So last November I took ownership of this 2.5RX special edition (GT to you USDM folk). Got it for for free after helping swap the previous owners engine out of his RSK. Came with the usual blown head gaskets the 25D is known for, plenty of bumps and scrapes although all of them were on removable panels thankfully, and more cable tied on parts than I could count. However it has ABS, airbags, no paint damage on the quarters like my silver car, climate control and was going to be 10x easier to turbo convert thanks to the turbo sub frame and loom similarities with early STi/GTBs. The interior was cream leather and cream ish carpets. Everything was filthy and smelt like an ash tray but it was all free so who cares. The following is a copy and paste from my build thread on another forum. Enjoy
08 November 2014
The story begins a few months ago when Ty announced he had just bought another white gen 2 RX for $500 with a blown headgasket and didnt know whether to part it or fix it for his missus to use a shitter daily. I suggested he part it as I wanted the climate control and all those neat bits that are a pain to assemble without a complete car to pinch from. Someone then had the smart idea of swapping cars. We/Id fix up the RX and swap in all my good bits, return my current car to stock and he gets my car. Genius. It later turned into swapping the current owners RSK engine out and getting the car for payment. So after 2 months of perstering Ty to pick it up, it has finally happened today! Ive joined the white crowd!
She needs a lot of work but im looking forward to basically stripping it down and rebuilding it. Engine is smooth and strong and is noticeably better than my asthmatic 2.2; even with nearly 300k kms
Needs some body work but will probably just get them from a wrecker.
Also needs a very good wash inside and out. Has been sitting for a while so the outside is covered in paperbark leaves. Previous owner was a smoker so entire interior will be getting stripped and swapped for my interior. Dat cream tho
Will be dying the headliner and carpets black most likely to freshen it up.
What this is all for
Jumped at the opportunity to get the gaskets from the US when Ty ordered them for his Foz. 226 delivered for every engine gasket. Bueno
Heres the to-do list so far:
Replace Head gaskets
Paint valve covers (black wrinkle)
Paint intake manifold (red for extra kw)
Rego/Roadworthy
Strip and replace interior
swap my good bits in
Paint limited bar white (DIY)
Get bootlid welded up and painted
?????
Skids
I plan on documenting the fuark out of the engine work cos I know you :fork: ers love that stuff :drinks:
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09 November 2014
Got stuck into it instead of studying this afternoon. First time doing this sort of work and I think it went well. So far ive removed the radiator and fans etc, airbox, battery, alternator and the intake manifold.
The last one was due to not having a swivel bit to get at these botls to remove the AC compressor without degassing it.
The coolant came out this colour so a new/2nd hand radiator might be on the cards too
Also unbolted but havent removed for fear of electrical gremlins an alarm. Was a ghetto as fork install
Only broke 1 hose under the intake manifold and slightly mangled a plug in the same location. I think the hose is for the throttle body so is useless here in AUS? NFI what the plug is for as i cant find it on any FSMs
11 November 2014
Ok so a lot happened today. Engine came out with relative ease. Only tricky bit was the drivers side bottom gearbox nut but we got it in the end
Dirty engine bay is dirty
Crank bolt and cam sprockets come out super easy cos rattle gun. Timing case has a tiny crack in it at the top, is it an issue?
Started tearing engine down and things started to go down hill. This engine has definitely been apart before and whoever did it made an absolute meal out of it. Straight off the bat there was 2 forked cam cap bolts. One is totally rooted and needed vice grips.
The other is still rooted but came off with some careful socket work.
The next part was done by me sort of. Front cam bolt snapped >: (. That said i put so little effort into cracking the bolt im blaming the peanut who assembled it who probably over tightened it.
Removing the head bolts and heads themselves was a doddle and good god head bolts smell weird. The heads themselves smelt like an egg fart but the bolts smelt like rancid tomato sauce?
Heres where I need some help as this is my first time doing any sort of work like this. 3 cylinder bores have rust? marks in them
Is this a headgasket thing? Is the block still fine to use or is it :fork: d? The engine, apart from the over heating ran fine before hand. What should I be doing about the cam bolt? Obviously it needs to come out but whats the best approach? Drill out etc or new head perhaps?
Heres a photo of the rest of the parts cos why not. Clutch has loads of meat on it thankfully
Thats about it for now. Time to google what to clean and so on
12 November 2014
No real progress but updates. Soaked the fuark out of the cross member and bellhousing in degreaser. All the oil and gunk run onto the tarp i bought and put under it finally. So just dirt and a bit of gunk left to pressure wash out.
More KW/sweg on the way
Ty popped round to take the heads to get machined and to give some advice. Mainly to move the camshafts from under a tarp in the drive way into a box on the kitchen. Am now freaking about the reassembly but looking forward to it at the same time
13 November 2014
More cleaning and crap today inbetween studying. Intake manifold has another 24 hours of setting but im very happy with it. Looked cartoony red while painting but has darkend nicely.
Valve covers were FILTHY and ive ran out of desgreaser so theyll have to wait. Will be getting a wrinkle coat in black for sweg/to hide any more black stuff the engine spooges out
14 November 2014
Nothing srs today either cos exam. Heads were dropped off on thursday and have been told 200 bones but Ty forgot to ask about the bolt so could go up. Hardness test came in at 85~ or something. Ive got not idea what the scale is but apparently its not the best but not the worst. Been told not to thrash it and it only has to last a year ¯\(°_o)/¯. In other news intake is back together and looking schmick.
Throttle body gasket came out in 2 pieces so its just loosely on. Injector O-rings are reused as well which ill probably replace them cos fuel burns real good. Have 1 screw and 1 hook thing left over
and broke 1 hose from the Pressure Switching Valve? to the throttle body. The hose was easily the worlds most brittle object so will be getting a big length of silicon to replace any others. Also found the house i broke on the coolant crossover went to the idle valve.
15 November 2014
Finished cleaning the valve covers today. Few rooted spots that wont come clean but w/e
Thennnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn i saw this
and this on the ground
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Good thing the pick a part has 4 outbacks, just a pain
15 November 2014
Nek minit smacks manifold and valve covers reinstalling engine
Guarantee this will happen
and some time later. Exactly what i wanted
18 November 2014
Finally got around to cleaning the engine bay a bit. I cant do too much due to the loom and stuff still being in there and the fact i cant go all out cos my parents like their driveway clean ¯\(°_o)/¯
After 2 rounds of degreaser soaking it came out pretty easy with a karcher. Was still like 2cm thick layer of spooge on the bottom of the cross member
But the rest of it is pretty clean now. Bell housing is still a bit grot but didnt want to force water into the gear bag so itll live
The cleaning also finished off my dalmatian conversion
In other news shiny heads are shiny
No mention of valve leak or bent things so im assuming theyre good to go. At this stage my schedule has been delayed a day; will be cleaning the block after my exam tomorrow, assemble the engine on thursday and get stuff ready then engine in on friday. Still have a few parts to collect that have broken etc but they can all be replaced once the engine is in
20 November 2014
Well today went about as well as I was expecting. Made a call to Subaru and ordered some parts I need. Nothing in stock locally but will be ready for tomorrow so thats ok. Cleaned up the block which also went fine
That stuff will not come off but w/e. Then I bolted the heads on. Those bolts get tight quickly after you back them off 1 full turn. Was hard work.
I set about reinstalling the passenger side cams. This warning on the assembly lube made me feel good :|
[img]http://i.imgur.com/Hence the gloves
Thennnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn i realised the machinist hadn't gotten the bolt out that I snapped. Balls and ass. Gave up and moved to the drivers side where things went fine. Im a bit dubious about the cam positioning but ive set it so that the back of the cam lobe is against the lifter
Fun times. If i dont post anything else its because my parents have killed me when they find out im doing it in the drive way lmao
23 November 2014
Big ish day on the tools today. Old man river came round in the morning and got the broken cam cap bolt out with no dramas. Mad. Put the cams into the passenger side head and then had a oh crap moment when i thought i put the cams in the wrong sides. But consulting the manual proved i was ok. Managed to get the cam gears all lined up with some anxious effort.
[img]http://i.imgur.com/4TLF7S5.jpg
[img]http://i.imgur.com/D5BKV1d.jpg
My mate Will came round again and we resealed the rear separator plate with a donated alloy one. I put in the rear main and then discovered it isnt meant to go all the way home -_-. Good thing Subaru USA dun goofed and sent us like 5 for some reason lol. (Ash ill be coming to Tys place soon). We then torqued down the cam gears once we remembered the cams themselves have a hex section to clamp them down.
Then the battle with the timing belt began. I think we did it about 5 times. We'd get the last gear on and then see its 1 tooth off. Etc etc you know how it goes.
:fork: ing cubt
Cant imagine having to do it with the engine in the car. Passenger side valve cover isnt sealed up because i lost the spark plug gaskets so they will be done in the car.
Engine will hopefully be going in the car tomorrow then can put it all back together. Aiming for first start on tuesday.
24 November 2014
The engine is in!!!! Ended up replacing an idler that was a bit dodgy and put in new tensioner that we compressed properly. Re timed it and gave it a few cranks with a socket, no grinding or bad noises and still has compression so thats a relief. .Got the rear main seal out that i put in too far which was a real pain and replaced it with a spare from me and Tys US order. Then put the fly and clutch back on.
Ended up having to rent an engine host, $66 for 24 hours so quite reasonable. Getting the damn engine back on the gear box was a real pain as expected. Had to giggle the tail shaft to get everything lined up but some good swear words and a lot of fiddling got it all together. We bolted the exhaust headers on and the up thing as theyre a pain to do when the engine is bolted down. Tomorrow the puzzle of putting it all back together begins. Also went to super cheap and got osme new hoses for things that snapped. Hopefully we can start it tomorrow. Wish me luck.
25 November 2014
Parts pile is getting smaller. All the pumps and belt driven stuff is back on the front of the engine. and maybe 1/3 of the plugs are back in. Exhaust is all connected as is the clutch the gear bag is now securely bolted together. Also did some shopping and picked up a new radiator as ive been suspect of the old one and it couldnt hurt. Also pinched a few bolts and nuts that ive miss placed lol.
26 November 2014
Huge day today. Put the manifold and got rid of the parts pile in the boot, flushed the radiator and changed the oil.
Cranked her over with no plugs to build some oil pressure. Then cranked it with the plugs. Fired straight up! No ticks, no knocks, smooth idle. Winning. Had a few issues with a coolant leak that I didnt tighten a hose clamp down enough but fixed that. Had a big air pocket that stopped the heater working but we bled it for ages and fixed that too.
[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-Pne347vX8&feature=youtu.be[/media]
Shut the bonnet for the first time in 2 weeks and started to pack up the tools.
[img]http://i.imgur.com/sbGMUQF.jpg
Then i came back from our weekly meet and found a pool of coolant under the middle of the car. First thought was oh fork the head gaskets are leaking. Climbed under and it seems like the water pump or something in that area. Dicks.
29 November 2014
Well as expected the timing belt went on easy with an extra set of hands. Still leaks though, im out of budget and out of patience for it all. So ive parked up the car and it can sit and think about what its done for a while. Then ill get a new pump and probably some gasket glue to guarantee it goes on properly. Also will make Ty help :P
In other more happy news my STi trailing arms have arrived. Will be going on the white car when its finally roadworthy. I dont see why they wouldnt pass seeing as theyre OEM parts but you never know
10 January 2015
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Big day on the tools for the first time in a while. New pump, gasket and thermostat went on. Old pump was slightly warped so thats why it refused to seal >_>. Had the peanut gallery plus Ty round to help and as expected it flew apart and flew back together. Shes all buttoned up and bled now. Few trickles from the top rad hose which has a small cut in it, its super crusty so could do with replacing anyway. She also needs a battery. Other than that shes sweet. I actually like the buttony clutch once its moving. Looking forward to replacing the shifter bushes and going for a proper row through the gears. Anyway onto the necessary pictures
Shiny new pump with scungy thermostat housing
Peanut gallery at work. Old man river showed up with even more children. Was more like a day care than a workshop
Drippy rad hose
All sealed up and parked the right way round in the driveway for the first time in 3 months
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Stay tuned for roadworthy news and skids
And thanks to Ty for helping massively, even if i did try and crush you between 2 gen 2s :P
18 January 2015
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20 January 2015
I did some investigating into why there was no sound from the headunit. Pulling the drivers door card off explained why. First off theres no tweeters in the oem location at least and no speaker lol. Also theres a bunch of cut wires so im assuming the speakers were cut out. Hiope Ty doesnt want sound in the silver car cos im pinching the speakers :P
Also found this which looks JDM AS F*CK
22 January 2015
2 February 2015
Took the car for a Roadworthy inspection today. Few big issues and lots of small things i can fix easily.
Top of the list is windshield and exhaust which is leaky and loud.
wiper blades
indicators tinted
blown parker and license plate light
too low
Split rack boot
tie rod boot
tiny split in CV boot, bloke said to patch it/Ty said to replace the whole lot ¯\(°_o)/¯
Few missing bolts on brackets and shit - wrecker
leaking rocker covers, they come from factory leaking but whatever
rear window doesnt close
Front sway bar links - got GX takeoffs
Big list but most of it is small shit ive got floating around or can get for peanuts at the wreckers
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Originally Posted by peugoby
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