2013 STI Sedan EJ257 Rebuild Project

the problem is setting the lash between the valves and cams in the car.

Valves either need to be tipped if heads are off or different bucket shims need to be installed. I guess it could be done but it would be a huge pain.

It requires a lot of install, measure, adjust, uninstall, do the next one... over and over again.

 

I dont know if you saw this but Tigwerks was having a sale on Oil Pickups for $90 shipped this weekend.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?...86985756.26337.100003185265096&type=1&theater

 

Do it right and she'll take your abuse much better

a well balanced rotating assembly
CC and match the chambers
degree your cams with a big wheel and dial-indicators

single-plane cranks in a boxer are just naturally loud so doing everything possible to smooth things out goes a long way to making safe horsepower.



note big fucking degree wheel, just in case you may need to borrow one

 

I've heard of degreeing cams but have no idea how to do it.

I see your motor has 2.0 wrx heads does that mean you used adjustable cam gears.

On my single AVCS motor I can only think of adjusting the timing by moving a tooth on the gear or using those adjustable belt tensioners.

With his Dual AVCS Those cams will be moving all the time. And a tuner could technically degree or at least adjust the cam angle through the AVCS controls in the ecu.

Not to steal his thunder but I went out and bought a scale at harbor freight today so I can balance my internals. Still trying to figure out how to measure small end vs big end weight.

 

already have one on the way, as well as his air pump deletes

 

not stealing my thunder, i'm like a sponge these days just soaking it all up.
b reel that's a sick motor.

ball is doing the bottom end. i'm just going to put the top end back together as it was, so no need for anything there I wouldn't think. it never overheated.

 

using Crawford Performance

only cam gears that I'm aware of is the AU made Crower's that will work on a EJ205. The Tomei and Roger Clarks are for the EJ207 AVCS STI

 

zero the crank with one dial-indicator, zero each cam to a dial-indicator, wait


buy a lot of dial indicators
design degree wheel
laser cut/etch wheel from 304SS
machine OEM pulley on a lathe to fit wheel
fabricated bases for the dial indicators
see beginning of post

 

I would not bolt anything together till it has been completely torn down and cleaned. I would have the seats and valves cleaned up with new seals just to be on the safe side.

 

well if i'm going to do that, might as well have andrew at ball get ahold of the heads. I don't have the necessary tools I don't think to do it properly.

what valve springs / retainers / seals should I get? supertech? manley? might as well get dual springs if i'm going to do that and new valves so I can put a decent cam in it....

 

$2700 is a lot of money for a block that will very likely crack the sleeves. 100mm pistons in an OEM sleeve is a BIG no no. Yes it may work but I have seen sooooooo many people end up with cracked sleeves when using 100mm pistons. You remove so much material that your sleeves become paper thin.

 

.......

I guess i'll just have to take my chances on that...

 

Would aftermarket sleeves like Dartons sleeves be able to hold up better for 100mm pistons or do you still run that same risk??

Man there is some much info going on on this rebuild. Its got me brainstorming on for the next rebuild.

 

This makes me LOL. So 99.5mm is stock bore. Most people will tolerate 99.75mm. I am aware that some builders won't do 100mm. But c'mon a whopping quarter of a mm, not to mention taken from a circle so you're only removing 0.25mm over stock and .125mm over accepted piston bore.

I reference a piece of mechanical pencil lead to the thickness of 0.5mm and don't see that making or breaking an engine. I'd like to see the circumstances of those cracked liners.

I'd much rather have my 100mm pistons with the correct PWC than some "Built" motor that is just new cases with off the shelf drop ins and no machining done.

There's a trade off every path you take. I chose mine accordingly.
drop ins - PWC oil consumption and piston slap leading to ovaled cylinders
99.75mm - right in the middle better tolerances but still removed some material
100mm - More material removed, but in my case the pistons with the proper dish for my heads only came in 100mm. So it kept my compression ratio safe
Sleeves - Cooling. dropping a liner. ring wear
Closed deck inserts seem nice - but time will tell as they are relatively new

Pick your poison, none are perfect

I take you are going with 100mm?

 

I am going 0.010" over (according to andrew at ball) which would be what, 99.75 or 100? Why we still use both SAE and metric in this country is appalling.

 

I think i'm going to keep the heads stock for now, although b reel has me all nervous about just putting them back together, even though I do plan to clean them up, I don't plan on touching the valves / springs / buckets in the process.
Having never overheated, they should still be flat, how concerned should I be?
I know for a fact SOG was going to simply bolt it back together, but then again holding anything they do to a standard is foolishness.

 

You should be fine and I'd highly recommend just keeping the heads stock purely due to the fact that you have stated that its breaking the bank for you. Head work would give you more power under the curve but really that's for the guy trying to push the envelope. For the DD stock is best.

 

stop overthinking this, you're going to blow your budget, lol

i'd recommend going ahead and drawing the line, as all of this talk is just going to have you adding more and more stuff.

 

So you are running 99.75's

You can strip the head down to just the valves, springs, and retainers and run it through the dishwasher on a hot rinse.

Then get a non marring scotch brite to clean off the deck.

And since this was the cause of my last failure. Remove the galley plugs and spray out the oil passages, but since you aren't having anything on the heads machined you should not have any left behind debris like I had.

If you pull the buckets from the head, mark where they go and when reassembling make sure to use plenty of lube since the first few cranks will be rotating without oil in the passages.

For later on. I primed my oil pump by rotating the engine on the stand and pouring oil down the pickup as I turned the motor over. I don't know if it did anything but it gave me some piece of mind that it was not wasting revs trying to pull oil up from the pan to prime the pump.

 

like this you mean?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/GARRETT-GT3...Parts_Accessories&hash=item587fb89d3d&vxp=mtr

lol

 

Man don't put any mechanical oil covered parts in the dishwasher.

 

Yeah i've decided, keeping the heads stock. Firm on that one!!!!!
I have looked up a couple big builds I followed and most of them kept the heads stock as well unless they were revving to 8500 or something crazy.
The ones who used a Dom 1.5 or 30r and stayed around 450-500 all kept their heads stock and had pretty attractive dyno graphs / area under the curve.

Man if I could find a good dom 1.5 super cheap or that 30r I linked was cheaper that would be awesome heh. Just slap it on there in place of my VF52 and run it like that for a couple years.

 

I have two dishwashers, one in the basement I never use so I could use that one, IF that actually works!
Might even throw some purple power in there with it?
Never heard of anyone doing that, but I don't see why it wouldn't work.

 

Then by all means do it. I was thinking that your wife was gonna kill you if you used hers....lol.

I'd rather just let the machine shop sonic clean them though......However there isn't any metal in the heads. Really don't need to go through all that if the heads have been stored in plastic bags and out of the dirt like they should. And if not then a good spraying out with some cleaner is sufficient.

 

Just use water. Some cleaners are caustic to the aluminum. PP might be one of them as I know castrol super clean was/ is

Obviously get as much oil off and out as possible, but most heads are first cleaned with water and then a hot tank... essentially a hot dishwasher rinse.

I did it with my case halves already and just oiled the liners after to prevent rust

 

Yep, no metal in the heads, the only metal that came loose in this motor was the ringlands, which came loose in my hand. The hairline cracks were a perfect fit when you put it back into the piston so it's clear that no metal was released into the motor.

what's the best way to put them in there, exhaust ports facing down or combustion chambers facing down? I might try some carb cleaner / brake cleaner on it first to see if I even need to bother with that.
They are stored properly right now and the buckets haven't been removed and are still pretty oiled. I would add more obviously just to be safe.

 

Valvetrain down (getting sprayed)

ports only see gasses and fuel (or should only see that) So they don't accumulate much.
The carb cleaner would work best there as I said. It'll will remove the carbon, varnish, residue, and everything else.

Chambers are best with the carb cleaner too and the scotch brite pad (which is optional) would take care of that side leaving only the valve train side.

I draw a picture of my heads and number them and mark the buckets accordingly or just idiot proof it with 1-4 being front to back and then using 1ed 1ip for 1st postion intake or exhaust port and drivers or passengers side head.

 

I'm going to do what you did on your nasioc thread with the gaskets, and just do a piece of carboard stencil and lay the buckets on there labeled.

 

A sharpie will write on the buckets if cleaned off. I wrote the numbers on the buckets themselves just in case my work area got bumped or disturbed.

 

there is literally so much win in this thread. I am so glad I started it, not only for my own benefit but for the countless others apparently reading it.

You guys freakin` rock.

 

BREAKING NEWS:

My buddy at work has offered to let me drive his 2000 CR-V for the duration. You talk about a sacrificial gesture of generosity.
This lightens the load tremendously as I can return this stupid rental nissan tonight and quit bleeding cash for that thing.

HUGE WIN

 

Great friends are priceless.

 

LOL
Believe it or not, there isn't a single drop of oil or coolant. I was thoroughly surprised by this since I didn't exactly take measures to avoid spilling any...

 

I think Dartons will take up to a 104mm bore? I cant remember now but sleeved blocks can have their own problems. You can split a stock sleeve with stock bore pistons as well......Subaru EJ25X motors are just not designed to make huge HP numbers with the stock block.

 

I personally don't plan on splitting any sleeves myself, and from what I can surmise, doing so can be attributed to significant thermal shock (which itself can be caused by a dozen things) but rapid expansion of the piston without accompanying expansion of the block would do that. Also improper PTW clearence coupled with that would do that.

I think at the very bottom of the list would be overall cylinder pressure. I would think you'd see other failures due to that first before a full on sleeve crack like the ones pictured.

Just my $0.02 though

 

Or detonation at high boost levels

 

What I recommended only requires labor cost reusing stock parts and common sense.

 

You can't buy common sense though... sorry, long day of dealing with idiots

 

come on guys, we made it all the way to page 20 without any nonsense.
while that's gotta be a record around here, I'd hate for it to start now.

I have plenty of common sense thank you very much, i'm just also very careful and know my limits.

 

Original Post updated.

I'm going to have to get an oil pan gasket and new disptick for my buddies CRV. Thing is leaking oil all over the header enough to drive you nuts. Simple fix though, least I can do for him letting me borrow it.
Might just buy the little thing off him when this is said and done. It's got a B20, FWD so no fancy honda AWD to deal with and everything works. Would make a great DD and hauler for home depot runs.

Anyway back on topic. I need to decide on a clutch now I guess.
Would Wes or Brandon be interested in the stock one you think? It has 17k miles on it and looks brand new to be honest. I almost hate to replace it, but I also don't want to replace it IN the car later on either...

 

http://shop.topspeedtuned.com/exedy-stage-4-twin-metallic-disc-clutch-kit-subaru-sti-2004-2013/

Do clutches that hold >450-500 ft/lb all cost this much?
Good grief that's expensive...

Maybe it's just exedy.
This ACT holds 565ft/lb
http://shop.topspeedtuned.com/act-x...-street-disc-clutch-kit-subaru-sti-2004-2013/

 

Check out Josh.....his prices are hard to beat. And if you ask he very often reduces prices and beats nearly anyone.

http://www.importimageracing.com/driveline/shopby/subaru/wrx-sti.html

 

Also your I think this will hold your power goals just fine.

http://www.importimageracing.com/exedy-organic-stage-1-clutch-kit-for-04-13-subaru-sti.html

 

Oh wow that's much cheaper.
What is the torque rating on that one? 40% greater then stock certainly sounds like enough.

 

Not sure of the exact figure but stock usually craps out around 400hp so I agree and say 40% is plenty enough.

It'll do it's job as long as you aren't launching the car a lot.

 

Ductile Casting; Organic Facing; 240mm/24T/25.2 Spline; Torq. Cap. At Wheels 332 lbs./ft.; Torq. At Flywheel 415 lbs./ft.; 2536 lbs. Clamp Load;

Hmm might not be enough..

 

I had the ACT sprung 6 puck on my 540hp setup. Loved it.