OBXT RIP, SpecB Resurrection... Rebuild/Build

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This is a rough rough draft of my '08 SpecB build. I have an infant and toddler so bare with me while I piece this together on my free time.

 

 

Two years ago I lost my beloved '05 OBXT, which I owned for six years. It was mostly stock except for some simple mods. It had visual mods such as yellow reflector delete from headlights, halo rings, tinted windows, VHT tinted tail lights, Rally Armor flaps and some Tenzo Type M v2 wheels.

 

 

Performance mods included a K&N high flow filter, catless uppipe and downpipe, stock midpipe to the universal Borla Turbo XL mufflers. It sounded awesome: quiet rumble in the lower RPMs transitioning into a moderately louder rumble in the higher RPMs. I had flashed the ECU with the with the Cobb stage 2 tune.

 

 

The OBXT was very moderately modded but it was still a fun daily driver. Over the years it remained very reliable. I purchased it with a little over 40k miles and it seen its last miles around 130k, with stage two applied at roughly 80k. It still had low milage for a Subaru but over those years I only needed to replace an axle due to a torn boot and a front hub.

 

 

After its demise, I was determined to keep her on the road so I immediately began looking for a parts car. This is when I stumbled across my next love.

 

 

I came across a salvaged '08 SpecB with front end collision. It had 80k miles, was completely stock, the drivetrain was in good condition, as well as the interior and they only wanted $5,300 for it.

 

 

 

She was a little rough on the outside... pretty rough on the outside but it wasn't as bad as the Outback. I was still longing for my OBXT and it wasn't until a week or two later (probably once reality set in) before I realized I should focus my time and energy...and money into the SpecB. However, I couldn't just let the Outback go.

 

To keep the spirits of the Outback alive, I took the engine out to rebuild and latter install into the SpecB.

 

 

Thanks OBXT.

 

NOTE: I decided to keep the transmission and engine together because I didn't plan on putting the Outback back together and I lacked a transmission jack. I wouldn't suggest using this method if only needing engine work (obviously would be more work in the long run). I also unhooked the power steering pump and the air conditioner compressor. Two other things a person WOULD NOT want to do in most cases, ESPECIALLY the air conditioner. In my case the air conditioning condenser was punctured in the crash, so my system had 0 pressure. Otherwise you need to have the system drained and collected in a professional manner.

 

 

Once I got the engine out I immediately began tearing it apart, following the unbolting patterns and removal procedures as instructed in manuals. When taking the engine apart be sure to keep track of what came out of where. I wasn't too worried it because I was having everything machined, checking tolerances and replacing parts as I went.

 

One thing that caught me off guard was the valve buckets, which are used for adjusting the valves. They sit LOOSELY between the valve spring and cams. I was unfamiliar with these heads so once I removed the cams from one head to access the head bolts and turned the engine stand over to check out the other side, only to watch valve some buckets dump out. Luckily I was having my valve seats ground so I had to replace all of them anyway.

 

Once I was down to the block, I removed the pistons and split the block to access the rods.

 

 

 

Well that's all I have time for this round. Here's a sneak peak until next time.

 

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Sorry that ones kinda lame, here's a better sneak peak.

 

 

(if legal, I'll save this reply to edit into something different later?)