legacycentral bbs

Well for those that haven't already heard or noticed I have finally gotten a new engine for Subarina! Vikash decided to go ahead and part out the Boostjunkie Legacy, so Vikash, Phil and I got busy. The Boostjunkie Legacy donated it's heart so that Subarina could live on and I think we all need to pay our respects with a moment of silence for our fallen comrad......

Alright, so I will be doing the swap very soon and thought maybe someone could remind me if I'm forgetting anything I might need.

I have:

Group N tranny and engine mounts already. I'm trying to source a new clutch and maybe a wrx flywheel so that I can switch to a WRX clutch. The motor has a new water pump and timing belt already supposedly so I don't need that.

Is there anything else I should definitely address before i put the motor in? Any comments or suggestions would be great.

I'm excited, Subarina will be back bigger and badder then ever. She's also getting GR2's on all 4 corners with Tein springs and Group N top mounts. I'm also putting on an aftermarket steering wheel. Hehehe

I'm also going to do a full tear down and rebuild of my original motor. Probably do either a head swap or rebuild the SOHC's to there max potential.

Special thanks to Vikash and Phil for all the support and hard work!

Wooohooo!!

Awesome, you getting the 16G with it too?

Sa-weet! Ummm... I had this same dilemma when I my engine was out for the clutch install. Definitely do the engine/tranny mounts. Change out the cam seals if they are leaking. Do the valve cover gaskets while it is out. And clean the whizz out of the engine so you can show off!

Also, its a great time to clean the engine bay while the engine is out. Down by the cross member and such.

91White-T wrote:Awesome, you getting the 16G with it too?

He already has a worked 16g from Deadbolt. Yeah, is there an extra 16g floating around? Vikash??

Umm.... there's an extra VF11 that's inexplicably leaking exhaust gas out the wastegate flapper rod floating around.

Ya, I already have a Monster 16G w/ full ceramic coating from Deadbolt. Vikash is keeping his 16G.

I definitely think it would be a good idea to do the valve covers. Good idea William!

I was already planning on cleaning everything up.

Rock On! Sounds like you have your spring cut out then, eh?
Doesn't it feel indescribably good to get back in with something you love?
I'm very excited for your progress, Matt!

Keep us posted!

yay!

You will love your car so much more after not being in it for a while... and especially when you do the suspension.

91legacy_sleeper wrote:Rock On! Sounds like you have your spring cut out then, eh?

Yep. It's funny how it's been unseasonably warm right up until I get my motor and now it's cold as hell.

Doesn't it feel indescribably good to get back in with something you love?

Definitely!

I'm very excited for your progress, Matt!

Thanks!

Keep us posted!

Oh, I will!

Brat4by4 wrote:You will love your car so much more after not being in it for a while... and especially when you do the suspension.

I know, I can't wait! I'm really excited about the susension too. It's been needing some love for a loooong time.

You know what you forgot to list? Injectors. Don't go through the same thing twice.

Congrats!

I am a little saddened that the old car will not be restored, but alas, it was for the best. Make sure you don't blow this engine up! LOL! j/k!

This is a great thing to see. Glad it's going to Matt instead of some JY and then maybe an Impreza.

Steve

Yea, that was a blast getting that thing out.

Jason - Take solice in the fact that the car has helped so many in it's path. If you ever want to visit your rear diff, or your shift linkage, or your gauge pod, just give me a call.

How about some forged pistons?

THAWA wrote:You know what you forgot to list? Injectors. Don't go through the same thing twice.

Well, that's true, at some point I will definitely have to address the fueling situation if I want to be able to take full advantage of my mods but that isn't what caused my motor failure. My failure was due to a short in my wiring.

Injectors will be part of the original motor rebuild though for sure as well as stand alone engine management.

Really? What shorted? I thought you had a piston that blew or something.

THAWA wrote:Really? What shorted? I thought you had a piston that blew or something.

I did blow the rings and maybe the piston but it was caused by faulty wiring, not fueling/small injectors.

I had tried to rewire my O2 sensor that hadn't been working in forever and after doing it it still didn't work. The ECU wasn't seeing any signal. Instead of disconnecting the wire like I should have I left it hooked up. Well about 4 days later I was driving home from work and POW! Now, I wasn't on boost AT ALL when this happened, in fact I was cruising at about 70 in 5th for the previous 10 minutes before hand and hadn't gone on boost at all. The car wouldn't run after the initial pop until I cut the O2 sensor wire I had ran and then it drove fine except it lacked power. I at that time was sure it was ring or cylinder damage in #4 but everyone thought I was trippin' because the motor ran totally smooth. I wasn't. A compression test finally proved me right...

So that's a short version of what happened. Water under the bridge and I learned an important lesson.

hmm interesting. If the ECU wasn't seeing an O2 sensor it should have gone to a base fuel trim right? That'd be a little on the rich side if I undertstand correctly. That's wierd. Maybe it was seeing a signal, a really rich signal, so it cut back on fuel? Very odd. But oh well, I take it you're using Jason's O2 sensor then?

Exactly. It wasn't getting signal and then when it shorted I got leaned way out. It was to such an extreme that the car wouldn't even run after it happened. It would start really hard and I'd have to feather the throttle to keep it running and it would eventually stall. It was a trip. As soon as I cut the wire (4 days later) it ran normal again except less power.

Vikash actually made me a plug-n-play harness and wiring a while back and that fixed the problem.

Yeah, somehow the ECU didn't throw a trouble code for the sensor but used the incorrect readings, which was bad. We never did figure out exactly what the problem was. It's really weird because the problem seemed to persist despite huge changes in wiring.

That was certainly a problem, but it also appears there were other problems related to fueling. Both Phil and Matt experienced fuel cut on high boost occasionally. They were both using the stock fuel pump. When Phil switched to the Walbro pump, the problem disappeared. And Jason, having always had the Walbro, never experienced the problem.

The only explanation I can come up with for the fuel cut involve it being triggered either by a lean (or not-rich-enough) signal from the oxygen sensor, or by excessive detonation detected by the knock sensor. I don't think the former really could happen without the latter, and the latter could definitely be hostile to piston rings. Either, of course, could be caused by insufficient fueling and could potentially be solved (in the short term) by a higher-capacity fuel pump. Everyone with a non-stock turbo, take note!

In any case, Matt's got the Walbro out of the boostjunkie Legacy as well now. And he has the working oxygen sensor setup. And he definitely has the experience that will make him more conservative with boost. And he's also got suspension parts that will make the car faster without needing more power from the engine. So things look good for round two, as far as I can see.

I wonder if there's an issue with the ECUs triggering safe modes. When my knock sensor failed (for who knows how long) I would rarely get ignition retard and the day my valve melted the car was hauling pretty well. Never got a CEL either, but I wonder if it had retrded timing if the valve wouldn't have melted. Then again, without me cleaning the engine out I guess it was bound to happen if carbon build-up's what even did it.

At least Matt's got his problem solved. I might need another ride this year.

Steve

One funny thing about my car, when I was running open downpipe, with no O2 sensor installed, I never got a check engine light until on the highway, when the car wanted to go Closed Loop. All that really happened was 13 miles to the gallon.

I know my Knock Sensor gets crazy when it rains, and timing retards so bad, the car is slower on-boost than off.

With the new fuel pump, I don't get any fuel cut that I've noticed. At 9psi, which I am running from now until I get more fuel, the car drives like stock, only faster. It's actually a good bit faster than stock at near stock boost levels.

I need to fix my Scantool wire, and borrow my mom's laptop for a day or so, and see what happens with the O2 sensor, and other variables.

vrg3 wrote:Yeah, somehow the ECU didn't throw a trouble code for the sensor but used the incorrect readings, which was bad. We never did figure out exactly what the problem was. It's really weird because the problem seemed to persist despite huge changes in wiring.

That was certainly a problem, but it also appears there were other problems related to fueling. Both Phil and Matt experienced fuel cut on high boost occasionally. They were both using the stock fuel pump. When Phil switched to the Walbro pump, the problem disappeared. And Jason, having always had the Walbro, never experienced the problem.

The only explanation I can come up with for the fuel cut involve it being triggered either by a lean (or not-rich-enough) signal from the oxygen sensor, or by excessive detonation detected by the knock sensor. I don't think the former really could happen without the latter, and the latter could definitely be hostile to piston rings. Either, of course, could be caused by insufficient fueling and could potentially be solved (in the short term) by a higher-capacity fuel pump. Everyone with a non-stock turbo, take note!

In any case, Matt's got the Walbro out of the boostjunkie Legacy as well now. And he has the working oxygen sensor setup. And he definitely has the experience that will make him more conservative with boost. And he's also got suspension parts that will make the car faster without needing more power from the engine. So things look good for round two, as far as I can see.

All of this is true, I want to be clear though that while I was having fuel cut issues, I'd had that problem just as bad if not worse on the stock turbo for months and months before I ever upgraded the turbo. I really, really don't think that the FP, MAF, injectors or knocking had anything to do with my #4 letting loose. I know everyone seems to find that kinda hard to believe but I know when it happened and I wasn't pushing the car at all. So I don't think my boost levels really had anything to do with it.

At the same time though, I'm not saying to crank up your boost on the stock fueling system either. I was running at the extreme limits (or beyond) of what the stock system can handle and that's not safe. But in this case, I don't think it was a contributing factor to Subarina's downfall.

Like Vikash said though, I will probably be a bit reserved with boost at first because I need my car and not having it for the past 4 months has been horrible. Hell, 12 psi will Probably feel like a top fuel car after driving only my Tahoe for the last 4 months! Haha.

I'm really happy for you Matt, you've got a great engine going in your car.

But I do have one question: I dunno the inspection/emissions laws up there in MD, but are you technically doing something illegal by installing an engine that's older than your car?