2006 Subie STI rebuild

We finally have some light at the end of the tunnel. I have the new engine at the house and am starting final assembly.

Not much has happened in the 3 weeks since the Haltech update since there wasn't a much that could be done to the car. And I drove out to San Diego for Mother's Day weekend. Until this last week.

I think it was about the same time we got the heads on the block that the Cobb fiasco happened and I decided to move to Haltech. My tuner got super busy with last minute tuning on a bunch of customer cars and was swamped for 2 weeks doing that. So I had to wait for him to have time to install the cams and measure for the valve buckets. They ended up having to order buckets twice as they didn't have any small enough the first go around and a couple of the valves were still too tight with the first batch. But that was all sorted and when I stopped by this last Thursday, the engine was almost completely assembled.





I spent most of the day Friday at the shop and we got the engine completed enough that it was ready to come back to the house yesterday afternoon. There were a few parts that I needed to bring in so that we could prime the engine with oil, which will be done again once it's in the car.



My DC Power alternator was finally delivered yesterday too.



Spent a little time last night putting on the water crossover pipe and PCV pipes, as well as installing the new coils. This is where it sits right now and I'll be getting it ready to come off the engine stand to install the flywheel and clutch, torque the Fluidamper and then drop it into the engine bay.





It will probably be a couple more weeks before I get to do the first start as it will take some time to figure out fuel hose routing and assemble the other small things like intake and accessories.

 

Good progress today. Engine is ready to drop in the car, except for 1 hose I forgot to get. The turbo oil drain hose. D'oh! Gotta see if I can find some 5/8" hose tomorrow that will work and then I can drop it into the car and start on the other things.

KB Holy Headers installed, motor mounts bolted on. Ended up having the redo the heat blanket on the uppipe. I had to re-clock it since the Grimmspeed uppipe has that large flex section and with the heat wrap adding more to the diameter, the uppipe was hitting the rear most header stud on that side. Re-clocking the blanket allowed for a gap in that spot and the clearance issue was resolved.







Dropped the turbo in place for a test fit and had to slightly clearance the stock support bracket where it wraps around the turbo. Then I was able to bolt it in place without issues, other than spacing on the oil drain hose.... :diaf: Also figured out the routing for the turbo oil feed lines.



Got it bolted up the the hoist and pulled it off the engine stand and them installed the new, OEM flywheel and Southbend Street SS clutch.

 

Man. Been watching sense the beginning and it’s only gotten better. Love your attention to detail!

 

It's so beautiful

 

Got some 5/8" EFI/PCV hose from O'Reilly's and the turbo return line is now connected. Then I got to work on dropping the engine into the car.





Of course, it fought me the whole time. Took forever to get everything to line up before the engine slid onto the trans. Once it was finally connected, I ran into another problem, a mistake on my part. I had the passenger side Torque Solutions motor mount backwards, so the stud that drops through the cross member wouldn't line up, no matter what I did. Turns out, it's slightly offset to one side, so it's possible to install them backwards. I didn't want to hoist the motor back up after the fight to get to that point, so I wrestled with the motor mount and got it flipped around.

Got everything that I could get to with a torque wrench torqued, bled the clutch, installed the GetADomTune cylinder 4 mod and put the down pipe into place but not fully bolted in. I need to get new bolts and nuts for that.

First time since the first week of November that the car has had an engine in it. Feels good!

 

Slowly making progress. Working on the engine loom now. Had to trim some things on the intake manifold and then repaint it, do a thread repair on one of the mounting holes for the power steering pump and new bolts for that. Also needed a slightly longer belt for the PS/alternator belt so that the new alt would clear the AC belt.

 

Engine harness is done. Power steering lines hooked up and initial bleed done. Added a ground strap to each head to the chassis since there weren't any. Drilled and helicoiled a hole on the intake for a ground as well. Ready to install the intake tomorrow. That's gunna be a fight since there is really no room near the turbo with the Killer B hard inlet.

 

Progress and then setbacks.

Got the intake manifold mounted. That was a little easier than expected but still a bit of a fight. Figured out more hose routing for various things. Then started getting injectors installed.

Well, there's a problem.... The fuel rails I ordered have a port for a fuel damper on the underside. The information as to what those fit on Radium's website is a little misleading, as it stated and if you have the AVCS with horizontal plugs, the underslung fuel dampers with work. Well, I guess that's not the case with the NA intake. I need the fuel rails with the fuel damper port on the top side. So, going to have to order those tomorrow. Underslung, the fuel dampers hit the AVCS plugs and will not line up with both injectors. So I removed them for now and plugged the ports with 8AN ORB plugs.

Then I test fit the throttle body and find out that I have to clock it with the motor part on the top, so it will clear, just barely, the turbo outlet boot. It's such a super tight fit tho. And, because I had to re-wrap my OEM harness and appear to have gotten the positioning of wires off a little, the TB plug from the harness won't reach the TB until I extend the wires. I am not going to remove everything and re-wrap that harness again. Hell no.

So, this is where I stopped. I was getting frustrated and burned out with the new issues popping up. So, called it a day and will pick up next weekend with a better attitude. Sometime, you just have to walk away and take a break for a while.

 

I have hit another snag.

The Haltech PnP is not so PnP, at least with my car. The ECU isn't getting power. I've verified the engine harness, traced wires and verified that power is going to the Haltech, but it appears to not be going to the right places. So either the adapter itself is wrong, the Haltech is fubar or the adapter harness is bad. Talking with the tuner tomorrow to see what we are going to do.

Otherwise, I've been able to crank the engine and verify it builds oil pressure. It was primed when we built the long block anyhow but it's good to know. Oil in the pan, coolant in the system, just needs burped. Power steering filled and needs burped as well. 10 gallons of 91 in the tank as of yesterday.

All the fuel lines are plumbed and I just need to verify fuel pressure and that there are no leaks and we can start it. But with the Haltech not getting power, neither does the fuel pump get the signal to fire up.

So close now. Ah well.



Customized Aluminti expansion tank bracket.





My wonderful fuel line routing and the bracket I made to mount the pressure regulator.





And I had to extend the wires for the throttle body. Probably a good thing since I discovered the OEM wire casings had cracked, exposing the wires.







Hopefully we can get the ECU sorted out by next weekend so we can do the first start and I can start driving it for the break-in period.

 

I miss my 2005 STi. I sold it a few years back, it needed a lot of work and I didn't have the time to do it. Now I really want to get back into another one. Looking forward to seeing how this turns out!

 

No progress on the car as of this weekend. Still waiting for the 14.7 Solutions Haltech adapter to come in. I have found out that most of the IC piping I have is not going to work with the Cobb air box nor the NA intake, so once I get the car running as NA, then it will be going down to my tuner's shop so that he can fabricate new IC piping for it. I can't weld aluminum, yet, so he needs to do that fab work. He will also be welding mounting bosses onto the intake for the top mount oil cooler for me. So I popped the old intake filter I still have onto the throttle body for now and fit the Cobb filter into place so the turbo is getting filtered air as well. Temporary setup, just to get the engine running. Hoping to have more substantial updates in the next week or 2.

 

Still collecting dust while we wait for the new Haltech adapter to ship from 14.7 Solutions. Supposed to go out this coming Monday. I cleaned and adjusted the hood latch since it wasn't closing all the way now that the under hood intake scoop is back in place. Installed the TBW undertray and then mounted the front bumper back on, just so the car is complete again when we get it running and take it down to the shop for the remaining fab work on the IC pipes and welding mount points for the top mount oil cooler to the intake. She needs a good bath too.

 

I try to avoid washing cars in AZ summer heat/ monsoon season. June-October is what I refer to as pig pen season.

 

I generally don't wash the 4Runner. The subie would be nice to but my driveway is too steep to push it out onto that and it has direct sunlight almost all day. So no wash until it's running and usually only in the evening when I finally don't have direct sunlight on the driveway.

 

Another 2 weeks gone and I'm STILL waiting for the 14.7 Haltech adapter to show up. So, we have decided to get the car down to the shop for the remaining fab work - IC pipe fab and welding brackets to the intake for the top mount oil cooler. I have a flatbed scheduled for tomorrow morning to take it down there.

In the meantime, I received new clips for the side skirts so I got those replaced and while I had the skirts off, gave them a really good cleaning, as well as the actual rocker panels on the car. Also replaced the little rear splash shields that attach to the side skirts with new ones.

Some of the old clips were OK but they were all just worn out and loose. Some not really even holding the skirts in place very well.



I only took pics of the driver side. Passenger side was just as grungy looking but they both cleaned up well.

Skirt off, rocker was horribly filthy underneath.



Pinch seams were all in decent shape. Driver side was the worst of it.





Cleaned up nicely.



Both skirts were filthy on the inside and some built up road grime on the outside around the jack points. Fortunately, all the inner white clips on both skirts were still in good shape, with none broken or missing.







New splash skirt.



And the cleaned skirt installed with new retaining clips and splash guards in the rear.

 

Sent her off to the shop this morning for the IC pipe fab work and welding mounts to the intake for the top mount oil cooler. And for the break in tune. Whenever the damn adapter arrives... First time it's been out of the garage since November 7, 2021.

 

Fuck that thing looks new

 

Looking great! Makes me miss my 04 WRX

 

Progress update! IC pipes have been made to fit the Cobb air box and my intercooler. Just the hot side needed the real change. They way we ran them, I lose the factory intake scoop but that's not a big deal really.



Waiting for the BOV flange to show up. Was supposed to be here Monday but it looks like it was missed or misplaced. That will be welded into the old pipe I have that we were able to reuse on the cold side.

Also got the oil cooler location planned out and should be getting the welding done for that next week or so. Hood will need a little trimming to clear the OC lines but not a big deal, you won't see that unless the hood is open anyhow.