Domino Rebuild: Everything starts with broken eggs.

Welcome to the Domino makeover blog part 1. Some time in the late 2000s I bought a project car, something that was suppose to be the start of something. It was a  2001 Subaru RS with 130,000 miles on it and a really bad turbo conversion. Like, I have NO idea what they were thinking with half of it. But I knew when I bought it, I mostly wanted the body, the seats... and that was about it.

I remember picking up the car and calling Theresa and she'd asked me, "Are you excited?"
My response was careful.

"This is going to be a project." Till this year, the most I'd done was replace the blown clutch and flywheel with a stage 1 and lightened flywheel. Then she sat. 

And Sat.

Then we moved.

And she sat some more.

Then I started thinking it was time to do something with her. While looking for parts for the project I'd found Asuka and she was a completed version of what I wanted for the same price tag as the parts. So I bought her.

So Domino sat even longer.

Feeling it was make or break time I'd offered her over to a friend of mine, Sam.

The base plan; a V8 STi conversion with 6 speed, coil-overs, and 114.3 hubs. 

Now Domino is in his garage and we've been working for a few hours after work to get things moving.

This isn't a rush project, there are plenty of things that Sam wants to do and it's going to take time.

So without further ado...

PART 1

Tear down.

Old EJ25 with 130K on it. We removed the oil and literally fluids started poring from every seal in the engine. The flood gates were open. It was DONE Done. 

We'd removed the radiator and then the rotated turbo.

All the harnesses and the AC connections removed.

Removed headers and up pipe.

Removed power steering lines 

Here, most everything has been disconnected and I'm feeling we will never see this car run again!

Engine starting to be lifted free. We didn't have the space or the lift to removed the engine and tyranny together safely, so removed them one at a time. 

Engine removed!
GOOD BYE FOR EVER
If you can look close you can still see it dripping oil from the front seal and the back...and the heads. 

First day, we tore in about 3pm and with an hour break for dinner we'd gotten the engine out by 10pm. Some of that time was reviewing just what the HECK the guy that'd owned the car before me had done to her. But, I was rather impressed the engine was out first day with nothing but hand tools.

Something's missing!

Front cross member, rack, and suspension. 

Front wheel well, drivers side. Looks really different without the suspension in there.

Day two, we pulled out the rack and suspension. Many YouTube videos were watched to make sure everything was going right. 

And here is the old 5 speed.
They'd been so close before we didn't think it right to keep them apart. ;) 

Day three the transmission came out, it didn't feel as heavy as I remember when I was laying underneath it working on it. It was only six bolts and she came right down and out without complaint.

The rest of the exhaust system. 

Starting to look REALLY empty.

Drive shaft still in, next part to remove.

Prepped to remove the rear sub frame.

Domino is flying!

From the back.

SOOO Many parts!

Enough of the old busted for one post!

JDM STi Version 8 with six speed.

Better shot without ECU

Look at all the housing around the turbo. I see why there can be detonation on that back cylinder. It HAS to get hot in the car like that.

A few people wanted pics of the engine that would be going into the beast. This here, my friends, is the Version 8 STi engine. It's a very solid tuner platform. I'd argue the V7 is better on the bottom in, but the V8 can't be beat for it's out of the box twin scroll turbo and better heads. It's basically got the v7 spec-c heads. It can build a HELL OF A LOT of power.
The full manifest of what will be going in to there will be in Part 2.

Part 2: The build. - Putting the parts together that will go back in.
Part 3: Running - Getting all the wiring done and getting her to start and move once more.
Part 4: Tuning. - With everything done, what can we get out of her.

More of part 1 coming soon.

Rob