Vanman 04 Blobeye Wagon build

[vanman23]

The prequel is that our son has our 05 OBXT and one of the idlers seized and broke the timing belt. After changing the timing belt, it still ran terrible so a tear down of the heads were next. We've never taken an engine out before but it looked easy enough on YouTube. So, we ended up taking the engine out.

We were going to take the heads to the machine shop to be surfaced but we all ended up getting Covid. During that time we were recuperating, I did some reading about the heads. We ended up measuring the heads for warpage. Using a mechanics straight edge we determined that the heads were within spec. We found 2 bent valves and replaced them. We lapped all the valves by hand and put the heads back on. A leak down test showed 5-10% leakage.

We put the engine back in and had a big leak at the intercooler and throttle. And some minor coolant leakage. All buttoned and everything is great so far.

Now I am emboldened to do something else. Enter this 04 blobeye wagon that had a blown engine. We trailered it home from NOLA.

I purchased a EJ255 longblock from a backyard mechanic that didn';t know how or maybe didn't want to set the lash properly. He said the engine had zero hour. So I bought it for $1200 which included a gates timing belt kit, a set of standard GSC valves and another pair of head blanks. When I measured the lash, it was completely off and had to get 6 buckets to get it right.

The plan is to do a hybrid swap running E85 looking for a relaible 400HP with the following:

JE Pistons for hybrid swap 9.5 CR
Manley Tuff H-Beam rods
OEM main and rod bearings
OEM crank
GSC valves
Super tech Beehive springs and retainers
Sti non AVCS exhaust cams
ID 1300 injectors
AEM 340 fuel pump
Blotch Dom 3.0 XRT 10" housing
Mamba 3" intake
Cobb AP
Replace all flexible tubing, coolant, vacuum, fuel with silicone tubing

Consider non DCCD 6 speed manual if I can get one at reasonable cost otherwise it'll be a South Bend stage 3 DD clutch

I am going to keep track of cost. I hope my wife doesn't see this. JK she doesn't care.

2/24/21
2004 WRX Wagon $2300
UHaul trailer rental $252
EJ255 longblock $1200
JE Pistons $575
AEM 340 $117
Manley H-Tuff rods $430
Radium Top feed rail $190
ID 1300 injectors $739
Aisin timing belt and water pump kit $268
Group N pitch stop $62
Group N motor mounts $141
Torque Solution Al cam seals $43
Spring Band hose clamps $10
G-Plus silicone Y pipe and coolant hoses $97
Exhaust manifold spreader (to split case halves) $10
Sti OEM TGV deletes $100
IGA phenolic spacer 3mm $50
OEM oil cooler $122
OEM 11mm oil pump $78
Generic Chinese bellmouth catless downpipe $119
Generic Chinese dual core radiator $93
Torque Solution cooling mod $63
Mamba 3 inch turbo inlet $149
Blouch Dom 3.0XTR 10 cm housing $1100
VHT wrinkle paint and other paints $40
Various gaskets OEM $98
Cobb AP $525
S20 Heads $425
non AVCS exhaust cams $175

Total $9571

Wow. That's a lot more than I thought. I sure there are other things I've missed or will be adding. I still have to get a clutch or transmission and a tune.

I'll update this list as more is added.

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[Scooby South]

Good luck.. if it lasts and is decent shape.. thats a minor investment on what you have going tho. Hopefully it all comes together.. and performs the way you want it to

[monkeyposeur]

Nice dude! Have fun!

A good alternative to a 6MT is a JDM 5MT w/4.444 FD. They are only about $1100 from JDMRacing motors. I love the gearing on mine and it's held 360whp easily.

You can also save money by using opensource tuning software. It's free and you can tune the ECU with just a laptop.

[D-Rodman]

Reads promising, going to subscribe and see where you take this ride. Thank you.

[vanman23]

Here we go.
I can not believe that those caps get torqued to 95 ft lb.

Tomorrow, I will put the case halves together.

[vanman23]

The shortblock is done. The hardest part was making sure the snap rings were seated for the wrist pins. I decided to use a 10 mm oil pump instead of an 11 mm because there is no AVCS. So,I’m waiting for that to come in. Still waiting for my valve springs and exhaust cams to get here so I can build the heads.

[vanman23]

I finally got my oil pump installed after 3 tries and wiping rtv off twice. The first time the oil seal got mangled as I was putting it on. The second time I forgot to put the o ring on and then the spring of the oil seal came off and I couldn’t get it back on without tearing and damaging the seal. The third time was the charm.

I’ve got the heads built. I measured the flatness and there were within spec so I didn’t have them machined. I grounded the valve buckets to get the lash within spec.

I put the right side head on with ARP 11mm studs and everything comes to a grinding halt. ARP sent me one nut that was a 1/2” instead of 9/16. So now I have to wait until Monday to contact them.

I guess I’ll work on the fuel pump and the 24 mm white line rear sway bay.

[vanman23]

I contacted ARP this morning. They were very apologetic and said that they would overnight new nuts to me and I’d have them tomorrow morning.

I got my fuel pump out. I had taken half the backseat out when I figured I’d be check if a wagon was different that a sedan since most videos were with sedans. It turns out that t is different, and I don’t even have to take out the backseat.

When I get the fuel pump out, interestingly, there’s a DW300 fuel pump installed. There’s also a fuel dampener just above the fuel pump. Does anybody have any idea if I should remove this? I sent this question to AEM.

[vanman23]

AEM said they didn’t have a model specific answer. The tech said he’d be inclined to leave them in. I think I’m going to remove them and replace them with dampers from radium.

It’s getting a little frustrating because the turbo housing is running into the case and then it can’t seat properly on the up pipe. It looks like I’m going to have to install the engine without the turbo and intake manifold on and then when it’s in the car, the turbo can sit properly and I can tighten everything up.

The timing belt is on. I should be able to get the clutch put on tomorrow and hopefully drop it in.

[stikid2005]

That motor looks very clean. Great work!

[vanman23]

Thanks. As I was waiting for parts and didn’t have anything else to do, I’d wash parts and paint them.

The clutch is on the engine. The throw out bearing and clutch fork are set. I’ll drop the engine in tomorrow.

[vanman23]

Before installing the engine, I decided to do a leak down test. The results were disappointing. cyl 1 12% with and intake leak. cyl 3 14% with and intake leak. cyl 2 3% with air in the case and cyl 4 9% with intake leak. I forgot to do a leak test test on the heads after getting it together. So I decided to pull the heads and inspect them. Here a video of the crude leak test I did.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1G0U...ew?usp=sharing

If the link doesn't work, here is the results. cyl 1 back intake valve leakage, cyl 3 front intake valve leakage. No leakage of any exhaust valves or intake valves on cyl 2 and 4.

So I relapped the leaking valves and did another leak test and no leaks in any valves. Then I put the heads back on and did another leak down test and got 3-5% on cyl 1, 3 and 2. cyl 4 still had 9% and an intake leak. I had the tgv off now and I could feel which valve was leaking. It was the front intake valve. So, off the head comes, and I relap that valve. I put the head back on and now 4% leak down on cyl 4.

Buttoned everything back up and now time to install.

[vanman23]

I’m not real happy about the fitment of the 10 cm Dom 3 with the 3 inch inlet. It looks as if I essentially have a 2.4 inch inlet now.