Sunday, February 26, 2012

The bolt thief...

Looking back at my last post and then today's post makes me realize how bad I am at remembering to take pictures. There's a big gap in my picture taking timeline. Oops. Sorry.

Last Monday, we put the finishing touches on the motor and I brought it home in the back of the fast wagon (which I conveniently forgot to photograph). It fits perfectly in the back, for future reference. It sat in my garage all week untouched until last night. I was working away, putting the clutch and flywheel on with brand new bolts that came individually packed in little plastic bags. I went to install my PCV valve, which had been sitting right next to me, and couldn't find it anywhere. Looked under the car, checked every box, searched the entire garage, then started retracing my steps. I walked into the yard and found it on the ground, along with a few other bolts. Went inside and found more in my dog's bed. My dog had been running into the garage with a strange sense of urgency, then quickly running back out. He always does odd things like that, so I didn't think much of it, but the little brat was stealing my bolts!

My friend came over today and helped me get the engine installed. The only things left to install now are the turbo and exhaust, radiator, airbox, and a few other little things. I was so busy, I only remembered to take one picture.


Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Clooooser!

My engine is ALMOST there. We would have finished if I had thought to order EJ20 cam seals, but at least the hard part is over! Got the heads decked and built:


Block decked:





And assembled (with the help of Jason at CCR - the trick is to listen to Frank Sinatra while building your engine):



Here's what it looked like when I left this afternoon:


And one of my camshaft has my initials on it! Shut up, I thought it was cool. 


Thursday, February 9, 2012

Tool Time!

I spent my day on Tuesday in Subaru heaven. Colorado Component Rebuilders is the mecca for Subaru junkies. Shelf after shelf of blocks and heads and tools and pieces and parts and Subaru posters on the walls. From those parts, they turn out what are essentially brand new Subaru engines. My 2.5 years working for them is partially responsible for my Subaru obsession, I'm sure. The owners, Rick and Emily Johnston, were nice enough to grant me access to their shop and equipment to rebuild the engine in my new daily driver.



My first step was to tear the engine down and assess the damage.





Luckily, I had prepared myself for the worst, and what I found was about what I had expected. The engine had accidentally the whole ring land on cylinder 4. Unfortunately, the block was too scored to simply be honed, so it's off to the machine shop to be bored out and I've got a fresh new set of CP .20 over pistons on order. No big deal, just a $500+ setback. Sadface.


Once the block was torn down, I spent the afternoon cleaning everything up. I wasn't originally planning on rebuilding the heads, but I figured since I had all day and couldn't get started on the block, I might as well. Plus, it's what I do best!


Soda blaster!



Grinding valves and cutting seats, and that's right where I left her until next week when I get the block back.



Sunday, February 5, 2012

Wiring Deja Vu

I could have sworn I've already done this...oh, wait...that was the other car. Despite my ambitiousness and good intentions, I didn't get a whole lot done this weekend. I managed to crouch in the snow just long enough to remove the UTEC and the a-pillar gauges, a whole bunch of ugly alarm wiring and butt connectors, and that's about it. I was far too frozen to put anything back together. While most people are drinking beer, eating nachos and watching football, I was playing with wires...









Look familiar? Left it looking more or less like this: