Outblack

Driving in rush hour stop and go traffic in Los Angeles on Friday evening, car jerked hard and stalled in first. I started it back up but it was bucking hard so I coasted it off to the shoulder. Dead clutch pedal, thought great the master or slave gave out. Got it towed to a friends driveway. Since I replaced the master about 40-50k ago and I reused the slave off the Sti donor car that I pulled the 6 speed off of, I decided to replace the slave see how that goes. No Subaru dealers had the slave cylinder in stock in all of SoCal so I find a junkyard that has a wrecked 08 sti with 80k on it - 30 bucks. I go down there and grab that one instead of going autozone route. When I pulled the old slave off I noticed a good amount of play on the clutch fork, it would go all the way back and about 65-75% of the way forward. I pulled the dust boot and looked around as best I could to examine the TOB. Not much to see, it’s too hard to get an angle. I installed the new one and started bleeding it, it pushed the fork all the way forward. Decided to check the fork with my hand again and sure enough I was able to move it all the way front to back and forward again. TOB trashed most likely, I’m guessing the last push forward completely separated it, or maybe it was hanging onto one tab, or maybe clutch fork broke, not sure. Anyway, just ordered an oem exedy fjk1000 kit from rock auto, I’m having a shop do it because I don’t have the tools available to me or the extra friend to help out down here. It was an ACT XTSS clutch kit, heard great things about their clutches so I decided to try them out. It was a pretty heavy clutch, I didn’t mind in regular driving but it really sucked in traffic, my girl wouldn’t drive the car because the pedal was so heavy lol. Lasted about 45k miles. Wouldn’t recommend for daily driver.

Well played sir....well played

The impala and the Malibu are both different models....and so is the ss lol. The ss is like dude said an FR layout with an ls3 motor and optional 6 speed manual.

Great job man, looks excellent.

There are two company 23 camlock tools you want the one that’s listed as “tool 1”

Your accessory drive belts ac/ps/alt/crank pulley/tensioner pulley not timing belt idlers I think is what max meant. I’ve seen a tensioner pulley fail and it went through the timing cover and actually took out the timing belt, motor went boom, sad story but the owner knew the pulley was loud for a long time yet did nothing.

Looks great man, I had a wrx with BSM. I have an OBP outback now and live in California . The sun heats my car up and holds onto it so bad, last black car I ever own.

Blasphemy! Leave that nonsense to the outbacks! Legacy’s go lower not higher.

:spin::spin:

Leave the exhaust manifold/up-pipe/turbo on the motor. You might have to use a hack saw or air chisel if you have it to remove the stripped/rounded bolt on the down pipe. I’ve had to cut a bolt off the downpipe before.....get oem bolts from Subaru, don’t replace with whatever fits you’ll regret it later.

Sorry one last thing, get a camlock tool. It’s worth every penny.

I installed a gates timing kit in a friends car with the Chinese bearings he bought it not knowing the switch was made and he said he didn’t care he didn’t want to wait for an aisin kit in the mail so in it went. Been 40k miles no issues.

Gates is supplying Chinese bearings in their kits now.....I’ve heard that they have addressed their issues that they originally had when switching production to China and personally I would install one of their kits without concern. If I had a choice between aisin or gates I’d go with Aisin because they supply Japanese bearings (Koyo, NSK). It’s tough out there to be competitive in the market place, companies like Timken and national bearings have switched their production to South Korea and China. I think that the companies will still stand behind the build quality of their products even though they moved production.

:wub:

Replaced your turbo inlet? Manifold on or off?

8.5k isn’t a bad price for 150k 08 obxt with a manual transmission. They’re a rare commodity, not a 5mt lgt wagon rarity but they are becoming tough to find. Sucks that his situation unfolded the way it did, but now he’ll have an intimate understanding of his vehicle once it’s squared away.

The ej257 piston paired with the D25 heads he has results in a 8.7-8.8 CR....which is a departure from the 8.5:1 factory spec. The reason why it’s best to just replace it with all oem spec stuff is for ease of ownership/maintenance. You’re going to run all factory equipped everything why go ******* with your CR? Your vehicle came equipped with an ej255 block and D25 heads. The 05-06 vehicles came with a different block and heads. I’m not trying to confuse him, it’s a lot of information for someone just getting involved in the platform. No need for colder plugs, I’m running a 20g turbo on 91 and e85 and using oem plugs I buy directly from Subaru, I replace them every 30k miles and they look fine. My tuner (Yimi sport) had absolutely no objection. If you’re going to do any mods maybe like you said springs/struts, a rear sway bar, some motor/trans mounts, a rear diff insert support from white line, some aftermarket bushings in your control arms. Also just do arp head studs/factory head gasket on your reassembly so you don’t have to worry about head gasket issues. You want factory power levels don’t overly complicate it, keep it factory spec and just address the few weak points. The car will run great for a very long time.

No, for stock levels and convenience just replace it with an oem block....I would highly recommend a pro tune even with stock everything it will make your car more reliable, a little faster and smoother power delivery. The oem tune is shitty and even a lot of off the shelf tunes aren’t very good compared to what you get with a custom protune....tuners don’t charge much for stock everything tuning, its easy for them. It’s like 1800 for a brand new ej255 shortblock.

The ej257 piston has a dish volume of 22cc vs the ej255 piston has a dish volume of about 25.5cc it’s a 15% difference

07-09 lgt/obxt and 08-14 wrx ej255 come with different pistons than ej257

I think rallysportdirect.com is out of salt lake.....I’m sure they could direct you to some competent engine builders/machine shops. Max capacity has an 05 so the ej257 was the direct replacement short block for him.....the ej255 is the replacement short block for your 08. If you put the ej257 in you’re going to need a professional tune because it’ll alter your compression ratio, the pistons have different dishes.

You can get it cheaper than this if you do your research and hunt forums/inter webs, but this is everything you need minus fluids. https://www.importimageracing.com/products/import-image-2-5l-build-package-1-handles-600hp-subaru-wrx-sti-ej-turbo-models-2002-2019?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIjJjNiO3z4gIVjvhkCh3--QclEAQYASABEgI9KfD_BwE&variant=12263765901408 500 to get your heads refreshed. Pull and reinstall the motor yourself the machine work runs maybe 500. Youre well under 4-5k If you’re time is more valuable than the 5-10 hours of labor for the motor removal/install just tack that on. IMO it’s not worth putting oem parts back in besides saving the $ on rods, so many people making big power on oem rods.

Rates vary, different businesses have different overhead. That being said my builder asks 4000ish all in for an aftermarket piston/oem rods reconditioned new bearings build with refreshed heads and all machine work/gaskets fluids labor and install. When you said 10k for oem build I cringed a little.

You can give your motor to a reputable builder and get it done right for 4-5k....if you’re going to run modest power I’d just get an oem rebuild. I think 4032 high silicon pistons are the perfect middle ground you can get tight PTW clearances and have a superior to oem piston. If you think you’re going to get the itch for more power just get some 2618 pistons, the factory rods are pretty stout, get a good bearing kit and you have a great setup.