[Equal length headers on v7 sti]

11 minutes ago, Loren said:

I have... better spool and torque, it's true. Not huge gains on paper,  but the butt dyno notices.

 

I have a twin scroll up pipe too... that would be important I think... need to keep the pulses separate all the way to the turbo.

 

I prefer the sound too. The rumble just makes me look around for where the boy racer is these days

Ok good to hear. I do hear a lot of people like the way they sound.

So what brand headers did you use? 

If you used twin scroll headers does that mean you had to change out the sump etc? 

[Equal length headers on v7 sti]

Yes another thread on this topic...

 

I'm wondering if anyone here has any experience putting equal length headers on their single scroll motor. The internet and my tuner said there are definitly good gains even with stock turbos if you get a decent set of headers. Quicker spool, higher power/torque, better cylinder temp control etc. I know it changes the noise but pretty much everyone that has done the swap say they like how it sounds and don't regret it for the gains. Twin scroll subarus still sounds like a subaru.

I'm not fully convinced it's worth it but want to hear other people's thoughts.

 

 

[Worth upgrading turbo inlet pipe?]

8 minutes ago, Loren said:

Did you get it from RCM directly or from James Marshall Motorsport?

Direct from RCM. Didn't know James Marshall existed until a day after I ordered it.... I have got an rcm intake trough James Marshall coming tho.

[Worth upgrading turbo inlet pipe?]

1 minute ago, boon said:

The best out there is the AVO one. Deletes the little elbow that goes the airbox as well.

 

It has ports on it for every single connection though so if you're deleting stuff it may not be useful.

 

Every "Samco" one I've seen has been a fake pile of s***, be careful if you go that way.

 

If you just go pipe... have someone weld one up for you. Keep in mind it has to do a little shimmy back to the left (looking at the motor from the front of the car) to line up.

I ended up getting a Roger Clark motorsports one without the breather ports. It's reinforced and stronger than perrin and similar brand ones.

[AVS Car Security - Alarm Questions/Help Section]

@AVS Car Security

I brought the AVS FT-06E Gps 'FreeTrack' and it came with no instructions so have no idea where all the wires do except the black and red one lol. Do you guys keep any of this info anywhere coz I cant find anything online.

If not ill talk to the guys at StreetSoundz in wellington, I know them well.

[Aftermarket intercoolers]

2 hours ago, Bugle said:

 

Interesting, probably a possibility, the last opinion I had was from one of Ray Hartleys crew (before he retired, where do other Wellington Subaru's peeps go for mechanics?) thought was CAN bus issue of some sort

 

New plugs and coils will be my next diagnostics  

Macbilt are excellent for subaru.

[Timing Belt Tensioner the cause of this noise?]

Motor is back in and running mint. The cam gear was the issue because they were AVCS cams but with no oil pressure running to them (running on a non avcs ecu and the oil lines are blocked off). I was very close to thinking I needed a new motor, glad I found it was an easy fix. The engine was put in back in 2013 so they lasted a long time so im not worried about it becoming an issue again for a years.

 

[Worth upgrading turbo inlet pipe?]

13 minutes ago, Timmah said:

 

Can confirm you get some wooshy noises when on song.

 

Can confirm non-brand ones are garbage, my one is. Was a nightmare to install and lots of adapters to make vac lines fit. Thankfully  it doesn't collapse under pressure.

Okay good to know. Ill likley get a samco one or make my own out of stainless tube and silicone joiners.

[Worth upgrading turbo inlet pipe?]

3 minutes ago, ginganinja said:

You may want to keep a vent to recirc the BOV or just go aftermarket BOV venting to atmosphere and you will be able to just run a straight pipe under there..

 

Samco do silicone ones without any ports in them. Not cheap but good quality.

I have full vent bov so I might look into that. The more simple everything is, the better.

[Worth upgrading turbo inlet pipe?]

1 minute ago, Loren said:

If you lose the MAF and put a catch can in... the intake pipe suddenly becomes very simple. A straight pipe (under the manifold) with a bend. Connect it to the standard airbox,

or to a cold air intake as you said.

I have done a catch can so that's a great option. I'll do some research on this.

[Worth upgrading turbo inlet pipe?]

Just now, Loren said:

Once the MAF is gone just get a custom pipe made up.... a nice clean intake will have benefits.

Ok. I can modify my intake as much as I ditch the maf correct? By custom pipe do you mean custom inlet pipe (under manifold) or like a cold air intake? Definitly keen on a cold air intake.

[Worth upgrading turbo inlet pipe?]

38 minutes ago, Loren said:

Lose the MAF and you are onto something... otherwise don't bother.

 

Bring the flywheel back and I'll refund you.

I'm going link ecu so I will be losing the maf thankfully, those things have caused me issues before and I'm glad to get rid of it soon. Will losing the MAF make this upgrade more beneficial?

Cheers mate ill get back in touch and bring it back over weekend or something.

16 minutes ago, boon said:

There's about 2 on the market that aren't pieces of complete s***.

 

The non-brand ones are utter garbage and will collapse if you pull too much vacuum through them.

Ok so basically it's Perrin/Cobb etc or nothing. It's a lot of money for small gain in performance or turbo noise so may not bother 

[Worth upgrading turbo inlet pipe?]

So im already going to have the intake manifold off and will be getting a retune sometime soon so is it worth buying an aftermarket turbo inlet (post maf one) while it's easily accessible and if so, are the cheap ones any good or should I spend a crap ton on a perrin or similar branded one?

Apparently it gives a nice turbo spool noise, can anyone confirm this?

It doesn't need to be replaced just thinking about it.

[Clutch grinding on flywheel bolts]

Macbilt said it might be a non turbo flywheel. It's not the right one anyway apparently 

[Clutch grinding on flywheel bolts]

Just now, Loren said:

5 or 6 speed? I'm pretty sure i have a 5 speed flywheel lying around.

 

5 speed. Ill pm u.

[Clutch grinding on flywheel bolts]

2 minutes ago, Joker said:

never seen that before! mind you I've only changed 1x Subaru Clutch before

 

I was gunna suggest maybe wrong bolts had been used previously maybe? 

 

but I'd say I am wrong

I thought that too but noticed just this morning that the flywheel itself has grind marks where the springs have contacted, not just the bolts.

I'm struggling to find another flywheel too...

[Timing Belt Tensioner the cause of this noise?]

Found another AVCS cam and installed it. It makes no noise when I spin it which is a good sign. Just hoping that the cam was the noise I have been hearing.

[Clutch grinding on flywheel bolts]

While the engine is out I decided to change the clutch. I took the old one off and noticed the bolts on the flywheel have been ground down due to contact with the clutch.

Am I correct to assume the flywheel has been machined too much in the past so there is not enough clearance between flywheel and clutch?

 

Picture below if after I removed flywheel but you can see the bolts have grind marks on each one. Its hard to tell but it must have ground at least 1mm of parts of the bolts.

Clutch damage:

 

[1st gear on a hill? Is it possible to lug or nah?]

Dont worry its fine. If im sitting in traffic up a hill I just idle up or just give it a tiny bit of throttle to keep the revs up near 1000. However riding the clutch in first or reverse doesn't matter also. The amount of wear on the clutch would be minimal.

[Timing Belt Tensioner the cause of this noise?]

Valve clearances are roughly within spec. All intake clearances are 0.007 (0.168mm) except one is 0.008 (0.203mm) and one 0.009 (0.229mm). Those two are on the noisy side of the engine but I doubt are out enough to cause this noise.

 

Exhaust clearances are all 0.009(0.229mm) or 0.01 (0.254mm) except two are a tad small at 0.007 (0.168mm). Also on the noisy side of engine but doubt these are causing the noise.

 

After a second inspection there definitly is play in the avcs cam pulley (where oil pressure moves it normally but is currently dry) gonna pickup another avcs cam pulley one tomorrow and hopefully that one is good. This explains why the noise stops when I put pressure on the timing belt tensioner, maybe it puts enough pressure on the cam pulley to prevent it from clunking around.

[Timing Belt Tensioner the cause of this noise?]

7 minutes ago, Loren said:

I'm no AVCS expert but I know it's operated via oil pressure... maybe it needs some constant oil pressure to take up some slack in it's mechanism?

That's definitly a possibility. I'm going to talk to the guy from MacBilt again and see what he thinks.

May need to get a new cam and cam gear if that's the case as I think the non avcs gear won't fit onto the cam correctly 

[Wellington Meet 20th June]

Looks epic.

Any chance of a Saturday meet next time? Myself and two mates should be good on a Saturday one. Usually busy on Sundays.

[Timing Belt Tensioner the cause of this noise?]

I tracked down the possible noise to the passenger side intake cam gear (avcs cam but not running avcs due to ecu being for a non avcs motor). The cam gear appears to have just a small amount of play which makes a clicking noise when I spin it back and forward. When I take the cam gear off and spin the cam with my fingers, the clicking noise goes away. I may find a second hand non-avcs intake cam gear and (hopefully its compatible with the cam) and see if that helps.

Im just not 100% sure if this cam gear clicking noise is the same noise as what im hearing when the engine is running, I thinking it probably is tho.

 

[Timing Belt Tensioner the cause of this noise?]

 

I installed new timing belt kit, water pump etc and it still makes the noise. I did notice when the cambelt was off that when I spin the passenger side intake cam anticlockwise it makes a clicking noise in the head when it starts to engage the valve bucket. It doesn't make the noise if I spin it clockwise (when it hits the other cylinder valve buckets) or with driver side intake cam. That tells me its probably a valve clearance issue after all and that its specifically the intake cam on passenger side of engine one one cylinder (someone can probably tell me what cylinder it is too). 

I'll continue to pull the motor and take off rocker cover and see what clearances are. Ill have to buy some feels gauges first...

 

Edit: if it makes a difference, this already has a second hand engine with avcs running on a non avcs ecu. I doubt they swapped everything to make avcs work when they'll did the swap years ago. So maybe that could be causing some issues?

[Timing Belt Tensioner the cause of this noise?]

2 minutes ago, Loren said:

Usually you would have a belt guard above the crank pulley to prevent the belt from jumping... is it just off for checking the position of the belt, or is it missing?

Nope it was missing, good spotting. I did notice that but didn't think it was super important. I think I'll try find one before I put it back together.