T Montague's 2zr swap - '08 m/t sedan some extra info

[ern-diz]

Originally Posted by 06YarisRS

Congrats on the new to you family hauler. It sounds nice. Planning to post pics?

+1 on both counts

[suprf1y]

You're going to put your wife in a 10 year old Subaru?

You're brave man

[tmontague]

I'll post pics once I finish the safety and do a paint correction. The car was a severely neglected family hauler and the paint is a mess. Just finished cutting and polishing the headlights and covering them in 2 coats of ceramic.

I have 350km on it now and amazingly it gets the same fuel mileage as my '05 awd Vibe, except it has way more balls, seriously this 3.6 boxer engine hauls.

I get why Subaru has the reputation it has, they leak (often due to simple cheap fixes like o rings) and they have chronic head gasket issues. However, outside of that they are sound Japanese cars on par with Toyota. The electronics last the life of the car like Toyota's and their engine internals can easily go to 400k km like Toyota's.

The benefit here is they can be found used for much cheaper because of these known issues. Fix the HG or other issue and you have yourself a very reliable and more capable hauler.

The last two if my wife's family haulers were all 12 year old Toyotas that needed work. I put the time in and they all turned out super reliable, and everyone in my family can't believe the mileage and reliability we end up getting out of rock bottom prices used cars.

I have had a p0420 (cat inefficiency) code pop up (very common occasional code on Subies, and earlier on a trans code. All cleared and running fine with no hiccups, fuel trims are spot on from both banks.

I purchased this car thinking it may have a HG leak, and priced it accordingly. After 350km I am confident it does not (they are not as common on the h6's). Coolant has not dropped and coolant temps have been spot on.

This week I'll be changing some o rings and cleaning tje engine block as well as replacing all the fluids...every single one - don't think they've ever been done

[tmontague]

So the Yaris is now stripped down to nothing in the interior except a drivers seat and it is down another 100 or so lbs due to this. I currently have it taken off insurance and being stored at my in laws warehouse until me move in the winter and I can have in my garage/driveway again.

I am hoping to get it out on track one day in September and burn out what us left in my track pads and hopefully get it in the 1:24's. I would ideally like to strip the dash, HVAC and all of the no longer needed interior wiring and lose another 50 or so lbs.

Over the winter the plan will be to get rid of the side and rear windows and convert it to lexan. I will also be pulling to window motors and interior door skins to shed some more weight. The car should be sub 2k lbs by that point.

i have spent most of my "car time" lately getting my new Subie up to my family hauler standards which means, all new fluids, zero clunks, zero dashboard lights and minimal to no leaks. I also had to cut and ceramic coat the paint as it was a very neglected car





I can say that it is now complete (save for a valve cover gasket) and it is quite the road trip car. It handles infinitely better than our Vibe at the limit and it surprisingly plush over bumps. The fuel economy is similar to the Vibe but it has a much better awd system (tested on out steep gravel cottage driveway) and it has loads more power. I am very happy with another successful used car purchase and a happy new Subie owner. They really do handle really well for the type of car they are compared to others in its class. This is also one of the softest handling generations of the Outback and I still feel it handles well.

I have had to seasoned mechanics look over the undercarriage of the car (i originally did this as well before I purchased it) and both have said that it checks out great and is in great condition. Also the rear end alignment was all within factory spec which is great as nothing has been damaged or bent. It is always good to hear actual mechanics confirms your findings seeing as I am a simple driveway wrench and not a professional by any means.

Here is a short list of things that were wrong with the car but are now all fixed:
-P0420 code (catylitic converter sub optimal efficiency)
-C0071 steering angle sensor code (effectively disabling the stability control and lighting up the dashboard)
-cracked windshield
-broken passenger side mirror
-passenger seat electric adjustments not working
-broken front control arm bushings
-leaking oil cooler o-ring
-intermittent horn engagement (this was a fun one!)
-very badly scratched paint
-bad passenger front brake shudder
-bad smell in cabin
-severely delayed throttle response
-a/c not blowing as cool as it should

I am thinking I will write a thread up some day of how I go about purchasing used vehicles and what I look for as well as how I determine the price I'm willing to pay to have a relatively inexpensive but safe car. Let me know if anyone would be interested in reading something like that in the near future. It may help other mechanically inclined people who don't have a large budget but want a nice vehicle.

For next season I plan to use the Subie to tow my Yaris to and from the track, it should make for a much faster track car when all of the niceties are stripped out of it

[ern-diz]

Lovely! Looking even more forward to that burn-off-the-last-of-the-track-pads update.

[tmontague]

After my decision to buy a new family hauler I was stuck with storing my Yaris at the back of my in laws business. It is only 20 mins away but with prepping the house for selling (gets listed this week), fixing up the Subie, spending time with the family and studying for board exams - I didn't really have much time to go work on it.

Plus I don't have the cash right now to drop on new brake pads so that made track days out of the question for the season. Over the past week my (almost) 3 year old son and I have been going to work on the "race car" and trying to lighten it up, he absolutely loves wrenching with me. I recently stripped out the dash and the HVAC which all in all was surprisingly heavy. I had fully gutted the interior before I drove it to storage so the pics you see below is in its current state.



I have to now find the proper heater hose size and buy a length of hose to loop from the two connections on the block so the heater core by pass is fully finished.

The next time I go out to work on the car I will be separating and removing any excess electrical wiring and connectors such as the airbag system and HVAC wiring. There is a huge amount of wiring under the dash and most of it is now moot. Once our family moves into a new house I will be bringing the Yaris with me to store it in a garage. Over the winter I plan on replacing all the side and rear glass with lexan to further strip some more weight off of it.

The end goal is a sub 2000lbs yaris. Keep in mind with the removal of the window glass comes the removal of all the heavy motors as well.

I plan on heading out to the track on the last Friday of September as long as the weather holds up. I'll be driving the car out there and aiming for a sub 1:25. I just hope what little I have left on the brakes will hold up.

*I forgot to mention my plan for future windshield defogging if needed. Bimmerworld sells a $100 kit that is clear defroster wires that I can wire up right off of the battery with a switch that works similar to your rear defroster wires. This IMO is a perfect solution as it is light weight and would be very effective. I likely won't need this until I start doing time attack in rain or shine in the future as I am mostly only tracking in warm temps without rain currently. It didn't make sense to keep all of the HVAC just for defogging purposes.

[CrankyOldMan]

Originally Posted by tmontague

So the Yaris is now stripped down to nothing in the interior except a drivers seat and it is down another 100 or so lbs due to this.
...
I would ideally like to strip the dash, HVAC and all of the no longer needed interior wiring and lose another 50 or so lbs.
...
Over the winter the plan will be to get rid of the side and rear windows and convert it to lexan. I will also be pulling to window motors and interior door skins to shed some more weight. The car should be sub 2k lbs by that point.

That's where the 2ZR Vios is right now, minus the rear window, plus the passenger OEM seat. Sub-2000 lbs is crazy quick off the line!

I'm still reading the rules for the SCCA class I want to run in (eventually) and some of the excessive weight shedding already done to mine may be outside of what's allowed. If you're interested in swapping doors and saving yourself the labor I think I can schedule a road trip.

*EDIT - that's a cool idea for the windshield. I was going to try and reinstall the OEM fan and heater core on mine.

[Leegamer]

At this point you may as well just make your own harness.

That bimmerworld defroster is a game changer. I think I will use that in my Z31, so thanks!

[CrankyOldMan]

Originally Posted by tmontague

The next time I go out to work on the car I will be separating and removing any excess electrical wiring and connectors such as the airbag system and HVAC wiring. There is a huge amount of wiring under the dash and most of it is now moot.

I'm going to look into the dash wires on mine this winter as well. Maybe we can do up a spreadsheet? The SRS/Airbag stuff is all gone already but I'll inventory all the remaining wires and see what can be removed. I'm also considering removing the key switch and steering wheel lock since it's not going to go on the road ever again. Headlights can go too, I think, but they're already pretty light. Not much weight savings compared to steel and glass on some older cars.

[CrankyOldMan]

Originally Posted by Leegamer

At this point you may as well just make your own harness.

That bimmerworld defroster is a game changer. I think I will use that in my Z31, so thanks!

ArmstrongRacing was looking into making a custom harness for his but didn't get it off the ground. I've got access to a lot of OEM crimp tools at work and can probably make something very professional looking for significantly less cost than even the tools.

The one on Bimmerworld comes directly from FrostFighter.

[tmontague]

Originally Posted by CrankyOldMan

That's where the 2ZR Vios is right now, minus the rear window, plus the passenger OEM seat. Sub-2000 lbs is crazy quick off the line!

I'm still reading the rules for the SCCA class I want to run in (eventually) and some of the excessive weight shedding already done to mine may be outside of what's allowed. If you're interested in swapping doors and saving yourself the labour I think I can schedule a road trip.

When I went to the track for the first time this year after removing 150lbs out of my car I couldn't believe how noticeable the difference was. Not so much in straight line acceleration (although I'm sure that was improved too) but more so in the tight technical twisty back to back turns. The car seemed more "flickable" as if you could just rotate it and point it to where you wanted it to go. The chassis has much less weight and dive into corners so it was much happier to abruptly change direction and go where you wanted it to. The understeer also didn't feel as heavy if that makes sense.

*EDIT - that's a cool idea for the windshield. I was going to try and reinstall the OEM fan and heater core on mine.

Hmm, that might actually be a really god idea seeing as lexan isn't exactly cheap. I don't particularly want different coloured doors but at this point i'm not too concerned about looks. Mine still have all of the electrical hooked up, just no interior door cards.

IMO it is the best solution for windshield for a dedicated track rat. I contemplated keeping the OEM heater box for the defrost option, but it weighed way too much to keep around for a couple times of use. The heater wires from BW are extremely light and very effective. These are the ones I plan on using when need be https://www.bimmerworld.com/Safety-R...oster-Kit.html

Originally Posted by Leegamer

At this point you may as well just make your own harness.

That bimmerworld defroster is a game changer. I think I will use that in my Z31, so thanks!

Agreed, I was extremely happy to stumble across them online. Before finding this I never saw a good solution that actually seemed effective other than the heavy and bulky OEM defroster

I am probably at that point with the harness but this is new territory for me so my plan is to slowly separate the harness and remove what isn't needed. I eventually plan to go with a standalone ECU but I still need the OEM ECU and wiring for the throttle control, ABS, tach and spedometer so I don't want to mess any of that up.

Most of the wiring in the above pictures is likely now obsolete and I'm sure a lot of it will be gone once I clear through it all.

Originally Posted by CrankyOldMan

I'm going to look into the dash wires on mine this winter as well. Maybe we can do up a spreadsheet? The SRS/Airbag stuff is all gone already but I'll inventory all the remaining wires and see what can be removed. I'm also considering removing the key switch and steering wheel lock since it's not going to go on the road ever again. Headlights can go too, I think, but they're already pretty light. Not much weight savings compared to steel and glass on some older cars.

agreed, I'm going to leave my lights in for now. I though about the steering lock and key switch but since I plan to tow dolly my car I think the steering lock with prove useful for the time being.

[CrankyOldMan]

Originally Posted by tmontague

Hmm, that might actually be a really god idea seeing as lexan isn't exactly cheap. I don't particularly want different coloured doors but at this point i'm not too concerned about looks. Mine still have all of the electrical hooked up, just no interior door cards.

...

agreed, I'm going to leave my lights in for now. I though about the steering lock and key switch but since I plan to tow dolly my car I think the steering lock with prove useful for the time being.

Is yours black sand pearl? I found some doors in decent shape at a local yard but they're blue. The paint on the roof and trunk are in desperate need of repair anyway so it's going to get repainted at some point. My passenger rear door is dented as well.

Good point about the tow dolly. I intend to trailer mine and save the tires. =)

[tmontague]

no my paint color is flint mica paint code 1E0

[CrankyOldMan]

Originally Posted by tmontague

no my paint color is flint mica paint code 1E0

Aah, yeah, that would look a little odd.

[tmontague]

I've been spending some time each weekday evening an hour here or there with my son slowly stripping the car down to only the necessities.



Part of that was the removal of the heater core which leaves me with 2 open coolant hoses at the firewall. Easiest way to solve this is to just buy a 5/8" hose connection and fit them together. Well I did that, and it leaked, non stop drip as soon as the coolant built up pressure. I bought a Dorman 90 degree plastic 5/8-5/8" barbed elbow and even with the oem clamps put on the fittings it still leaked.

That is silicone (dielectric) grease on the fitting to make install and future removal easier, turns out they slide on easy...too easy


After looking at the original 11 year old heater hoses it was clear why they leaked. They had stretched much larger then their original diameter



I never liked the idea of an extra joint in the heater hose as this car sees high temps on the track and the less joints I can have the less likely leaks will happen. I ended up purchasing some 5/8" heater hose from my local CT as well as 3 EZ coils. The hose need to essentially turn 270* to go from one fitting to the other on the block. This cost about $45 total and wasn't the cheapest solution, but one that I felt I could trust when going 10/10ths in the middle of summer.





As you can see it did an extremely good job of creating 90 degree bends in a straight hose and it is a much cleaner and reliable set up than what I originally had



Here is the final product, no hoses are touching and have room to move with the engine. They actually are surprisingly sturdy and do not bounce around. The metal springs give it some strength and the hose is very strong.





As always I sprayed the inside of the hose ends with silicone lube before install, this has proven itself very effective much later down the road when you need to remove them.

If you ever need to do a heater core bypass for any reason, *DO NOT JUST CAP THE FITTINGS AT THE BLOCK*
the coolant flow as shown in the diagram below shows a true flow through design. The coolant needs to flow from one fitting to the other it is not a simple outflow design from both fittings.



I am slowly working my way through the electrical. I am currently trying isolate all of the rear wires as I am pretty sure the only ones I need are the abs, rear lights and fuel pump wires. The rest will be stripped out as lean as possible, meaning all relays will be going as well.

Not only does this make the car lighter, but more importantly it makes it much easier to diagnose future problems as there is minimal wiring to sort through.

I have isolated the airbag wires up to the front of the car and once i get done with the rear, I will be starting to separate them from the main dash board harness. There is a huge amount of wiring in this not so modern car and most of it is now obsolete as most of it is from the airbag sensors and climate control functions.

I also have to look at the factory repair manual to see what modules can be thrown out. I have already removed the small airbag ones but there is a large bulky one directly in front of the steering wheel that I suspect is the immobilizer ECU which is currently useless and bypassed anyways. I have always loved a simple car, so much easier to work on so this is making me feel very satisfied.

As a side, my wife and I have just conditionally sold out home and our next one will have a single car garage at the very least so I will eventually have my track car back at home with me again before the winter comes!

[CrankyOldMan]

Originally Posted by tmontague

I also have to look at the factory repair manual to see what modules can be thrown out. I have already removed the small airbag ones but there is a large bulky one directly in front of the steering wheel that I suspect is the immobilizer ECU which is currently useless and bypassed anyways.

The power steering controller is right above the column, on top of and slightly forward of the metal tube. It's a big metal box with heavy gauge wires.

[tmontague]

Yuuup that's the one, looks like I'll be keeping that. According to others who have tracked their yaris, the power steering is much more beneficial to be left in.

Thanks Sam!

[ern-diz]

Little man looking like he's having a great time with his pops. Just awesome.