SilentJ20

Replaced the front hubs.  Well, I attempted to replace the front hubs.  Trying out Detroit Axle as reading HERE they seem to be a decent option.  Driver side was ok, took some time to remove the bolts but I eventually got it all back together.  Passenger side, however...  3 out of 4 bolts had enough thread damage from corrosion that I could barely get them out, and can't be re-used.  So after I get new bolts *sigh* I'll get the passenger side on.

On the plus side, the brakes are in excellent shape and I have a lot more time remaining than I thought.

10 hours ago, Max Capacity said:

My thought is, it's ok to drive it hard, just make sure you give it time to cool off, before shutting off the engine. I always made a point to try and coast as far is I could before shutting it off.  Think of coasting on the off ramp after you've been driving on the highway. Your mostly like going to have to stop at the end anyway. Even before getting home, just drive easy as you near home, coast if you can.

Good advice, and thankfully I'm already in the habit.  My previous car was a Saab 9-3 with the GM 2.0T that I learned about letting things cool down.  Paranoia and first turbocharged engine made me learn a lot.

18 minutes ago, Max Capacity said:

FWIW, we did a street tune on my wagon with 500 on the ej257. Your safe for WOT. Enjoy the fruits of your labor and money...

I figured I was probably safe for it.  Not much will change in the engine with another couple hundred miles.  I bet 95% of "break in" was done after a couple hundred.  But I think I'm trying to train myself to not flog the car, haha.  I know it's not exactly fragile, but I want to make sure I get into a habit of less 'racecar' and more 'daily driver with zip'.

Just an update to those who may be following.  Coming up on 1000 miles since first start, and the Learning View looks fantastic (screenshot from BtSsm):

Perfect IAM, zero knock events and the fuel correction % are less than 5% which is ideal.

Still haven't pushed too much above half-throttle/low boost.  But the LV doesn't reflect much open-loop data anyways (none, as far as I'm aware).

Had a small external coolant leak (turbo coolant hose) because of an old spring clamp.  Replaced it with a regular hose clamp and seems to be gone.

51 minutes ago, xt2005bonbon said:

Need to buy yet another rear wheel bearing. Left rear side is screaming! This time, I'll check what Napa has available instead of buying online.

And passenger side CV boot is leaking . Made a mess as usual. This time, boot was not split. Rather clamp became ever so slightly loose enough to make a mess. Kinna disappointed as it is a Raxle ($$$). Driver side did the same thing 6 months ago.

Are these hard to do?  I think my rears are beginning to rumble a bit...

Put a better hose clamp on the lower end of the Turbo Coolant line to hopefully stop a slow leak.  Noticed a cooked coolant smell a couple times and that I was slowly loosing coolant.  Fortunately it's an external leak that was easy to locate.  Should have replaced it during the short block job, but at least it's easy enough to get to now.  Ordered a whole new hose just because it was cheap.  Then I'll put better clamps on both ends.

New rubber + new & better clamps = good for a while.

Went to a little local car show, got a pic of the spec.B all cleaned up.

26 minutes ago, WRX USA said:

The only extra step is finding out the current draw of the item that you want to connect, which will be in the manual. I always do a Google search with the model # and “PDF” to find the manual. I couldn’t read the model number of your amp in your pictures, otherwise I would have done that step.

Yep, I have the manuals for both the amps already (MRP-M350 and MRP-F240).  They don't list the current draw, though.  Probably why most charts I see use watts instead.

You're right though, amperage ratings is just a single conversion from RMS watts.  Though there's a factor for amp efficiency that needs to be accounted for.  Class A/B is about 50% efficient, and I think Class D are 75% efficient.

So, my 300W rms amp would be 300 / 13.8V / 0.50 = 43A.   In the 40A category, that puts me within the 3% drop (critical electronics) for up to 10ft of 8awg.  Not sure how "critical" an amp is for voltage drop, but it's nice to see the marine wiring chart and the crutchfield amp chart match reasonably well.  Thanks for that chart, btw.  That will come in handy on my boat, and I should probably see if the sub amp the previous owner installed was done accordingly...

41 minutes ago, WRX USA said:

Here’s a chart that helps with wire gauge selection:

I've read charts like these, but it requires additional steps for car audio (this chart is for marine electronics, beyond just stereo I imagine).   The crutchfield chart is already designed with car audio in mind, and with no need to convert watts to amps or any other steps.

1 hour ago, xt2005bonbon said:

I think you should at least go 4 gauge. 8 gauge is a little small.

Thanks for the concern.  If I were to run the 4 channel and the sub amp together, that's only 550W RMS. Crutchfield's chart

for A/B class amps show 8 gauge is totally acceptable for the <10ft to the distribution block at the watts I'm running.  The 10awg run to the sub amp is also short and well within the needs for a 300W amp.  It's all OFC, so I'm not worried.

1 hour ago, xt2005bonbon said:

How big is your amp?

It's an oldschool 300W Alpine Mono sub amp.  Powers an (also oldschool) 12in Infinity.  More info and some pics are HERE.  It's simple, but very effective.  Don't need much power for IB.

The wire from the battery is 8awg and goes to a distribution block under the driver seat (removed nav DVD stuff).  I'm preparing to add a 4-channel under there also once I decide on what main speakers to upgrade to.  From the distribution block under the seat it's 10awg to the sub amp.

Little thing for yesterday.  I got tired of how the fuse for the sub amp was just loose in the engine bay.  It wasn't going anywhere, but I wanted more 'fixity'.  I modeled and printed a simple little clip/bracket out of PETG (only had grey, oh well) and attached it to the fuse box cover with 3M mounting tape.  I can pop the fuse out quickly so it doesn't impede the cover removal.

Drove for an hour and a half in 100deg F weather yesterday and it held up fine.

On 8/12/2023 at 9:28 PM, Gex said:

Another track day for the Camel wagon. Love this car. Unreal on the slicks. Need to do more for oil cooling though. Perrin oil cooler be damned.  I suspect I’m going to ditch this killer b header soon. It is massive and just bakes the oil pan and oil filter. Switch back to my AP header with much more clearance. 

Chasing down a PDK GT4. Don’t mind that oil temp warning.

Was this at The Ridge in Shelton, WA?  Been there once.  Neat track.  I'm going to try to get out there more, so maybe I'll spot you.

Also, nice run!  I'm far from an expert, but that looks like a blast.

On 8/3/2023 at 9:55 AM, tehspud said:

What headunits are people using now, in the year 2023? I'm looking to make this upgrade, and get something with wireless apple carplay. I'm looking at this Boss unit, because I really don't need XM/Satellite radio support. https://www.crutchfield.com/p_104BE920WP/Boss-Audio-BE920WCPA.html 

But I'm curious what others are doing. 

 

In my install I did a Sony XAV-AX3200.  It's one of the cheapest Sony head units, but Android Auto works great.  Fast, responsive, good sound.  I also added a backup camera but I ran that to the OEM nav screen using the composite/4-pin adapter thing.  That way the reverse isn't tied to the stereo display.  The black of the DD JDM kit doesn't match the rest of the console (stereo was silver), but I don't even notice anymore.  Almost forgot to mention it.

On 8/11/2023 at 10:36 AM, KZJonny said:

Not to get caught in the details, but does the DRL not run on the low beams? Just that I was under the impression it did.

I've also been sort of curious about this whole DRL debate. Is it the fact that the module runs (whichever...) bulbs on reduced wattage that is the problem? Ie: I was under the impression that on DRL mode, the bulbs are fed like 50-60% of normal amperage, so run a little dimmer, and it is this that causes their effective lives to be shortened. Meaning people are always running at 100% power output on the bulbs. (This is what I do, the first thing I do when I turn the car on is go to full output on headlights.)

OR

Is it that people are disabling the DRLs and driving around without any headlights on at all? And this is the way to get "longer life" out of your bulbs? This would mean driving with only the marker lights on?

 

Geniunely curious as where I live headlights on or DRLs is mandatory and quite vigourously enforced by the Po. If I'm allowed an opinion, I'm glad for it, since it makes it much easier to keep track of all the cars around you. I personally find it super annoying when people are driving around without full headlighting on, but if it's allowed in your jurisdiction, it's not on me to judge. I've seen alot about defeating the DRL module and always wondered what the deal was.

Yeah, like rhino said, the DRL on some years of Legacies (and various other cars and manufacturers) run the high beam bulbs at about half power.  A lot just don't care for the look, as the light ends up being VERY warm orange/yellow.

If someone wanted to do an LED swap or something this dual-voltage to the bulbs can be a hurdle.  Not sure what I'll do yet, but I still have normal function halogen high beams for now.

As far as I can tell DRLs are not legally required anywhere in the USA, so the police cannot actually enforce them unless there are local requirements to do so.  I don't know how they would, either, since older cars would have to be grandfathered in.  And since the adoption years vary so much in the US, it's almost impossible to know what models/years came with them.

DRLs started in Sweden in the late 70s, Volvo and Saab were the first brands to use them.  Sweden is so far north, a lot of driving happens at dusk, when visibility is the worst.  DRLs are absolutely helpful there.  But in the US in broad daylight, I find DRLs actually make it harder for me to see cars clearly as the bright LEDs they use nowadays really make it hard to for depth perception to track things.  Numerous reports discuss how DRL lead to false security (thinking actual headlights are on), and they actually lead to more crashes since without also turning on rear lights, certain driving conditions are more hazardous.  Like following a DRL-equipped car in the fog.  The DRL car thinks they can see ok because of the light, but the car behind them has a hard time seeing them without any rear lights on.

Just a personal choice for me.  I don't disagree with DRLs overall, but I think they need to be way less bright and flashy in order to be effective and not have the drawbacks.  If visibility is an issue, I'll turn on my driving lights so others can see me.

I just cut the wire to disable the DRL.  I didn't like how the DRL slowly cooked my hi-beam bulbs, and this way it makes it easy to explore alternate lighting options.  The cut wire is to disable only the DRL function while still allowing the hi-beam indicator to work.  It's also very reversible with a crimp connector if I decide to go back. 

Just a quick update:

I'm 500 miles into the break-in procedure. According to Exedy, the clutch is now considered 'broken in'.  But the rest of the engine will still be treated carefully (ie, no full boost and redline).  I've basically gradually increased to "normal" driving.  Mild boost, engine breaking during deceleration, not holding constant rpm for long times.  By my estimates, the engine has already rotated around 2 million times throughout various road conditions.  Not sure what another 2 million will do, but I'll slowly work into more serious conditions.

As for car health I have no leaks anywhere.  The oil is clean and coolant is green.  Haven't pulled a LearningView yet since until recently I've been babying it and it wouldn't be accurate.  But now that I'm driving more normal I'll pull one soon.  Hopefully nothing else major rears its head for some time.

What did I do in the last 24 hours?

I stared at it.  Though about washing it, but it's supposed to rain tomorrow.  Thought about detailing the inside, but if I'm putting off washing it because it's gonna rain tomorrow, I may as well put off the interior another couple days.  I did give it a couple quick sprays of a leather-scented interior freshener.

Also debating about going to a local-ish car show:  OCTURBOFEST

Not sure what it will be like.  Don't know if it's the kind of thing GTs or spec.Bs would go to.  Not looking to devote a bunch of time into a club, just want to see cars and maybe meet some neat people.

1 hour ago, Dishwasher said:

Pulled the motor today. 130,000 mile clutch with mostly highway miles is still in half decent shape. Still gonna replace it. Gonna start breaking down the short block shortly so the heads can get machined. Definitely bent the studs that go into the transmission while pulling it. Oops. First engine pull so feeling good otherwise. VF40 has no shaft play either. 

Just did a short block on mine a bit ago (had heads machined, did clutch, etc).  What's your reason?  Mine was ringlands!

At first I was terrified of taking things apart.  Well, more like getting anxiety over seeing all the parts scattered around.  But for all their quirks, at least the engines come out easy and seem simple enough to work on.

4 hours ago, m sprank said:

You want some boost.  You want varying engine speeds and loads, not cruising.  You want to engine brake.  Try to stay out of high rpm/high load/high boost situations.  But 5psi is a good thing for break in. 

Fair enough.  Thanks for the tip.  I'm not reading boost over obd2, right now, but I'm sure I'm getting a little.  Especially now that I'm driving more normally.  And it's all city.  Lots of shifting and engine braking.

I wish I could make the factory nav screen show boost...

Approaching 500 miles on the new short block and clutch.  No leaking fluids, no missing fluids, STI clutch is quiet  with good engagement.   Just starting to transition from grandma-levels of acceleration to "normal".  Still haven't really thrown any boost at it.

The Owners Manual says 1000 miles of under 4000rpm and little/no boost for break-in.  Clutch (Exedy) says 500 miles needed.  Online opinions and research is all over the place.  So I'm ending up n the middle--500miles of soft driving then normal for another 500 or so.  No high power pulls for a while yet.

I'm just happy to be driving it fairly normal again.

Well, this is a quick resolution.

Engine back in!

Took a full 5qt of oil to fill it, as it was bone dry other than whatever was used during assembly.  Coolant added/burped really easy, no overheating.

The sti clutch, pressure plate and flywheel (oem Exedy brand, nothing fancy) will take some getting used to, as now the engage point is deeper into the pedal.  I need to take it easy for a few tanks and do lots of stop/go city stuff to help it bed in before I really mash the skinny pedal.

It's taken 6 weeks and at least a half dozen good chunks of work, but it saved so much money and was a great time hanging out with a good friend.  But it's essentially a new engine ready for another 139k miles.

Ok, I meant to make a post a while ago, but this is now starting with a dump of everything from the beginning to now:

On May 31st, I noticed a cloud behind me, along with poor performance (no boost, rough idle, etc).  I returned home from work to oil purging itself from my dipstick hole.

Now, this struck me as odd as oil usually is needed to stay INSIDE the engine.  The following day I started it in the garage with the oil fill cap removed to see if I had any crankcase pressure.  Enter, the little engine that could...

CHUGGA CHUGGA

I don't have a video of the rear of the car, but this is a pretty close approximation:

Apparently, somewhere along it's lifetime my spec.B decided I was worthy enough to witness the absence of rings in a cylinder.  The magic lights in the dash and a code reader reported cylinder 4 with a misfire condition.  While sourcing a new, OEM short block at a price that didn't make me consider conduct of questionable legality, I started the extraction and disassembly process of the boxer-shaped boat anchor currently residing in my engine bay.  Quick shout out to the power steering and AC system being designed so they do NOT need to be disconnected to remove the engine!

New block, seal kit and coolant!

Once the necessitated teardown level was achieved, I discovered the main culprit.  Look Ma!  No ringlands!

Along the way, I discovered the clutch was on its deathbed and a CV boot nearest the turbo was beginning to split and release its precious lube contents.  However, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the oil and coolant had remained completely independent of each other.  No forbidden milkshakes.  And there was no sludge in the oil pan.

Other than the obvious, the block showed remarkably little wear for almost 140k miles.  Crosshatching was present in all areas other than the blown ringland.  The boxer block really is a neat thing.  It's very compact  Maybe not the lightest complete assembly in the world, but once the heads were off I could say I finally lifted an engine block onto my workbench (don't worry, I did use an engine hoist and stand for the work).  Cylinders 1 & 3 did have some significant carbon build-up, though.

I obtained an OEM STI clutch and flywheel after freeing myself from the grip of Analysis Paralysis comparing all my available options.  I know there are LOTS of available parts to mod these cars for increased power and such.  But since I will be keeping this car at stock power levels I used almost all OEM parts unless a reputable alternative was available for a lesser price.  This included extra parts needed like spark plugs (because now is a great time), rubber breather hoses that had solidified into brittle plastic, the PCV valve, tools, and other misc. odds & ends.

I got the heads resurfaced and cleaned, a mechanic buddy took my oil pan and valve covers to his work to solvent wash them in their tank.  Now, this is where I owe my friend a LOT.  He's a good friend and a mechanic at a local Subaru dealer.  He uses factory specs and sealants (as opposed to 'good enough') and takes pride in his work.  He doesn't know yet, but he'll be getting a nice thank-you gift for helping me with this.  When the garage looked like this:

I was getting anxious.  I'm no stranger to working on mechanical things, working on cars or my boat, but an engine bay disassembled onto multiple tables was another level.

Putting things back together has been interesting.  It's amazing how hardened and brittle seals and gaskets can get (like I said, this deep of a dive is a first for me).  Here it is as it sits on the stand now:

Everything cleaned along the way.  Replaced necessary valve bucket shims (bucket shims... that wacky setup was a new one for me...).  New seals and gaskets everywhere.  OEM recommended threebond sealant.

And oh lord I should have bought Brakleen by the GALLON.  The chlorinated store brand stuff is 95% as effective and costs much less, but I should have invested in a reusable spray can and much more of the precious solvent.

Providing I can get the intake reassembled this week, this Friday we hope to get everything back in.  Then comes the oil system priming and hopefully a successful start.

More to come...

50 minutes ago, KZJonny said:

Bummer about the trashed ringland dude. Hope the teardown reveals the least possible amount of damage.

I know it isn’t really funny, but I did laugh out loud when I read about the Ringland-b-Gone.

At least it’s a product that actually works as advertised…. rare these days.

 

Yeah, I'm preparing to buy a short block.  Might just be for the best at 140k.  Want to keep this spec.B running for a loooong time.  Hopefully no escaping pieces messed up the head or turbo.  We'll see.  I'll start a thread for the teardown/rebuild.

After adding oil to safely start again, mine decided it wanted to become a choo-choo train!

So much crankcase exhaust...

Massive cloud of smoke from exhaust when starting, exhaust/fuel smell from oil fill cap, misfire on cylinder 4.   I wish I knew when I added the ringland-b-gone.  Looks like I'm tearing it down...