Fantastic thread mate. I wish I had the courage to tackle a job as big as this.

Best of luck with your head issue, I'll be keeping an eye on this thread to see how you get on

Rich

 

If you need any more just shout. i got literally hundreds of them lol.

The biggest problem your going to have next is picking up your engine without scratching the new paint or cracking the cam covers lol

 

Yes that could be a problem, hopefully where the chains go round to lift it, no-one will notice! When I took it out I had already stripped virtually all the ancillaries including the inlet manifold and headers etc. This time I'll get all that stuff mounted up first before dropping it into the engine bay. About the only thing I'm worried about is the timing up process and getting the clutch lined up when it goes back together. Probably worrying over nothing.

Tonight's project is stripping the inlet manifold and priming it. Then tomorrow if that's dry, the white paint is going on! Will also do the FMIC-to-TB pipes out of the FMIC kit in white. Should look tasty in the end; silver block, black heads, white intake side. Might not start or run, but at least it will be good looking scrap!

 

Cheers for the support! Courage doesn't come into it... the simple fact is I couldn't do it any other way. I had a big 'credit crunch' of my own several years ago, so the only option has been to do it myself, bit by bit, and buy the parts I needed each pay day! Started April, will finish in December, but won't owe anyone a penny for it.

 

LOL, go for it Nick.

 

Exactly the way i'm doing it. Not keen on the idea of a credit card!

Top thread, interesting reading.

Dave

 

Loving post 363, especially the last line.

I'm almost tempted to pull mine out, and save some dough...

Fantastic thread, and good luck !

DunxC

 

The timing isnt hard once you have done it lol. gimme a shout the night before you do it and i will give you are few pointers

 

Thanks for all the comments fellas, even though my project is on a bit of a go-slow at the moment, it is really encouraging that you're all still looking in on it - soon as I get these heads back (tomorrow?) I'll be straight on it!

In the meantime, as promised, I stripped the inlet manifold down, cleaned it inside and out in readiness for paint. First attempt was a bodge I sprayed it with an old can of white Hammerite Smooth which was fine but it felt dodgy even once set and the fingernail test revealed it was not going to be tough enough. Blasted the whole thing with carb cleaner and it came off in sheets.

Plan B - prime it properly with Hammerite 'Special Metals Primer' for aluminium which goes on brick red.


Once that was dry, I used a can of Plastikote Radiator Paint to do the colour coat. I was thinking, hmmm, what will be white, take a few knocks, and withstand say boiling water but not be all weird and greasy like engine block paint or exhaust manifold paint is? This stuff will go up to 100C which seems about right to me. If the inlet is ever sitting at 100C or anywhere near it, a bit of paint melting off is gonna be the last of my worries!

 

Rude boy!! Looks great.

 

Top work mate

 

Now need to tap a hole in the last IC pipe to take the temp sensor. Then the pipes from FMIC outlet to TB can be white painted as well. Not sure whether to just do the whole lot actually.

 

Things are starting to move along now. Here are the parallel fuel lines that I made up prior to the rebuild, as they look from the underneath with injector rails at each side. No need for fancy AN fittings; simple doubled hose clips and fresh new hose do the job fine with no leaks!



Injector rails and parallel fuel lines installed; underside of manifold. The heat shielded loop that you can see bottom left goes over where the inlet pipe will meet the turbo.



Top view of inlet manifold from nearside. You can see where I mount the SARD adjustable regulator. The route is fuel filter to tee under the manifold, to run through each rail in parallel (think it's rear to front IIRC), then teed back together again in the centre of the underside and round to the regulator, then out from the bottom tail of the reg to the tank return pipe.



The STi3/4 heads back from shimming. Piper top hat shims, STi valves and seats all cut back to spec, skimmed for decent compression and a flat mating face, cc'd to equalise chambers as close as I can get them.

 

Nice work mate. glad you have just posted about your budget parallel rail mod, and that it actually works, all i keep getting in my ear at the moment is -6 this and -6 that ,aeroquip this etc etc!, but i have just assembled my fuel lines pretty much like yours, need to get it right as i wont be able to test it all properly until Bob rawle maps it to full power on the 29th!

 

Well I know for a fact they worked and didn't leak because it was running leak-free before the rebuild. LOL all I did was cut back some of the rail ends with a plumber's pipe cutter and deburr them a little. Bring on the budget fuel mods! About the most expensive bit was a couple of good quality metal tees and the rail adapter to replace the original end-of-rail regulator.

 

Cool mate, i will finish the inlet tonight and post up a couple of pics, it is phase1 so will e a little different in plumbing to yours.

 

Love the white! Might you want to spray it with some clear coat so that you can easily wipe off dirt?

 

Yeah that might have been an idea. But I can't be arsed to take all the hardware off again now! I'll see how it goes once it's in.

 

The Heads are looking

 

LOL yeah, shame they'll all be covered up once the whole lot's back together! I've just took the cams out from both the heads just to give them a quick clean up and re-oil with assembly lube, fit the cam seals on the front ends before putting the pulleys back on. Assembled them back together then realised that I'd not be able to fit them onto the block with the cams in place...derrr!

So, cams off again, cleaned the oil residue off the head/gasket/block faces, then turned the block sideways so the LH deck (cylinders #2 and 4) was uppermost. Fitted the Cometic gasket down onto the new dowels, the 6 ARP studs went straight through no problem, nicely centred. Next came the LH head, it went on nice and smooth again. It feels like it's rocking slightly on the multi-layering of the gasket, but I'm guessing once it's tightened down that evens out.

Later on I'll finish up and lube the studs and nuts, tighten them according to what it says then refit the cams. Then flip the lump over and do the same for the RH head.

I turned the crank so that the tab with the 'I' mark on the crankshaft cog was straight up, this puts all four pistons at the same position down the cylinders. Whether that's right or not I don't know, but it seems sensible if the heads are going on.

 

At last, we have some progress! LH head in position, studs holding everything down. I tightened up in three equal stages up to 85 lb/ft as ARP recommend. Lube on everything.



View of block with LH head in place:



LH cams, seals and pulleys fitted. I used a bit of red rubber grease for the insides of the seals.



Long block assembled and turned right way up - i.e. heads, bottom end, sump etc.




Just before finishing for the night, I sat the inlet manifold on top to see what it will end up looking like. Not bolted down yet, but won't take long.

 

It's looking better by the day, very impressed with it all. Chris.

 

You'll want to put the pulleys on correctly at some stage though!

 

LOL yes that would probably help if the RH pulleys weren't offset by miles from being on back to front!

 

Looking tasty matey!!

I'm doing the same thing myself at the moment and am wondering did you re-use the followers?

Stu

 

The tappets? Yes definitely

 

Very mulit colour nice work nick.

 

Looking good mate!

 

Adding the finishing touches to the block before doing the timing etc. I had fitted the cam pulleys to see what they'd look like, but took them off again to fit all the bits and bobs that needed to go onto the block before final assembly.

I had to remove the front cam bearing caps and refit them because I forgot to add a little Threebond in there. I lined up the cams according to the Subaru manual, which were close to where I'd set them but not quite right. Next job was on the top of the block - to fit the oil pressure switch adapter in front of the water crossover pie and the oil temp bung adapter behind it. Dipstick tube is now in place, secured by one bolt and a new pair of rubber o-rings down the bottom.

I had a load of random black water pipework to sort through for refitting, eventually realised that there are two designs of water pump, and mine is the one with two water outlets at the side. Got the right pipes and ran them up the side of the head and over the top, bolted down with two bolts on top, one on the side.

Finally fitted the water pipe between water pump and modine oil cooler. Still the plastic left and right rear cambelt covers can't go on, as I need to fit the rocker covers first. Then the rear covers go on, the bottom idler bearing goes on, the cam pulleys go on (78Nm, hold the cams still with a big spanner on their hex section) and it should be ready for timing up...

 

Keep at it mate!