Well, since I occasionally get PM's or IM's asking about the status of my car, and since that status has changed significantly now that the weather's gotten better I figure I could post an update to answer most of the questions I'm asked.

First and formost where I'm at in the rebuild:

The motor is completely torn down. As I suspected the cuplrit for the failure was predetonation. The pistons look like ****. Some debris from one cylinder clearly worked its way around a bit (hence the coins in an empty dryer sound) and nicked them up good. On the other hand, the valves and head are in fine working order. There isn't so much as a mark in the valves' coats of carbon from the debris. Before I complete the rebuild I need to remove and replace or just remove the exhaust manifold studs in my head. For those of you who remember I had one snap on me some time before the failure causing a slight (very very slight at most) exhaust leak. All gaskets appeared to be fine, though the head gasket I do have pictures on my PDA, but right now I'm not able to upload them (I'm at work) so if there's any interest I'll post them.

All my parts are in aside from my braided stainless hose that I'm putting in place of the rubber oil return line from the turbo and the bolts whose heads stripped (which I will replace as necessary).

I have tons of **** I'm replacing and/or fixing during and after this rebuild, but I basically put the thread here to answer questions (if anyone has them) and to detail the point up until the car is running (idling).

At the moment I have one piston and connecting rod in place, and by tonight I should have all 4 back in and the oil pan (more or less) cleaned if not cleaned and reinstalled. My goal is to have the car running by the 16th (when I have to give up my sister's car), but more realistically I expect it to take a bit longer and for me to be tuning it for some time after.

Of the utmost importance to me now is the installation of my Defi-link system, and especially my fuel pressure gauge. From the time I picked it up my car had always having fuel delivery problems. I will finally be able to see if they are pressure related. I've removed my Vortech FMU and plan on selling it along with several other parts because I feel my 255lph pump and 440cc WRX injectors should have NO problem fueling the 9 or 10lbs of boost I intend to run on high boost setting (GReddy Profec-B Spec II). If I find that fuel pressue is needed I may return to stock injectors and keep the boost at 6psi until I have the money to purchase some aftermarket 3g Eclipse injectors and give them a shot.

Other than that I do have a lot of other work I'd still like to do including:

• Rerouting my battery line and replacing my bulky aluminum box with a smaller plastic one.
• Installing an Optima yellow top
• Wilwood big brake upgrade install
• Replacing the copper brake lines because my copper fittings stripped to ****.

So as usual my car will remain in "work in progress" mode though I fully intend to have it running as soon as possible and driving shortly thereafter.

Just thought I'd share for those who've asked and gotten "pretty much the same" as my response...because I've gotten more done in 3 separate days of working than the rest of the 6 months combined. Now that I have some things crossed off my list I figured you guys might want to know about it.

 

good to hear you are on the right track...best of luck to you in getting up and running soon!

 

Sounds good dude, all the luck to u finishing the rebuild and getting everything back together.

 

How long has it been now bro?? I havent driven mines for 3 months now. But will be getting it back within 3 weeks. You'th been without yours for like ever now. It killed me to wait this long for my car. I've been driving my moms 93 Honda Civic (hate it). Damn car needs new axles and the transmission is shifting really hard (auto).

 

6 months. The wait wasn't for any reasons other than that my garage is unheated with no electricity, it was cold out, and school took up a lot of my time. Now that the weather's nice I've worked on the car twice, finished the teardown and started the rebuild. Actual time spent working on teh car is less than 10 hours with several large snags (removing my cat/downpipe from the cat-back for example took a very long time because the bolts would not come out, removing my manifold took days of work due to the close quarters and difficulties removing my radiator, my intake manifold had several stripped bolts on it, and trying to figure out how to loosen the freakin' timing belt. This also does not reflect how much time I spent trying to remove my brake lines before and after the fittings stripped to ****.

Generally speaking it's been pretty easy. I just turn everything to the left.

 

Good to hear that things are getting back together. We miss ya, man.

PS - quick and easy money: sell me one of the destroyed pistons. It would make a sweet paperweight, and I really have no interest in destroying my pistons... ... and yes, I am serious.

 

At my friends' old place we had a Mercedes piston as an ash tray. Despite the holes for the wrist pin it worked well. I sent you a PM, Rob.

EDIT: Er...sorry...Doug.

 

good to hear things are rollin again, keep it up and post some pics of your progress when you get a chance

 

what shop do you go to? or you do it by yourself?

 

yay! go andrew!

i'll probably have to be plucking my motor from the S13 in the next few months to do a turbo swap. my turbo has decided to spew oil up the intake stream.

aren't cars fun?!

 

So in a stroke of typical Andrew luck I have hit a snag. While installing the 4th and final piston my 2nd compression ring snapped off in the ring compressor. Now I'm stuck again, so I guess I'm going to have to rush order a new ring set and work on something else in the meantime. What pisses me off is I wasn't rushing and the ring install is one of the easiest parts of the process. Jeebus H. Cripes. Can't a brother get a break? ...and not a broken part.

 

was the compressor not cinched up enough?

 

This happened while the piston/rings were in the compressor. The most likely thing that happened was that the ring popped out of its groove and about 1/2" of one of its ends snapped off. Suckola. I'm calling in for a new set today.

 

That's awesome to hear dude... I can't wait to see your car working again (although I guess it wasn't entirely working when I last saw it). Time for some luck to come your way and all and hopefully some kind of get-together up here in the northeast can give me a chance to see your car running again ;-)
-N

 

$99 from JE Pistons. Fortunately they were in stock, and I got them sent UPS 2 day so I'm still aiming for end of the week for the pistons. In the meantime I'm going to work on cleaning off the oil pan's liquid gasket leftovers, and prepping it all for reinstall. I also want to replace my oil return line (I have the 45° fitting that should fit my exising oil pan fitting, but I'm waiting on my braided SS hose). So I have plenty of busy work to do in the meantime. With any luck I can setup my Defi-link fuel pressure gauge too so that's one less (important) thing for me to worry about.

Wish me luck.