Update 6

It's been a little while. Progress has been steady but slow. We had a cold spell and then a bunch of snow so that killed my motivation to get out into the garage. Anything less than 35 degrees and I just don't feel like holding cold tools in my hand. I finally got out there again and got some progress done and ran into a few little road blocks.

This is the prototype of the 818c. I'm going with red and this was the only picture I could find of a red one.

 I took engine and transmission out of the subframe and separated the transmission.

Transmission

Clutch is in good shape.

Flywheel has some minor cracks. That will get resurfaced.

Putting the engine on the stand.

The engine's home for the next little while.

Today I went out and did a cylinder leak down test on the engine. The piston rings seem to be sealing really well and it had about 30% leakage out the valves. That's not to bad but I'll be rebuilding the heads and putting in new valves and head gaskets anyway. The short block shouldn't need any work though but I'll find out more when I take the heads off.
I also started to put the engine on a diet and take off the unnecessary parts. The 818 won't have power steering or air conditioning so those parts were removed. It really uncluttered the engine, (which makes me want to take a minute and because this is my blog I can do what I want) I love Subaru. I love the AWD and I love the boxer engines. I love the engineering. These vehicles are the most friendly to work on. My favorite. I can't say it enough. I've owned a number of them over the years and they just seem to draw me in. When Factory Five came out with the 818 I was really really excited! It was an amazing design with a great powertrain! My wife gets tired of my always talking about it and how excited I am to get the kit and start building this project. But it's true. I eat it, I breath it, I dream it and I'm actually doing it.

Update 5

I pulled the engine out. I took the whole assembly as one piece and will take the individual parts off later. I lowered the engine down from underneath with jacks but I still needed it get it out from the engine bay. So after thinking about it for a while I finally found the answer.....  

 Just lift up the car. I had my wife pull it out while I lifted it up. I was really impressed with myself and thought that she would be wooed. She wasn't though, claiming that the car is just an empty shell. The kids thought that I was super man though.

Engine taken out.

Fuel tank and evaporative canister. 

Bare naked underneath. Just the way I like it.

Had my little helper with me. She was proud that she got as dirty as Daddy.

I got the donor done and pushed it back into the driveway. That was a pretty fun experience because it had no wheels or anyway to roll. I put it on a few jacks and got it out of my garage most of the way. Then I just hooked it up to the Escalade and pulled it across the gravel. I took all the valuable parts off of it and posted an add on Facebook for a free junk vehicle. I had about 12 people that said they wanted it and the next day it was gone. 

Ok so maybe the shell didn't weigh that much.