BRZ Rally Car

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ said:

Ooo, Techie. Best of luck with the dealer.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ said:

Update from the dealer: they did their assessment, went "oh boy that sounds not-awesome," and sent the info and a video to their field engineer, who apparently gets to determine and dish out anything from "do the valve springs per recall and touch nothing else" to "new engine" to "tell this guy to berkeley off" so we're now waiting on that assessment.  Talking to the service guy on the phone, he seems to fully understand where I'm coming from and seems to think at worst I'm going to get everything back with the recall performed and the noise at least somewhat diagnosed.  I'm hopeful.

im voting recall or new head

I'm also voting recall 

I can tell you that Subaru Canada was pretty decent to deal with on my mom's 04 Legacy.

Well documented piston slap - engine replaced at 80k kms. Second engine developed same issue and was fully replaced only 18k kms later.

3rd engine was running well when we sold the car just before mom passed away.

Talked to dealer- they tried to get me an engine, good on them, but apparently it's not going to happen.  I was presented with several options and told them to go ahead with the recall, and document/provide estimates for fixing anything they find along the way.  They were very clear that I may get the car back in non-running condition, and I was very clear that I can live with that.

So... fingers crossed they find it and it's cheap!  Seems unlikely though, they're pretty sure it's a rod bearing.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ said:

Talked to dealer- they tried to get me an engine, good on them, but apparently it's not going to happen.  I was presented with several options and told them to go ahead with the recall, and document/provide estimates for fixing anything they find along the way.  They were very clear that I may get the car back in non-running condition, and I was very clear that I can live with that.

So... fingers crossed they find it and it's cheap!  Seems unlikely though, they're pretty sure it's a rod bearing.

seems to be a common issue on the 2013 frs' to spin rod bearings

well this escalated quickly

fidelity101 (Forum Supporter) said:

well this escalated quickly

Chris got himself a Subaru and it's at the dealer getting the engine fixed before he ever gets to drive it. I mean sounds pretty typical for a Subaru :)

Side note my 2009 WRX had its engine replaced at 9,000 miles, And it was bone stock. The second engine went 180,000 though with no major problems.

In reply to irish44j (Forum Supporter) :

I'm still hopeful, but at this point I'm reasonably sure it's going to come back and the first thing I'll do is pull the engine right back out again.  We'll probably have to wait until next week to find out.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ said:

In reply to irish44j (Forum Supporter) :

I'm still hopeful, but at this point I'm reasonably sure it's going to come back and the first thing I'll do is pull the engine right back out again.  We'll probably have to wait until next week to find out.

the newer engines are apparently better than the early ones if you are looking for a new one or one to rebuild.

So, let's talk about what the engine needs in order to live, whether it's this one or a later one.  From what I've been able to dig up, these all seem like good additions, especially given that I can move them from engine to engine or car to car very easily:

• Big aluminum radiator
• Big oil cooler
• '15+ coil packs and harness
• Hood/fender ventilation

and things I'm unsure about but strike me as good and simple as well:

• Killer B oil pickup- apparently cavitation is an issue with the stock pickup at high rpm, and this post even has an instrumented test of a larger pickup showing the improved inlet pressure.  The Killer B pickup also gets tested if you click to the last page and the results are close to the custom pickup they started with
• Some sort of tune- this is where I'm really lost, regarding who to contact, what to look for, etc.
• Some sort of air inlet modification- it looks like the stock intake snorkel will probably suck dirt and water and stuff from the radiator inlet area.  The "ventilation and airflow" allowance in the L2wd rules can probably be interpreted to mean I can stick a duct in the bumper cover and draw from there instead

i think they like running catch cans as well. 

What most people do is Unequal length headers and a tune to get rid of the atrocious torque dip. Most of the off the shelf options should be fine, but a real tune specifically for your car with your mods is prob better.

Keeping them cool seem to really keep them together. 

In reply to MrChaos :

Looking at gearing charts, the torque dip should be a non-issue when actually racing.  I sort of like the idea of sticking with stock headers, heat shielding and all, to keep underhood temperatures down since there will be a skid plate directly under them.

In reply to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ :

jet-hot coat them

In reply to fidelity101 (Forum Supporter) :

So the expensive thing that is gonna be the first to get damaged on a big hit gets an expensive coating?  

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ said:

In reply to fidelity101 (Forum Supporter) :

So the expensive thing that is gonna be the first to get damaged on a big hit gets an expensive coating?  

no the front end components like the bumper are really hard to find cause everyone wrecks the front. unless you dont care about it being OEM

In reply to MrChaos :

?

My comment was about Kevin's suggestion of expensive coating on expensive headers that will get smooshed by a big rock anyway.  Bumpers I'm not too worried about, I'm perfectly happy to zip tie and rivet plastic together until it is literally falling to pieces.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ said:

In reply to MrChaos :

?

My comment was about Kevin's suggestion of expensive coating on expensive headers that will get smooshed by a big rock anyway.  Bumpers I'm not too worried about, I'm perfectly happy to zip tie and rivet plastic together until it is literally falling to pieces.

i know, i was just commenting that you see a lot of BRZ/FRS's needing front end stuff at auctions and whatnot.

But if its a racecar you prob dont mind fiberglass fenders or non oem bumpers or an aftermarket hood if needed. And the oem headlights are expensive.

Maybe a wrap around the headers?  At least that could be removed from squashed header and reinstalled on the next set.  

In reply to Ian F (Forum Supporter) :

I have wrapped and re-wrapped some of the underhood exhaust stuff on the Merkur, it's definitely an option.  I just don't see myself spending big money on headers as a great option, there are plenty of used OEM headers around and they appear to have some pretty serious heat shielding and insulation on them, so I will probably just run those to start with unless they're actually hurting the reliability of the engine somehow.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ said:

So, let's talk about what the engine needs in order to live, whether it's this one or a later one.  From what I've been able to dig up, these all seem like good additions, especially given that I can move them from engine to engine or car to car very easily:

• Big aluminum radiator
• Big oil cooler
• '15+ coil packs and harness
• Hood/fender ventilation

and things I'm unsure about but strike me as good and simple as well:

• Killer B oil pickup- apparently cavitation is an issue with the stock pickup at high rpm, and this post even has an instrumented test of a larger pickup showing the improved inlet pressure.  The Killer B pickup also gets tested if you click to the last page and the results are close to the custom pickup they started with
• Some sort of tune- this is where I'm really lost, regarding who to contact, what to look for, etc.
• Some sort of air inlet modification- it looks like the stock intake snorkel will probably suck dirt and water and stuff from the radiator inlet area.  The "ventilation and airflow" allowance in the L2wd rules can probably be interpreted to mean I can stick a duct in the bumper cover and draw from there instead

Oil cooler is the only thing on that list that you probably need other than the coil mod.

Hood vents are only required for turbo applications where underhood temps just get too high. Stock rad is fine as well.

I would drop your redline to 7300 and your engine will last just fine. Oil issues are typically with track cars running R comps or similar under high G loads from what I can tell.

I'm trying to picture how the stock intake snorkel can get any crud in it. It is literally tucked inside the bumper cover and is pretty high up.

In reply to captainawesome :

Stage rally sees high G loads too, just more of them are up/down!

The intake snorkel may be high up, but the only way I see air getting to that area is by collecting in the radiator inlet first.  On a dry stage with one minute start intervals, the air down there will have a lot of dust in it, every inch of height helps.  Similar situation for water crossings or big puddles.

For rallycross runs I'm not concerned about any of this, but for stage rally I know we can sometimes see essentially zero airspeed and full throttle for 15+ minutes.  Hood vents are easy so why not, they basically only cost the time it takes to cut things.

I will probably leave the stock radiator until the car gets caged, then put an aluminum one in and keep it aside as a spare.  Aluminum can take a hit a little better than the OEM plastic endtanks will.

Need to talk to dealer to confirm, but they sent me some pretty atrocious looking pictures of damaged cam journals and clogged oil passages so I'm thinking this motor may be entirely not worth saving.

There's a complete (includes engine harness, coil packs) '16 motor on car-part with 40k miles and a 6 month warranty.  I'm leaning towards that option at the moment.

In reply to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ :

Ah... I didn't realize the OEM headers are insulated from the factory, so wrapping would probably be superfluous.