subaru WRX motor

next time, make it a hard question

Dart products are a quality product. That said, at the Dart price point, you can get good, aluminum heads like edelbrock or (waiting for the flaming) Patriot heads.

At your hp level, the dart heads would be caviar on a Big Mac.

 

I read an article somewhere that compared a few different heads, the patriot was one and dart, edelbrock were others and the patriot beat them in HP and torque numbers.... Just a thought, now I'll wait with you for the flames

 

Engine color is a personal thing but after having gold, orange, yellow and every other color in the rainbow I go with black now. After a year or two and 20k miles later fancy colors look like crap unless you maintain it anally

Heads are the biggest expense of your build. So your budget will dictate what you'll be willing to spend. If I have the coinage I would go edelbrock just because his heads make a lot of low end torque! Patriot seems to be the best bang for the buck or summit has their own head being made by someone. Idk who ???

Lets see some pics of that cleaned up block !!!

 

I'm a fan of silver for motors I care about, black for ones I'm selling.

Silver makes it easier to find leaks, and because it's reflective, actually helps shed light in the engine bay (I'm amazed at how well it works for seeing - but I'm old).

Black, well, if you can't see the leak it must not be leaking

 

Solid thinking

 

Nice thread!!

 

 

Ok guys!!! I have the block, crank and pistons in hand! Where do we start? Machine shop said .30 over rings and standard bearings. FIRE AWAY! Do I need to clean and paint the block before starting or build it then clean and paint?

 

I decided to clean, hone and polish the crank all here at the house so it may be a few days! Iam such a hands on person!

 

maybe invest in a good set of micrometers, but the money you spend on them will get your machining done by a good shop and you wont be 2nd guessing yourself if you spin a bearing ...later on. you could also get a good stock rotating assembly, bout the same money spent if you figure your labor , travel, etc. and less fiddlin

 

Hey brother, what would cause the spun bearing?

 

Anyone have a good picture of a cleaned up engine compartment right before the engine goes back in? I just want to get an idea of how to route all the wiring and stuff to give it a cleaner look. Mine is kind of messy looking and after all the work I am doing I don't want to leave it that way.

 

spun bearings are sometimes caused by improper clearances, improper installation, and sometimes faulty parts. Doing your own 'honing' on a crankshaft without a good mic' for instance ...and on and on.

 

A few under hood things I need...Anyone have these parts? I am also going to post in WTB section. Oh! And can anyone tell me what the part is where I have the arrow pointing?

Thanks!

 

So, are you saying don't attempt for a first build on this?

 

Fatcat, while I've got time, here's the deal with the block. You will need a honer (preferably a 'ballhone' or 'flex hone' type but if you can't get that a 3-stone type 'glaze breaker' hone will work. it sounds like your holes are in pretty good condition already so a glaze breaker will work OK. You should also get yourself a tap & die set; in the absence of a good one a cheap Chinese set will do since you'll only be using it to 'chase out' the holes in the block.

Here's what you need to do to get started...

(1)Put the block on an engine stand
(2)Hone the cylinders as follows: Attach the hone to an electric drill, spray a cylinder wall with WD-40 or some other light machine oil, and run it at low to medium speed up-and-down in a cylinder for, say, 20 passes to get the feel of it. stop, wipe the cylinder down, and look at it. You should see the beginning of a 'pattern' where the opposing scratches in the wall are at roughly 30-40 degree angles from each other. If you're using a 'glaze breaker'-type hone (the kind with three stones on it) you first need to adjust the tension of the stones against the cylinder walls with the threaded collar at the top of the tool. Then, while running it up and down, BE VERY CAREFUL not to hit any of the webbing down inside the block. If you do you'll likely break one of the stones off at the bottom or worse break the whole tool. If you can get your hands on a 4" ballhone they are really preferable, they're easier to use. My experience with a 'glaze breaker' is that they take about 100 up-and-down passes to produce a clean, noticeable pattern. Whichever you use, you only want to take enough passes up and down to establish a well-defined crosshatch pattern. After that, stop and move to the next hole. Repeat x 8.
(4) If your cylinders aren't chamfered at their tops already, do this:
Using the round side of a medium-cut half-round file, go around each cylinder at the top at a 45 degree angle enough to produce about a 1/16" to 3/32" wide chamfer around the top of each hole. this will help greatly during piston installation time...
(5)Using a screwdriver, hammer, and pliers, knock out the freezeplugs by bashing one side into the block with the hammer and screwdriver then pull it out with the pliers. If the camshaft plug in the back of the block looks decent, you can leave that in, but all the others should come out.
(6)Tap out every threaded hole in the block. Head bolt holes, oil pan holes, water pump holes, all of them. they will have accumulated crap in them, so break out the taps and T-handle and go to town. While doing this, try and orient your work so all the crap falls down away from the block. This keeps it out of the water jackets.
(7)Fire up your air compressor and attach an air nozzle to the hose. Then, take a scribe, dental pick, some stiff wire, or whatever else you can get that's rigid enough to do this and go into each water jacket below the freezeplug holes and start digging around and thoroughly clean all the accumulated sediment and crap that has settled in the bottoms of the water jackets. It also helps to use a flexible-tipped magnet here; loosen as much of that crap as you can then blow it out with compressed air, keep at it until you've got as much of it out of there as you can possibly fish out. IF YOU DO NOT DO THIS, all that garbage will break loose shortly after starting you bitchin' new motor and it will get pumped directly into your radiator, causing you to begin an "Overheating C3" thread shortly after you get the car running.
(7) If you can get your hands on a pressure washer, do. If not, fire up the garden hose (with hot water from the washing machine spigot if you can, steal some Palmolive from the old lady, squirt some into a bucket, get a couple scotch-brite-faced scrub sponges, and scrub the living daylights out of the block EVERYWHERE. Like, about THREE times. Then rinse it, rinse it, and rinse it some more.
(8) Fire up the compressor again IMMEDIATELY, and blow as much of the water off of the block as you can as fast as you can, and spray a good layer of WD-40 onto the cylinder walls and decks.
(9) Install replacement freezeplugs thusly: using a socket that fits snugly into the 'cup' of the new plug, gently bash each new plug into its respective hole until it is driven slightly below the surface of the block. A little 2B Permatex 'Monkey Poop' or Grey RTV works nicely as a sealer here.
(10) Go into the kitchen and grab a large trash bag out of the pantry, then put your nice, clean block to sleep.

Now go forth and make us proud, Grasshopper...

 

I think what he's getting at is that you have to measure your clearances.


Scott

 

low oil pressure.... that's caused by a bad pump, too loose tolerances in the bearings, plugged passages, failure to plug the correct passage, ill-fitting passage plugs, cracked oil filter bases... and the list goes on...

and plastigauge works well too (no need to buy several hundred dollars worth of measuring devices that you'll use occasionally)... though a good caliper (non-digital) is a good addition for not much money

 

Already on the stand!
So on the crosshatch pattern, will this just magically appear (Something to do with the ballhon) or is it a technique used in the honing process?

 

How do you "gently bash" something?

Seriously, though, the whole post sounds like a ton of great advice!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtJAuDZXmiU

Youtube.......check it out.


Scott