Grafton's 07 STi

[Grafton]

Moved up in the world, got myself a fast toy. 2007 STi with 97k on the clock, everything has checked out mechanically, mostly just cosmetic blemishes from living in the rust belt. Dings here and there, a cracked front bumper, and chips in the paint from driving on winter roads.

The Day I picked her up, I had to leave my Legacy in the cold and drive the STi back home on crappy all seasons


The car has the "SPT performance pack" which is the intake and catback with the heat shield


More SPT goodies


Stock in the right places.


Did the first wash and wax today.






Right now I'm happy with the car in it's stock form. I am looking into a s204 lip, some 04-05 tails, and a set of DIY mudflaps. Next summer I plan to grab a set of 08-14 18" STi wheels so I'll have two sets to swap for the seasons.

HA 2000th post

[Grafton]

Another Impreza owner on here! lol Looks great Grafton.

I started with my Lego, and am trying to figure out whats next for my legacy,

Snow fun:


I took advantage of my friends photo skills and the snow we received:

















\



Had a blast, major props to Erik @ yoakphoto.com for the awesome camera work and editing skills

[Grafton]

While working on the car I noticed that that the turbo inlet moved when I bumped my SPT intake, so naturally I went to tighten the hose clamp. I discovered that the factory inlet had at the least a hole in it and needed replacement.

so I ordered a Perrin turbo inlet



When I got the stock inlet out I found that it had completely cut in two:


It's likely been the cause of the factory cats disintegrating and the rise in oil consumption,

The install sucked but was worth it


Scored a Gift Certificate on the 48 hours of tristate, and got a Radiator Shroud

and a factory ram air scoop that i didn't have when I bough the car, I modified it to fit the SPT intake heat shield and direct cooler air to the SPT filter


All put back together:

[Grafton]

I've never liked how only the outer most tail lights light up for the brakes, so I decided to change that.

stock taillight harness:


notice the white wire is coming out of both the tail light sockets and they use the same dual filament bulb (7443) but the wire is not coming out of the tape on the upper left socket



So I pulled it out of the tape and got creative



Pulled the pin out of the connector and spliced the wires together

all reassembled


Before and after picture:


and after lit up at night (spud cam 500):


I have no idea why that's not hooked up like that from the factory, but I think my next change will be to add a diode and make the inner lights rear fog lights and brake lights

[Grafton]

After some massive knock correction (-31.8 feedback/-21 FKL) and the DAM dropping to 0.00;
I did a compression test and failed horribly
#1 120psi
#2 60psi
#3 120psi
#4 90psi

Time for a rebuild, Manley Forged pistons with a 0.25 overbore.

[Grafton]

engine is out:













Just a bit rusty

[Grafton]

Good news:
Engine is apart and ready to go to the machine shop.

Bad news:
Hello cracked ring lands, #2 had multiple cracks around the piston, #4 only had 2 visible cracks but it looks like chunk can separate off the piston, The bore on #4 is badly scored, no sure if the overbore is going to clean it up, only the machine shop will know.


sooo much stuff to take off the engine


passenger side head


Drivers side head


engine block

The cam bolts SUCK, broke a hex bit, messed up a 10mm allen wrench and killed a timing belt in order to attempt to get the bolts out. Had to use a 4ft cheater bar to get the exhaust pulleys off, and I failed to get the intake and they started to round out.

the solution is to drill out to a 3/8"s size bit and break off the head the rest of the bolt screws out finger tight.


one of many cracks:


scored bore:

[Grafton]

just for fun more piston carnage:

Still waiting on the machine shop, so time to do cosmetic enhancements:

fresh from soda blasting:
(bonus L28 turbo valve cover)

ready to paint


wrinkly

[Grafton]

Progress:
The block is back from KSD bored to 99.75mm:


I wasted no time checking clearances and getting it bolted together


Gaping rings suuuucks, glad that's over






The last bolt stripped on the block while using a torque wrench, solution was to grab a longer bolt and thread a nut on the back, also got the plug for the block heater out. It's not necessary to start the car in the winter, but I want the car to be warmer faster.



Oil pan was rusty on the outside, cleaned that up and put two coats of 1500° paint and got it installed.


the oil cooler was stupid dirty, cleaned and reinstalled

[Grafton]

decided to clean the AVCS cam gears and ran into a problem, I stripped the torx out on the last bolt, made it into a slotted screw, and still had to fight it:


the tear down


there was very hard sludge buildup in the areas where the rotor didn't touch took a lot of carb cleaner but i got it out


bottom of the cam rotor


top of the cam rotor


cleaned and read to re-assemble, not pictured the 6 spring seals that go into the rotor


I replaced the 5 point torx with new hex bolts


driver's side with the hex bolts



got some of the next batch of parts in, set of new plugs and a clutch kit


didn't expect the "pro-kit"

[Merc6]

decided to clean the AVCS cam gears and ran into a problem, I stripped the torx out on the last bolt, made it into a slotted screw, and still had to fight it:


the tear down


there was very hard sludge buildup in the areas where the rotor didn't touch took a lot of carb cleaner but i got it out


bottom of the cam rotor


top of the cam rotor


cleaned and read to re-assemble, not pictured the 6 spring seals that go into the rotor


I replaced the 5 point torx with new hex bolts


driver's side with the hex bolts



got some of the next batch of parts in, set of new plugs and a clutch kit


didn't expect the "pro-kit"

When you cleaned these, did you re use the rubber gasket?


Sent from my iFail using Tapatalk App

[Grafton]

When you cleaned these, did you re use the rubber gasket?

Had to, Subaru doesn't sell parts for the AVCS gears just the entire gear.


FINALLY
the engine is together!

[Merc6]

Had to, Subaru doesn't sell parts for the AVCS gears just the entire gear.

That's what it looks like I will be doing as well. I already replaced the exhaust cam gears trying to remove the bolts @ $75 each i'm not gonna replace those too.

FINALLY
the engine is together!

Good stuff! I like seeing builds finish.

[Yamazaki]

With the overbore, what will your new displacement be?

[Grafton]

With the overbore, what will your new displacement be?

2.5L still,
old bore was 99.5mm x 79mm stroke x 4 cylinders = 2458cc
new bore 99.75 x 79mm stroke x 4 cylinders = 2470cc
12cc displacement bump or .012 L

I got heads today!, the valves were reground due to pitting, and the heads resurfaced by .003"





While waiting on the copper gasket spray to dry I added some Piston Wisdom™

Jeremy Clarkson inspired



Copper coated head gasket in place:


Heads installed:




Cams installed to check clearances




Thanks to the re-grind only one valve was in spec, going to mic the shims Thursday and find out how many I have to order and if I can just swap some around.

[Alphius]

Shouldn't have to mic the lifters, they're all labeled with their sizes on the underside.

[Grafton]

Shouldn't have to mic the lifters, they're all labeled with their sizes on the underside.

Doing the rebuild by the book, book calls for it. I'm hoping that they are right on the money with the labels.

[Alphius]

Got it, no harm in being thorough! For some reason a lot of people don't realize they're marked so I figured I'd chime in. Looks like you're doing a good job on the rebuild!

[Grafton]

^Thanks

I mic'd them today, luckily only going to need to buy 11, but most of the lifters were .01-.03mm smaller than how they were marked so a 510 was really a 507 or a 500 was a 499

[Grafton]

Lifters ordered

Threw in the block heater


and started wrapping the factory manifold, I'm planning on putting the heat shield back on, and possibly wrapping the crossover pipe, depends on how much 2" wrap I have after the up pipe.

[Grafton]

Progress from today:

Hit the manifold with sealant, the copper coated the gaskets




Test Fit the valve covers



Piping mess begins


Also started cleaning the oil of of the TMIC, it was filthy.

[Grafton]

The stock studs fought, after many broken bits I took it to an exhaust shop and they were able to get the damaged studs out
Wrapped up and waiting to dry so I can give it a high temp silicone coating



engine mounts on


lots of blowby= oily turbo



cleaned



reassembled


Secondary air injection and AC bracket

[Grafton]

I discovered that I ordered a WRX clutch kit instead of a STi kit, ordered the STi kit and shipped the WRX one back. Also discovered that the gasket kit didn't have the manifold to up-pipe gasket in it, and I grabbed a new 3" gasket for the downpipe to the midpipe.

TGV's pulled, to be deleted soon. I've already tweaked my tvg closed map and disabled the codes



passenger side head has correct clearance on the lifters and is put back together




Need to order 3 more lifters to get the drivers side sorted

[Grafton]

Beginning of the TGV delete, pulling sensor motor combo


grind down the screws



removed butterfly's and rod


Used a hacksaw to cut the divider walls out

[Grafton]

Today's progress:

Started removing the runner divider leftovers


finished, even removed the little lip that the butterfly sits on


Mock up of the TGV on the heads, the ports line up perfectly.



Throw out bearing ready to go.


Up pipe brackets installed


Crank pulley installed


The rest of the parts I'm waiting on are showing up on Monday, so the engine should be in the car Tuesday.

Still have to replace the fuel filter, finish cleaning the TMIC and intake manifold, and complete the TGV delete.

[Grafton]

Last parts arrived today, and the TGV deletes are finished.

the bolt was about .5mm short on one side of the TGV but it seals up nicely:



the motor/sensor side it was about 3mm too long, and had to be cut down and smoothed



Turbo mounted and installed

[Grafton]

FINISHED!!!

I'm not a fan of the charge hoses I bought, the clamp for the BPV was too small and I had to reuse the stock clamp, and the TMIC elbow was too long and had to be trimmed to not bind up when mounting the intercooler

ready to drop in




bolted in


ready to run, tested the block heater


the post install hiccup was a small coolant leak on the oil cooler due to reusing the spring clamps
other than that its works great

now 960 miles of break in left to go

[Grafton]

Engine is broken in and running wonderfully. Finally got around to installing a set of rear sub-frame locking bolts



Due to the freakish warm weather we're having this winter, I was able to install a little sound deadening in the car. I followed the cover 25% of the panel and you're good rule.

Basically tapped around and found where the panels resonated the most and put some deaden-er there.
Trunk:






Under the rear seat:


Not pictured because I was too lazy to take pictures are the outer doors skins, and the C pillar

The car got some Christmas presents

a pair of reverse light LED's

Before


After


a pair of Brake light LED's put in the outer sockets


and

a controller for the LED strip in the wing to pulse the light then go steady

[foohfooh]

Hey that's super cool.

[Grafton]

Brake light improvements don't help when the person that hits you comes from the side:







Truck in the right lane, turned broadside into the left lane, I swerved into the oncoming lane and got tagged on the rear quarter.

I'm not sure if he was trying to pull a U turn from the right lane to head South or if he was trying to get into the cemetery that's across the road.

Now I get to deal with insurance BS while it gets fixed