2013 STI Rotated Turbo Project

Don't overthink this. What he said ^

 

Hang on I gotta write this down, ya'll just agreed? Like, with eachother?


I'm exploring ANY and ALL possibilities of what might have caused it. A quite lengthy and colorful discussion of this topic has been ongoing elsewhere that just motivates me to make sure i'm certain (so it doesn't happen again).

 

Well I can tell you with 99.9% certainty that it wasn't because it didn't have a cross-drilled crank.

 

Yeah I agree, just weighing some input I got against all the facts in here.
Yours wasn't? That doesn't seem to be standard practice either?

 

Stock STI crank. I can't remember a build on a 2011+ car that used anything else.

 

well there are the ballers with their billet cranks and titanium intercoolers HEH

those aside yeah I always just see 11+ cranks being used, some just 08+ but never anything fancy.

 

Like I said before...there are proven formulas for power out there on these 2.5's. Pick how much power you want and build. It isn't a custom car or anything. It is the same platform that has been around for years and apparently for more to come thanks to Subaru dropping the same thing in the STI.

What is going to be funny is when the more reliable 2.0 in the WRX starts making more power and stays together. I still can't believe they didn't put a 2.0 in the STI...

 

Had an 05 crank in my build with many miles on it now and it never had any issues. Stick to the 'keep it simple' principle.

 

I'm interested to see if the pistons are any better than the EJ25 counterparts. Really hope that the direct injection helps keep detonation at bay.

 

not looking to do anything custom or out of the ordinary, the primary goal is to not have it happen again and that's all i'm probing these topics for.

most likely it was the RTV, that seems to be the most rock solid explanation considering everything. It probably just got dislodged after putting the 6266 on there and turning up the wick because everything saw more pressure, oil probably saw a higher temp for the first time, lots of things that weren't present before on the stg2 setup for 7k miles.

I just want to be SURE.

without being dramatic, I obviously can't keep doing this. I'm not exactly sponsored or anything lol

 

From what I am seeing out of the BRZ/FRS community so far...they are much better.

 

Formula for Subaru success: reliable and tested motor builder + reliable and tested tuner = car that runs

 

Indeed.

I should be good to go then.

Just need to use less RTV when I do my part LOL

 

Justin V -

I keep this open in a tab for daily motivation,

Behold the beautiful wrenching he did on vicki's car:

 

Lol broke my thumb last week so I'm at a stand still....sucks


Especially since outfront made amends by replacing my parts.
I have 2 sets of rod bearings, 3 sets of mains, a new crank and new oil pump coming tomorrow.

And... I just sold my cams and paid the case halves off the credit card.

I would say I'm just twiddling my thumbs but I can't even do that.

 

lol good job man, wasn't it not even outfront's fault wasn't it the heads that had metal in them? You have so many threads on nasioc I have trouble keeping up heh

 

They did the heads too, but I've been over it, this just sweetened the deal. Even threw some extra dollarbucks there way for the other bearings.

I've been plotting how to apply the liquid gasket to keep the bearings clear. I pulled a couple things I might have gone overboard with and cleaned it up and went back together with less just for piece of mind.

I wanted to do all the balancing myself but that is so time consuming I may just pay someone to do it and check the numbers in order to save some time.

 

Yeah I can't blame you, especially after what happened to mine.

I've had the fever the past 4 or 5 days, really been feeling not having my subaru. I think it's the weather and how pretty it's been outside making me want to go wind it up in the mountains or up by the lake.

At this point i'm just hoping I can still make the georgia half mile.
hit me up on facebook www.facebook.com/digitizedsoul if you are on there

 

That is not always true.....there will always be freaks of nature or something out of the ordinary that can happen.

I went through three motors that all cracked the sleeves....Three different engine builders but the same tuner. Surely I could of come on here and smeared feces on the tuner since detonation was what caused the sleeves to blow while being tuned. After months of digging and rebuilding, I figured out it was the stock Legacy wiring and fuel pump controller. The voltage to the fuel pump would drop to almost 8 volts at WOT after a few seconds. With the help of other Legacy owners, we narrowed it down to 12V lead coming from the ECU to the Fuel Pump Controller, the ground to the FPC, and the Fuel Pump controller itself. Bought a STi FPC and ran new wire and had 14V+ and WOT with no problems.

I have to applaud James for sticking by his core values as a person and not trying to find someone to blame....instead he is just trying to find out what ultimately happened so it wont be replicated again. We all have our shops we our loyal to but to come on here and say your failure was caused because of this tuner or that engine builder without any proof is just childish. The people he is working with are good people and have obviously taken care of him.

Not pointing fingers at anyone.....just stating my observation.

James - Dont do anything off the wall with your crank. There are thousands of 500+whp EJ25 builds with stock cranks. Like others have said dont try to reinvent the wheel. In my personal experience, the more stock parts you can use the more reliable the car will be. Mike probably has the longest forged lower end on this board with 65k miles running meth before finally cracking a ringland. He ran mostly used stock Subaru stuff. You have to remember Subaru has a lot more time and money invested in R&D when making parts for their cars than most anyone else making aftermarket parts.

 

Best post yet.

That's what I've been trying to state. His failure is no ones fault....if the most indicating culprit (RTV) was the real culprit that is one of those freaks of nature. It sucks but it happens to the best of us.

If I'm not mistaken Mike's best built engine mostly died due to the use of nitro-meth right? And if I'm right in that assumption then if he didn't use nitro-meth instead of pure meth it would've easily hit 100k.

 

I am pretty sure you are correct. Still pretty amazing he got that many miles out of it.

 

Thanks eddie, some things, while blatantly obvious, you just can't say yourself without sounding pretentious or an asshole, neither of which I consider myself.

I don't care about accidents or mistakes, we all make them. To pretend you are an exception to that, is to know you are a fool. I get upset when mistakes or accidents are not admitted and games are played, as long as everyone is honest (and everyone has been) smiles continue even if money gets spent. After all, we aren't playing with lego's on the living room floor here, these are expensive toys money is implied. If you have margins so thin in your financial life that you have to E-Rape everyone who worked with you when something goes wrong JUST so it gets paid for, you again have been proven a fool not only in your personal life, but in the car subculture you identify with.

Anyway, my goals are the following at this point:

1. Find out the root cause, SO IT DOESN'T HAPPEN AGAIN
2. Share findings with the community at large, SO IT DOESN'T HAPPEN AGAIN
3. Promote all the fantastic businesses and people i've worked with up to this point, none of whom have wronged me in any way.
4. Put my car back together and drive it like it owes me 10$
5. Possibly attend the Georgia 1/2 mile event provided my son isn't born on the same day or too close to it.


Notice that bashing, blaming, flaming, gaming and any other childish non-productive and immature behavior is intentionally omitted from this list. The only thing that teaches "a community" like ours when you read stuff with that in it, is that we are a bunch of babies that don't need any new members. No thanks. I had WAY too many new members coming up to me at the meets all last year and when I asked what their username was they said I don't have one, I don't really go on the site too much drama.
I can't speak for everyone, but at least I'm not going to contribute to that.
I chose not to put up build threads and stuff on nasioc or iwsti or clubwrx or whatever for a reason, I wanted to help draw folks here. Hard to do that if you are behaving like a 6month old monkey.

 

I agree. I have been suggested cross drilling, or using a billet crank, but considering the only people I know who have done that are 1000hp drag cars that get rebuild every season anyway I highly doubt it has anything to do with my problem, or is required for my goals.
It was just another friendly person trying to help me solve my problem. I in no way dis-respect his suggestion, I just don't necessarily agree in my particular circumstance.
I welcome all input and advice.

 

smeared feces?
:rofl::rofl::rofl:

just made my morning lol thanks

 

Eddie did your car show lean AFR's in the logs or on your gauge when tuning when the fuel pump would drop volts? Or was it able to sustain flow enough to maintain the target AFR, just not for a long period of time? (AKA, it manifested itself on the street in long multi-gear pulls, not in short dyno bursts)

I'm just wondering, obviously I have an STI and the sti fpc, but I never did test my voltage after installing the aeromotive 340 since everyone else installs it with the stock wiring and controller on the GR's. I don't THINK that i'm having a problem related to that, but anything is possible I guess?

Again, just trying to cross all the T's and dot the i's before I put it back together. Not necessarily saying it was the culprit.

 

The sleeves were breaking on the Dyno while tuning.

AFR's on the log looked fine from what I can remember and according to the tuner. Didnt have a wideband until after the problem was resolved

 

about the only thing I'd do to a stock crank before install is clean the damn thing. Maybe knock out the pressed in BB in the galleys and tap and plug them after cleaning if reusing it. only way to make sure the galleys are free of any trash from a previous failure

 

I hope you aren't thinking that I suggest he come on here and smear people. That is not what I meant at all. The probability of bad things happen when you work with people that have experience in high horsepower Subarus that run. That's all I was trying to say. No one wins by coming on a forum and blasting off at people unless you were genuinely screwed over. From what I can see on this project, he hasn't been screwed over as far as I can tell.

 

On a side note. A thread on IWSTI would be great for this build. There is a massive amount of knowledge about BIG builds. NASIOC...not so much anymore at least.

 

Nope was saying the exact opposite.

 

The internet is hard.

 

I lost at the internet.

We found a partially descended exhaust valve guide in one head too. combustion temps must have been a bit on the high side.
Wasn't the same cylinder who's rod bearing spun though, just an interesting discovery while prepping the heads.

probably shouldn't have put it back together the first build without doing a valve job but it only had 17k on it at the time, didn't really see the need.
meh probably wouldn't have mattered.

 

How's the progress going? Are you anywhere near getting this beast going again?

 

There have been some new discoveries made into the original failure, I have not been comfortable moving forward until a root cause was identified and confirmed. After all, if you don't know exactly what happened how can you prevent it from happening again?

At this time I am not disclosing any additional facts because they are not yet facts, however once they are a full publish will be made into why the rod bearing spun, and also why the #4 cylinder exhaust valve guide had descended from too high combustion temps.


For now, I will say this:

Steve Pullzone did a fantastic job tuning the car and carries 0 fault for what happened. This has been confirmed multiple times by multiple sources.

Ball Engine (David & Andrew, not Matt) did a fantastic job machining and assembling the longblock. They carry 0 fault for what happened, this has also been confirmed at this time.

Also while it may have been a contributing factor, the RTV that was found floating about in the main bearing was not the cause of the spun #2 rod bearing.

More on all that later as I stated. In the meantime I am still trying to sell the incorrect and useless-to-me turbo kit so I can recover the 1500$ invested in it. Once that is sold it will allow me to move forward with a clutch purchase so even if the motor was ready to go (which it is not) I would still be waiting to do the clutch.
If anyone wants to help, that's how you can help. Either buy it, or get it sold for me. And word to the wise, trust no one when purchasing anything. Do your own research and come to your own conclusions. Get a tape measure and use it. Don't end up like me.

 

Interesting. Hope it all works out in the end man as I know it's been a pure headache.

 

http://www.clutchspecialty.com/

local and can be verified by vendors and members on this site.

 

I've already decided on a clutch.

 

Which clutch did you decide on?

 

ACT XD full face.
Enough clamp, still streetable, no chatter and lasts longer then a 6 puck.

 

Good Choice.

 

Nice choice!

 

Has anyone ever used this as their fuel pump hardwire solution?

http://www.deatschwerks.com/products/accessories/fuel-pump-hardwire-installation-kit-detail

 

good deal for this?
http://lightningmotorsports.com/i-67766.aspx?gclid=CKjnorfy5b0CFS9p7AodoXsAFw

900+ everywhere else

 

I'll answer my own question then, after some research, that is a pretty damn good deal.
So, for anyone reading, there you go.

 

Well just to be fair....

 

Nice try, I asked if anyone thought that was a fair price, not whether or not I should buy it.

Troll elsewhere where you might find success in such things.

 

It's a good kit and should work very well with your build. Provided that all the fuel components are installed correctly and all the fuel is flowing very well as intended.

You won't be far from 550 hp hopefully sooner than later.

 

So would anyone (local) with know-how be willing to help me fab up some AN lines if I get the aeromotive kit?
I have never made AN lines before, and while I enjoy a good challenge I also respect skills that don't develop the first time you do something, and I hardly think my fuel system is the place to "learn".

Otherwise my options are pretty limited, and at this point any more bad news or discouragement and the next post you see will be in the for sale sub-forum.

I hardly think that intake installed, motor in car is the best place or time to do this, so i'll need to do it now before all that.

 

Hit up Matt Ball. I think he was quite handy with doing those. Just ready as it's not cheap when you add up all the pieces and parts.

 

Honestly...at this point...I would drop it off with a shop you trust. Tell them your goals and say you want a car that meets those, runs and is a build they would stand behind. It wouldn't be a cool DIY and it will cost more, but you would have a car that drives and it would cost less in the long run.

You spent a lot of money on a car that doesn't move and you will lose your ass if you try to sell it.