Machine shops & STI engine rebuild...

[Kevin M]

Pretty reasonable. Is that just stripped down to assembled short block, or all the way broken down to split halves?

[sperry]

Originally Posted by Kevin M

Pretty reasonable. Is that just stripped down to assembled short block, or all the way broken down to split halves?

Mine was split.

[A1337STI]

Who's SB? and where are they located?

[Kevin M]

SB= short block. AIMS is the shop in question. http://www.aimsmachine.com/

[A1337STI]

Pwned by lack of acronym knowledge. thanks

[Dean]

Thread reborn...

Just over 12 months from the fatal detonation at Thunderhill... The injectors are at C&C for testing and the completely torn down short blocks and internals have been to AIMS.

After an almost relationship ending miss-communication by Dave the young counter guy, after talking to Robert today at AIMS, we are back on track.

Both the '04 and '07 cranks polished up beautifully. Both sets of rods are fine. The '04 block after 100K miles and an almost broken ring land oil burning beast honed out to the high end of the larger STD "A" size at 99.512mm. Now that is a testament to how hard these sleeves are.

Now, knowing that, I would be willing to buy or suggest to someone else one of the "used" honed and re-ringed stock blocks the sand rail shop in So-Cal is selling.

The '07 block that had the burned through piston needs to be bored, but is hopefully salvageable. He is going to try for 0.010" over and then 0.020" over in that cylinder first and see if it cleans it up. if not, it is trash.

That is unless I want to run alcohol, bore to 0.040" over and have custom pistons made. The funny part is, in my case, the latter is not an issue as it is with most people, but alcohol is not an option.

By the way, the shop manual calls for Three Bond 1215, not Fujibond unless they are one in the same.

Now, what to do with the heads. I need to get those down there next. The '07 heads have to be inspected to see if the valves/combustion chamber got damaged in the piston failure. I am thinking about having the '04s fitted with 1mm larger valves and stiffer springs. At 100K miles, I am thinking it needs springs anyway.

Also time to order some ACL bearing sets unless AIMS can give me a decent price.

[A1337STI]

Are either of those blocks (the 07, or the so cal one) Legal for AS if i used them? i'm burning oil like a mo fo (I CAN burn off over a quart in a tank of gas if i'm on some dirt road in the middle of no where constantly beating on her)


sort of related question. if a motor won't turn over is that a sign that its ruined? My closed deck legacy turbo 2.2 motor **suposedly** won't turn over. I'm storing it at a buddies shop and he took my oil pump off (to use on a customers car) And left me a weird voice mail about my motor not turning off BUT maybe something was jammed into the fly wheel and he didn't look. (sounds like BS to me)

anywho... Rarrrrg!

[Dean]

So-Cal. outfrontmotorsports.com Mine will have forged pistons, not S or SP legal.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/SUBAR...Q5fAccessories

[GST Mike]

I wouldn't go 0.040 over on a Subaru block for any application certainly not one that is seeing the thermal stresses that a car being tracked is!

Running 0.020 over on a 500whp car with sufficient cooling for track use (both oil and water cooling that is) led us to find the following.

We would have to pull the motor after each event, every inspection lead to the same results. Bearings in perfect shape (could be reused if we wanted) at least a 20psi variance in compression test numbers between one of the holes (injectors always flowed and balanced, we had 4 sets for the car at the time) cylinder ovalization was apparent in the hole with lower compression. No sign of detonation anywhere!

We endured this for our first year of TA in our car. Until Darton released their full size ledged sleeves following that we now rotate and refresh every 4 events or so.

Something other findings to note,

Stock rods tend conduct random block oil changes at around 500whp.
10:1 compression yielded very unimpressive results regardless of fuel quality used.
After 600whp certain modifications become necessary to the block to keep the halves from walking around the crank.
Factory water pumps cannot be turned by hand with 10psi of pressure in the cooling system (take a look at the pulley on the WP to see if you have any tale tails of the belt skipping).
Removing the factory WP nets a decent gain.
90% of research we did online while developing the motor to where it is was as useful as a ash tray on a motorcycle!

Mike

[sperry]

That's crazy regarding the water pump!

You guys are running an electric pump now instead?

[WRX06TR]

A little off topic, but do STi motors (running stage 2, as a daily driver) typically have the same ringland issues, after 100k?

[GST Mike]

Originally Posted by sperry

That's crazy regarding the water pump!

You guys are running an electric pump now instead?

Yea we switched out a little while ago, it wasn't a straight forward process but we seem to be where we need to be with it now.

Mike

[sperry]

Originally Posted by GST Mike

Yea we switched out a little while ago, it wasn't a straight forward process but we seem to be where we need to be with it now.

Mike

I always wondered about the trade-off between ditching the drag from the mechanical waterpump and effectively moving it over to the alternator. Not to mention the hassle of adding a pulley or re-routing the timing belt in order to run w/o the WP.

[GST Mike]

Originally Posted by sperry

I always wondered about the trade-off between ditching the drag from the mechanical waterpump and effectively moving it over to the alternator. Not to mention the hassle of adding a pulley or re-routing the timing belt in order to run w/o the WP.

Well the trick is to maintain the water pump housing and pulley without the internals

The main issues really related to location of the pump (they have somewhat specific criteria) and managing the flow to maintain proper cooling.

As the car sits being bathed in the rain currently the car makes 658whp and has to have 2/3rds of the radiator covered for me to even be able to dyno it.

Mike

[Dean]

OK, I am going to mess with heads this weekend.

Anybody have whatever magical tool you need to compress valve springs and remove/install keepers?

[sperry]

Originally Posted by Dean

OK, I am going to mess with heads this weekend.

Anybody have whatever magical tool you need to compress valve springs and remove/install keepers?

A telephone?

...just call AIMS.

[Kevin M]

Originally Posted by Dean

OK, I am going to mess with heads this weekend.

Anybody have whatever magical tool you need to compress valve springs and remove/install keepers?

I'm reasonably certain you can get one at HF.

But, I'll just have Delta assemble mine after they do the porting and polishing.

[Dean]

Originally Posted by sperry

A telephone?

...just call AIMS.

Robert or Justin will probably end up rebuilding and going up 1mm on the valves on the '04 heads, but I want to check out the '07 driver side and see if anything is obviously damaged in cylinder 2.

[Dean]

Originally Posted by Kevin M

I'm reasonably certain you can get one at HF.

But, I'll just have Delta assemble mine after they do the porting and polishing.

Delta?

[Kevin M]

These guys technically: http://hstrial-customimporth.intuitw...com/index.html

Not local, but AIMS has done business with them.

[Dean]

Parts are starting to come in. It is very cool and I believe I have root cause.

While I am sure my tune contributed, Dave at C&C confirmed that injector #2 was under flowing by 10% and was definitely clogged, so could have been doing worse to much worse at times! Kaboom!

I need a WRX fuel filter bracket I think. I do not trust the STI in the tank filter, I have heard you can put a straight hose in it's place. I wonder how to flush the rails before reinstalling the injectors/intake? hmmm...

The '07 heads are at AIMS to be inspected/cleaned up. New ACL race bearings are in, so in theory, I could start block assembly.

Pistons are probably still 4 weeks out though.

[swr999]

Originally Posted by Dean

...
I need a WRX fuel filter bracket I think. I do not trust the STI in the tank filter, I have heard you can put a straight hose in it's place. ...

I changed out my in-tank fuel filter a couple weeks ago, just on general principles (at 87k miles). The old one was discolored but showed no signs of clogging or any deterioration. It could be replaced by a section of fuel line if you were going to go to a filter up front. I considered this also, but keeping in mind the 60k service interval for the fuel filter I took the easy way out and just replaced the in-tank one. It's not a bad job. Remove the rear seat, pull the access panel, the whole assembly comes out through the access panel. The filter is ~$65 at the usual online Subaru OEM parts houses.

[Dean]

Rebirth part 2...

I have pistons.

It has been a long wait, but the engineering and time the guys at United Engine and Machine Company have put into the new Icon line of Subaru pistons is amazing. They are truly works of art and design. They are about 50grams lighter than stock and have a reinforced 2nd land complete with large accumulator groove.

I will take pictures later.

They are also going to be available in 5 sizes you and engine builders can actually use and maximize the life of your engine, not just 0.010" and 0.020" oversize.

With the hardness of the Subaru liners, my 100K mile motor easily honed out to just under the largest std. A piston size. No overbore required.

I'll post more in a review thread when I get a chance.

The block build up starts shortly.

[MikeK]

That was the longest 2 weeks ever! Are you building the block yourself?

[Dean]

Originally Posted by MikeK

That was the longest 2 weeks ever! Are you building the block yourself?

That is the plan with some help and advice. I have assembled a straight 4 before and helped on some V-8s.

Have plastigauge, ring grinder, ring compressor calipers and assembly lube. Will be taking pictures.