Hi Nate --

An impact gun has always worked for me on all of my Suby engines. It is torqued to only something like 76 ft/lbs (don't have my manual in front of me), so I'm surprised you're having trouble with it. Maybe your impact gun isn't strong enough? The crap one that came with my old Craftsman air compressor was useless; I bought an Ingersoll Rand that is lighter and much burlier.

Good luck, and keep up the great work!

Geoff

Geoff,
I believe that you are correct! "You get what you pay for," is exactly what the $19.99 Impact gun from Harbor Freight is about. I think I can borrow one in the short term that has a little more zip!

I am going to strip it down to a shortblock and take the cams down to Tacoma and have Delta Cams put their street grind on them for about $150 or so.

Wish me luck!

So after celebrating my daughter's 1st Birthday Sydney, I thought I would give an UPDATE

I stripped the Suby down to a short block and gave it the once over!
- New gaskets, new water pump, new time belt and pulleys, new Delta Cams (1000 grind), valves reseated and rockers gapped, and the cylinder heads were cleaned up, gasket matched, and polished up!

- The intake and TB were cleaned up and polished a bit too. I will eventually paint the intake either STi red or Chevy red-orange

- The rear trunk/firewall area is stripped, cleaned, Metal-Readied, and awaiting Fabrication! I am trying to find access to a bead roller to attempt the stock 'buttresses' in the new panel. I am also following Steve's (Porschru) lead on the bracing in that area with 1 inch square tubing.

- I copied the engine bar design from Geoff (Strawman).

- Finally, I picked up an early MR2 shifter for a great deal on evilbay!

On to the Pics!!!

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Short block cleaned up
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Cylinder heads awaiting tear down.

Drove down to Tacoma where I stopped by Delta Cams and picked up some 1000 grinds after giving them my cores.
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Spent many hours staying up reading DIY threads about port matching and gasket matching cylinder heads. So, I thought what the hell
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Intake side

Exhaust side

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Longblock assembled after reading over the Suby Tech Manual for awhile...
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Throttle body cleaned up using a homemade soda-blaster siphon gun!

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Strawman version of the Suby engine mount bar. Inspired from S. Thatcher and Tony!
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MR2 Shifter ready to be cleaned up and mocked up!
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Rear firewall trunk area cleaned up and ready to be and !!!

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Next step after the firewall is fabbed up is to locate the final resting position for the powerplant and make the tranny mount.

Also, sort out the FI mess
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Chime in if you see me missing a step or forgetting something! Thanks in advance!!

Nate

Lookin' good!

You might want to seam weld the shock towers "while you're in there" -- prior to cutting/welding up the "turbo/starter/clutch release arm" box in the rear trunk. From everything I've read here, using significantly higher-rate-than-stock rear springs could tear the towers loose. If you're using the same U-bar mounting system on the upper longs that I did, you might also wanna tie-in the upper longs to the shock towers on the engine bay side of things while welding in those mounts.

Your progress is shaming me into providing an update on my project... keep up the great work!!!

Thought I would listen to Geoff's advice and tighten up the welds in the trunk and the rear firewall before I cut into it.

Took about 3 hours of patiently seam welding and air quenching but it turned out alright. I ground off some of the high spots and the area between the strut towers for the new 'boxed out' firewall.

Then, measured and remeasured the trunk and...

Here are some pics to survey the surgery

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Seam welded trunk

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Got the firewall strut tower joint welded up

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tied all the gusset plates together into the 'long'

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Cut out the 'Big Hole' No turning back now.... Do you think an Eaton M90 and piping will fit in there? (End of dream sequence )

Followed the advice of many who have come before me and got to the inner seam weld between the firewall portions,

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Now it is time to Fab up the 'box' and make it fit nicely in the Big Hole.



Time to

Cheers

Nate

Don't slow down now. Try to get someone to cut up a donor for the pieces you need, that way the rib pattern will line up. You actually may have cut a little too far back to use the donor parts though.

Got a bit of time thanks to Grandma visiting and watching Sydney for the day! Thank you Sue!!!

So, measured some 18 gauge sheet metal and buzzed it down to size! Took a spare 2'x4' and the table saw to rip out my form to bend the metal on. Then, found my cinder blocks and made my own DIY sheet metal brake. It got me close enough without a real one.

Followed Steve's (Porscharu) lead and braced the strut towers with a piece of 1 inch steel tubing.

Then, used the bench grinder to make the final tweeks on the firewall cover.

Here are some pics:

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Looking up from the engine bay "new expansion"!

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Next, I am going to take apart the tranny and attempt to do the DIY coupling magic and save $350. Need to find out the thickness of the block off plate then, go buy a piece of aluminum to make one.

After the trans is ready then mate the power plant together and fit it for final placement in the engine bay!

The momentum is building! I will probably hold off on the 5-lug conversion due to funds. Instead, get this baby on the road!!!

Tada!
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Keep the momentum going...

Painted the rear trunk and seam sealed the welds.

Painted the intake manifold with 500 degree chevy red-orange paint.

Used the DIY Bremar Coupling Thread and made my own plate to save myself $350.

Here are the pics

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I love this thread! Keep up the excellent work!

Alrighty then!
More progress on the Suby Transmission mount and the final placement of the mounting tabs for the engine cradle.

I copied the engine cradle/yoke design from Geoff (Strawman)

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Another pic with the trans mount

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The little notch is my mismeasurement of the cylinder clearance on that side. Should not hurt the stabilty of the cradle.

Here is my attempt at the Suby Transmission mount in the 914.

I utilized the stock subaru transmission mount and made a simple plate-based mount to hang from the 914 stock trans mount position.

I will use better fasteners for the final installation.

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Here is the clearance under the rear trunk. Since this picture was taken I ground down the old muffler hanger tabs. So, there is about 1/2 to 3/4 inch clearance.

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Here is the alignment of the axle for the Suby Trans and the teener trailing arm.

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Here is the room from the trunk clearance modification for the starter and the slave clutch cylinder.

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There is plenty of room in the engine bay with this current setup.

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Now, it is time to measure the placement for the front radiator system and hopefully utilize a heater core from the water heater piping from the Suby engine.

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Keep it movin'!

Nice looking work. I like the way you took a little space from the rear trunk but retained it's utility. When you say 'front radiator system', does that mean front of the engine bay or front of the car? Sorry if I missed that detail in your build thread.

Nice looking work. I like the way you took a little space from the rear trunk but retained it's utility. When you say 'front radiator system', does that mean front of the engine bay or front of the car? Sorry if I missed that detail in your build thread.

I am going for the "front of the car" radiator system. I picked up a new 90's VW Golf radiator at the Cascade Kombis Car Show/Swap Meet along with some decent used Bay Window Bus axles/CVs.

So, next is to build a radiator mount and shroud. Buy some gates radiator hose and pipe it into the engine bay.

Clean up the Bus axles, bus CV's, 914 CV's and then find a Suby radiator reservior at a pick n pull.

Fun stuff!

Why not just take off from the front radiator to make the heater connections? That will be much cleaner than running the hoses from the suby lines that are facing rearward behind the motor unless you are going to put the heater core in the enginebay.

Good to see MY idea for the trunk is working out well for the Subi Swappers (it's actually Ricks ie Aliens idea.) At this rate I might be the last person to have a running all Suby 914. It will happen - I just don't know when. The joys of a new house and son
Steve

I am actually in the redesigning phase of my transmission mount. I received some sage advice from some members about my first version of the trans mount being the lowest point of the car. Thus, being the first thing to get ripped off in the unfortunate event (ie. bad speedbump.)

So, I am going to go with a hard mount point to the trans case and use the stock 914 tranny mounting points with 911 sport mounts.

I am also collecting the necessary hardware to do the rear 5-lug swap with 944CVs, in SirAndy's classic thread.

Pics to come...

Nate

I think you will find that unless you brace the motor or tranny front to rear they will swing forward and rearward under power. the only thing preventing it is the strength of the tubing crossection at the vertical part of the motor mount. Thats probably why Dana built the cradle type mount he made for rh. You maybe could build a mount from the top of the bellhousing to the tubing you put between the towers like the subys (pitch link) use to stop it.

After studying some online pics of some Suby trans mounts, I gave it another try.

I followed the advise of other Conversionites and used 911 sports mounts to attach the Suby trans to after fixing it with hard mounts.

The pics will say it better... Sorry for the blurriness, camera phone pics.

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1 inch tubing that is boxed and sleeved for the bolt (prevent crushing)
attatched with 1"x1"x.25" angle steel to a .25" plate cut to fit the Suby case

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Suby mounts version 2.0

The main reason for the new mounts was to provide clearance for any obstacles that the rear of the car might encounter (ie. speedbumps)

I will see how the forward and rear sway of this system is effected by the acceleration and braking of the car. It was suggested to join the engine and trans mounts to provide more stability. I will watch this when I get it on the road and go from there.

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Another pic in car

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From below

More to come!

Cooling system and cable shifting system are next!

Nate

Looks great Nate! Keep the updates coming.

Signed,
A Guy Who Has Been Too Lazy to Update My Build

Well, it has been a while but finally some progress!

I have been studying the pics of DBCooper's (Paul) awesome build and tried to copy his version of the cable shifter. I had some cables made from a company in the mid west and used some scrap metal from an old Seagrave fire engine for the shifter linkage!

So, here is the fruit of my MAN SKILLZ! (novice that they may be )

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Top down view

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Looks kinda familiar

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Still need to paint it up

I was able to play with a plasma cutter at the fire mechanic shop for the first time and boy that thing is awesome!

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Cable shifter using an MR2 linkage

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another


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I still need to mount it in the car and make it pretty but, I am very proud of myself considering I have never done this before!
Now it is time to go out in the garage and pretend I am driving it

Cheers,
Nate

Very nice. I'll be doing the same very soon. Keep up the great work!

Great job Nate. I'm finally in the "pre-assembly" stage with my Suby-teener, so it is great to see your progress to inspire me. Keep up the good work!

Thanks Geoff!
Next step is copying your hydraulic clutch solution and getting the car one step closer!

Been too long since I have posted any progress on the Suby project but, there has been a bit of movement!

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-Installed the hydrallic clutch master cylinder and ran the hard line to the back. Followed Strawman's idea about using it with the stock pedal cluster.

-Gathered all the necessary pieces for the five lug swap. I did the front strut option and followed Sir Andy's thread for the rears.

-Cleaned up the front trunk and prepped it for the radiator. Cut the exhaust holes and welded in the all of the openings.

-Painted the Fuchs and I am picking up some tires this week!

-Got the Suby manifold flipped over, moved the alternator, and rewired the engine harness to fit.

-Trimmed out all off the unnecessary wires out of the stock Suby harness using Small Car Performance info and made a harness to mate with the Teener.

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Ordered the Gates radiator hose from Renegade Hybrids and reinstalled the front wiring harness.

Still need to install the hose.

Looking great Nate, keep it up! You'll have that suby running in no time.

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Phoenix Red!!!

16x7's! Tires to be picked up this week.

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Suby engine!! Ready to be installed! Minus some tubing...

-Still need to route the engine fuel lines with the Walbro fuel pump. Already put in Racer Chris' SS lines.

-Need to order small bits for the front fuel system before putting everthing back.

Looking good. Nice work Nate.
What profile tires will you use?

I picked up a set of Falken 205/50/ZR16 tires!!
Still waiting for set of lug nuts from Rennline in the mail. Then, I will see if I need to stretch the rear wheel wells.

Hey Nate is that Outfronts alternator relocation bracket? If so how did you get it to fit & the alternator not hit the AIR ports? I had to stick ny alternator further up & right

I have a 2002 2.5 NA engine and flipping the manifold 180 was not just a plug and play. I had to trim back the heater hardpipe leading down to the water pump and use a rubber hose to connect it. Also, I had to take apart the engine stock harness and splice in a few extra inches to make everything reach. I am using the stock ECU and harness that I trimmed down using Small Cars' print out for a 2002.

I am also using a phenolic spacer for the intake manifold which also gave me a bit of clearance room for everything to fit.
I will post some pic of everything in place once I am done with all the wiring.

Cheers,
Nate

Here are some pics of some more progress:

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Front trunk with Walbro fuel pump installed & remote reservoir for hydraulic clutch

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Phenolic spacer ordered from Grimmspeed

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Modified heater downpipe to the water pump

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Side view of Outfront unmodified Alternator bracket


more pics to come next week

Hey Nate, what's the status. You must be getting close. Going to make it to WCR?