Lawson's 818C

  • The car has finally started without any mechanical carnage! (See video)
    • It has a new passenger cylinder head now since the last attempt.
  • Engine
    • I disassembled the engine while it was still in the car. This involved removing the timing components, turbo, partially removing the intake, the intercooler, misc hoses, and half of the exhaust manifold. All said, quite time consuming but everything was possible to do without pulling the engine. The clearance was very tight for doing the timing components, removing the head, and installing the turbo. I had to shorten my 10mm allen socket so it would be short enough to install the cam pulleys, but nothing else required any modifications or special tools.
    • The engine appears to be running pretty well now. I need to tidy up the wiring some more, finishing bleeding the coolant system, and solve the rough idle. I’m not sure what’s causing the rough idle, but the tune is for a stock WRX and not a hybrid motor. My injectors are STi so they’re slightly bigger than stock WRX but only like 100cc. There also could be a small vacuum leak or something I haven’t sealed well enough. Once I get an unlocked ecu I will try adjusting the injector size and see if that solves it.
  • Transmission
    • Fixed my axle seal leak and replaced the drain plug washer. Then refilled with 3.7Qts of 75w-90 gear oil. So far, the leaks seem to have been fixed 🙂 

  • Turbo re-install


  • Timing belt assembly removed. Access was tight but overall not too bad.


  • I had to remove the rear cross bar in order to install the turbo.