[Dr K]

As some of you know, Ben blew the engine in his WRX a little less than 2 weeks ago. Because the newer WRX engine (2.4L) is more reliable and much less expensive than the engine that came in his car (2.0L) we're swapping in a 2.4, with a number of required mods to make it work in his car. The new(er) engine is a 2022 with only 20K miles, and looks it. I drove up to Cleveland on Wednesday and we began work yesterday but main work started today. I feel obligated to post the photo below -- haven't seen one of these on Dorkiphus in quite some time:



Also special thanks to Bill Miller, for loaning me both an engine hoist and an engine stand (we also purchased a second engine stand for him to take apart the old engine). Here's the old engine out of the car and on the stand:



Tomorrow we do the mods and move-overs from old engine to new(er). If we have time we'll install it (a few parts are slow in coming but fortunately they are ALL on the top of the engine!)

[Patrick3000]

Looks like a fun project.

Good luck

Please keep us updated on your progress

[Dr K]

Originally Posted by Patrick3000

Looks like a fun project.

Yes, when things go as planned...

Originally Posted by Patrick3000

Good luck

Luck seems to be important. We had a lot of trouble getting the engine to separate from the transmission until we saw an online suggestion to use a putty knife which I was sure wouldn't fit into the non-space, but eureka - it worked!

Originally Posted by Patrick3000

Please keep us updated on your progress

(or lack thereof...)

[cmartin]

Good time to upgrade to a front mount cooler, down pipe, turbo... it never ends.

[Dr K]

Originally Posted by cmartin

Good time to upgrade to a front mount cooler, down pipe, turbo... it never ends.

xDon't think that hasn't been discussed. It would make installing the charge pipe much easier.

Today we moved most but not all of the things over from the 2.0 to the 2.4 (there are a lot of electrically-controlled things on the 2.4 that won't work in the older car, such as the turbo...). I was hoping to get the engine into the car tomorrow morning but that clearly isn't going to happen.

The good news is that I got the 2 broken fasteners out - and am very glad I brought my taps and dies. The very first screw removed during the project was frozen and the head snapped at the levels where it enters the car, and the other was an M8 bolt holding in the skid plate, and it was so frozen where it went through the skid plate that after the head snapped off, we had to turn the whole skid plate to get the bolt out of the car (it's supposed to go freely through the skid plate!). I absolutely could not get it out even with the 2-nut method. I ended up drilling both, then enlarging the hole in the skid plate to allow free play. I also tapped every threaded hole on the underside to clean the threads.

Tomorrow we'll finish installing the wiring harness from the 2.0 on the 2.4 (several wires won't reach their new position so we need to rebuild it a bit), finish hooking up oil, fuel, vacuum and water lines (almost done) and hopefully put the engine back into the car but not sure we'll get to that last part. We're waiting on a bracket for the intercooler (ordered from Subaru) and alternator (which was supposed to arrive with the engine). Also need to fab the charge pipe. All 3 of those things can be done from above so we will probably reinstall the engine not completely "done" for Ben to finish later. I would have liked to hear it start up, though.

[HoodPin]

Needs a bigger turbo.....or 2........

Nice father - son project!!

[Dr K]

Don't need a bigger turbo--Ben can tune to overpower the clutch pretty easily, but is hoping to set it up for about 350 HP if it detects 93 octane (track days) and 180 HP (and 35 MPH!) on regular unleaded.

Today we made a lot of progress but did not get the engine back in the car. He redid the wiring harness to get extra length on multiple lines and it looks very professional. We had to grind several formerly-2.0L engine parts/brackets to get them to fit on the 2.4L engine--need to use the older parts to get the engine to work with the 2015 car/ECU. So far we having everything fitting but one bracket is a little shy of the engine so I'm going to try to get a 1/2" long spacer and a 25- or 30mm M10x1.25 bolt tomorrow--otherwise we'll leaving it hanging there. I'm reasonably sure I can get to it from under the car with everything installed. Then finish up with the hoses and (attempt to) reinstall the engine in the car. Plan to leave for home by 4 PM so must finish by then.

Thanks to ViceGrip for teaching me that a flapper wheel is much better than the grinding disk when used with my angle grinder. This made quick work of fixing those parts!

Here's the newly reconfigured wiring harness:

[jerome951]

Haven't seen an engine drop documented here in a long time. Thanks for posting..

Did you cut off Ben's legs?? How will he drive a stick shift???

[Dr K]

He's actually sitting on a creeper, and the wheels moved too freely for him to stand up! Good pickup...

The engine is on the hoist ready to put back in, but the online data he used to 3D print a clutch alignment spline tool made one just a bit too big. He's now printing 3 more, each a slight bit smaller than then other (I think 4, 8, and 12% smaller but I'm not certain). I canceled my shift at the free clinic and am staying up in Cleveland another couple of days to get the job done.