Introducing "Dirty Penny" - Former $2010[$2012] GRM Project, Running. Driving. Boosting. FUN! Options

[strawman]

Jamie, I finally got time to strip the Subaru EJ20 turbo shortblock and weigh it. I removed the oil pan & pick-up, oil pump, AC & alternator mounts, pulleys, sensors, tensioner & mount, and oil windage tray. As you can see, it weighs 95 pounds according to my old bathroom scale. If we add ~4 pounds for packing materials, it looks like it will cost ~$102 via Greyhound Sacramento to Austin. However, their maximum weight is 100 pounds, so there might be good reason for you to check other shipping methods.





I have never run this engine, so I don't know if there are any problems in the bottom end. But I cannot feel any movement in the rod bearings. The oil pan is clean without any metals debris, too, so there are no obvious problems. The cylinder walls look good, with no gouges at all.

Like I said, it is yours for the cost of shipping. Let me know if you're still interested.

[jpnovak]

I am opening this thread up again.

I have a new motor ready to go. Just need to install. I am still targeting the $2012 challenge on Sept 27-29.

[smj]

Woo hoo! Heartbreaking to read about what happened last year, but as the great philosopher Bullwinkle said, "This time for sure!"

[jpnovak]

So the usual parts of life have gotten in the way. It is hard to believe a year has gone by and Penny has been sitting in a field at my friends property outside town. I decided I had enough. Last night I hooked up the trailer and retrieved Penny. She is now comfortably back in the garage.

Since the new engine is still sitting on a dolly in the back of the garage I am starting the swap. Hopefully Penny will be back on the road in the next two weeks.

The good news is that the replacement engine was significantly cheaper than the previous one. I guess this means I have budget to actually do something with tires and suspension. Plus, I have all Spring to track the car and get her sorted.

Tonight I got the rear trunk lid off the car and found myself disconnecting all the wires and fuel lines. While I was at it, I disconnected the shift linkage, axles and pulled the muffler. All that is left to drop the motor are the two radiator hoses and the mounting bolts. Hopefully, this will go smoothly.

Once the dead engine is out of the car I will swap the engine wiring harness. Then its just a matter of bolting it back in and plugging it up. The battery is still at 12.9V after a year in storage. Love those Odyssey batteries.

[rnellums]

Did you ever find what failed?

[FourBlades]

Good luck with the car! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/piratenanner.gif)

Grassroots magazine really got me interested in car restoration.

I love their budget approach to motor sports.

John

[jersey914]

Yeah, what ever happened to cause the engine failure?

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/WTF.gif)

[jpnovak]

The engine failure was two fold.

1. The oil pan had been pushed in just slightly in shipping. This closed the gap to the oil pickup. It was not until I started doing high rpm pulls that this became a problem.

2. The oil pickup tube had a slight crack at the braze line. Apparently, this is a common problem.

After lots of reading you find that the rod bearings are crappy from the factory and any slight changes in oil pressure (even the wrong oil, including Mobil 1 synthetic) can cause a rod bearing to spin. It appears I may have spun several but I have not torn down the engine to find out. I will, in time.

The old motor is now out of the car and sitting on the floor. I will swap the engine wiring harness over the weekend and then bolt the new one in place.

Once the engine is wired and running I will be installing one of these reinforced oil pickups. If the budget allows I will also mount a reinforced oil pan.

http://www.killerbmotorsport.com/index_fil...ateOiPickup.htm

I cut the rear trunk and mounted the engine higher than most for more ground clearance. This helps but the sump is still vulnerable. I want every bit of protection. I am considering to make a skid plate that connects the center tunnel/fire wall to the engine mount. It will help should I ever "need" it. It would only take one OTE or road debris to make me have another really bad day.

[jpnovak]

This weekend I made a bit of progress. Both intakes are off each engine. The new engine has been pressure washed and is clean enough to install. Next I identified the components from Intake #1 (Dead engine) that need to go on Engine #2 (good engine). There are quite a few differences that will make switching the entire system over.

1. the original ej20g is a single turbo with wasted spark coils.
2. the new engine (ej20tt) is a twin turbo with coil on plug (COP).

The intake manifold for the wasted spark system is very different than the COP. IT has coil mounting bosses. I am running a MS2 and do not have room for two additional ports to run a full sequential COP. Plus I did not want to have to rewire the car. That was a nightmare in its own way. So the easiest solution is to take the turbo feed pipe from engine #2 and mount it on the wasted spark intake from #1 and keep the existing wiring from engine #1. I will have more time later this week to get this system back into the car.

[jpnovak]

Lots of progress today.

intake is on and sealed.
turbos and air intake are connected.
Most of the cooling lines on top of the motor are connected.
Wiring is all set to plug back in.

Then I was able to move the flywheel, clutch and PP to the new motor.

Tomorrow I should be ready to attach the transmission and bolt it in the car. Then I am just a few water lines, fuel lines and vacuum lines away from starting it up again.

It will feel really good to get this car running again.

[jpnovak]

Well, the drivetrain is back in the car. clutch alignment sucks on this car. Oh well, a few sockets and a layer of tape and it finally slid together quite smoothly.

I must say, the stock flywheel and clutch package is amazingly heavy. Next time its out I will put something lighter in the car.

What else, I installed a reinforced oil pickup. Even the new engine's oil pan was pushed in a bit. I had to clearance it with a deadblow hammer and wood drift. Let's just hope my oiling issues are a thing of the past.

Next step is to plug in the wires and connect a few fuel lines to see if it will fire up. That will happen in the next few days as soon as I get a jug of oil and a new filter.

I am SO ready to have this car back on the road.

[jersey914]

I can't imagine you'd could have the oil issues twice in a row

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/driving-girl.gif)

[jpnovak]

Let's hope not. My wife will probably want the car to go away if I have to go through this again.

[DBCooper]

Sorry I'm late with this, but I just saw this thead. Nice work, by the way. You mentioned the KillerBee pan and a reinforced pickup, did you get their windage tray? My son lost two engines in an autocross bug, N/A EJ22 with a shortened pan, and that was the solution. You should be able to make one pretty cheaply, it's mostly flat sheet stock and really only limits how much oil can leave the sump area in hard cornering. I can take photos and dimensions if that would help.

If you wife gets any more annoyed sign her up here and we'll tell her what great work you're doing and what a cool guy you are, get her to cut you some slack. SURE we would! Really!

.

[jpnovak]

I only used the oil pickup. I did not buy the pan nor the windage tray.

In my opinion the early ej20 has a much better oil pan setup in comparison to the later ones.

For example, the newer oil pans have no baffles. Only the STi has a triangulated corner and top baffle to prevent starvation. IN contrast, the early oil pan (circa mid-90s_ has a two layer baffle system. Let's just say, the new oil pickup tube would not clear. The lower rectangular pickup (very well built) was too large to fit inside the circular opening in the lower baffle. I spent 2 hours modifying the oil pan to make it clear. I had to cut the baffles and bend them out of the way to clear. Looks ugly inside but it does clear. Then I had to thoroughly clean the whole thing before putting it all back in. This also gave me a chance to clean out the bottom sludge. Not too bad but noticeable.

I am glad to hear that this solved the problem on the EJ22. I am not planning to shorten the oil pan.

I will just not run super low suspension setup to increase clearance. I will also be building a skid plate that connects the tunnel/firewall to the engine cradle. I would rather skip across an obsticle than rip out the bottom of the motor. I guess some shear bolts would also be an option on the oil pan.

the motor currently hangs down about even with the coolant lines under the car. At least those are flexible with 1/4" wall thickness. They can survive quite a bit of abrasion before having any leaks.

The new stiffer suspension setup will also help ward off compression based contact with the oil pan.

I admit my wife is very supportive of my car habit. I have been looking for an other 911 project and she said. go for it. It will either be an SC/Carrera based rally/rallyX car or a longhood with a small bore turbo flat six. Only the available market will make that decision.

[jpnovak]

Ready, Steady, GO!

So, Last night I discovered a dead fuel pump. I picked up a new one this morning on the way to work. My Local CarQuest will usually have what I want on the shelf. In this case, it was a nice, large replacement fuel pump. Worth the money.

Tonight I went out to troubleshoot. I connected the laptop and spun the motor. I thought this was a good time to verify signals since there was no fuel in the system. All sensors seem to be working just fine. HMM no tach signal. Bummer. I get out the O-scope and start testing. (see John, these are so useful) Crank position sensor is sending a nice strong signal. Cool. Cam sensor. Not so good. No signal at all. I check continuity between the plug and the ECU. Yep, All good. Must be a bad sensor. So, I swap the cam sensor between the old motor and the new one. Now I have a good clean signal.

Next, I swapped in the new fuel pump. Nothing like the smell of rancid gas. I drained about a half gallon into a container and it is indeed filled with a watery mess. Ethanol in fuel does cause problems and is probably the reason my fuel pump was dead. At least I replaced all the fuel lines when I cleaned the tank a few years ago. Now the pump Whirrs away and is relatively quiet compared to the previous one. While I was testing the pumps I also looked for fuel leaks. Aside from a few bubbles working their way through the fuel rail mounted regulator all was good.

I went back and turned the key. Tach signal was good and then the engine started to sputter. It was too late to fire it up but I know I will be able to start it easily once everything is connected.

Tomorrow I will start to connect up the vacuum hoses that run between the manifold, ECU, turbos, wastegates and BOVs. Its a mess on the top of the motor right now. There are also some breather tubes to connect and some water lines to plug. None of this is difficult, just time consuming.

I am hoping to take Penny around the block this weekend.

WooHoo!

[jersey914]

Can't wait to see Penny's 2012 version of buzz around the block!

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/driving-girl.gif)

[jpnovak]

Penny is alive. Started her up this morning after a few tanks of fresh gas. A little smoke, EFI is rich but nothing unexpected (MAP sensor disconnected).

I have 2 vacuum lines to finalize and then the cooling loop to connect. Maybe this afternoon I will get her out of the garage on her own power.

YES, a big milestone acheived.

[jtf914]

Congrats Jamie!!! Your projects are always interesting...

[jpnovak]

Well, She is not driving around the block yet but she does run.

Next step would be to fix the broken shift cable so that I can actually drive her.

I also found a reasonable deal on an early 911 suspension setup. Looks like a 5 bolt conversion might happen such that I can install some vented brakes up front to stand up to some repeated track laps.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2CpG1z3X9o...89KPnz2BIRICGig


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2CpG1z3X9o...89KPnz2BIRICGig