I hope I'm posting this in the right section.
Ok, let me let you all in on my story with my Evo IX.
First of all let me start by saying I love this site, I've searched it for well over a year now, just never bothered to make a profile or post anything til after i bought my Evo, I was just looking up information and whatnot.

I'm in the military and got orders to Italy in November '08 and I had to move before March '09... I decided my 2002 Toyota MR2 wasn't going to cut it for a family car, I was getting married in a month and figured, if I have to get a family car, I'm going to do it right. So in December, right after I got married, we went to a dealer and bought my 06 Evo IX :-) I was very pleased with it for about the first week... Then the problems started.

I really didn't ever drive it too hard (nor did i ever dry launch it,) but I noticed (on the a/m boost gauge previously installed) that the turbo would spike to 27 psi, completely stock Evo. The T-case leaked like no other and, upon further inspection, had a teflon wrapped screw cranked into the bleeder valve. So I brought it to a good friend I had in Utah and he was going to fix the turbo problem for me for really cheap, so I drove like a grandma til I could see him. Then, the very night before I was going to see him, I was driving home from work when the motor blew up on me!! It was so close to me leaving that all I could do is get it towed it to my parents garage near Seattle, where it has sat until I could save up to get the motor swapped.
BTW with the T-case I have a feeling that it has a bad seal... But we'll see... Because a new one won't come til February.
Anyway... the time has come for my very good friend up there to do the swap for me :-D he's going to cherish the car for a while since I'm all the way out here in Italy for a few years. Some of you locals in the Tacoma, Lakewood, Puyallup and Bellingham areas might know him. Hanahawaiian knows him for sure. BTW, please welcome him onto this site if he ever has questions, I might have him log into my account to make things easier.

I found this video that I thought would be a funny, yet somewhat appropriate, theme for this motor swap. A lot of you on here SHOULD recognize this theme ;-)
"Gentlemen, we can rebuild him... ... Better. Stronger. Faster..."

This marks the beginning of my journey in Project Evo
Anyway, my friend picked up my car and new-ish motor (9,000 miles on it) yesterday and started to tear down.
I know everyone want to see pics, so here they are!!!

So we're coming to realize that the previous owner was a complete idiot with this car, so you're going to have to bear with us with any impurities you notice... We notice them too...


Before the tow truck pick-up


So my friend called for a flat bed since it's AWD and they showed up with a wrecker, but they driver had this cool device that still took the entire car off the ground. Pretty cool.


Sexy isn't she :-)


motor to be swapped :-)


there goes the bumper!











pretty sure this is engine pieces with a penny to compare the size

Thanks for reading!!
More pics to come very soon!! :-D

 

Way to go - build it better and stronger !

 

looks like he' just bought a stock motor, should have built her bullet proof for what you spent for the new motor.

Good luck with the build and your tour

 

Where can I get a worklight like that? The one that attaches to the hood?

 

I actually got a KILLER deal on the motor. and performance parts are still to come, just little by little. next is alarm and turbo timer. Then T-case from ShepTrans early next year. Then I'll work on cams, exhaust, intake piping, intercooler and piping. It'll get there :-)

And thank you :-) I'm having a lot of fun out here in Italy, there's a lot of stuff to see.

More pics shortly!!

 

OK. So the swap is running as smoothly so far.
My friend doing the swap started an account here and should be posting pretty soon.






He found a pretty big hole in the block and a couple in the oil pan




as well as some "spare parts"


and about a third of a piston





We're really hoping the head is still in good shape. He wants to use in it his 1970 Porsche 914 in a swap involving a 4G64 block


More to come!!

 

Car is super clean... Oem longblovk swap? Or a fully built one?

 

Thanks!!

and it's oem... i got a really good deal on it. parts will come after the install. a little counter-productive, i know. But it's the route I chose.

 

A turbo timer is not needed on a stock turbo!

The IX transfer case is stronger than a VIII. I would not invest so much money into that piece till you get some hp first!

 

you, my friend, have not seen the T-case in the car lol
That A-hole of a previous owner i was talking about, apparently loved to launch the poor car all the time... Well I came to think the T-case grenaded at least once. When I went under to look at it, the case was spiderwebbed... John, my friend fixing the car, is going to look at it and make sure it's still safe to use. After I bought it, I was totally unaware of the pretty bad leak from the T-case and it ran dry. I filled it back up with gear oil as soon as I realized something major was happening. Before I filled it though, i stick my hand in the drain hole, and there was some oil sludge that had quite a bit of metallic shavings. On top of that (as mentioned earlier) it had a teflon wrapped screw cranked into, what I believe was, the bleeder valve.

And any turbo I thought needed one. They all get pretty hot and have an oil line. All turbo's deserve to cool properly

 

Sorry missed the t-case info. it is 0500 in the morning.

The stock turbo is oil and water cooled. You can get a turbo timer if you want, it's only 100.00 so not bad but I don't think it is a need. Just like the stock turbos spool up quickly, well they spool down quickly too.

 

It's all good. it's almost 1500 here! lol

That's true, but like you said, it's only 100 bucks lol I like the greddy one they have on Lancershop. It's like $110 total including the plug n play wiring harness.
pretty good deal if you ask me

 

that really sux, how much did you pay for the car? i would bring it back to where i bought it dealer or not! talk to a lawyer

stock turbo is water cooled also so you dont need a tt, if you where driving real hard then just wait ten seconds or so before shutting the car off . i bet there's less then 5% of people on this forum that have tt w/stock turbo just cause theres no need for it

EDIT: BLKCarbonEVO beat me too it

 

The greddy is a good turbo timer. I like the black Apexi Are you in the military?

 

haha thats what I'm here for!