Hi All - Thanks for looking in! I recently acquired am '04 Forester XTI and now have time to rebuild my beloved first subaru (a 2001 Forester S - EJ25 SOHC); a project I have been wanting to work on since I bought it. I bent the valves and now am going to buy re-manufactured heads with preloaded valves (sans cams) from Aluminum Heads.com, unless anyone has some sitting around already! I am going to pull the engine myself and am putting on the following new parts, suggestions welcome: -New head gasket (I heard there is a fix it kit with braided Aluminum) -New water pump (any suggestions on brand?) -New crank pulley (Agency Power's lightweight aluminum) -Re-manufactured stock heads and stock cams (I have heard that there might be a possibility of hybridizing heads off a different model to help add horsepower, anyone know anything about this?) -Kevlar timing belt (any suggestions on brand, or not going with Kevlar?) -All new timing belt bearings, pulleys, and tensioners -Borla Headers, high-flow cat, and 3 inch exhaust all the way back K&N filter in the stock snorkel box (unless anyone things the Agency Power MAP intake really is worth it). -A new clutch (any suggestions) and a short throw kit Tools: Engine hoist, torque wrench, basic garage tools...what else will I need? I have heard/read that the cam sprockets are hard to pull, it there a special tool for that? I also heard the timing belt is tough to line up the timing belt, anyone have a good video or forum link for that? I know I'm not talking major horsepower here, but my first forester was a tank, with the parts listed above I expect it will last until my kids start to drive! Suggestions welcome!! Thanks all!
Well, bent valves may mean damaged pistons too. It's something you'll have to look into. On the cheap, stock is about as good as it gets. Most aftermarket options are low compression products for forced induction. TWE does have high compression versions made by Wiseco, but you are paying a little bit of a price premium for them. At a lighter cost, stock is the better route. Now if you might think about upgrading the cams to something a bit higher revving, then higher compression pistons become a necessity. Act is generally the brand you will go to. You might look at something like the ACT SB2-HDSS clutch and ACT-600180 light weight flywheel. THMotorsports has them at a good price. RockAuto is about the best place you can go online for replacement hardware for cars. The water pump, timing belt, pulleys, etc. all can be had from there at very good pricing. I'd leave the stock crank pulley alone. A light weight one is less than a 1% difference overall. I would personally opt for TWE's headers. Their header is the best built and the best power gain option out there, period. If I were to provide one suggestion, don't skimp on the header. It is one of the more critical parts of the NA package in terms of simple bolt-ons that will actually gain you a serious amount of power. The Borla setup will gain a small amount over stock. People do it for the sound alone, but really that's all you're getting, sound. A TWE header is engineered to make power and does so significantly. The gains are moderate, on the order of 20 ft-lbs. TWE's website is not accurate for pricing, so don't let the $1k price tag scare you. It is a little bit less than that, but it also is the best built and greatest power gaining bolt-on piece you will put on the car. Leave the intake stock, but I would route in actual cold air. You will want to leave the stock air box alone. It is a secondary in-line resonator that operates in conjunction with the intake manifold plenum. Modification or removal results in a messy air/fuel ratio. The plenum size is tiny on these cars, so the stock air box seems to take on some of the responsibility. Look at hybrid options, feeding cold air from the fender hole to the airbox inlet pipe. A lot of people have done it, so there's tons of pics out there and forum threads on Nasioc and RS25. The most important parts is leave the stock box and routing in actual cold air. The K&N filter will do nothing for power. It is simply a convenience item. The filter is sufficiently big for this engine, so switching from a plain paper filter to a K&N or equivalent product will show zero difference. You seriously will not feel a thing from this. The STI head gasket works and proves a good option. Cosmetic gaskets are also heavily used. I'd just stick to proven parts. Apparently Subaru has two head gasket options for the NA motors, one that doesn't fix the problem and one that does. People just know the STI ones work, so that's sort of what people just do. I don't know what route will be best for the heads. You could certainly remove the stock ones and have them refitted with new valves, and you could even have them ported and polished if you want. This is also a good time to upgrade cams and make a little more power. There are mild "torque" cams like Delta's 1000 and 1500 grinds, or you can step to a mild sport cam like Delta's 2000 grind. The gain in the sport cam is that it moves the torque band up just a little bit to bump up the HP a decent chunk on the top end. It would make for a little more peppy of a motor if you typically wind the thing out. The cams themselves are pretty cheap and are one of the few items that provide moderate gains on a NA motor along with good headers and a good ECU tune. Speaking of ECU tune, look at Crawford's reflashes. Look at the SRS-10 flash if you want to stay with 87 octane. Stock to the SRS-20 is around 5-10 ft-lbs across the board. The SRS-20 flash is good for a full exhaust, intake, and a step to 91 octane. The difference in tune alone on a motor with full exhaust is about 10 ft-lbs, so the step up is meaningful. Then they have their SRS-30 flash for the same setup but geared for upgraded sport cams(Delta 2000 grind). The reflash is simple and are good tunes. The higher tunes are realistically worth a solid 15-20 ft-lbs across the board relative to the stock tune, so it's nothing to scoff at. I will toss in one more small add. Grab a set of intake manifold spacers from Grimmspeed. The idea is that these don't transfer heat so the intake manifold stays cooler. Realistically, radiant heat from the engine bay still heats up the intake manifold. HOWEVER, these little 8mm spacer does effect how the air flows into the head and interestingly bumps up low rpm (2k) torque a solid 20 ft-lbs (not kidding). Best guess is it has something to do with out the air tumbles or whatever transitioning through, but it does oddly work, so it's a worthwhile buy on these older NA motors (pre 2005). Let's see some additional things. Well, I might toss on new bearings if I were you. A 2001 is getting old, and since it's apart, you might as well refresh things. I guess it depends on how apart you want to make it. If you break the engine apart, you will need to add on a gasket kit too, and there's of course more work to the whole mess. Really, these engines should last 200k, 300k, so maybe it's something you just forget about and assume nothing will ever happen. It's certainly possible the chassis will rust out first.
Back Road Runner - that is an awesome grip of info! Thanks a ton for your insight and perspective. It sounds like I have got my work cut out for me based on your note and other reading I've done. My Forester has 203K on it, and would still be running if I hadn't blown the AC belt, which left rubber on the crank pulley, which then wore a hole in the timing belt cover, which then let a pebble jam in the timing belt pulley, which stressed the bearing so much that even after replacement of the belt (my regular mechanic neglected to replace the bearings on the tensioners and pulleys) led to the bearing giving out at freeway speeds....which sadly led to me leaving the transmission in gear to long, which lead to the pistons hitting a valve...what a fluke!! Maybe I should just put in a used engine.... If I run into trouble with my rebuld, any suggestions on who to call if I am stuck? Thanks again, your post was awesome!
