I've lived through AC Speedster sorting for the past 6 years. Now that everything is perfect I decided to start over with a Suby conversion :-)
Fellow Suby-owners, what potential sorting issues might I look forward to?
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Need soothing cream like "oil-of-old-lady" for the G-Force SEG!
Fill gas & Check your earl once in a while. Check connections for cooling system before and at the end of every season That's pretty much it.
Make sure there is no air in the cooling system. Burp it out.
FI system--clean (mine isn't because I didn't take everything apart when i installed the engine).
trouble codes related to the home-made Vehicle Speed Sensor (this sorting issue appears to be limited to those using the stock ECU)
Other than that? What Marty says. Watch your heads, head gaskets. Watch your cooling temps. Make sure all the air's out.
Tom,
Since you have a reputable builder, your sorting should be minor. I'm sure Carey will give you a heads-up on all important issues. As is usual for our hobby, these are basically one-off installations, so what is true for car A may not be true for car B.
Maintenance on these engines is not much different than cars we had years ago, where we actually checked fluid levels prior to driving. (My kids think I'm crazy when I check oil and water before starting the engine.) Until you become familiar with the sounds, feel, and smell of the engine, you may want to pay careful attention to the cooling system and fluid level. Depending on the relative height and position of the rad cap and the plumbing layout, burping out the air may be simple. Carey will know the easy way for your application.
From my perspective, the rest is pretty routine: check the parking surface for any leaks, watch you gauges, and go like stink!
While most of us with modern cars are not doing much oil checking there is a propensity to use oil in most modern engines. I just had this conversation with the dealer on some cars needing you to check oil only after engine is at operating temperature and there are class action law suits in the USA on Subaru 2.5L engines for excessive oil usage.
I have gone back to checking my oil at least at the mid point for all my newer cars and I was surprised to find some are using a bit of oil. All within the standards of VW but still I am back at making sure I get no surprises.
As for my roadste,r I check the oil every 500 miles just to make sure the Subie engine is ok. There is no real display or system check to visually verify the ECU notices.
As for the coolant, I regularly look at the area where my roadster is parked in the garage and I also check all the fittings as Marty mentioned because the car has a mile of coolant hosing as well as so many points where coolant could potentially leak and I have had to snug a few up.
You will love the torque and if you have drive by wire that too is nice.
Oh yeah, DBW Throtle is very nice. I think Tom would need to convert to some custom pedal cluster in order for the ergonomics to be right with Beck/VW set up. I could be wrong ?
Subaru engines requires the use of a conditioner for the cooling system. Apparently, it helps to keep the head gaskets from leaking. I only use Subaru anti-freeze in my Impreza.
Or you can use Evans cooling and have a boiling point at 300 F. And never burn the head gaskets
Marty Grzynkowicz posted:Oh yeah, DBW Throtle is very nice. I think Tom would need to convert to some custom pedal cluster in order for the ergonomics to be right with Beck/VW set up. I could be wrong ?
I know that Carey modifies the accelerator pedal for this. This will be another nice add.
Caretech-IM posted:While most of us with modern cars are not doing much oil checking there is a propensity to use oil in most modern engines. I just had this conversation with the dealer on some cars needing you to check oil only after engine is at operating temperature and there are class action law suits in the USA on Subaru 2.5L engines for excessive oil usage.
I have gone back to checking my oil at least at the mid point for all my newer cars and I was surprised to find some are using a bit of oil. All within the standards of VW but still I am back at making sure I get no surprises.
As for my roadste,r I check the oil every 500 miles just to make sure the Subie engine is ok. There is no real display or system check to visually verify the ECU notices.
As for the coolant, I regularly look at the area where my roadster is parked in the garage and I also check all the fittings as Marty mentioned because the car has a mile of coolant hosing as well as so many points where coolant could potentially leak and I have had to snug a few up.
You will love the torque and if you have drive by wire that too is nice.
Carey ran braided lines through the tube frame. There are only 4 connections, 2 at the radiator and 2 on the engine. This should help minimize the leak scenarios. I've become an expert at puddles; oil, gas, brake fluid, I've seen them all. This year, hopefully, I won't add coolant to the list :-)
Braided hose inside dom tube? That sounds very sweet. And very secure.
For those counting at home, Bridget's cobbled-up system, with aluminized 1.5-inch exhaust, stainless flexi-line and rubber hoses with worm clamps, has eight connections on the high side, six on the low side, and (if I remember correctly) 16 connections in the heater system.
But I could be forgetting a few.
edsnova posted:Braided hose inside dom tube? That sounds very sweet. And very secure.
For those counting at home, Bridget's cobbled-up system, with aluminized 1.5-inch exhaust, stainless flexi-line and rubber hoses with worm clamps, has eight connections on the high side, six on the low side, and (if I remember correctly) 16 connections in the heater system.
But I could be forgetting a few.
Oh yeah, I forgot about the heater core runs. That's probably 4 more.
Tom Blankinship posted:Carey ran braided lines through the tube frame. There are only 4 connections, 2 at the radiator and 2 on the engine. This should help minimize the leak scenarios. I've become an expert at puddles; oil, gas, brake fluid, I've seen them all. This year, hopefully, I won't add coolant to the list :-)Tom using a single radiator in your set up for sure will keep the issues to a bare minimum and simplify all. The unfortunate thing is that you lose the front trunk but then you can always have friends like LIetz or Ruetter to help you out.
Carey ran braided lines through the tube frame. There are only 4 connections, 2 at the radiator and 2 on the engine. This should help minimize the leak scenarios. I've become an expert at puddles; oil, gas, brake fluid, I've seen them all. This year, hopefully, I won't add coolant to the list :-)
Tom...you must be getting anxious and I can't wait to see the car. Do you know if Carey will be using the "Tom Shiels" trick down at the thermostat ?
No clue David
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Caretech-IM posted:Or you can use Evans cooling and have a boiling point at 300 F. And never burn the head gaskets
I went to the website and read about this coolant, are there any seal or gasket issues from this coolant in modern engines? 375 boiling point is pretty high. Id like to hear about your experience using it!
It is very important, when switching over to Evans cooling, that ALL of the old coolant is drained from the car's cooling system. That includes any spots in the system that might trap a bit of coolant.
I was going to switch over to Evans when I was looking for a way to solve my overheating problems with my monster (V8) Miata, but decided it wasn't worth the effort. I ended up adding another fan to the rad.
The key is making sure you have no water in the engine.... If you have too much water it can be frustrating but the fluid, can be removed and boiled out and reused. So experienced installer is needed unless you have a fresh engine.