vtoutback - 2005 OBXT build thread

[vtoutback]

Hello All,

Well, I have a 2005 OBXT and have found myself in the same situation as many before. You've all heard the same story: boy meets car, boy falls in love, boy treats car well, car dies and breaks his f'ing heart.

I bought a '97 Outback about 10 years ago, and that's when my relationship with Subaru began. I have driven that car everywhere, coast to coast, in the mountains, in the desert, and all parts between. As she started to show her age, I knew it was time to put her out to pasture and find myself a new workhorse.

In a previous time I had been a Nissan man, starting with a Sentra and then a couple Maximas. There were trade-offs when I went from the Max to the Outback, but I found the Subaru fit my lifestyle and needs better than the sedans ever did.

As I was looking for a 'new' car, my gaze was pretty firmly fixed on an OBXT. It's all the things I loved about my old OB, plus all the power (and more) that I had been missing since the Maxima!

For about a year and a half things were great! When my wife would ask about mpg/premium fuel, I'd tell her sure 'it gets less miles per gallon, but way more smiles per gallon.'

Then it happened.

I was about 100 miles from home and about 10 minutes away from a client's site, cruise set around 60. I'm not certain about the exact chain of events (as in what died first) but 5 minutes later I was able to limp it to a clear pull off and assess what I could of the damage. It was not good.

Longer story, but after I finally got the car back to my house it was confirmed that the turbo was toast and a cylinder was down.

 

So here we are. Old blue has been called back in action as the XT is expected to be in the ICU for a couple months.

 

The car is in my garage and I have begun the deconstruction process. As it sits at the moment, I have the engine assembly removed but have not bought any part yet. I am still trying to figure out what the best step moving forward will be. I have not removed the heads yet, so I don't know if they are salvageable or not. If not, that will greatly effect the decision process.

 

Now that you have a little of the back story, here is the current list of options I'm considering. *Note: this is my daily driver, and little to no performance upgrades are planned at this time.

 

1) If the heads are salvageable, then proceed to the #YNANSB path and rebuild my engine.

2) If heads are too f'ed, than find a long block / complete engine and do the transplant.

or

3) Explore the EJ20X/Y swap over route.

This option presented itself to me when I contacted a supplier and they quoted me on a EJ20X. "Hey, I was calling about a EJ255" I say - 'yeah, this is the motor they used in Japan and will fit in your car'.

Ok. Interesting.

So yesterday I was reading through the boards and started finding info/threads about this project. I would like to gather as much detailed information on this swap as possible to guide my decision. I have been finding several low mileage engines available (with 5mt & ecu), at lower prices and better condition than the 255's I'm finding.

 

I look forward to the community's input and insight.

 

Thanks!

Eric

[Kelvrick]

Long story short, I don't know. Here is a links for you to read if you didn't find it yet. I skimmed it and it doesn't look so bad as long and probably should get a tune after the swap.

 

If you don't mind, would you share how much the ej20x was going to cost you?

 

http://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php/ej20x-swapi-224284.html

[vtoutback]

There has not been much to report for the last month or so - all of my weekends have been planned for me and I've had very little time to devote to the car. That said, I did make some progress this weekend. I've basically been in limbo with which direction to go and the engine has been sitting on a tire waiting for me to make a move. I have been leaning heavily toward just buying a re-man long block, so I really didn't want to start tearing down my engine until I had the new block to start building up.

After talking to my brother over the weekend, he was like 'just tear it down and get in there - you don't even know if the heads are f'ed or not. If they are, then what's the harm in tearing it down.' Going on that advice, I started into it and took it as far as I could go without special tools. After the kids were asleep I was able to spend a few hours in the garage and pulled the up pipe, crank pulley, intake manifold, wiring harness, and timing belt. Since I really wasn't planning on working on it this weekend, I had to stop for the evening at the cam sprockets [ordered the Company 23 tools this morning].

I also pulled the the driver's side valve cover to have a look at the cams. The surface of the lobes looked mirror smooth. I took off one of the supports / caps and there were some light grooves on both surfaces - I don't know if this is normal wear/tear over time or not. I will post some pictures when I can, need to setup/upload to my hosting site.

If I get the cam tools by the weekend, I hope to have the heads off and get them over to a shop next week to see where I stand.

[Kelvrick]

Good luck!

[vtoutback]

Update:

I got the heads pulled off last weekend and it looks like they are trashed. I called a couple of machine shops and based on our conversation I had to come to terms with the fact that they are too far gone.

I have not split the block yet, but should have that apart sometime this week. Continuing the tear-down, I removed the cooling system, water pump, oil pump & cooler, as well as the oil pan.

When the car originally went down, I had it towed to my local mechanic and he dropped the oil pan and found a bunch of metal shavings. He cleaned it out, slapped it back together and filled with oil so I could limp it 2-3 miles home. When I dropped the pan last week, I found a whole new bounty of metal - nearly all of it was iron. At this point I'm assuming I spun the bearings. When I get the block split I will finally see what's left and what's salvageable.

At this point, I don't even know if it's worth trying to build back. Short blocks are easy to come by, but I am having a hard time finding B25 heads anywhere. I can find re-man'd long blocks for around $3500-$3800, but still need the clutch, turbo, hoses, gaskets, etc, etc.

Honestly, I've been looking at just buying a 2.5i with a 5 speed - cheaper to operate (dd), and I can get a whole car for about the price of what it will cost me to fix the XT. Or if I want to keep the power and lower gas mileage, just find a 3.0R or an LL Bean...

[Nightmaresmk]

Buy an NA and build the turbo. sad that some people just don't take care of these cars like they need.

[vtoutback]

There has been little to no work put in this car since my last post. I've cleaned up pieces and bagged/tagged a bunch of parts, but that's it. I did, however, pick up an '03 LL Bean on Friday.

This is not treason.

The Bean will allow me to rebuild the XT. The '97 has done a solid job as the daily driver for the last few months, no question. However, it's not a viable solution for the realist time frame it will take me to rebuild.

In the meantime, I plan on taking some family road trips with the '03 and worrying less about cars for little while.