legacycentral bbs

Started on monday and pulled the engine. About 2 hours to get the engine unbolted and out. Yesterday I pulled the heads off, pistons out, clutch off, oil pan and pickup off, and clean the pistons. About 3-4 hours?

Today I started at 730 this morning. I started off by putting the pistons back in with new Nippon rings ($40). I really should have cracked the block and actually honed or rebored the cylinders but I will save that for the next motor. Next I bolted on the heads. I had these rebuilt only about 3-5000 miles ago since I bought the wagon with a burnt valve ($190) . The gasket set cost $100 on E-Bay but I only used the head gaskets and the intake gaskets. Note for all people rebuilding NA's. DONT buy a turbo gasket set! The headgaskets need to be modified as the upper coolent holes dont line up because the turbo vs NA blocks differ just a bit.

Next came the clutch. $150? on E-Bay. The old one was really worn on the fingers. This was because the throwout bearing had lost or never had the metal spring clips that hold it to the clutch fork.

Next bolted the intake manifold back on. No problems there.

Cleaned up the Oilpan and bolted it back on as well as the engine mounts.

At this stage it was about 3:30. I had been working straight except for about 1 hour total of misc stoppages.

I went and picked up my two kids from daycare, drove to Wentworth Subaru and picked up the missing fork spring clips. Back at the shop at about 5 pm. With minimal help from my 5 year old boy, I dropped the motor in with a little luck and started bolting it back in and hooking up all the many connections and hoses.

At this stage it was 6:45 and I needed to eat as I hadn't eaten since the night before and I was losing strength.

Total time spent today on the engine was about 9 hours. Total hours prep work up to this morning adds up to about 8. I expect about 4 more hours left before I am actually driving. That adds up to just over 21 hours to pull the engine, pull the heads, replace rings, and replace clutch. I told my brother I could do it in 10! If I did it again I bet I could get it down to 12 as I now know what NOT to do. The reason I thought I could do it in ten was that when I had the old school subies (1975-1979) I could pull the engine and tranny and replace the clutch (not the heads) in 3 hours flat. The legacies are ALOT more complicated with MANY more hoses, wires and what not.

Total cost about $550
Clutch $150
Gasket set $105
Ring set $40
Rear Main Bearing $7?
Sealers and Cleaners $30
Head Rebuild $200 ish

TIPS.
1 - IMPACT WRENCH. Incredible speed for regular bolts and power for removing stuck or hard bolts.
2 - AIR WRENCH. Once again, incredible speed for regular nuts and bolts. Especially for the two lower nuts that attach the tranny to the motor!
3 - BERRYMAN CHEM DIP and BERRYMAN CARB CLEANER. The dip is awesomely powerful. Also it is AWESOMELY caustic and toxic. My hands are still burning and stinky and my liver doesnt like me. But those are some CLEAN PISTONS!
4 - SCHUCKS ENGINE HOIST. $169 for a great hoist.
5 - DID I MENTION THE AIR TOOLS? They save so much time. They zap every bolt on and off with no effort. I would say they saved almost two hours of time where you have to hand crank or twist nuts and bolts on and off, especially in the cramped area.

Can't Wait To Run!

Doug

cool, are you just doing this in preparation for the build or did you actually need to do all this stuff?

2 hours to pull the engine is hauling! Does that 2 hours include unbolting everything like drive shaft and front axles? Or is that from unbolting the engine and pulling?

It took me 2 hours to unbolt and pull. The 4EAT is a big mama to yank out. I pulling the axles and misc hoses during the week so it took more then 2 if you include that.

I needed to replace the rings BADLY. I would blow smoke down the block. The clutch was also so bad i avoided hills and on the freeway I could not use fifth and forth was starting to go. The engine had at least 210-220 miles on it.


I wanted to "hop it up" some but I really just need to get it back on the road as my 9 mpg van is eating a hole in my pocket. I will build a hotter motor when I have time.

It was two hours two jack it up, start unbolting and get the motor out. This also included removing the intake while the motor was in the car. Remember the speed of air tools!

I left the tranny in but did unbolt it so it would move where I needed it to for the little extra wiggle room. I did unbolt some stuff that was unnessasary and wont do next time.

IT LIVES!!


As of 3:45 pacific time the motor started up. Guess I should have replaced those rod bearings tho!

Nasty clicking nocking sound.

However started right up and runs. Now we have the 500 mile break in period. Wish me luck!

Break in period done in less than 24 hours! Now off to the races!


Drove to visit my mother and let her see my kid. And back again this morning. With a tailwind I got 28 mph which is awesome. With the headwind on the way back (Through the Columbia Gorge) I still managed to get 25.5 mph for the 450 mile round trip.

Used no oil and cruised at 80 all the way.

The Valleo (sp?) clutch is working fine and is really grabby.

mpg maybe?

Hey, my first motor rebuild!

yeah. Usually you just blow them up and put a new one in.......