Day 36 - 5th April 2011, Engine rebuild begins

Well again it's been a while since the last post, the car is still getting the roll cage installed, but I'm in no rush. So what have I been doing the past few months? Mostly cleaning and sorting out where things are and what I need to fix and purchase. Also I thought I would give engine building a go, thought it would give me a better idea on where everything is on the engine and have a better understanding how it all goes together.


This is the engine as it looks straight out of the car, one worrying thing is a large build up of oil on the left side of the engine on the block, and I'm not really sure where the oil has come from. The guy I got the car from said it needed a head gasket replaced, so I will need to investigate further.







The inlet manifold was the first item to be removed, its covered in oil around the left side, the first job will be to pull it down and give it a good clean.







Next was the timing belt cover to revile the double over head cam the timing belt snaking its way aroundes around. The pulley with the offset bolt is the timing belt adjuster, the pulley under that to the right is the water pump. The centre pulley is the crank shaft and the others are idlers.







Looking under the motor with the sump removed, the brown stain is from 18 years of oil.







Not everything has gone to plan. I had issues removing one of the cam pulleys, just couldn't get it to move, even the torque wench didn't move it. In the manual it showed a tool that locked onto the pulley then you can use a breaker bar to take the nut off. So last Sunday I got the welder out and started to build my own version of the tool and this is it. The first version the centre pin bent, so a few modifications, mainly filling the gap between the middle pins with weld the pulley was off.








Next was the cams and then the heads, everything bagged and a full video of me taking it apart, just in case I forget something.











After everything was taken off this is all that is left










Spend most of today cleaning the heads and engine block. Was a bit of a task, had to remove all the leftover gasket material from each opening with a Stanley knife blade, then clean the face with Metho.

The body was washed with a mix of diesel and Kero with lots of scrubbing.








Started work on cleaning up the radiator, the frame had rusted and there where missing screws. A quick trip to thc wreakers and $3 late had about 30 screws of all kinds for the car from a series 2 Liberty.







The radiator has been painted with Knight antirust primer and paint so it shouldn't rust again.







Another job that I've been working on most night for the past few weeks is identifying the wiring loom. After about 10 nights in the shed I finished cleaning and labelling the whole loom. The benefit of this was that I understood the loom, understand the manual and work out what connections would no longer be need.





As I'm rebuilding the car, I needed to get some bits a pieces.
This is the OEM kit, it is for the whole engine and worked out to be cheaper then getting individual parts.



















As I'm not sure of the history of the engine and reading what should be replaced when doing an engine rebuild, I got a lot of new bits.

These are all the pulleys for the timing belt, including a new water pump.








Most of these pieces are for the turbo. With the current CAMS rules you have to run the original turbo, in this case it's a VF12, something Subaru no longer make. The turbo is in good condition, just need some new water and oil connections and new gaskets.






The next job is to start putting the engine back together and use up some new gaskets. I've also taken purchase of a STI DCCD 6 speed gearbox and R180 diff, so the car build is starting to get out of hand, but in a good way I guess.

Day 29 - 17th Dec 2010, Sunroof and Roll Cage

Well the Blog has suffered due to not working on the car, well that's not 100% true, during October I did get the welding in the engine bay and round the firewall finished, which should be the last of the welding for now. The progress on the car has slowed the past month due to the rain and floods in Queensland, hard to believe how much rain has fallen in Nov, Dec and Jan.
Now that the first phase of welding has been completed, well as much as I want to do for now, the next items that need to be completed are to fix the panel damage and sunroof and install the rollcage.

Sunroof,
I wasn't sure how to fix the sunroof, a new skin or weld in a piece? Or even who I would get to do the work, the car having to be towed everywhere was another expense. After reading the latest Brisbane Sporting Car Club magazine, I saw an ad for Impact Panel Works Moorooka, just around the corner. So went and had a chat to the guys about putting in a filler piece or a skin where the sunroof was as well as fixing the rear quarter panel that was damaged, they where very helpful, priced a skin and worked out it was cheaper to make a piece to fit.
The car is now back and as the photo’s below show, they done a great job on the car, the 3mm filler piece for the sun roof has been fully welded and is very strong, there were some issues with the heat buckling the roof, but they spent a lot of time working on heating and cooling it to get it very straight.
Anyone looking to get panel work done, I can recommend Impact Panel Works, mention that you saw there add in the BSCC Magazine and they will give you a very good deal, I'm sure I only paid for the materials and 1/4 of the labour, will have to add a few stickers to the car once it is done for all their good work..

Once the roll cage is installed the inside of the car will be sprayed and you will not notice the sunroof patch

Rollcage,
The next step is the roll cage and I'm looking at getting this to be in by the end of February, the options where very limited when it can to building a cage in SE QLD, a few people knew people, and on the forums there where a few referrals, most of these where people working out of there back yard priced from $2K up to $7K for a steel cage. The others where businesses that specialised in race car prep, these varied in price from $6K up to $10K for a Chrome cage. The old saying you get what you pay for, I’m not sure how true that is, but I will be going though the forests at +100km/h, the quality of the roll cage has to be the most important item in the car. I know some would disagree, but I will have someone else in the car with me and I want to have as much protection for them as well as myself and they will feel safer knowing that the roll cage is built by someone that has a reputation in building cages. So after talking with a number of people, reading forums and looking over some of the work done, I finally decided to go with NA Autosports down at Slacks Creek.
The car is booked in for Monday and once the roll cage has been installed I will post some picture and an idea of the price.

Day 27 - 26th Sep 2010, Welding Part 2

Well over the weekend I got a few hours to do some more welding and a bit of clean up grinding.
I’ve been contemplating whether to full seam weld or stitch weld the car, to full seam weld the car I would weld between the welds that I had already been done to form a seam weld. Weighing up the benefits of doing this as far as I can tell from reading forums and talking to other people, the main benefit of welding up the seams is to make the car stronger not so much stiffen the car, although I’m sure it has some affect on stiffening the car up. To stiffen up the car a well constructed roll cage, and adding stiffening plates in the correct area's of the car would be the best option. The end result of this is that I will be stitch welding up as much of the car as I can and work towards stiffening the car at key points.
Over the weekend I moved from the boot area into the cabin which I got about 75% done. While most of the seams where tight some of the seams had large gaps between the panels, from 3 to 5mm in some cases filled with filler and spot welded, with these seams it was easy to remove the filler and a few taps from the hammer to bring the panels together followed by a tack weld worked the best before stitch welding the seam.

Update for the past 2 months

It's been 2 months since the last update to the blog, and it has been a slow 2 months for the car, but that is all about to change over the next few months.
The past 2 months has been finishing a project I started some 18 months ago, painting the outside of house. The walls had been painted back when I had 5 weeks off last year due to lack of work, it was the dry season and so I got most of it done, with just the windows where left to do. Then work picked up and I didn't want to spend the weekends doing windows, so I left them for a few months. 12 months later it was time to finish them off before moving on to the car.
The past months have not been all about painting windows, over the past 9 months I've completed night classes in welding at the local TAFE, completing basic courses in MMAW and GMAW. With the purchase of a MIG welded with intentions of welding and stiffening the car body myself, I've been practise welding light gauge sheeting while the windows where drying, preparing and getting the confidence to start on the car.

Yesterday the welding started on the car, though the best place to start would be the boot area, that way by the time I get this area done, the welds might be visually acceptable to the hard core welders when I do the engine and cabin area.
After 3 hours of crawling around getting the right angle to weld, spacing out the HAZ's to minimise any distortion, the boot was half done. Most of the welds where just acceptable, bit of grinding will be required on most, by the end of the day I had the correct settings on the MIG and the welds where flowing with good penetration.

I will be aiming to get at lest half a day a weekend to weld up the car and get it ready for the roll cage.

The cost so far

The major costs so far have been the initial car cost and the tools.

CAR

Omega 1200kg trolley Jack
Omega car stands
Force 1/2" Torque wrench
Pin punch set
Engine crane 1t
Wire strippers
Heat gun
Cordless Torque wrench
Force metric Torque sockets
Car trolley
Force imperial torque sockets
Lincoln 180C Mig welder
Force 1/2" socket set
Force 1/2" breaker bar
Misc including tarps, welding bits and bobs, small tools

Plus a few early items for the car,
Lico seats x 2 (special)
Laser 3 rally computer

So total cost including a few items not mentioned above a little over $9000

Once the car has been welded up, then the real cost will start to come in with a roll cage, painting and then fitting it out. The time line is to get the car finished by around this time next year, so I'm in no rush. But saying that there is a lot to do and a year isn't that much time.

Day 24 – 27th June, Let the grinding begin

With a 100mm wire wheel on the drill I started removing the seam sealer, and don’t Subaru use a lot when they put a car together, probably why I haven’t found any rust around the joints, yet. After 18 years, its no longer soft, more like putty that has hardened. Still its easy to remove so I'm not complaining.
Yesterday was the front window, I thought the tar removal was the worst job, but taking out a broken front window, what a job glass everywhere. I like to think we both had wins, it got blood out of me and I got it out of the car. Next time I will get someone else to do it, seems way to dangerous for the cost of getting someone else to remove it.

Day 22 - 20th June, No much left to take out.

The main work over the weekend was under the car, removed the front cross member, rear cross member and diff. The moved onto the fuel tank, filler pipe and fuel lines. Next was the doors leaving not to much to remove.




After 22 days in weekends the car is a shell, with a bonnet (to large for one person to remove) and a cracked front window, (that will be coming out next weekend).
A few weeks back I was deciding how far to strip the car back, and with most things I do, I don’t seem to know when to stop. So where to next? Let the welding begin!