Okay, now what? (sperry's motor tear-down thread)

[Double Phister]

Reminds me that I just saw some threads about the 2008 STi 11MM oil pump.

[knucklesplitter]

How bought s'more pics of the oil pan. Looks like a mod'd Subie pan?

[sperry]

Originally Posted by knucklesplitter

How bought s'more pics of the oil pan. Looks like a mod'd Subie pan?

It's basically a normal STi pan with a big ol' box added to it. The pick up is extended about .5" to get down in there. I'll get some better pictures of it and the cosworth baffle when I pull it off to redo the gasket.

[Road_Kill]

Yes, just the RTV, and no cork gasket. They're awful...

Also, did you get a "Fel-pro" or other company equivalent Engine Kit?

[sperry]

Originally Posted by Road_Kill

Yes, just the RTV, and no cork gasket. They're awful...

Also, did you get a "Fel-pro" or other company equivalent Engine Kit?

One of those... it's just the left over bits from whatever kit AIMS bought for the shortblock work.

[sperry]

More pics of the oil pan, plus the cosworth oil baffle.

[Double Phister]

Does it look like the rubber flaps will hold their position over time or will they just sag in the hot oil?

[sperry]

Originally Posted by R4ND0M_AX3

Does it look like the rubber flaps will hold their position over time or will they just sag in the hot oil?

Not sure it matters... as long as they still flap shut when the oil in the pan sloshes upwards, right?

[Double Phister]

I guess so. it's not supposed to be leak proof just stop the bulk of the oil from hitting the movey bits.
Would a stock undertray still clear the pan?

[sperry]

Originally Posted by R4ND0M_AX3

I guess so. it's not supposed to be leak proof just stop the bulk of the oil from hitting the movey bits.
Would a stock undertray still clear the pan?

That's the idea... in fact with oil coming down from the pistons, I would think the flaps would be hanging down all the time anyway letting oil return to the pan.

This baffle replaces the stock part... they occupy the same space between the motor and the pan.

[Road_Kill]

DUDE!!!!! AIMS hacked up..... I mean did your engine work?!?!?!?!? I wouldn't trust them with a freakin lawnmower engine!!!!! I would strongly recoment NOT using any seals other than the OEM ones!!!! I guarantee you they WILL leak ALOT!!!! Trust me man.

[sperry]

Originally Posted by Road_Kill

DUDE!!!!! AIMS hacked up..... I mean did your engine work?!?!?!?!? I wouldn't trust them with a freakin lawnmower engine!!!!! I would strongly recoment NOT using any seals other than the OEM ones!!!! I guarantee you they WILL leak ALOT!!!! Trust me man.

That's odd, the other folks that have had subi motors built there have been fine. AIMS honed the cylinders, replaced the piston rings, polished the crank, and assembled the shortblock. All the rest of the work is my own to screw up.

And as far as seals, I doubt the a rubber o-ring from one kit is much different from the ones Subaru uses. I pulled the oil pan today and ditched the cork gasket and went w/ strait permatex, so that's been cleared up. What else is there to be worried about on my build so far?

[Road_Kill]

I would double check the installation of the piston rings, that's where they screwed my engine, they put the scraper ring on top. As far as the seals, oem cam& crank seals just seam to work better, the rest should be ok... I has some aftermarket seals in my engine, its still ok. But that is just my .02

[sperry]

Originally Posted by Road_Kill

I would double check the installation of the piston rings, that's where they screwed my engine, they put the scraper ring on top. As far as the seals, oem cam& crank seals just seam to work better, the rest should be ok... I has some aftermarket seals in my engine, its still ok. But that is just my .02

The crank seals look identical to the OEM ones... the cam seals I'm using are in fact OEM seals, since I'm just reusing the ones that were in there (they had <1000 miles on 'em).

If the piston rings are screwed up, well they'll just have to work something out with me on the repair. I'm not pulling the pistons out to check 'em. I would hope that when you source some JE rings for JE pistons, it's hard to get them installed wrong.

Plus, there's only one guy over there (Robert) doing the Subaru motors, and he seems like he's on top of his game IMO... I don't think they pass along Subaru work like that to their rookies that might make basic errors like getting the ring order wrong.

Either way, we'll find out soon enough how this motor runs. I'm far more worried about my own assembly mistakes than AIMS.

[sperry]

Well the motor reassembly was really coming along good w/o any major issues 'till now.

Cory might remember on one of the previous times we had the timing belt off that back when the car was down at S-Squared one of the idler pulleys was overtightened and stripped the threading in the block. They had gouped a bunch of thread locker on it and called it fixed. So when Cory and I took it apart a while back, we found that we had to go to a longer bolt in order to get some clean threads and get the car back together.

Well, since then I think I've had that idler off the car at least 3 times, and this time putting it back on, the threads dodn't hold out. I tried to heal-a-coil it, but no such luck, plus I'm not sure I'm all that keen on using that crap on the timing gear. So I was forced to drill and tap the hole out to 12 mm from 10 mm. Drilling and tapping an aluminum block is a cinch... but attempting to hole out the pulley itself is *impossible*, The first issue is just clamping the damn thing so it doesn't spin while you put the drill to it... but even harder is putting a bit in there that can cut the hardened steel cleanly. It's simply not happening w/ the tools I've got.

So, I need to either find a new ball bearing idler pulley that wil fit(60mm diameter, 35mm width, 12mm ID on the bolt hole), or find a machine shop that can drill the OEM one out for me. I guess I'm back to AIMS on Monday?

Second... I finally got to reassembling the steering rack I got from RevLabs. I need to install all the plumbing and tierods from my old rack on the new one. Well, the plumbing was easy, but it turns out the damn rack they sent me must be and STi rack or something 'cause the diameter of my tierod threading is smaller than the holes in the rack! So, now I need to confirm the car that this rack came off (are the STi racks larger than the WRX ones?) and order up a set of tierods for it. When you include the new boots and the rod ends I already bought (as part of the whiteline roll center kit) there's only going to be the 4 fluid lines remaining from my original rack!

[sperry]

I had a better idea this morning... does anyone make a threaded insert that's 12x1.25mm OD with an 8x1.25mm ID (I think that's the size of the OEM bolt)?

I wonder if R&E Fasteners has anything like that. Or better yet, a store that's open today so I can pick it up at lunch.

[knucklesplitter]

If you can't find it locally - mcmaster.com part #97084A240 is M12 x M8 insert.

[sperry]

Originally Posted by knucklesplitter

If you can't find it locally - mcmaster.com part #97084A240 is M12 x M8 insert.

That's got the wrong thread pitch on the M12 OD... I'm tapped at 12x1.25mm (same as Subaru lug nuts, which is why I have that tap and die size).

It looks like they've got what I need as well, but it's $40 for the "kit" that includes the locking tab tool and 6 inserts. I wonder if I really need their special tool.

But I'm not 100% sure the ID is an M8. It could be an M10, in which case I'll need the larger M14 OD, which means I'll need another bit and tap to open up the hole even more!

[Road_Kill]

I would try to see if you could get a time-sert kit from R&E.

[knucklesplitter]

Originally Posted by sperry

That's got the wrong thread pitch on the M12 OD... I'm tapped at 12x1.25mm (same as Subaru lug nuts, which is why I have that tap and die size).

It looks like they've got what I need as well, but it's $40 for the "kit" that includes the locking tab tool and 6 inserts. I wonder if I really need their special tool.

But I'm not 100% sure the ID is an M8. It could be an M10, in which case I'll need the larger M14 OD, which means I'll need another bit and tap to open up the hole even more!

Ewww. M12x1.25 is a rare fine thread. Rare besides lugnuts I guess. M12x1.75 is "standard".

You should measure the hole size with that fancy Harbor Freight digital caliper to be sure what you have (M8 or M10).

[sperry]

Originally Posted by knucklesplitter

Ewww. M12x1.25 is a rare fine thread. Rare besides lugnuts I guess. M12x1.75 is "standard".

You should measure the hole size with that fancy Harbor Freight digital caliper to be sure what you have (M8 or M10).

The hole in the pulley is 10mm. But I'm not sure if that's what the original bolt was... I think it was smaller than the hole. If I'm going to have to sleeve the threads, I might as well go back to the original sized bolt.

Course, if I do need an M10, then I'll likely have to bore out the hole bigger for the sleeve anyway, meaning I can tap it for M14xWhatever, or use a press-in insert instead of a threaded one.

[knucklesplitter]

Originally Posted by sperry

The hole in the pulley is 10mm. But I'm not sure if that's what the original bolt was... I think it was smaller than the hole. If I'm going to have to sleeve the threads, I might as well go back to the original sized bolt.

Course, if I do need an M10, then I'll likely have to bore out the hole bigger for the sleeve anyway, meaning I can tap it for M14xWhatever, or use a press-in insert instead of a threaded one.

I'll look at the pulley and the hole tomorrow when I come over. Maybe I can figure a way to get that pulley hole opened up to 12+mm. I might have a carbide 1/2" drill bit (12.7mm).

[MPREZIV]

If nothing else works out, I've got a set of bad-mo-fo carbide drill bits, a huge drill, and a vice. And if all of those things manage to fuck up your pulley, I've got a spare pulley too!

[sperry]

So I worked on the motor all day yesterday.

Got that thread repaired with a Keensert from R&E. Got the propper inner-tierods for the steering rack (turns out early WRXs have different sized threads from newer WRXs).

Then I went as far as the timing belt & covers, intake manifold, oil breather plumbing, turbo inlet tube, wiring harness, etc. All the way up to bolting on the headers. That's when I found out the Gruppe-S headers I've got and the oil pan I put on both want to live in the same place.

The corner of that oil pan just barely interferes with the driver's side headers. I could probably just take a hammer to the headers and get the clearance I need, but I think the correct solution is to cut the corner off the oil pan and weld a plate over it. It's that or buy new headers, which I'm not doing.

So, now I need a fabricator. I can use my cutoff wheel to cut the pan myself, I just need someone to weld a square plate over the new angle. Then I can get the headers and uppipe on, then the turbo, and the motor will pretty much be ready to go back in the car.

[GST Mike]

Do yourself a favor and ditch those headers for stock ones. Port them out and coat them if you like but if you don't run stock ones you'll crack those headers I gaurentee it!

Mike <-- Broken nearly every header on the market and now only runs stockers on the race cars.