I've got a blob radiator in mine and a bugeye bottle if that helps? I cleaned mine out with a bottle brush and pressure wash last time I dropped the coolant - not as new but good enough for me.

While you're working in that area take a good look at the hard cross over pipe from the modine under the engine as this rots badly. Also the water pump pipes (small L shaped pipes behind the timing covers).
http://www.importcarparts.co.uk/pict...PUMP-HOSES.jpg

http://www.importcarparts.co.uk/part...y=&searchPart=

£36 not much to pay for peace of mind.

Or £46 for the bling version!
http://rogerclarkmotorsport.co.uk/up...d53651f55a.jpg

That's a good point. Had mine replaced last year as it was looking less than convincing!

Nick, thanks for the heads up about the modine hard pipe. I've had a look at mine today and it is corroded but it appears to be just surface rust. However, I think it's best to change it considering i'll probably never have as much access to it as I do now. Only thing i'm not sure about is how the support bracket is fixed to the block, looks a bit odd.

And do I have to remove the timing belt covers to change the other water hoses in that kit?

Loving the lighter evenings too, got home from work and managed to get a couple of hours in the garage tonight. Still not fixed oil leak (yet) but took a look at the radiator closer. Back of it looked absolutely fine and front is not visible due to air con rad but once removed i was pretty surprised, all the fins are turning to dust:

http://www.southeastscoobies.co.uk/v...ps6zdpl0vv.jpg

I can literally run my finger down the radiator and the fins flake off. Time for a new one of those then! Still, its the original so 14 years of life isn't too bad.

http://www.southeastscoobies.co.uk/v...psfncfrej7.jpg

Found rust underneath though :( Before:

http://www.southeastscoobies.co.uk/v...psgsowe9zy.jpg

And after a clean up, wire brushing with a rotary attachment on my drill and some rust treatment:

http://www.southeastscoobies.co.uk/v...pszruldzjj.jpg

Will get a nice coat of black stonechip tomorrow after work :)

You can do the hoses without removing the timing belt covers but you need a long set of angled needle nose pliers

Support bracket should be a single bolt

Just to remove the clips i guess? Will look into it... have you done it yourself on your scoob whilst engine was in situe or when it was out of the car?

I'll admit I had mine done at a garage - cost me £20! But only because I couldn't get the car high enough at home. It looked pretty easy once you could get under the car properly and it was just two of the clamps to undo but I guess it depends on the orientation of the clamps on your car.

OK. Don't really want to take the timing belt covers off. The sides look simple but the access means the centre one probably needs to come off to and that gets me into removing the bottom pulley and belts which I don't want to do (mainly as i don't know how and don't have a puller :))

The kit comes with clips so i guess i could dremel the old ones off easily enough if the orientation of them is all wrong!

I'd try to see if you can remove the clips leaving the pipes in place - slide the clips off the hard pipe underneath before cutting anything as if you can't you can just slide the clips back into place.

Well... new radiator, coolant and modine hard pipe ordered from Alyn @ AS Performance, great service and advice again as usual :ok:

Did he give you the correct sequence of swear words to use as you try to remove the clips?

lol :lol:

And another good result, swapped my 3 year old Bosch S4 battery at eurocarparts in Crawley with no questions/quibbles. It was pretty dead - put it on charge for 24 hours and lasted only 3 or 4 days before there wasn't enough CCA to turn the car over. Read some reviews about people having hassles, staff putting testers put on them, claims of using wrong chargers etc but no problems at all.

I think there are many who have radiators that are slowly decaying or past their best, we don't normally find out until they are removed as you have seen with yours or they fail! nice to see you are freshening up some vital parts before Germany.

Having pulled apart my original Scoob and done plenty of 'nosing around' on my current one its pretty clear the metalwork that runs below the radiators suffers somewhat in the rust/rot department, I think ImportCarParts even sell a repair panel specifically for this area.

Bit of an update... done a few bits over the last couple of days.

New radiator arrived from Alyn. Shiny :)
http://www.southeastscoobies.co.uk/v...pszrmh7dhm.jpg

And fitted up with fans after giving them a clean.
http://www.southeastscoobies.co.uk/v...psjdscd1qu.jpg

Went with the blob one with the rad cap as it was available quickly. I thought it was just a hose tweak (Alyn threw in a t-piece and length of hose to do the job) but now realised the metal overflow pipe that runs along the top of the radiator fouls the cap :doh:

http://www.southeastscoobies.co.uk/v...psgfszrpfs.jpg

Could bend it but it seems a bit fragile and don't want to create a tiny crack/weakness so need a blob equivalent. Anyone got one spare kicking around? Otherwise will pop into JPP before the weekend.

So... on with the oil leak. Always suspected this was caused by a bad seal between modine and engine block, so removed the modine hard pipe first. Old vs new:

http://www.southeastscoobies.co.uk/v...pslmwt5x6i.jpg

http://www.southeastscoobies.co.uk/v...psgacru4pp.jpg

And once out the way, modine removed and O ring replaced :)

http://www.southeastscoobies.co.uk/v...psfqpy34c2.jpg

http://www.southeastscoobies.co.uk/v...ps9x6bffc4.jpg

Looks clean enough above so hopefully it was just a failed O ring and job done. Now all re-fitted with a new oil filter. Topped up oil (only lost about half a litre removing filter/modine) and its only about 500 miles old so didn't do a full change.

Also noticed that the heatwrap on my uppipe had nearly all gone, was obviously not very good stuff as it had all gone brittle and split - sections (basically anything not under a steel tie) had disappeared! It'd been on the car for 8 or 9 years though. Had some decent wrap spare so with the car in the air, looked at the options of wrapping it in situe. What a pig of a job, but its done. Combination of access from underneath by removing nearest header heatshield, and from behind the subframe (arm inserted through gap above the driveshaft), whilst the old man helped from above (airbox removed). Still preferable to taking turbo out to remove uppipe though, as that's another fairly big job in itself... you can see it freshly wrapped on right hand side (ignore the rusty oem headers!)

http://www.southeastscoobies.co.uk/v...pszmlimwo0.jpg

Hopefully get her back on the ground and running this weekend! :drive:

Good effort in wrapping the up pipe while it was still fitted i need to re do my downpipe at some point .

Good job
Fingers crossed for no more oil leaks.

Nice one Steve. At least it'll be tip top for Germany:ok:

Patience of a saint wrapping with the pipe in place! Hope your oil leak is now fixed, the car I am sure is looking forward to another battering around the ring.

Are your Nankangs all good from last years trip?

Thanks guys :)

Having done the uppipe and got fairly well acquainted with the underside of the car, I think the downpipe is easily wrappable whilst it is on the car - assuming there's the same clearance as on a newage.

That's the plan... just got to try and finish it off now and get coolant back in without airlocking it.

Should be mate, they've been in the shed since last November though. Once the car is moving again they'll be going back on (no room to swap wheels in the garage).

I managed to bend the hard pipe on my blob radiator without any issues - try a hot air gun first though. I'm actually thinking it looks a little tatty so may just replace the whole pipe with silicone all the way along the rad.

I did think about running hose all the way, but it looks neater as a rigid pipe and I guess Subaru went that way to prevent issues with flex and slack getting caught in the rad fans.

Getting the blob pipe will be the tidiest, as I think it has the T piece all as one part of the pipe.

Part number 45175FE010 if it helps.

http://opposedforces.com/parts/impre...llustration_5/

Finally got round to stopping your oil leak! its only been a year! :P :D

Glad you've hopefully got it sorted.

I don't envy you wrapping the up-pipe in place!

Coolant overflow pipe sourced from JPP for £15 :) Not bad considering Subaru wanted £57.90 :doh:

Couple more hoses on their way from Alyn as well, so all the parts i need are pretty much here. Time to start putting everything back together! :)

I know, it was only leaking a little bit... just put a bit more in the top now and then :lol:

Another update, did a couple of hours in the garage this evening.

Replacement hoses and clips arrived from Alyn today for the modine hard pipe, as the old hoses were pretty crusty. They're right next to the headers so must get hot all the time, which probably helped them perish a bit. Anyway, replacement pipe all fitted.

http://www.southeastscoobies.co.uk/v...pstxybodbk.jpg

Also got some decent jubilee clips round the top/bottom of the wrapped uppipe which should help to hold it in place, and the header heatshield, airbox assembly refitted.

Finally got the radiator fitted, new metal overflow pipe from JPP works a treat as you can see:
http://www.southeastscoobies.co.uk/v...psqll31ohi.jpg

All hoses put back in and tightened up, fans plugged in, overflow bottle cleaned and back in and pretty much there.

http://www.southeastscoobies.co.uk/v...psmmgzb0au.jpg

So, at the weekend i'll get it off the axle stands and put new coolant in. Done some reading as it sounds easy to airlock them but a lot of people recommend filling from the bottom up via the turbo hose off the back of the header tank. Hopefully it'll be nice and easy :)

Looking good Steve. Awesome stuff :)

She runs :D

Was a little concerned I'd airlocked it at first as after 10 minutes running (at idle) the water was roughly up to temp, rad top hose was hot and pressurised but bottom hose was cold. Wasn't sure as I had heat in the car without any problems. Left it to cool down and guess it was just that the thermostat hadn't opened (fans didn't kick in). Tried burping both top and bottom hoses and no noticeable air came out so wonder if having the heater fans on full in the car was taking enough heat out to stop it getting hot enough.

Checked it when cold and all levels looked good, so took it for a run last night. This time got up to temperature nicely, fans kicked in and everything working. Gave it quite a bit of stick (including a few big stops to clean up the brakes where its sat for a while) and temperature stayed where it should on the gauge so no overheating....all good I think :)

Oh, and no more oil drips so definitely looks like the modine seal was the cause :drive: Now she just needs a swap to the other wheels/tyres and a damn good clean/polish and she should be ready for Germany.

Glad you've managed to get everything sorted Steve :ok:

Glad all is back to normal and the car back in one piece ok. Will get a thorough testing come Germany! I am seeing Brent tomorrow for a few bits to be done.

Happydays thats one car sorted for the trip lol .

So... as many of you know, the scoob wasn't faultless in Germany. On the plus side, no problems with the radiator and the oil leak anymore :)

But on the downside, it looks like head gaskets are failing. Car overheated on 3rd lap of the weekend, pushed some coolant out the overflow bottle and got bubbing in the bottle too (even for 5 mins after engine switched off). Coolant level has been fluctuating too and there's no leaks so its going somewhere... so despite driving absolutely fine on the way home, there's obviously an issue when on track.

So, what to do. Considered breaking and moving onto something else but i'd need to drop £10k+ to find a nice example 2.0 widetrack or better. There's £4k-5k of parts on mine if I did break (yes, I went through it painstakingly...) but i'd probably end up keeping some of those parts like wheels, Lateral sump, ksport brake kit etc so I'd end up with less cash than that.

Think the easiest/best solution is to try and get a low miles STI8 long engine from a reputable breaker and drop it in and then map. Transplant the sump and new hoses of my current engine beforehand. I'm reliably informed I can just run with the AVCS heads unplugged....

Saw this one breaking
http://www.scoobynet.com/full-cars-b...a2-eibach.html

So £1350 but would need to add
- vf35
- pinks
- intake manifold
- ported oem headers in decent condition ideally (mine are rusty old feckers)
- 3 port solenoid?

Don't know the mileage on that car though, can't see it in the ad. Or I could take a visit to see Saj, of course.

mine ran fine on 2 port, I have a spare set of pinks here, headers I also have spare with the pinks in, so no messing with injector seals.

I know someone has a nice JDM 2.0 engine out of a JDM widetrack for sale .

I'd put a prodrive 3 port in, for the sake of 50quid if your doing all the rest, I'd also throw an uprated 11mm oil pump and cambelt kit into the mix (I wouldn't replace the water pump for a pattern one though)


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I would forget the AVCS heads and all the extra cost for very ltitle gain it would bring. Especially if only going VF35.

Short engine only plus VF35 and pinks will keep you happy. Just ask Terry who was running it his a bug, who had it mapped locally ;)
SMD also drove it and commented favourably IIRC.

It's a difficult one - if you only go with the short engine (cheaper) and re-use your heads to avoid the AVCS 'issue' it will almost certainly end up more expensive as the block and your heads ideally need skimming/checking, add in new Head Gaskets (uprated would be the obvious choice) and the 'build' cost it will be more expensive than simply dropping an STI lump in complete.

I know you can run AVCS heads without the AVCS plumbed in but I'm not sure exactly how much you lose (I only had mine not active in the running in map) as the cam timing changes you will probably feel it most at the mid to top end as your cams will run in the low rev position constantly.

I'm sure you can drop an STI ECU into the WRX and repin the connectors using the tumbler wiring (good excuse to bin them while it's in bits) to gain the AVCS control. Shouldn't be that much more expensive.

The obvious thing would be to fit the STI lump with the tumblers deleted and run with out AVCS for a while then if you desire you can simply swap the ECU and re-pin without any disturbance of the engine etc. and get the car running to it's full potential.

Other thing to suggest - you don't need the STI inlet you can just reuse yours.

Could you find a breaker that will sell you the 'long' engine with inlet, injectors loom and turbo - may get a better deal that way, and even get the matching ecu off them (I think you need the key as well)

That's what I was thinking. I was expecting it to be cheaper to buy the long engine rather than an STI8 short engine, gaskets, skimming of my heads etc...

Don't know if thats the case or not though.

Firstly - glad you are keeping the motor :ok:

I have little to no experience with engines e.t.c. but I can tell you that without AVCS my car felt totally different than with it.. After new neutral position switch was fitted, the pull after 5-6k was much more noticeable.

I hope you find a good solution - Im sure Rich had an STi lump sitting in his workshop when mine was being mapped? maybe ask if he knows of one for sale?

Also Richard at East Kent Subaru Spares often has complete STi lumps for sale as my mechanic has 2-3 sitting in his workshop that he has bought off him.

Ryan :ok:

I certainly need to understand more about the AVCS, don't want it holding back if thats the case. Maybe an ECU swap needed then. Will have to ask around and do some reading.

Oh, and Nick - re: inlet, I wasn't sure if i could reuse mine, but for £80 from mattybr I thought i'd include it. Needs to be red really :ok:

Anyway, off to Goodwood now :)

There are likely to be major loom difference's. I doubt very much you can run an STi ecu on a WRX loom. The ECU have very different internal functions and this varies dramatically from year to year.

At the BHP levels we are talking about here I'd be interested to know how much AVCS would add compared to a car with the original heads. I doubt the butommeter can feel it ands it's something you will only see on a dyno plot.