Well, seems like I've finally closed in on the root cause. The freaking old oil pump rear cover had no bolts holding it to the case aside from the phillips screw!! Picture of old and new below. That will explain the weak pressure for sure. It also doesn't help that the top balance shaft was also partially stripped where it attaches to the gear. The gear just spins on the shaft. So i've begun transferring parts over to the new case and will await clearance specs from the machine shop. Im going to order parts for reassembly but in the meantime all i can do is wait.

 

You shouldn't really need that balance shaft any more with a properly built motor

 

From reading around a stroker creates more harmonics, due to the longer stroke...so the shafts should in essence help with keeping vibrations low and harmonics in check. Additionally in the early 4g63 days the bshafts/belts may have been more failure prone but I don't think its the case with these later evo motors. Thoughts?

 

Went ahead and removed the shafts, ordered a kit and prepped the new pump. Just waiting on my motor to come back from the machine shop

 

Love what you're doing with this build

 

learned a lot already. subscribed!

 

Took forever, but she's finally back boys....I'll have some updates for ya'll soon


Also got some new rolling gear...18x10 +38 all around.

 

Following along! I'm embarking on a nut/bot restoration, came from the Subaru/GTR world myself and encroaching 40

Hoping for some luck on the new shortblock! love the TC4's as well

 

I've been making staedy progress on the motor. Got the longblock all assembled. Things went smooth. Ended up putting some thread sealer on the bolts for the balance shaft pulley and the center motor mount bracket bolt. Otherwise new timing hardware, got everything torqued down to spec. Long weekend coming up so im hoping to make some real progress and have thing thing running and driving!

 

Making good progress. Engine is in, also swapped in whiteline powersteering bushings before putting engine in. Would hate to do those just on their own. Things going smooth. After putting everything all together it was ready to prime and start. I cranked it over for a good minute total with no oil pressure building up. Removed the filter to help potentially burp the system, no help. Ended up putting the fluid transfer pump on the oil filter housing threads and pumping oil in manually that finally did it. Had a few small leaks, return line and banjo fitting on tcase for acd, buttoned those up. Put about 5 miles on the car so far. did the alignment to get it driving straight. Had to raise the car up a bit to be able to do the alignment but the coilover sleeves were seized. That was an adventure but fortunately I was able to finally get them to move. Heatgun, oil, pipe wrench and a big oil pipe to act as a breaker bar did the trick. Next up will be buttoning up the interior trims properly. Shifter feels awesome! car feels tight.

ordered new vortex diffuser from ebay and new winshiled drip molding clips. Will put that all on together next week when parts arrive. Things should go pretty quick from here on out. Ill post a video of it driving.

 

Next items in the to do list queue:
headliner is from a sunroof car, convert it to non-sunroof, cover with alcantera and remount
properly install interior a-pillar trims
install new lugnuts
mount wbo2 sensor and wire into ecu
install vortex generator
install drip molding with new clips (already on hand)
wire fans properly
purchase new mats
purchase and install underbody tray
mount front bumper
refinish front headlamp lenses
once i do some hwy driving and no vibrations present, mount centercaps on wheels
final tune

 

 

Sounds good!

 

Got new lugs and wasted no time. Old ones were missing and i only had 12 altogether. Now i have a full set.