So Bedford didn't happen as they had 8 inches of snow across the circuit... We've been given a replacement date of 23rd Jan so just waiting to confirm if both Greg and I can make it....

In the last couple of months during the tinkering, the car has also had:

New PFR7B plugs (at 99,500 miles)
New neutral position sensor
Replacement crankshaft sensor
Oil/filter at about same mileage as plugs.

Think that's all :) I thought the above list might help with my service history records when i need to check back!

:ok: :ok:

Car feels nice now??

Just spent the last couple of hours reading through the whole thread. So much work done to the car I’m glad you didn’t get rid because of suspected head gasket issues. I’ve seen you’re also in Burgess Hill and it got me thinking I believe I parked next to you outside the dentist by Maccy D’s in town around June time, was it you?


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Thanks for taking a couple of hours to read through the thread, its been a long old journey having had the car for 12 years....

No idea if that was me parked there or not, might have been but I don't use the scoob much these days so not sure. Last year it did less than 500 miles between MOTs... probably should update this thread because I haven't posted in nearly 2 years!

Instead i spend my time driving around in the daily:
http://www.southeastscoobies.co.uk/v...ad.php?t=23338

I've certainly seen you about before though, if you get a wave/flash from a white beemer in future you know its me :lol:

I’ll keep an eye out and will read through the Beamer thread later.


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So.... I should probably update this as lots going on.... :ok:

I've been pondering an engine swap for a long time, but never quite got round to biting the bullet and doing it. Mine has had a hard life, sounded slappy when cold, needed a full cam belt change, had leaks from both rocker gaskets, and generally wasn't worth spending the money on.

A few years ago, I'd been up to Jap Performance to enquire about a JDM STI7 long engine with VF30 which at the time would have set me back about £2.5k, but then it would have brought the extra issues of AVCS on WRX wiring, an ECU swap, immobiliser/key swap etc. I worked out at the time that it would see me in at around £3.5k in parts before I got labour costs added in. I decided to sit on it and not bother.

Anyway, back to this year. In May or June as we were coming out of lockdown, I saw Benji advertise his WRX engine from a lower miles car which had run standard power on a TD04 nearly all of its life. It would be a straight swap and also came with:

- Brand new genuine 11mm oil pump
- New water pump
- New genuine thermostat
- New Gates cambelt kit with all tensioners/idlers
- New twinscroll sump fitted
- Tumbler butterfly valves removed
- Brand new alternator
- Recently cleaned and flow tested pink injectors.
- New later style plastic coolant header tank (my metal one is going rust and looks rubbish)
- Few other new hoses, shiny bits etc.

Basically a drop in engine. I jumped on it, along with a few other nice parts Benji had, and set about planning an engine swap. This is where the fun started... :mrgreen: :angst:

I wanted to tackle it myself in the garage as I'd never done an engine swap before, but was in no rush. It would also give me the chance to learn a bit more on the spanners, clean everything in the bay up nicely and replace any other tired looking parts as I go, with no problems if I needed to stop for week here and there whilst ordering parts.

Big thanks to CJ for the lend of an engine stand & hoist, plus Dave for another stand for the old engine while I stripped it for parts.

Anyway.... next post will have some photos of progress so far.

So, the replacement engine....

http://www.southeastscoobies.co.uk/v...628_112956.jpg

Shiny bits...

http://www.southeastscoobies.co.uk/v...625_220600.jpg

I checked a few things over and decided to replace the modine seal as that's failed on my scoob before. For £7 its a lot easier to do it now and clean everything up.

Old seal doesn't look great.

http://www.southeastscoobies.co.uk/v...809_151919.jpg

Cleaned, seal replaced and back together.

http://www.southeastscoobies.co.uk/v...809_173418.jpg

So, onto the removal of my old engine. I've done a fair bit of reading online and it seems there's nothing you can't learn on Youtube these days. I found a channel by some US guy who goes through every single step to pull a newage engine, which helped with advice and the best order to do things in.
https://www.youtube.com/c/SubaruONLY/videos
I know some of you can do this with your eyes closed but watching the process on youtube gave me the confidence that I wasn't going to screw up! :-D

Anyway, this is where we started...

http://www.southeastscoobies.co.uk/v...816_170215.jpg

Battery, washer fluid bottle, air box etc removed, coolant dropped and radiator out. Then onto the crankshaft pulley bolt - which was seriously tight! I'd read online that it was easier to remove whilst the engine was still bolted down, and to use the old aux belt wrapped around the alternator to stop the crankshaft from spinning. Worked in the end :ok:

http://www.southeastscoobies.co.uk/v...819_193518.jpg

You can see the general condition of the old engine. Surface rust, grime. Not terrible, and it worked fine - but just looked a bit tatty.

http://www.southeastscoobies.co.uk/v...817_223024.jpg

Good luck. Will you be keeping this engine standard in the hopes it will last?


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Next job... removing the alternator (which I wouldn't need), the air con compressor and power steering pump.

Both the a/c compressor and PS pump I left connected to hoses, but moved aside to allow the engine clearance to bit lifted. You can see the PS pump held in place with a bungy as it didn't want to stay there on its own!

http://www.southeastscoobies.co.uk/v...822_150216.jpg

Finding things like this.... not confidence inspiring when I think about the possible implications of dropping fluids on the Nurburgring. This is the hose at the back of engine (normally hidden under intercooler) that connects the heater matrix.

http://www.southeastscoobies.co.uk/v...816_200838.jpg

Out she comes :ok:

http://www.southeastscoobies.co.uk/v...822_180354.jpg

http://www.southeastscoobies.co.uk/v...822_180805.jpg

Standard-ish. Nothing changing on the internals. But I'll be sourcing a different turbo and getting it mapped to suit to hopefully get into the 300's.

So.... looking at the old engine that i'd just pulled.

I'd been lucky. The old cam belt had been rubbing the guide for years by the look of things. :shock:

http://www.southeastscoobies.co.uk/v...823_182017.jpg

http://www.southeastscoobies.co.uk/v...823_182410.jpg

General condition. OEM exhaust heatshields barely hanging on.

http://www.southeastscoobies.co.uk/v...823_182400.jpg

Yuk. Rocker cover gasket failure on both sides.

http://www.southeastscoobies.co.uk/v...829_161019.jpg

http://www.southeastscoobies.co.uk/v...829_162940.jpg

Well done Steve for having a go at this. Not having to keep to a timescale must help.

Now it was onto the cleanup phase of the empty bay. Everything was just grim. I started removing every bracket, fixing, anything that could be unbolted and cleaned it up. Metal brackets with surface rust were sanded down, rust treated and painted with metal paint.

Ended up draining the power steering fluid and removed all of the hoses/bottle for that to clean out, then separated the pump from the bracket to be cleaned and painted.

Then decided it was necessary to get the AC degassed (not to atmosphere) and remove the condenser. At the front of the car, it has a hard life. It looked grim, and the metal fins were all flakey. Another part to replace....

http://www.southeastscoobies.co.uk/v...916_190529.jpg

And this is where the fun really started. Underneath the AC condenser, hidden from view, and behind part of the wiring loom, I found this. :angst:

http://www.southeastscoobies.co.uk/v...919_231007.jpg

http://www.southeastscoobies.co.uk/v...919_231010.jpg

I've since done research online and found its a common newage problem - some people with blobs and hawks are in much worse condition than mine. After all, its been garaged most of its life. You know its a common problem when Subaru release a genuine repair panel!
https://www.importcarparts.co.uk/parts-info?id=11459
https://www.importcarparts.co.uk/pic...PAIR-KIT-1.jpg

The problem with this.... its weld in, not bolt in. So i've got to strip the front end down further and see what I find, and organise a mobile welder to come and help. And this is where I am at this point.

Bumper will hopefully be coming off this weekend and hopefully the rust is limited to the lower radiator support bar. But either way, it looks like the U-cradle will be coming off too for a checkover and cleanup. Might get it power coated before re-fitting.

Car as it sits today:
http://www.southeastscoobies.co.uk/v...922_215420.jpg

And replacement engine sitting ready to drop in. Power steering pump and AC compressor cleaned up and fitted.
http://www.southeastscoobies.co.uk/v...920_211617.jpg

Fun times! The receipts from ICP are certainly stacking up :lol:

Thanks mate. It's the only way I'd ever be able to do this myself. I was tempted to get Brent to just do the swap, he knows what he's doing and would probably have it done in a day. But then I'd learn nothing and this way gives me the chance to go through the whole front of the car, bit by bit.

Good job Steve, this is the state mine would be in if I had room to work around the car in the garage. I was worried I was going to find the same rust on mine when I pulled the radiator out but it was actually solid with minimal surface rust, the same panel is available for the classic which made me think it would be bad.

Not scare-mongering but the majority of the rust on mine was hidden by the AC condenser, even once the radiator was removed. Only because apparent when the condenser was out and the wiring loom pulled back out of the way.

Hopefully yours is fine, but I guess they get bad as nobody usually moves the condenser out the way due to the hassles of degassing the system.

You can see under the condenser on the classic, twas all good.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...3c1e4440_b.jpg

As Shane says, its alot more accessible on the classic.
When i swapped my radiator I just wiped my panels down with a baby wipe ;)

Started my one today and I never done anything like it before but as you said its good to learn and get to know your car. Im goingvto pull the gear box on my one as seals are leaking so ill get that done and have a gentle clean up but its rust free so not to bad a job.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...0d18d9fe9d.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...7f18f26f91.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...6fe138dc6d.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...ec06d36db2.jpg

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Good right up, and looks like your deep in it now, if you want advise on doing the repair panel let me know, ive replaced it properly using the oem lower panel.
Most uk newages will have gone or starting to go there, its a water trap, all the spray when driving in any wet weather goes in there and the grit etc rubs against the loom causing it just to rot out. The good thing is you can replace it like for like, its no way a structural point its simply there to hold the rads.
Good shout with the modine seal not something id seen before so very well noted.

EDITED: That camblet tho! You have been lucky ducky on that one...

Nice, I didn't realise there was so much difference in the front structure. They should have stuck with that design on the newage!

For sure. And if you've got the time and aren't rushed, why not. Saves paying someone else to do it. :)

Thanks mate. I got the front bumper off today and there's a few little rust spots but generally the rest of the front end/crash structure looks OK. Bit of rust treatment on a couple of areas and then a coat of stonechip or paint and will be fine. I'll definitely be getting the OEM repair panel and fixing it properly, but I've never welded before so not going to try myself - rather pay someone who knows what they're doing! :ok:

So... 6 weeks later and today was the first decent chance I've had to get out in the garage and crack on. Since my last post in this thread, I've basically had to work stupidly long hours (first couple of weeks were 100+ hours) due to an IT related disaster. Been a complete nightmare and I nearly quit several times but stuck it out in the end - mainly because they would force me to work my 3 months notice even if i left! The joys of working in IT Infrastructure.....

Anyway, enough of that. Scoob progress below :)

Bumper off to start the front end tear down.
http://www.southeastscoobies.co.uk/v...926_175411.jpg

Not much rust hiding elsewhere thankfully, just filthy dirty.
http://www.southeastscoobies.co.uk/v...003_154209.jpg

Front crash bar removed.
http://www.southeastscoobies.co.uk/v...003_155638.jpg

Need to work out the best option to replace this - its where the external air temp sensor goes and is rusted to feck. Its spot welded to the lower radiator support panel which is being replaced, but the new panel didn't come with one. Might be able to fabricate something but I've never really worked with sheet metal before. Either that or just cable tie the temp sensor up somewhere afterwards!
http://www.southeastscoobies.co.uk/v...003_161218.jpg

Front U frame removed, surprised how easily all the bolts came off. I was dreading one of them snapping but all good :ok: Not sure whether to get this blasted and power coated or just try and find a replacement. It'll clean up alright but there is some internal rust that the blaster won't get too. Nothing bad but still....
http://www.southeastscoobies.co.uk/v...031_174842.jpg

Front subframe cleaned, few rust spots treated and then painted to keep the moisture out.
http://www.southeastscoobies.co.uk/v...031_175647.jpg


And then the fun started... drilling out all of the spot welds to remove the old rusty section!

http://www.southeastscoobies.co.uk/v...107_141336.jpg

Hmmmm... never done this before :angst:

http://www.southeastscoobies.co.uk/v...107_141549.jpg

New section held in place with a couple of clamps and ready for welding.

http://www.southeastscoobies.co.uk/v...107_164847.jpg

http://www.southeastscoobies.co.uk/v...107_164900.jpg

And a photo of the junk that came out!

http://www.southeastscoobies.co.uk/v...107_165815.jpg

Hopefully once all welded up and painted, I can start putting things back together. What started as just an engine swap has morphed into a bigger project than expected...

Well done Steve, all the more because it doesn't look like you have a lot of room in your garage.

Any progress with the car Steve?

Not too much, work is still winning the fight for my time over the last month. The lower repair panel is all welded in now, thanks to CJ. I've flattened back the plug welds and etch primered it to keep the moisture out and that's how it sits at the moment.

Hoping to get some time out there this weekend and I'll try and get some pics up of progress as I go :ok:

New Year update! It's been cold and wet and my enthusiasm for getting out in the garage isn't really there at the moment. But on the plus side, some progress has been made here and there... the engine came out 3 months ago and I'd hoped the car would be on the road before Christmas. Well, that was the plan until I found the rust. :angst: Anyway, its all sorted now :ok:

New section welded in (thanks CJ!) and then etch primered.

http://www.southeastscoobies.co.uk/v...206_153009.jpg

And then a coat of black.

http://www.southeastscoobies.co.uk/v...212_123917.jpg

Followed by a coat of stonechip and then two coats of heavy duty lacquer.
Both front chassis legs, the new welded in section, and the front crash beam (once painted) were then all treated to a couple of internal coats of cavity wax as well. I don't want this rusting again! :-D

http://www.southeastscoobies.co.uk/v...102_155505.jpg

Wiring loom run back in place with new clips, with the new radiator supports/rubbers. Finally, things are going back on the car rather than coming off!

http://www.southeastscoobies.co.uk/v...102_203749.jpg


Front crash bar was cleaned down, rust spots treated with converter, then etch primered, painted and then two coats of heavy duty lacquer. The paint was ordered online and is supposedly Subaru 'True Blue' - colour code CS31, which is what the WR blue cars have as their internal engine bay colour. At least according the the info I could find online.

Either way, the match is nowhere near. It's not really as purple as it looks in the below picture, but its still not close.

http://www.southeastscoobies.co.uk/v...102_160052.jpg

And refitted to the car - see how much darker the paint is. :?
Oh well, its not actually visible once all back together so it's not a problem. At least it'll keep it corrosion free for the next decade or so!

http://www.southeastscoobies.co.uk/v...108_113646.jpg

Other things done.... power steering cooler has been stripped, primered and painted black as it was all chipped, now back on the car. Horns have had the same treatment. Pretty much all fixings are being replaced as I go with shiny new ones.

And bumper refitted yesterday. Well, hung on the car anyway. Have all the plastics clips ordered new from ICP so they'll be getting done and arch liners clipped back up tomorrow hopefully.

http://www.southeastscoobies.co.uk/v...108_114130.jpg

Only other stuff done lately.... rusty old front ARB (oem Subaru) is in the bin and new whiteline upgrade fitted. Droplinks were already whiteline adjustables and have just been cleaned up.

http://www.southeastscoobies.co.uk/v...102_155544.jpg

Getting there, bit by bit! The struggle now is going to be remembering where everything goes - and where I've put all the bits while they're off the car!

Take your time Steve, not as if there's any rush to get it finished so you can continue to do do things properly. Mine came out of the garage earlier so I could work on the Passat and then went back in again, considering SORNing it seems pointless paying the road tax at the moment.

Just a point on the front support - Having seen the state of mine on the Legacy Hallie made a good point that you should paint the bolt on radiator support brackets as well as the welded in piece as they rust and transfer it to the cross member - don't leave them as bare metal as that where the rot starts.

Thanks Shane. I didn't SORN mine either, thinking it would only be off the road for a couple of months. And then the thought didn't cross my mind again. It'll have been 5 months in a week or so.... :rolleyes: I'll go and do it now, will probably still save me the best part of £100 at roughly 30 quid a month.

Thanks for the heads up. I was considering it but got into the swing of putting things back together too much! But its probably good advice so i'll do it, I've got plenty of paint/lacquer left over!

Looks really good and rust free.

Lots of good work going on there Steve. Interesting about car insurance. Here in France it's the car which is insured not the driver. Also if you own the car it has to be insured if it's on the road or not. Your insurance will automatically renew unless you can produce official confirmation that you have changed insurance companies, the car has been sold or scrapped. Lot less uninsured drivers here.

Just SORNd mine before I get stung for February, maybe it will motivate me to start taking it apart if I know there's no chance of me driving it.

I reversed mine onto the drive at the weekend. So comforting to know I had tax and insurance cover in place.
It even got rained on.

Getting there slowly! Really limited on the amount of time I can spend in the garage but little bits of progress are being made.

Decided to take the morette headlights apart before refitting them, give them a good clean up and checkover. All good though and refitted.

http://www.southeastscoobies.co.uk/v...117_162400.jpg

http://www.southeastscoobies.co.uk/v...117_165738.jpg

I'd had a rusty patch on the front slam panel near the bonnet latch (you can see it in the photo above). Ground it back to fresh metal and treated it, then cleaned, filler, primer, paint etc and its looking much better now.

Anyway, main news... engine went in a few weeks ago!

http://www.southeastscoobies.co.uk/v...210_163603.jpg

http://www.southeastscoobies.co.uk/v...221_212022.jpg

Since then, its been a case of connecting things back up, trying to remember where things go, buying more shiny bits etc. I'm keeping the A/C despite the weight, but the old condenser was grim so it went in the bin.

http://www.southeastscoobies.co.uk/v...301_132643.jpg

http://www.southeastscoobies.co.uk/v...306_161322.jpg

Other stuff...
- Replaced coolant hoses to the heater matrix, they looked pretty tired.
- New Group N pitch stop mount.
- Reconnected up power steering system
- Replaced fuel filter and cut/replaced new fuel lines from the metal hard lines to engine. They were probably fine but one of the old sections looked a bit perished so safest to do the lot.
- Installed nearly new washer bottle.
- New aux belts installed, AC belt is hanging free until compressor is reinstalled.
- Radiator installed.

http://www.southeastscoobies.co.uk/v...306_174446.jpg

And that's where I am today. Still a long list of small jobs to tackle, but i'm in no rush. And this turned up today :ok: Shiny new rebuilt TD04L-19T hybrid. Should make 320-330bhp (I hope) with nice low down spool. Need to transfer the pipes over from my current TD04 but looking forward to getting that in.

http://www.southeastscoobies.co.uk/v.../newturbo.jpeg

Hopefully in a couple of weeks it'll be ready to start. I know that sounds ages, but i'm only getting a couple of hours a week out in the garage. Getting impatient :-D

Excellent work Steve. Car looks quite a snug fit in your garage so make sure you don't put on any weight. ��

Yes Terry. Its pretty tight on width but i've got plenty of space in front of the car to work in at least.

Looking good .

So.... the scoob is pretty much done bar a few small things :) but I did have a worrying moment or two along the way...

Installed turbo, downpipe and then finished connecting everything else up - battery in, airbox assembly with new Apexi panel filter, all fluids in, getting ready for that first start.

http://www.southeastscoobies.co.uk/v...328_163850.jpg

http://www.southeastscoobies.co.uk/v...328_164349.jpg

Checked and double checked everything, so unplugged the crank sensor and fuse 11 (ignition) and cranked it over to build oil pressure. I'd read online that a good way to check oil is getting around everywhere was to unplug the oil feed line from the top of the turbo and put it into a bag (so not to make a mess!) as this is pretty much the last place to get oil when all is working.

Engine turned over as expected without starting, all sounded good. Gave it a few 15-20 second cranks and no oil at the turbo. Back to Google :lol:
Turns out that when the engine has been sat sometimes the oil pump can't prime easily if the oil filter has been pre-filled - that acts as a block in the system and the oil pump can't push the air through the oil filter (its a fluid pump, not an air pump...). The trick is to remove the oil filter, crank until there's oil coming out the filter hole, then whack the pre-filled filter back on and try again. Worked like a peach, got oil to the turbo and oil pressure light on dash went out too. Happy days.

Final checkover.... then fuse back in, crank sensor reconnected and off we go. Engine started up first time. And i switched it straight back off as my heart sank. Metal on metal grinding clattering noises coming from the bay. :boom:

Now i'm not a mechanic, but I couldn't believe the engine itself was the problem. It wasn't the usual knocking you get from Subaru engines.... It turned over on the starter motor fine with no noises and I'd done everything right to ensure good oil pressure. And whilst I was on my own, I couldn't easily diagnose where the sound was coming from. It sounded so bad I started the engine and then switched it off immediately, so I was at the drivers door with the key in the ignition the whole time, with bonnet up getting in the way of the sound too. Managed to rope in the old man for half hour and got him to listen whilst I did it again... noise was coming from back of engine/bell housing.

Further investigation under the car found the problem... when lowering the engine in, the clutch cover thing (this part - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Flywheel-...-/283552041663 ) had snagged on the gearbox bell housing and one side had rucked up inside the clutch/flywheel space. Was pretty hard to see as the part is sandwiched between the engine, gearbox and subframe. Access was a pig, but I managed to undo the bell housing bolts, remove starter, undo engine mounts and then jack engine carefully by sump (I used a plank of wood with a nice thick piece of foam on it!) so get enough clearance to remove the bolts and whip it out.

http://www.southeastscoobies.co.uk/v...403_120349.jpg

You can see the scoring on it, it had been touching on the clutch housing. Anyway, all reassembled and went for another start. And she ran fine. Phew :-D

Out the garage for a wash!

http://www.southeastscoobies.co.uk/v...404_172609.jpg

http://www.southeastscoobies.co.uk/v...404_172650.jpg

Done a few miles since and all seems good, although all off-boost until it gets mapped. I've got to replace the O2 sensor as that's thrown a CEL that the heater element in it has failed but no major issue.

It's been a long, sometimes frustrating, but ultimately satisfying journey...!! :drive: