Whitexc's 2009 LGT Re(Build)

To capture the process I figured a new thread was in order.

 

For those that don't know my 2009 LGT/5EAT with 71k on the clock decided it was due for some love. It spun a bearing and started some loud clatter one day out of the blue.

 

I have a local shop that I am working with to perform the work due to time and space non-compatibility. My goal is longevity, not squeezing every last bit out of it. The turbo will be removed and sent out to our great JMP for some love. I will contact a reputable tuner when the time is right.

 

If you see something say something. I am all about conversation, especially if it helps one of us along the way.

 

Parts so far:

OEM shortblock - Crawford Performance

 

Install kit - Crawford Performance

https://crawfordperformance.com/products/short-block-installation-kit-2008-ej25?variant=422500302867

 

AOS V1 - Crawford Performance

https://crawfordperformance.com/collections/single-chamber-v2-aos-kits/products/crawford-air-oil-separator-v2-legacy-gt-2005-2009

 

Killer B oil pickup - RallySportDirect

https://www.rallysportdirect.com/part/oil-control-devices/kil-070-110-killer-b-motorsport-ultimate-oil-pickup

 

Torque Solutions Cyl 4 cooling mod - sourced new/open box - eBay.

 

Torque Solutions turbo oil feed line kit - Import Image Racing

https://www.importimageracing.com/products/ts-su-577-torque-solution-turbo-oil-feed-line-kit-subaru-ej-stock-location

 

ACL Orbit High Performance Oil Pump - Import Image Racing

https://www.importimageracing.com/products/opsb1478hp-acl-orbit-high-performance-oil-pump-subaru-wrx-sti-ej20-ej22-ej25-aclopsb1478hp

 

Cam seals, valve cover, spark plug gaskets - SubaruOnlineParts via the forum.

 

Group N pitch stop - SubaruOnlineParts

 

Group N engine mounts and nuts - SubaruOnlineParts

 

 

.....to be continued.....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Edited August 7, 2021 by whitexc

Planning to open up ring gaps? Highly recommended

[emoji15] Tell me more.....

 

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In a nutshell, the OEM ring gaps on the turbo EJ motors is pretty dang tight - about half that which aftermarket piston manufacturers recommend even for 'mild' builds. Presumably, this is to minimize blowby for emissions and oil burn purposes. That's not to say you can't get a bunch of miles out of a block with factory ring gaps (Max Capacity is a great example) - but if you are hard on your car or intend to tune on the nonconservative/spicy side, opening up the gaps is a good idea. I learned this the hard way on my very first motor replacement. Bought the updated 'Type RA' block, running a pretty mild turbo (16G). Tuned on pump gas and E85 by a reputable tuner that time around (Dave at Cryotune). However, I drove the car very hard - many long duration WOT pulls through 4th, etc. In the end, that shortblock lasted 35k miles. Failure mode was cracked ring lands on #4 piston. Every single piston had obvious signs that the ring gaps had closed up completely, causing the rings to expand into the piston, with the ring land on 4 cracking presumably due to the elevated temperatures (no cooling mod that time around).

 

Attached pictures show ring gaps from the last motor I built for someone. First picture shows the factory top ring gap, which measured .011". The second shows the opened up gap, at .020, which is still a bit on the tight side but kept that way to keep blowby down. That motor had .020 on top ring and .022 on the intermediate ring, and the owner reports roughly 1/4 quart of oil loss in a 3000 mile OCI, with an AOS. I built the latest motor in my personal car with .026 top and .028 intermediate ring gaps, and see 1/4 to 1/2 quart oil loss over 3000 miles, with an AOS.

 

The final picture shows the #4 piston of the aforementioned Type RA block that mentioned had signs of rings butting. Look at the ends of the intermediate piston ring, and you'll see how they're flared out from making contact with one another when run hot/high pressure. Every single piston looked like this, but #4 cracked first. Interestingly enough, the top ring didn't have the same signs on any of the pistons. I have two theories on this. When filing piston rings, the intermediate rings cuts WAY faster than the top ring, indicating that its made out of a softer material. Either the top ring material doesn't deform at the same load as the intermediate ring because it has a higher yield strength, or the intermediate ring also has a higher coefficient of thermal expansion and therefore experiences gap closure prior to the top ring.

 

In any case, if you decide to open up the ring gaps the process is pretty easy. You need to pull the wrist pin plugs for all 4 pistons, remove the wrist pins, tap out the pistons, and file the rings and reinstall. To file the rings, you'll need a ring gap filer, some jewelers files to clean up the edges of the rings after you file, an old piston to set ring depth in the bores when checking gaps, and a set of good feeler gauges to measure the actual gaps. Obviously, you'll need a piston ring compressor to reinstall the pistons with gapped rings as well. I can dig out some links for stuff if you'd like.

 

Hope that helps!

Edited August 8, 2021 by awfulwaffle

I know it's a crapshoot with anything but if the goal of this build is an attempt to "bulletproof" the stock set up via studs, better oiling via pickup and pump upgrade, cooling mod, a quality tune........is the ring thing a worry? It appears most with that issue ran the engine on the edge tune wise while running the cars pretty hard. Don't get me wrong, I will run the car through the gears here and there but I just drive this car like a little old man 99.9% of the time. I would rather not get into removing the Pistons on the new short block. That said, if it should be checked from new I guess we may have to tear it down. What to do.....

 

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Given the type of driving you describe, probably not critical to gap the rings. That said, I subscribe to the 'maximum safety margin' school of thought with things like this. To me, trading a couple of hours of work and a little extra oil burn in exchange for some added peace of mind makes sense regardless of driving style, but ymmv Edited August 8, 2021 by awfulwaffle

I'm not sure if you really want to use the acl oil pump. There is a thread on nasioc with some not such awesome reviews. You really can't beat the oem oil pump.

Hmmm. A search netted only a few threads and they seemed promising. Crawford recommended it also so that's why I bought it. I do have a new OEM pump as well that I was going to post for sale when time allowed. Just thought a nicely machined piece that boasted some better volume numbers would aid in keeping things lubed. I will look both over and I do have some time to decide. Thanks.

 

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These are worth a watch.TLDR, choosing your oil pump isn't at simple as... More volume or psi is better.

 

Seems like too high of a pump pressure on stock bearing clearances can cause the relief valve to open too often and with too much duration and cause problems as well.

 

Not recommended to reuse the old pump out of a failed motor. One part I saw everyone recommend to replace was oil pump to avoid future oil contamination from previous motor failure.

 

I don't know anything about the pump you bought but the criteria in the videos are worth considering when deciding to use it or not.

..

usually its the oil cooler that's a requirement to replace.

 

The bigger oil pump leads to cavitation too. Unless you had an oil pressure problem to begin with, upsizing isn't really needed. Cleaning the pump and replacement of worn parts should be enough.

 

Cleaning all the passages in the heads should remove any contamination.

You might be able to get the oem block a little cheaper, not sure what heuberger or whoever it was that was selling oem blocks for 1800 or so shipped. And couldn't you buy all those parts in that kit individually and save several hundred dollars?

 

What people normally change on engine explosion is oil cooler like boxkita stated , the oil pump, and the intake cam sprockets.

 

I use a 400/1000 grit whetstone for deburring and this 50 dollar ring filer.

 

https://www.amazon.com/Sharpening-Whetstone-KEENBEST-Sharpener-Sharping/dp/B088RKNNYK

https://www.amazon.com/Proform-66785-Piston-Filer-Manual/dp/B000630J8E

Edited August 10, 2021 by Tehnation

Hueburger is no longer shipping blocks. Out of 3 vendors/dealerships this was the best price I found. I didn't pay full price on the kit and got a very nice discount from Max at Crawford. By the time I searched around I think I may have saved around $50 and possibly had to pay shipping on the install kit items if bought separately.

 

I am looking into the oil cooler. Supposedly they are very difficult to get clean once contaminated. Also, not sure of my level of contamination so replacement is likely best. OCV's and gears being the same. Not sure what to do with those.

 

As for the oil pump, the plan is back to using the new OEM unit. I will send the ACL unit back. I believe the seals and gaskets all being new could handle the task but cavitation and oil temperature is a concern for sure. My bad for not reading up more. I went off what seem to be two of the boxer killers....oiling and detonation.

 

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That oil feed kit doesn't have an inline filter? I have ip&t or something(not made anymore) it has a replaceable inline filter and insulation for the braided steel as well for added protection and thermal crap I assume. No one has recreated that kit yet?? I would recommend a kit with a filter at least.

OCVs, cam gears and oil pump can be cleaned out if you're careful and thorough. There's a video with good cam gear teardown walkthrough somewhere, will have to find it later and post up.

breaking those bolts on the cam gear is a chore, same with the oil pump. I tried the cam sprocket once and stripped the head of one of the bolts gave up and ordered a new one lol. I tried with the oil pump as well.

In a holding pattern. Car will be disassembled in the next cple weeks. I will update as things progress.

 

I watched a few videos on cleaning the OCVs and the cam gears. Doesn't look too awful. As for the oil cooler, most seem to lean towards replacing it.

 

Not sure about a filter on the turbo feed line set up. My 2002 Cummins had 227,xxx when it sold for much more than I paid for it. Aside from a larger filter and a bunch more oil in the pan.... that old turbo did fine without a filter and that oil was black the day it was changed. One would think that any restriction will do more damage to these itty bitty turbos so my thought is good oil and filter, changed on the regular(No different than before).

Edited August 25, 2021 by whitexc

And we're back and progress is being made. Engine is out and on the stand for disassembley. Turbo is being prepped for shipping to JMP.

 

Exhaust.....while the heat shields are crap and rusted at the attachments as all of them are just after leaving the factory....the piping all looks good and very usable to me. What is the take on reusing all the factory components? I'm not trying to be cheap, I'm trying to stay as close to stock as I can in this process and feel that if I go down the pipe worm hole it just won't have a good ending as the turbo and every other mod out there just makes sense at that point.

 

You all know better than I. Is the stock downpipe and all that on a 2009 car w/ 70k bad enough to warrant replacement?

 

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Only thing I would change is the downpipe, probably best and first mod for the car, unlocks a lot of potential for the car. Our turbos love 3 inch downpipes!

 

Exhaust manifold, I believe most people have lost their shielding at this point! You can just remove them and use something else or sand and paint it etc.

So doing the down pipe I might as well go VF52 or no? I plan to tune regardless.

 

Here goes......I can feel it. Exactly what I was trying to stay away from!

 

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Either way, stock or vf52 you will get significant gains with a tune and a downpipe. I thought jmp puts in a vf52 cartridge in his rebuilds or am I remembering incorrectly? You should contact JMP! This is what I would do! Sell the oem downpipe or keep it for a rainy day, I hear they are selling for absurd amounts of money due to the precious metals in the cat! I thought I heard some crazy number like 1k going around for a used downpipe. Personally, i would sell the downpipe to fund a few goodies

If John is rebuilding your turbo anyway and you are planning on tuning regardless, (meaning you're moving to a staged set up), then you pretty much have to toss the OEM DP and buy an aftermarket one or else there is no sense in paying for an AP and a tune. As for a VF52, he can swap in a wide variety of wheels into your housing and the cost is pretty negligible between them. Yes, I'd just go VF52 into your housing, keep stock fueling, keep stock exhaust manifolds, (my JMP VF52 '08 Outback XT is running OEM manifolds no heat shields as well) and you're good to go. You'll keep close to stock boost response with more power up top. Its really the way these cars should have come from the factory

If you can find an aftermarket downpipe, you can most likely sell your stock for more than you paid for the aftermarket.

The goal was to stay stage 1-ish. I have the AP3 and have been running the OTS 93 octane tune since i bought the car in 2018 at around 55k but figured I would rattle someone (Tuning Alliance?) for a solid E tune once the refresh is complete.

 

I am sending the VF46 to John tomorrow. Was going to go stock with his gentle massage. This isn't his "custom" rebuild as he reuses many parts after check, clean, polish, balance, etc. Now that I am utterly confused.....and I thought I had read about all that I could before diving into this lol.

 

Downpipes.....Cobb, GS, Invidia.....? It has to be chatted. No stinky cars. The car is an auto and they seem to be harder to come by than manual stuff...of course. Reuse the up pipe after unshielding and paint?

 

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You don't have to unshield the uppipe, is it corroded?

 

Do people still do the EGT mod/delete? In the past people said the egt sensor could break off, go into your turbo and fubar your engine so people started removing the sensor and plugging in a resistor to bypass it.

https://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php/unofficial-05-06-lgt-2-2k-5w-resistor-up-pipe-131488.html

Not sure about 09s though.

 

When he rebuilds the turbo, the main cartridge has to be changed. I don't think he is repairing cartridges, other stuff maybe, but not the meat and potatoes.

 

 

Is JMP rebuilding cartridges now?

Edited September 28, 2021 by Tehnation

I have to look at the exhaust and the heat shields. This isn't the first Subaru and they have all gotten to either clamping or removal state sooner or later.

 

No cheap DP's. I want it to last.

 

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