CDF Racing

iTrader: (49)

Looking really good Nick , work of art mate

tonyrally

are them sards fuel regs any good? was thinking about geting one cheers tony

silent running

The SARD does the job and it's half the price of the others (i.e. Fuelab, SX, Aeromotive), which are good, but tbh look hugely overengineered for a typical Subaru installation. I didn't want to mess about with pricey AN dash fittings and stuff when plain fuel hose and jubilee clips would do the job on my 'modified' (hacked up in other words) fuel rails. Just be careful that you get a genuine one, dispatched from UK official stock.

silent running

Made a fair bit of progress but may have been thwarted at the end...

Fitted both rocker covers tightening bolts to only 5Nm. Threebond all the way round each perimeter gasket and the spark plug ones too. Next the RH rear belt cover could go on.



Then, fit the RH cam pulleys. Slight technical hitch as with the rocker cover on you can no longer hold the cam still while you tighten up the big pulley bolt (with locktight). I wrapped the pulley round with an old cambelt and molegripped it tight around other idlers etc and it held it still enough that I could get the right torque on the bolt.



Same job on the RH inlet pulley:



Now fitting the LH rear cover; the dipstick tube had to be loosened again to get this in place, but the cover only needs 3 bolts:




Realised it would be better to do both the LH pulleys locked together with a belt/molegrips as in the correct arrow position, they are both 'on cam' and liable to spring off suddenly!




Final picture for tonight; lining up the crank sprocket with the timing mark under the crank sensor. This puts all four pistons about half way down IIRC. This mark is also where the yellow line sits on the standard Subaru cambelt.



So far, so good, or so I thought. Getting the belt on wasn't too bad, I found the trick is to get the four cam pulleys' marks correct and then do the crank sprocket and the tensioner last of all. Once the belt was on I tried turning the thing over but felt a worrying resistance after a little bit of travel. I turned it back again, back to the start position and it jumped a tooth on the crank sprocket.

I'm gutted about that. I thought it would just be crankable by hand and I'd run it through a few cycles then it would be done. Something doesn't feel right though and I can't think what it is. Presumably if it jumps a tooth just on hand cranking, it's gonna do it for sure in normal use. Perhaps the tensioner wasn't any good after all? Or maybe it needs to be left a bit longer to build up pressure against the belt after I just pulled the pin out?

But the reluctance of it to turn very far over on the crank is a big worry. Any ideas? It can't be the pistons hitting the heads because I know they only come out roughly 0.3mm overdeck and the gaskets are 1.3mm. Maybe it's just the 'stiction' of not enough oil in there yet? Or perhaps I'm hitting that turnover point where you've got pistons at bottom and top dead centre and without any momentum they're just locking up?

Or maybe the skim on the block and heads has created some kind of weird timing problem?

Help! I just want this to work now!

The Stitcher

iTrader: (12)

can't understand how this has happend could it be something to do with the trouble that you had with the valves as i cant see the block and head castings that were skimmed making any difference as you made up for it with the right gasket, plus your engine turned fine with out the heads on

silent running

That doesn't inspire me with confidence...well I think it turned fine without the heads on. I didn't ever really give it a full turn over recently. I'm gonna try and tip it upright i.e. heads top and bottom and see if that makes a difference.

Any more ideas?

Matt578

tensioner should not jump a tooth mate, maybe the tensioner is flubbered after all, i got a new one as my old one felt weak and i could untension it and move the belt by hand. BUT the way you say you turned it back to get it back to the start position and it jumped a tooth. if you turned the engine backwards it proberbly compressed the tensioner completly then turned the engine. then when you went to go forwards again because the tensioner was fully compressed from the engine being turned the other way, it jumped. its hard to explane without being there

When i turned my engine over by hand it was do able with a 5" wrench, but there was one point where it got quite resistant but i could still turn it over. its done over 2k now and is still spot on so i assume it was ok. Problem is its hard to give advice without looking at it.

I would put the belt back on and turn it the correct way and dont stop unless you get a lot of resistance. i would also order a new tensioner for piece of mind.

All just my opinion of course.

silent running

I've posted on technical to try and get some ideas on what might have gone wrong, but I've now done what Mick suggested and removed the belt to test each individual cam and the crank. They all turn fine on its own. Soon as you refit the belt it stops dead about half a turn round and if you force it any more it either tightens the pulley bolt even further or jumps a tooth on the crank sprocket.

This was last night, matching up the timing marks against the diagram:



Testing the cams and crank again with the belt off. They all turn freely.



Refitting the timing belt again; final stage.

silent running

Yeah I can see what you mean about the tensioner jumping a tooth when going backwards now Matt, that makes sense. How were you turning your crank? On the bolt, same as me?

Matt578

yes mate, i turned the main bolt. it went pretty tight but then it turned over.

silent running

Bugger. I put the crank pulley on and it still won't go more than 3/4 of a clockwise turn. I wonder if it's something to do with the cams being STi in WRX heads with WRX pulleys? Maybe the timing marks need to be positioned differently? I really don't want to have the rocker covers off again to see what's going on, but I might have to.

ticky

I would add a large washer prior to the crank bolt just to make sure you don't damage the thread on the crank.

I am not sure if you could see or hear any contact between the valves and pistons through the inlet ports when manually turning over the crank to the point where it stops?

The only sure answer would be to remove the heads and clay the one of the pistons and re-assemble and check your valve to piston clearances.

I am pretty sure you can re-use your head gaskets as the sealing process only starts when the engine is fired up.

ticky

silent running

OK I'll try looking/listening out for that then. I should be able to see the inlet valves opening through the ports, see if something touches as it gets to TDC.

LH rocker cover off now, I'm gonna have a proper look at it all moving tomorrow so I can see if it gets stuck anywhere.

silent running

FIXED!!!
After months of keeping everything in the right place, all labelled up so no mistakes could be made, I went and swapped the two RH cams somehow, so inlet was underneath and exhaust on top. Swapped them back over (makes it sound more straightforward than it is LOL), put the covers, bottom idler and belt back on and it cranks round lovely. It's been through at least half a dozen full laps of the belt and the cam and crank marks are matching up perfectly.

At least I didn't try and force it any further, just hope the valves are OK.

The Stitcher

iTrader: (12)

well done fella and well spotted bet your over the moon and was just lucky you never forced it round look farward to the rest of the build now

Jay m A

iTrader: (2)

Phew!

silent running

LOL I'm well pleased. New tensioner hasn't arrived yet, but it all turns fine on the old one, so I'll go ahead and start fitting the inlet manifold and and external hardware on the heads, turbo/inlet pipe/up-pipe/headers etc. Everything I can basically.

olliecampbell

iTrader: (3)

At least it was something 'easy' and didn't cause any damage! Good work, nearly there!

samcowrx

Hows the build going now mate?

silent running

While I wait for a new cambelt tensioner, PS and AC belts and three exhaust studs/nuts to arrive, I've been cracking on with fitting the stuff around the engine. I know now that with the new tensioner on everything will turn fine, so can stop worrying about the heads and crankcase giving me a problem.

I've fitted loads of stuff from a few big cardboard boxes of parts from at least three different engines ranging from v2 to v4, some labelled, some not, so it's a trial and error process but I've pretty much got there in the end. I've also cleared a lot of the engine bay stuff that was on a pallet on the floor that I did label properly e.g. the inlet pipe. Here's an overview of the whole thing as it is at the moment on the stand:



Samco inlet pipe tucked fitted under raised and 'stripped' inlet manifold (i.e. no captive fuel lines; I've modded it so that you can just lift the manifold straight off without disturbing the inlet pipe and vacuum hoses that are under there):



RH rear of engine showing turbo assembly in place with water and oil connections all done. It mounts to the RH head and block, but really only gets solidly in position once you have the up-pipe on:



A close-up of the SARD fuel regulator that I now have mounted on the nearside of the engine between the two manifold runners. The whole system runs in simple 8mm injection hose under and in front of the manifold with a hose tail adapter in place of the factory reg in the end of the offside rail. Set for 3.5 bar as opposed to the standard 3 bar which tested out at a good consistent 500cc on my 440 injectors. Enough for a 16G for the time being.



My pallet of engine bay ancillaries is gradually getting more sparse. I'm trying to fit as much as I can to the engine before dropping it in, so that I can clear some space in the garage. At this time of year I want to spend as little time outdoors with the engine crane as possible, then get the car rolled in so I can finish stuff like fitting the new FMIC, radiator, plumbing the twin catch tanks, fitting the exhaust back, reconnecting the electrics etc. Or maybe I'm just a compulsive tidier.

silent running

Oh, one other thing to mention for those following in my footsteps: DON'T CHUCK OUT YOUR OLD CAMBELT! However thrashed it is, it's damn useful for locking cam pulleys and the crank sprocket in place when you need to undo their bolts. Just get a couple of pairs of mole grips and wrap that sucker tight and it WILL hold them still as long as you wind it round enough idlers.

samcowrx

Looking very good mate, nice one!

silent running

Cheers! I was a bit worried that I'd gone too far with the white manifold but actually I reckon it looks wicked. Won't stay that clean though!

Keith Collings

iTrader: (3)

I went for white as well - looks good and stays fairly clean

Looking forward to the magic "key turning" day !

I've enjoyed the thread

olliecampbell

iTrader: (3)

What did I say .

Only joking. Looks great so far, sooo nearly there.

silent running

Well I've just realised there's a load more stuff to do still! The tensioner arrived this morning so that was the work of a couple of minutes to set the pulleys and belt in position, hold the belt down out of the way under where the tensioner goes and then locktight the tensioner bolt in, then pull the pin and it's done. But now I've got a set of lovely hard anodised pulleys from CDF to fit - crank, alternator, A/C and P/S IIRC. Must start looking at how to fit those.

...UPDATE...
Power steering pulley came off fairly easily, new lightweight hard anodised pulley went on to the splines fine.



Close-up of the insulating manifold spacers. And yes, they do definitely work because I've monitored temps before and after I fitted them before and there was a huge difference:



Close-up of TD05-16G front entry turbo and 'Harvey' up-pipe:



Needed a new bottom seal for the central cover but apart from that, all went well. Here's the engine with the three front timing belt covers fitted and the new crank pulley fitted. I used loctite on the thread and jammed the flywheel with a crowbar, 128Nm was the torque IIRC. Starting to look like a proper engine now.



Close-up of the central part showing the new crank pulley, the PS bracket on the left, the alternator/AC bracket on the right and the oil pressure adapter sticking out the top of the block where the pressure switch originally lives. This is used so I can run both the standard switch and a pressure sender for my electrical oil pressure gauge, out of the one port.


It's getting there! Now waiting for a replacement air con tensioner as mine turned out to be cracked. Once that's here, I can fit the alternator and the AC mount. The AC compressor's still in the car so once the engine's fitted in the bay, I can mount that up and do the front belts, radiator, water connections etc.

samcowrx

Have you got a rough idea on when the magic day might be?

The Stitcher

iTrader: (12)

great job just a shame you never gave the alternator and ac brackets a lick of paint as everything looks so new to them now go on you know you want too

silent running

Yes they do look a bit ropey, now I look at them. I've fitted them all up really just to test out the belts and try and clear some crap off the garage floor. But I have wondered whether I'd be better fitting what belts and brackets I can now, or maybe to leave it until the engine is in to fit them - seeing as I can't put the a/c compressor in yet anyway, I might just do that. It may make wiring and plumbing a little easier to have all that stuff out of the way.

I've finally managed to get the alternator pulley off and replaced it for my lightweight one (thanks Matt for the idea - I filed off a couple of flats on the sides of the OE pulley to get a decent grip in the vice. Even then it took Plusgas and over 150Nm on a 2 foot torque wrench to crack the damn thing, almost ripped the vice out of my workbench! Anyway, that's done, the p/s pulley is done, the crankshaft pulley is done, the alternator is mounted up and the v-belt sits on there nicely.

Now just waiting for a replacement A/C idler pulley from Chris/CDF as my A/C tensioner is, strangely, off a later model - which doesn't suit the classic pulley set I had off him. Once that's back and the engine's fitted in the bay I can get the a/c belt sorted. I did have a classic belt already, but it looks like that will be too short to run with my later newage tensioner, so I'm swapping that for the later, 5cm longer one asap.

Those weights in full, OE vs. CDF lightweight:
P/S pulley - 390g / 210g
A/C idler - 220g / 110g
Alternator pulley - 190g / 60g
Crank pulley - 2300g / 640g

Totals - 3.1kg / 1.0kg

So that's now 1/3 of its original weight, 2kg lost of rotating mass. The forged pistons and rods are obviously lighter as well, I'll have to look back at the weights and check those. I think from memory there was something like 1kg saved internally, but I'll need to check that. Should all help it to rev, now it's running STi3/4 heads with lighter weight shims etc.

silent running

I'm in no huge hurry. My plan was to have it all sorted and run in, in time for the rally in Wales next weekend. But that's not going to happen, so in a way I can kind of relax and take my time, we'll go down in the cruddy old Escort and I'll enjoy the 35mpg on the motorway run. That weekend is gonna suck up all my money for this month anyway. I need to hire an engine crane again, so that won't happen until just before Christmas. I may well get it sorted before the New Year though, that would be a nice target to have it fitted and running in on New Year's Day.