I'm baaack: C34 Stagea

[mosquitocoils]

Hi everyone, I used to be on these forums quite a bit going back 6-10ish years ago when I had my R33 GTST (avatar) and this was a great place where I found guides on how to do everything imaginable, and really as a 19 year old with no previous mechanical knowledge that was what taught me how to work on cars. 

I lost my licence being silly (well ended up on 12 month good behaviour...) so I sold the skyline and drove boring cars for a couple of years. 

After about 4 years I ended up with a stock Forester XT that was only ever meant to be a bit of a fun car, but that turned into a beast as now I've done every possible bolt-on mod for (big turbo, big intercooler, full exhaust, intake and heaps of smaller supporting mods) and almost doubled it's power (127kw -> 214kw). If anyone's interested in Subarus and my build I have a very comprehensive build thread here: https://www.subaruforester.org/threads/mosquitocoils-black-06-xt-lux-my-daily-driver-aus.531441/ 

I also bought a motorbike to commute as fuel was adding up. Long story short we moved closer to my work again and when I listed the bike for sale, someone offered me a S1 Stagea RS4 auto awd as a swap... after thinking about it and going to inspect it we went ahead with the trade. The Stagea was definitely not in showroom condition but did have a few things done to it like a rebuilt motor which interested me and of course I saw the potential of the RB25DET 

So far it has:
 

- CP forged pistons and rings

- ARP head studs

- Cometic MLS head gasket

- Head stripped, acid dipped, blasted

- Revalved

- 1mm oversize exhaust valves (from XR6T)

- Timing belt kit including tensioners, water pump

- New harmonic balancer

- New thermostat

- New spark plugs

- Alloy radiator

- Freddy forward facing plenum

- FMIC 600x300

- Pod filter for hectic flutter

- Boost tee 12psi, turbo very healthy no shaft play

- 3 inch turbo back exhaust to twin tips

- Tein coilovers (very comfy, one or two making some faint squeaking)

- JVC Double din touch screen

- Boost gauge sitting loose in the leftover single din slot in dash

- HKS turbo timer cause it's the 90s

- 17 inch Rota Grid style wheels

- Tint

- Body kit (believed to be the Day Z rear bar and skirts with a stock lip which has been cut to fit the big FMIC)

- 2 MASSIVE SUNROOFS that both work

- Japanese parking sticker on rear window for extra JDMs

Anyway here are a couple of photos of it now... I'll add bits and pieces to this to go over what I've done already, and then as things change from here as well. My plan is to get something around a gtx3076 size turbo, e85, haltech ecu, and do all/most of the work and tuning myself. Should be a fun ride.

Cheers!

Edited September 29, 2019 by mosquitocoils

[Steve85]

Awesome car mate, well done on the trade. Normally they don't turn out so well!  

[KiwiRS4T]

Forged engine - did the seller take the big turbo off and return it to stock? Good project but remember if you are too successful you will be needing a manual box!

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

Skip the GTX3076 Gen 2 and go GTX3576 Gen 2. I'm not a fan of the GTX3076R, there's too much compressor for turbine.

[mosquitocoils]

2 hours ago, KiwiRS4T said:

Forged engine - did the seller take the big turbo off and return it to stock? Good project but remember if you are too successful you will be needing a manual box!

Ahh the previous owner never quite made it that far... he had plans to go big turbo and slowly got all these mods done in preparation for that. Then he got low compression and thinking it was the head, took it off and had it rebuilt. When he put it back on he dropped something down into one of the cylinders but didn't know at the time which made it worse... Ended up pulling the bottom end out and having another shop rebuild the block. At that point he was 10k in debt after rebuilding the top and bottom ends (all verified with both shops who did the work) and work wasn't doing well so he ran out of money to throw at it. 

That's where I enter the picture... 

And yessss I would love the go manual box! However I'm going to need to figure out which route is best, I can get a full AWD manual conversion kit for about $2000-$2200 landed which would be awesome for ease-of-install - kit includes stagea S2 AWD manual box, manual pedal, cylinders,, shifter, console surround etc but then I'm stuck with the AWD box and from what I've heard it's not as good as a RWD big box?

Or the other route of course is pick up a RWD box and RWD sump but I think that needs more work. Still looking into this!

[mosquitocoils]

2 hours ago, Dose Pipe Sutututu said:

Skip the GTX3076 Gen 2 and go GTX3576 Gen 2. I'm not a fan of the GTX3076R, there's too much compressor for turbine.

Interesting... In my mind I'm tossing up between a 3076 or 3582 so you could be onto something with the 3576. This is still a fair way off so I have time to keep reading haha... thanks for the tip

[KiwiRS4T]

3 hours ago, mosquitocoils said:

And yessss I would love the go manual box! However I'm going to need to figure out which route is best, I can get a full AWD manual conversion kit for about $2000-$2200 landed which would be awesome for ease-of-install - kit includes stagea S2 AWD manual box, manual pedal, cylinders,, shifter, console surround etc but then I'm stuck with the AWD box and from what I've heard it's not as good as a RWD big box?
 

Rubbish! They are the same box. Same as GTR box.

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

5 hours ago, mosquitocoils said:

Interesting... In my mind I'm tossing up between a 3076 or 3582 so you could be onto something with the 3576. This is still a fair way off so I have time to keep reading haha... thanks for the tip

I also run a GTX3576R Gen 2  but with a 1.01 divided rear. Sometimes I think maybe the 0.83 divided rear might have been a bit better. However I do like the linear power delivery and also I'm a bit power hungry so 430 to 450kW is achievable once I decide to get a new clutch and a better FMIC. 

On 3rd when I stomp on it, I'll see all the boost by 4300rpm. By 4000rpm it's making 1 bar of boost already.

[mosquitocoils]

9 hours ago, KiwiRS4T said:

Rubbish! They are the same box. Same as GTR box.

What, seriously?

I thought there was a difference between the GTR boxes and the GTS4 awd boxes... and therefore the Stagea awd boxes as well? 

Although now that I look into it again there's a bunch of forums posts from people saying "they are basically the same" and it appears they share some internal part numbers... 

Very cool... I guess it's settled then

[GTSBoy]

26 minutes ago, mosquitocoils said:

I thought there was a difference between the GTR boxes and the GTS4 awd boxes... and therefore the Stagea awd boxes as well? 

Been the same gearbox even with the RB20 in front of it in the R32 GTS4.

It's the ATESSA that's different between GTRs and the light duty versions.

[mosquitocoils]

7 hours ago, Dose Pipe Sutututu said:

However I do like the linear power delivery and also I'm a bit power hungry so 430 to 450kW is achievable once I decide to get a new clutch and a better FMIC. 

On 3rd when I stomp on it, I'll see all the boost by 4300rpm. By 4000rpm it's making 1 bar of boost already.

Interesting that it's linear in delivery... Usually 'big' turbos are nothing then BAM exponentially rising graph... What else is in your setup? How are you controlling boost?

I'd really like about 10psi by 3000rpm if possible as I want it to be fun on the street. 10psi is subjective of course but I've found anything below that hard to feel. I don't know if that's possible with a 35 series turbo but maybe with a 0.83 or smaller 0.63ish rear. I could be dreaming though.

[mr_rbman]

6 minutes ago, mosquitocoils said:

Interesting that it's linear in delivery... Usually 'big' turbos are nothing then BAM exponentially rising graph... What else is in your setup? How are you controlling boost?

I'd really like about 10psi by 3000rpm if possible as I want it to be fun on the street. 10psi is subjective of course but I've found anything below that hard to feel. I don't know if that's possible with a 35 series turbo but maybe with a 0.83 or smaller 0.63ish rear. I could be dreaming though.

That is very achievable with today's modern turbos...

A lots changed/improved since you were last in the game...

[mosquitocoils]

So this is where it all started. This is the pic the previous owner sent me to tempt me. You can see it's missing the front lip altogether. That was fine, I knew I could make it fit with the FMIC piping with my handy dremel (seriously best tool out there for doing anything custom).

Those with keen eyes will spot a couple of tasty mods like S2 tail lights and the NA front grille which everyone wets themselves over... though I'm not a huge fan of the slats.

It had a few issues for roadworthy - one front corner light was smashed, tyres were bald etc etc... this poor dude just ran out of money and had to choose between commuting in his daily or spending money on fixing this poor girl up

First things first though, it ran like a pig. It had sat unregistered and unmoved for about 2 months so I put it down to bad fuel/carbon buildup etc. I wanted to give it a full service and hope that fixed it, although in the meantime I kept smelling fuel... so I pulled the rail off, turned the key to ON and watched fuel spurting out of #6 injector! It was leaking as soon as there was any pressure to the rail, which means it was flooding #6 cylinder, causing it to run rough. A new injector OEM injector later and she idled great but was still a bit rough in gear/driving. 

So I went ahead with a full service - oil, filter, spark plugs, cleaned AFM with the proper stuff and pod filter with the K&N recharge kit. The oil I drained out smelt of fuel which explains things a bit. After that, she was running beautifully.

You can see the damage to the paintwork on this freddy plenum from fuel leaking out of #6 so I'd say this had been happening for a while and old mate couldn't figure it out so wanted to sell it off cheap haha.

At some point in the future I plan to pull the plenum off and either strip it to bare silver, or have it professionally painted/coated in the same red as the rocker covers...

Edited September 30, 2019 by mosquitocoils

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

45 minutes ago, mosquitocoils said:

Interesting that it's linear in delivery... Usually 'big' turbos are nothing then BAM exponentially rising graph... What else is in your setup? How are you controlling boost?

Twin scroll, divided rear housing, modern turbo, VCT all help

If I wanted wham bam, thank you maam I could put on a 0.83 and shit would light up tyres.

I'm using a Gen V 50mm Turbosmart EWG, using both port going to a 4x port MAC solenoid controlled by the Kebabtech.

[KiwiRS4T]

This is what a GT3540 looks like (.83) and that 's on an RB30. If you want to improve on that you will need a more modern set up.

[mosquitocoils]

Once we were up and running nicely it was time to tackle the electrical issues. Firstly there was a squeak coming from the belt area which was there (and really loud!) during the test drive. I figured it was either a belt or a pulley... luckily it turned out to just be the alternator belt. This also in turn meant the car wasn't charging properly. I verified with my multimeter and sure enough it was only getting about +1v while running (around 13.6v)

I then noticed there was no tensioner on the alternator at all... so I picked up a new Gates belt and had a quick trip to a local guy parting out his RB25 to get the tensioner and we were back in business - squeaking gone and charging sitting around 14.2 - 14.4v.

Then it was on to the alarm... It came with a Mongoose alarm/immobiliser installed, however it had really high parasitic drain, (I figured due to tiny battery, low amount of driving it was getting + the bad charging setup). Seeing as this is just a project car that stays hidden in the garage most of the time I just figured I would rip it out. It took a bit of fiddling but I traced every wire back to origination, cut then soldered back to stock. I'll end up putting some form of safety back in but for now at least she starts, runs and stops all under her own power which was my first goal 
 

Edited October 2, 2019 by mosquitocoils

[mosquitocoils]

Next up it was time to get the OEM front lip fitted properly. The previous owner fitted a standard size FMIC but the piping coming off it didn't leave enough room for the lip to fit. I picked up a couple of different silicone joiners which bought me some clearance room, but even then the FMIC had to be moved back about an inch, AND then the lip still needed some trimming.

Unfortunate to do this to an OEM lip that actually looks really good, but now that it fits better most people would never know.

Edited October 4, 2019 by mosquitocoils

[AngryRB]

Awesome work mate! I put an RB30 in mine and hope to enjoy it soon when registered, they are very practical and i wont worry about it being stolen compared to my r33.

As.far as turbo's id go a gt3076 size and a 0.63 rear to get the heavy thing on boost early, on E85 it will be a good combo as my r33 with 0.83 rear isnt that responsive til 3k.... 

Im still thinking whats the perfect diff ratio/ turbo combo is best and i have an RB30 in mine...

They are a cool wagon for sure so enjoy ??

 

Edited October 6, 2019 by AngryRB

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

22 hours ago, AngryRB said:

gt3076 size and a 0.63 rear

So old

Turbo tech has moved forward so much since then.

[AngryRB]

On 07/10/2019 at 7:53 PM, Dose Pipe Sutututu said:

So old

Turbo tech has moved forward so much since then.

I said a "gt30 size??" Still to the average punter im sure they wouldnt  be disappointed with a gt3076 on an RB30 or 25 engine or feel much difference on the road , i cant imagine a gt3576 being brilliant on a street car...

Imagine a heavy auto stagea and waiting til 4-4.5k for it to do somthing.. boring!!

 

 

Edited October 8, 2019 by AngryRB