SJGT Build Thread

So...i've been lurking around here for a few years since purchasing my 2010 Steel Silver GT. The car is a daily driver for me - tooling up and down 295 in south jersey back and forth to DE everyday, i drive maybe 80+ miles daily, no racing, no launching, just some fun on the onramps and some high pulls here and there

 

Have gotten a ton of great info and research thats gotten me to where I am today, or at least, to where i was a week ago 2/13/19 -

 

to rewind, to date through 2/13/19 I've added the following

 

nameless downpipe

Injector Dynamics 1050x injectors

AEM Fuel Pump 320lph 65mm

Crawford AOS

grimspeed EBCS

Southbound Stage 2 clutch

clutch damper valve delete

AVO chargepipe

AVO TMIC

AVO coupler

protune via Cobb V3 back in Jan 17' @ 95k miles (2+ years ran well)

STI STS and a few perrin shifter pieces

KW V3 coil overs

Brembo Blacks

Hawk HPS 5.0 pads

DBA T2 slotted rotors

Good ridge SS brake lines

Work Emotion 18x9.5 with BFGoodrich Sport Comp 2 55/40

HID custom headlights from LightWerkz in NJ (high recommend these have been great 3 years running no issues)

 

Car was great for couple years there - drove really well

 

And then....thursday 2/13/19...noticed some noise coming from engine bay, at first just kinda sounded like the turbo heat shield rattle that I had had previously, kept driving a bit (first problem - should've stopped right away - its hard to make the decision sometimes to stop what your doing and perform some sort of roadside assessment - but that may have saved me here - as i continued i saw the DAM drop on my V3 to .325 something, and then ultimately she seized up on me - i was attempting to just make it to the next exit

P0011

P0014

P0021

P0024

 

Initial assessment is a severe crankshaft bearing failure - ultimately there was an oil problem somewhere, and was all downhill from there, a few more issues in the rest of the internals, end of day new short block is needed - what I'm confused about is the speed with which it appeared to deteriorate. I was only less than a 1k miles off my last oil change - and no signs of problems before that. So hoping to maybe hear more on a specific root cause - ultimately another lesson learned is grow up and be checking the dipstick yourself more often -

 

Either way here i am in need of a new short block after 130k miles - and so with that comes the may as well upgrade if I'm here conversation - which is why I'm posting a build a thread and ultimately hoping to call on the many many prior experiences this forum offers. Here's what I think I've learned.

 

in terms of the short block - i'd be looking at a relatively canned offering of an upgrade block along these lines -

http://rallispec.com/eng_sbl_rssb25.html

 

i'd be looking to upgrade to the STI exhaust cams

 

i'm not looking to go external waste gate, but i should pursue porting the internal wastegate?

 

I'm not looking at the moment to go FMIC - though I understand this would be ideal for larger gains, from a budget and power goals perspective, just not right now

 

i'd be sticking to pump gas (no E85 is convenient for me)

 

and then so the real question becomes turbo upgrade - 18 vs 20g, with the built internals, does 20g give me more top end power potential, or is 18 really still the sweet spot? I don't think i'd be looking to push this car more than 350whp, in my mind this would be an overbuilt (hopefully reliable) moderately powerful car.

 

I'd look to add the BPV to hold the boost to keep the turbo efficient

 

Would i likely be dealing with boost creep issues? I am still stock exhaust past the downpipe

Sorry to hear YNANSB.

 

From reading here and discussions with a reputable tuner,

 

-boost creep will not be a problem with stock exhaust past DP

-BPV upgrade a good idea

-18g is still the sweet spot

-STI cams a good idea but need to be tuned for

 

Just curious, what oil were you using and what were your intervals?

 

Do you have an oil temp gauge, and if so what temps were you seeing?

Scubaboo had some good advice. Any thought to having someone like Fast of West Chester do a rebuild rather than buying a new block?

Just another option in our neck of the country. https://www.iagperformance.com/IAG-Performance-Staged-Subaru-Short-Blocks-s/15269.htm.

They are building my son's Rex right now.

I’ve been to fast of west Chester and enjoyed that experience, they did my suspension work, I know IAG is great but it’s 3hours away

 

Rallispec has a good reputation and it’s almost walking distance from me - I got to spend about 2 hours over there today digging through my torn apart engine, looking at the damage, talking with Vince on plans for rebuild and options, and ultimately I’m pretty happy to move forward here - particularly as it relates to future work and maintenance -

 

Cleo will tune the car when it’s done working with this shop - and he’s also also local to me here in next town over

 

 

Adding TGV deletes and a Cobb SF intake

 

Embarrassingly enough I did end up having the nameless BPV installed already which explains why I couldn’t find the part in my garage

 

At the moment looking like I’ll move forward with the tomioka hybrid 20g

https://www.tomiokaracing.com/products/hybrid-vf54-turbo-for-2010-subaru-legacy-gt

 

 

 

 

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I think I would go with someone local as well in your scenario, especially if they have a good rep in the industry already.

 

I think it's also a good thing your builder gets to check out your old engine, a post mortem could help diagnose issues that can be addressed with your new build.

 

I'd be interested to see what you all saw as the cause of failure after 2 years of trouble free motoring with not really so heavy use.

Engine tear down

 

New block so far

 

 

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Shortblock package wise - I’m deciding between the light and standard package here - about a $500 gap - main difference being the pistons used - between Manley and omega-X, (they stopped offering the cosworth and just replaced the standard package with omega x pistons) as well as then the documentation (blueprints) which id love to hear the forum’s take on - from what they said - the “light” package was offered as a budget friendlier block while still maintaining the shop’s build standards and quality components - just not every measurement was documented and provided to client

 

So for the extra $500 I get the omega pistons and the full documentation - thoughts? I’m leaning yes, but could be convinced to save the money too - the documentation just feels like it forces the work, even though I trust the work would be done either way - and not sure the piston upgrade is worth it

 

I'm just went through this too. Mine finally pooped the bed Feb 1st.

 

I have kind of gone with the peace of mind thought process with this rebuild on most everything.

That being said, it doesn't seem like your trying to build the biggest baddest LGT in the land and could probably save where you can. I started conservative in the begining of my build and ended up with a bigger and bigger build, so I might not know what I'm talking about.

 

We enable here, so my final thought is go for it... all of it!

Yeah I had already shot them a note to go ahead with the upgrade - it’s like I felt the enabling before I even hit submit on this message

 

 

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