kimokalihi's 91 SS EJ20 Swap

kimokalihi · Post by **kimokalihi** » Sat Jun 27, 2009 2:05 pm

Really? What's so great about it? I guess it's got an MAF, is that any good? Other than that, doesn't look like anything special to me.

asc_up · Post by **asc_up** » Sat Jun 27, 2009 5:34 pm

Haha to be honest, it's nothing that does anything spectacular. But it's one of those products that people buy just to say that they have an ARC product on their car.

Here's the retail on the WRX/STi ARC boxes:

http://www.optionimports.com/arc-induct ... ubaru.html

asc_up · Post by **asc_up** » Sat Jun 27, 2009 5:35 pm

Think I'll be staying with my HKS intake

kimokalihi · Post by **kimokalihi** » Sat Jun 27, 2009 11:53 pm

Holy shit! That's ludicrous, I think I would make fun of anyone who bought that product. Unless they got it for cheap, but seriously, $515? Is that necessary? Who do they think they are?

Guess I should clean it up and sell it then lol. Probably over on NASIOC.

asc_up · Post by **asc_up** » Sun Jun 28, 2009 12:43 am

Exactly, it'll probably pay for the shipping on all your stuff!

kimokalihi · Post by **kimokalihi** » Sun Jun 28, 2009 2:02 am

Haha I doubt that. Shipping was about $510 or something like that. I can't see getting more than $75 for that thing.

Is that just the stock MAF from the 97 forester or did that come on the ARC box?

AWD_addict · Post by **AWD_addict** » Sun Jun 28, 2009 4:02 am

That ARC box is worth it for the JDM knowledge on the label.

kimokalihi · Post by **kimokalihi** » Mon Jun 29, 2009 2:16 am

I got the tranny off the motor. I didn't know you had to remove the clutch fork pin to get them seperated. All that back breaking work trying to pull on that tranny for nothing!

Thanks for a thread I saw on here earlier today talking about the pin needing to be removed.

I got a bunch of pictures I'll post up when I get home from work to show everyone exactly what needs to be done to get it apart. It's easy once you know it needs to come out. Tranny came right off after that.

PhyrraM · Post by **PhyrraM** » Mon Jun 29, 2009 3:04 am

kimokalihi wrote:..... I didn't know you had to remove the clutch fork pin to get them seperated. .....

Kimo...Man, thought we had been teaching you better than that!

Good luck with the rest of the swap. Keep asking questions, we'll keep ya on course!

93forestpearl · Post by **93forestpearl** » Mon Jun 29, 2009 4:41 am

Damn does that swap look clean. I don't see motors and trannys so splotless and that old, but I live da north woods, ya know.

That intake box could possibly fetch some pretty decent coin. I'd through it up on nasioc for $200 just to see if anyone bites.

kimokalihi · Post by **kimokalihi** » Mon Jun 29, 2009 3:11 pm

$200 haha.

Nobody ever told me about the clutch fork pin needing to be removed! I never had to do such a thing on my metro or my toyota pickup to get the trannys off.

It is a pretty clean motor except it does have the corroding white spots on the aluminum. I was meaning to ask how to clean that off and possibly prevent the aluminum from doing that in the future. It makes the engine look nasty.

kimokalihi · Post by **kimokalihi** » Tue Jun 30, 2009 12:28 am

Here's the pictures I promised.

When removing the 5MT tranny from you engine or the engine from the tranny be sure to remove the clutch fork pivot pin. It takes a 10mm allen head socket or allen wrench as I used, a 6mm metric bolt that will thread into the pin to pull it out and a hammer to wack it because it's probably stuck in there pretty good like mine was.

Thanks to Jake15 for telling me how to remove the pin!

First remove this plug.

Then you just screw in the bolt and bend a hook in the end of it and tap it out with the hammer. Easy! It will save your back much stress from wrestling with the transmission/engine. Trust me, I went down that road and it's a frustrating one too.

Tip: I found a battery tie down bolt with the hook already in it and it was the right size and thread pitch! Worked awesome.

A few of the goodies I've collected while looking for my engine.

Clutchmasters lightweight WRX flywheel with a brand new insert.

The TD04 will either get sold or kept as a spare. Probably sold when I want a bigger turbo along with the JDM one that's on the engine now. The USDM TD04 has 2K miles on it and looks damn near new!

Nice little tool for finding bolt/nut sizes

New OEM bushings, spring and pin for shift linkage.

Group A Shortshifter

WRX seats front and rear but the rear is not in right now.

Kartboy shifter bushing.

STI shift trim with (I think) newer legacy GT leather wrapped shift knob. I think it looks great! Cut the stock plastic to fit the STI aluminum trim and it should look pretty sharp when it's in. No freezing cold/scalding hot metal shift knob for me!

Simply Subie fender braces. They look nice! Excellent build quality. I was just under the impression that they came with hardware because Livestrong's pictures show shiny new bolts!

Oh well.

asc_up · Post by **asc_up** » Tue Jun 30, 2009 5:52 am

Very nice Kimo! Everything looks like it's finally coming together for you!

kimokalihi · Post by **kimokalihi** » Tue Jun 30, 2009 3:02 pm

Thanks. I know, I feel like it is too but at the same time I'm so used to setbacks and things getting in the way of progress that's it's hard to be optimistic about it.

So far so good though.

kimokalihi · Post by **kimokalihi** » Thu Jul 02, 2009 3:20 pm

Last night I did my first couple mods to my new engine/tranny. Well sort of mods.

I installed all new bushings for the entire shift linkage including that crazy pivoting piece with the two cylinders welded together which connects to the shifter link with 2 pins.

I couldn't find my punch set and the ones I found were not the right size and were tapered. Don't use tapered punches to drive out these pins or any of these kind of pins because it mushrooms them out and gets them stuck. Luckily I was able to find two bolts that fit the holes perfectly thanks to my nifty little bolt/nut measuring gizmo I picked up for cheap at Tacoma Screw. Definately get one of these, they're quite helpful.

The bigger pin is an 8mm and the smaller pin inside of it is a 5mm if you want to buy the correct size punch or bolt(cheaper lol).

This is where I'll need some help. This is my first shortshifter. Let me get this straight, the real purpose of a shortshifter is to shorten the throw distance of the shifter to make for quicker shifts and less travel at the gear knob. Not to make your shifter shorter.

Correct?

It appears as if this shortshifter by GroupA in canada does both of these things. It is adjustable on both ends. Nice little piece it is. It's pretty. It's very light and looks well made. It's also expensive, I think too expensive. Yet, I bought it anyways.

So tell me, how to I get the ball into that socket? Just shove it in as hard as I can? There doesn't seem to be any way to get it to loosen up to get the ball in. Except maybe that wrist pin on the bottom of it.

Also, what is the larger ball size for? It certainly won't fit in that socket.

Replaced the plastic cover on the back of the engine which is prone to cracking and leaking oil with the metal version.

You will most likely need an impact wrench like this one and a hammer to break loose the stupid phillips screws that hold the cover on. I needed it to get two of them loose and I needed it on the EJ22T that I just took apart last week. Otherwise you will probably end up stripping them out like I did last week on one of them.

This nifty little tool applies a lot of downward pressure on the head of the bolt while also turning the bolt with a lot of force breaking it loose with ease.

Notice here that the plastic cover has a groove in it all the way around for the gasket maker to sit in. The metal cover does not have this groove....hmmm.

Notice anything weird here? Look at the second picture and you'll see it.

I think with the metal cover I was supposed to buy bolts as well. I told the guy at the dealer to skip the bolts because they were a total rip off and I thought they were the same as the ones that were already on the engine. But after seeing that the plastic cover had indents for the bolt heads to sit in and the metal plate does not have them, I think I need those bolts now.

Can anyone confirm if indeed there are different bolts used with the metal cover? I don't think you're supposed to use these bolts with this cover. Just look at how far they sit out of it!

Lightweight GroupA crank pulley. Also have alternator and power steering pulleys, not pictured.

Cheap aluminum oil filler cap I got off ebay. It was advertised as JDM lol.

smh0101 · Post by **smh0101** » Thu Jul 02, 2009 7:00 pm

ONe thing... when you put the tranny and engine back together, be sure to put the throwout bearing on the clutchfork and put it back on the transmission along with the rod. When its all together you just have to push back on the clutch fork to snap the throwout bearing into place.

Otherwise your trying to fish around and put the clutch fork in with it together and its a pita.

And make sure you clean the clutch fork rod and regrease it with a good synthetic grease. I didnt when I had the engine out last time so it took me two hours to get the goddamn rod out when I did the engine swap a few days ago.

Its sure looking good!!

jake15 · Post by **jake15** » Thu Jul 02, 2009 8:32 pm

good work kimo! i'm glad this car ended up with someone who'll finally put it back together

that new style metal oil separator plate uses the same bolts as the oil pans do, so if you have some of those lying around save yourself some money and use them.

Do not use a lightened flywheel and a lightened crank pulley, you'll run into issues as there is not enough rotational mass they tend to run weird, choose one or the other.

kimokalihi · Post by **kimokalihi** » Fri Jul 03, 2009 1:05 am

Damnit! lol Here I thought I would have a sport bike revving engine....

I was kind of thinking that it wouldn't be so good for cruising though.

Maybe a stupid question but, do I need to reseal that cover when I replace those bolts?

How do I decide which to use, the lightweight pulleys or the lightweight flywheel?

If I use the pulleys, which flywheel do I use? Buy an OEM one? For the 91 turbo or for a 97 forester?

New one for the 91 turbo is $230 from 1stsubaruparts.com

Or should I just go cheap and resurface the one off the motor?

PhyrraM · Post by **PhyrraM** » Fri Jul 03, 2009 1:30 am

Go with the LW flywheel and keep the stock pulley. It has a bit of dampening in it that might still be benificial.

kimokalihi · Post by **kimokalihi** » Fri Jul 03, 2009 1:49 am

You mean that rubber decoupler? I think I've noticed that before. Is it on all the stock pulleys? I thought I saw one that didn't have the rubber.

kimokalihi · Post by **kimokalihi** » Fri Jul 03, 2009 12:10 pm

smh0101 wrote:ONe thing... when you put the tranny and engine back together, be sure to put the throwout bearing on the clutchfork and put it back on the transmission along with the rod. When its all together you just have to push back on the clutch fork to snap the throwout bearing into place.

Otherwise your trying to fish around and put the clutch fork in with it together and its a pita.

And make sure you clean the clutch fork rod and regrease it with a good synthetic grease. I didnt when I had the engine out last time so it took me two hours to get the goddamn rod out when I did the engine swap a few days ago.

Its sure looking good!!

Thanks for the tip. I have permatex white lithium spray. Will that work or should I use actual grease? I've got some general purpose chevron grease but I doubt it's synthetic.

Got some goodies today from harbor freight. Girlfriend's civic is leaking coolant so I got a radiator tester. That engine stand was only $40 750lb stand. The leveler was $35 for 2 ton. The radiator tester kit was $80 I think.

Had a couple buddies to keep me company while I was working. The first one I almost stepped on before I saw it. The second one wouldn't quit following me around trying to climb on me so I put him on my stool. Next thing you know I wanted to sit on the stool but I found a bucket instead and let him sleep on it. At least he shut up while he was sleeping.

kimokalihi · Post by **kimokalihi** » Fri Jul 03, 2009 12:14 pm

I drained the oil because I was going to remove the oil and water pumps and replace them with the new ones that are on my EJ20H. I noticed this motor also has an oil cooler like the EJ22T. Which is cool because I won't have to plug the coolant outlet off the bottom of the EJ22T water pump.

I also noticed there was almost no oil in this motor. Do they drain them before shipping them? That worries me. When I pulled the plug I was expecting a healthy flow of oil and instead it came out in a thing stream for a few seconds and then just dripped. In this picture you can still see the ribs on the bottom of the pan.

Spark plugs look a bit sooty/oily. Probably not a big deal.

Timing belt looks to be in excellent shape along with everything else behind the timing covers.

New style timing belt tensioner. Cool?

Another thing that I noticed which worries me. Same the passenger side cam gears line up and the crank notch lines up but the driver side cam gears are pretty far off. Slip? When I took the covers off my EJ20H it was the same way. Is that normal?

dropdfocus · Post by **dropdfocus** » Fri Jul 03, 2009 12:35 pm

It will happen with belt stretch. Even with a brand new belt the marks may not exactly line up 100%. Remember, they are just a reference point of where the cams need to be for TDC.

BTW, very nice progress so far!

kimokalihi · Post by **kimokalihi** » Fri Jul 03, 2009 12:43 pm

Thanks! I was wondering if maybe it was just that way when it had been sitting for a while and maybe it would tighten up when the motor was running or something.

I kind of felt like the progress was going a bit slow myself. What you don't see is all the set backs I run into and all the stupid trips 20 mins away to the next town for tools and parts. Gonna need oil seals and stuff from the stealership. I bet they want like $8 a cam seal too, when they're like $2.50 each online.

dropdfocus · Post by **dropdfocus** » Fri Jul 03, 2009 12:45 pm

Check with somewhere like Advance Auto Parts first. I know for a fact that we have a listing for cam seals & such through FelPro.

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kimokalihi's 91 SS EJ20 Swap