Jessekrs123's 1993 Subaru Legacy L EG33 Swap

[Jessekrs123]

My Whiteline ball joints and tie rod ends came in today.



These will be going in once I take the Legacy apart for the new motor, passenger's side ball joint is shot and clunking so it needs replacing.

Got my gouger tool for the dremel, but it is too big to fit into my dremel so I'll have to shave it down on a lathe when I get the chance.

That is all for now...

[Legacy777]

Are these the ball joints & tie rod ends for lowered vehicles?

[Jessekrs123]

Are these the ball joints & tie rod ends for lowered vehicles?

They are, but I asked a few guys at the Subaru dealer and I was told that everything should work and fit the same whether or not my car was lowered.

[Legacy777]

Yeah they should work. I think they alter the suspension geometry a little bit, but haven't looked at the details to see what exactly they do.

[NICO]

i had those but i changed so much at one time i could not tell if it did anything, ball joint lowers the control arm. but i still can figure out what the tie rod does in my head ! lol

[Jessekrs123]

Yeap, everything fit just fine, just have to get everything aligned now.

I look forward to doing ball joints again in the future for any car, it was easy as pie and everything went smoothly

The Legacy will be taking the backseat for a while, just got the BRAT registered so I've been tearing up the streets and waking up any house within a 5 mile radius of the car.

[Jessekrs123]

I've been looking for a nice flat red to paint various engine parts with, and that has proven to be quite difficult. I've been through about 4 different reds and I finally decided to settle with this VHT Flat Red stuff, which is near impossible to find. I wanted to do wrinkle red, but I don't want to have to use my oven to cure the pain, my mother would ring my neck...

Been using my coolant crossover as a "test" part for all the colors. This will be the fourth type of red it has seen (all the other reds were too glossy) and I am going to stick with this color.


I plan on painting the intake manifold, throttle bodies, valve covers, and fuel stacks this flat red.

Various brackets and fuel rails/lines will be painted black.

Since I will be painting a lot of stuff while I have everything apart, I have been prepping the living snot out of everything I plan on painting. Piss poor prep produces piss poor performance, especially with painting, so I've been wire brushing, cleaning, using a small wire wheel with the dremel to get every particle of dirt off of everything. Didn't feel like taking a picture of everything prepped so far, but right now I'm cleaning off my fuel rails and lines.


Valve covers and throttle bodies have been prepped, now I just need to prep the intake manifold which should take a generous amount of time because it is rather big. I also need to buy more paint, I'd hate to run out halfway through laying down coats...

The heads are being shaved right now as I type this, so once I get them back, I will be re-assembling the heads, throwing them on the block and I should pick up a lot of momentum with this swap at that point.

[Legacy777]

Looks good! Yes....when it comes to painting...it's all about the prep work.

[Jessekrs123]

Got my fuel rails all nice and painted today!

As previously stated, brackets and fuel rails will be painted black. I chose caliper paint black with the ceramic coating to give it that "rough" look. I think it looks really good. If you can't tell, I'm not really a fan of glossy finishes...

Prepped


I decided to tape off the part number stickers to give it that madd tyte OEM look yo.


All nice and painted


And for that madd tyte OEM look


I'm leaving them out in the sun to dry and cure.

Heads are finished, machine shop is closed until monday... So I have to wait around for monday to come, but then everything gets put back together.

[evolutionmovement]

I didn't have to heat cure crackle paint. I forget now, but I think it's a matter of doing coats in a certain manner. I've got the red VHT on my intake (and valve covers, sort of, as the paint peeled off. I think oil so permeated the alloy over the years that no regular cleaning with brake cleaner and degreasers was enough to get it all without leaving it in a solvent tank for an extended period).

But as a sort-of related, slightly amusing story, an old boss used his oven on a 2-stroke outboard to get the sleeves out of the block and, even after much cleaning, later ruined a big dinner when it tasted like oil. He resorted to only using the microwave and stove top until he moved to a new place.

[Jessekrs123]

Got my heads back from the machine shop, all nice and resurfaced.


The heads still need to be heatbathed, I will be addressing that hopefully this week.

[Legacy777]

Looks good!

[icrman]

Wow this is a real good write up, please keep posting on your progress. CNC g code etc. I live that daily at my place of employ. I at one time thought of doing this engine swap into my wifes car, she doesn't need the power so its just a non leaking EJ20 for now. I'm suprized the shop that surfaced your heads didn't clean them.

[Jessekrs123]

Did some more paint prep today.


Not Prepped / Prepped

Couldn't finish all of the intake manifold, still have to do the bottom side. Fuel stacks are prepped, and I still have to prep the block itself for paint.

I'm pulling wires out of various parts of my body from the wire wheel/dremel combo

[Jessekrs123]

Prepped the entire engine for paint.


I also painted the waterpump flat red. The waterpump that was on the engine looked relatively new, but I don't want to take any chanced. I cannot afford to skimp on the cooling system for this engine...

[Jessekrs123]

Prepped some more crap today. The bed/tailgate of my BRAT make a perfect work bench.


Had to re-tape most of the parts since the old masking tape is beginning to peel and is all dirty from wire brushing and cleaning.


Using old injector o-rings wrapped in tape make blocking off the injector holes really easy.


And I painted the valve covers as well.


3 light coats and 2 moderate/heavy coats seem to do well. The paint looks orange until you let it set in the sun for about 10 minutes, then it darkens into red.

[Legacy777]

Looking forward to see this motor all painted and put together!

[icrman]

The thing I don't like about flat paint is, it seems oil soaks into it ie more porus, hard to clean etc.

[Jessekrs123]

The thing I don't like about flat paint is, it seems oil soaks into it ie more porus, hard to clean etc.

This thing will be sealed up nice and tight, so hopefully there won't be an extreme presence of oil. Hopefully a quick rinse every now and then will keep oil from sticking.

Installed all my new valve oil seals this morning. There is a great confusion as to what color goes to intake/exhaust. My FSM states that intake are black and exhaust are brown, yet the seals I got from the dealer are gray and green. The color also varies for different model years, but one sure fire way to tell the difference is the little EX or IN marking found on the top side rubber part. It is really really really small, probably like a 1.5 point font, but if you are ever replacing and are confused, just look for the IN or EX. In my case, the exhaust seals were green and intake seals were gray.

Exhaust seals are made to withstand more heat so if you put them in backwards, you will probably run into some serious blow-by problems.




I have thursday completely off so I plan on getting a lot done then. I have to help my buddy out replace a seal on his tranny on his jeep, hopefully that won't take too much away from my progress....

[Jessekrs123]

Painted the fuel stacks and top side of the intake manifold this morning. I'm going through rattle cans like there is nothing in them...





I'll hit the underside of the intake manifold once the paint on top has had time to fully dry and cure out in the sun. I can tell this flat paint is going to be a PITA to work with...

Hopefully I will be able to reassemble the heads this week so I can begin throwing everything back together.

[Jessekrs123]

I cannot for the life of my get the keepers to set into the valve stems. I've tried a million different ways and numerous hours to try to get the keepers to stay on opposite sides and to slide along the valve stem so they can slide back up into the pocket, but everytime I try, only one latches on and the other gets loose somehow.

I'm on the verge of tossing these heads into the fucking river in my backyard.

[icrman]

Don't put em on the stem to slide. Put em where they are to fit in the grooves. Hold them in place or use thick grease to do so. If you still can't release the compressor without knocking one off, get a buddy to help. Needle nose pliers or small needle nose vise grips lightly clamping may do it too.

[jefferson]

Second that put in place with grease. I used to work for a machine shop and that is the way we did it. Rarely did we ever knock one off.

Jeff

[Jessekrs123]

Thanks for the tips fellas, but I fabbed something up to help me out.

I just made installing these keepers a million times easier.

I made myself a valve spring compressor bit which allows me enough room to fiddle with the keepers until they set into the right place.



It is simply 2 fitting washers and 2 dowel pins welded. Works like a charm.



It works pretty well. There is still next to no space to get around, but with everything right out in the open, it is easy to see what is going on and easy to correct any problems with the keepers.



2 valves installed.... 22 to go

[Legacy777]

Yeah....even with that tool....it still doesn't look fun puttting those valves & keepers in