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dgoodhue's 2011 RRP GT project


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I bought this car about about 6 weeks ago.I mention in one of the 5th Gen threads, but I might as well make a post about it. The car is a RRP 2011GT with NAV and 126k miles odometer. The engine has a missfire on #4, which the prior owners mechanic diagnosed as bad exhaust valve. The engine has zero compression on #4. Besides the obviously mechanical issue, the car is in good shape. the notable flaws are it needs a windhshield, the headlight are starting to yellow, the rear bumper cover has a few split cranks and it has a half dozen door dings (which I am will have my PDR fix).

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After a 3 week delay dealing with a prior mechanics botched work on my GF timing belt. (Nothing like a cross threaded tensioner bolt that breaks off inside the block), I started working on cleaning my garage out and start pulling the motor. I am down to two nuts hold the bell housing. I was going to pull the motor today, but I forgot that I had broken my 14mm swivel socket last time I used it. Oh well, next week. The front turbo coolant lines look bad, the factory turbo heat shield is still intact, but rusty. I haven't really run into any surprises, I stripped the head on one of the exhaust bolts, but I was able to use and extractor nut to remove the net. The car has its original clutch and timing belt, so I will be replacing those.

 

I actually like tearing the engine down. It give me hands on experience to see where exactly every part is and insight for future work on my '12 GT. This car is a one owner CT car; I definitely appreciate that my GT is southern CA car.

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Edited by dgoodhue
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The car has an optima battery that is couple years old, but it is too short and not the right size for the car. Someone stuck the optima cover under the battery, it is kind of a hack job. I am unsure if I should just buy a new battery for the car and sell the optima.
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The car has an optima battery that is couple years old, but it is too short and not the right size for the car. Someone stuck the optima cover under the battery, it is kind of a hack job. I am unsure if I should just buy a new battery for the car and sell the optima.

 

I have an optima 25 in mine. For some applications it is standard practice to snap the optima cover on the bottom of the battery to keep the original tie down rods length. I don’t remember if I had to do it for the legacy. The cover also includes assorted tie downs for other applications:

 

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F323696172633

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I have an optima 25 in mine. For some applications it is standard practice to snap the optima cover on the bottom of the battery to keep the original tie down rods length. I don’t remember if I had to do it for the legacy. The cover also includes assorted tie downs for other applications:

 

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F323696172633

 

I looked at battery this morning. It is Optima 25, someone had installed the spacer cover upside down so the tabs (that were suppose to be on the battery side) were down and bent. As those tabs bent, it explains why the battery was so loose.

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  • 3 weeks later...

A couple weeks ago, I had a heck of time getting the engine separated from the transmission. It took me something like 2 hours to break seal. Once I those broken free, I couldn't seem to get the engine any further than a 1/4" apart. I took a step back and decided to buy an engine leveler.

 

Today, I finally had a chance to work my Legacy GT again. I put the leveler on the engine and and the engine easily slid off the pins and bolt studs. I then had problem getting the turbo oil pan to clear the front cross member. I am not how other owners do this and I didn't want to risk damaging anything, so I disconnected the manifolds/turbo assembly and left them in the car.

 

The coolant front coolant lines looked rust and when I when to remove the hoses connected them they started leaking. Of course, the line were leaking coolant on me while I was disconnecting the turbo bolts underneath. After that the engine easily came out.

 

I started pulling some of the parts off the engine. The clutch didn't look that bad for 127k miles (I will replace it anyways). The original timing belt was scary loose but it was still in time. I feel lucky that it didn't jump time driving home. The belt is obviously stretched, but it was looser then the timing belt would be with the pin in the tensioner with a new belt.

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As I recall I left the oil pan in the car connected to the oil lines. I just covered it with a shop rag and tied it out of the way.

 

edit- I just recalled this was when i dropped down the turbo and manifold, lol. I am pretty confident I just removed the front mount and then lifted the whole engine out turbo oil pan and all.

Edited by FLlegacy
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I pulled the engine apart today. The cam sprocket bolt were on a lot tighter than I was expecting. I had to used a breaker bar with an extension to get them off. The pneumatic impact wouldn't loosen them. The intake manifold must be a bear to do with the engine installed, which kind of surprised me.

 

The diagnosis is the engine has a burnt exhaust valve on 4 cylinder. The 2 & 4 cylinder & piston looked good. I will disassemble the other side this week, make an arrangement to fix the heads and start order to parts to fix the engine.

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BTW here are a couple bell housing bolts. The white is salt / road treatment. About every 3rd bolt I pulled out the engine looked like this. This is why I laugh when someone thinks that they clean up a salt belt vehicle by washing down the undercarriage and using preventative under carriage sprays. The salt gets every where.

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Edited by dgoodhue
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  • 2 weeks later...
When I changed the clutch on my Baja, I just went over the flywheel with a 2" Scotchbrite disc on a patch gun, rather than taking it to a machine shop to be ground. It looked pretty good to begin with, and it still seems perfectly happy 25k miles later, so I'd call it a win. I'd call that plan A, and if you're not happy with how it comes out, you're only out 5 or 10 minutes of your time and a buck or two for the Scotchbrite pad.
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  • 2 weeks later...
I didn't get as much assembled as I wanted this weekend. I bolted on the heads and camshafts. I went to install the cam seal and I notice they were different than the pones I removed. I figured out they gave me the cam seals for the non AVCS camshafts. The part number for our seals are 806742160, they gave me 806732160. I ordered the right part number, they sent me the wrong part. I went to do install the water pump and snapped off a bolt in the block (bottom left in the picture) :mad: I got the bolts messed up and used the timing cover bolt which is just a tad too longer to use on the water pump. I should have noticed they were corroded. I never would have thought the bolt would have been so easy to break 8.9ft-lbs of torque...oh well. After breaking a tool, I gave up for the weekend.

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Edited by dgoodhue
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  • 2 months later...
After dealing with broken bolt and having to helicoil the water pump bolt, it delay my engine assembly. I took my time and put a torque wrench on pretty much every bolt, plus I ordered a few parts along the way. I cleaned up the parts and and engine bay up a little this weekend. The engine is now assembled ready to put in. It is just waiting to the clutch alignment tool that I had forgotten to order until last week so I can install the clutch.

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Good to see it's buttoned up after the initial snags!

 

While waiting for the clutch tool you can go back and clean the rails beside the trans mounts and firewall below the evaporator fittings. :p

 

I didn't clean the firewall yet. For some reason Subaru doesn't fully paint the frame rails, the change in color is primer showing through.

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  • 1 month later...

2 weekends ago, I had forgotten to put the clutch inspection plate in while installing the motor (I think I should have done that before I installed the turbo & manifolds.) I fought with that plate, I ended up disconnecting all the mount mounts hooking up my engine lift to get enough clearance. Even with that, it still sucked to put in. I was done for the weekend after that plate.

 

I finished assembling the motor minus the covers this past weekend, ended up with no extra bolts. I am only missing one of the air box screws.

 

Today I put coolant and fluids in the car. I noticed a coolant leak. After some disassembly, I determined the crossover pipe that connects to the upper radiator hose has a small leak by the throttle body on the driverside. That sucks, I didn't touch that pipe, it must have dried out from sitting for 4 months. I had thought about replacing those 2 seals too. I am going to have to pull the intake manifold to replace it.

 

I decide reinstall the intercooler, install the battery and attempt to start it up. Might as well find out the good or bad news, especially if I have to remove the intake manifold. The engine started up on the 1st try, it turned over for 1 sec and started right up. No funny noises, no apparently leaks beside the coolant leak.

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2 weekends ago, I had forgotten to put the clutch inspection plate in while installing the motor (I think I should have done that before I installed the turbo & manifolds.) I fought with that plate, I ended up disconnecting all the mount mounts hooking up my engine lift to get enough clearance. Even with that, it still sucked to put in. I was done for the weekend after that plate.

 

I finished assembling the motor minus the covers this past weekend, ended up with no extra bolts. I am only missing one of the air box screws.

 

Today I put coolant and fluids in the car. I noticed a coolant leak. After some disassembly, I determined the crossover pipe that connects to the upper radiator hose has a small leak by the throttle body on the driverside. That sucks, I didn't touch that pipe, it must have dried out from sitting for 4 months. I had thought about replacing those 2 seals too. I am going to have to pull the intake manifold to replace it.

 

I decide reinstall the intercooler, install the battery and attempt to start it up. Might as well find out the good or bad news, especially if I have to remove the intake manifold. The engine started up on the 1st try, it turned over for 1 sec and started right up. No funny noises, no apparently leaks beside the coolant leak.

Nice work [emoji106]

 

Sent from my Mi 9T Pro using Tapatalk

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