thank you

 

Just for information for anyone who's interested: it went through the MOT fine, running just a sports cat and Zen's existing map, it went through emissions at 0.06% CO (limit 0.2), 28 ppm HC (limit 200), lambda 1.016 (bang in the middle of the 0.97 to 1.03 specified range) at fast idle; 0.01 CO against a limit of 0.30 at normal idle.

So the engine seems healthy according to at least that measure.

 

Nice one mate you must be really chuffed after all the time and effort you have spent doing it.

Now go and enjoy it.

Well done.

 

I wonder how mine will do on the mot as i have no cats at all

 

it will fail

 

Nick the thread is brilliant and well done for righting it all up as well as building this yourself. I hope it all continues to go well for you.

Maybe you could list some further pitfalls you faced? if anymore?

Baly

 

Well here's one for starters: after your car has been on a SORN for the best part of a year, and you've got a freshly built engine that can't be left to idle on the driveway and needs driving around to start the bedding in process, how do you get it at least partly run in properly without any insurance, MOT or tax? Answers on a postcard please...

Actually the main problem was the fact that there are a fair few bits of specialist garage equipment that even the most well stocked DIYer might not have e.g. a valve spring compressor, compression tester, grinding stick, feeler gauges, plastigauge, dial gauges, oilstone etc etc. They all cost money. Plus you've got a lot of blind alleys to go down when you do the job the first time. My biggest puzzle was how to get the gudgeon pins out at first. That was a real head-scratcher. Then the next problem was that because I didn't borrow any money to do the build and just bought bit by bit that I needed each month, what order I had to do things in to make the best use of time and money. Also the hassle of having to get the block and heads machined and then the problem with the valve stem/shim lengths and getting them right.

Still, next time I will know the pitfalls and avoid them. If I could have hung on a bit longer I would have got myself a TD05-20G as well and bunged that on because it would have been no work whatsoever to do the swap while the engine was out. In fact it's not that much work even with the engine in TBH. But I had to draw the line somewhere - maybe that's the hardest part of doing your own build, knowing where to stop LOL

 

But silent, that's of no concern of the "We have no interest in how ordinary folk HAVE to live their lives . It's alien to us and we don't care - we just want your money"-based govt./DVLA .

Shame on you for asking.

 

I was in the same position.

My track/spring car was run in on a trackday running a closed loop lambda setting the fueling enough to drive safely, and safe ignition values. Then I got it MOT'd, then did the run in period on the road, then had it mapped properly.

Sean

 

LOL the very first thing I did after that was to pre-book an MOT and drive immediately there which is legal of course as long as you have insurance which I did.

Interestingly the MOT tester said he reckons soon you will have to insure SORN cars on your own land.

 

FFS. Is there nothing this country won't screw you over for?!

 

Makes sense in way.

IF, big if granted, someone stole your SORN'd car what could you do if it wasn't insured. Cry, moan and hope that it's found, but not a lot else unless it was covered by home and contents.

Nick,

Glad it's all come together in the end, has been a very good read and you should give yourself a pat on the back

 

Pat has been duly delivered to back. I must say, I am really really pleased. It's a very cool feeling knowing that I built that thing myself and it actually works.

BTW I know the justification for having SORN vehicles insured, but it should be optional, like home buildings or contents insurance is. And of course all it does is inconvenience law abiding drivers and makes no difference to the motoring underclass who have no tax, insurance or MOT and often no driving licence. Still, that's for another thread!

Anyway, back on topic - I am now about to sort out the remap date at Zen some time in March to have it tweaked and do a power run, then it's off to the 'Ring the week before Easter.

 

I thought so, but thanks for the confidence boost lol

 

Surely it MUST be covered on H&C Ins.(this is what I understand - hence my post)?! Otherwise, the SORN mechanism is flawed if it means that a SORN'd car is stolen off someone's property!

That's REALLY worrying if this is the case

 

I don't know enough about insurance, was just thinking out loud.

I agree though, but, we digress...back on topic.

 

UPDATE: After a couple of days away, it's now just passed 500 miles, so I did another oil change. Shocked to find that the price of genuine Subaru oil filters has doubled and they wanted £25 for two at the parts desk. I bought one and used it for this latest oil change. I guess I'll look around and see if I can find any at the old price still, for the 1000 mile oil change which will mark the end of the running in period. Got a slight problem with a loose inlet pipe which you can hear hissing a little on boost, but I should be able to fix it.

 

seems they have all gone up; even Camskill are doing them for £13.69 now CAMSKILL PRODUCTS Classic Impreza Air/Oil/Fuel Filter 1994 to 2000 :: £13.69 :: Subaru Impreza Turbo Parts, Tuning, Spares & Accessories :: 2.0i Turbo GC8/GF8 94 TO 00 UK - Engine & Ancilliary Parts ::

 

Those buggers. I wonder if these Pit Work filters are any good that are now the same price as the Subaru ones.

 

Wierd, you'd have thought the price to come down in this shrinking economy.

That's just typcal of living in modern Britan though - they'll always find a way of screwing you, even in uncertain times .

Although not welcome news, even though the filters have doubled to £14 or whatever, is it really such a problem, when you bear in mind how vital it is to the engine? Especially when you take account the % of the cost of the filter to the annual (or even six-monthly) expenditure of running a Subaru. It's 'nothing'... (still annoying though).

 

I'm glad i stocked up on them beforehand....4.99 a filter inc squish ring.

Original scoob too.

 

Wise thinking Baly (as they would surely never go BELOW that paltry price?!) .

Well done lol.

 

Well I had three, but running in goes through them at quite a rate. I took the plunge in the end and went and bought another genuine one from Subaru.

 

Yes, the running in period is annoying if the price of the filters have doubled .

...But... once through this....

 

Yes I am looking forward to it. I'll finish running in at 1000 miles, got Zen booked for the remap in a month's time, a week or two before the annual 'Ring trip, so let's hope it all holds together.

 

Very nice pics here, that boost my inspiration...as i also is rebuilding my EJ22 engine...too right now thanks for shareing /Per from Sweden

 

Glad it's been useful! I'm now at 800 miles on the new engine and I've set the rev limit up to 5000rpm, boost up to 1.2 bar (at 1000 miles it'll go to the normal settings of 1.45 bar/7000 rpm until I get it remapped which will hopefully give it the all-clear for an STi rev limit of 8200rpm). TBH it's already flying just on 1 bar of boost and 5000rpm - it feels really strong from low down even though it's a bit surgey at certain points but I'm sure that will map out.

 

Hi silent.

I'm getting an uprated rebuilt engine for my 93 WRX - see here:-

https://www.scoobynet.com/general-te...ke-easily.html

What do you suggest for the running in procedure?

Is it change filter and running-in oil at 100m, then do this again at 500m? Then at 1000m, after fully run in, new filter and a decent fully synth full Ester (I'll be using either Millers CFS 10W-40 or Silkolene Pro R 15W-50).

Should I keep it to 3-4k rpm for the 1st 500m with lots of varing loads on the engine (off boost, obviously)? Then up it to 5k for the final 500m, until run-in?

Cheers

 

Well this is a bit of a can of worms here, but from what I read, and heard - and it makes sense - you need to give a fresh engine some stick to get it to run in properly. My understanding is that basically 'running in' means getting the rings bedded in properly to the cylinders so that for the life of the engine you get good ring-to-cylinder-wall-seal. The hone finish on the cylinders against the rings moving up and down is what does it, hence why you use ****ty £1/litre mineral oil to do the running in with - you don't want too little friction. Once the bores have glazed over by too-gentle running in, you will never get good ring seal.

So that's the theory. In practice, it means this:
1. Start engine, don't leave it idling, immediately drive it round the block for twenty minutes and get the oil up to temperature, work it through the gears with a lot of throttle then engine braking to force those rings up against the cylinder walls. Change oil and filter (Morrisons mineral 10w40!)
2. Same sort of everyday driving, avoiding idling or cruising totally, just acceleration, deceleration through the gears, keeping it to under 3000 rpm, but using a little boost if it's there (mine was limited to 0.8 bar). Change oil and filter at 100 miles.
3. Up rev limit to 4000 rpm until 500 miles, again avoiding idling and cruising, boost up to 1.0 bar. Change oil and filter
4. Rev limit up to 5500 rpm until 1000 miles, full boost available, just driving fairly fast and normally but not thrashing the nuts off it or hitting the temporary limit. Change oil and filter, running in is now complete, switch to full boost and almost full revs pending remap, put in the good oil (in my case Silkolene Pro S 15w50)

I've got another 150 miles to go then it's run in. So far the engine feels very eager and I'm glad I gave it some proper welly early on - no funny noises so far and it growls like a mildly aggravated tiger.

 

Excellent, thanks.

Yeah, I'm aware that the running i period is to achieve the best 'seal' between piston rings and cylinder walls, etc...

A lot of people - me included - thought it was to bed in the big-end (and main) bearings, but API David said that this is not the case. If assembled correctly in the first place, etc, then the bottom end is the best it's going to be, and it would only be debris, incorrect tolerences, insufficient oil pressure/supply and det that would cause the bottom end to fail.

That said, even if it was okay to use full boost (if just a bottom end was done, and not the pistons too), there's still no way that I would! lol.