Blew up the 4eat in my FXT.

Yeaaa it is alot of work though!
I'm figuring it out as I go. I've set a date to be done by end of September.

I'm anticipating electrical/ECU issues. I have not looked into the wiring AT ALL yet. I figure I'll cross that bridge when I get there.

 

Rip out the whole harness and stick in a diesel

 

Roll coal!

 

Worked on it all day Saturday.
Entire drivetrain is out. I suppose it was done the "hard" way since the engine is still in. Don't have a engine hoist sooo...

Also the torque converter is fine! Anyone interested in a IPT 3400 stall?
So what went boom?
Front diff

Total mess.




Not so much anymore.



Waiting on clutch to come in so I can put the 6speed in.
I'm on the fence of getting a short throw shifter. Looking into inserts for the rear end.
Also discovered one/both of my driver head cam seal leaks pretty good.
Dam.

Didnt get any subaru work done today.
A quick JY trip with a buddy turned into us pulling two Chevy 6.0L from those cargo vans. I'm battered

 

Clutch showed up sooner than expected



Cleaned up the R180


Painted some things


Yes, I know no one will ever see the shiney parts after it is installed. I will know though

Hoping to make it to machine shop this evening to have flywheel resurfaced and brembo thread fixed.

I ordered a bunch of poly bushings to stiffen up rear diff and trans. Should be showing up throughout the week.

 

Still gives me a headache looking at it but I can't wait to see it done

 

Got somethings done! Even pulled a motor from a dc2, that was random. :|
Remainder of the 4eat stuff is now gone


Then onto 6mt stuff






Rear subframe cleaned up nice


So did the tranny


As it is right now, rear end is done,trans is in and suspended by some bolts. Was too tired to care to look for my phone to take pics.
I'm waiting for my 6mt groupN mount to come in! They're late!! :|

If I get time during the week I can have it all finished up and then give everything a once over with torque wrench.
Then get my brembos off to be re-powdercoated and figure out what to do with the auto ecu.

 

Good stuff. I like how you casually throw off the mention of the ecu at the end, no biggie

 

You might just need to get a 5spd ecu, though I am not sure its drop in to the auto harness. I know quite a few people who have 6spd swapped a 5spd manual with no ECU swap.

@Nhibbs and @xluben have done 6spd swaps and I think they are running stand alone DCCD controllers.

 

Haaa yea.


Looking at the schematics though... I think it should be fine with a couple trickery.
Backup plan is to get a mtx ecu.
Worst case scenario, is I saw screw it and go full standalone with megasquirt on it.

 

Just give it to me, its not worth the headaches. Neons are cheaper anyway

 

True that. Neons are cheaper. I could have built a 10sec car or two by now!!

 

Curry, I believe xluben and nhibbs were going 5MT>6MT not 4EAT>6MT... Big difference : )

 

Understood, but even if he does require a swap to a manual ecu, he will likely need a standalone dccd controller which I believe was a feature of STI ECUs.

 

@belalegosi, this might help... http://www.subaruforester.org/vbulletin/f89/so-you-want-5mt-swap-your-forester-250418/

 

@Curry I'm going to run without any DCCD controller for now.
And yea I know of that how to. I'm just not certain that's how I want to do it yet.

 

Pull the main harness, swap in an sti harness, sti ecu, sti gauge cluster!

 

So how are things going buddy? Been pretty quiet lately!

 

I know right
Well I was held up for a long time with getting my brembos back from being powdercoated.

Anyways I'm off my ass and doing things again!

First I'm trying to be hella cool and hella JDM etc so I bought this JDM SG9 STI cluster. Ignore the condensation. It was sitting on my doorstep all day.



Here's the Brembos powdercoated white and rebuilt. Important lesson learnt: NON-CHLORINATED brake cleaner DESTROYS powdercoat. Luckily I only tested it on a small area so no one would ever know.


Had Matt weld in a EGT bung and wrapped my Maddad downpipe. Going to seal it tonight.



Going to wrap and seal this tonight to



And the cliche Turbo + Beer can pic



So much room in here I almost don't want to put the turbo back in.
NA 4 LYFE
Just kidding. Matt showed me his fog light turbo mount setup. After seeing how much space it opens up and dealing with the frustration of bigger turbo stock location setup.... I'm ALMOST sold.

 

I would go insane trying to keep white Brembos clean.
They look bad ass though!

 

I know. I've rocked white wheels before so I know the struggle.
I bought some low dust pads. Centric I think? I'll have to double check, they had high reviews.

Also the image makes the brembo look red. Its more pinkish

 

Nice top hats/camber plates!

And I think you meant a bung for the wideband O2 sensor in the dp...the EGT probe usually goes in the header.

 

I wanted my EGT bung in the downpipe.
I'm paranoid about the the sensor for whatever reason disintegrating and going into the turbo. Sometimes I'm not rational.

I'd expect the exhaust temps to be a lot lower at this location but it would still give a decent relative measurement.

 

Here's an update:

The 6 speed swap is mechanically done. Just wiring, water meth kit, few odds and ends and lastly the calipers install.


And yes I did this






...The chrome rims are my winter wheels.

 

Why meth kit? E85 > meth

 

I know. I run E85 in my other car.
But I got the kit for cheap and I want to roadtrip alot next year. E85 isnt reliable everywhere.

 

2 tunes and accessport! Haha I just do not trust meth systems for octane. Its fine if you only rely on it for IAT suppression tho.

 

FXT FTW! Looking good son.

 

So excited to see this done. Nerdgasming

 

So is your car back on the road now?

 

I forgot to update this, the Forester is now up and running with a rebuilt motor and 6mt swap!

Sadly the only good full body pic I have of it is a silly snapchat from when it was being detailed


Here's random pics from throughout the rebuild process

R180 with rear diff temp sensor installed (it was my 4eat fluid temp sensor)


Version 1 of my trans harness merge. It was later trimmed for length and DCCD plugin added.


I also got a set of JDM Forester STI seats.



Built short block


After having my timing belt skip and bend my valves when the 4eat blew, I got the Company23 timing guide




Motor built






Alignment being done

 

Added some novelty items





And proof it drives. This was on my way home from the Tuesday meet at Surly

 

Oh and for those curious, I was able to rewire my harness to reuse my original 4eat ECU and it drives great.
However I don't have Cruise Control and possibly ABS (never tried locking up the brakes).
I'll say this, a lot of the write ups posted on various forums are... sketchy.

Most of the time spent actually working on this rebuild was learning the "Subaru way" of wiring things.
Majority of the down time was eaten up by work and lack of motivation.

 

congrats! Post up the info on how you figured out the 4eat ECU wiring to make it work better for a MT

 

My initial plan was to when it was all done and tested.
But lately the idea of getting into the harness merge business as a side gig is becoming appealing.

 

Ha yea! I just popped them in place of the seat heaters.
I need to trim the bezel to make it right side up.
After I get the pigtails!