John Hall's 2007 specB - Daily turned Restoration (Respray, Engine Build, Air Ride, More!)

[BagRidersJohn]

No real car updates since I've not been working on it at all and instead getting the most driving time I can before winter sets in. That said, I have a couple of exciting new tools in my shop that I'll be putting to work over the winter!

 

After lots of planning and measuring, I pulled the trigger on a BendPak low-ceiling lift. This one is designed for ceilings up to 10' tall. My ceiling is just shy of 10' so I had to get a little creative in order to maximize its lifting capability.

 

As you can see, the top of the lift sits above the finished ceiling height, but the safety stopper tube sits just below it to mechanically prevent the vehicle from hitting the ceiling.

 

I chopped out the ceiling between two joists and boxed in a removable, insulated panel:

 

This sucker is about 12' long by 2' wide and composed of wood and 2" foam board. It is kinda heavy and very awkward to lift, so I devised a handy dandy hoist using a 110v winch from Amazon.

 

Tadaaaa

 

This was critical for installing the lift as there are safety cables and hydraulic connections in the top trough. Similarly, should I need to service any connections in the future, the removable panel will prove very important!

 

Plans for this car over the winter aren't terribly exciting, but important nonetheless. Basically just an engine rebuild and undercoating the transmission tunnel and front clip. While I have the engine out, I may choose to spray the engine bay to match the new body color, but I'm not fully committed to that as of now.

 

My WRX on the other hand, I have lots of plans for! That car has been somewhat neglected for the last couple years as I've been spending all of my wrenching time on my Legacy. So this winter I plan on giving that car some long-overdue attention ranging from body work, more engine bay shaving, and a major drivetrain overhaul! Fun! I finally picked up a TIG welder and I am really excited to develop that skill and apply it to my cars.

 

Thanks for reading!

[Kaos22B]

Pretty slick! Seriously considering a lift in my next place, and height restrictions have been on my mind so thanks for a possible elegant solution.

[SoobyDoobyDoo]

Damn that’s a sweet setup….

[BagRidersJohn]

I'm back at it friends!!

 

It's a regular ol' Subaru party up in here

 

The keen eyed viewers will notice a few items scattered throughout my shop that are indicative of what I've been up to lately....

 

GET READY FOR SOME OBLIGATORY SELFIES

 

First, out came the motor

 

Then, out came the transmission (so thankful to have a lift for this one!!)

 

With those hunks of metal out of the way, I'm now prepping the remainder of the undercarriage (namely the transmission tunnel) to finish up the undercarriage restoring that I mostly completed last winter. Again, so thankful to have a lift for this!!

 

Over the weekend I did a leak-down test to gauge (heh) the condition of the engine before ripping it apart. It has around 190K on it, and to my knowledge has never been resealed and it sure does look the part. While the engine was running fine, it is certainly due for some semi-proactive maintenance.

 

Overall, the leak down test was better than I thought it would be, especially considering the cold engine, with only one cylinder showing considerable leakage

 

For all cylinders, the most predominant leakage is from the piston rings as is evident by the air escaping from the turbo oil drain tube. A couple cylinders demonstrated leakage at the exhaust valves as well, to no surprise, this could be very well be lash out of tolerance given the high mileage of the engine and the strenuous heat cycling that exhaust valves are exposed to.

 

I'll be prioritizing the undercarriage work and meanwhile gathering parts that I know I'll need for the engine rebuild. I don't want to just throw a new shortblock at it, as all signs (as of now) point to this one being a perfectly suitable rebuild candidate. So long as the cylinders aren't out of whack, a hone and new rings should breathe life back into it. Of course while I have it apart I'll fit new bearings as well.

 

For the heads, I'll have to see how the valve seats look but I'm hoping I can get by with a simply replacing seals, lapping in some new or cleaned up valves, and having the heads decked (as you always should with Subaru heads!!). I'm not particularly interested in paying for new valve seats to be ground unless of course the seats are pitted, in which case I'll see whats out there for used heads before shelling out for a job like that.

 

Anyways, more updates to come as its winter time now which means I spend pretty much all my free time in my shop

[BagRidersJohn]

A small update

 

I pulled out the front crossmember so that I can clean everything up.

 

It's pretty crusty down there despite the steering rack seals trying to help the cause by keeping the crossmember thoroughly soaked in grease and ATF I'll be replacing the crossmember as I think by the time I sandblast and powder coat it, I'd be out more time and money than simply replacing with a clean example from a more dry and salt-free area of the US.

 

With the aid of the trusty Kano Kroil I removed the rack cover plate and pulled the rack out of the crossmember. I'll be cleaning up and rebuilding this rack, replacing any of the external parts along the way at my discretion.

 

This stuff is destined for the metal recycling facility.

 

In preparation of applying new epoxy, I cleaned up the transmission tunnel and remaining areas with W&G remover on a maroon scuff pad. As you can see, this area of the chassis is very clean considering the age and mileage, and really doesn't need much attention.... but if you've followed along this thread at all, you will know that I can't NOT refinish it to match the rest of the undercarriage

 

I also removed the shift linkage and will evaluate restoring v.s. replacing.

 

I hope everyone has a wonderful Holiday!

[Cpark14]

breathtaking

[Febreze Mee]

... but if you've followed along this thread at all, you will know that I can't NOT refinish it to match the rest of the undercarriage

 

I laughed at this part. An early Merry Christmas to you and your family!

[BagRidersJohn]

breathtaking

 

Thanks!

 

I laughed at this part. An early Merry Christmas to you and your family!

 

Ha glad you got a chuckle out of it Thank you and Merry Christmas to you and your family as well!

 

---

 

I managed to spray the last areas of the chassis before departing on vacation this week (writing this from said vacation! ) I can't express how much easier and faster this was (not to mention, easier on my back ) on the lift... Being able to roll around on a stool and operate the spray gun is amazing!!

 

I used a cheapo HF spray gun to spray the thick epoxy. The tip was a bit small but ended up working out really good! I got great coverage and more efficient on material for sure.

 

I decided to leave the front frame rails in the silver epoxy... I think it looks good. I hit the transmission tunnel and the rest of the undercarriage with the same black topcoating and rubberized undercoating.

 

I've got new parts waiting for me upon my return back home so I'm hoping I can make quick-ish work of reassembly. I think rebuilding the rack & pinion will be the most time consuming part. I intend on getting everything except the engine back into the car, and then getting my WRX onto the lift so I can tear into that one. I'll be bouncing back and forth between working on my WRX and rebuilding the EJ255 out of my Legacy, which to me, sounds like a nice way to spend time in my shop over the winter

[BagRidersJohn]

I hope everyone had a great holiday!

 

I wasted no time digging back into my Legacy when I returned home from visiting family. As expected, I had a slew of new (used) parts waiting for me, so I started cleaning them up!

 

Firstly, a clean crossmember and rack cover / jacking plate!

 

While these parts were pretty clean to begin with, I hit 'em with some degreaser and a drill-mounted brush to make them nearly as good as new! I also replaced all the fasteners on these parts with stainless hardware, cause that's how I roll

 

Ta-daaaa

 

With the crossmember all prepped and ready, I moved onto disassembling the rack and pinion. I got just about everything apart except for the piston from the rack as I'm lacking the correct sized socket and couldn't find my large adjustable wrench to save my life.

 

Big thanks to Jaylew for their guide on rebuilding! I ordered a rebuild kit, just waiting for it to show up.

 

Next, I moved onto the transmission. I stood it upright on a couple of 4x4's in order to remove the crossmember and start cleaning it up. As you can see, it doesn't hide its age or mileage

 

I'm going to remove everything from the transmission, restore the metal parts and clean up the casing. I may paint the casing, but I haven't decided yet.

 

Of course, I have a new (used) rust-free crossmember for this thing. I started cleaning it up last night and got about 75% completed. I have new bushings for this, as well as a new transmission mount. The old ones were all well past their service life, cracked to all hell and generally speaking just no longer functional.

 

I'm at a bit of a pause while I wait for the r&p rebuild parts along with some abrasives to clean up the transmission, but will continue prepping in the meantime.

 

Thanks for following along!

[socalsleeper]

Looking very nice buddy

[BagRidersJohn]

Looking very nice buddy

 

Thanks man!!

 

---

 

I finished cleaning up the trans xmember last night. That's about all I have for an update today

 

Next up is the transmission casing and misc. brackets!

[BagRidersJohn]

I hope everyone had a great New Year and that your 2022 is off to a good start!

 

I made some headway on cleaning up my drivetrain. Still waiting on the rack rebuild parts to come in, so no progress there unfortunately. I'm hoping once that comes in, I'll have everything else done so all I'll have to do is rebuild the rack & pinion then put everything back together!

 

I thought this was a satisfying photo: old vs new

 

As I'm sure anyone who follows this thread will understand, I just couldn't bring myself to reinstall my transmission without giving it any attention. After all, it would look terribly out of place surrounded by beautifully restored parts!

 

Here's how it started. As you can see, at this point I had removed some brackets, tested out some cleaning methods on the rear housing, and began replacing fasteners.

 

First up was the brackets. I began restoring them the same way I do with all metal parts, and that is mechanical rust removal. For this I use a variety of tools depending on the part, but generally speaking its a lot of wire wheel and abrasive flap discs and drums on angle grinders, die grinders and for small stuff a dremel tool.

 

After the crusty stuff is removed, I soaked them for about 36 hours in a rust stripping solution. I've not used this stuff before, but it worked well. It smelled a lot like cleaning vinegar; the high acidity type.

 

Anyways, what you see here is a few brackets from the transmission, lower radiator brackets, and swaybar/anti-roll bar straps. There was some pitting, but overall these parts cleaned up real nice.

 

Moments later, I had the parts ready to spray paint. I'm using some chassis paint for these; same stuff I used on the trans crossmember.

 

I guess I didn't take a photo of all the parts, but here is one of the lower radiator brackets. I'm happy with the finish. It's somewhere between matte and gloss black which is what I was going for. I achieve this finish by spraying a light coat of matte paint over the still wet gloss paint.

 

In the background of that photo you'll see a brand new transmission mount. The old one was way past its service life. Since I had to replace the part anyhow, I opted for the STI (Group N?) version, which is just a solid rubber mount as opposed to the stock part that has a relief in the middle.

 

In other (disappointing) news, I scooped a really clean looking, low mileage driveshaft from an eBay auction, but unfortunately the seller listed the wrong part number. Upon receiving the part, it is tagged "08 Legacy GT" so presumably seller was unaware that there are two automatic transmissions offered in the BL/BP Legacy, as the auction listed the part number for the 4AT driveshaft which is the part I need as it is shared with the 6MT specB. Furthermore, the seller is putting up a major stink about it, going so far to claim that Subaru is wrong about the part number, and that they are correct Seems pretty likely I'll have to engage eBay to get a refund on this one.... oh well.

 

Its sad though, the driveshaft looks good

 

I've never tried to split one of these driveshafts but I assume it's possible? If anyone has done this please let me know as I'd consider just swapping the front section of my driveshaft onto the one I received, if I'm unable to send the part back (which I of course have offered to do!)

 

Enough of that, back to the fun (fun? ) stuff! After about 6 hours of cleaning, I called it quits with my progress on the transmission. Honestly, I spent more time on the underside (i.e., what I'll see when I'm under the car) but I'm happy enough with the final product. It doesn't look brand spankin' new but it's an immense improvement from where it started, and that's good enough for me!

 

So that about does it. I've got a short list of parts left that I'd like to clean up a bit before they go back in the car, namely the shift linkage and steering rack. Otherwise, I'm just waiting on that rebuild kit to come in so I can put this rig back together and move onto my WRX!

 

Cheers and thanks for reading!

[Enlight]

Wow, I didn't think seeing those clean radiator brackets would excite me like that. Mine are rotted. That's a nice paint booth you have there. I'm jealous of your garage.

[jaylew]

as always, beautiful work!

[BagRidersJohn]

as always, beautiful work!

 

Thanks!

 

Wow, I didn't think seeing those clean radiator brackets would excite me like that. Mine are rotted. That's a nice paint booth you have there. I'm jealous of your garage.

 

Haha its the little things, right? Thanks for the kind words about my shop. I'm very proud of it and have worked very hard to make it financially possible, including doing all of the interior fit-up myself. One day I hope to build another ~1000 sq/ft expansion but without a second story so that I could have a full-sized overhead lift, and reserve what is my current shop space for long-term projects that would involve a rotisserie, as well as larger stationary equipment. Maybe sometime in the next decade

 

---

 

No updates for the car, but I did get a shipment notification for the rack rebuild parts and those should be showing up on Saturday. So, I'm hoping I'll be able to knock out the rack rebuild on Sunday and then next week will be reinstallation of the trans/front crossmember. Once that's done I'll be able to get the car off the lift if needed, which is a nice stress reliever for me. Additionally, I'm excited to tear apart the engine for a rebuild, but I wont start that until I've got the trans/front xmember back in there.

 

Thanks for reading!

[BagRidersJohn]

I completed rebuilding the rack over the weekend, nice!

 

With everything apart, of course I removed surface rust from the rack housing and spent some time cleaning up the cast aluminum pinion housing as well

 

I gave the rack housing a fresh coat of paint. I replaced the rubber strap (referred to as a "spacer" in the parts diagram, weird) as well as both brackets that retain the rack to the crossmember.

 

And here is the finished product, lookin good! Now all that's left to do is hope she doesn't leak I'll find out if my rebuild was successful when the car gets back on the road in the spring time.

 

---

 

No photos to show, but last night I cleaned up and painted the shifter assembly components and the front swaybar / anti-rollbar as well as the bushings (the brackets I cleaned up prior). I'm bringing home our (work/Bag RIders') transmission jack tonight in hopes of getting the car back on the ground by the weekend.

 

I'll try to remember to snap some photos of the remaining parts as well as once everything is back togther!

 

Cheers!

[BagRidersJohn]

Spent last night preparing to reinstall stuff tonight. As I mentioned previously, I refinished the front swaybar and I'm happy with the outcome. I'll install it to the crossmember before installing the crossmmeber on the chassis tonight:

 

I may have gotten a little ahead of myself and reinstalled the shifter to the transmission when I was reinstalling the miscellaneous brackets and sensors. If this makes reinstallation difficult it's only a couple bolts to remove.

 

I should have everything back on the car tonight, and hopefully the car will be roll-able by the weekend

[BagRidersJohn]

Last night with the help of my wife I reinstalled the front crossmember and transmission. Only a few more things to reinstall before it can come off the lift and go somewhere else in my shop while I rebuild the engine!

 

[BagRidersJohn]

Well folks I've got some good news and some bad news.

 

Good news first: I accomplished my goal of getting my specB off the lift and over to the other side of my shop with the help of my wife (pushing it outside and back in through the snow and double-digit negative temperatures - no easy task!)

 

Bad news: I didn't take any "finished" photos of the undercarriage before I took it off the lift:spin: CLASSIC.

 

I did take some photos of the last refinished pieces and hardware, though!

 

First, the driveshaft. Everyone together now: "ooooo, ahhhhh!"

 

In front of the driveshaft is all new hardware i.e. 2x new bolts for the carrier and 4x new bolts/washers/nuts for the yolk. Nice. I gave both shafts a fresh coat of matte black paint too. Double nice.

 

Next, how about these front axles? You can tell they're legit because of the green cups. Oh yeah, that's nice. Similar treatment for these bad larrys: matte black paint on the shafts as well as the outer cup. Upon close inspection, the boots are all in good shape (pretty sure I replaced them somewhat recently, I can't remember). I popped them back in without replacing the inner seals: hopefully I don't regret that decision

 

So do your best to imagine those parts installed on a nice clean chassis. I promise I'll snag a "done" photo of the undercarriage in the spring time once I put the engine back in there... not trying to do the push out / push back in again. That might strain my marriage

 

So now my Legacy has joined my WRX on the other side of the shop. I actually pushed my WRX away from the wall a bit so I could have some room to work on that thing too.

 

The keen observers might notice some parts in front of my WRX, and you'd be right. About a month ago, I backed straight into the front end of my friend and co-worker Rob's Legacy GT. He has the same fender kit as I do, but he had tediously molded his. The force of the impact damaged the bumper, hood, and both fenders. I promised him I'd make it right, so I bought a new front clip and new fender flares and I will be doing the repair. This is why I wanted to get my Legacy off the lift... his car will be coming to my house this week and I'm going to put it up on the lift so I can do the body work standing up or sitting down without hunching over, thus saving my poor lower back

 

Thanks for reading!

[BagRidersJohn]

Hi everyone!

 

I have no update for my specB -- it's currently sitting right where I left it in the last photo with a car cover on it. I've not made any progress on the engine rebuild... I have zero self control and started digging into my WRX I've made some headway there, and since it's the same engine as the Legacy and also Subaru content, I figured I'd share

 

This my first endeavor in more complex fabrication and I'm loving it. Thus far I just have the up pipe tacked together and the turbo positioned where I want it. I'm re-plumbing pretty well everything on the engine with AN including the wastegate plumbing and water lines, redoing the catch can setup with dual Radium cans, and introducing some dry breaks for better serviceability.

 

In other, very exciting news, I can finally disclose that my specB has been, and is currently on a prototype version of Bag Riders' very own air suspension, called Super Low. Our air suspension is unique in that we have designed it specifically for low driving heights. We have achieved this through our choice of air spring design, volume and damper tuning. Our VT headquarters is home to our manufacturing and assembly facility, and I am so proud of what we have accomplished over the past few years developing this new type of air suspension.

 

We made our announcement with this video that I hope you will enjoy. My specB has a very brief moment of stardom

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYV4U3HVmkU]Introducing SUPER LOW by Bag Riders - Air Suspension BUILT to DRIVE LOW! - YouTube[/ame]

 

We will be releasing our BL/BP kit later this year! Please feel free to DM with any questions.

Edited March 11, 2022 by BagRidersJohn

[SoobyDoobyDoo]

Daaaaaammmmmnnnnn….. not only to that WRX turbo set up (which looks killer BTW) but congrats on the new developments! That’s exciting stuff! I’ve been trying to do the same thing but on a much smaller scale and different platform. Lol. There’s a new kid who started at my work who’s got a bag riders hoodie…I asked him about it and hes like “oh…I won this. My gf is into air ride.” I was kinda bummed was hoping he’d have some interaction with you guys, or know something about your subies, lol. He’s got a G37 on coil overs, so no dice…

[slaminal]

It’s pretty awesome to come back into the Legacy/OB community and see that more people have been building them. Back in 2012, you didn’t see cool Legacies too often. I have seen yours a bit on Instagram and it’s definitely one of my favorites.

[BagRidersJohn]

It’s pretty awesome to come back into the Legacy/OB community and see that more people have been building them. Back in 2012, you didn’t see cool Legacies too often. I have seen yours a bit on Instagram and it’s definitely one of my favorites.

 

Hey thanks a lot! I agree, the BL/BP chassis hasn't got much love over the years, but it seems to be getting more popular and there is a tight-knit community for sure! Personally, I feel that the BL specB is one of the best examples from Subaru we've received in the USDM. It really hits on all points for me, I just love it. It's a damn shame to me that the newer Legacy XT's aren't offered with a 6MT otherwise I'd definitely consider one! Subaru's CVT just doesn't do it for me.

 

---

 

Good news! Last week I finished up the repairs on my friend's Legacy and dove back into my own! It's still frosty in the mornings here in northern VT but we've got a lot of rain and spring is in the air - I'm eager to get at least one of my cars back on the road!

 

Before I could get started on my own stuff, I had to do some tidying up around the shop. Anyone who has experience with body work knows, that sh*t is MESSY! But, some time with the power washer and mop bucket do wonders! The epoxy I applied to my shop floor definitely makes clean up go faster. I'll give the floors a really serious washing with a commercial floor scrubber once my cars are mobile.

 

A clean working space is important for engine work, and just helps me feel motivated in general. I adopt the mindset "feel good, do good"

 

To deter myself from tinkering too much on my WRX, I tucked the engine and components away in the corner of my shop

 

With the shop cleaned up, I started tearing into the EJ255 out of my specB. Boy, this thing is GRIMY!! Fortunately, I get a lot of satisfaction out of cleaning and restoring stuff, which is exactly what I'll be doing with this ol' girl. Many hoses, particularly those in the engine breathing system, were rock solid and cracked upon removal, so I'll be replacing those as part of this refresher.

 

With the longblock mostly stripped down, the next step is to remove the cam gears while the engine is still on the stand. You don't wanna wrestle these things off the cylinder heads on a table! Despite a relatively low torque spec, these hex-drive bolts are notoriously terrible to remove. Specialty tools from the likes of Company23 are available to hold the cam gears in place, but in lieu of that you can sometimes get by with the more "MacGyver" approach of using the timing belt and vice grips to lock the cam gears in place, as I've done here. Note: don't do this if you need to reuse the timing belt as it WILL be damaged in the process:

 

Next, assemble the longest cheater bar you can, perhaps consider a sacrifice to the Subaru deities, perform a ritual dance, and giv'r the dinner.

 

Hopefully, everything goes good for you and you can take a nice happy picture, like this one! This is my "horray, all 4 cam bolts came out without damage!" face:

 

With the biggest hurdle behind you, the rest of the teardown is straightforward. I removed the cylinder heads one at a time, first removing the cams, then removing the head bolts, then reinstalling the cams to ensure the buckets didn't fall out when rotating the engine. After removing the cylinder heads, I cracked loose all the case half bolts in the reverse order of installation then moved the shortblock over to the workbench for splitting. After zapping all the case half bolts out, rest the shortblock on the RH deck, get out your biggest deadblow mallet and get to smackin'. Of course, you want to be mindful of where you're smackin', but if you're doing this job then you're well aware of this.

 

Here's the outcome:

 

For having nearly 200k miles on the clock, I think this amount of wear is pretty well to be expected. This being my first foray into the bottom end of a turbocharged EJ, I sent some pics to a Subaru master tech friend of mine for confirmation and he agreed. Definitely seen some miles, but nothing extraordinary.

 

As you can see, the cylinder crosshatching is still visible, however you can also see drag marks from the piston skirt which suggests ring wear and surely was contributing to the oil consumption I was experiencing, as well as the results I logged during the cylinder leakage test I performed just after pulling the engine some months ago where cylinder #3 was leaking over 30%

 

Similar findings in cylinder #4 which was just behind #3 in leakage test. Here is the piston that came out of cylinder #4, as you can see, there is considerable wear on the piston skirt. I won't be reusing these pistons.

 

So, what's next? This is one of many important questions to ask yourself when you're in my position.

 

There is something I wish to make abundantly clear because it plays a significant role in this decision making process: I am NOT trying to get through this in the fastest, or least expensive way possible. Instead, I am excited to learn, and am willing to pay (in both time and money) for the opportunity to learn, which is exactly how I am approaching this: a learning opportunity. I have other cars I can drive, I'm in no rush to get this engine back together and in the car, and I'm accepting of the fact that if I screw up I'll be buying (at the very least) a new block. I strongly encourage you, if you're considering doing this yourself, to ask yourself the same questions I am here.

 

Now that you understand my priorities (namely, spending money to educate myself), the next steps hopefully will make sense. Basically, it's a bunch of measuring. I'll measure the cylinder bores and pistons to better understand how much wear occurred over the last ~200K miles. I assume I'll find myself needing to run slightly oversized pistons. I'm assuming the journals on the crankshaft will measure out just fine, but I'm debating swapping in a nitrite treated STI crank for the peace of mind. I don't know enough about what other wear a crankshaft experiences, beside what can be measured on the journals. I plan to reuse the con rods with new cap fasteners (and bearings of course) so long as everything measures out within spec and I don't find any signs of overheating once I remove them from the crankshaft. ARP head studs are a no-brainer for me. The cylinder heads will definitely get a refresh too. Once all is said and done, I expect to have an engine I'll be comfortable sending a few hundred ponies through at some point, if I care to.

 

I'll keep this thread updated with my progress in this exciting, new to me process!

[BagRidersJohn]

Well guys and gals, you wouldn't believe it, but I've decided to do some other stuff "while I'm at it"

 

The other day I received my cylinder heads and case halves back from the machine shop who decked the mating surfaces flat and cut new valve seats. The cylinder bores were healthy enough to stay at 99.5 which made me happy and saved a few bucks too!

 

Look at how nice these cylinder heads came out!

 

I decided on a full valvetrain refresh using GSC valves and OEM everything else. While the original valve springs may continue to do their job, for the marginal cost of new springs I decided I might as well replace for that "all new" outcome.

 

The case halves are a different story. While they look a LOT better than they did prior to the machine shop (see "before" in my last post), they're not nearly as clean as the cylinder heads.

 

So, because of my obsessive tendencies, I gave my friends down the street a call and dropped off a pile of parts for them to clean up in their vapor blasting cabinet. Vapor blasting is a non abrasive type of blasting which is well suited for aluminum parts like this.

 

Here is the pile of stuff I dropped off with them. It's pretty well every aluminum member of the longblock assembly, save the heads. Accessory pump brackets, water pipe, timing tensioner bracket, stuff like that. I am super excited to get this stuff back and start reassembly.

 

To maintain my high standard for this work, I opted to buy new OEM case half fasteners, galley plugs, service plugs, and some other miscellaneous specialty fasteners for the engine assembly (e.g., shouldered bolts) that were beyond what I felt was reasonable to restore. Other non-specialty fasteners are to be replaced with stainless equivalents when the correct head size is available (no replacing 12mm with 13mm!!) and otherwise are replaced with JIS equivalents from an industrial hardware supplier.

 

I mentioned that I opted for a few "while I'm at it" type things. Basically, I realized that after doing all this work, I'll very much want to turn the boost up just a little bit. So for the sake of doing so safely, I opted for a couple of small improvements:

• Wiseco 99.5mm pistons
  
• King Main/Rod Bearings
  
• ARP Head Studs
  
• STI Nitride Crank
  

 

 

This formula should make for a stout bottom end that is capable of moderate power should I, or the next owner, decide to go that route. The refreshed cylinder heads are more out of principal than anything, and stock heads flow just fine for the power levels that this bottom end will support.

 

I expect to get the parts back from vapor blasting sometime this week, at which point I will be able to move forward with reassembly! I'm very excited. This rebuild will be what I consider "OEM Plus" with a whole bunch of restoration-type stuff. The only OEM system that is NOT going back in, is the secondary air injection system. Big shouts to @m_sprank and their Air Pump Delete thread here (link: https://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php/2007-2009-air-pump-delete-cel-codes-and-ecu-fix-140259.html) that highlights the Atmospheric Pressure Sensor workaround. When I did this mod long ago on my 06 WRX (also air pump equipped) this was a non-issue, so I'm glad I deicded to look this up for the Legacy and didn't assume it would be the same!

 

In conclusion, last night I started the tedious cleaning work on the intake manifold. I removed the TGV housings (I do intend on keeping the TGVs) and will be soaking those and the throttle body in my ultrasonic cleaner, then painting them black which I feel better compliments the plastic intake manifold. The injectors will be cleaned and rebuilt before going back in the car. I'll be cleaning and reusing hoses that are in good condition, and replacing the ones that have hardened to plastic-like brittleness with OEM or an EPDM aftermarket hose if appropriate.

 

As always, thanks for reading. Cheers!

[BagRidersJohn]

I got my pile of parts back from vapor blasting and man oh man, they look great!

 

I had both case halves, valve covers, cam caps, water x-pipe and accessory brackets cleaned up. Now I just have to decide what parts to cerakote, and what color!! Perhaps a nice silver for the long block... or black? Big decisions

 

Check out this case half! I get some photos of the other parts this weekend when I'm in my shop