Renegade_
08-29-2006, 11:37 AM
Sorry, but I just have to rant – read if you want and give me advice, but this is just mainly for me to rant a bit and for me to get out a lot of what I have been thinking about lately…
Turn around NOW if you don’t feel like reading 3 pages worth of me talking about ****. Cliff notes will be at the bottom.
Alright…So I own a 2000 RS. I have been planning on doing an engine swap for a little bit now and found a v5 WRX RA engine for a decent price (2600 including everything, block, turbo, wiring, cross-member, ecu, the works, etc). I have been thinking though: Do I really deserve this? Right now I am 18 and haven’t been driving for very long and I do realize my limitations as a driver and that I am not nearly as skilled as I will be in the future. That would be like putting power in irresponsible hands and not knowing how to utilize it. With power comes responsibility – a responsibility I am not sure I am ready for mainly because I am not truly aware of what I am getting in to.
The reason I question this is because I have never fully “driven” something which puts down as much power as this motor does. I drove an STi for all of 2 minutes around a parking lot a while ago but never got a feel for what they are – so I am wondering if I should do it. A lot of what I am talking about is respect for power.
You can read plenty of stories where 17/18 year old kids crash their STis/WRXs that their parents bought them because they don’t realize what the car can do. I don’t want to be one of the dumbass kids which makes his car fast and acts like a prick about it and going around flying through traffic – that isn’t me and I don’t want to be perceived that way. I don’t think I ever talked up my car ever and I don’t like to brag.
By looking at the numbers for the engine I am getting it’s pretty damn intimidating and that is a main concern of mine – 8k redline, VF23, 280 to the crank with cast internals which could obviously make more in it’s stock form. I mean damn, that’s a pretty damn powerful engine to me no matter what anyone says. The RS engine I have no puts down no more than 170 to the crank and already to me it’s quick (again, to me, not to you, I know the car isn’t fast, it is quick in comparison to other cars I have driven) but I can definitely feel the limitations.
But then again, I am thinking in another fashion as well – it’s not like I won’t be earning it. I plan on doing this swap by myself but I don’t think that I realize the magnitude of what I am getting myself into. I will have to unhook everything in the entire car and rewire the works. I mean, that’s no easy task by any means. I see pictures where the car has no interior and wires are EVERYWHERE. The fact that there are wires everywhere is not intimidating – it’s where to start that I don’t know and that’s what scares me. I know stuff about cars but I don’t know if I know enough. For example:
I start by disconnecting every tube, wire and attachment to the engine block and pull it. That’s not that hard – I did it with pete (teh dirt) and it just looked tedious and it involves a lot of
“you sure you got that unplugged?”
“yep”
“you got that other thing?”
“oh no I didn’t.”
And after playing with it long enough every little bolt you forgot should be removed and the engine should come out no problem. That’s not the part that scares me. Putting the other engine in? That’s not the part that scares me. Pulling the harness? Yes, that scares me.
I am guessing I would start my simply disconnecting all the wiring to the engine, disconnecting power steering, water pump, all the dumb little vacuum lines everywhere, and the list goes on. This part is nothing more than trial and error with less trial and error if someone that has pulled an EJ engine before is there with you.
Once the engine is out my questions begin. Should you keep the other engine out of the car so you wire up the JDM harness to the JDM motor and the USDM Harness to the USDM motor and compare them and merge accordingly? Should I keep the USDM motor in the car and merge the harnesses like that so I see where everything goes in it’s current form? How should I go about this? And then another thing is, how exactly do you go about “merging” them? Do you chop the corresponding wires up on both harnesses and then solder them together based on their connectors? How can you tell if the connectors are even the same since the wiring outputs in the back of the JDM ECU are different? There are just so many damn questions.
But then again, I am thinking: Hey, this is how I learned about computers. I just said “Screw it, I’m buying my parts” and when they got here I had learned how to build a computer in a day. I am wondering though if cars are as logical as computers where it’s like “Well, there is only 1 place to plug this **** in, so it has to go there.”
Again, I don’t know because I haven’t chopped up a harness ever.
I am not retarded when it comes to technical stuff and basically you can explain anything to me in the most complicated terms and I will understand it: Hence why I am going to school for computer engineering. I really want to learn about every single function in a car but I guess I am scared at the effort it will take. Or maybe I am scared about not knowing how much effort it will take or me not realizing the magnitude of what I plan on doing. Maybe it is harder than I thought. It’s not that I dislike failure, it’s that I dislike failure when I am doing something I know I should be able to do.
In other news: College. Maybe I am crazy for trying to do this at this stage of my life, maybe I don’t realize the financial burden that college puts on people, maybe I am just ignorant to the fact. My first semester I have paid for without a loan but I don’t plan on paying my way through college the entire way. I am paying about 4k a semester (so 8k a year) for school after all the student aid, etc etc etc. I do have a mutual fund I (yes I, not my parents) created a long time ago but dear god I do NOT want to withdraw from it because at it’s current growth rate when I am at retirement age, it will be enough money so that I can live off of interest. I plan on paying 1 semester a year from the money I earn during the summer, and getting a student loan for the other one, the spring semester. That will leave me with about 16,000$ in debt when I am done college to pay back which I have no problems with. Does this seem way too easy or is it just me? I understand that I will have rent to pay, utilities, etc; but this is how I look at it.
If I can pay my rent/utilities, my insurance, and my gas from a part time job I have during the school year it is financially possible for me to do a swap and I have no problems only being able to pay for food and living sparsely.
I just sold my old car for 2k so now basically that’s the majority of the engine. However, I am not made of money and I realize that I do have a budget. If I get a job that pays for everything and only gives me another 0-100 bucks of “play” money a month, in all honesty: I could care less because I have a swap to keep me busy for 2+ months.
As you can tell, I am really committed to this idea but there are just stupid little things that irk me for this project. I will have someone helping me with it (my roommate) which swaps DSMs and can do a 7 to 6 bolt swap in a weekend and make it operational with everything on Monday morning for pickup. He has never worked on a suby however.
So…
This has been 3 pages in word about me ranting – Anyone that read this far: you either have a lot of free time or you have a good attention span and I thank you for just reading it. Thanks for listening to my rant, just a lot of what I have been thinking about these past few days and you have no idea how much it has helped me writing this down.
Thank you – and wow that took a while. 1,645 words.
CN: I want to do a swap, a lot of crap I am thinking about makes me question why I have the right to make my car that fast when I am only 18 going 19. College is coming up but I think I can make it through without THAT much difficulty and I will have help with it. I think that I have everything planned out but I wonder if I am just naïve to think that life is this easy.
Turn around NOW if you don’t feel like reading 3 pages worth of me talking about ****. Cliff notes will be at the bottom.
Alright…So I own a 2000 RS. I have been planning on doing an engine swap for a little bit now and found a v5 WRX RA engine for a decent price (2600 including everything, block, turbo, wiring, cross-member, ecu, the works, etc). I have been thinking though: Do I really deserve this? Right now I am 18 and haven’t been driving for very long and I do realize my limitations as a driver and that I am not nearly as skilled as I will be in the future. That would be like putting power in irresponsible hands and not knowing how to utilize it. With power comes responsibility – a responsibility I am not sure I am ready for mainly because I am not truly aware of what I am getting in to.
The reason I question this is because I have never fully “driven” something which puts down as much power as this motor does. I drove an STi for all of 2 minutes around a parking lot a while ago but never got a feel for what they are – so I am wondering if I should do it. A lot of what I am talking about is respect for power.
You can read plenty of stories where 17/18 year old kids crash their STis/WRXs that their parents bought them because they don’t realize what the car can do. I don’t want to be one of the dumbass kids which makes his car fast and acts like a prick about it and going around flying through traffic – that isn’t me and I don’t want to be perceived that way. I don’t think I ever talked up my car ever and I don’t like to brag.
By looking at the numbers for the engine I am getting it’s pretty damn intimidating and that is a main concern of mine – 8k redline, VF23, 280 to the crank with cast internals which could obviously make more in it’s stock form. I mean damn, that’s a pretty damn powerful engine to me no matter what anyone says. The RS engine I have no puts down no more than 170 to the crank and already to me it’s quick (again, to me, not to you, I know the car isn’t fast, it is quick in comparison to other cars I have driven) but I can definitely feel the limitations.
But then again, I am thinking in another fashion as well – it’s not like I won’t be earning it. I plan on doing this swap by myself but I don’t think that I realize the magnitude of what I am getting myself into. I will have to unhook everything in the entire car and rewire the works. I mean, that’s no easy task by any means. I see pictures where the car has no interior and wires are EVERYWHERE. The fact that there are wires everywhere is not intimidating – it’s where to start that I don’t know and that’s what scares me. I know stuff about cars but I don’t know if I know enough. For example:
I start by disconnecting every tube, wire and attachment to the engine block and pull it. That’s not that hard – I did it with pete (teh dirt) and it just looked tedious and it involves a lot of
“you sure you got that unplugged?”
“yep”
“you got that other thing?”
“oh no I didn’t.”
And after playing with it long enough every little bolt you forgot should be removed and the engine should come out no problem. That’s not the part that scares me. Putting the other engine in? That’s not the part that scares me. Pulling the harness? Yes, that scares me.
I am guessing I would start my simply disconnecting all the wiring to the engine, disconnecting power steering, water pump, all the dumb little vacuum lines everywhere, and the list goes on. This part is nothing more than trial and error with less trial and error if someone that has pulled an EJ engine before is there with you.
Once the engine is out my questions begin. Should you keep the other engine out of the car so you wire up the JDM harness to the JDM motor and the USDM Harness to the USDM motor and compare them and merge accordingly? Should I keep the USDM motor in the car and merge the harnesses like that so I see where everything goes in it’s current form? How should I go about this? And then another thing is, how exactly do you go about “merging” them? Do you chop the corresponding wires up on both harnesses and then solder them together based on their connectors? How can you tell if the connectors are even the same since the wiring outputs in the back of the JDM ECU are different? There are just so many damn questions.
But then again, I am thinking: Hey, this is how I learned about computers. I just said “Screw it, I’m buying my parts” and when they got here I had learned how to build a computer in a day. I am wondering though if cars are as logical as computers where it’s like “Well, there is only 1 place to plug this **** in, so it has to go there.”
Again, I don’t know because I haven’t chopped up a harness ever.
I am not retarded when it comes to technical stuff and basically you can explain anything to me in the most complicated terms and I will understand it: Hence why I am going to school for computer engineering. I really want to learn about every single function in a car but I guess I am scared at the effort it will take. Or maybe I am scared about not knowing how much effort it will take or me not realizing the magnitude of what I plan on doing. Maybe it is harder than I thought. It’s not that I dislike failure, it’s that I dislike failure when I am doing something I know I should be able to do.
In other news: College. Maybe I am crazy for trying to do this at this stage of my life, maybe I don’t realize the financial burden that college puts on people, maybe I am just ignorant to the fact. My first semester I have paid for without a loan but I don’t plan on paying my way through college the entire way. I am paying about 4k a semester (so 8k a year) for school after all the student aid, etc etc etc. I do have a mutual fund I (yes I, not my parents) created a long time ago but dear god I do NOT want to withdraw from it because at it’s current growth rate when I am at retirement age, it will be enough money so that I can live off of interest. I plan on paying 1 semester a year from the money I earn during the summer, and getting a student loan for the other one, the spring semester. That will leave me with about 16,000$ in debt when I am done college to pay back which I have no problems with. Does this seem way too easy or is it just me? I understand that I will have rent to pay, utilities, etc; but this is how I look at it.
If I can pay my rent/utilities, my insurance, and my gas from a part time job I have during the school year it is financially possible for me to do a swap and I have no problems only being able to pay for food and living sparsely.
I just sold my old car for 2k so now basically that’s the majority of the engine. However, I am not made of money and I realize that I do have a budget. If I get a job that pays for everything and only gives me another 0-100 bucks of “play” money a month, in all honesty: I could care less because I have a swap to keep me busy for 2+ months.
As you can tell, I am really committed to this idea but there are just stupid little things that irk me for this project. I will have someone helping me with it (my roommate) which swaps DSMs and can do a 7 to 6 bolt swap in a weekend and make it operational with everything on Monday morning for pickup. He has never worked on a suby however.
So…
This has been 3 pages in word about me ranting – Anyone that read this far: you either have a lot of free time or you have a good attention span and I thank you for just reading it. Thanks for listening to my rant, just a lot of what I have been thinking about these past few days and you have no idea how much it has helped me writing this down.
Thank you – and wow that took a while. 1,645 words.
CN: I want to do a swap, a lot of crap I am thinking about makes me question why I have the right to make my car that fast when I am only 18 going 19. College is coming up but I think I can make it through without THAT much difficulty and I will have help with it. I think that I have everything planned out but I wonder if I am just naïve to think that life is this easy.