a few pics of my project so far

[savage bulldogs]

Spent a bit of time cleaning off the old three bond liquid gasket from all the mating surfaces with a Stanley blade, as the engineers hot wash doesn't break it down .Then cleaned up the timing  belt belt tensioner bracket and p.s pump bracket .

When stripping the v4sti heads down one of the spring seats (washer that stops the spring wearing the ally head casings) was slightly damaged , so I've removed one from the v1sti heads to replace it with once I'm ready to fit the heads .

I've got loads to do but until the new pistons arrive pat wont start work , as they run 3 thou (3 thousand'th of a inch) clearance. subaru have different A and B sized pistons from the factory.  So even though the mahle 2186 stroker pistons are well made , he wants to measure each one and machine the bore to suit .

Hopefully by midweek the pistons, 2.5 nitrade crank ,king bearings ,bottom end gasket set ,oils ,filters and fluids should be here 🤞

Then I can drop the cdb ,pistons, crank and bearings off to pat and he can fit in the 93mm overbore, hone and thrust conversion. 

Arashi have updated me on the new ball bearing tdo5 20g billet and they're waiting on some bearing cases too assemble it 😏. So it's still not been posted yet but they'll send me the tracking info once it's on it's way 😊.

I'm looking forward to seeing how well a bb 20g on a 2.1 ltr as I was impressed with the journal core version.... well right up to the point it started blowing smoke everywhere 🤐

Once the blocks in Pat's shop , I can then concentrate on cleaning all the threebond and oil off the sump , clean and inspect the oil cooler and teardown check ,clean and reassemble the rcm oil pump . I just hope the engineer can find the time too squeeze me in , so I can make a start on the rebuild soon  😊

 

[Jay762]

Did you go for the new coated King bearings?

[savage bulldogs]

Tbh I asked for acl but Alyn's delivery got returned back to the states before it arrived at his  , so he's waiting for his acl stock to come back again lol .

I have used king race bearings before, on the v7sti ej207 rebuild , they measured up and performed fine and I only chose acl as I've used them more often over the years .

Are you on about the high spec king bearings? (Possibly called "ultimate") 

 

As most race bearings are at least tri coated to protect and aid bedding in,  hence why not many engine builders do a long 1k + mile running in period anymore 😉

I rushed home hoping to find a big box of scooby stuff when I got home ,even though it's not due till Wednesday 🙄😏

Did get a email from arashi ,saying that my ball bearing 20g cartridge is in in transit though 😊

[Jay762]

Yes the pMaxKote, was doing a comparison between the Mahle option and King, like the idea of the coating and the increased oil way.

looking forward to seeing how that new turbo performs

[savage bulldogs]

Think Alyn at Asperformance has a few options of bearings ACL , king ,mahle and even old skool  race clevite for big boy toys 😊 acl or king race bearings are fine for the 750hp rated rods in mine ,as I'll never want anywhere near that amount of power anyways 

As for the bb 20g cartridge I'm sure it will perform well and hopefully for longer too, lol .

I'd be happy with a responsive 380hp on the 2.1 stroker , although I doubt my 565cc nismos will allow it 🙄

 

[savage bulldogs]

Already got the stuff to fit the heads but I think this lot is the last of what I need. 🤔

so I'm gonna find the time to drop the pistons, block ,bearings and crank off to Pat segar tomorrow . Then hope he can fit me in soon 🤞

2x millers running in oil .

Premixed coolant 

Millers cfcs .

4 jdm black oil filters n sump washers. 

Mahle 2186 stroker pistons. 

2.5 sti end thrust crank. 

Full set of King race bearings.

New crank sprocket & key .

Although the previous mahle pistons had fresh scratches on them , they were recent and nothing to do with the pistons themselves and looking more like debris in the chamber being the cause of the marks.  So I'm still impressed with the quality and it looks like they've widened the bore of the piston ring oil feeds compared to the ones I bought 8 years ago .

 

 

 

[savage bulldogs]

Dropped the cdb , 2.5 crank ,king bearings and pistons off at the engineers.  Hopefully he'll fit me in within a fortnight to complete the thrust conversion and 93mm overbore 🤞

Had another parcel turn up yesterday with the arashi upgraded ball bearing 20g core 😊 seems to spin much more freely than the journal core .

On the journal core 20g they recommend a 11 blade hotside wheel , as this aids spool but looses a bit at top end . The ball bearing core has a 9blade hotside wheel to flow better at top end .

Got a few things to do , "de threebond" the sump , disassemble, check ,clean and reassemble the rcm oil pump  , then a few bits of ally to polish and bits to paint , to keep me busy .

But I can't wait to get stuck in with the build and see what this arashi uprated core is like 

[nyall7]

Still keep an eye on this thread Savage 5 years later!

 

Great work Sir. Hope all is well 👍

[savage bulldogs]

Lol , think I should've called it something like ...."a few pics of my never ending project " 😊

I'm all good thanks fella , considering the current situation with the virus 😷

Hope you n yours are well and keeping your distance from everyone else. 

I'm self employed and lucky enough to have at least 2 month's work converting a couple of ww2 office's on a disused air field,  there's only 2 other people I see every day .So social distance isn't getting in the way of work but works getting in the way of my scooby stuff 🙄

The over bore is done and hopefully pat Seager will have the thrust conversion and light deck clean done this week. 

Seeing as the pubs are shut , I spent most of yesterday cleaning the bay with a toothbrush to keep myself occupied 🤪

Not exactly filthy in the first place but it looks good for a 26yr old car .

 

Still got the 6 speed bellhousing and sub frame to clean , then I'll probably prep and paint the cam covers  .

[savage bulldogs]

It's only day one of uk lockdown and I'm starting to run out scooby things to do 😏

The wife is chasing me around waving a list of "diy jobs ,I've been putting off for ages " 🙁

so although I originally wanted to get a few things powdercoated, I've found some hi temp enamel paint and made a start on painting the cam covers. 

Not the finish I wanted but better than making a start on the diy list lol .

On a plus note , pat Seager does a lot of one off's and makes stuff that is out of production now .he has a few bits to make for a london power station, that can't be imported atm , so is currently still working as a "necessity business " .

 

Which means He seems to think that my block will still be done this week , not all heroes wear capes 😊

[savage bulldogs]

Well just over halfway through the first week of uk lockdown and living with 3 female's is starting to do my nut in .

So big thanks to Pat Seager for making a slight detour on the way home and dropping the overbored and thrust converted cdb ,2.5 crank and bearings 😊

It's my birthday tomorrow,  so might make a start then pending on how early I start drinking 🤔

But at least for the next 2 weeks I now have something scooby to do 😎

[Jay762]

Will you be soda blasting before assy?

[savage bulldogs]

If it was a pre planned build I might have considered soda or vapour blasting but seeing as it went from "just fit these better v4sti heads " to a 2.1 stroker 🙄

I doubt my "scooby fund " or marriage will stand much more expense atm 🤔

I've had to put my link g4+ ecu on hold for now 😏

I'm probably just gonna use ath ally etch primer and brush on hi temp block paint again , after all it lasted 8 years and 60k miles last time . Plus Bare ally furs up quite quickly ,so if I did get anything blasted I'd have to at least lacquer it anyways 😉

[Jay762]

I see - think I will need to look at a clear lacquer myself 👍

[savage bulldogs]

I've been at home since Tuesday at the start of the uk lockdown ,so had a few (to many) beers at home on Friday celebrating my birthday and didn't do anything scooby till sunday 🙄 

Although most of the parts have been through the hotwash,  there's no such thing as being too clean prior to assembly. My teenage daughter's like to get involved so I put them to work cleaning parts , while I dried them with a heat gun 😊

I trust Pat's work but I will still dry build the mains with plastigauge, to triple check the crank clearances . I also want to check that the longer throw on the 2.5 crank hasn't caused the piston skirts to contact the grub screws ,that I used to delete the oil squirters 😉

At least with everything clean, dried and prepped , I'm ready to do the dry build , if all goes well , I might even get chance to gap the rings too 

 

Keep safe people's 👍

[savage bulldogs]

Well today didn't get off to a good start 
Unfortunately, a bit of miscommunication from me and lack of experience with boxer engines from my engineer, ment the tang hadn't been altered on the center bearing case . 
I had asked him to do it and even shown him which bearing type needed to be fitted into number 3 main (old centre thrust position) but that didn't get told to the other machinist  .
This ment he'd used the wrong bearing type in the center main ,when checking everything over after doing the thrust conversion, overbore and hone .
Wrong bearing in centre main looks like it fits fine as the bearing tang holds it central. 

But the thrust type 1, 3 ,5 have the tang in a different position and you can see it pushes the bearing off centre 

After chatting to him , I decided dust of my old metal working tools to measure up , scribe and file the casings myself to fit the tangs. Luckily enough I still have a few decent needle files ,so took a measurement off no1 main (to the right in the pic) then masked and marked up no3 . 

It doesn't look perfect but it's not bad and measures up spot on 

Correct bearing location tang now makes the bearing sit central  

So that ate up a lot of my time  but I did still manage to check for piston skirt to oil squirter delete grub screw contact , plenty of room 

A quick glance at deck height  .... not a wack a mole in sight (pistons don't poke out of the deck face ) 

And plastigauge the crank mains , which are all mid to high on standard limit 

I'll start tomorrow by gapping the rings and fitting them to each piston , then clean the crank ,bearings and bores before finally starting to assemble the bottom end

[savage bulldogs]

Found that I'd left a few of my better files around the farther in laws ,while working on his old skool 60's mini  so progress has been painfully slow setting the ring gaps 

For those who don't know , you do this by pushing the rings down squarely in the bore with a piston crown and measuring the gap with feelers gauges. 


Then widen the gap , refit in the bore and measure again ... normally and again and again in my case  as I always worry that I'll take too much off and make the gap too big . 

I also remembered I no longer own a piston ring compressor  so had borrowed one of a mate for the last 2 builds , unfortunately he has no spleen and is on the high risk list for the virus 
So I won't be popping round to see him anytime soon . The one I ordered off eBay this morning was dispatched this afternoon , so hopefully it will get here soon .

cleaned plastiguage off the crank and coated the king bearings in graphgen builders paste , then fitted those to the rods and end caps .

coated the arp end cap bolts and torqued them down onto the crank 

Cleaned the bores in one bank and that's sat in a sealed box but will wait until the piston ring compressor is here before before fitting the crank into the block halves . As I don't want the case assembly left open (no pistons in the bores ) for too long ,even in doors and in the dry 😉

[savage bulldogs]

Ring compressor turned up 😎 so I cleaned up the bores and mating surfaces of the other block half and fitted the king main bearings in both casings. 

Coated the bearings with graphgeon paste and lowered the crank in position. 

Sorted through the big box of gaskets and found the new block o rings and put threebond on the mating  surfaces case halves 

Soaked the threads of the block bolts in oil and torqued the half's together 

oiled and fitted the pre gapped piston rings to the pistons, coated the bores and fitted the pistons to the rods via the access holes 

Fitted the splash guard , oil pick and loosely bolted on the sump 

Still got a fair bit to do but the short block is almost complete,  so I finally feel like I'm getting somewhere 😎

[Jay762]

Coming along nicely 👍

[ROSSCOSM]

Great work mate 

[savage bulldogs]

I'm certainly glad I got most of parts I needed before lockdown,  I've certainly had plenty of time on my hands lately so have been putting it to good use 😉

Cleaned up the shed (again),carried the short block in and fitted it onto the stand ,then lubed the arp headstuds and cleaned the oil off the deck face.

 Got one of the v4sti heads out of the boxes, removed the cams and cleaned the mating surfaces on those too

Seeing as I'll hopefully not be seeing the rcm headgaskets again , I took a pic of those fitted too 🤞

Lubed the apr headstud washers and nuts ,torqued the heads down ,temporarily fitted both cam covers and masked up all openings and access bungs 

Couple of Coats of ally etch primer .

 hi temp engine paint dried off with a heat gun in between coats , cos I got fed up with watching paint dry lol .

[savage bulldogs]

Double checked the arp headstud torque after letting them settle overnight , then lubed the cams ,fitted the new cam seals and cam cover gaskets .

Although I don't intend on tracking the car often but I might do one day , so have always thought about fitting a baffled sump . I've read that baffle plates don't really offer much more protection over the standard sump . I decided to go with a rcm oil pick up pipe extender , this is rubber and allows the oil pick up to collect oil right from the bottom of the sump .

 

With the extender ,gasket ,sump and oil modine fitted , I made a start on fitting the timing gear and water pump .

After torque'ing these down I could finally fit the kevlar belt and timing belt cover 😎

But there was a new bolt in the timing belt kit and it didn't look very good quality (no stamp or markings)  so I cleaned and  used all the original bolts .

Unfortunately this new bolt is about 20mm longer than the original toothed idler pulley bolt , so when tightened the original bolt it kindly pulled the thread outta the water pump 🤐😏

Luckily enough pat Seager is still open and he collected the water pump today, will helicoil the thread and drop it off at some point . So it's no big deal , will be stronger than it was in the first place and will only cost me a couple of days and £20 (and a bit of shame lol)

But I thought I'd post my mistake on here just in case someone else buys the same kit so ...  .....

IF YOUR TIMING BELT &WATER PUMP KIT HAS A EXTRA BOLT IN IT FIT IT TO THE TOOTHED IDLER PULLEY 😊

So I pulled the inlet manifold outta the box in the boot and sat it ontop of the engine,  to get a idea of the finished block .

Yep looks pretty much the same as when I removed it 😂 apart from being cleaner and having rcm wrote on the headgaskets instead of cossie lol .

Still got the turbo core to swap into the housings and exhaust to clean up , so hopefully enough to keep me busy till Pat's dropped the pump off 🤞

[Jay762]

sage advice there - stripped a few threads in my time also 😉

[savage bulldogs]

3 hours ago, Jay762 said:

sage advice there - stripped a few threads in my time also 😉

A man that never made a mistake,  has probably never made anything worth while 😉

It didn't feel right and I even when back to another idler that had already been torqued down to the same N,M , to get a feel for the tightness.... just a little tweek more and it was fubar lol .

Found a spot of rust hiding under the Battery tray 😲 it's only surface stuff and looks worse in the pic tbh .

So needing something to do and making the most of the dry weather.... front end off and it still looks clean for a 26 yr old car 😎

Everything wire brushed back to clean metal and rust treated 

 

Coat of old skool red oxide isn't drying quick enough, even with a heat gun in the sun 😏

Bay masked off ,Zinc heavy primer and a sliver topcoat to seal it .

Battery tray area is still a bit wet but once dry will get a coat of silver too .

Still got clutch ,bellhousing and exhaust system to de oil from the turbo seals going 😏

Also got to fit the new uprated ball bearing 20g core to the housings once they're clean too , so hopefully enough to keep me busy still 😊

[savage bulldogs]

 

Well I've had a busy fortnight but have done everything I can do ,till I get the helicoiled water pump and exhaust manifold studs /nuts turn up .

Everything is cleaned,  prepped and ready to fit , so just the turbo core to sort  . Obviously you can't go unbolting the turbine wheels from the shaft ,the expect to just simply bolt them back on and be balanced correctly but the cores come pre balanced , so this is simply me swapping the balanced cores over .

After undoing the vband and actuator,  I removed the hotside ,soaked it in white Sprit, then petrol and finally brake cleaner to remove the oil . once oil free I gave the exterior of the hotside a few coats of hi temp paint ,then removed the oil /water feeds and undid the circlip to remove the compressor housing. 

As I'd badly fitted a 0.6 bar spring with hardly any pre tension,  I decided to fit a 1.1 bar spring with a bit more pre tension (properly ) this time but will back off the boost target and duty before I drive it anywhere 😉

once everything was clean , I brought it indoors and started assembly by fitting the compressor housing to the core . I Made sure the alignment Mark's were correct and fitted the compressor housing retaining circlip (very strongly sprung)

Refitted the water feed /return hard pipes and banjo bolts , then the oil drain pipe with a new gasket . I aligned the painted hotside Mark's and fitted that to the other side of the core with the vband connector. 

 

Actuator on and job done , one tdo5 20g billet wheeled turbo with a upgraded ball bearing core 😎