Senseless1

My hands were like frozen clubs this morning. Definitely taking the day off today LOL.

Yes left/driver's side front window gusset

I think it went in okay. Once I had removed the turbo and had the appropriate amount of space it stabbed really nicely in spite of my load level being at a diagonal. Well, left with 3 full vehicles filled to the brim, one highly amused AAA tow driver, a wife deserving of great favors and only missed my soft deadline by 30 minutes. I'm not keeping deadlines for this project going forward. Phase 1 of the First month free storage swap is done, and we live to see another day.

Oh god I don't remember paying attention to that lol hope my flywheel doesn't have to self clearance lol But seriously...I had to cut the turbo out because of one stupid little oil feed being a different type of fitting from my aftermarket oil feed line... What a nightmare. Literally had to drive 20 minutes and borrow a sawzall in panic mode. So the bottom (of course not the top) downpipe nut see zed on the stud. I'm expecting it break now (I'm slav squatting over the engine bay mind you so I don't have to lay in a pile of heat wrap dust) Oh good the stud popped free. We are back in business! Slav squat continues ratcheting continues. Temp is in the upper 80's now and I'm in a storage unit.... Stud seizes... Awesome! Let's break it! ... Threads roll over and stud free spins really tight. Are you Fing kidding me! Exhaust manifold fell down and up pipe slipped through the subframe, so I'll need to lift the engine back up to slide that in. AC compressor brackets are not interchangeable... Still going at it. About to tow it out and clean up.

Of course she doesn't want to mate up. Taking a break to rehydrate then going back for round 2. Should be straight forward. Jack trans up to clear engine mounts during stabbing Not sure if I'm hung up on the clutch disk or engine mounts dragging the subframe. Either way I might be close enough to use some bell housing bolts at the top to help achieve the right angle to engage to clutch disk and pilot bearing.

Problems I still have ahead: scheduling lol I still have an engine in the back of my car, but need to transport the hoist to remove it lol Oil drain is going to be a nightmare. I may need to pull the turbo to get that the way I want it. Mating the trans might be a fight. Going back to 6 bellhousing bolts instead of 4...am I getting that lazy? lol. I may just slap the engine in and load up the rest of the parts to complete at a later date just to make sure I can get the storage unit squared away first to meet deadline. Anyways breakfast time.

Another early morning! It's kind of rough getting started, but its nice and quiet on a quarantine morning in the city. Power steering return hose installed, bellhousing helicoil installed, cleaned up and reused the clutch and flywheel hardware sending them home with blue loctite. She looks ready!

If you still need one I just grabbed one from the yard I may or may not need.i broke my mirror but the gusset might be fine. I'll know by this evening.

Rise and shine boys. Got an early start and installed the front sway bar, tie rod jam nuts, and power steering pressure hose and reservoir. Really getting tired of the itchiness from my heat wrap. Seems like antiseize in that if I just look at it I'm covered. I called in a favor to borrow some money to source a power steering return line and junkyard mirror I'm about to go order, then I'll be moving things around to stage for engine install including installing the clutch. I'm waiting to drop the engine in to get the power steering return hose installed first. These lines suck to work on with almost no space. I'd rather hustle tomorrow than have to pop the axle out to get space and fight after the engine is in. Coming along. Still planning to have the engine installed and storage unit empty by tomorrow.

https://sl-i.net/FORUM/showthread.php?18087-Subaru-Factory-Service-Manuals-(FSM)-Every-Model-USDM-EU For factory service manuals. Good forum, but too many rules for me.

Not that you can really see anything but here it is. For the record, don't do what I'm about to do and use parts like this:

I spent my last $20 on the oil pan gasket. I was able to remove the rust and achieve some semblance of a consistent surface finish, so while it might be grabby, hold like crap, and burn up my new clutch disk real fast it'll have to work for now. I think it'll be fine short term. I used fine steel wool for the final passes using a cross hatch pattern similar to what you would put on a brake rotor to help the friction material break in evenly. I think it's becoming painfully obvious that this swap won't be ready for Boxerfest autocross in September, but if I can drive it there and back that'll be good enough. Moroso oil pickup had to come out because it doesn't fit the Forester XT syle oil pan I have. It must be for the more triangle shaped newer sti oil pan. We'll save it for an ELH swap someday. Also didn't have enough foresight to fight the dip stick before starting my oil pan bolts. The angle ended up being drastic creating a fight. I should've bolted the dipstick tube back down and just tapped the oil pan onto it before starting screws. Swapped my group N engine mounts over and assessed power steering lines. Removed flex plate and dug out my last 6" of good oil drain tube. I did not save the right power steering line from the FXT so hopefully I can hodgepodge something together using the legacy line. Slow going working out of a storage unit and having to hand sand the clutch and flywheel. All my pro tools are air, which isn't doing me any favors. Really could've used that Milwaukee right angle die grinder and some roloc discs but whatever. I have to keep remembering I'm lucky to even be able to get this far. My state unemployment program is a mess. I filed back on April 7th and have yet to see or hear anything. I'm being told by friends that I might see a response in another week and money in two weeks, but my garage time is up Friday. I can do little things going forward, but nothing like swapping an engine. I can pull the dash and work inside the car no problem. Unfortunately that means having to compromise and make do as I go. Anyone want to buy a tdo4? Lol it's actually in really good shape. I wouldn't even rebuild it just run it. I was hoping to have more luck selling parts, but I guess I'm not the only one waiting on stable income. My job is going to slowly start opening up, but I did not make the short list, but that adds a sense of urgency to finish the project. Once I'm back at work trucking tools back and forth hurts my paycheck.

So my clutch and flywheel look like trash. The clutch disk was rusted together in pure me big chunk. I'm going to try and clean them up the best I can by hand because I'm out of money. It was awful grabby IIRC so the corrosion makes sense. I have a new clutch disk on hand. Freaking subaru...$30 for the oil pan to engine block gasket. The little o-ring. I forgot these stupid gaskets are always hard as a rock and break apart usually. Will be dropping it in later tonight. May or may not show how bad the clutch is before I reuse it lol

Welcome Look at Bilstein for your suspension, and I like whiteline for sway bars, mounts, links etc. Unfortunately power is hard to come by on these cars. Once you get the car driving a little better you could consider going NA-T by adding a small low pressure turbo. If you keep the psi low, then you don't need a new ecu or tuning. Check out the FAQs and stickies. Lots of info in here.

I sacrificed my oil drain tube for the sake time. I think I had to yank the whole turbo with the hoist to get that oil drain off last time. I was able to leave the exhaust manifold, up and down pipe, and turbo still hanging in the car so I just sliced it in half with a razor blade. I think I wa using fragola push lock hose or something idk. It was really really thick and rigid, which makes install nice. You just attach it to the turbo and use the turbo to press the hose on the engine. I may have to pull the turbo yet to reattach the oil drain we'll see. My ej25d oil pan is exactly the same as the 04 Forester XT pan. I'm cleaning the cobwebbs out and running this guy tomorrow. My clutch disk like rusted to the flywheel. I have a new stage 2 disk, but that poor flywheel has a ton of corrosive buildup on it. I'll have to see what I can clean up by hand with sandpaper because this just needs to go back together. My time is up Friday, so everything I major in the engine bay needs to be complete. I'll have the car towed back to my apartment and do the wiring there. Got the call that my work is opening back up today as well. I'm towards the bottom of a long list, but still all the more reason to make do with what I have and get it done.

Lol

Along those same lines I'm curious what materials cost is for diy composite intake manifold spacers. I assume my ej25d phenolic spacers won't for the ej255?

Yeah I had a custom intake on my NA-T setup, but I was thinking specifically take the oem inlet and maybe filling it with some kind of casting material, smooth it out, then just hand laying some composites over it. I guess you could get carried away with cost pretty quick though. Idk some time with n the next 5 years I want to save up and build out a space to do some composites stuff. My NA-T intake had the hard 90* right off the turbo, but I do appreciate how clean it looks run under the intake manifold. Idk at this point I need to sell parts before I can even afford a China inlet to get me up and running. I don't like that I had to use a cobra head coupler. It's just a squared off 90* that has to flow like crap.

Also I figure out a pretty painless way to remove the dipstick from the oil pan. As gently as I could taking care not to crush the tube I clamprd some vice grips on and hit the vice grips with a hammer away from the oil pan. I did remove the 10mm bolt for the dipstick (and immediately lost it...) Also I ripped the turbo inlet, so I guess I'm not getting out of pulling the intake manifold. Also had a random thought thought a composite intake would be pretty cool both literally and figuratively

Think im going to see if I can figure out how to get a ej25 in the back of a VW rabbit tomorrow...wish me luck

Moroso oil pickup is in, but I'm not bothering with this oil pan. It looks exactly like my ej25d oil pan I have brand new in box about an hour's drive away. I'll make the final call when they're side by side, but I don't see the difference between this 04 ej255 oil pan and a 98 ej25d pan. Baffling looks the same as well.

Nice that's awesome!

I'm going to apologize in advance but the guy from the commercial just yelled flex seal in my head. I've never tried it though.

Engine cores always have value. List it for $300 and be honest. I bet the one good cylinder head might bring about the same amount as the whole engine though.