The Subaru SVX World Network - The death and resurrection of an SVX (VERY long and picture heavy)

Techincally this story begins about 3 years ago. Shortly after I started school my engine developped a knock on start-up. Only for a second, and ran perfectly fine otherwise. No knocking while running, no smoke, smooth power, better than listed mileage... So I did my best to ignore it and keep on with things as normal. I don't abuse my car, which I suspect contributed to it's longevity in this condition.

Fast forward to last fall. The knock on start up was a little louder and lasted a little longer. The car also developped an irritating habit of stalling if I shifted into reverse while steering (too much load on the engine at idle). I suppose this was due to the extra friction inside the engine. At this point I could occasionally hear a knock at idle through the dash. Signs of impending doom.

I parked and covered the car in November since I had picked up a little 240SX as a winter beater.

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Which was, by the way, an awesome choice. Such a cheap, fun little car.

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Skip ahead to the spring and the SVX coming back out of storage. It started up perfectly, never a hesitation or missfire and ran beautifully smooth. For about 25km. In a bit of "Wooooo!! I got my car back!!" enthusiasm I stomped on it and poof, no more rod bearing. And I'm about 1000 miles from home, just about finished school. In the end I rented a U-Haul and trailer to tow it home. Fortunately I had friends who needed things moved that helped pay the cost of the thing. Still... Not the most glorious return trip of all time...

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I dropped the car off at my folks house in Ottawa where it languished all summer, while I moved down to Toronto to start my new job. About a month ago I posted a wanted thread looking for a new engine and Nate got back to me saying he had one available and would be stopping at Dave's place. Two weeks ago my dad and I jumped in the Forester and headed down. A day, two tanks of fuel, and a couple six packs later I've got a 100K mile long block sitting in my garage.

This weekend I took the train back up to Ottawa to get to work. Cleared out the garage, pushed the car in, and threw on the radio.

Had the broken engine out by noon on Saturday. Load levellers are the shizznit, by the way.

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All empty...

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And, by request, the standing in the engine bay shot:

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Resealing the new engine:

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Got everything finalized and pushed into the garage for the night.

Sunday

Started early and got right to dropping the engine in. After quite a lot of effort it wouldn't go. It was clearing rocking on some sort of obstruction. We thought it might have been the dowel pins but some looking seemed to indicate otherwise. Instead of forcing things we yanked the engine back out and discovered this:

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That, folks, is the alignment shaft from the other car's torque converter welded inside my new crankshaft. What the evidence seems to indicate is that the flexplate of the other car failed and the owner kept trying to make it move. Tried so hard in fact that the friction welded the T/C to the crank and then snapped it off.

Our first attempt to remove it was to tap a hole and use a bolt through a large socket to pull it out. Ya... That didn't work. Snapped a 3/8 bolt clean off. Attempt number 2 featured a whole box of assorted drill bits and a lof of patience. After punching it full of small holes and using a big nasty bit to carve out much of the center it only took a few blows from a sharp chisel to break it loose (and a bunch more to crunch it up enough to extract. The crank was badly galled inside and had a number of bumps and weird surfaces. It took a while longer with a grinding bur to smooth it to the right size.

So after that 5-6 hour setback the engine went in smoothly. Installed the manifold and connected all the make-it-go bits, unpplugged the injectors and cranked the engine until the oil light went out, plugged them back in and turned the key..

Instant H-6 goodness. I only ran it for a second, as I didn't have the rad, alternator, exhaust, or any other accessories installed, but it fired right up smooth as silk. No scary smoke, no missfires... Couldn't tell about any noise over the roar of open headers.

Shut it down and installed the other bits, filled the fluids, cranked the steering a bunch to work out the air, called it a day and went to bed.

Monday

Called in sick at work to finish things up.

A couple lines had leaked overnight and had to be tightened up (Getting kind of tired after the marathon of wrenching). Once we had everything buttoned up, and stole the battery from the Forester (Mine was pooched from sitting all summer with no charge), key went in and she started right up. No check engine light, beatiful idle... All good!

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Initially there was a LOT of ticking, but it smoothed out as the engine warmed up. After warming it up, burping the coolant and getting the steering smooth we shut it off, put it on the ground and went for a drive around the neighbourhood.

You get weird looks when you drive a car with a bright gold intake manifold without a hood.

The brakes were hideously noisey from sitting so long, but quickly freed up. Steering's smooth, coilovers are stiff as ****, tires haven't flat-spotted, transmission shifts properly.. All good! The engine's ticking had settled to a quiet, peaceful boxer tick.

Threw the hood on, gave her a wash, loaded my stuff, and headed out for a 500km trial by fire. After a quick stop at Wendy's.

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The drive went absolutely perfect. I kept the speed conservative, about 115-125 km/h the whole way (70-ish mph). No vibrations, no noises... Just smooth cruising.

One worry I'd had was the fuel in the tank. It's 10 months old. I put stabilizer into it before storing the car, but I was still a bit concerned. Turned out there was nothing to worry about. Even though I started the trip with just under 3/4 tank when I filled up after 400km I only put in 48L, meaning I had about 1/4 tank left. So it looks like my highway mileage is dead on with the old motor, or possibly slightly better. Arrived in Toronto at 10PM last night, parked, had a shower and went to bed.

A owe a huge thank-you to the following people for making this happen:

Nate, for selling me the engine
Dave, for offering to store it for a few weeks
My dad, for wrenching with me all weekend
The National Capitol Subaru Club, for providing the engine hoist
OT, for his advice with the crankshaft problem

Thanks guys, this car means a hell of a lot to me, and to have it with me again is something very special. I owe you all some beer.