New WRX SL PPP Wagon: what’s next?

[WickedWizzzard]

Hope you are all having fun at Japfest! My goal is to join you next year, so I just got my hands on a 2005 (blobeye) WRX SL PPP wagon. It seems this is a pretty rare spec. And the car is in good shape, so I think I have something special worth caring for. Now I need to decide if to invest in it and how, therefore looking for advice here. Here are the stats for the wagon:
- 90k miles on the clock from four owners
- 11 dealership and independent specialists stamps on the logbook, which for a car that has done 5k per year, is not bad
- Clutch and cam belt changed at 65k and 75k respectively.
- No rust on body, underside looks good too. Needs new paint though, it's a boring silver
- New MOT before I got it last week with no faults or even advisories (bad cv boot, so nothing really)
- Engine pulls very well, turbo kicks in as it should. Don't know these cars so don't know if all the sounds are normal, but I can't hear anything obviously wrong

I paid 6k for it. And would be willing to spend another 6-7k if that gets me something a bit special, fun to drive and reliable. Don't think I'll tune it, happy with the 260 or so that come with the prodrive pack. So, I'm thinking: engine rebuild, new suspension bushings and a respray.

But before I start throwing money down a pit, I want to hear from you guys. Have you been through a similar experience? What did you learn? What would you advice? Should I drive it longer and diagnose it fully before committing to it with a rebuild?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

[WickedWizzzard]

mike74 said:

Engine rebuild seems pointless if you're not interested in increasing the power.

In fact the whole plan seems a little pointless to me?.. For the £12k-£14k you're proposing to spend on it you could have got a very reasonable sti blobeye.

Very valid points. My thinking was that when you spend that much on an STI you are also paying premium for that spec. AND probably has been driven hard and all kinds of gremlins might be lurking under the bonnet. So I rather spend that money myself and then have a car that I know well.

But, point taken, maybe the engine rebuild is overkill if I’m happy to keep the base spec and performance.

[WickedWizzzard]

This is great advice, many thanks! I'm pretty sure the bushings are pretty crusty, and the rear swaybar is a bit rusty. The whiteline kits seems reasonably priced, so that looks like a god option. Good point on the breaks, will look into options.

texaxile said:

The other thing you might want to do is grab a spare set of crappy secondhand alloys for £100 or so and throw a set of winters on them. I didn’t need mine this year but always handy if you’ve got the room to store a set.

Are you running standard 17s on your WRX, or upgraded to 18s?

[WickedWizzzard]

Apologies for the delay. Thanks so much for the advice, very useful! So, clearly there is a pattern emerging, and I need to prioritise suspension and breaks over any major engine work, if I can avoid it for now. Going to have it thoroughly examined next week by the guys at Perfect Touch to see what’s what. If solid enough, my intention is to keep it stock and try to restore it as much as possible (and worth it). Including a full body overhaul so that rust doesn’t end up undermining anything else that I might be able to do.
Here some pics. To be fair, it looks much better from afar, than up close

Edited by WickedWizzzard on Sunday 17th April 12:45

[WickedWizzzard]

Well, a lot of people here with amazing taste!
R12many, exactly the same! There must not be many like this still around. But LT05LPU seems to be one of them according to the MOT history.

[WickedWizzzard]

R12many said:

The best colour in my opinion but I am biased!

Seems like one of the fun aspects of owning this is going to be finding parts. Been looking for the ARBs, because the rear one is quite flaky, and it’s proving very tricky. Most likely because this is rarer model and narrower track than the saloon. Are you guys stocking up on parts for the future? Or is it easy enough finding parts when needed?

[WickedWizzzard]

I am sure you will all love this plot twist.

As I’m driving to the garage earlier today to give the car a full checkup (only third time driving it since collecting two weeks ago) it starts overheating. I think I managed to stop before it went on red. Towed the last few miles to the garage. Diagnosis: head gasket!

Otherwise they confirmed that the car is in great shape, no rust, very decent suspension and brakes, no fault codes, etc. But of course all that is inconsequential now. x 2

Trying to get hold of dealer. Sold with three months major parts warranty.

[WickedWizzzard]

Sooooo….after some back and forth with the dealer, we agreed on a partial refund, enough for me to do the top end. But after a deeper examination of the whole car I decided to do a full engine rebuild with Neil Case at Slowboy Racing. Furthermore, the wagon is getting a brand new EJ207 short block and new clutch. Suspension and breaks are good enough and will have to wait. Poor thing evidently was run on a shoestring budget, but deserves a second chance and should be a fun project.
Picking it up on Monday, looking forward to being reunited and begin breaking in the new engine. Pic of the engine after heads installed.

[WickedWizzzard]

Cambs_Stuart said:

Always good to see a WRX wagon! It's been a few years since i had one, but it's one of he few cars I've owed I really regret selling.
This old thread was a inspiration for mine. It's just a really good OEM+ build.

https://www.scoobynet.com/members-gallery-5/100484...

This thread, done with much less skill and a lower budget, but more blood, sweat, tears and swearing shows my wagon:

https://www.scoobynet.com/projects-40/1031303-2005...

I know it’s been a while, but wanted to say thanks for those two links. Have read them through and it’s super helpful. You can read below how I have been getting on.

[WickedWizzzard]

Drummer_DL said:

As a fellow WRX wagon owner I'll also pop my head in to say welcome to the club

Do you mean you're both rebuilding the EJ205 block already in there, and building a new EJ207 to go in, or just replacing the current block with a built EJ207? Looking forward to seeing how you get on, I had my EJ205 rebuilt to standard spec by Subbus last year and so far other than a coil pack dying on me it hasn't put a foot wrong. Even with the standard 221bhp it never fails to make me grin like an idiot when out on country roads!

Hey. Apologies for the delay, life got in the way. So, to clarify, I just replaced the original EJ205 short block with a brand new EJ207 short block, an S20C to be precise. Keeping the original heads and all the ancillaries. Used Cosworth gaskets and ARP head studs. Naturally used the opportunity to replace belts, water pump, oil pump, thermostat, filters, plugs, you name it.

Literally yesterday the car was in for the first major service after the first 1000 miles of the new engine. Don’t drive it much so took me about four months to run the engine in. And it drives so sweet.

[WickedWizzzard]

Further update. Apart from the engine (read above) I have been refreshing the car inside, a couple of touches outside and to the engine bay. Just some detailing and a few tasteful upgrades.

Found a set of OZ Prodrive 18s that I really liked, so went for the upgrade. Changed the feeling of the steering a bit, but feels good and the ride is still very comfortable.



Also polished the headlights, resprayed a few black bits like wiper blade arms and some engine bay brackets, refurbished the steering wheel, put a new gear shifter.

But I think the best upgrade has been a brand new center console I found from ICP, dark grey originally from the STI, together with a new double din head unit. That was a fun project and so worth it.



Last but not least, got rid of the old sigma alarm and replaced with a new Vodafone cobra.

Now I’m broke …

[WickedWizzzard]

Cambs_Stuart said:

Good work! I I think I had that knob on my impreza.

Who built the engine for you?

Hope you get a lot of miles of fun from it and no more big bills for a while!

Neil Case at Slowboy Racing near Brands Hatch did the engine.
Yeah, fingers crossed nothing major for a while.