Mikeblobsti's project, April 2011 till now

Been meaning to do this for a while, car has been through a few changes in my ownership, I've got loads of pics, most of my Saturday off is going to be spent doing this.....might take a while though so bear with me lol
Landrover defenders used to be my thing.....built one from the ground up to a offroad monster.....but always wanted a impreza!  I have learnt a lot about subaru's and still learning and so everything that has been done to this car I have done myself.....apart from the remap obviously lol!

To start, how I bought the car in April 2011.  55 plate widetrack wrx sti non PPP so 265 hp....took me about 6 months to find this one, I had to have a widetrack blob and it had to be in black with no mods and low mileage, finding a good black widetrack blob is rare and frustrating lol.....had looked at 2 before this but they didn't fit my fussy requirements lol!  This one was perfect and untouched apart from the horrible headlights, 40,000 genuine miles, hpi clear, 1 owner, 2 keys, FSH, no dents or scratches and plenty of potential got it for a good price too as the engine light was on.....unknown to the dealer I had brought a reader along and the light was on due to the alternator not sending the charging signal back to the ECU....easy fix more info about that later!  
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Back home and both my toys together
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More to follow later!

 start to a project thread!

Love the wheels on the defender, looks aggressive as!

I didn't bother taking step by step, parts coming off parts going on photo's when modding mine, wish I had (more photo's the better!)

Look forward to the rest of the thread

Cheers mate, defender had to look aggressive as I put a 4.5 V8 under the bonnet with a straight through exhaust, couldn't have it sounding mean as fook and looking pants lol!

Taking me a while to put all the pics on photobucket

maca wrote:

 
I didn't bother taking step by step, parts coming off parts going on photo's when modding mine, wish I had

I do right down to bulb changes hehehehe

Forgot to mention that the car had a part prodrive package fitted from new that was available to them at the time apparently.
Prodrive 18" PFF7 114.3 PCD wheels
Prodrive upper and lower grills in stainless steel

U need alcatek mate awesome

First job was to remove those horrible headlights and put standard ones back in, I won some on flea bay for £70 and after doing some research on google (as I wasn't a member of nesf at this point) I found out how to detango the headlights by putting them in the oven....can't find pics of this sorry!
Second job was to remove the lower grill as it just didn't look right for me!  While I was there I fitted a v-ltd style front splitter from scoobyparts.....only lasted 6 month before I snapped it!

Put my old horrible headlights on fleabay and got £240 for them.......they must be mad lol!

At this point I also became a member of SIDC - at the time known as Subaru impreza drivers club - now changed to Subaru international drivers club!  Not very popular around north east but very popular in most other parts of uk

Standard detangoed headlights and splitter fitted, lower grill removed
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Old headlights ready for flea bay!
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SIDC sticker!
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byers wrote:

U need alcatek mate awesome

Looking into it mate only thing I'm worried about from my research is that anti lag may half the life of the turbo?

So ?? Jonny can build them up for cheap lol

Hahaha true, good reason to upgrade too

Next was to let the Scooby rumble out....the whole point of buying one of these cars for me the standard sti system is crap....unless you don't like any noise whatsoever!!
Won a 3 part prodrive 2.5" system on flea bay that goes from the down pipe back for £140, changing to this system removes the second cat on sti's or the third cat on wrx's and also has a better looking and better sounding back box.  Think I only had this system on for about 4 months before I decided to stop messing about with a little noise!
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Lowering next, spent some time looking into lowering springs and almost went for some but after being in a mates car with some on I decided it wasn't for me, yes it sits lower but the movement in the shock doesn't change, in theory if you go lower you also want a stiffer shock so the wheels don't hit the top of the arch liner....he maybe got the wrong stiffness of spring but I wanted to be able to adjust my setup anyway after that point!
HSD HR coilovers.....for me they are crap and will not have them again!  More info below.
Done it in about 4 hours, 1 corner at a time using car jack.....easy lol!

Fitting fronts.
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For the rears the rear seats need to be removed to gain access to the top of the struts!
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Sitting low now
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Mikeblobsti wrote:

Cheers mate, defender had to look aggressive as I put a 4.5 V8 under the bonnet with a straight through exhaust, couldn't have it sounding mean as fook and looking pants lol!

Class! Bet that's got a nice rumble to it!

Hi mike was it Johns car that had the hsd. Remember them driving you mad too.
What happened to that lower grill btw

SG03RRZ wrote:

Hi mike was it Johns car that had the hsd. Remember them driving you mad too.
What happened to that lower grill btw

Nah it was just me that had them mate, they caused all sorts of problems....will never go back....crap!
Still have the grill in the garage, I still have all the original parts I have removed from the car.....everything lol!! Will maybe sell them one day.

If you gonna sell that grill DIBS ok lol

maca wrote:

Mikeblobsti wrote:

Cheers mate, defender had to look aggressive as I put a 4.5 V8 under the bonnet with a straight through exhaust, couldn't have it sounding mean as fook and looking pants lol!

Class! Bet that's got a nice rumble to it!

It does mate, can't beat the sound of a v8 check out my vids on YouTube [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

SG03RRZ wrote:

If you gonna sell that grill DIBS ok lol

Haha ok mate, not a nice look IMO tho!

Going to continue with this later

Mikeblobsti wrote:

SG03RRZ wrote:

If you gonna sell that grill DIBS ok lol

Haha ok mate, not a nice look IMO tho!

Was thinking get locky to colour code it to the car

great project buddy   
keep it coming   

Remember how I mentioned the engine light was on due to the alternator not sending the charging signal back to the ECU, well I had this checked out and it was decided that the alternator was at fault! Got a new one fitted and did an ECU reset to try and clear it.....this however did not work, it turned out that the ECU needed a tweek by a mapper.....apparently not an uncommon problem on late blobs. Andy Forrest helped me out with this one on mapping day!

Great post mate

While chatting with Andy Forrest (via email....the best way to get him!) I looked at upgrading the power, decided I was going to go with his level 2 remap (around 330 hp) and started collecting and fitting parts for it.
I had booked remap about 2 months in advance so I had plenty time to get it all done!

I needed....
Walbro 255 fuel pump
PFR7B spark plugs
High flow induction kit
Full decat exhaust
Nice and easy on a sti

Bought the very loud and expensive blitz nur spec r system for starters and fitted it straight away
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Mapping day was just a few days away now so it was time to put all of my other parts on ready

Decat downpipe, pain in arse to remove the catted downpipe from the turbo, nuts were very tight and heat shields around everything didn't allow great access. Managed in the end tho and think I got away with only a few scrapes on my hands and arms lol! Wanted to put the turbo heat shield back on but it didn't fit around the new 3" milltek decat pipe, abit of cutting was required to make it fit. Very loud when catted pipe was removed.....I did make a point of starting it with nothing on the back of the turbo too......and fook me lol

Decat downpipe
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