you must be young :)

Myself I can't stand to work in the cold at all anymore.

Haha yea.. my 23 year old body dosent mind yet. Truth is im used to working in a 120 degree engine room wearing a full boiler suit.. so its a welcome change to be freezing my ass off instead of sweating my ass off.

Funny, I was just thinking how I could never do that anymore. Those days are luckily over. Nothing worse then busting your knuckles in the cold.

+1000 Jon this looks great!! i wish I would have been able to get around to something like this. There is always next year.

Don't forget those air-oil separator seals!!!

A few more small things done to the car today. I was hoping to get the positive battery cable between the alternator and starter put in today, but i really didnt have the time. With the current weather situation, it will probably be a couple days before ill be able to get under the car again. Anyway today i finally cleaned out the intercooler. Removal is pretty straight forward, but that plastic duct is a little annoying. I really had to muscle the intercooler out, all the while fearing that shroud was going to break.

I know prior to putting a catch can on the car i was getting alot of oil in the intercooler pipes, which means that was also in the intercooler also. I bought $2 of gas which worked out to be .8 gallons..which was actually the perfect amount to fill the entire intercooler once. I filled it up and let it sit about an hour, then sloshed it around and dumped it into a bin. What came out was pretty much black nast...it looked alot like black coffee right out of the pot. Afterwards i filled it up with dish detergent and hot water, then proceeded to flush out the intercooler about 10-15 times. It seems to be relativley clean now.

Here is the black nast that came out..

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...o/IMG_6744.jpg

I also fixed the fiberglass wrapping on the downpipe. Wormhole (whom i bought the turbo from) included the downpipe with the turbo and it was prewrapped. It was a bit loose on one end and starting to fray a little in the center. I used safety wire on the frayed portion to keep it intact and replaced the clamp on the end to secure the rest of the fiberglass sleeve. One thing i noticed everytime i moved the downpipe around was the fiberglass dust floating around in the air. So i bought a can of the 2000*F ThermoTec paint for the covering. The paint is supposed to seal the fiberglass making it more resistant to fluid soakings and also hardens the fiberglass a little so there is no dust floating around. So we are now emphysema free.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...o/IMG_6749.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...o/IMG_6750.jpg

With 6-7'' of snow expected tomorrow, rain the rest of the weekend and sub 30 degree days in the forecast, i dont think much else is going to get done. I still need to order the rest of hte parts i need anyhow.

If I were you I would upgrade the downpipe at this point - perfect opportunity and you will gain back some spool up that you lose with the bigger hotside

Yeah bad weather coming. This is going to be my first real winter mike please pray for me.

Believe me, i thought about going with a true 3'' downpipe. But this is what it came down too. The downpipe is $350. I thought to myself, if i go with a bigger downpipe, why not v-band flange the connection between the downpipe and the midpipe. Cost is now $430. If i go with a 3'' downpipe, then i minus well get the true 3'' SFR midpipe that does not have the reducer right by the downpipe flange, there goes another $650, granted some of that can be made back by selling my current SFR midpipe. So a 3'' downpipe effectivley would have put me another $900 in the hole until i atleast sold my current exhaust.

Truthfully removing the turbo was not such a horrible job, i can probably have everything apart again in the sub 4hr range. Plus everything will probably go apart a little easier having received liberal amounts of antiseize and the correct torque values! Next winters project, i am thinking a 2pc crossover, rod bearings and other associated bits for the bottom end. If i can afford it, then maybe ill do that 3'' downpipe also.

i don't think you need a v-band for the downpipe to midpipe, those 3 bolts are easy to get to

Exactly what I was thinking.. I do wish I had at least 3" after the downpipe (I currently have a 2 1/4 tip on my muffler. stupid PO:crying:) but damn it gets expensive\


One of these days soon we should get together for coffee/beer/lunch/whatev. Van and VoodooGTX are all pretty local + you've got George B right in Ulster Park. I'm in Kingston all the time (15min away) and just finished the semester so I actually have time.

Enjoy the snow. :evilgrin: What do you think so far?

A few deliveries today, received the new hardware and the LR turbo oil filter. Im still waiting for crush rings on the exhaust and a few other seals / hardware so i can finish the install which should arrive tuesday. The weather is going to be decent the first few days of next week so i am hopeful i will have everything done by Tuesday night.

The filter kit is pretty simple in terms of parts..

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...t/IMG_6767.jpg

This is the actual filter assembly, just a very fine mesh screen on the inside. My only complaint is there is no flat section machined onto the body of the filter to fit a wrench or anything.. so you essentially need to put it in a vice to hold it tight enough to remove the end caps. Not a big deal, but if your big on keeping everything looking perfect the finish gets messed up.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...t/IMG_6768.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...t/IMG_6769.jpg

New studs and copper locking nuts from ATPTurbo.Com

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...t/IMG_6770.jpg

I had to use a tap (M10x1.5) to clean up the threads on the hotside to get the studs to thread in completley..

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...t/IMG_6771.jpg

I also cut down one the studs slightly to make it easier to put the downpipe on.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...t/IMG_6772.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...t/IMG_6773.jpg

Wrapped downpipe with new hardware..

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...t/IMG_6774.jpg

nice progress.

I am a fan of this thread. Nice work and very well documented. :thumbup:

FYI - I sprayed my exhaust wrap with the same spray and it puts out a lot of smoke for the first few heat cycles. I originally thought it was an oil leak, but just some strange smelling smoke from the wrap spray.

Thanks for the heads up Mike. I was actually a little worried after spraying it about the paint burning off. I looked up a few threads on the Subaru forums about painting the heat wrap and all of them said something similar. I was more afraid of it igniting than smoking a bit, hence my paranoia. The car isnt going to get much more more than a few minutes of idling until March when i reregister and insure the car. It will be tempting to not for a quick run around the block..but ill have to resist the urge :).