2013 Subaru BRZ - the "salaryman" build

In reply to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ :

The big ones is a set of new motor mounts as the old ones have 150k on them. Other than that, new flywheel bolts, the little L-shaped clutch cover under the engine plus its mounting bolts, and the foam surrounding the radiator. The foam we may be able to salvage from the current radiator as I put new pieces on when I put the car together.

In reply to BoxheadTim :

I don't have new stuff for any of that, could probably find good used stuff for you.  You don't want my stock motor mounts either, I can tell you that.

In reply to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ :

Thanks. The motor mounts really are kind of the biggie, the clutch cover is more of a nice to have and I think most of the rest we could reuse the parts on the car even if that's not 100% advisable.

It's a bit of a joke by now that the whole endeavour is held up by about $300 of OEM parts...

I'm having a similar problem getting parts for my step-daughter's Focus.  The original order for drive axles was canceled after a week with no reason communicated, and the second order took over two weeks.  Now I'm waiting on an order for the hardware that should be replaced with the axles.  The pinch bolts for the knuckles just aren't available, and something else was a special order.  It must be horrible running a professional shop right now.

In reply to JoeTR6 :

I don't envy anybody whose business relies on shipping physical goods right now. One of my colleagues is big into fishing and he's been having issues getting parts for his boat. Same thing - "we'd love to sell you this part right now, but we won't have stock until early 2022. We hope."

Plus as he pointed out, it must be difficult for most shops to tell those people who go "hey, could you let me know if and when you get the part so I can plan things" from those people who go full KenKaren if they can't have the part overnighted to them immediately for free. So they're probably not that keen on engaging with potentially enraged customers unless they have to.

As an aside, when I ordered a replacement horn button from my Maxton, I originally suggested it being sent by USPS. Got a very polite email back from the vendor that he would advise against it as he's still running into issues with USPS deliveries. Obviously he has a much bigger sample rate than I do - we haven't had many issues with USPS for the last six months or so - but it does look like he was right as I'm now waiting for at least three shipments that should've been here by now.

Hallelujah, the parts finally arrived. As expected, one of the foam seals from the radiator surround is missing with no ETA (presumed having a good time), so hopefully we'll be able to transfer that seal from the other radiator in the car as I replaced them when I replaced the radiator.

However I think I should quietly point out to them that I was surprised that "expedited shipping" translated into "USPS select parcel ground". No wonder it took ten days from Rhode Island to get here.

Shop picked up the car today. And yes, the missing radiator seal also showed up in the meantime. Fingers crossed...

Just talked to the mechanic doing the engine replacement and he mentioned it's back together.

Turns out I did vent the old block, but fortunately on the top side under the intake, so it didn't spill oil all over the track. Apparently he found an impressive amount of debris in the oil pan so nobody can accuse me of doing a half assed job here.

Bad news is that after they put in the new used, low mileage engine and drove the car for a bit, it's now showing a code for cam phase adjusters. They'll try putting in the "correct" oil (0W20 instead of 5W30 that I asked for), but I would not be surprised if we now end up having to pull the front of the newer engine apart.

Seems I can't win with this thing, and it's now well and truly sabotaged any chance of getting on the track again this year.

Anybody want to buy a BRZ? One careful owner and a bunch of hooligans after that?

BTW, I'm serious about selling it once we put it back together properly. With the Elise hopefully arriving soon, I don't really need this headache around.

In reply to BoxheadTim :

I would consider a BRZ, I've been known to do stuff with them.  I'd probably prefer cheap and berkeleyed up over "sorted" though.

That said- mine threw all sorts of silly cam codes once when I failed to fully seat the main engine connector.  Check that?  They're a little finnicky, only made to connect a few times despite Subaru's standard engine replacement schedule.

EDIT: Grounds too, the little ground straps on the heads are easy to break and forget upon reintstallation.

In reply to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ :

Might be something for them to look into. The odd thing is that the cam code started appearing after they drove the car for almost a 100 miles to make sure it was OK. Of course that might have been a connector slowly loosening.

Forgot to mention, the mechanic only found traces of silicone on the oil intake screen, so he doesn't think it was a recall-related issue as it wasn't enough to restrict the flow of oil. So it's not quite clear what caused the issue other than using the car as intended.

Not planning to ask stupid money for it once it's properly fixed, but we're still probably talking around $12k.

Oil change didn't do it, and apparently the electrical connections are fine as well.

They'll price up replacing the actuators that are causing the problems this week. Yay me.

Did you get it fixed?

In reply to OHSCrifle :

They're still working on it. As track season is over, it's gone a bit on the back burner - they're currently trying to price up a timing chain kit (because they noticed a bit of timing chain noise) and a new cam phaser after first trying to swap over the cam phaser from the old engine. Only dog knows how long it'll take to get the new parts, though.

As most shops they're overworked and understaffed, and I'm OK with it being worked out on a non-emergency pace.

In reply to BoxheadTim :

Damn it's the gift that keeps on giving. 

In reply to OHSCrifle :

It certainly is. What's extra annoying is that the issues weren't discovered until after the engine warranty expired, mostly due to parts supply issues.

After poking around a bit more, there appears to be a TSB for this kind of issue, and the "fix" can include a whole bunch of work up to and including the replacement of the ECU. Still odd that this only showed up with the new engine and not with the old one as well.

Good news, the shop finally got the parts - we're redoing the whole timing side of things (all phasers, camchain, tensioners). It's still a few weeks out until they can pencil it in for the actual work, but it's progress nonetheless.

And I just got the call - it's done, apparently the VW simulation light is off and it's ready for me to pick up.

I haven't added up all the parts costs and labour costs yet, but a rough back-of-the-envelope calculation suggests that the little "hole in the block with a side of piston in the oil pan" incident ended up costing me roughly as much as I paid for the car. If the new used engine didn't have issues with the cam phasers, the numbers would've looked a lot friendlier but redoing the whole timing assembly to be on the safe side added another few grand.

Obviously it would've been cheaper if we just changed the engine itself, a lot of the cost was in a combo of having to replace other bits (like the oil cooler/radiator combo) plus a bunch of "while we're in there" parts. Not to mention I bought the lowest mileage and thus most expensive engine I could find.

These cars are quite fun to drive, aren't they? Finally managed to take it out for a quick spin something like 8-9 months since I blew up the engine.

Anyway, I decided to put together a quick video showing some of the work, explain why it took so long, give a rough estimate of how much this ordeal cost and then if I would do it again[1]. Enjoy:

[1] Spoiler - it made zero financial sense.

I wonder if these will end up being the new RX-8 in that they have a great chassis, but a crappy motor.

In reply to Harvey :

I think there is a certain possibility that it might turn out that way. They do have a better aftermarket than the RX8 and there are some attempts at fixes available for some of the issues, which kinda reminds me of the various rotary "fixes". None of this is going to hide the fact that the engine isn't very good.

OTOH one should be able to put a 13B into one of these as they don't suffer from the usual boinger issues with the crank centerline not being that suitable for a rotary conversion. And of course a 13B swap would be about as emissions legal as the often touted K swap.

Given how much better the second series allegedly is, these might turn into more of a footnote than expected, though. Unless the second series also starts lunching its engines.

Managed to drive it a bit - there seems to be a slight rattle while it's warming up. That goes away as the engine is fully warmed up and I can only hear it from inside the car, not when I've got my head stuck under the hood. Odd that, but it might simply be something that I only noticed because I'm still very suspicious about anything related to this car and right now kinda expect bits to fall off and engines to explode. Does make driving it a little stressful.

OTOH I drove around some backroads around here and after my phone accidentally fell on the stability control button, there seems to be something wrong with the rear end. Of course that would never happen on a public road, but in an alternate universe it may have slid a tad in hairpins. I have absolutely no idea how such a thing could've happened .

It's about 500 miles later and I still think I can hear noises I don't like hearing. That's the bad news. It drives pretty nicely otherwise, with the one exception that the rear wheels occasionally act like they're on a stick axle with one of them losing traction and then the rear end hopping. Need to look into this. I know some of the bushings aren't in great shape and/or the bolts through them weren't very cooperative, so it might well be the suspension winding up a bit because some of the give has gone AWOL.

For a car I'm still not sure I like, I've spent more money on it again - replaced the head unit (still WIP, there might be video) and this weekend was mostly spent driving around on a couple of parts runs. Pretty happy with the haul:

How is it that Toyota is ok with all these engine quirks, or is the "86" somewhat different? 

Then again the new Supra is Beemer powered and the Yaris was engineered by...Mazda? 

Did you add any baffling to the oil pan? I'm thinking about what I want to do with mine when I get it back from the dealer and beyond a highway DD I'm not sure how much trust I will have in the FA20.