2006 Subie STI rebuild

Dude, you aren't kidding. The black shit that came outta those seats when I was cleaning them....

 

you did a great job so far buddy; makes me think I should just keep my 09 forester. been sitting at shop for months to do head gasket & rear wheel bearings. friends shop so can sit for ever no one cares

I have it posted for $6800 canadian on market place; its got high km. 320000km but within the last 1k I had replaced;

full exhaust system so new cats and all
timing belt
water pump
thermostat
steering pump
a/c condenser
spark plugs

then the head gasket went... and I had already ordered the wheel bearings for the rear....... so I said fuck this shit I need something reliable and financed the tacoma

oh at around 260 the original motor died ...... so replaced that and now sitting at 320, literally just sitting

part of the post says $4k without the head gasket being done, and you get the bearings

 

Been a busy weekend so far. Going to finish things up under the hood today. Friday, I had some issues with one of the intercooler hoses that kept popping off, so I replaced both hoses on the intercooler, which meant I pulled all the IC piping, cleaned all the connecting hoses and finally know what size I need to get ordered to replace all them. Saturday was install day for the air oil separator. For those that don't know what that is, an AOS is very much like a catch can but instead of having to drain the catch can every so often, the AOS is plumbed back to the crank case to allow it to drain by itself. So maintenance free. And some of them, such as the one I have from IAG, have coolant lines running to them as well. It all ties into the PCV system and is a necessity on boosted Subies. And since I had to remove all the IC piping again, that gave me easier access to the turbo, so I got the new turbo blanket installed to help with underhood temps a little as well. And I've been able to replace a bunch more old rubber lines that had become hard with heat and age. Only lines remaining are the ones that are under the intake manifold, so they will have to wait for a bit.

Not a bunch of pics as I was just busting ass getting work done.

Since I had the front bumper cover off, I painted the front mount black. Not the greatest pic but it looks much better. Been lots of cleaning both up front and under the hood too.



Throttle body off, that also got cleaned. I have a new pitch stop mount on order to replace the stock one. That's the dog bone looking thing running from the firewall to the top of the bellhousing. It prevents the engine torqueing back and up under power, which is an issue with Subie pancake engines.



The IAG AOS mounted and some of the lines attached. The 2 off the bottom are the coolant lines, the top runs to the intake manifold..



Turbo blanket installed and more AOS lines ran with heat covers on them. The bottom line with the heat cover is the return line to the crank case. Installing the turbo blanket with the turbo in the engine bay was rather challenging. Probably not the recommended way but I don't have new gaskets on hand so didn't want to remove it. The blanket is on there pretty good tho and won't move around. I need to look into getting an additional heat shield for it.





And where I stopped for the day. Just 2 more lines to hook up at the top of the AOS, the 2 breather lines that will run to the intake hose before the turbo. I put caps on them to keep shit out while working on things.



I'll get it all finished up this morning and get the IC pipes reinstalled.

 

Having the IC boots blow off really sucks. Have you heard about hair spray? It's a trick I learned from my 6.0l. a little hair spray on the connections once they're nice and clean helps add a little stick to make it harder for the boot to slide when clamped. I keep a travel size can in my toolbox for it.

 

I hadn't heard of that but it makes sense. Guess I'll have to go get some. New boots properly installed made a huge difference tho. I need to order better boots either way, partly because I want to get rid of the blue but I know the boots I have now are old and not the greatest quality. Be placing an order with siliconeintakes.com soon.

 

New boots definitely seem to stay put better. The old ones seem to dry out and not hold as well.

I think that's where I got the kit to replace my vacuum lines, they seem to be holding up well years later.

You gonna try and add any more power or just freshen it up as it is?

 

I wonder if painting the intercooler might inhibit heat transfer through the fins a little bit.

 

Someone actually tested that. Can’t remember who. Was a YouTube video I think.
No idea the results though.

 

superb job with the seat and carpet cleaning

 

For now, it's just freshen it up and make it reliable, at least as reliable as a Subaru can get Maybe a bigger turbo and top feed injectors down the road, shoot for around 450-ish whp. But that will be it.

Shouldn't at all. Plenty of intercoolers come brand new painted or powder coated. And the paint is ceramic engine paint, so should transfer heat just fine. Also think about engine radiators that get painted black. Still transfer heat without an issue.

 

Got the AOS and other stuff done today. Took it out for a quick spin and it's still running strong. Hit a max of around 17lbs boost and all the IC pipe hoses stayed in place too. Still going to replace them all. The majority of the rubber vacuum lines and PCV lines have now been replaced. Need to pull the intake to do the rest.



Replace all the headlight bulbs with new Osram stuff.



Front bumper cover back on. Both side grill pices broke when I was taking the cover off. the PO had broken them when installing the silver mesh screen and tried glueing it all back together but that had long ago failed. So I'll have to replace those at some point.



Figured out why the oil temp gauge wasn't working in the dash gauge pod in the center of the dash. The temp sensor in the sandwich plate is broken and fell apart when I touched it. Pulled the wiring out a ways and wrapped it in Tesa tape and then put it in wire accordion casing and wrapped it in more Tesa tape. Have a new temp sensor on order. Of course, when I shoved the broken piece back in the sensor housing, it started working

 

Found my missing 3rd brake light that goes in the wing. The PO or body shop had stuffed it behind the rear bumper cover when they repainted the trunk and removed the wing. PITA getting the bumper cover off, since I had never done it before. The brake light was double sided taped to the foam bumper insert. Now, with the cover off, I have a ton of cleaning to do before I reinstall it. But, I got the brake light remounted to the wing after wrapping the wires in some fresh Tesa tape and verified it's still working. Amazingly, the paint on the light is still in decent shape too.

 

man how do you have all this time?!

 

I did that in a couple hours after work last night. The rest of it was done over the last couple weekends. I'm also single with no kids to worry about any longer.

Start work earlier! I'm usually at work at 7am and off by 4pm, sometimes earlier.

 

fair enough. not too shabby, kids are older I am assuming ?

I worked in a warehouse for about 8 years, a very privileged shift. some times 5-noon and if need be 6-noon. Had whole day to myself, kind of, exgf and newborn last few years of that stage in my life.

Now I work office/field job 815-430, current gf and toddler kill the rest of the day! aaah the joy eh

can't recall the last time I had 30 mins to myself in peace; all in due time eh

 

Yeah, my daughter is 28 now. No grandkids yet either. Gotta keep busy somehow, so I fuck around with the 4Runner and now the Subie!

 

Dan and I expect this vehicle to be finished NLT Dec of this year

 

It runs and drives right now, nothing to finish! Only reason I'm not driving it now are the tires are shot. I have new wheels and tires ordered, just waiting for a ship date.

Any and all work I'm doing now is while waiting for the new rubber. Unlike Dans', the car is whole and works

 

my MR2 will be running before you have this thing daily able


the tacoma should be a rolling frame with power train by then...

 

I had that same exact car.
170k hard_ driving like and asshole miles and it never let me down.

Enjoy its fun to drive..