Soarer Posted July 20, 2014 Author Share Posted July 20, 2014 Isn't a new motor a beautiful thing? The FedEx guy didn't drop yours, did he? It's funny you said that.. Actually, the FedEx guy shows up, pulls the box out of the truck and drops it down and sticks the digital thingy in front of me and says, "Sign". I take a look at the box and see that it has been resealed and the box is damaged. I said that I wanted to open it and take a look at it before accepting it. He says that I can't open it and I have to sign and accept it as is or decline it. I say, "No way man! I spent almost two grand on that thing. I'm not going to accept it if it's damaged. I can clearly see that the box has been opened and sealed back up and the box is damaged." He gets all pissed and starts going on about how many more stops he has to make. I said that I was not going to accept it without inspecting it. He calls his supervisor and asks if it's ok for me to open it and inspect it and the guy says yes so I open it and pull out the shortblock, unwrap it and inspect it. Thankfully, it was all good. So I signed. I got lucky and got a AAAA block too! I was just so surprised how much of a dick the FedEx guy was. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soarer Posted July 20, 2014 Author Share Posted July 20, 2014 Shooting to get started putting the car together in September. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrTris Posted July 20, 2014 Share Posted July 20, 2014 It's funny you said that.. Actually, the FedEx guy shows up, pulls the box out of the truck and drops it down and sticks the digital thingy in front of me and says, "Sign". I take a look at the box and see that it has been resealed and the box is damaged. I said that I wanted to open it and take a look at it before accepting it. He says that I can't open it and I have to sign and accept it as is or decline it. I say, "No way man! I spent almost two grand on that thing. I'm not going to accept it if it's damaged. I can clearly see that the box has been opened and sealed back up and the box is damaged." He gets all pissed and starts going on about how many more stops he has to make. I said that I was not going to accept it without inspecting it. He calls his supervisor and asks if it's ok for me to open it and inspect it and the guy says yes so I open it and pull out the shortblock, unwrap it and inspect it. Thankfully, it was all good. So I signed. I got lucky and got a AAAA block too! I was just so surprised how much of a dick the FedEx guy was. That's bullshit, dude! Call Heuberger (if that's where you got it from) and tell them what happened. That was what happened with mine, and while I should have refused it, I didn't, but had them note that it was damaged. Just because it looks fine, doesn't mean it is. Hope that block is still good - Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soarer Posted September 18, 2014 Author Share Posted September 18, 2014 I finally got this project off the ground about a week ago. I pulled the old motor and trans, broke down the old EJ255. I'm not reusing much of it besides the heads and intake manifold. The heads looked to be in good shape with no warpage, cracks or scored cam journals. I cleaned them thoroughly, lapped the valves and put them back together with new valve seals and Brian Crower springs and retainers. I then leak tested them and reinstalled them on the new EJ257 block. I had previously installed the new oil pan and new oil cooler. http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y236/2bucks/2005%20Subaru%20Legacy%20GT%20Wagon%20Build/250_zpsbffe45ba.jpg http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y236/2bucks/2005%20Subaru%20Legacy%20GT%20Wagon%20Build/249_zps86cca25e.jpg http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y236/2bucks/2005%20Subaru%20Legacy%20GT%20Wagon%20Build/247_zpsb790cb4a.jpg Now I'm in the middle of setting the clearance on the valves. The intake valves were all within spec but most of the exhaust valves were not. I have a bunch of spare buckets (lifter shims) but unfortunately will have to order about 5 or 6 new ones to get everything spot on. I'm planning on ordering them tomorrow and should have them by Tuesday or next week which means I can complete the motor next week. I dropped the front crossmember, broke down the front suspension. I cleaned up the underside of the car removing any surface rust then applying two coats of POR15 and then a coat of rubberized undercoating. I still need to do the back half of the underside. Hopefully I can get that done this weekend. I put new bushings in the control arms and swapped the front crossmember for a cleaner one I had sitting around from a part out. Next is to reinstall the fresh crossmember and suspension. I've got new wheel bearings for all four corners and some Stoptech brakes that'll be going in. Very excited for all that! To get my V7 6sp trans to work, I was initially going to use my 05 LGT front axles. The V7 trans has male stubs coming out of the trans so I was planning on pulling those stubs, installing new seals and sundials so I could run the 05 LGT front axles but as it turns out, the V7 trans has different sundials on each side so the ones from the V8 6speeds won't work. This was a bit of a dilemma and I had to do some brainstorming to work around it. I finally came up with using the inboard CV axle cups from a 2002 WRX and mating them to the 05 LGT CV axle shafts to make a hybrid CV axle. I believe this is going to work just fine. I'm in the middle of building the axles now. I'm replacing all the rubber boots on every axle and the ones from a 2002 wrx are different than the ones I had ordered for the 05 LGT. The new ones came in yesterday so now I can finish up the front axles. http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y236/2bucks/2005%20Subaru%20Legacy%20GT%20Wagon%20Build/269_zps7455457d.jpg http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y236/2bucks/2005%20Subaru%20Legacy%20GT%20Wagon%20Build/268_zps6313c4a7.jpg http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y236/2bucks/2005%20Subaru%20Legacy%20GT%20Wagon%20Build/267_zps5901cb4d.jpg http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y236/2bucks/2005%20Subaru%20Legacy%20GT%20Wagon%20Build/266_zpsb4acc10b.jpg http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y236/2bucks/2005%20Subaru%20Legacy%20GT%20Wagon%20Build/264_zpsbe64d617.jpg http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y236/2bucks/2005%20Subaru%20Legacy%20GT%20Wagon%20Build/263_zps7c7ca1cd.jpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hobo2701 Posted September 18, 2014 Share Posted September 18, 2014 It never ends! But great start Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
legacybt Posted September 18, 2014 Share Posted September 18, 2014 I'll be keeping an eye on this one! Based on your old wagon (I hated reading that story ... ) this is going to turn out great! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
magnusonsubie Posted September 18, 2014 Share Posted September 18, 2014 This looks like an awesome build for sure. Subscribed! 2005 Vader Wagon Material Tests on Ringland Failure Piston I should have held off and purchased a wagon instead of the spec.B Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GTFalcon Posted October 10, 2014 Share Posted October 10, 2014 Subbed! My engine is going under the knife on Thursday. All gaskets are leaking doing a rebuild with stronger pistons so I can go 20g in the future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soarer Posted October 29, 2014 Author Share Posted October 29, 2014 Got the 6sp in the other day. The motor is in but not hooked up yet. Undercoated everything and did a coat of POR 15 on any spots that looked like they were starting to rust at all. Did new suspension bushings and installed my R160 MLSD rear diff. I had to make some hybrid axles and I'm a bit concerned that there's a hair more play in them than there should be. Will be keeping a close eye on them and if I have any issues or hear any funny noises, I'll be swapping in a R180. Installed new rear brakes and my coilovers. Also did new wheel bearings all around. I think I'm going to run my stock front brakes for the winter because my 07 WRX rims with winter tires won't clear my StopTechs. I'll swap on the big brakes in the spring with the 04 STi goldies. Waiting on a set screw for the collar on one of my RCE front coilovers too. Once that gets here, I'll finish up the front suspension, hook up the motor and then I need to get a new baseline tune to run while I break in my new motor. I really took my time with this one to do it right. I made sure the valve adjustments were spot on and everything was perfect. Very excited to get back on the road. I've been driving my new (to me) 04 Dodge Ram 2500 diesel pickup around for the past few months and while I love that truck, I'm itching for some Subaru action. I've left 3 messages with my tuner, Mike Botti but he hasn't returned a call yet. I'm praying he gets back to me soon so I can get a map to flash onto my ECU to at least get me to the point where I can start this thing up. If any of you guys talk to Mikey, please let him know that I need his help ASAP! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soarer Posted June 2, 2015 Author Share Posted June 2, 2015 Finally getting back into the garage to get this car on the road! Target completion date: 6/25/15 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nightmaresmk Posted June 2, 2015 Share Posted June 2, 2015 Nice good luck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
08Legacy-GT Posted June 5, 2015 Share Posted June 5, 2015 sweet progress! I wish I was as hands on as you for this stuff! 2017 Subaru STI 2008 Subaru Legacy 2.5i limited Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoostWagon Posted June 6, 2015 Share Posted June 6, 2015 Finally getting back into the garage to get this car on the road! Target completion date: 6/25/15 As the PO of this car I can't wait to see the final product. It's new owner clearly has more talent with a wrench than I ever will! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soarer Posted August 21, 2015 Author Share Posted August 21, 2015 The never ending project is finally drawing to a close. THANK JESUS! After having the car sit for about 8 months, I finally put a few days work into it and I'm happy to say that IT IS RUNNING! I fired it up the other day and was very pleased to see that it started right up (after chasing down a fuel issue... more on that in a minute) and didn't even throw a CEL. I had a cracked up pipe though so I had to order one of those. Got an Invidia in the mail a few days later, heat wrapped it, pulled the turbo and heat wrapped it, put it all back together an fired it back up. Again, fired right up and no CELs. I let it heat cycle a few times and left it for the night. I also got the StopTech front brakes installed and bled the system. The STi BBS wheels clear the calipers thankfully. Next I need to tighten up a few things in the suspension, check the alignment, replace an axle boot band clamp, give her a good wash and do a shake down drive. Hopefully, I've got Mikey coming over on Tuesday to do a break in tune. The motor has about 15 minutes on it so I want to have a tune with low boost setting to put about 3k miles on the car before tuning for power. Then it's time to try and hit my 340/340 numbers. Lastly, I'm looking for another set of STi BBS 5x100 rims as a winter set. If anyone knows of a set for a reasonable price ($750 or less) please let me know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soarer Posted September 1, 2015 Author Share Posted September 1, 2015 Got the LGT on the road today. Took her for an alignment. Didn't think that would be such a challenge but 2 shops declined to do it because it has "aftermarket suspension". Town Fair Tire was accommodating and did the alignment to my specs and installed some Continental DWS 225/45/17 tires for me. They did a great job. I was happy with their work. There are expensive for mounting and balancing and I had to negotiate a bit with them but ended up getting the work done for $200. After driving the car for a few miles I've got some issues to sort out. I've got a clicking coming from the axles that I made up and I've got a lot of squeaking too. I'm going to lube the sway bar end links and grease the coilovers and see where that gets me. I'm just so happy to have this thing on the road. The motor is running great and it's a pleasure to be driving it again. I'm looking at the 3k miles of motor break in time as my opportunity to sort out all the sounds/issues with the car so when I can finally tune for power, the car will be all sorted. I'll post some pics soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LatentWagen Posted September 7, 2015 Share Posted September 7, 2015 In for pics of the build and work. Sounds like you're sweating the details, which is the way to do it! LW's spec. B / YT / IG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rebourne Posted September 7, 2015 Share Posted September 7, 2015 sub'd pic thread build thread Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeJITSU Posted September 8, 2015 Share Posted September 8, 2015 in Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterJMC Posted September 8, 2015 Share Posted September 8, 2015 Nice work! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soarer Posted September 9, 2015 Author Share Posted September 9, 2015 In for pics of the build and work. Sounds like you're sweating the details, which is the way to do it! Yeah, I'm a stickler for the small stuff. After a few nights in the garage, I've got all the suspension bugs worked out. I ended up removing and rebuilding all 4 cv axles. I swapped out the axle shafts in front for WRX ones and that got rid of the binding when the suspension compresses. The shafts from the LGT combined with the 02 wrx inner cv joints and the v7 6sp trans were too long. Using 02 WRX axle shafts shortened the overall axle length by about 3/4" and now they're fine. I think this makes me the first guy to do a v7 6sp swap into a LGT! If anyone is considering it, I'd recommend it over the v8 6sps because you don't have to worry about the DCCD headaches and they're more cost effective. In the rear, I swapped in some 02 WRX axle shafts as well because the bearing and race assemblies didn't fit quite right between the LGT axles and old school MLSD (which I've recently learned may just be an old VLSD) cv joints. It's all sorted now. While I was under the rear, I noticed a couple bolts that needed to be snugged down and I greased the rear swaybar. No more squeaks! After the alignment, I saw on the printout that my front caster is 5.9 degrees front left and 6.5 degrees front right. Now, caster is not adjustable on these cars. I did a bit of research and found out that removing and reinstalling the front subframe can throw off caster like this. When it comes time for another alignment in the spring, I'm going to try to get this sorted out by loosening the front subframe bolts and moving the unit over a hair. I put on some new Continental ExtremeContact DWS 225/45/17 tires. They feel good but not as good as the Bridgestone REO70s that came off. Now I've got to find another set of 5x100 STi BBS wheels for my winter tires. I'm thinking I'll also get a set of track wheels and tires. If anyone knows of a good clean set of 5x100 BBS STi wheels around, please let me know. I'm really happy to say that after a few hundred miles of driving, I still have not CELs. The motor is running good but really needs a tune. Mike Botti send me a break in tune but we haven't adjusted it from what he just guessed at. I'm going to do some datalogging and email it to him so he can make some adjustments. Then I'll put a couple thousand miles on the motor, install an aftermarket TMIC and downpipe and then tune for power! Hopefully I can hit the 340/340 mark. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
legacybt Posted September 9, 2015 Share Posted September 9, 2015 Congrats on getting it running and driving! Hate to burst your bubble, but you're not the first to install a JDM v7 sti transmission - I have one in my car I bought used from a Legacy that had it installed back in 2007. Enjoy the drive! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soarer Posted September 10, 2015 Author Share Posted September 10, 2015 Picked up a spare set of 5x100 STi BBS wheels in silver today. Took the wagon out to NJ to pick them up and she performed great! I've got valve cover oil leaks on both sides though. I noticed this after my first start up and was really shocked. I installed the valve covers with new gaskets and thoroughly cleaned the mating surfaces and used sealant where directed by the FSM. It looks like they're leaking at the front of the valve cover around the front cam journal cap. So annoying!!! I don't what else I can do but goop it up with RTV which I hate to do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nightfire37 Posted September 10, 2015 Share Posted September 10, 2015 Nice wagon dude. Cannot wait to see her finished. Have you seen the MightyCarMods Gramps build? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soarer Posted September 10, 2015 Author Share Posted September 10, 2015 Here are some pics of the gauges I installed. I used an AEM UEGO wideband A/F gauge and Auto Meter Sport Comp II boost and pyrometer. I had to put the pyrometer in the corner because the line wasn't long enough to get it to the cubby pod. I got a dimmer control from Auto Meter for the backlights in the pyrometer and boost gauges as a simple solution to the dimmer issue we all have with our subarus. I made the mistake of getting the pyrometer that only reads to 1600 degrees. I've since bought the one that reads to 2000 degrees. I still need to swap them out. Luckily, they both use the same probe so all I have to do is swap the gauge which will take 5 minutes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soarer Posted October 2, 2015 Author Share Posted October 2, 2015 She hit 140k on the way to work today! Only have 800+ miles on the new EJ257 motor though. Gonna wait until about 1500 miles then install an aftermarket downpipe and TMIC then tune for POWAH!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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