IT RUNS!!! - My 500whp build - Element motor and Moore Performance Twin Scroll Kit! by dexterous

6 minute(s) of a 312 minute read

I spent about four hours on the car tonight and I made really good progress. I decided to change some of the meth system wiring around so that it would be easier to work on. I moved the relays from the back seat area to the side of the trunk with all the other wiring. This new location will hopefully prevent me from needing to remove the back seat as much as I have been. When I was done with the wiring I put the beatrush devider plate in and reinstalled the back seat for the first time since November.

Reinstalling the back seat is a pretty significant milestone in my project because it means the whole rear of the car is finished. It was pretty awesome to look in the back and see that it looked like a car again! From here I have a very long list of small and mostly boring jobs to complete before I start assembling the driveline. With a little luck I should be ready to install my motor by the weekend.

3-15-2011

Just a real quick update tonight. I received some hardware from Moore Performance today to help sort out my oil cooler line issues and it appears to work really well. For starters, they sent me a set of thin stainless spacers to increase the distance between the header and heads to allow the oil cooler lines to have some more breathing room. They also sent me a crazy aerospace grade inconel heat shield to go between the header and the oil lines. The combo of the two makes all the difference in the world as far as fitment goes!

As usual, I will post up some pictures as soon as I get a moment.

3-19-2011

I finally installed the motor tonight (hopefully for the last time in a long time). I have swapped several dozen Subaru motors over the past ten years so I decided to time my self on how long it took. I started the clock with the motor on the stand and stopped it when I unhooked the chains form the hoist and backed it away. It was by no means a record especially since I was working 100% by my self but I got the job done in just under 17 minutes.

As promised, here are more picts!

I started out with this tonight, hopefully this is the last motor-less picture I post of this car for a good while.

I snapped a few shots of the motor hanging on the hoist:

I haven't mentioned it previously but I am using an Exedy twin disk six puck racing clutch. This is one of my favorite clutches in this power range but its "unfortunately expensive" at $2k.

Here are the much anticipated heat shield pictures:

I snapped a few more fuel system shots after I tightened down the -10 and -6 lines. At this point the fuel system is totally assembled! I am really really pleased with how the fuel system turned out. Phil from Element told me to try really hard to keep the lines between the rails 100% even in length for best operation. I spent a long long time trying to figure out how to setup the huge "Y" distribution block and this is what I came up with. As you can see, both sides are 100% identical and the fitment is fantastic.

I put a pretty solid day of work into the car today. All the sensors, electrical stuff, many of the pumps, etc are ready to go. I also spent lots of time working out issues relocating things that were now in the way of the new turbo setup and fuel system.

Here are a few picts from the day:

I also installed some thick bushings around my fuel pump to keep it quiet:

Here's my awesome new Mishimoto X-Line radiator:

I did a quick test power-up of the car to make sure that all my gauges were seeing sensor signals. I now have five Defi including Boost, EGT, Oil Pressure, Oil Temp and Fuel Pressure (the sixth gauge is the Aquamist DDS-3).

I am not sure if I have an issue or not but I am betting that I do. Since I had previously drained my fuel tank I went to the gas station with a large gas tank and picked up six gallons of gas for the STI. I quickly filled up the tank and started the process of checking my fuel system for leaks as well as setting up the fuel pump controller and pressure regulator.

I expected the fuel pump to have a high pitched whine that varied with the speed of the pump. Much to my surprise, my pump sounded more like "growling" almost as if there were loose parts or something inside. Needless to say, I will be calling Aeromotive on Monday. In the meantime, can anybody offer any advice or experience here?