Next up... the SVX's motor

[sperry]

Originally Posted by SteveM

sorry, been away from the computer all day. those are exactly the bolts you need to undo. There should be an access port or plate in the flange on the motor to get to the head of the bolts. The WRX has a plastic plug under the IC to get to them. I have no idea on the 6 cyl. motor where it is.

By the way, watch out on Mt. Rose hwy. and Wedge. Just got pulled over for doing 5 over the limit. Well actually got pulled over for flicking my high beams. Didn't know it was a cop, but it sure looked like he had his highs on...

Yeah, I sorted that out shortly after posting... since the motor was out of the car I realized it was easy to just access the bolts down by the oil pan. I got the TC and then the flex plate off... but I still can't put the engine on my stand because the bolts that came off the car aren't long enough to mate with the stand... so I gotta go find some big old metric bolts at the hardware store tomorrow. Then I can actually get to work on cleaning up and re-sealing the motor.

[MPREZIV]

SHIT! The best thing would have been to leave the TC in the trans... Too late now, but what you do is pull the little rubber plug behind the intake manifold, on the passenger side, and you can get to the 12mm nuts that hold the TC to the flex plate. Since there's a high possibility that you F'ed the trans input seal, I'd surely replace that before you go back together. The TC simply slides in to the trans, but you have to rotate it and push in at the same time, to get it to index all the way in to the trans oil pump. It's not hard, but you kinda have to know what you're doing to know if it's all the way in...

[sperry]

Originally Posted by MPREZIV

SHIT! The best thing would have been to leave the TC in the trans... Too late now, but what you do is pull the little rubber plug behind the intake manifold, on the passenger side, and you can get to the 12mm nuts that hold the TC to the flex plate. Since there's a high possibility that you F'ed the trans input seal, I'd surely replace that before you go back together. The TC simply slides in to the trans, but you have to rotate it and push in at the same time, to get it to index all the way in to the trans oil pump. It's not hard, but you kinda have to know what you're doing to know if it's all the way in...

Yeah, I'm definitely replacing that oil seal... it's as old and worn out looking as the rest of the seals on the car... so even if I had left the TC on the tranny, I'd would want to pull it to replace that seal anyway since I've got the whole damn motor out.

Also, you guys should have seen the passenger side engine mount. I was able to just grab it and tear it in two. There was maybe 1/2" of material left holding it together! The rest had all sheared apart, and all the oil in it was gone. I'm putting some brand new WRX mounts back in there, I just need to fab up a 1/4" spacer to make sure the motor doesn't sit too low.

[ScottyS]

Awesome, it sounds like things are coming along!

All I know is, when I take that auto out of my Legacy wagon, it's not going back in. What a PITA!

[sti deede]

Originally Posted by sperry

Also, you guys should have seen the passenger side engine mount. I was able to just grab it and tear it in two. There was maybe 1/2" of material left holding it together! The rest had all sheared apart, and all the oil in it was gone. I'm putting some brand new WRX mounts back in there, I just need to fab up a 1/4" spacer to make sure the motor doesn't sit too low.

Haha. That's how the ones on the 91' Legacy were. Only I can't remember what we replaced them with. I know Josh bought DZ's STi mounts, but I'm not sure if that's what he replaced them with.

It's fun to read your write-ups. Makes me want to get dirty and work on the truck.

Good luck with the rest of the work.

[ScottyS]

Yah, I was very glad to see they were in excellent shape when I pulled the motor - I don't know if they were STi either, but they sure were better than the originals on the old motor!

Originally Posted by sti deede

Haha. That's how the ones on the 91' Legacy were. Only I can't remember what we replaced them with. I know Josh bought DZ's STi mounts, but I'm not sure if that's what he replaced them with.

It's fun to read your write-ups. Makes me want to get dirty and work on the truck.

Good luck with the rest of the work.

[kidatari]

Originally Posted by ScottyS

Yah, I was very glad to see they were in excellent shape when I pulled the motor - I don't know if they were STi either, but they sure were better than the originals on the old motor!

They came from an 05 STI, and had like 10k miles on them when I got 'em

As Deede said, the original ones on the Legacy just came off in two parts. They weren't even connected. :rofl:

[sperry]

So, I finished up the SVX over the weekend! Here's the writeup I posted over on the SVX boards as I was doing the work (mostly I'm just showing off pictures with my super awesome faux-carbon fiber work bench top):

--------------------

Well, since no one wanted to buy my SVX "as is" with the cam seal leaking, I decided to tackle the oil leak and do the timing belt and water pump while I was in there.

But after going under the hood and getting a better look at the oil leak(s), I decided that the valve covers and main seals ought to be done as well, so I figured it'd be worth it to pull the motor and really clean it up.

I pulled the motor last week. Here's the mess I found:











Looks like the valve covers are leaking, the cam seals/plugs, and the power steering pump reservoir. So in my spare time over the past week, I got crazy w/ the engine cleaner, pressure washer, and various brushes.

Much better!











Now I'm just waiting on a few more bits to get delivered from subaruparts.com (I had all the seals, but the timing cover was demolished by a worn crank pulley, so I had to order that stuff up, plus I figured I should do the rear-main once I decided to pull the whole motor) and I can get to work on the seals, water pump, timing belt, and spark plug. Plus, I'm sure there's some more cleaning here and there that will need to get done.

--------------------

Update time!

I finally got my package from SubaruParts.com. It required me emailing them and asking why they "processed" my order on the 13th, but still hadn't shipped it a week later. When it showed up, it was packaged in a Jimmy Johns box!? Something tells me my order fell through the cracks then got rushed out the door after they got my email. I've ordered a million times from SubaruParts.com so I'm just going to chalk it up to someone having the random "one of those days" I guess.

Anyway... with my parts in hand I was able to reseal the valve covers, install the main seals, cam seals and cam plugs, spark plugs, as well as swap the rear knock sensor (I did the front a while back, but with the motor out I could finally get to the rear one w/o taking off the intake manifold). I was also going to do the PCV, but even with the motor out, I'm gonna have to get a crows-foot 19mm socket.

Here are some pictures from the work, I'll annotate them later but for the most part, they're in order.

Valve cover resealing parts:


RH valve cover removed:


Tore out the old gaskets... work slowly to prevent them from crumbling apart. I was amazed they were working at all!


New gaskets installed!


Old and new spark plugs:


RH valve cover complete!


I used some hi-temp gasket maker to glue the ignition wire brackets back down, since they were all broken off.


Front main, plus the assembly lube I used to install the seals:


RH exhaust cam seal replaced, plus the socket used to press it in:


New knock sensor installed:


Full gallery of all the pictures I've taken: http://www.seccs.org/gallery/index.p...ne%20Resealing

I also did the LH valve cover, but the pics look pretty much the same. I've still got the water pump to replace, and then the timing gear to put back. Then the motor is pretty much ready to go back into the car! Hopefully it'll be running by Sunday!

--------------------

To wrap things up:

Over the weekend I finished up the work on the motor and got it back in the car. I didn't take a ton of pictures since I was focused on just getting the motor back in the car and running (I especially wish I had taken pictures of the WRX motor mounts), but I did take a few:

Timing gear all back together. I replaced one of the idlers because it was pretty squeaky... I'm kinda thinking I should have just ponied up and replaced them all... but that's another $150-200 or so. Hopefully I'll get to 300,000 miles before they give out!


New o-ring on the power steering reservoir. No more pulsing in the steering wheel now that the pump isn't sucking air!


Cleaned up P/S pump. I swear, I thought the pump was black until I started scrubbing it!


New o-ring on the high pressure P/S line.


Motor going back in!


Accessories and belts good to go.


All done!


So after getting everything back together and filling all the fluids, the car fired after cranking over only twice. I had to top off the power steering fluid after cranking the wheel back and forth a few times of course. Other than that, there were no issues getting the car running. No fluid or exhaust leaks, and just a little burn-off of the cleaner that was left on the headers.

One thing that surprised me was how night and day the new motor mounts are! Going from basically one worn-out SVX mount (the other was torn in half) to two WRX mounts made a *huge* difference in responsiveness when getting on the throttle. The car feels much quicker, and it even seems to turn better w/o having that heavy-ass motor rolling around under the hood.

--------------------

Hopefully I'll be able to get out of work this week and actually make it to the meet tomorrow and bring the SVX. It feels like a new car with the new motor mounts and the lack of oil spraying all over the place.

[cody]

Dude, that's awesome! Want to help me do my timing belt now?

[sperry]

Originally Posted by cody

Dude, that's awesome! Want to help me do my timing belt now?

Um. First, I need time for my hands to heal (with all the gunk engine cleaner and metal brushes I used, they took a pounding). Second, fuck your timing belt.

[cody]

LOL

[Dean]

Looks great Scott. Almost looks like a new engine bay. My poor engine bay is a mess after the last blow up and the pretty new '07 block is covered in oil and crap. I'll be dragging the chassis out into the driveway to scrub and pressure wash it like you did while it is empty.

I hope those other idlers hold up and you don't have to open it up again.

Did you use any rtv or anything on the valve cover gaskets in addition to the new gaskets themselves? The STI covers appear to have had some rtv help in some places, or perhaps it is just squished and heated gaskets.

[sperry]

Originally Posted by Dean

Looks great Scott. Almost looks like a new engine bay. My poor engine bay is a mess after the last blow up and the pretty new '07 block is covered in oil and crap. I'll be dragging the chassis out into the driveway to scrub and pressure wash it like you did while it is empty.

I hope those other idlers hold up and you don't have to open it up again.

Did you use any rtv or anything on the valve cover gaskets in addition to the new gaskets themselves? The STI covers appear to have had some rtv help in some places, or perhaps it is just squished and heated gaskets.

My WRX was in the same shape after that season with the perpetually exploding oil catch cans. I did just what you mentioned... parked it at the end of the driveway and gunk'd it and pressure washed it. I also made sure to give the environment a big middle finger too while I was doing it. Then once the motor was out and getting rebuilt at the shop I did a second hand scrubbing of the engine bay in the garage, then repainted it with Ford blue in a rattle can since it's about a 99% match to the undercoat color on the WRB cars.

I used RTV in spots on the WRX valve covers just to tack them down during install. But the SVX gaskets are kind of a different, harder material and they more or less "install" into the cover, so you don't need to tack them down. Also, they're way more complicated than they need to be, and yet still require gasketed washers for all 10 bolts per cover, rather than the better WRX design that puts all the bolts outside the gaskets.

I will say though that having the intake cams geared to the exhaust cams makes installing the timing belt like 30 times easier on the EG33 than the EJ motors. But it also mean not only is there no AVCS, it's not even a remote possibility as a retrofit job.

[MPREZIV]

Originally Posted by sperry

Um. First, I need time for my hands to heal (with all the gunk engine cleaner and metal brushes I used, they took a pounding)...

You gonna squirt some tears?









I can imagine it must not feel great when you don't already have those "leather mechanic's palms"

[sperry]

Originally Posted by MPREZIV

You gonna squirt some tears?









I can imagine it must not feel great when you don't already have those "leather mechanic's palms"

Normally my hands get kinda beat up when I work on the car, but this time they really just sorta came apart on me. I think it was because I spent so much time with my hands soaking wet in engine cleaner, oil eater, and freezing cold water. (I wonder if I got cancer?)

I will say though, putting lotion on them every 20 minutes for the last 3 days has really helped them bounce back! (But I'm still not doing Cody's timing belt. )

[Dean]

I did the first engine without gloves and then the second with Nitrile gloves. I think I will wear gloves for most anything in the future. My hands are much happier.

I had tried latex in the past but did not like the way they felt and they tore way to easily.

I noticed the cam gears. Interesting since they are not gear driven to the crank, only to each other I assume.

And Cody, stop whining about the timing belt and do it. One finicky bolt is all you have to deal with and the starter motor can help.

[ScottyS]

Dude, that is so awesome. I really wish now that I had taken the extra day to really clean everything while I was in there on mine.

[sperry]

Originally Posted by ScottyS

Dude, that is so awesome. I really wish now that I had taken the extra day to really clean everything while I was in there on mine.

Of the approx. 5 days I worked on the car... really only about a days worth of time was spent on pulling the motor, replacing the seals/hoses, and reinstalling the motor. The other 4 days were in cleaning, and in cleaning up the mess in the garage afterwards. It was a lot of "extra" work.

[sperry]

Originally Posted by Dean

I did the first engine without gloves and then the second with Nitrile gloves. I think I will wear gloves for most anything in the future. My hands are much happier.

I had tried latex in the past but did not like the way they felt and they tore way to easily.

I noticed the cam gears. Interesting since they are not gear driven to the crank, only to each other I assume.

And Cody, stop whining about the timing belt and do it. One finicky bolt is all you have to deal with and the starter motor can help.

I've got Nitrile gloves. They turn into saggy wet messes in the presence of brake cleaner and other such degreasers. Totally useless.

[cody]

Originally Posted by Dean

And Cody, stop whining about the timing belt and do it. One finicky bolt is all you have to deal with and the starter motor can help.

Great, when can we start? You're not busy.

[BOO]

Wow!! That thing looks like a new engine.. good job on cleaning/degreasing it .

[Dean]

Originally Posted by sperry

I've got Nitrile gloves. They turn into saggy wet messes in the presence of brake cleaner and other such degreasers. Totally useless.

Now that you mention it, they don't work real well even when they are just wet with coolant, mush less with the stuff you are talknig about.

I'llhave to go to the heavier duty multi-use genuine rubber gloves that make it harder to work and hold things. A double edged sword.

I do really like the nitriles for normal mechanic work though. Just not having to brush/dig gunk out from under your fingernails alone is a good enough reason to use them. I think Cory goes through a box a week, so don't let him tell you that "leather mechanic's palms" crap.

[100_Percent_Juice]

Use some rubber dish gloves when you work with strong chemicals you silly bastards.

[sperry]

Originally Posted by 100_Percent_Juice

Use some rubber dish gloves when you work with strong chemicals you silly bastards.

It's not like I was cleaning w/ muriatic acid!

[100_Percent_Juice]

Your the one crying about cancer and raisin hands.