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.
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| 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.
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| Transmission |
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| Clutch is in good shape. |
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| Flywheel has some minor cracks. That will get resurfaced. |
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| Putting the engine on the stand. |
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| 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.
Wade this is going to be a sweet ride. I too have a love for subaru. I have the legacy gt and love it. Is the 818 going to be awd? Is the engine in the back? Is it going to be fast enough without a turbo?
ReplyDeleteThanks Jason! What year is your Legacy? The 818 is a mid engine rear wheel drive. It uses the Subaru transmission but cuts off the back half of it and you install a block off plate. I have battled with the turbo issue in my head a lot. It would be faster with a turbo however it should already be pretty fast due to the power to weight ratio being so high. The 818 weighs 1,800 pounds and the stock engine has 175hp so that's almost 10 lbs per horsepower. I may put an after market turbo on if I'm not happy when its all done. Great questions! Thanks for reading!
ReplyDeleteI keep looking at your blog to see your progress. I'm beginning to think you scrapped the whole project...decided you wanted the 2.0 turbo Cadillac instead.
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