Ahhhh, pipe dreams….
I DID buy the motor, tranny, wiring harness with ECU, intercooler, axles and some other stuff. I got it for a great price, and after running the engine and tranny code, it appears I got a GREAT deal.
So I let the heap of metal sit for a while in the back until I started tearing it down last night. And the lessons learned started.
A – Subaru did not make the twin turbo motor to be worked on. Plain and simple, if ANYTHING needs to be removed, you pretty much have to pull the motor. Turbo bolts are impossible to get at with the motor installed. Removing the intake manifold? You have to remove the under manifold turbopipe. But to remove the turbopipe, you need to remove the manifold. Hmmmmm? Oh yeah, there are 8 Kajillion vacumn hoses, lines and what not that break when you try to remove them.
B – ALL the bolts are seized beyond belief. If I didn’t have a 2’ long ½” breaker bar and all my weight behind it, there are some bolts that would never come off (mainly turbo stuff). And there is still one bolt there leering at me holding the driver side turbo securely to the block. And all the turbo bolts are very, very hard to access.
C – I seem to have forgotten that the damn twin turbo exhaust manifolds are often rusted out and need to be sawalled off.
D – There was A LOT of red sealant over the IAC, then there was red sealant everywhere, especially my hand. Wait! That’s not sealant, that’s blood!
OK, enough negative, although I still have at least another hour, if not 3, in getting the turbos off, not to mention the exhaust manifold and transmission.
The good is that I get an awesome little 2.0 with 440 cc injectors, and another tranny! When I get it finished.

