Resealing the motor

[sperry]

Well, since no one wanted to buy my SVX "as is" with the cam seal leaking, I decided to tackle the oil leak and do the timing belt and water pump while I was in there.

But after going under the hood and getting a better look at the oil leak(s), I decided that the valve covers and main seals ought to be done as well, so I figured it'd be worth it to pull the motor and really clean it up.

I pulled the motor last week. Here's the mess I found:











Looks like the valve covers are leaking, the cam seals/plugs, and the power steering pump reservoir. So in my spare time over the past week, I got crazy w/ the engine cleaner, pressure washer, and various brushes.

Much better!











Now I'm just waiting on a few more bits to get delivered from subaruparts.com (I had all the seals, but the timing cover was demolished by a worn crank pulley, so I had to order that stuff up, plus I figured I should do the rear-main once I decided to pull the whole motor) and I can get to work on the seals, water pump, timing belt, and spark plug. Plus, I'm sure there's some more cleaning here and there that will need to get done.

[sperry]

Now for the question:

I pulled the torque converter in order to replace the main seal between the TC and tranny. What's the propper method to line things back up when putting it back in? I can get it in past the new seal, but it won't seat deep enough to match the gear with the starter. I'm assuming the notches on the TC aren't matching up with the inside of the tranny, leaving the TC about 1.5" short of all the way installed.

It is it just a matter of lining things up better? Or is there some sort of proceedure to ensure the input shaft lines up?

[ensteele]

What a difference that made. It looks great now. If no one answers this post, PM OT or YT with that question and they will help you get your questions answered. Good luck with the project. The engine looks amazing now.

[sperry]

Originally Posted by ensteele

What a difference that made. It looks great now. If no one answers this post, PM OT or YT with that question and they will help you get your questions answered. Good luck with the project. The engine looks amazing now.

Thanks!

I'm really looking forward to being able to work on the car w/o having to dress up like I'm Mike Rowe. Then again, once the motor is resealed and back in the car... there shouldn't be any reason to have to work on it, unless I do coilovers, brakes, and/or the exhaust, but those are all upgrades... nothing should *need* work at this point. *fingers crossed*

[oldss72]

if possible, could you post a how to for the cam-seals, I want to do mine when I do the timing belt as well, but I would like to see a brief how to quickly before. If one already exists, and someone could point me in the right direction that would work as well.
Thanks,
Joe

[sperry]

Originally Posted by oldss72

if possible, could you post a how to for the cam-seals, I want to do mine when I do the timing belt as well, but I would like to see a brief how to quickly before. If one already exists, and someone could point me in the right direction that would work as well.
Thanks,
Joe

Well, I'm only half-way done on mine, as per the pictures above... i.e. I've removed the old seals, but have not installed the new ones.

I'll take pictures of the bits when I'm home to illustrate, but the short version is:

- drain coolant and remove the radiator/fans
- remove accessory belts
- remove the crank pulley
- remove the timing belt covers
- remove the timing belt and cam gears
- remove the exhaust cam seals (I used a hook awl, kinda like a heavy duty dentist's scraper, to pry them out w/o scraping the cam)
- remove the intake cam plugs (I used a big-old pair of vise-grips and just yanked 'em out)
- install the new plugs (I use some assembly lube on oil seals when installing them... and make sure to seat them evenly, using a big socket and a hammer to tap them in gently and evenly works good)
- install the new cam oil seals (same deal as with the plugs)
- if you pull off the crank gear, you can do the front main oil seal too
- reinstall the cam & crank gears, timing belt, etc
- reinstall the timing covers
- reinstall the crank pulley, and accessory belts
- reinstall the radiator, and fill up/burp the coolant

I believe lots of this is documented in the pseudo-FSM's I've got up at http://www.seccs.org/tech, which should include the torque specs for everything important.

Also, this how-to was just off the top of my head, so if anyone noticed I missed something, please chime in!

[TomsSVX]

to set the torque converter....

Place the TC on the input shaft and slide it in. While putting constant pressure of the front of the TC spin it about 2 times around. This should allow it to take a proper seating on all the splines and also the oil pump. To double check make sure there is about two credit cards' thickness between the starter ring on the TC and the bottom edge of the bell housing

Tom

[sperry]

Done and done! Thanks for the tip!

[JaySVX]

Looks much better! So, are you still selling it, or have you decided to keep it?

[Sean486]

Thanks for the pictures. It's nice to have such a clear view of the side of the engine.

Mine currently looks just like your before pictures, complete with all the oily crud on that black frame area (not sure exactly what it's called).

Looking at these pics really makes me eager to get mine fixed up. (Hopefully this spring)

[sperry]

Originally Posted by JaySVX

Looks much better! So, are you still selling it, or have you decided to keep it?

I kinda think I'm going to keep it. I really wanted to sell it and my race car to buy a new STi, but the race car is an even harder sell the way the economy is going than the SVX. I mean, who's going to want a caged track car if you can't afford to go to the track!?

So, unless I get someone who's an SVX enthusiast that I know will take good care of the car to offer me what I'm looking for price-wise, I'll probably just keep driving it daily. It's a really nice car, and with the oil leaks cleared up, there's really nothing major it needs maintainence-wise, so it's hard to justify getting rid of it. The car is just worth more to me than it is to the "market".

[Francis]

....were u selling it to give the buyer problems ?
nice job on the cleaning, i would do this but before i need a garage

dont sell it it drives real good. if i compare it to my sunfire

[sperry]

Originally Posted by Francis

....were u selling it to give the buyer problems ?
nice job on the cleaning, i would do this but before i need a garage

dont sell it it drives real good. if i compare it to my sunfire

Certainly I wasn't trying to unload a problem car on anyone! But as anyone with an SVX knows, they do require lots of TLC to keep them in top condition. I figure a new STi requires a whole lot less maintenance than a 14 year old SVX. But now that I've done just about everything common on my SVX, I'm hoping it'll be relatively maintenance free for the next few years. *knocks on wood*

[stuartracing]

Originally Posted by sperry

Certainly I wasn't trying to unload a problem car on anyone! But as anyone with an SVX knows, they do require lots of TLC to keep them in top condition. I figure a new STi requires a whole lot less maintenance than a 14 year old SVX. But now that I've done just about everything common on my SVX, I'm hoping it'll be relatively maintenance free for the next few years. *knocks on wood*

Before you did the re-sealing job, did it smoke like a mutha(under the hood}???
I just bought a 92 and it`s needing the normal TLC that I see here that they are needing if the priviouse owner didn`t ....When I come to a stop, the smoke is coming from under the hood....
V/C gaskets were just replaced a week ago....
Got a quote for a timing belt, crnk. and cam seals, $399.00 parts and labor....
That`s where the oil is leaking from and blowing back onto the exh....
Thanks,
Paul......

[sperry]

Originally Posted by stuartracing

Before you did the re-sealing job, did it smoke like a mutha(under the hood}???
I just bought a 92 and it`s needing the normal TLC that I see here that they are needing if the priviouse owner didn`t ....When I come to a stop, the smoke is coming from under the hood....
V/C gaskets were just replaced a week ago....
Got a quote for a timing belt, crnk. and cam seals, $399.00 parts and labor....
That`s where the oil is leaking from and blowing back onto the exh....
Thanks,
Paul......

Sounds like your leak is worse than mine was. I had some oil on the header heat-shield, but not enough to smoke.

Of course, if the valve-cover gaskets were just done, there's the chance that they cleaned things off before doing the work (you'd hate to get all that sludge in the heads when you pull off the covers), and the cleaner and oil residue just got onto the headers and it hasn't all burned off yet.