OK OK I bowed to the Scoobynet pressure and got on with it! In the spirit of DIY I crafted an oil delivery device out of a drinking straw and my son's Makka Pakka trumpet. Got the oil in to the hole OK. While I was there I spotted a puddle of coolant sitting there under the inlet pipe/ps tank area on top of the block. TBH I can't be bothered with it now, so decided to take an optimistic view and assume it was some I spilt before. My thinking is along the lines of, if it was a leak somewhere in the crossover pipe or under the header tank, it would be leaking all the time and making a lot more mess.

Anyway, I pulled the plugs which was a major pain in the **** as always, double checked everything, spun it over on the starter and AFAIK I had pressure almost straight away. The last time I did it it took at least 45 seconds, but it went a lot faster this time with the plugs out. Just to be on the safe side I churned the motor for half a minute then left it. Remember I've not seen a Subaru dash lit up since last April!

Next mission was to get the plugs back in, yet more fun. Reconnected the crank sensor, checked everything once again. After a bit of swearing and knuckle scraping they were back in place, I then cleared a path to be able to back the thing out of the garage if it started OK.



So, key in the ignition turned it and after 3 or 4 seconds it grumbled into life!



Now let's just say it's not the best idle in the world. But I think that may be the Power FC relearning its idle. I've had it do exactly the same thing before where it's been disconnected for a while - well rough at first then after 10 minutes settles down right. Anyway, I thought I'd give it a quick run around the block then drop the oil. Backed it out but the power steering was very hit and miss and I was hearing odd scraping noises and stuff, so I just went on a brief 5 minute run, stopping and starting, giving it a bit of throttle then letting it engine brake but keeping the revs under 3 grand.

It didn't sound that great so I got it quickly back to the garage, parked up and shut it off. I'll give it a proper 20 minute warm up run and oil change tomorrow when I get in from work and it's still daylight. I topped up the PS fluid which I'm certain will cure the dodgy power steering, it has done before. I can hear some belt/bearing noise from the front which I'm not overly concerned with, but there is a kind of cyclic scraping noise coming fr om the nearside rear head area which is a bit of worry. However, that's on a normal idle. Once the ECU seemed to get on top of controlling the idle and gave it the proper high idle for the cold start conditions, the noise went away totally. I wonder whether it's the idle valve at work or something. I'll see how it goes tomorrow.

Anyway, IT LIVES! Even if I have to tear it down and start again, at least I built it with my own hands and it does, incredibly, start and run! Many thanks to all of you on this thread who've helped out, commented, watched and generally kept me going all this time. I have a feeling I'm not finished yet, for starters I've not done the final totting up procedure but I'm guessing if it comes in at 2 grand I'll be happy...there were an awful lot of other jobs that needed doing at the same time and I'll include those in there I guess.

 

Congratulations.

 

well done fella

 

well done mate, so happy 4 u, congratulations. hope my timing kit turns up today

when u primed it, did u give the pump a constant oil feed through the straw, so it always had oil to pump even if it wasnt from sump?? untill oil pressure light went off?

well do tho mate, i think its a true feat.

 

Well done nick, you fianlly got it running! Don't forget some forged engines can be noisey when cold!

 

Excellent news!

I'm a bit sad though no thread to read now!

 

Congratulations...great reward after so much hard work

 

Awesome work fella, well done!

 

THANK **** FOR THAT!!
Gosh, I'm mentally drained from the panic of it not starting for some reason.
Well done on a brilliant article, I'm sure its given lots of confidence to others who might not of had the ***** to attempt a rebuild like this.

 

Well done mate.

I subscribed to this thread months ago to keep up with your progress. I hope it all works well for you.

 

Cheers for all the comments! The thread's not over yet though...I've still to get these teething troubles sorted, get it run in, get it up to Zen for remapping with a 20% bioethanol mix, get a power run done (please, please, 350bhp+!) and then get it over to the 'Ring at Easter...

I'm going for a good 20 minute run tonight anyway, then oil change straight away.

 

LOL no I just dribbled a load of oil into it and then fixed the pressure sensor adapter in again. It spun over fine, no weird noises or anything. But I did have everything covered in assembly lube internally that needed it... The fact that it sounds OK on the starter alone makes me think the weird idle noise is just something not too major. I might video it and post that up somehow, once I get back from the run tonight.

 

mint mate, hope she drives like a dream 4 ya. my timing belt has been nxt door since monday, no1 thought of bringing it to me. great, so its all timed up now, turns over smooth by hand, fitting friday night.

let me know how ur runs goes.

 

Come on man its been 2hrs now wheres the vid

 

vid! vid! vid! vid! where's the vid?

Congrats chum, job well done.

Looking forward to the power run.

 

I have been keeping up with the thread and reading with interest your progress. Very well done, I hope the mapping gives you the end result you wanted.

 

yeh lets have a vid of it running. well done.

 

Well done, Ive been reading this thread for a long time and its great to hear its running, looking forward to hearing how the mapping goes.

 

Well the vid is no longer required, as I got back on with things tonight and fixed the noise. The PS was right weird last night and so I topped it up with fluid to where it was supposed to be, but it still sounded scrapey on idle so I tried adjusting the idle through the power fc commander and it was still weird. Anyway, I tracked the noise down to the ps pump. Remembering from last time I had to do it, how the ps tank seems to be able to take endless fluid without the level altering one bit, I kept putting it in until it started to rise up out of the tank again...even though it already showed it was 'full', this totally solved the problem. Noise gone, and the engine sounds sweet as a nut, no rattles, starts first time every time, the idle and coastdown has relearnt itself if that's the right term - i.e. it runs smooth at idle and doesn't cut out at junctions. I'm over the moon.

Anyway, I took it for a proper 20 minute / 5 mile run tonight and gave it plenty of low speed/high gear/open throttle work to load the engine up properly, then letting it engine brake, then lugging it again, then engine braking etc etc. Went round the back roads so I could work the engine properly and do plenty of on-off sort of stuff rather than just coasting around. Got back home, switched off, jacked the front and got under to drain the oil which came out fine, the magnetic sump plug had a bit of black stuff on it, but not a great deal. I've not looked into the oil pan yet to see what came out but it looked fairly clear.

So new oil filter went on, then put in another 4.5 litres of Asda's cheapest 10w40 mineral oil (I'm sure it was something like £7 for 5 litres!) which I'm planning on running for another 100 miles. Then for a bit of variety I might try Morrison's oil which IIRC was a fiver for a 5 litre bottle...can anyone find cheaper than that?!

I reckon, with plenty of normal driving and no cruising around or leaving it idling, if it's not run in by 500 miles it's never gonna be. So I'll then switch to my usual fully synthetic. If anyone wants to dissuade me and have me run it for longer on mineral or semi, then by all means state your case!

I need to have this ready to map and in full fighting trim in a couple of months.

 

Nice one Nick!! Sounds great!

PS your old turbo is still going strong!!

 

I ran mine in for 1500 miles on Mineral & now use semi synthetic. i was advised not to use fully synthetic. Done about 4k on the new motor & no problems so far.

 

i ran mine for around 100 miles changed the oil and then kicked its **** in

 

Ran mine in for 1000, Then Fully Syntheic. Then again you already know that from my thread :P

 

LOL that narrows it down then. The only consensus on running in is that there is no consensus! I'll just go with what I was planning then, maybe I'll go to 1000. Need to get the bumper back on now so I can start driving it properly.

 

Deep respect !



Nice one,

dunx

P.S. I can start again at the beginning of the thread now !

 

Good to hear it's up and running Nick

 

Well done chap!

 

OK latest news is I've got a slight leak from the rear bottom corner of each rocker cover. Is there a simple bodge that I can do to close them up, or am I gonna need to remove both the covers from underneath and redo them? You can guess that I'd rather not if I can avoid it.

 

There's no real simple bodge of any worth, covers off I'm afraid, and from above! A slight smear of sealant in on the mating surface can help, but clean pliable seals is the answer