reusable air filter: 20
Misc shop supplies line item (zip ties, push pins, rtv, grease, hose clamps, etc that I have floating around and just grab without thinking about it) :20
THIS UPDATE
Remove b9 swaybar -25.51
Remove trans mount: 35.35
Sold catback portion of exhaust for 100
Whiteline diff inserts: 39.88
3 inch turndown: 10.99
Half of 3 inch mandrel exhaust kit: 54
Used 3 inch thrush muffler from swap meet 15
Coil plug 3.50
C4 corvette 17x9.5 wheels 100
5x100 to 5x4.75 adapters: 82.50
Mount and balance the tires steve gave me for the parts car carcass: 40
Paint silver on vette wheels: 20
New total: 1719.87

Everything takes time, or money. Or time and money. Its a proportional thing. The more time you have to spend on something, the less money you’ll generally need to invest and vice versa.
Anyway, when we left off, I had the timing belt off and wqs on to reassembly and a million other tasks. I got the new belt on and all the marks lined up right on the first shot, thanks to having everything out of the way. Glad I did that, as I’m not sure I could have done it properly otherwise.
20240123_180932 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
I went ahead and got the nicopp oil pressure gauge line run, as well as the boost gauge tube. Then, rolled it outside and sprayed it down with aluminum brightener and scrubbed it the best i could to remove oxidation, staining, and grime. It worked adequately at best. But, looks better than it did. Not sure if a few more applications and some more effort would have made it better or not, but…
20240126_071806 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20240126_165049 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
Next, I fixed the tube between the MAF and the turbo tube. It was previously repaired with a fernco fitting when I bought the car. I cleaned it all up, cut a piece of 2.5 aluminum tubing from a scrap CAI tube, then softened the rubber tube in the microwave for abut 30 seconds to make it stretch enough to fit over the aluminum. Slathered everything in rtv, then the outside of the seam between the two halves (no picture). Fixed!
20240128_111021 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20240128_084344 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

I proceeded to button up the engine bay, and then spend a solid week diagnosing a no crank. I tore it all down a couple of times trying to figure out what went wrong. Ultimately diagnosed to the common ground for the injectors pulling out of the connector behind the battery. That was a stressful time. I thought I screwed up the belt and fragged the engine.
20240131_072057 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
In the process of diagnosing the no start, I broke an ignition coil connector. Cheapest way to fix was to order a four pack on amazon, de-pin the replacement and reuse the plastics on the broken one in the car. Fixed.
20240131_174000 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
Regardless, it ran! Leak free, and really good. Passed smoke test with flying colors, none to be found anywhere. No good reason for the lean code it now has that I can find, but I keep looking. It also has amazing oil pressure.
20240131_191855 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
I went on to reassemble the front end. When pulling it apart, all the fog light mounting bolts broke off in the bumper beam. I had planned to use hella 500s in there, but they don’t fit. So I drilled out the broken bolts, and put nutserts in their place.
20240201_175811 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20240201_175840 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
Cleaned up the core support and bumper beam from where they had a munch pf surface rust, hit with rust reformer and top coated with satin black. did the wheel wells too. Looks good enough for me!
20240126_195303 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20240202_071125 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
I then moved onto suspension. I replaced the legacy GT springs with the baja springs, as the rear end was sitting on the tires. According to the internet, the bja springs are significantly stiffer anyway, so other than sitting higher than I wanted it’s a win. The rears still rub over big transitions, so the height thing isn’t too horrible. I also put the b9 tribeca front sway bar in, but it bound up on the lower control arms, broke a sway bar end link, and generally caused more problems for me. So I pulled it off.
The corvette 17x9.5 wheels fit ok. They’re adapted using a 1 inch spacer, and sitting on nearly dead 275/40/17 kumhos that I traded the gt carcass for. They are flush with the outside of the body, which means they rub under a lot of compression. 8.5s would honestly be a better choice I think. But my god, they look good. I took the wheels to work, and sandblasted the peeling and damaged original paint off of them before having my buddy art shoot them in silver base clear for $20. He was already spraying a car for a car lot, so the silver was already in the gun. No idea what silver he used. I sanded the lips to 800 grit, and hit them with some aluminum polish. Good enough.
20231216_143722 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20240104_095005 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
I took it on the shakedown run, which wound up to be a 200 mile day and cemented why this little thing is great for my daily. In the bed of this is 3 mopar a body fenders, 2 exterior doors, a pair of duster door guts, and a bunch of other parts. It swallowed it all with ease and comfort.
20240203_163804 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
After the test drive, I did a nut and bolt check, alignment, and added whiteline diff insert bushings to repair the completely destroyed diff bushings that I discovered on the test drive.
20240210_101558 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
This weekend, I took it to zmax for a shakedown autocross. I ran it in XB, as that’s the magnets I had. Locally, that’s a catchall class for us. To put it bluntly, this car is a HOOT. Its also way easier to drive than the miata or neon were. I’m already more competitive in it than I ever was in those cars, and its been over a year since I’ve been on track. I’m chuffed. It was a big course, and most of the fast guys in all cases were in the low 50s to high 40s, but I’m obviously not one of them.
20240224_093018 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
Screenshot_20240226_070837_Facebook by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
Screenshot_20240226_061035_Facebook by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
On the way home from the autocross, the exhaust failed at the rotted flanges. I knew it was coming, so I had been amassing parts. The MRB exhaust for a forester I had bought went to a forester xt buddy of mine. I bought a 3 inch mandrel and tube kit, a 15 used swap meet flowmaster knockoff, and a turndown. Ill just make my own. Its not rocket surgery!
Screenshot_20240226_103612_Amazon Shopping by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
Screenshot_20240226_103627_Amazon Shopping by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
Until next time my friends

[Muse]

Holy smokes, that looks so good on the C4 wheels! Definitely doesnt have me trying to budget for a set myself. no, definitely not...

[dusterbd13]

You totally should man. But get 8.5 not the 9.5 will fit a whole lot better.

[Muse]

So you have a square setup, all 9.5? Because I'm seeing them sold as 2x 8.5 and 2x 9.5 but not all 4 of one or the other.

[dusterbd13]

I am running a square 9.5 setup. What you are seeing is the most common way that the later C4 Wheels came which is the staggered 8.5 and 9.5. Early second generation C4 Corvettes came with square 9.5 and delete second gen C4S came with square 8.5s. Z51 cars also came with square 9.5. You will rarely find a set of ZR1 Wheels which are 11.5 and are highly sought after. Most of the GM guys are looking for the 9.5 Wheels not the 8.5 Wheels

[Muse]

so, what I need is to buy a staggered set, then find someone who wants my 9.5s...

[dusterbd13]

Or, find the guy that bought teo sets of staggered for square 9.5s

Corvette forum and Facebook groups generally have a ton of them for sale as the most hated vette wheels.

[dusterbd13]

So, the big show is this weekend. The 2024 GRM challenge at Gainesville Florida dragstrip.
Yall should come on out. Theres a cars and coffee style thing Sunday morning during the concourse part of the event, and it’d be awesome to see some of your stuff out there too!
https://2000challenge.com/

So, this is my final all in the envelope budget.

envelope budget 1 page by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

Let’s roll the clocks back a bit and well finish up prep for the event that brings us to today.

First is finished exhaust pictures as promised. Its not super pretty, but it doesn’t rattle, leak, etc. sounds good too! unfortunately/fortunately, with the deleting of the second cat at the end of the downpipe, it now builds more boost than it’s tuned for. I’ve seen 17 on the gauge once, and 15 many times. Pump gas is 93 here, and ill throw some more octane in it at the track as cheap insurance against going boom. I have to get it tuned after the challenge, no way around it. Ill finish bolting on all the speed parts first, then find someone around here that can do it. It also has a bit of drone, so ill be adding a resonator as well while I’m doing the work.
20240317_095832 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
First order of challenge prep was changing belts back out and a thorough nut and bolt check. I found during the check that my PS return hose was leaking slightly, my heat shield was rubbing the driveshaft, and one of the braces on the rear subframe was hitting the rear sway bar causing the rattle that’s been driving me nuts. I am glad to say that everything remained torqued to spec though, and there were no real ugly Suprises.
20240317_095847 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
My nephew and I then reinstalled the inner fenders, as I still hadn’t done that and it seemed like a good thing to do with a kindergartener that wanted to help. He also insisted on tightening every lug nut all the way down by hand. I let him. He’s way cooler than my brother (his dad).
20240317_114726 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
Next up was alignment. The rear was good, the front wasn’t. all I can really correct in challenge budget and time was the camber and toe. Using factory eccentrics got me a max negative camber of ONE DEGREE POSITIVE. Don’t know what’s going on there, but no bueno. So, a pair of smaller diameter bolts allowed me to get one degree of negative camber in both fronts. The rear bushings are shot, and the tires rub the blown out legacy gt struts with any more negative camber. Ill fix these issues after the challenge before I put new tires on. I set toe to zero. It drives WAY better, but still has some nasty pull and bump steer from the shot bushings. Plans are whiteline .5 caster adding bushings, and crash bolts with fresh kyb struts for an outback and some spring cutting for ride height. Again, after the challenge.
I went ahead and went after detailing the car next. You see, the last third of the event is the concourse. Which will be tough for a mostly stock Baja, but I have a plan. We’ll see how I do, but I’m not holding my breath on scoring much higher than the base “give me” 12 points. But I can’t, in good conscience take the handout points. Higher or lower points, I’ll take what I earn square on the chin.
First, challenge team logo
20240313_194229 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
Then, swap out the rusty fuel filler parts for the non-rusty stuff scavenged from the legacy
20240317_142412 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
Then the hard work. Polishing the turd. This started with a 3m eraser wheel taking off the bug shield mount residue, then the sunroof vent visor residue, then the pinstriping. Cleaned the leftover schmutz off with lacquer thinner and paper towels. After that, the whole car was washed with a mixture of chemical guys clean slate car wash, Dawn dish soap, purple Power and water. All the rubber and black plastic trim had special attention paid to it with the blue kitchen scrubby pads for the Teflon pans and concrete scrub brushes to get the oxidized rubber off. This also got a lot of the contamination off of the black plastics but still left them Gray and scruffy looking. This mixture in a great job of removing baked in and ground in paint contaminants in the nooks and crannies and seams as well. Car was then clay bared with a mothers synthetic 2.0 clay bar and mequires quick detailer as lubricant, followed by buffing with 3m compound in the purple bottle and a white foam pad on a porter cable da. It then received two coats of C.Quartz 3.0 ceramicoat. The Plastics and rubbers were treated with a generous helping of Chemical Guys vrp applied with a microfiber applicator and worked into the surfaces until they would accept no more. Paint was then top coated with two coats of Maguire's Gold Class Carnauba wax. The interior was treated to another round of chemical guys nonsense invisible cleaner and scrubbing, followed by Maguire’s natural shine protectant. Windows cleaned, carped vacuumed.
20240330_092844 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20240330_092854 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20240330_101637 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20240330_113244 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20240331_164206 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20240331_164224 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20240331_164236 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20240331_164240 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr
20240331_164247 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

My 15-year-old daughter and I are all but finished loading up, and are ready to roll out at pre-dawn Friday morning for the drive to Florida. I hope to see you all there, and will give a report post challenge. Safe travels to you all, and God bless.

[Muse]

Man, I wish I could join in the cheering section, but I'm up in CT, broke, and don't trust my car enough to make that drive in any case.

[Muse]

So, how did it go? I hear the winning team was a bunch of high schoolers?