72montecarlo

Well I'm looking tO pick a black on black 03 wrx for $500 complete minus motor tranny and wheels would like to hear if anyone's selling or can make some mounts for me

Verz

iTrader: (21)

theres a thread were this swap was completed, find it and ask the OP where he got his. BTW steal on the car....if you decide not to do the build hook me up haha

Sarg

iTrader: (6)

We are actually doing this swap on an 03 wrx and a 01 2.5 RS. Both will be turbo 5.3 cars. No commercially available mounts, so we are making our own stuff out of chromoly.

72montecarlo

Would you ever be interested in selling some of these custom mounts?

Sarg

iTrader: (6)

We are actually fabbing a transmission crossmember and a engine cradle/subframe as well as steering rack mount. As far as we can tell, there is no good way to just slap some mounts on there and drop it in. The engine would either sit too high or the oil pan would have to be absolutely flat. The nice part is it looks like everything should line up very nicely and have PLENTY of room once we fab up the engine cradle/subframe. The other nice thing is we should be able to use just about any pan we want on it since we are designing the crossmember around the motor. It is still a work in progress, but we have the transmission mount complete and are starting on the engine portion now.

72montecarlo

Yea tht sounds like the way to go more than anything are you goin to use a t56 for these builds?

Sarg

iTrader: (6)

One is getting a t-56, one is getting a 4L60E. The t-56 is going to be road race and single turbo with IRS. The 4L60E is getting twin 70mm turbos and a solid axle rear end. It is going to be built more for drag racing (my 2003 WRX).

72montecarlo

When would you plan on bein dOne with that subframe I'd like to see some pictures

Sarg

iTrader: (6)

Donno, we have a lot of projects at the shop right now and my personal stuff takes back burner, lmao. We hope to have everything done by spring. Crossmember will obviously be done long before that as we will still have to do the turbo kit and intercooler set up as well as the rear end set up. The 2.5 will more than likely be done before that as it is using an existing rear end rather than a whole new set up. All we have to do on it is finish a cradle and do the turbo kit.

72montecarlo

Do you have any pictures of the cradle and cross member I'd really be interested in buying one if you were to be able to make another

Sarg

iTrader: (6)

I can grab some pictures of the transmission crossmember this weekend probably, but the engine cradle is still a straight piece of chromoly We have not started on it just yet. Are you planning to do a T56 or an auto?

72montecarlo

That Wouk be awesome ya t56 was first on my mind might not be a bad idea doing a 4l60e tho I was planning 5.3 turbo myself haha

Sarg

iTrader: (6)

The cool part about a 4L60 or 4L80E is you can do paddle shifters as well for pretty cheap. That won't be in my budget just yet, but down the road it will definitely be going in. You can get the TCI controller and paddle shift set up for under $1k. For now I just had a custom harness made (pretty reasonable too!) And will control it with the tune.

72montecarlo

Ya that is a good deal for the most part I was kinda leaning towards the t56 because I did want a fun street car/ road race car are you using the stock subie wrx r160 rear for now when that IRS one is completed?

Sarg

iTrader: (6)

No, he has an R180 and upgraded sti 114.3mm hubs. I told him he should just have left a R160 if he wanted to blow up a rear end . My suggestion was a R200 or a Cobra 8.8 IRS.

jmarsa

iTrader: (1)

You guys need to put your heads toghether and get some kits out there. This car is plentiful and has great headroom for tall guys and have a strong chassis. If the front cradle could be designed to improve handling this thing would be a slam dunk. Years ago people thought the only thing you could swap into a miata was a turbo, now look how many threads are on here.

Keep it up!

--JMarsa

Sarg

iTrader: (6)

Oh it is not even funny how much the chromoly subframe will stiffen things up. The stock piece is pretty flimsy.

We have considered doing a kit and may still. The problem is all the components that need to be changed; rear end, subframe, transmission cradle, etc. If we just sold the cradle and tranny crossmember, it would be doable, but we have around 10-12 labor hours in bending and welding as well as $350-$400 ish in materials. Most folks want a cheap chinese steel, mass produced solution. We prefer to hand fab everything and it would cost $1200-$1500 to produce when counting in the labor hours and materials. At this point we are unsure what kind of market there would be for that in the Subaru world as a lot of those guys are purists.

72montecarlo

Yes indeed most are purist which is sad to see and good at the same time honestly I would love tO have a chrome moly subframe for the swap and figure the rear out later maybe blow it out on some slicks on a hard launch haha cobra irs I an awesome idea tho never thought about that for it

Sarg

iTrader: (6)

The Ford Cobra 8.8 can be built to be pretty stout. The other one we are considering for when his diff goes is the Exploder (explorer) IRS 8.8 rear end(notice I said when and not if!).

72montecarlo

I'm certain it more than likely could be built hard only person with a cobra I knew blew it out on slicks at 615rwhp so he bought an m9 lol