RS wagon...

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El_Freddo
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Post by El_Freddo » Tue Nov 01, 2016 1:34 pm

That link isn't displaying on my outdated phone but I think I know the one, it's either the butane pen torch or one of those little oxy looking torch heads with the gas canister mounted under the handle.

It's pretty shit that this little seal is a pita to get/non existent - the pump works fine, I just want to replace it since I've got the whole thing out...

Engine wasn't picked up - there apparently having to bore out a second size up due to rust in one or more bores that didn't come out with the initial work.

Now that I'm essentially juggling the build of this and the Gen3 Lib I feel like I need to be more on my game as bits are ordered and come in etc. It's all good fun though!

Cheers

Bennie
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Post by El_Freddo » Sun Nov 13, 2016 12:03 am

Nothing ruins your build progress like this:

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:evil:

Bennie
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Post by Suby Spanner » Sun Nov 27, 2016 3:51 pm

I've seen far, far worse put back together. If it's just a stocky rig, it will be fine, but if you're gonna boost it hard, then the blow by may become an issue.

I'm not familiar enough with the blocks, but they should be able to sleeve it if you want to it to be perfect: The sleeves are that hard, they will likely never wear out :) I nearly did that to a Nissan RB26 block, but I ended up just getting another block. Still got that block, who knows, in the future I might sleeve it yet.

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Post by Bantum » Sun Nov 27, 2016 11:08 pm

I'd check to see where it sits at TDC - hopeful it's below the rings ?

Otherwise a bit more grinding might work too, although may need Oversize rings ?

Keep at it ... ;)

Ciao, Bantum ...

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Post by Donkeytits1 » Tue Nov 29, 2016 3:22 pm

Hmm. That patch is rather high up, meaning you'll have quite high gas pressures while the rings are passing over it.

Should be heaps of EJ20T blocks getting around. There's a fb page called BECAUSE RS and there are engines getting flogged on there all the time, both working and dead.

RS libs seem to be lucky in that they seem to have attracted a strong following of mechanics, tech heads and tinkerers - Rather than the gay stance nation fanbois that are all over WRX forums.

Same deal with this forum actually. It puts me in my happy place :)

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Post by El_Freddo » Tue Nov 29, 2016 5:51 pm

Not on bookface any more but know of the because RS mob. I've purchased a hoodie, shirt and high quality replacement sticker set from Sean :D

I'm not going to pursue the use of this block atm. These aren't dime a dozen due to being closed deck, same as they came from factory with the RS. Apparently subarus run tight tolerances so over sized rings aren't suitable.

Sleeves may be strong but fitting them has inherent risks of warping things and comes with a price tag I don't want to entertain either. Also with fitting sleeves you need to machine a hole to access the gudgeon pin.

I need to get cracking on this project again. Things *should* become easier with work easing up, the race will now be to get all the bits before the Xmas holidays.

Cheers

Bennie
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Post by Captain Obvious » Tue Nov 29, 2016 8:21 pm

opened up the block i sent down yet?
[SIGPIC]http://www.ausubaru.com/forum/image.php ... 1468060434[/SIGPIC]



The 4x4: 2004 Nissan Navara d22 ZD30 dual cab.
The Wifes car: 2005 SG9 Facelift forester 2.5l auto XS

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Post by El_Freddo » Thu Dec 01, 2016 7:56 pm

Captain Obvious wrote:opened up the block i sent down yet?
Not far off it atm! I'll get another block checked out and keep yours sealed up for the other longer term project ;)

I stumbled across a screen shot of a post I found on RS Lib club about using the NA EJ22 block with RS heads. It got me thinking again about a quick build to get me going so I can drive this thing while the other build trundles along...

That's about it for now. The only real things I've done is swap rims with the gen 3 (so now wearing the WRX rims) and turned it around to face the other direction in the shed...

Cheers

Bennie
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Re: RS wagon...

Post by El_Freddo » Sun Aug 16, 2020 3:37 am

Had a pretty big one on the RS today. Last week I was swapping the rear LHS driveshaft as it’s got a split boot. I ended up pulling the whole knuckle out with the driveshaft stuck in it. Hopefully a press does the job.

Earlier in the day I got stuck into stripping down a GT series 2 foz EJ205 engine. I’ve got some V1/2 heads to go on so I can run the stock engine management and avoid more wiring stuff. This in my mind was going to be a straight job of pull GT head off, put V1/2 head on, roll engine over and repeat... until I found this - different style piston! Left is stock EJ205, right is what was used with the V1/2 heads:

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After an initial flip out about valves possibly hitting pistons, I started a thread on the USMB as the RS lib site is about as busy as a graveyard... I ended up coming around to the fact I’ll have to swap pistons over. Fun fun. I’ll speak with the engine shop and see what they reckon. If they need to be swapped I’ll see if they can put the pistons in - the cost is what that decision will swing off!

While doing an inventory on pistons, I stumbled/found this issue on cylinder 2 on the engine that came in the car, it barely ran back then:

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That would explain the smoke screen this thing produced when the engine was under load! Cylinder 1 had ZERO big end bearing left (main issue!), so much so that the piston slapped the head and there wasn’t any knocking noises at the crank, just upper cylinder noise like a really bad lifter from an EA82 was in there. Anyone remember this?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mEExLcobeHs

After dinner I got the instrument cluster back lighting sorted with some LEDs from Jaycar. Apparently you can’t/it’s really hard to find incandescent globes for cluster back lights etc. wasn’t overly happy with this but went with it anyway. I forgot to grab a pic of the final product - here’s one when I test fitted two LEDs to see if it was going to work LEDs on the left, old globes on the right:

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Got some hot spots as you can see at 4000rpm and at 0rpm area. I played around with roughing up the dome curve section of the LED - it didn’t really work. Some white paint (industrial texta) on the same area toned them down nicely so I went ahead and did the rest of them. I’m quite happy with the results even though they’re not a warm white, they’re a little on the cool white side for me but it’s better than no back lights!

I pulled the dodgy HID kit the RS came with. So bad - super blue! In the process of doing this I had a freak out moment after I put the old skool and power hungry halogen lights back in. I tested them out and EVERYTHING died as soon as I flicked the lights on. Now, to do this testing, I had the RS jerry-rigged to power up the dash lights. The battery I have that fits the small terminal clamps had very poor charge left, so I ran the jumper cables from our Pajero to the RS - I made sure the starter and alternator ends of the positive cables were isolated so there weren’t any fireworks.

So I went through all the fuses including the one fusible link (why did they keep one of these?? Is it a throw back tribute to the MY and L series?), all checked out good. Racking my brains I wiggled the jumper cable clamps, no change. I also pulled the LHS light’s wiring as the factory plug was removed to fit the HID kit, three loose wires with aftermarket spade terminals, I was guessing the wiring of the light when I put the halogen globe in. While there I moved the negative jumper cable from a bracket that holds the fuse panel to the body mount for the earth strap. Bingo, everything worked and the RHS light worked as it should. I cross referenced the light’s wiring and both now work. I reckon the instant load of the lights created a high resistance point at the negative clamp. Moving the clamp location did the trick.

Homage to Barbachello over at Subyclub (he often posts pics like this on his builds a he pulls bits he doesn’t want/like/need):

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I decided to pull the ECU to check it out while I was in the driver’s area too. This is what I found, RS’s ECU on the right, a spare RS ECU on the left:

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The RS’s ECU has some dodgy looking twin wire setup hanging out one corner, nothing on the other end other than a pair of cleanly clipped wires cut on the same angle as each other. A good mate of mine threw a couple of these pics on facestalk and got a quick reply saying that it’s got an aftermarket VOS chip and that the twin wires (which one end has snapped off at the ECU motherboard) was for a switch for a high boost setting. Not knowing what the VOS entails, I won’t be using it until I understand it better.

A good day/night on the RS. I now know that all my lights except one side indicator are working. I’ll grab a replacement at some point. I’m having fun finding screws and things that I removed/packed up almost five years ago now. I’m glad a mate let me strip out a GX that he got for the engine last year. I kind of wish I went harder with more screws now!

Cheers

Bennie
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Re: RS wagon...

Post by Subyroo » Sun Aug 16, 2020 12:08 pm

You have been a busy little beaver Bennie. :lol: :lol:

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Re: RS wagon...

Post by 1WD-FOZ » Sun Aug 16, 2020 7:06 pm

Great work mate
Can’t wait to see her up and running

Cheers

1WD

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Re: RS wagon...

Post by El_Freddo » Sun Aug 16, 2020 8:12 pm

Subyroo wrote:
Sun Aug 16, 2020 12:08 pm
You have been a busy little beaver Bennie. :lol: :lol:
Trying to be! Another project has stalled completely so over to the RS goes all my efforts.
1WD-FOZ wrote:
Sun Aug 16, 2020 7:06 pm
Great work mate
Can’t wait to see her up and running
Thanks mate. I definitely cannot wait to see it up and running! It’s sat for way too long! Even just having the weight of the engine in the front end so it sits properly would be sweet at this point!

Still got some coin expenditure needed, that’s always a downer.

Now to wait another week and see what happens ;)

Cheers

Bennie
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Re: RS wagon...

Post by El_Freddo » Mon Aug 17, 2020 11:36 pm

Quick update:

Pics of the instrument cluster LED conversion - I wanted new incandescent globes but they apparently aren’t available anymore - or more to the point Jaycar sell more LEDs so they don’t stock the old globes.

Same pic as above: LEDs on left, incandescent on the right. No mods to LEDs:

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LED’s end dome painted with a white industrial texta, light setting at highest:

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Lowest setting:

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^ hot spots are very noticeable on the low setting, the camera highlights these really well as they don’t look this bad to the naked eye. I usually have the setting at mid to full depending on in town or country driving so this doesn’t bother me ;)

Things to tick off the list:
- WAIC pump refitted. I had to swap the main bracket over to match the bracket mounted off the side of the impeller housing, why did they make two different mounting setups for the same thing in one model??
- rear right drive shaft slides freely in the hub

Things to add to the list:
- remove driver’s seat and sort out the rear seat base to seat rail mounting.
- replace rear left tail light - I forgot this off the original list above. It has a small hole in the housing.

Engine build:
I’ve made up my mind - I’ll put the engine together and check rotational clearances. A member on the RS lib forum said he did it with a 2.6mm HG (THICK!) to help drop compression. I’ll be using stock HGs so we’ll see how this goes in the long run.

Cheers

Bennie
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Re: RS wagon...

Post by El_Freddo » Wed Aug 19, 2020 8:02 pm

Well this is frustrating to say the least:

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:evil: :evil: :evil:

Now assessing which way to go with this. I have several options, one could be a hone on that bore only, new rings and off we go.

Second is to throw the matching turbo pistons into a phase1 NA block that has low km and is currently in the shed.

Third is to throw either set of pistons into another NA block, but this one is a phase 2 block, basically the same as the EJ205 (but I believe it’s considered an EJ202). This engine is mocked up in another MY at my folk’s place.

There goes another month trying to get this going...

Not happy Jan!

Bennie
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Re: RS wagon...

Post by El_Freddo » Mon Aug 24, 2020 12:21 am

Today I started working on the tailgate swap. I was going to do it without removing the headlining - remove the hinge bolts on the taligate, pull the RS wiring out of the old gate and slide into the replacement. But while doing this (and investigating pulling the wiring from the vehicle) I was rather shocked to find condensation on the underside of the roof of the car above the roof lining. So I moved to pulling that out too. It was on the to do later list as it’s starting to sag in places. This is what I found:

Image

Further confirms with me why a shed would be ace... anyway, can’t do much about that atm.

I’m not sure where the moisture is getting in or if this is just a result of it currently living outside.

That’s all for now.

Cheers

Bennie
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Re: RS wagon...

Post by El_Freddo » Sun Apr 18, 2021 10:42 pm

After the last update little was done in all that time. Well, it seems small/little but it’s a big effort. I’ve wire wheeled the rust and acid treated it on the roof in the above pic, along the RHS upper door arches and across the top of the tailgate jamb on the main body - seems libertys like to peel paint then rust in this hard to see and access area.

I got a day to work on the RS, I and it needed this time. I decided to pull the outer trim off the LHS to check it all out and do it properly. These beasts aren’t like the MY or L series - can’t just pull one bit of trim off that you want to deal with...

To remove the roof garnish trims the door rubber seals and support panel/brackets need to be removed, as does the roof lining! To remove the roof lining the interior trim panels at each pillar, above the doors and wagon side windows needs to be removed. To do this you need to remove the rear cargo side trim pieces... see what I mean by not an easy job. So do the LHS while I have everything apart now.

This is where I realised how the water was getting in on the RHS, and I reckon my RS isn’t the only one out there doing this (while quietly rusting in sections under this):

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This is the factory silicone that seals the roof panel to rest of body pinch weld seam, it’s separated from the typical ridge cars had pre-90’s (and probably some in the 90’s). Get enough water in that ridge and it looks like it would use that gap as an outlet. I tested this with some grease and wax remover and I was sure this was the issue. So I went in deeper:

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^ some sections came off easy. At this point I was only using a flat head screw driver to scrape it off, this was relatively common along the ridge:

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The silicone hides this rust. If your RS or liberty of the same era lives inside but spent a good majority of its life outside, I dare say this will be occurring to yours too.

With more work via the wire wheel, I’ve currently got this result:

Image

Now to decide, after a treatment with the Rustbuster, do I paint with etch primer, red oxide or just silicone the seam with something like sikaflex then paint over the whole exposed area covering the sikaflex too? Is there a better silicone to use (have thought about three bond but think this might not be the best idea)?

The windscreen isn’t any better. With a windscreen replacement some time in its past, it lost paint around the windscreen area, couple this with a wobbly rubber sealing the windscreen that trapped dirt and water, you have a perfect environment for rust to form. Ultimately I want to pull the windscreen, if I was in a shed I would be looking down the barrel of that job right now. Here’s what’s there at the moment after cutting the rubber to the shape of the windscreen then wire wheeling the area the best I can:

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Here’s a section above the trim line that I was forced to treat, it’s already had the rust buster applied but will require a tidy up before paint:

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Currently the aim for this RS is to get into the rust while it’s still young and solve that issue. My RS won’t be the greatest example out there, but it will live on as an RS with plenty of the original RS spirit.

Once this stuff is all sorted out, I’ll get stuck into some mechanicals. I picked up a good TD05H to replace the one that was on there as it looks like the compressor wheel tried to eat something and it’s difficult to rotate like a bit of engine bearing is in the turbo bearing (highly likely!).

I would like to get the rear diff back in so it can roll again. It needs new seals. I’ve got what I need, just need time to do it then refit (the not fun bit).

I’ll leave off here as I’ve gone essay again. Hopefully the next update isn’t so long between drinks.

Cheers

Bennie
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Re: RS wagon...

Post by Silverbullet » Mon Apr 19, 2021 9:19 pm

Now to decide, after a treatment with the Rustbuster, do I paint with etch primer, red oxide or just silicone the seam with something like sikaflex then paint over the whole exposed area covering the sikaflex too?
IMO it's always best to coat bare metal with something like paint to bond to the steel and seal out moisture (etch primer doesn't seal out moisture BTW) Then seam sealer over that, then if you want it to look factory you can paint body color over the seam sealer as was done in the factory. If you've got time to get on Youtube check out "Project Binky". I think it was the last episode they did, painting a Mini body shell, they went into great detail about how they seam sealed the underside seams and painted over it.

It's great to see so much effort going in to save an old wagon by the way ;) Someone has to do it.

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Re: RS wagon...

Post by El_Freddo » Tue Apr 20, 2021 6:46 pm

Silverbullet wrote:
Mon Apr 19, 2021 9:19 pm
IMO it's always best to coat bare metal with something like paint to bond to the steel and seal out moisture (etch primer doesn't seal out moisture BTW) Then seam sealer over that, then if you want it to look factory you can paint body color over the seam sealer as was done in the factory. If you've got time to get on Youtube check out "Project Binky". I think it was the last episode they did, painting a Mini body shell, they went into great detail about how they seam sealed the underside seams and painted over it.
Good to know about the etch primer. Is regular primer the same? I’m following the Project Binky. Awesome series and an amazing amount of work for a vehicle that could potentially end up wrapped around a tree/on its lid in the racing they apparently plan to do in it. And don’t get me started on that paint job!!
Silverbullet wrote:
Mon Apr 19, 2021 9:19 pm
It's great to see so much effort going in to save an old wagon by the way ;) Someone has to do it.
I’d love to take it further with a full spray job - but I don’t have the time, she’d space or money for that amount of effort, even though I’m about 50% of the way to a fully stripped body...

Hopefully all this effort pays off for a long term rust free body with good mechanicals.

Cheers

Bennie
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Re: RS wagon...

Post by FujiFan » Wed Apr 21, 2021 11:58 pm

Amazing work Bennie. Finding time to work on our Subaru’s is a challenge. And thank you for sharing.
My daily drive these days is a 93 Lib Wag. And I more recently started on dropping the roof lining for repair, and let me just say it’s just like you described. I also wanted to remove the gutter garnish but for the purposes of cleaning then and a turret respray.
I got so much as what you have said to get the lining down, but stuff it I had no idea that the upper door seals and their frames needed removal also in order to remove the gutter trims 🤦🏼‍♂️

Anyways when I do that far I hope not to find the rust you have described in that region of the body. The Lib is rough body wise considering it’s history, though I have no concerns with rust that I am aware of.

Hope you are having good fortune getting an engine together for your RS. I recently scored a couple EG20s to learn about for a build.

Cheers
J

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Re: RS wagon...

Post by El_Freddo » Thu Apr 22, 2021 8:54 pm

Hey J,

Awesome score on some EJ20s! Phase 1 or 2? Easiest difference is in the cam covers - is the spark plug in the cam cover or separate? Phase 1 is separate, phase 2 is in the cam cover.

On the engine front it’s a war zone. I have several options that I’m not entirely happy with. First one is shoving turbo pistons and new rings into a low km NA block with an awesome bottom end. Fear of wasted effort and ring gaps that aren’t desirable (aftermarket with zero supporting info).

Two blocks to make one good one from. One has a shot bottom end and the other a leaking set of rings on cylinder 4...

The last effort was a GT foz that I purchased for the engine. It hit a roo and was pretty stuffed in the front end. Engine ran mint. Pulled heads and the left bank of cylinders had water damage in the bottom of them. Bore and hone required. Not keen.

Since then shed time is at a premium - the chasing of this water leak took my time between regular maintenance on our daily vehicles.

I keep reading from GD on the USMB that when you split an EJ block you need to do a line bore to get the main bearings properly in spec for the best longevity possible. I’m not keen on that and if I got to the point of a full engine rebuild I would seriously consider a new EJ207 factory block - drop the RS heads on and call it a day... but this build is about getting an average RS back on the road for small $$$s to enjoy it for what it is. I overpaid for it a number of years ago and made some silly choices back in the early days of the vehicle chasing the RS “purity”. Now I just want it running to enjoy the drive!!

That silly choice was me chasing an import EJ20G with the original heads from SSS automotive. I rang, paid etc but it turned out they didn’t have the early unit I was after but they were willing to ship me an early WRX EJ20G for the same price even though they went for a few hundred more. I should’ve gone that way as I’d probably be driving the bloody thing now!

So four (and a half-ish - long story!) house moves later the above update is where I’m at. It’s an Alice down the rabbit hole scenario in terms of body fixes and engine woes. Fun fun.

She’ll get there one day. I was hoping for 2020 but that didn’t make the finish line. 2021 finger’s crossed, even though I’ve got loads on with vehicle and trips etc planned later in the year! If it makes it to club rego early in 2022 I’ll be happy with that. Then on to other things!

Cheers

Bennie
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