V7 wrx sti type uk engine refresh

[savage bulldogs]

Well as most of you know I've bought another another scooby project , yeah yeah i know i haven't finished the classic project yet [emoji849]

 

i (probably lol ) won't be keeping the bug and definitely won't be selling my 94 sti .

 

So a mate bought a low mileage, with 2 owners and good history 52plate bug wrx sti type uk about 2 yrs ago [emoji41]

 

Unfortunately a previous owner had hidden a mild crank rumble [emoji53] and even after spending a fair bit on maintaining and mapping it's gradually got worse . Although it's a nice clean example, it was probably worth more in bits than whole scoob with a knocky lump .

 

He didn't want to see it broken , so i decided to buy it and rebuild the engine , to save a fairly rare uk bug sti from the scrappy in the sky [emoji41]

 

I've decided to do this thread solely through tapatalk to save me uploading pics to my tablet , so you'll have to bear with the pics being on seperate posts .

 

So heres a couple of pics of the new edition to get started and i'll post more as i go [emoji6]

 

 

[savage bulldogs]

It's got a few mods but i intend on keeping it standard as possible due to it only having 77k and 3 owners .

B.c coilovers .

Strutt brace .

Intake pipe .

Samco hoses.

Rcm lightweight pulleys and flywheel.

3 port boost solenoid.

Ecuteked bob rawl map .

 

And deffis ,but they might end up in my v1sti [emoji848] .

 

800 miles before i bought it the bug had some major maintenance done too .

Exedy clutch .

Graham goode uprated oil pump.

Full oe cambelt kit and new water pump and it came with a bnib oe raditor in the boot [emoji41]

 

Seeing as the bugs sti standard forged avcs engine is capable of 450hp i intend on keeping the build to a fairly standard spec too .

 

Made a start ripping the guts outta the bug

 

Tmic and air box removed

 

 

[savage bulldogs]

I left it overnight once the Rad and downpipe were disconnected as i wanted to do a compression test and check the bores with a endoscope before removing the engine [emoji6]

[savage bulldogs]

The compression test came back ok with 133psi across all cylinders [emoji41] but due to the depth of the heads , all i could see in the bores was the piston sizes ie a or b , which is pretty usless seeing as that info is already stamped on the top of the block[emoji849]

Guess i'll have to wait until the heads are off to see bore condition, then [emoji23]

[savage bulldogs]

Once I'd removed the clutch fork pivot pin, any remaining coolant pipes, vac lines , fuel pipes , gearbox and engine mounting bolts. I took the p.s pump off the block with the p.s lines still attached , so i didn't get oil everywhere or have to refill /re bleed the p.s system .

Once the engine was out i removed the new clutch so i could fit the engine onto the engine stand .

[savage bulldogs]

Removed the coolant tank and air con pump , then disconnected all wires from the engine loom to the block and took note of all oil breather pipe routes . Kids old paddling pool has been a life saver , mrs would go skitz if i got oil on the patio lol

 

 

[savage bulldogs]

Ive only spotted the 1 minor oil leak from cylinder 1's spark plug to cam cover gasket and a fairly big leak from either the oil separator plate or rear crank seal (i'll get back to that a bit later ) otherwise it looks like its a 77k fsh lump .

[savage bulldogs]

Basically once everything that connects the inlet to the block can be unplugged , then the whole inlet with fuel rails, injectors , engine loom ect can be lifted off in one piece.

 

Removed heat shields,to get to the head exhaust outlet studs and took the headers off , then undone the turbo coolant and oil feed /return pipes . Removed the turbo , turbo support brackets and up pipe in one piece too .popped the cambelt covers off to have a peak at the avcs pulley set up before lunchtime .

 

 

[Sandals]

Loving the detail!

What's the plans once it's finished? Keeping it or selling it on?

[savage bulldogs]

Once the engines fitted and run in , take it to attowes and get the map tweeked /dyno health check . take it to a few shows early summer and work on the v1sti's whilst its off the road .

When i sell it probably depends on if someone offers me the right money , to cover the car , build parts and my time .

[Sandals]

7 minutes ago, savage bulldogs said:

Once the engines fitted and run in , take it to attowes and get the map tweeked /dyno health check . take it to a few shows early summer and work on the v1sti's whilst its off the road .

When i sell it probably depends on if someone offers me the right money , to cover the car , build parts and my time .

Hopefully by then I'll be in a position to get back into the Scoob game :D

[savage bulldogs]

Hope so bud , i hate not having boost n burble in my life [emoji53] .

I've got 5 people intrested in the bug already and i haven't even got the block to the engineers yet .

Best pull my finger out [emoji23]🤣

[savage bulldogs]

Locked the flywheel to remove the crank pulley and center cam belt cover , which shows the new full belt kit , water pump and uprated oil pump [emoji41]

Unfortunately, i forgot to take a pic of the cambelt locking tool you need to lock the left bank pulleys to remove the belt without letting the left bank pulleys move . Once the belt was off i removed the 4 cam pulleys and the cam covers to expose the cams .

[savage bulldogs]

With the cams , pulleys and avcs solenoids out you can finally get to the head bolts and remove the heads .

Its a semi closed deck block and the bores are in that good a condition that you can still see the original hone marks . Not that a visual check is enough to ok the bores but its good to see that it was obviously the original 77k fsh lump [emoji41]

[savage bulldogs]

Once both heads were off, i removed the new graham goode oil pump and water pump

[savage bulldogs]

Once I'd removed the rcm lightweight flywheel i could see the oil leak (i mentioned earlier) was coming from the rear crank seal. It had obviously been leaking for a while . It doesn't make sense to me why it wasn't replaced (or at least cleaned) prior to flitting the new clutch [emoji848]

Good possibility that the leak being so close to the rear crank journal would cause a dip in oil pressure or oil level at some point . Which might have starved the main bearings of oil and caused the crank rumble in the first place .

Cleaned the back of the block , took the sump off and spotted my first bit of fubar'd bearings stuck to the side of the oil pickup

[savage bulldogs]

You had to remove the access bungs to get to the wrist pin clips , take the outter clips off the wrist pins ,then use something long (que bbq skewers [emoji4]) to tap the wrist pin out from the other side .

As the bottom of the bores have "webs" which mean the pistons have to be disconnected from the rods in order to split the block halves to get to the crank [emoji6]

[savage bulldogs]

Once I'd split the block and removed the crank the cause of the rumble was plain to see ,fubar'd main bearings .

Although the bearings had taken the wear and the crank measures up ok , i won't be taking any chances and will be fitting a brand new crank [emoji6]

[savage bulldogs]

Luckily I'd pulled the engine before the beast from the east dropped a blanket of snow in suffolk. Having another scooby came in handy , as the snow didn't stop me dropping the block halves off at pat segars (my trusty engineer) [emoji4]

I'd originally planned to leave the heads in one piece, due to them being quiet and the engine not smoking , so valve stem seals and seats were ok . But the urge to fully refresh the engine took over and I've decided to (at least) re seat the valves and fit new stem seals [emoji4]

They'll also go to the engineers for a pressure test and a general check over once i collect the block halves [emoji6]

[savage bulldogs]

Block half faces have been checked over, bores have had a light hone (to bed the new rings in) and the pistons have come up well .

Looks like im gonna have to start getting my shopping list together soon [emoji4]

[savage bulldogs]

The avcs Heads have the usual visual crack between exhaust valve ports and spark plug hole . Although it's almost impossible to find a second hand set of avcs heads without cracks (very common issue) and the 3 other scooby engine builders ive spoken to , said they looked fine .

I dont want to take any chances so i had my engineer pressure check , lightly mill the faces and recut all the valves in both heads . Which cost me a extra £300 on top of the normal face work [emoji849] but it's worth it for piece of mind for me .

Looks like I'm starting to run outta excuses not to upset the wife and order all the rebuild parts [emoji4]

[stuartie]

Great write up so far buddy those heads look exellent you'r engineer has made a really nice job of them, when is the rebuild starting? 👍. I've just started to rebuild my v1 engine so should hopefully be back together and back in soon then a quick mot and off to see mr forrest for a map 😁👍

[johned]

Great stuff keep it up.

[savage bulldogs]

Still haven't ordered the parts yet as im getting AS performance, icp and R.M performance to quote me and price match first . So I'm not too sure when I'll start just yet ,As i need to keep costs down but won't cut corners [emoji6]

 

I'd originally planned to get it fitted and start the running in process by the end of April but as it gets closer to the warmer months i tend to get a higher work load and struggle to find spare scooby time [emoji53]

 

Could always just turn my work phone off until may [emoji848] [emoji23]🤣

 

Thanks for the comments chaps , hopefully this thread will help familiarize members with the ej207 and give the new owner piece of mind seeing it's been built properly .

 

 

 

 

[savage bulldogs]

Finally Ordered the build bits this morning so once they're here and everything has been through the engineers hot wash again , i can hopefully crack on with building the engine [emoji41]

Due to the rear crank seal failure the bay and gearbox bellhousing are quite oily , I'd been putting of cleaning everything for a while [emoji849].

But after a couple of hrs and nearly a bottle of machine cleaner , not only does the bay look a bit better, but the new clutch has got a much better chance of not being contaminated by all the oil [emoji6]