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Sterling#S009 EJ25D Rebuild

letterman7

Honorary Admin
I just think it's fascinating all the same. I've never rebuilt an engine and have no want to do so. I don't have the patience for all the minute details that are needed, especially for an engine like this with so many close tolerance parts.
 

Brett Proctor

Well-known member
Cylinders are coated with the same oil that I'll run in it(pistons are coated also). One thing to mention here is I will use only paper towels or air to clean the engine with. The reason that I use paper towels instead of cloth is that I had a freind that rebuilt motors but used cloth towels instead of paper. Shortly after rebuilding a motor it seized up. He took it apart and found that cloth fibers from the cloth rag he used had pluged the oil pickup screen. Paper fibers(if left behind)will break down alot easier than cloth fibers will. So I use a good quality paper towel that doesn't fall apart to wipe things down with.
EJ25D 105.jpg

With this engine the pistons aren't attactched to the rods untill the pistons are installed into the cylinders
EJ25D 108.jpg

Wrist pins are lubed with assy. lube before being installed
EJ25D 102.jpg

Pistons are lowered into the cylinder till they line up with the access hole where the wrist pin will be installed.
EJ25D 103.jpg

After the wrist pin is installed the circlip is installed that holds the wrist pin in. One thing I guess I should mention is the other circlip on the other side of the piston was installed before the piston was installed
EJ25D 099.jpg
 

letterman7

Honorary Admin
That's interesting how the engine was designed to access the pins after the piston was installed! I wonder if that was pre-emptive if one cylinder got damaged or something...

Very cool, Brett!
 

Brett Proctor

Well-known member
If you look at my build journal where I have the cases split you can see that the webbing in the cases would make it impossible to get the cases apart without taking it apart this way. They built one strong case. One thing I'm kind on concerned with is their tight tolerances. This engine doesn't have any slop in it at all.

OK its been about a week since I posted last and here's whats going on. I can not stress this enough GET THE FACTORY GASKET KIT. I have spent so much on orings and gaskets and seals that didn't come in the cometic gasket kit that the price of the subaru kit would have been well worth it.
Right now I have valve shims on order and when they come in I can button up the heads. I've replaced all of the vacum lines and the intake manifold is installed. I was getting ready to install the wiring hareness for the engine when I noticed a few wires that weren't in the greatest shape so I'm going to keep an eye open at the pick a part yards for another engine wiring hareness. The gasket kit didn't come with a EGR or a idle air control valve gasket and quess what ....No one in town has one either so thats on order too.

So not to much going on.

Brett
 

Brett Proctor

Well-known member
Here's some usefull info for Subaru people that I stumbled across

If you have an oil leak in the back of the motor it may not be the rear seal. The Subaru guys told me its a common mistake that shops make. They replace the rear seal and the they still have a leak. There is a plastic plate in the back that breaks and this is were the leak is at. The new plate I hear is metal so Subaru fixed the problem. That should be here today
I found this out because while I was tightening it down to factory specs mine broke so I went down to Subaru to get a new one.

This is the plate and by the paint mark on it somebody pulled this one out of a junk yard so its been replaced once already
EJ25D Rebuild 013.jpg
 

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ydeardorff

New member
Very nice work there brett!
I wonder how much complicated a turbo build is? I bet ALL the parts are more expensive! LOL:D
 

Brett Proctor

Well-known member
Thanks Yaughn. I didn't go into much detail on the rebuild.

On your engine it shouldn't be much different. I like to stick to the factory specs when rebuilding, after all they designed it and it has a good history of staying together so why change things.

Go to this site Subaru Technical Information System and purchase the factory manual for your engine. They also have the emissions, wiring, fuel, and what ever else you'll need for your getting your engine running. I down loaded everything I needed, put it on a disk then made a paper print out of it.(It helps when your in the garage with no computer and you need to look something up)
After that just start too read up on it so when your ready to rebuild you'll have a good idea of what it'll take.

And get the complete gasket kit from Subaru. My mistake was getting an after market one.
One cool thing about Subaru is they have the piston size and bearing sizes stamped on the block so you know whats in there before you take it apart. Another thing is they already had the rod caps, cam caps and mains stamped with what cylinder they came from.

I should have the engine back together today or tomorrow. Got busy with some honey do's on the house plus my kid brought home a german shepard puppy that he found so we've been putting in doggy doors and all the fun stuff that go's with having a puppy. Things just keep popping up.


Brett
 
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Brett Proctor

Well-known member
Just an update of whats going on.

As stated I was having problems posting pictures so I stopped trying.

I'm waiting for a special tool to hold the cam sprockets in place so I can tighten the cam sprockets to the 50 ft/lb that is required. After that the engine will be installed and I'll start looking at building the exhaust for it. Exhaust will be built using stainless steel tubing and I don't want to have the tubes just sticking out the back to exit. I think thats ugly. I want them to blend in and look like part of the car. I still haven't got it all figured out but thats what I'd like to do. Once I get the engine installed and see what my options are for routing the exhaust I'll see what I can come up with.

Brett
 

Brett Proctor

Well-known member
images


I was thinking of something that doesn't look like an exhaust and blends into the body work.

This is the hood vent on a jaguar but I was thinking of something like this maybe mounted on the sides. Now how I would build it into the car and not have the glass catch fire, That will be another problem to resolve.

Thats just what I would like to do but reality may prevail and I'll have to do a conventional exhaust exit. Once I get the engine installed then I'll have a better idea of what can be done.

Brett
 

Brett Proctor

Well-known member
Thought I'd revisit this post and add alittle more to it.

If some of you remember I cut 2" out of the stock oil pan to give me more ground clearance. Well after doing that it never did set right with me about loosing that much oil capacity. So I searched the web for a low profile oil pan that retained the oem oil capacity.
The majority all were cut oem oil pans but I found one that wasn't. It's 2" shorter than stock and holds 5qt's of oil and it bolted up with no issues and it retains the stock dip stick that measures the correct oil level. Its made out of aluminum so it should help dissapate the heat better too.

With those space saver tires that are on the car now the ground clearance is 6" at the oil pan
 

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letterman7

Honorary Admin
Purdy! Nice to see there is a huge aftermarket for those engines. Seems like VW, Subaru has their own share of (usually) quality aftermarket.
 
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