Tidgy Posted July 6, 2015 Posted July 6, 2015 Thought was about time I started a build thread hahaha Shall start with a bit of background about the car. It's a 1998 Version 5 WRX STI Type R. It was imported in dec 2010 by SVA imports with 63k miles on the clock. It was sold in April 2011 and the new owner had a full 330mm AP 4 pot front kit fitted and rear new age Brembo setup added. Was sold on to Hurst performance over at Bedford in 2014 and i bought the car back end of October 2014. Was fairly cheap and was known to need a full service (inc cambelt) After picking up the car i headed straight up to scoobyclinic for them to give it a once over and a dyno session Few issues were found. Both rocker covers were starting to leak and the rear crank seal had developed a leak. So after coming to an agreement with hurst it was left with clinic for a couple of weeks to sort out the rocker covers, rear crank seal and do a full service. The better news was that while the car had never been under-sealed, there was no signs of rust at all and the chassis was in near perfect condition. Arches were solid with no signs of rust. The other disappointment was it was way down on power and down on boost, was running about 0.9 bar and about 240bhp. AFR was fine and no det was detected so was running ok in general. When scoobyclinic dropped the gearbox to do the crank seal they also found the clutch was worn down to the botls, so it ended up having a new clutch as well. Two weeks later i picked it up. Hadn't planned to do much for a few months to let the bank balance recover but i got wind of a mate selling some of the bits from his car and was too good to miss. I managed to get, Gt spec gen 2 headers Harvey smith up pipe Walbrough 300 fuel pump Syvecs S6 Full race spec scr decat spares anyone? lol These were all fitted and car was strapped to the dyno and mapped. As per before the power level was low, 290bhp even with the syvecs, headers and decat. After some head scratching issue was put down as a possibly the turbo getting a bit tired after 104k miles. AFR was fine and no sign of det so was left at that. Drove allot better and sounded a whole let better. Few weeks later was decided to try a new turbo and see what it did. Dropped the car off sat ready for the upgrade during the week, but Monday morning comes and the dreaded phone call. The mechanic had heard a rattle from the crank when he fired it up form cold, they gave it more of a look Monday and sure enough at 2k rpm you could hear it. Over the next couple of weeks went through options and costs to decide best route. Was left with a few options depending on how bad the internal damage was. Engine was stripped and report came back with mixed results, Crank bearings worn down to copper Crank slightly market (should polish out, if not crank scrap. never machine a subaru crank) Valves work Valve seats worn 3 thou Taper on cylinder 1 and 3, way outside tolerance Block would be salvageable, but wall thickness would limit power/boost to about 350bhp so was decided to change that, new valves and then reface the valve seats will allow them to be reused with no issues. Given the damage there were a whole heap of options, 1. machine the block, refresh the heads, fit and leave it under 350bhp. 2. supply a 2.0 block, refresh heads and rebuild for up to about 400bhp 3. supply a 2.0 block, add a 2.1 stroker kit for up to about 450bhp 4. supply a 2.0 semi closed deck block, 2.1 stroker for around 500bhp 5. supply a 2.0 closed deck block, 2.1 stroker kit for over 550-600bhp 6. supply a 2.5 block, forged pistons, uprated rods and limit it to about 450bhp 7. supply a 2.5 block, convert to closed deck and allow for 550-600bhp. Most options were sacked off pretty quick, semi closed deck are hard to find unless you buy a full engine, don't wan't to limit power to under 400 so got rid of 1,2,4 straight away. Originally i managed to source a 2.0cdb for decent money, but a slight mix up ment it was sold before i actualy got it. This made me lean towards a forged 2.5. I'd had one in my old Hawk wrx and even on low boost it made a really quick car and the low down grunt of the 2.5 made it great on the road My original goal had been 500+, but given the limits of the 2,5 i knew that wasn't going to be a safe working limit but i was happy with that. After a couple more weeks i changed my mind again (sorry kev up at clinic haha) and the final choice was made to go with a CDB 2.5. And that brings us right up to when i type this, as of saturday, popped up to see what was what (bear in mind only decided to go 2.5 cdb last wednesday) and this was sat on the bench. Went into the soda blaster, so block has been cleaned and is ready (if not already gone off) the machiners for CDB converting, couple of others pics of bits and bobs Pics below due to hitting limit 3
Tidgy Posted July 6, 2015 Author Posted July 6, 2015 pre soda blast post soda blast extra bits holy cow. thats a long post hahaha 3
savage bulldogs Posted July 6, 2015 Posted July 6, 2015 Lovely looking base car and Nice to see the shiny bits piling up[emoji41] Any idea when they'll start building the short block up ?
Tidgy Posted July 6, 2015 Author Posted July 6, 2015 cheers folks :) I hit the limit on pictures or i would have put more lol hahaha turbo will be summit small and cheap to start with, if the standard one turns out to be ok that may go back on. If not will be summit like a second hand v35. Gearbox won't take much more than that so no point in giving it the full welly. Also gonna need alot of supporting mods to get there, fuel system inc swirl pot setup, injectors, front mount, oil cooler etc etc etc its a big list hahaha Eventualy dunno, maybe one of the new sc46+'s that seem to be nearing 500, or rotate gt30/35, block will be good for high 500's but wanna keep lag to a minimum, given the gearing and weight 450 it will be seriously rapid, 550 will been hooligan style hahaha :D Wanna keep it on pump gas so that may dictate what turbo setup it is. time frame is still up in the air, prob gonna be away at machine shop being converted for 10 days depending on how busy they are. Mark's still got his cast on so not up to full speed yet and he's got two or 3 others before mine. Takes roughly 1-2 weeks to build one so 4-6 weeks, so pssibly 6 weeks to start, 8 weeks for it to be backj in car and ready to run in. In no hurry so time will tell.
Tidgy Posted July 29, 2015 Author Posted July 29, 2015 Managed to get back up again with my camera so got some pics of the damage, All 8 bearing halves have been worn down to copper and most have a deep ware grove in them middle of the bearing. the compared to a new acl bearing (looks gunky cos it still has its protective coating on it) Valves were also a problem but didnt manage to get much of the damage to show (not got a close up lense) 4
Tidgy Posted August 8, 2015 Author Posted August 8, 2015 Small update today, look whats back from machine shop :D followed by a normal block vs closed deck converted 5
BoozyDave Posted August 8, 2015 Posted August 8, 2015 very nice B) it's only when you see a pic like that you can understand why closed deck can run bigger power than open deck blocks
Gambit Posted August 19, 2015 Posted August 19, 2015 How long left before you get her back on the road and start the run in :(
Tidgy Posted August 19, 2015 Author Posted August 19, 2015 rough guess 6 weeks. will prb be ready in about 4, but i go away in 5 weeks and will leave it with them till i get back
Gambit Posted August 19, 2015 Posted August 19, 2015 Not long now then mate Then the excuses of going to collect milk in the car from the shop just to get the miles clocked up :D 1
Tidgy Posted August 19, 2015 Author Posted August 19, 2015 Hahaha, been looking at road trips for past 2 months,,,, hahahaha 1
confusedbrog Posted August 19, 2015 Posted August 19, 2015 Excellent build thread can't wait to see how it goes :)
bang Posted August 21, 2015 Posted August 21, 2015 Great work Is possible to find the flange for sale ? I would like transformer my open deck into closed deck Thanks Luca 1
Tidgy Posted August 21, 2015 Author Posted August 21, 2015 its a proper machined insert so not sure, you may be abel to ship your block here to have it done maybe? 1
bang Posted August 21, 2015 Posted August 21, 2015 I can not ship my block from Italy to U.K. Because the cost is very high Thanks for your response 1
Tidgy Posted August 24, 2015 Author Posted August 24, 2015 Big jump in progress last week, Bottom end is now complete and awaiting the heads coming back from the machine shop after having new valve guides. 3
Tidgy Posted September 7, 2015 Author Posted September 7, 2015 Only a small update. Heads are still off at the machine shop having new valve guides fitted. But a bit mroe damage was found and some of the exhaust valves and were not salvagable. So all the exhaust valves are being replaced with supertech valves. Hopefully 26th will be the pickup date, but its a bit dependent on how long it takes for ht heads to come back. starting to get into kid at Christmas mode now hahaha :D 3
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