Andrew's DiySB Rebuild

[StkmltS]

Today was supposed to be day 1 and I'm already delayed. I knew this would happen but I though it would be a little later on.

 

The plan was to pick up my mom's Mini this afternoon and borrow it for the next month while the shaggin' waggin' is out of commish'. Well, an air bag light turned on this morning when my mom was backing out of her garage. She read something in her manual that she interpreted as "Ahhhhhhh!!!! TAKE IT TO A DEALER NOW!!!!!!" so she's taking it to the "local" BMW dealer 45 minutes away. She thinks I'll be able to have the car in a day or two, I'm thinking it'll be next weekend.

[StkmltS]

The mini dealership is closed all week... super. I may move my pile-o-parts to a different shelf in the garage tonight just so I fell like I'm making progress.

 

Saturday morning I'm picking up an engine hoist and stand from a coworker. I guess you can consider that progress of some sort.

 

During my down time at work I've been putting Scruit's step-by-step instructions into MS Project and estimating the time I expect to spend on each task. It's great being able to tell it when and for how long I'm available to work, and it adjusts the timeline (gantt chart) accordingly.

[birkhoff]

For the oil pan, camshafts seats, and block I have always used harley davidson hi performance grey sealant. It is pricey but available at any harley dealer and is a very good sealant. A small tube is enough to do a few engines.

 

Any idea if this is the same as Fuji Bond or Honda Bond? If yes, then I'd like to second this recommendation. I have a big tube of Fuji Bond here that I used on my rebuild. It's quite a bit thinner than Ultra Grey and has a longer open time. Very nice stuff to work with. And as FLleg says, you only use a fraction of a tube on an engine, if you do it right.

[StkmltS]

Other than being the greatest car company in the world (obviously), I've come to the opinion that there's nothing abnormally special about Subaru engines to necessitate $5.66/oz Fujibond (or $7.34/oz for the Harley stuff). I'm just going to use the $2.08/oz Permatex stuff that I already have.

 

I'll use Ultra Black on the oil pan, and Ultra Grey on the heads. If I see pieces of gasket in my oil I'll know where it came from.

[BarManBean]

I went with ultra grey when I installed my cam baskets, used "the right stuff" for the valve covers.

 

The amount of RTV to use on the cam baskets is practically nothing. Be careful there. I think you pretty much have to spread it out, no way you can get a "bead" small enough to work without clogging things up.

[StkmltS]

I'll take that as a vote of confidence

 

Cam baskets being what? The end caps?

I took the cams out once so I've seen how 'delicate' I need to be with the RTV. I remember reading that someone (edit: birkhoff) put sealant in a little squeeze bottle with a tiny tip to get a fine bead. I may try that.

 

Will me stock-ish tune need adjusted for a catless UP?

 

edit* Answer: no specific tuning changes need made for a catless UP. Safety is the primary benefit, a slightly faster spooling turbo (500rpm?) is a positive side-effect. The ECU's ability to learn and adjust timing advance will/should account for any changes that need made because of the catless UP. Long term: if the ECU always adjusts the timing, it makes sense to change the map accordingly.

Edited June 9, 2016 by StkmltS

[birkhoff]

You can see the squeeze bottle at work in my rebuild thread. Post #41 here

 

The tip can be tuned to be much finer than what you see there. At that point I wanted a fairly wide bead. For the front cam cover, I would recommend about half that width. Just make sure it is a continuous bead going the right way around the bolt holes.

[StkmltS]

My break-in tune was my stage 2 etune limited mechanically to wastegate boost (7psi). You can loop the wastegate hose from the compressor to the turbo.

 

That worked fine for 1000 miles.

 

You can see the squeeze bottle at work in my rebuild thread. Post #41 here

 

The tip can be tuned to be much finer than what you see there. At that point I wanted a fairly wide bead. For the front cam cover, I would recommend about half that width. Just make sure it is a continuous bead going the right way around the bolt holes.

It must have been your thread that I saw it in.

[seanyb505]

Scruit posted these in my thread when I was going back to verify I didn't over do the RTV:

http://legacygt.com/forums/showpost.php?p=5374300&postcount=97

[StkmltS]

The mini I'll be borrowing from my parents is finally in the shop to get the airbag light fixed. If I get the loaner car early enough next week I may be able to pull the wagon's motor on 6/25.

 

My build estimate just tipped over $4k. That includes $500 of extra "just in case" cash so hopefully when it's all said and done I'll be a few hundy under 4 stacks.

[heiche]

I like the slush fund. guessing you'll find a lot of hoses that you have to disconnect will be hard / cracked, and you'll want to replace them.

[StkmltS]

The slush fund is like an emergency fund. If you have it you won't need it, if you don't have it you'll need it. At least I hope it works that way.

 

My near-$4k estimate includes all of the rubber hoses I could think of. Radiator (x2), overflow tank, fill tank (x2), PCV hoses, and head vacuum hoses (x2). If I don't need them my price goes down. I replaced my turbo inlet with a silicone one about a year ago so that won't need replaced, same with the vacuum lines.

[StkmltS]

Stopping by Turn In Concepts today after work for some of their FU bolts. I've never seen their shop so I'm looking forward to it. I never imagined that I'd get to a point in my life where I'd willingly pay $40 for four bolts, but alas, here I am. Edited June 15, 2016 by StkmltS

[xt2005bonbon]

Why do you really need to buy those?

[birkhoff]

Probably I missed this in the thread, but why new cam bolts?

 

I'd go a different route and spend $20 to buy a really good 1/2 drive allen socket. Something like a Snap-on, Blue Point (same thing), Proto, Mac, Grey -- whatever. Find a truck or go online and they'll mail it to your house! After all, you still have to get the cam bolts out, which is where the drama seems to start.

 

You haven't talked much about tools yet. You will need to have (or borrow) a good breaker bar (1/2 inch, around 24 inches long) for taking things apart, and a reliable mid-range torque wrench for putting things back together. I have three, covering different ranges. 95% of the work on my build was done with a 3/8 drive mid-range tool. Some with the little inch-lb one. The crank bolt needed the big daddy 1/2 inch drive.

 

I popped the cam bolts out lickety-split with a 30 inch breaker and a Grey allen socket I've had around for years. I use the bar all the time -- sounds overkill but it lets you to remove tough fasteners with ease and control. Ditto for installing fasteners with torque-angle specs.

 

Put a good socket on it and it also does an impressive job breaking off bolts with no apparent effort

[StkmltS]

Why do you really need to buy those?

 

Because racecar?

I don't need them.

 

Probably I missed this in the thread, but why new cam bolts?

 

I'd go a different route and spend $20 to buy a really good 1/2 drive allen socket. Something like a Snap-on, Blue Point (same thing), Proto, Mac, Grey -- whatever. Find a truck or go online and they'll mail it to your house! After all, you still have to get the cam bolts out, which is where the drama seems to start.

 

You haven't talked much about tools yet. You will need to have (or borrow) a good breaker bar (1/2 inch, around 24 inches long) for taking things apart, and a reliable mid-range torque wrench for putting things back together. I have three, covering different ranges. 95% of the work on my build was done with a 3/8 drive mid-range tool. Some with the little inch-lb one. The crank bolt needed the big daddy 1/2 inch drive.

 

I popped the cam bolts out lickety-split with a 30 inch breaker and a Grey allen socket I've had around for years. I use the bar all the time -- sounds overkill but it lets you to remove tough fasteners with ease and control. Ditto for installing fasteners with torque-angle specs.

 

Put a good socket on it and it also does an impressive job breaking off bolts with no apparent effort

 

TiC FU bolts are purely for my convenience and piece-of-mind. I (successfully) took two of the cam sprockets off when I adjusted my valve buckets a while back, and for that I did buy a good set of 3/8" allen head sockets. They worked before and I'm sure they'll work again, but I didn't like how cautious I had to be to not strip out the inside diameters. Taking the existing bolts out may or may not be a problem, but I'd like the new ones to go back on without incident. Maybe I scared myself by watching too many horror videos on youtube, but stripping the bolts is a headache I'd like to not have to deal with in the future.

 

I already have a decent 1/2" breaker bar that I'm happy with.

 

While we're on the topic... Will I be able to get the job done properly using my Harbor Freight click-type 3/8" torque wrench? It functions as well as it was designed to, but it's HF brand so it's reliability is questionable. I bought it because I needed it quick and there's a HF only 2 miles from my house. I'd love to add a quality torque wrench to my collection but they're so darn expensive and I have a hard time replacing tools that aren't broken (yet). With the exception of my 1/2" HF impact sockets almost everything else in my toolbox is Craftsman and Gearwrench. So will my HF torque wrench be adequate, or am I putting the entire rebuild at-risk by using it?

Edited June 15, 2016 by StkmltS

[birkhoff]

While we're on the topic... Will I be able to get the job done properly using my Harbor Freight click-type 3/8" torque wrench? It functions as well as it was designed to, but it's HF brand

 

Brand doesn't matter. If it is accurate, it will be fine for the build. Is it accurate?

 

Two of my wrenches are click; the small one is analog dial. I can only say they are accurate in the sense they all seem to agree in their range overlaps. Can you get your wrench checked at work (I recall you work somewhere that has inspection tools)? Your question reminds me I should get off my butt and check my own wrenches properly one of these days

 

Some fasteners are down in the 5 ft-lb range, which is probably off the lower end of your scale but you should be able to guesstimate those. I think there is an alternate torque procedure to avoid the 140 ft-lb torque on the crank pulley bolt that starts at 33 ft-lbs. Most other things top out around 50 ft-lbs (except for the head studs you are going to use). Stock head bolts take a mild torque and then the final set is by angle.

 

I torqued EVERYTHING on my build. Something about aluminum and steel, and the hassle of getting metric inserts installed when things go wrong that just made this the way to go in my mind.

 

If you pop back into my build thread you will see some of the later pics with little paint marks on many of the fasteners. OCD it may be, but when a build runs over multiple months, and sometimes multiple weeks between activity, you want to know what has been torqued and what has not. Once a fastener was final torqued, I marked it. Never had to go back and re-check, or back up and disassemble to confirm something I may have missed three layers deep under installed parts.

[rhino6303]

Because racecar?

I don't need them.

 

 

 

TiC FU bolts are purely for my convenience and piece-of-mind. I (successfully) took two of the cam sprockets off when I adjusted my valve buckets a while back, and for that I did buy a good set of 3/8" allen head sockets. They worked before and I'm sure they'll work again, but I didn't like how cautious I had to be to not strip out the inside diameters. Taking the existing bolts out may or may not be a problem, but I'd like the new ones to go back on without incident. Maybe I scared myself by watching too many horror videos on youtube, but stripping the bolts is a headache I'd like to not have to deal with in the future.

 

I already have a decent 1/2" breaker bar that I'm happy with.

 

While we're on the topic... Will I be able to get the job done properly using my Harbor Freight click-type 3/8" torque wrench? It functions as well as it was designed to, but it's HF brand so it's reliability is questionable. I bought it because I needed it quick and there's a HF only 2 miles from my house. I'd love to add a quality torque wrench to my collection but they're so darn expensive and I have a hard time replacing tools that aren't broken (yet). With the exception of my 1/2" HF impact sockets almost everything else in my toolbox is Craftsman and Gearwrench. So will my HF torque wrench be adequate, or am I putting the entire rebuild at-risk by using it?

I wouldn't use my harbor freight torque wrench on engine internals. I use it for suspension and such. You'll also need to be able to do low torque for things like valve covers and such. My HF can't do the low torque stuff well.

[StkmltS]

Can you get your wrench checked at work (I recall you work somewhere that has inspection tools)?

Maybe, but it would be a hassle because it's obviously something not work-related.

 

Some fasteners are down in the 5 ft-lb range, which is probably off the lower end of your scale but you should be able to guesstimate those.

So your opinion is that a low-range 1/4" is admirable, but not an absolute requirement?

 

Once a fastener was final torqued, I marked it. Never had to go back and re-check, or back up and disassemble to confirm something I may have missed three layers deep under installed parts.

Brilliant. I added notes to remind myself to do that.

 

I wouldn't use my harbor freight torque wrench on engine internals. I use it for suspension and such. You'll also need to be able to do low torque for things like valve covers and such. My HF can't do the low torque stuff well.

After a little research it looks like decent non-electronic torque wrenches aren't nearly as costly as I thought.

I'm convinced, time to start shopping around.

 

I really appreciate your guys' input.

[BarManBean]

I have some CDI torque wrenches. Same folks that make snap-on I believe. They are nice. I have this one for the little stuff: https://www.amazon.com/Industrial-CDI-2502MRPH-Adjustable-250-Inch-Pounds/dp/B001VXRYG8

 

And then the 1/2" version that covers 30-250 ft/lbs.

 

Check jet.com for pricing too. When I ordered the little one recently I think it was cheapest there.

[xt2005bonbon]

I have three torque wrenches, one that clicks and two analog ones. The analog ones were inexpensive I recall. Crafstman brand. But they are a bit difficult to use if you can't put your eyes right in front of the gauge to make sure you're applying the right amount of torque.

[birkhoff]

If you can find a beam style wrench somewhere, they can't go out of calibration, provided they are zeroed correctly. Put a 7/16 socket on your click wrench and stick the beam wrench on that. Now pull the beam wrench and read off the torque when you get the click. Thats now I check mine. My 3/8 inch Mac click wrench tests within a foot pound or so against my Proto low-torque beam wrench, at least in the 20 - 40 ft-lb range.

 

Yes, beam wrenches are a major pain to use, but bombproof in terms of calibration.

 

If you can take your HF wrench into work and test it against a calibrated wrench, that could work. Testing a click against a click is a little more fussy, but by a sequence of bracketing tests you can zero in on it and get close enough for this kind of work.

 

I never pay much for tools. I just keep an eye open at pawn shops and used tool places until something comes up. If it needs calibration or sharpening, or whatever, you get a good price and you can always figure out a way to do the latter.

[xt2005bonbon]

Oh that's how they're called (beam wrenches). That's what I have then. And good tip on how to cross-check their calibration.

[StkmltS]

The Brown Line Metalworks digital TW ($99.99, BLD0212) has too many negative reviews about frequently resetting the torque setting.

 

The AC Delco digital TW ($99.99, ARM601-4) only goes up to 99 ft/lbs, so no dice.

 

The TEKTON click-type TW ($39.99, 24335) is cheap and it seems to be really popular, but it's construction doesn't look much different than the cheap-o Harbor Freight one I already have.

 

The Mountain click-type TW ($68.39, 16250) has the wide torque range I'd prefer (25-250) but it also looks very similar to my HF torque wrench.

 

The Gorilla Automotive has a TW ($69, TW705) that looks decent, but it doesn't have many reviews and it's range (50-250) doesn't go as low as the Mountain TW.

 

Anything CDI is more than I'd like to spend, and KD tools is only slightly less than CDI.

[birkhoff]

If you can't reliably hit torque in the 10-20 ft-lbs range you'll be in a pickle for lots of stuff on this engine. Nothing is over 55 lbs that I recall (your aftermarket head studs and the crank pulley being an exception). Lowest I think is 4 ft-lbs for the pan bolts. Who amongst us has actually gone only 4 ft-lbs with those!

 

I would just try to verify accuracy the HF one you already have, especially in that critical range. Next time you visit your local HF, can you ask to check it against a beam wrench that they (hopefully) have on the shelf?