RumblyXT

Is that a Mazda filter I see? Sacrilege!

27 minutes ago, KZJonny said:

No matter how nice and clean a car is tho, I can never convince myself to pull the trigger on an automatic.

I'm actively looking for a manual bug eye/hawkeye Impreze or Outback/Legacy in manual so I can finally move on my AT Outback... Haha! I like that car for being reliable and non-turbo and being able to fit all sorts of junk into it, but every time I move the gear selector to "D" and.... that's it. It really takes some wind our of my sails.

I know.. I've been looking for a manual myself for some time now, but they're just hard to find in good condition with a turbo, most previous owners tend to abuse these cars. There's plenty of WRXs, but I'm convinced the versatility the wagons offers, especially with kids and space in the trunk for bikes and cargo, etc. is just awesome, best of both worlds: Grocery getter, people mover, and even a bit of off road and go fast capability.

Look what this guys is selling down here, but I can't reach him.. He has his contact info removed! Argh! Check out the mileage, that car looks mint! I want to jump in into another OBXT project lol..

https://offerup.com/item/detail/b91a7c42-ef5e-37f8-8bce-8d1ae6d94129?q=subaru+outback+&cid=5.1

3 minutes ago, KZJonny said:

Nope, there was an IAG pickup/windage tray combo on sale around black Friday. Been sitting on a shelf for a while, but it is already installed and just waiting for me to clean up the mating surfaces on the oil pal and block to reinstall. (with stainless steel bolts and lock washers, so they will never corrode again....)

Oh perfect! You're set with this combo then.

4 minutes ago, KZJonny said:

Thanks for reading through and commenting man! I really do want to know if there are things I should be doing that I'm not.

Sure thing brother. I'm no expert by any means, just sharing the bit of knowledge I've gained in these 4 years.

5 minutes ago, KZJonny said:

Added to the list of "to do's". That one is at least an easy win.

FSM calls for replacing the T/B gasket after removing it, but you may get away with reusing it if treated carefully.

Nice! A lot of detailed work, but all well worth it.

You mentioned you’ll be replacing the vacuum lines, will that include the PVC valve too? Might as well..

I cleaned the injectors with cleaner using a 9V battery and alligator clips, maybe you don’t need to do this though.. but worth flushing them a few times just in case.

And the last thing which imo, is very important, are you keeping the OE oil pickup tube? They tend to crack and starve the motor of oil. Why not upgrade it? 
Other than that, I think you have all bases covered. Maybe someone else can give their input?

ps: definitely clean the T/B.. Open the blade slowly, and once cleaned with T/B cleaner, close it back up slowly.. (don’t let the blade slam shut).

That’s how it is with these things.. you plan for a simple overhaul, you end up doing a lot more.

You’d feel bad later on saying, damn it should have done that, “while I was there”.. lol

Progress! 

Hmm.. 3 of them leaking eh? Pretty sure by now you've made sure that head is not cracked and it's just the valve seals not seating completely.

Yeah, those Hondas K20A2/3 from the Integra Type S and and K20Z1 from the Civic Si are absolutely awesome platforms, revving all the way to 8-9K sometimes, so much fun and reliable. If they had been AWD drivetrains, I'd have probably never switched over to Subaru.

Good progress.

Nowadays makes no sense to me why some people heavily modify their engines for these “crazy power gains”, only to later probably have to fix the entire work they did because the motor couldn’t take the added boost/pressure.

Keep it stock, maybe a few subtle power mods here and there, set it for reliability and that engine should last long and still offer plenty of fun.

Maybe I’m getting old, but to me 300-320hp range seems more than adequate  power for these cars.

Thread revive:
So who’s watching the upcoming solar eclipse? Several IG posts have suggested to prepare with food and water hehe.. sounds like fear monger.. I’m going on a conspiracy tangent now: CERN says they’ll be testing their Hadron Collider that day.. coincidence?

Will the VF52 be for this motor?
Post some pics.. while you’re there

Dude, I love Ultrasonic cleaners, they leave parts so clean! A 15L one is great, I can't imagine a 20L one.

I have seen people create one from one of those Costco big plastic animal cookies containers and attaching the cap with Velcro to a cheap buffer machine from Walmart, leaving it hanging while it vibrates lol They actually work really well. I know those machines are not cheap at all.

Definitely replace the valves seals while you're here. And make sure you blow a lot of compressed air through all the holes/ports of the heads. You will be surprised how much junk/metal shaving probably fell in there while they were being machined. At least this is what happened to me.

Actually, you don't have to split the block to remove the pistons.

But yeah, I'd definitely not split the block unless absolutely necessary, unless it had been through some bigger damage like a spun bearing, which then would require a lot more work. Best to leave it that way then. Just reassure yourself with a compression test before mounting in on the car, it's much easier off the car than on it.

I hear you on working in the cold.. the warm temps down here definitely help a lot in that sense. But you hate FL anyways haha 

6 hours ago, KZJonny said:

Picked up the heads the morning.

7 thou off to flatten them up, so I have one more skim more or less before I need to either go to thicker head gaskets or swap to a new set of heads I guess?

One more thing to start packratting I suppose. Guess I'll be heading to the scrapyard to pull the heads ouf of the 05 sedan there. Can't have too many, and more valve buckets it always a good thing.

Oh wow, that much eh? I thought they'd remove something like 2-3 thousands.. hmm

In that case, I'd think a thicker MLS H/Gs would be better to compensate for the material removed. I swear by the SixStar MLS I used, they were great.

Hope you don't mind me photo bombing your thread, but a pic is worth a thousand words lol

On 3/24/2024 at 1:26 PM, KZJonny said:

So this whole thing is snowballing on me (of course it is...) and not I'm messing around with flattening all the mating surfaces I can with the sharpening stone and some 400 grit paper wet sanded with oil, etc.... Just wanting to make sure that everything buttons back up nicely when the time comes to put it all back together.

 

I am also getting a little OCD about cleaning up the outside of everything, and trying to remove a lot of the crud that has built up over 20 years of use. To that end I picked up a soda blasting canister, and it's in the mail. I know how good they can be for cleaning up old carbs and the like, but has anyone here used one to blast the outside of heads, cases etc....? I mean, I'll have a go and see what results I can get, but I'll take any advice that anyone has as well. My first thought has been to get a vapour blasting cabinet, but at a little over $2K USD, I figure I could just get a new short block with the money, and it would be plenty shiny.

I may yet consider it if there is any demand in my area for vapour blasting/honing as an occasional weekend cash earner, but I'm kind of lazy as far as promoting that kind of thing, and don't use social media, so I suspect it would really be an excuse for me to pull the trigger on a cabinet. 

 

Thoughts always welcome. Taking a break from the 3 hours I've spent cleaning up ONE TGV SIDE. Ugh. But it looks a lot better than when it started, and the butterflies are gone now. I know it doesn't make much of a difference, but at least if the motor fails in the shut position, the car will at least still run fine, and not be a brick.

I did what I could with just degreaser and a brush, covering all the head ports as best as I could.

Will you be replacing the Piston rings as well? Why not do so since you're already here? If you're going to though, just make sure they end up with the correct ring gap (very important).

This was the end result after cleaning the block with degreaser and a brush as much as I could..

For the pistons, this chemical I used and a wire brush worked great.

Berryman Chem-Dip Carburator Cleaner (great chemical for removing the carbon deposits off the pistons).

Before..

After the Chem-Dip

I doubt that block is warped then..
The biggest challenge I had was removing the block alignment dowels without damaging the mating surface of the block.

The sand paper method, even though it may seem a bit rudimentary, works really well.. and to be honest I think I ended up using much finer grain than 300.. it was more like 500, 800 and 1,000. The most important thing is making sure it’s truly straight and the straight edge assures that.

Looking forward to seeing how that VF52 turns out for you. 

While you are at it, you might also want to check the Cylinder block out-of-roundness.. The turbo motors hold up better since the H/Gs are MLS, so I don't expect it to be uneven, especially if the engine has not been abused, but after so many heat cycles and mileage, who knows.. 

Back when I overhauled my first ej251, besides machining the heads, my Cylinder block was also bent a little, I think 0.0003" were going under the straight edge back then.. Believe it or not, I fixed it myself at home with a square piece of counter granite (which I first made sure it was totally straight using the same machinist straight edge). I removed the 4 alignment dowels with a bolt of their ID and used a combination of different grit sand paper glued on to the counter granite with the help of some WD40 to slide it, just using the weight of the granite block passing it back and forward till the block was straight. I took the risk, but It actually  came out great lol

In the end, from the original 0.0003", only the 0.0001" gauge went under and with difficulty. When I put everything back together using Six Star MLS H/Gs, that sucker never leaked again.

3 hours ago, KZJonny said:

Belt maybe too loose. Slipping when there is lots of load on the pump? Would explain the dust.

Thorough burping of the system as well can’t hurt. Going lock to lock a few times (wheels in the air if stationary, or in a large parking lot?) might help.

I’ve seem people do this on two peices of cardboard/old tiles with grease in between to prevent grinding their tires.

Hmm.. Belt too lose, ok.. I don't have a gauge to check tension on it. All I do is bending the belt 90 degrees from its resting position and seeing what resistance it offers.

Yes, both front wheels were up in the air when I repeated the lock to lock movements 6-7 times. It seemed to have burped system well, and didn't whine then but now noise is back now when turning wheels while driving at low speeds. 

So I know we got more pressing matters with this car, ie: tuning the ECU. But I was wondering if you guys can offer any tips on eliminating hard steering/loud P/S Pump belt whining..

I’ve already replaced both the suction hose and the O-Ring, it got a little better, but the noise comes back eventually, especially on start up when the engine is cold and when turning at very low speeds..

What else could it be? The belt seems to have the right tension.. but I see dust from it being worn and spreading on the alternator..

2 hours ago, blackobxt said:

so the O2 sensor pictured in the downpipe is what would normally be the pre-turbo O2 sensor? If so i dont recall ever seeing a denso with yellow sheathing.  

Correct. I honestly don't know what the color it should be. Although it looks a lot like the one the old ej255 had on, but a bit discolored through use.

This new O2 sensor seems to have been working fine ever since I completed the swap and the work I did never brought up a check engine light till now. I'm not sure if an ej20x uses a different O2 sensor though..

Both the ej20X and the ej255 are very similar engines, except the jdm one is 2.0L and dual AVCS. But all sensors above it and even the injectors should be exactly the same.

I bought the usdm OEM O2 sensor because all the components I used, except for the (long block, turbo and exhaust manifold), remained usdm: ECU, I/M, injectors, not sure if you remember I even swapped the Intake Cam Sprockets over to make it as close as possible to it being an ej255. More like a hybris ej255 I know lol yeah this was quite the experiment.. Hey, but it's been working fine so far and hasn't blown up.. yet.. fingers crossed.

So, I'm not sure if the fact this usdm O2 sensor is now located further back on the DP, the ECU is getting confused an/or getting late readings from the gases getting to it a bit later.

This may all go away once it's "properly" tuned, we really got to get around to doing that.

2 hours ago, xt2005bonbon said:

I think his IAM has stayed around that value for a while.

I never saw that CEL code before. From a quick Google search, looks like either the 02 sensor has issue, or the wiring is faulty? Check connections? I am not sure if the fact that the o2 sensor is after the turbo is correlated with the CEL. Worth asking this question to the tuner.

Interestingly, your long term fuel trims look fine too.

Not sure.. O2 sensor is OEM and brand new when I installed the motor. 

I know that timing at 1,650 rpm is looking like..

Car started showing this code yesterday.. not sure if it has to do with the O2 sensor now being located behind the Turbo.. Included is also a new LV table, not tuned yet.. engine sound/behaves good otherwise and has been kept below 2K rpms all this time.

Should I worry about the P0133 code? A quick Google search returned this:

No problem man. You helped me out a lot back when I was putting together the other motor.

Like I said, I really wish I had the time for a new project, but I honestly can't get into it now.

That VF52 CHRA shaft had no play at all when I removed it, if you remember all I replaced was the hot housing for it. All you'd need for it is a hardware kit and balance it.

Send me a PM with your address.

For those that don't know, the motor was replaced after a spun bearing (it basically seized), I stopped driving it immediately. I have not taken apart the long block. However, when I removed the oil, there weren't barely any gold flakes in it.

I'm almost sure there's still life in this motor if you can spend time to fix it, it might just need crank bearings replaced.

I'd hate to throw it away and rather give it to one of you guys to be put to good use again.

1 hour ago, Infosecdad said:

Hope you find something that can make use of it, it'll help if you add a general location in the title or post.

Of course.. location added.