What should I do to an 03 WRX prior to swapping it into my RS?

yes h-6..i did them both at the same time the fronts were 02 wrx calipers with stop-tech slotted..and totally stock h-6 setup in the back.

also when i did that i swapped in 02 wrx struts with swift springs.

 

Yeah I posted the whole thread Chux ... just so he could see whats involved.

 

on the op's car the door cards will fit just fine, dash will fit fine, where the modifications are is the hvac part of the dash and the dash mounting bar, the wholes in the firewall for the wrx heater core and ac cores are in a diff location than the gc's so it involves modification, also you need to drill a couple diff hole in the dash beam to get it to bolt up.

as far as wiring i have the complete wrx wiring swapped into my car, i just wired in lights and pwer mirrors(my car is much easier since its older and i dont have pwr windows, locks, etc.)

 

o rly? what am I missing....

 

And even if they do I'm not likely to go that route. But that's not to say I'm not looking at what it takes and what it tells me about going the merge route.

I will say, right now, with the sale on, an ECS harness doesn't look too bad. Plus, they got cores. Order, receive, send mine back when I'm done. Its a tough $$ hit to take, though, for something I know I can accomplish myself given enough time.

 

Timing belt?


If you are not going to swap the seats(front), I would be intrested in buying them.

 

exactly what we did in my car, I was going to say you are making way to much work for yourself. PM me if you have any questions about the dash or wiring, I did it already and I can give you some pointers.

 

I am just curious how much did you pay for the wrecked wrx? Thanks.

 

chux, on late 97 and up cars the door cards are diff, granted it's not a exact perfect fit but they do not hit the dash like mine and you would hardly notice they werent meant to go together with the wrx dash. but like you said if the op wants a perfect fit he would have to stick with the rs dash, which imop looks pretty nice, but in the older cars like mine the wrx int swap is more than worth it even if the fitment is not perfect.,

that and the mods to the firewall to accommodate the newer wrx stuff, which in the rs might not be as drastic as the older cars, and since i did the dash stuff on mine and justins car and it is not just minor nods to the firewall, it does involve a sawzall, lol. but both of our cars were L's

 

So who's done the dash swap? You, 95lwrx, sounds like dipp.

Maybe I can check out your cars sometime - at Firestone or something?

I'd like to take a look first hand.

 

Fixed

 

Oh and I know it seems small and not that big of a deal but swap the GD intermittent wiper control. That way you have more than your three speeds or what ever it is

 

Check this out ... http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1612715

And listen to Matt (Bikerboy) and Matt (Dipp)

 

i have done 2 dashes but they were both in older L's dipps car is a rs so his would be a more direct comp than mine. and if i rem correctly on a 99 rs i parted out i believe all the dash stuff is a little different than in the L's anyways(as far as mounting and hvac placement), so on your car it could very well be less complicated than on mine.

 

i did the timing belt at 60k so its fairly fresh with on ly 83k on the car now

 

oooooooo.....cool! I stand corrected. Thanks!

Justin has done it as well. although that's with the L door cards, so not the best example.

for some reason, I thought Dipp's car was without dash and/or door cards. or am I thinking of someone else....

 

Dipp was missing a dash for sometime but its all in now.

 

QUESTION...does the swap car still run? if it was hit hard enough to shut off, chances are the t-belt skipped a tooth or worse, busted a cam gear and bent some valves. Just looking out for you, so you dont buy a swap that will need new valves.

 

I was well aware of that possibility. It was a concern of mine and we did discuss it. It sounds like the car died from coming to a stop in gear. It restarted but ran roughly, so he shut it off. He said it didn't look like there was any impact to the front of the motor, and thought maybe something came loose around the MAF?

If the timing skipped and bent valves, would it start again at all?

 

if it was off a tooth yes it would run, it would run like ass, but 1 tooth isnt enough to bend valves....i guess at most you'll have to re install the timing belt, and you'll need new timing covers anyways.

 

I certainly hope there's nothing major wrong. Unfortunately, I had to decide without knowing for sure. If there isn't, I will feel like I've practically stolen the car, for what I paid for it. If there is, I suppose it will bring my cost up into a normal range.

Its one of the first things I plan to check, but even that may take a while. I can't really store it anywhere near where I live, and I have nothing to actually lift the engine out, so it'll be a little while before I can dig into it.


I'm currently looking into renting some space down here in the cities, but I don't know what's all available and how affordable it is.

 

no it never started again it died at a stop and never started again

 

I thought you said you started it again? Did you try?

 

no i said i tried and it wouldnt it shut down at a stop, i can almost be certain no damage...remember hence the talk of the belt being broke lol your memory fails you lol

 

lol

That being the part I remember.


I swear there was a discussion about it sputtering and it potentially being the MAF or something.

Wow. Okay. Bad short-term memory, perhaps. lol

 

if it got hit in the front, and it wouldnt start there is a pretty good chance something is messed up, if the timing covers have any amount of damage, be prepared.

 

no i said that maf could be why it died lol im thinkin the radiator got shoved into a pulley or cut the belt i'll know more tomorrow...either way you cant complain you got a STEAL for this car....i coulda made money but hooked you up instead

 

I'm definitely not complaining.

I bought it full well knowing it was a front impact with the potential for a skipped/broke timing.

And, yes - definitely a very fair deal, Jeff. Thank you.

 

get a room you two

 

and if you look at the pics it didn't get smashed back on the timing cover side

 

what do you mean timing cover side? the entire front of the engine is a timing cover...DURRRR

 

like where the belt is homieeeeeeeeeeeee

 

that's the side he meant as opposed to teh side that the transmission mounts too

 

the radiator just doesn't look like it went back that far idk

 

the belt runs the entire front of the engine....Do you know what kind of car you drive? maybe you should get a civic or something.....

 

i corrected myself...i just dont think the radiator went back that far

 

be prepaired is the tip of the iceberg, my car the headers didn't fit, the radiator didn't fit, the wheels didn't fit cause of the offset being to much since the RS body is narrower. Plus there is much much more. Just know what your getting into.

 

Yeah - it is a slightly daunting task. And there's a whole lot of BS to wade through when trying to find info on it in these forums.

I'm definitely respecting the task at hand and doing plenty of research and prep before I take a single bolt out of the RS.

 

the dash to tell you the truth is really easy I did it in one night. just have to cut the height down, drill a few holes and a notch on the dash beam thats it. That way you can just plug and play gauges. does the swap car have power windows/locks those are real easy as well if your gonna do it all, some of the window plug-ins are exacty the same as the RS.

 

yes, his car has power windows and locks, the door cars will fit perfectly too?

 

From what I have read the fronts fit with some work but the rears do not.

 

it's a coupe. so no. but sounds like the RS cards match the style of the wrx dash quite well. been looking for that combo now, and it does look quite good.

 

my car is a sedan. So is the donor. Not sure if that's whose car your referrencing, Chux.

 

text sent

 

ugh. I lose. I was so sure.......