'Budget' DIY Engine Rebuild

silent running

Welcome to my 'budget' rebuild thread. I'll be posting up photos and progress notes as I go, hopefully it'll be useful or interesting to others. The engine in my MY98 WRX Wagon was rebuilt a couple of years ago at 112k miles by a firm that rapidly went bust and I've never quite been sure of the standard of the work. It recently started rattling half an hour after a (very rare) trip to the rev limiter. Money is very, very tight but I have plenty of evenings available and a decent garage and tools, plus the confidence to do the job myself because of all the encouragement I've had on here from other Snetters.

Current spec is:

• FUELLING - Walbro 255 l/h pump, DIY parallel & heat-shrouded fuel lines, SARD adjustable regulator @ 3.5 bar, STi 440cc yellow injectors serviced/tested by Lateral
• INTAKE - K&N induction kit, Nismo Z32 MAF, Samco v4 inlet hose, TD05-16G front entry turbo, Autobahn88 FMIC with insulated pipe return & STi charge temp sensor, mildly ported throttle body & phase 1.5 inlet manifold, Carl Davey header tank & manifold spacers
• EXHAUST - Harvey Smith wrapped & ported headers & up-pipe, Graham Goode sports catted downpipe, H&S straight-through centre, Prodrive WR Sport backbox
• ELECTRICS - Apexi Power FC mapped by Zen Performance to 1.45 bar boost, 3 port boost solenoid, NGK PFR7B plugs
• ENGINE - Standard 2.0 EJ20 WRX block with early WRX heads

It's always had compressor surge problems and never made the power it should have even though the boost is there, detonation is well under control, air/fuel ratio is right, etc etc. I have always suspected something not quite right with the previous build so this will be a good chance to see exactly what I paid for even though it's far too late to do anything about it now! At this stage I'm still not decided on whether to replace my current block with an EJ257 or to stick with 2.0 power where I could reuse a lot of what I already have. I want to avoid having to go down the path of 'to do this you must first do that' as David at API wisely warned me about! If I had my way I'd do a forged 2.5 build with a 6 speed gearbox but I have to keep costs right down and do as much as possible myself. If I can do the whole job for under a grand I'll be very pleased.

My black wagon:




Bonnet up, battery out:



Hope it all goes back together again!



FMIC pipes off, coolant drained, oil drained:




Manifold off, breather pipes everywhere!



Close up of TD05-16G and manifold spacers. Note the very short inlet pipe flange on the compressor because it was a brand new 90 degree 16g that had been machined down to front entry. This short flange along with 10mm manifold spacers makes it almost impossible to get any inlet pipe to join up to the turbo, if it's still constrained under the manifold:

silent running

Doesn't look too untidy at the moment. Almost ready to try and lift the engine.



What came out so far:



Top side of my modified inlet manifold - I've taken all of the hard pipes out underneath while doing my parallel fuel rail job, so the turbo inlet hose is now completely separate from the manifold. Also you can see the regulator which usually lives on the n/s of the manifold now that I have no hard pipes there to get in the way:



Underside of manifold showing fuel pipe routing and heat insulating sleeving, particularly on the offside where it runs very close to the turbo:




Now I've just got a few more bits to remove, really just to clear all the pipes and wiring away from the actual engine, then I'll take off the water pipes and disconnect the loom on each side, and then I suppose remove the headers/up-pipe/turbo/downpipe? Or maybe just unbolt it at the downpipe and that will be enough?

Welloilbeefhooked

Hope everything goes well mate.

Wayne.

p1prodrive

Good luck, have fun !

__________________
2.33 build under construction

Welloilbeefhooked

Silent,

Check out ebay for this item (removed to keep it secret)

Its a 2.0lt closed deck block that needs bearings and crank. It laready has forged pistons.

Wayne.

silent running

Nice one! I've already sent off a message. Looks like I'll be living on ebay for the next few months. If I can pick up a CDB cheapish then I might as well.

green un

the fun part is putting it back together.


have fun

dazdavies

You need to be a tad more organised than that lol.



One thing I will say is don't try and build the engine on the floor. I built mine on a tool chest before I spent £40 odd on an engine stand.

Storing stuff on the floor is ok just make sure its well out of the way otherwise you might kick it or something into it which as sod's law dictates will be in the one place that does matter like a mating face etc.

When you first start assembly clean clean clean and then clean again!!

Good luck and I'm here to help if you need me

Daz

silent running

I've got a pallet ready and borrowing my mate's stand. Where does it bolt to the stand? The gearbox side? Any particular holes, or just the ones round the perimeter that actually hold the box on?

stoneface

Yes thats right.

DaOne

the blue looks good!

silent running

I'm still toying with the idea of various 'options' while I build up the engine - a hammerite white inlet manifold, a set of Samco coolant pipes etc. But then I reminded myself this is supposed to be budget.

dazdavies

ah feature creep. Mine started as a budget rebuild now look at it!!!!

trails

Lol, a slippery path!!

Good luck with the build, looks like you have made a decent start. I always keep a few freezer bags around so I can mark and store all the fixings for the separate bolt on items...reduces the required swearing a little

silent running

LOL @ 'feature creep'. I'm going to dig out some baggies and stuff for marking everything up. I'm pretty good with hoses and bolts - my system (and probably most others') is that I tag hoses and wires with a written label in masking tape as I take them off and I screw bolts back in from where they came originally so I don't get them muddled up. Most likely too obvious to even mention for the experts on here, but it's helped me reduce clutter and confusion a lot, especially when doing inlet manifold removal and replacement.