New to this site, have owned nothing but subies :)

[StripesRX]

Hey everyone! My names Amy and I've owned and worked on Subarus since I was 14. I currently own 2, and each has a story.

Car 1 - 96 Impreza

My beater since I was 16. Technically my own first car. After I crashed my dads 95 Impreza that he gave me, he made me buy my own so I got this one off ebay for cheap, since it was missing a few parts and swapped in parts from the old Impreza to the new one.

Lovingly called Stripes, well... because I got bored one day and painted racing stripes on it. Its my road warrior and has been around for a while.

The engine recently had a cracked cylinder wall, causing the compression in the the cylinder to shoot straight out of the radiator. Its not suprising, since the car has 270,000 miles on it. So last weekend I got a 95 Legacy motor and spent the weekend doing a engine swap.

The car is obnoxious and haggard, but it gets from A to B until my other subie is fixed.

Pics from the engine swap:

The old block
http://i602.photobucket.com/albums/tt104/StripesRX/picture-1111.jpg
The new block is in and running
http://i602.photobucket.com/albums/tt104/StripesRX/picture-1108.jpg
And me, tired and greasy from two 15 hour days working on it
http://i602.photobucket.com/albums/tt104/StripesRX/picture-1110.jpg

And the car, in all of its striped glory:

http://i602.photobucket.com/albums/tt104/StripesRX/100_0109.jpg

Car 2 - 2004 WRX STI

My dream car ever since I saw the first rally on TV. I waited, saved and finally found one last June. For a week and a half, I was the happiest person on the planet.

http://i602.photobucket.com/albums/tt104/StripesRX/StiandI.jpg

Then things went terribly wrong.

The CEL came on, reading a camshaft position error and I was told after clearing it to drive around for a bit to see if it came back. A week later turbo blew. SO, I bought a new (bigger) turbo, put it on along with doing the timing belt and most of the gaskets and scheduled a tune. The day of the tune, all of the problems resufaced, so when I got to the shop we did a compression test, came out normal and they suggested replacing the oil pickup. So thats what I did.

Me taking the oil pan off
http://i602.photobucket.com/albums/tt104/StripesRX/100_0032.jpg
Chunks = BAD
http://i602.photobucket.com/albums/tt104/StripesRX/100_0038.jpg

I found chunks of metal in the pickup and pan. Bad news. Updated the shop and they suggested pulling the motor. So while I thought about what to do, I was driving the car to and from class and work. Until the second turbo blew.

Two turbos in 3 months, and my new car found its nickname: TurboKiller(TK for short)

I threw in the towel and brought the car to EFI Logics for a full motor build. Once I get it back, this things gonna be better than new.

[Hex Kitten]

Welcome, Amy :) I bet you can't wait to see TK all back on one piece again!

[Blix]

hey welcome! you seem to know your way around a subaru. haha the best i can do is change bulbs and the oil :o good to see a chick who can do the work herself. your cars look great and i love the pup. :cool:

[SassySTi284]

Welcome. It's awesome you did all the work. I recently had my baby up and EFI and I'm sure I saw your car there. Do you currently have a sticker on the side of the window saying "You just got be by a girl?"

[turbo_turtle]

Welcome. Nice to see some girls gettin' dirty and working on their own cars!

You should have EFI get you a new oil pickup tube while they are at it. Good guys down there.

~Dan

[SubyGirl8330]

welcome to subie girls!

[StripesRX]

Welcome, Amy :) I bet you can't wait to see TK all back on one piece again!

You and me both! I can't wait to have it back for some... spirited winter driving. :D

hey welcome! you seem to know your way around a subaru. haha the best i can do is change bulbs and the oil :o good to see a chick who can do the work herself. your cars look great and i love the pup. :cool:

Thanks, I love working on my babies. The first meet I went to we all went over to a garage to throw on someones snorkel for their 06 STi. I jumped in and ended up doing all the work, with all of the guys standing around freaking out. It was hilarious!

Welcome. It's awesome you did all the work. I recently had my baby up and EFI and I'm sure I saw your car there. Do you currently have a sticker on the side of the window saying "You just got be by a girl?"

If it looked like this:
http://i602.photobucket.com/albums/tt104/StripesRX/100_0300.jpg
That was mine :)

Welcome. Nice to see some girls gettin' dirty and working on their own cars!

You should have EFI get you a new oil pickup tube while they are at it. Good guys down there.

~Dan

Thanks! I had already ordered a KillerB Motorsport Ultimate Oil pickup when I took off my own, but it was backordered so I just put an OEM one back on to see if it fixed the problem. The KillerB one finally came in and thats whats going on the car.

welcome to subie girls!

Thank you! It seems like an awesome site to me. I'll have to spread the word around here :)

[jessickascarling]

welcome!!! you are def going to be handy to have around our site :D i hope someday i can know my way around my car as well as you do yours!

[turbo_turtle]

Thanks! I had already ordered a KillerB Motorsport Ultimate Oil pickup when I took off my own, but it was backordered so I just put an OEM one back on to see if it fixed the problem. The KillerB one finally came in and thats whats going on the car.

Good! Sounds like you know your stuff. Glad to have you on board here.

~Dan

[StripesRX]

Good! Sounds like you know your stuff. Glad to have you on board here.

~Dan

Glad to be here. And I'm here to help.

welcome!!! you are def going to be handy to have around our site :D i hope someday i can know my way around my car as well as you do yours!

I'll try to be handy!

And while I may know a lot, I know that theres a crap load of stuff I don't know. But I love learning about my car and cars in general.

Theres two great ways to learn about your car:

1. Research

We have the internet, USE IT! Its a great tool. Wiki is a great site. These few articles have some great info on car/turbo mechanics:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turbocharger

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four-stroke_cycle

Also Drive magazine (http://www.drive.subaru.com/) and Drive Performance mag (http://www.driveperformance.subaru.com/) have great amounts of info as both are produced by subaru. Each issue details a certain Subaru specific component in an article. Its available online and in print FOR FREE! Can't beat that!

And an interesting book that has some good backround info and modding basics is the High-Performance Subaru Builders Guide:

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/High-Performance-Subaru-Builders-Guide/Jeff-Zurschmeide/e/9781932494518/?itm=1&usri=Performance+Subaru

I picked it up on a whim and was suprised to find it very informative.

And 2:

GET WRENCHING!

Even if its something small, you can do it. Have a day or two set aside and go for it. Do a little research on what needs to be done, google it and then try! A day wrenching will teach you more about your car than a month of reading. :D

[jessickascarling]

I'll try to be handy!

And while I may know a lot, I know that theres a crap load of stuff I don't know. But I love learning about my car and cars in general.

Theres two great ways to learn about your car:

1. Research

We have the internet, USE IT! Its a great tool. Wiki is a great site. These few articles have some great info on car/turbo mechanics:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turbocharger

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four-stroke_cycle

Also Drive magazine (http://www.drive.subaru.com/) and Drive Performance mag (http://www.driveperformance.subaru.com/) have great amounts of info as both are produced by subaru. Each issue details a certain Subaru specific component in an article. Its available online and in print FOR FREE! Can't beat that!

And an interesting book that has some good backround info and modding basics is the High-Performance Subaru Builders Guide:

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/High-Performance-Subaru-Builders-Guide/Jeff-Zurschmeide/e/9781932494518/?itm=1&usri=Performance+Subaru

I picked it up on a whim and was suprised to find it very informative.

And 2:

GET WRENCHING!

Even if its something small, you can do it. Have a day or two set aside and go for it. Do a little research on what needs to be done, google it and then try! A day wrenching will teach you more about your car than a month of reading. :D

this is some really good info. maybe you should make a new thread about it in one of the technical/modifications sections. this will be useful for others who may need it!

[xxthat girlxx]

Welcome! Sorry to hear about TK but I'm glad it's getting taken care of! I agree. Research and important. While I feel that on major forums it (researching) is better to do so than ask a question that may have already been asked 4 times... having people you CAN ask is VERY important. I wouldn't know what I do know if it weren't for the great friends I've made over the years.

Yesterday I learned how to mount tires and it was so much fun! Is it the coolest thing ever? No. Do the guys think it's dorky that I'm excited? Yes. BUT, most of them haven't done it/don't know how and it's liberating to be able to learn things like that. I'm lucky to have great teachers/patient friends to stand by and supervise.

I can't wait to see what you'll bring to the table for us Amy!

[SassySTi284]

That's the one!!! We were guessing that the engine was out since it was riding high up front.



If it looked like this:
http://i602.photobucket.com/albums/tt104/StripesRX/100_0300.jpg
That was mine :)

[StripesRX]

this is some really good info. maybe you should make a new thread about it in one of the technical/modifications sections. this will be useful for others who may need it!

I will get right on that! I'll try to find some other articles that'll be useful too.

Yesterday I learned how to mount tires and it was so much fun! Is it the coolest thing ever? No. Do the guys think it's dorky that I'm excited? Yes. BUT, most of them haven't done it/don't know how and it's liberating to be able to learn things like that. I'm lucky to have great teachers/patient friends to stand by and supervise.

I don't think its dorky. But most guys don't get as excited about cars as we do. They're more "Heh, thats cool." While we(well at least me) are more "THATS AWESOME!"

Hell I get excited whenever I have to change my oil.

That's the one!!! We were guessing that the engine was out since it was riding high up front.

Yeah, if you looked in the engine bay its total rust city. But the odd thing is that the body is in solid condition. What Chris thinks happened is that it sat for a while without being turned on and thats what killed it. AKA IT WAS MISTREATED!!! I'm gonna be giving it some serious TLC to make up for the past.

[mybabyblue]

welcome to the site!!

[StripesRX]

Thanks!

[Bugichic]

love the cars

[Lperkins88]

welcome!! love your subies