Another engine refresh

So in another thread I talk of having a second engine in a spare that I'll be fixing up. It's a 98 legacy gt motor, 2.5 dohc.

 

The thing with this engine is it's supposedly bored and stroked to 2.7 litre with forged internals, but it's doubted that as the kid I got it from didn't seem very knowledgeable. Although as I've been tearing into it, it's looked promising. The side I've gotten to has a brand new head, camshaft, valves, and lifters. The other side doesn't look like it's been replaced or even touched. I'm wondering if when they (built) it it had a cracked head or something.

 

That being said am I better off buying just a new head for the other side so they match when it comes to wear and tear? I have noticed the lifters are different from my last build. My last one was a 97 gt with solid little circular lifters (at least I think lifters, whatever sits below the camshaft lobes and above the valves) and this one is hollow kinda shaped like an upside down bucket over the spring.

 

On my last engine refresh I was in a hurry so I just got the cheapest parts to get the car on the road and I did, with an oil leak and a super cheap xtr clutch. This one I want to take my time. I want to be able to spend a little more money but also not break the bank completely. I'm curious what kind of gasket set or kit I should buy, what brands and such.

 

So the question really is what brands should I buy or avoid? What kind of clutches? What kind of gasket? I even need new head bolts, where to get those? Where to get bolts that I may have broken (already one on a camshaft cap). And also while I'm doing that what are things that are a must have to be done. I'm doing the oil separator plate for sure, but the last engine i tried a rear main on leaks a ton of oil so I suck at that. Where to get a new oil pan? Where to get piston rings if they are needed? What else I should do to it? Popular but subtle mods to these phase one ej25 engines I should consider?

 

Any feedback is greatly appreciated

I'm also in the market for new pads, rotors (preferably black), and steel brake lines. Any suggestions?

I'm running OEM rotors and good ceramics right now but I'm still not happy with them and I'm going to EBC rotors and pads next. The rotors are black slotted ones and I'm going with redstuff pads.

I like the Centric Premium rotors. For pads, you will get a lot of different opinions depending on what's most important to you. I like the StopTech pads. They have a "Sport" pad that I have now and also a "Street" pad I've not tried. Those pads are very economical for what you get. They do produce a lot of brake dust, though. I've also used the Hawk HPS pads and was pretty happy with those.

I've used a bunch of pads too with mixed results, cheap semi metallics such as Wearever silvers that were horrible, decent ceramics and then higher end ceramics like Wager, and I've not been happy with any other them. I've already upgraded my brakes to larger ones, the ceramics are better but I keep burning off the grease (even though I use high temp ceramic grease) and will squeak more and more until they get heated up and de-glazed.

Here's what I did and used.

Choover1101 96 LGT Slow Build and Info Page

 

https://r.tapatalk.com/shareLink?share_fid=5383&share_tid=255306&share_pid=5461728&url=http%3A%2F%2Flegacygt%2Ecom%2Fforums%2Fshowthread%2Ephp%3Fp%3D5461728&share_type=t

 

 

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I'm also in the market for new pads, rotors (preferably black), and steel brake lines. Any suggestions?

 

I bought some Power Stop Evolution Z23 slotted/drilled rotors and carbon ceramic pads. They are absolutely great. They will cost you some coin though. I paid around $140 for the pair of pads and rotors with all hardware included.

 

Also, some pics of these internals if you would please!

I saw on the Stella build in this forum. About page 5, he said he got the entire set of 4 black slotted rotors with pads for 240 and wasn't too disappointed. I believe they were R1 concept e-line black editions? I don't do really anything track worthy when it comes to breaking, just daily driving, occasionally high speed canyon carving, and often some off roading. I've just noticed the stopping distance with these breaks in normal traffic is starting to become absolute garbage.

 

I just wanted harder braking and better pedal feel so I was thinking steel brake lines, with new pads and rotors all the way around and I should be okay. When I bought the car it had sort of decent pads and rotors and I never had a problem stopping then. So what do you guys think?

As for photos I was only able to get camshafts out of the good head today and these are a couple of pictures I took just to keep track of everything

 

What gets me looking twice is the cleanliness of the head and camshaft but even the head bolts have this fresh looking teal paint on them

 

Also I'm unsure to what this is but on the first pic you can see a pattern on the camshaft lobe that's just kinda colored differently? Is that oil starvation or is that just how it's supposed to be?

 

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And upon pulling the cams out of the other head tonight it seems like okay condition but the lifters have some scratching on the sides of them and on the back end of a couple of the camshaft lobes where it gets really rounded didn't have any of that shiny polish on them anymore, it was more of a rough metal surface. Kinda like what a matte paint job would feel like. Again just unsure to whether that's good or bad, you can kinda see on the bottom camshaft lobe on the left side in the second picture

 

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Not shiny and feels rough = not good. Means there was excessive metal-to-metal contact.

That's what i was thinking. Probably oil starvation I think, is that something I should consider replacing or probably fine

Consider replacing. You don't want to get it all back together and find you have a flattened lobe on the cam.

Got some more progress today with both the heads off. The extent of the damage due to sitting outside in the weather and then followed by the cleaned up product using a nylon brush and some brake parts cleaner.

 

I think left to do I'm gonna get the heads resurfaced, get all the parts dropped in a hot tank to clean them up (is it possible to take the whole block in or do most shops require removal of the piston heads and crank and such?) And then order a gasket set

 

I'm not rich but I also don't want to buy some cheap gaskets that might not work for crap. Any ideas on what kind of brand and set I should get? Hit me with suggestions my mans

 

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non bake oven cleaner, like easyoff, will probably help you out too if you are not taking anything to a shop to get cleaned. that stuff works really good it'll surprise you.

Get Beck & Arnley gaskets if you aren't going to do OEM. I've heard beck makes the most/all of the OEM ones and if you get them without the subaru name on it, they are cheaper. I put them on my motor when I first took the heads off and then when I replaced them during my motor refresh they looked really great for only having 30k ish on them.

Okay cool I'll have to look into that. The last gasket kit I got leaks oil out of the valve covers

Okay cool I'll have to look into that. The last gasket kit I got leaks oil out of the valve covers

 

I like the Beck/Arney gasket kit, still don't trust the head gasket and valve cover gasket but I'm pretty sure that the B/A head gasket is the same as OE. For the head and valve cover gaskets, I use Fel-Pro. In fact, I believe that Fel-Pro now sells partial gasket kits for the EJ25, part number HS26167PT3.

 

Word of the wise, look at the pattern on your valve cover. Make sure the valve cover gasket matches the pattern exactly. I fought with Rock Auto for a week over the fact that the ITM gasket kit they sold me not only had the wrong design of head gasket but there was 3 types of valve cover gaskets. It took them almost 3 months and only 3 of their listings actually state for use with XYZ valve cover. They refunded me $20 to order the correct valve cover gaskets and nothing to get the correct head gaskets.

I used to like felpro until I had two sets of their head gaskets fall apart and deform in my dads GTO after just a couple thousand miles.

I used to like felpro until I had two sets of their head gaskets fall apart and deform in my dads GTO after just a couple thousand miles.

 

7,000 miles and counting on the Fel-Pro gaskets and not a drop of coolant lost.

 

The old ones after about 5-600 miles, the coolant level would start to drop and got worse until it blew again, and it blew catastrophically. Blew my upper radiator hose off.

So I just got word back from the machine shop and the heads need the exhaust valves replaced. Along with getting them cleaned and resurfaced the shop wants 560 for the work.

 

I think that info puts an end or pause to this project as I can't justify spending nearly 600 on some head work when i could get an entire engine for less then that.

 

I've also seen some turbo engines go for about 800 online minus shipping. So I think I'm just going to run the engine that's in my car into the ground, oil leaks and all and then hopefully by the time the car craps out I'll have enough money to just buy something newer and nicer or at least something with a straight body

Get rebuild heads from NorthwestCylinderHeads in WA, they will only be $300 ish for ready to go rebuilt heads. That's who I got mine from for my rebuild and they did a very nice job on the rebuild.

Oh wow okay that's way cheaper, and that's for the valves installed also?

 

Also I know there was talk about it but I never saw an answer about aftermarket camshafts? That would be really cool to have but the questions i have is will it throw check engine lights? And with new camshafts (if they were purchased, I guess this applies to valves also) will I need new lifters?

A mild regrind from Delta shouldn't throw a code at all, but it's like $80 per cam x 4 on the DOHC. That was the singular reason I didn't do it on my rebuild.

Do you send your cams in to delta or buy new ones from there? If I end up getting new heads, I'll probably try and justify the camshafts also

 

With the camshafts being ground do you actually feel a difference? Will I have a significant gain from them? If so about how much?