1994 JDM Impreza WRX Wagon

[Jimmyarm]

Finally a car worth of its very own thread on here

A friend works at a local main dealer and this was chopped in as a part ex last weekend, he immediately bought it with the intention of selling it on.

I've been eyeing up newage WRX's in the classifieds for a while and as soon as I saw it I was pestering him to sell it to me.

First day out in her today on the back roads of Hampshire and I am in love

The noise from the exhaust is absolutely immense when pushing on down country lanes with a wall of trees each side and the levels of grip are quite astonishing !

Anyway enough drivel, some (crappy Iphone) pics...


Untitled by Jimmyarm, on Flickr


Untitled by Jimmyarm, on Flickr


Untitled by Jimmyarm, on Flickr


Untitled by Jimmyarm, on Flickr

There was a stack of paperwork with it, the last owner spent the best part of 2k on it last year for various bits including the cambelt.

This was my favourite invoice though, it comes to 134.38 more than i paid for the whole car


Untitled by Jimmyarm, on Flickr

[omgus]

Very nice, I miss my Classic Wagon. Aside from the petrol addiction that you will develop you will have epic fun.


Also when you have the drivers window open, which you will do for the noise, you will need to drop the rear window a tiny bit, something about the rain protectors makes these particularly prone to the air pressure whump-whump effect.

[Serin]

Good looking car! Should be a version 1 with the black handles on it!

Heres the original brochure if your interested.

http://a15ff11300g.sakura.ne.jp/catalogue/GC.GFinp...

[RobCrezz]

Haywood & Scott exhausts are superb, very pricey though!

[Riknos]

Bit of a billy bargain for £600! Well done.

[Mastodon2]

Looks like a Magnex back box, bet that sounds alright with a H&S downpipe and centre pipe!

Total score for £600 quid too, fun doesn't come much cheaper!

[Jimmyarm]

Thanks all

Not sure about the backbox, the weld quality is good on it but there isn't any branding I can see and no invoice in the paper work for it.

Discovered that the rear nearside wheel rubs (with smoke!) when pushing on through roundabouts

I fancy some of those alloys in the top pic on the brochure posted, anyone know a name for them ?

Brakes need upgrading to the 4 pots at the front as well, te stopping power of these early ones is quite poor.

[Mr.Jimbo]

Yep, front window down a bit but have the rears down to really enjoy the exhaust!

The 4 pots are awesome when they're working properly, mine had 2 seized pistons on each caliper, Unfourtunately a common trait... after a refurb (with stainless pistons) and carbon pads/grooved discs it's pretty impressive how quick it stops!

Can't aruge for that price though, top bargainhunting, specially with the history.

[Mastodon2]

Jimmyarm said:

Thanks all

Not sure about the backbox, the weld quality is good on it but there isn't any branding I can see and no invoice in the paper work for it.

Discovered that the rear nearside wheel rubs (with smoke!) when pushing on through roundabouts

I fancy some of those alloys in the top pic on the brochure posted, anyone know a name for them ?

Brakes need upgrading to the 4 pots at the front as well, te stopping power of these early ones is quite poor.

I'm fairly sure it's a Magnex, they've been using the oval tip with the inner lip for years



I bet it sounds ace.

That brochure is great too, massive thanks to the guy who posted that up. Those classic Imprezas look absolutely excellent, I would love one of those early 90s ones.

[Serin]

Jimmyarm said:

Thanks all

Not sure about the backbox, the weld quality is good on it but there isn't any branding I can see and no invoice in the paper work for it.

Discovered that the rear nearside wheel rubs (with smoke!) when pushing on through roundabouts

I fancy some of those alloys in the top pic on the brochure posted, anyone know a name for them ?

Brakes need upgrading to the 4 pots at the front as well, te stopping power of these early ones is quite poor.

The wheels in the brochure are the standard wrx wheels, which on some were painted gunmetal grey. Theyre only 15 inches and wont fit over 4 pots. Getting rid of those chavtastic (:P) 17s will transform the look of the car.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Subaru-Impreza-Sport-2-0...

If you dont want to go with the standard wrx/STi 16 inch wheels, look at the speedlines or sparcos that were optional extras. They're cheap, very strong and make the car look like a proper rally-wagon! Or if you want some proper nice OEM JDM wheels, they did do a limited run of TE37s which are great!

The newer OEM 16s
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Subaru-Impreza-WRX-Alloy...

The Rally style options;
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Subaru-Impreza-Turbo-WRX...


Heres a set on my car;



Theyre incredibly light wheels, and fit perfectly

Edited by Serin on Tuesday 20th March 09:14

[Jimmyarm]

Those speedlines look like just the ticket

Thanks for all the info

Did a quick oil change on her at work today and had a proper look over.

Apart from some minor rust on the rear wheel arches she is pretty spot on chassis wise.

Will need new rear brake pipes for the mot which is going to be a tank out job to do properly

Header tank is leaking as well but they seem pretty cheap on fleabay and is a two minute job.

Power steering rack has a slight leak, looks a doddle to change though.

Rear main oil seal might be leaking slightly but the clutch is quite high so that can wait.

Have to hand it to Subaru, they built these very well and I can see her living in for a good few years yet if I keep on top of the maintenance

Took the long twisty way home

[Serin]

if you havent gotten the header tank yet, then look at getting a alloy one from the newer ones. Theyre a lot more robust, as the plastic ones can crack over time from old age and the shock of the temps they handle.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SUBARU-WRX-96-00-ALUMINI...

AFAIK theyre a direct swap, but would only need the smallest amount of jerry-rigging to make fit regardless!!

[omgus]

Serin said:

if you havent gotten the header tank yet, then look at getting a alloy one from the newer ones. Theyre a lot more robust, as the plastic ones can crack over time from old age and the shock of the temps they handle.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SUBARU-WRX-96-00-ALUMINI...

AFAIK theyre a direct swap, but would only need the smallest amount of jerry-rigging to make fit regardless!!

Yep, the sensible little mods, this is how it starts.

[Jimmyarm]

Thanks for the header tank link

It does have a metal one on it but its not bolted at the top, more press fit and leaking round the gasket. Will get one of those ordered.

Did the plugs yesterday and all were the same correct colour

Pulled the ECU out as well and there is no evidence of a chip or daughterboard and from what I've read these early ones weren't reflashable.

From what I can tell, the early wagons came with 220ps and TDO4 turbo and the saloons had a bit more (260ps?) with a TDO5 turbo.

Would it be a straight swap for a later saloon ecu and TDO5 ? Seems to make more sense to do this and get a daughterboard for the newer ECU so I can get it mapped properly for UK fuel etc rather than mapping with the TD04 and old ecu in place and then wanting to upgrade it afterwards.

[Serin]

It should be fine on the fuel in the UK. Standard Jap octane is 100, so using premium is fine for it.

ECU wise, im not 100% sure, but I think the versions 1-2 have a different ECU plug, so wont just plug and play but I'm not 100%

[omgus]

Ask in The Jap Chat section about mapping, you really want to hear from ScoobyWRX or JollyGreenMonster, between the pair of them i think they cover the entire subject of Scooby Mapping quite well. Until then i would recommend using Shell or Tesco premium fuel, I had major knocking issues on BP stuff.

A word of warning, if you start chasing power you have the wrong car, there is nothing wrong with an early WRX Wagon but you really want a V3 or later STI as the base. You will be able to mod yours up to standard STI levels fairly easily but then it starts to cost, starting with a decent Classic STI as a base is a much better proposition.

Definitely stay with the Wagons though, they are much better all rounder than the saloons and avoid a lot of the chavwannabe racer attention.

[Jimmyarm]

Thanks guys.

Have stuck a post up in the jap section

New header tank ordered, that link expired but the seller put them up again for £15 plus postage with a best offer and managed to get one for £18 delivered

[GC8]

One of Scott Taylors (Polar Performance) ScoobyECUs would do the trick, but itll have to be used as Scott stopped making them a couple of years ago.

A firm called Enduring Solutions Ltd offer a remappable 'ScoobyECU' for A/B/C* series Imprezas, and they did used to offer a product similar to the poriginal ScoobyECU too, with fixed paramaters, but I think that that was discontinued when the remappable product matured.

This car will have a TD04 turbo, so any meaningful mapping will probably require a change to an unaltered (90 degree inlet) TD05 off a saloon.

• Theres no such thing as a 'version 1' Impreza, Subaru called them A-Series, B-Series etc. and the first STI so-named, the Version 2, was actually a C2-Series. As a 1994 model thisll probably be a B-Series /geek

[Jimmyarm]

Small update.

On her first 'long' distance run (55 miles !) she decided to pop the top hose I may or may not have been chasing something down the A303 at the time

Initially I had suspicions that the head gasket(s) had gone resulting in the build up of pressure popping the hose and causing the original header tank to leak.

Have fitted the new later type tank which doesn't fit properly (contemplating a Forge unit) and a new top & bottom hose I think I might be lucky and the headgakets are intact. Block tester comes back negative and the stick the expansion hose out and drive it on boost test are negative.

I'm not 100% convinced at this stage though as the system still builds pressure up relatively quickly, is this 'normal' for these ? Ideally I need a known good one to compare it against as I haven't ever worked on this engine to know how it should behave

Even if they are blown its not the end of the world, spinning spanners for a living has its advantages I guess

[LeighW]

Jimmyarm said:

Even if they are blown its not the end of the world, spinning spanners for a living has its advantages I guess

It sure does. When the head gaskets popped on mine, I had the clutch swapped while the engine was out, and the bill from Roger Clarke Motorsport was quite a way north of two grand! Still makes me miss my old WRX though. Just realised it's nine years since I sold it - now I feel old.