Reubens 1998 GT-B Limited

[Reuben]

I thought I should share with you fine people my first born child, my 98 GTB. This car has been with me for over 6 years and counting, and I plan to never sell it. Within the first 3 months of owning it I popped it's big end bearing at 118,000k's, 3 months later it was back on the road with a forged closed deck beast of a motor, running V3/4 STi single turbo. It's was mostly trouble free for the 6 years following, only destroying the serviceable items, and things like power steering pumps and alternator bearings, but a couple weeks ago I manged to nuke the bottom end again, this time through my own failings. I managed to glaze the heck out of the bores on the rebuilt motor, and it always chewed copious amounts of oil. I failed to keep on top of the oil consumption and ran it dry two months before taking it on a planned road trip around the whole country!!! As it sits today, the engine is getting assembled, and the break in needs to be done in a week for our road trip which is still on schedule in two weeks time! Cutting it fine much eh?

Updated 05/12/14
Engine:

V7 STi EJ207 Short block - Brand new crate block from Subaru 2014.
Reconditioned EJ20R Heads
ARP Head studs
Baffled Sump

Single Turbo Conversion, and ongoing engine bay mods;
WRX RA V2 Exhaust manifold
SG Forester Up-pipe
VF39 Single scroll, less than 5000k's when purchased! (from a 2.5L STi)(now has some 70,000 odd k's)
Rage 3" Catless downpipe
Rage 3" midpipe, with high flow (Straight through) silencer
HKS 3" Silent hi power muffler (Straight through)
Snorkus removed
STi V4 Intercooler
STi V4 inlet manifold, (powdercoated for an extra 5hp )
Twin Reg Split fuel rail, using two factory right hand rails
STi V3 ECU
V3 Coilpack setup
HKS EVC III (Electronic boost controller)
Blitz Full auto turbo timer
Silicone under under manifold turbo intake
Zerosports stainless intake pipe

The engine now basically resembles a stock V3 STi engine, with a VF39, and brand new forged internals (though being GTB, it's shim over bucket, rather than under), and 3" exhaust.
So it has A LOT of unrealised potential, but I like it that way, good for reliability and handling my driving.

Handling:
Bridestone RE002's on all 4 corners.
STi V8 KYB's
STi V4 Front Carbon fiber strut brace
Cusco K-brace
STi V6 Alloy control arms
STi V3 Steering rack, 2.75 turns lock to lock.
STi V3 Short shifter.
STi Rose Jointed Pink Lateral/trailing arms
Front and rear camber bolts.
Rear subframe locking bolts.

Interior:
Defi Boost gauge
V3 STi cluster

Exterior:
Stock GTB limited all the way! And i'm leaving it stock too.
Factory spoiler (Had to get this as it came with an RFRB piece of shit)
STi Carbon fibre sump guard

[Reuben]

Pics when I got it












Recent pics:

[Reuben]

And the parts round up for the new motor going together this weekend:

Rocker cover kit:

IMG_9811 by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr


Not all parts made sense to get genuine, this stuff was bloody cheap on staff.

IMG_9812 by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr


Nothing but the best for the critical components though!

IMG_9813 by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr


Finally the single turbo setup for the crank case breathers, most of this was ex japan, worth it though. And he had a turbo water feed kicking round, so I thought I'd replace that too.

IMG_9814 by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr


Oil pump and cooler

IMG_9815 by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr


Water pump kit

IMG_9816 by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr


Timing kit, along with a new goodie, a new cam cover seal, since Mitch pinched my good one that was on Beast for Alfie when we inspected his belt!

IMG_9818 by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr


The insulation had snapped at the base of the lead on my working one, since it's in a bitch of a place to get at, thought why not get a new knock sensor

IMG_9819 by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr


The good shit! Heavy duty!

IMG_9820 by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr


IMG_9821 by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr


IMG_9822 by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr


Service items, new grade for a new motor. Beast traditionally ran his aftermarket forged 20G bottom end on 10w-60 edge, but I figured this motor is essentially a 2014 V7, I best run good V7 oil. Went with the 5w-40 over 5w-30 though, cause beast does not get nana'd around.

IMG_9823 by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr


And one of my favourite purchases... New tools! I already have the recess pulley tool, now I have the flush puller tool, and the cam tool that works on both plastic and metal cams.

IMG_9824 by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr


And again, not everything was economical to get new, these heater hoses are in good condition, and I picked up the matching engine mount of a block sitting outside a local mechanics. The little pipe is for the throttle body coolant off the single turbo heater hoses accross the block I'm finally fitting

IMG_9825 by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr

[Reuben]

And last but not least, the biggest part of the rebuild cost... The bottom end.


IMG_9781 by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr


IMG_9777 by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr


IMG_9779 by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr


IMG_9775 by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr


IMG_9783 by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr

[1982gl4]

Love this car. I've been following your thread over on sl-i great work! Also that train photo is awesome.

[Reuben]

Thanks

Got the motor assembled last night, with the ARP headstuds, and bloody hell 90ft lb of torque is quite a bit!!! This thing will never blow a head gasket :p today after work I started bolting things on, but predictably I was lacking things which halted assembly! Silly stupid stuff like no nozzle for the 3bond, no seal on the side of the water pump etc. bloody annoying! At least managed to fit the coolant crossover pipe, heater core pipes, forward cam caps and cam seals, and oil pump/seals. Pics tomorrow.

[Legacy777]

Great looking car! I've always loved the GT-B's!

[Reuben]

Hokay, pics from the last few days.

Saturday I was waiting around for Sam to help at the workshop slapped the heads on, so I wrapped the downpipe with the new stuff. Old stuff was pretty manky...


IMG_9833 by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr


IMG_9835 by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr


IMG_9838 by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr



And there was still half a roll left over! Can use it on Blighter when he gwows up and gets a weal exhaust.

Saturday night we slapped the heads on, Sam was very professional about It all and I picked up a few neat tricks.


IMG_9842 by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr


IMG_9843 by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr


IMG_9844 by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr



First of the small corrections to the single conversion, little bits that got left behind. This time round I was determined to make it perfect factory style single turbo. Even got a brand new hose with the silver wrap to go on here!


IMG_9846 by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr


Sunday night I had the oil pump, water pump and tensioner bracket installed. Beasts original tensioner bracket was lost to a fix'n'flic I did on the side while doin beast... Turns out the newer style ones are hard to find, since the hamfisted out there love stipping the threads out! woops. I ended up with a BH one in the end, which has the provision for the small extra idler. I figured it couldn't be a bad thing, so I got a new mini idler to go with the timing kit! Monday night I managed to get the rest of the front end on, and the rocker covers.


IMG_9848 by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr


IMG_9849 by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr


Beaaaaautiful.

IMG_9853 by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr


Tonight, I finished her off, got the sump etc on, then exhaust, then intake. big night!

Extra crank case equaliser capped off, with very little room to spare!

IMG_9862 by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr


And all together at last!


IMG_9865 by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr


IMG_9866 by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr


IMG_9867 by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr


Tomorrow is finishing things off, double checking all plugs and pipes are connected, less injectors and cam angle for first prime. Will fill the sump up and crank a fair bit by hand before dropping in. Then it's on the crane, clutch in, and with a bit of luck... In the hole!

[Reuben]

Engine in! Camera ran out of battery though... Whoops. Flat mate got some on his phone though. Didn't connect anything up though, just bolted in at this stage. Tomorrow I hook everything up! 4-week plan called for first startup tomorrow, so we're pretty bang on for schedule.

[Reuben]

Pic dump! Like we needed more...

Engine in the daylight:

IMG_9868 by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr

IMG_9869 by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr

IMG_9870 by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr

IMG_9871 by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr

IMG_9872 by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr



And this wee fucker, pulled it out of the turbo oil feed banjo as per the service bulletins, I thought I had done that with the first build! Woops, been sitting in there for 6 years...

IMG_9873 by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr



Engine going in, had Mr. Bean (Mitch) swing by and give us a hand!

2014-12-10 21.05.00 by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr

2014-12-10 21.47.52 by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr

IMG_9874 by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr



And lastly, all together tonight, less radiator (and oil)

IMG_9877 by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr

[macipusy]

Sick Wagon! Love it. My favorite body style for sure.

That view from your work space....wow!

[ride_child]

that looks like a terrible place to work on a car...

[Reuben]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZDwlR2QuOo

HE LIVES!

New engine is amazing... So silky smooth, no more piston slap... This vid was taken Friday morning, and I'm writing this now on Saturday evening after doing 750k's of run in. tomorrow I'm dropping the oil and calling it done, letting myself go full retard on the throttle.

first drive was out to Frankton surging around and driving like a dick just accelerating and decelerating etc, to pick up rego, then it was a nice leasurely drive out to Glenorchy, getting it used to the idea of low boost and revs.
Then today we went for a drive out to Haast on the west coast, a road that offers many twisty sections to really get that motor used to the idea of a bit of boost. By the time we we're coming back home over the crown at 750 odd k's I was revving it up to around 6-7krpm, and letting it boost up to maybe 0.8-1.0bar /12-15psi. And I tell you what, fuck she hauls! This new engine is amazing! Just breathe on the throttle and it wafts forwards on a wave of torque! 10% throttle will get you moving quite swiftly, and easily boost 0.5 bar+ Overtakes were a breeze, just look at the gas pedal and you're boosting past them.

I don't know exactly why this engine is so amazing, but I suspect it's a combination of no more glazed bores, that oil going by the rings wasn't the only thing, I can only imagine a few ponies were too. Better piston crown design of the V7 pistons. The turbo intake and ZS intake also make a noticeable difference. You can really hear that turbo go now, induction noise and BOV noise are markedly louder, and I can only imagine they are breathing a whole lot easier now. Lag is reduced, boost threshold is reduced, overall torque and low end are all improved with the new setup! everyone who's driven it now agrees that it is on the whole a lot more drivable, has the immediate poke of the good ol first gens and V7's now, that it never had. So happy!

[Legacy777]

Congrats!

I'll second your workshop has quite the view! It's pretty epic

[Reuben]

And it gets several hours of sun after work in summer, much time is spent sunning on the wheelie chair cleaning or sanding things looking out at the view. Doesn't really get much better!

[James614]

Wow, what a beautiful wagon. I'm in Japan and I don't even see the 2nd this clean very often. Very nice work on the new engine.

[Reuben]

Yeah, I'm glad I've got him, going to cherrish this one and keep it up to scratch for decades to come.

So, did the oil change are 750 odd k's, finally started to wind some good boost into it, up to the ol 1 bar i've had it on for years, but the boost controller packed a sad, and it was surging, or rather, pulsing, very rapid, 1.0 bar - 0.7 bar - 1.0 bar every second kind of thing, and every time it'd bring it back it would have the overboost error light on it. So I turned it off an am letting it run on wastegate pressure which is about 0.7 bar - 0.8 bar, for the next few hundi k before doing a reset and retune on the controller to give it a virtual kick in the gonads (i'm guessing it lost its memory while the battery was out, in spite of it having a damn good internal memory battery that lasts for weeks).

Today I also got the air-con de-gassed so I could swap out the seized condenser. Then after work I slapped it on a hoist to install my carbon under tray since the first oil change is done, and the engine is verified as leak free (aside from the obligatory leak from the primary return... that's still not fixed).

Aaaand back home I swapped the condenser over in time for the regas tomorrow, w00t, going to have air-con again!!! I have missed it over the last year or so...

Finished up with some pics.


IMG_9881 by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr


IMG_9884 by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr


IMG_9887 by Reuben Horsley, on Flickr

[Legacy777]

Looks good Reuben!

[Reuben]

Wednes day was some final touches for the road tip! Got the air-con de-gassed so I could swap out the compressor (old one was seized). Put my new compessor on when I got home. And with the oil changed, I slapped it on the hoist before heading home and put on the carbon under tray.

Friday I got it regassed, but the pump off blighters doner EJ22 was nackered... Barely blew cold. So I bought a pump off one of the machanics which had just come off a working car, only reason it came off was because that cars new engine came with one.

Today I've gone back down, re-degassed it, swapped the pump over, and I write this as I wait for the system to vac again for my new gas. Happy days, this will be the first time since buying the car that I have fully functioning air-con! Old pump has always been seized, but it still worked, just guzzled power/gas from the stiff compressor, and made funny noises! Last year it ran out of gass all together, and has been making me sad pander....

[Reuben]

Fail, still didn't work, now they think it could be a gummed up valve or something. FFS. Welp, road trip starts today, merry Christmass, see you in the new year!

[MichaelNZ]

That is one nice Gtb wagon in a nice location. I have a white one, which I am currently rebuilding. I have opted to keep the twin turbo setup, I just love the rush when the secondary kicks in. How much was the short block, I am rebuilding mine but I wonder if it's not more bother than it's worth.
I have the same rear suspension control arms and they are nice, and the teins help.

Are you happy with the exedy clutch? I haven't bought one yet but do have Sti-RA close ratio gearbox and lightened flywheel, what could possibly go wrong.

[rallyak]

Car is awesome, and nice job your doing.

[Reuben]

Well beast safely made it home after a good 4000k road trip, what an epic!

Not without casualty though, he suffered a puncture which remains unrepaired, needs to be topped up every second day or so... The right front wheel bearing is fucked, and to make it home I had to tighten up the hub nut twice to take up some slack. several new knocks and clunks have appeared too, so time to limp into the garage after a proper clean and heal up over the coming months.

[Reuben]

MichaelNZ, the rush you get when secondary hits has nothing on the kick of a big single turbo running off an STi ECU, trust me Go find a mate with an STi, take it for a spin, and tell me you don't want your wagon driving like that!

And yeah, the short block was $2500+, I've done both, built a forged engine, and build a new motor with a subaru block, and the subaru block route is 100 times better. Put simply I did this latest build with the knowledge learned from the first rebuild, and then living with that forged engine for 7 years, and I can tell you now, the car is twice as good with the subaru block. Smooth efficient power delivery, not a single rattle out of the pistons, and daily drivability, whist having a more reliable bottom end, and not lacking any of the abilities of the forged engine as I was using it... The only place the forged engine would make more sense is in a dedicated track car, the kind you ONLY let out on the track, that's trailered there and back, or in a car that's making in excess of 100HP more than factory. Beast was neither.

And Exedy is the brand to go for, no ifs buts or maybe's! They supply genuine, they have the same quality as genuine, don't settle for anything less...

[Reuben]

Well started taking beast apart for his post road trip fix up. When I popped the car up on stands, I noticed a puddle under the front... Great, his 4th blown rad! Well that's what you get with used, will get it repaired, it is a nice calsonic after all. Popped the flat tyre off the rear to get it repaired, as aaaaand turns out the rims cracked! Joy, his second too. Wondering about a set of v7 wheels. At least the wheel bearings cheap, $60 genuine, 25 and 30 for each seal though.