Some Engine Help Needed

[TX-Lou]

We were going to finish off the install of the VCP AWIC today, and I think we are good to go regarding what we need to do for that. However, we have a bunch of hoses and nipples in different spots that are unconnected right now. I was hoping we would get around to connecting those in the build manual but it really assumes that you just pulled everything out of the donor and are slapping into the 818. We had our engine rebuilt and the labels that we put on some things were not there when we got it back. Installing the AWIC would cover a lot of this up so we need to get it resolved first.


The WRX engine is very complex for a beginner I've poured through the HAYES repair manual, the forums, and the Internet and have some answers but I'm just not sure on some things. So, I would appreciate any help that could be provided in confirming, correcting and just plain explaining some of this.


First, we need to maintain emissions compliance. I'd love to follow the thread about deleting all of the emissions system components and related sensors but we can't. So with that in mind here is what we have and our questions.





The picture above is the drivers side of the manifold. I believe hose (A) used to go to the donor Intercooler. There is a similar hose on the other side (H) that I believe used to connect to the Intercooler on that side. Do we cap these? Do we connect the two together or do we run them somewhere else? We also have a nipple on the manifold (B) that is unconnected and we don't know what should connect there. C is the evap nipple on the fuel rail. I assume we need to connect that to the charcoal box but haven't researched that yet. In the first picture the hose sticking up that is unlabeled comes off the bottom of the throttle body and goes to the BOV on the AWIC. The hose that used to go to the bypass on the donor Intercooler is plugged.






D is a hard line that I'm almost certain is a coolant line. In the build class we had two hard lines that were right there and we connected them together with an elbow hose. That is where we bled some of the air out of the coolant system when we first started the engine. In the FFR manual they mention all of this and we have the elbow hose from FFR. But we only have the one hard line here. I see another hard line that is unconnected (E). It has a hose that T's out connects to hard line D. In the build class the donor was a 2006 WRX. Ours is a 2004 WRX. Is this a difference between the two model years? I'm not sure what to connect to either of these hard lines.





I've seen conflicting info with this picture. I assume that the nipple on the wastegate (F) connects to the nipple on the turbo housing (G). I've seen this in some pictures. But I've also seen these two connected with a hose that T's off to a solenoid (which I don't have but could still be connected to our wiring harness that we sent to iWire). In those pictures they also show that a brass restrictor pill is in that hose. Well, I've looked through all of the donor parts that we have and I don't see a T hose, and I don't see anything with a restrictor pill in it. Could be something that didn't make it back from our engine rebuild (there were a few other things)? What should we do here? Do I need to order this hose and restrictor pill?

<Continued>

[TX-Lou]

Nipple I coming off of the Cold Air Inlet is connected to the solenoid I mentioned above in pictures that I've seen. Do I have that right? I have no idea where to connect J to. It is an open plastic elbow tube that is coming out of the Cold Air Inlet.





Nipple K is coming out of the top of the throttle body. Where should I connect this to or do I cap it? Nipple L is coming off the bottom passenger side of the throttle body. Do I connect this one somewhere or just cap it?





The first two pictures are of our new Blouch 18G XT-R Tuirbo. The third pictures is from our donor turbo. On our donor turbo there is a fitting M that has a hard line that you can see in that third picture. We have the same spot for the fitting on the new turbo but I don't see anywhere that I would connect it to. The second picture shows the turbo from the side. There is nothing that I can connect the fitting you see on the donor to. Am I missing something?


Again, Thanks for any help you can provide. If the answer is "you need to take that in to your engine builder" I understand. I know I am out of my depth here but, our builder is 4 hours away and I was hoping I could resolve some of these things without having to bring it there.


- Lou

[mikeb75]

I believe D is the heater core line - I believe from the water pump. This can not be blocked off as it is required for coolant flow during engine warm up - the kit includes a "U" tube to loop this connection - check the assembly manual.

Can't tell from the angle but is E also coming from the coolant crossover pipe? If so, (if I remember correctly) this feeds the throttle body for cold weather running.

K & L would be the throttle body coolant loop, which you can block off assuming you're not worried about cold weather running/throttle body freezing/emissions issues (I think most of the builds have removed this loop, I have).

[mikeb75]

Turbo : the OEM turbo you indicated (M) the hard oil feed line that originates on the engine block using a banjo fitting. It looks like your aftermarket turbo uses a different type of line... on the Blouch site there is a selection for type of oil feed line (STI or WRX block). I believe you should have a stainless steel braided line that has a banjo fitting (for the engine block) and whatever type of threading would feed the turbo. I'd contact the vendor if you don't have that.

[TX-Lou]

Turbo : the OEM turbo you indicated (M) the hard oil feed line that originates on the engine block using a banjo fitting. It looks like your aftermarket turbo uses a different type of line... on the Blouch site there is a selection for type of oil feed line (STI or WRX block). I believe you should have a stainless steel braided line that has a banjo fitting (for the engine block) and whatever type of threading would feed the turbo. I'd contact the vendor if you don't have that.

Thanks Mike! I do have the Blouch braided line. I just could not figure out where the other end connected. After I read what you posted I went back in with a flashlight and found it. It is a bolt tucked in under the turbo mounting bracket. It will be hard as hell to get at but at least I know where this one goes!

On K and L, no we aren't going to have a problem with freezing down in Houston. I'll cap those.

As for D and E, I do have the U hose (I called it an elbow hose above) but my problem is that where D is I only have one hard line (see below).



The manual shows two hard lines there to connect with the U hose. That is what we had at build school as well.



It looks like our engine is different. It looks like on ours instead of D and E being stacked on top of each other they are split with D being where it should be and E coming out from under the throttle body and going right and up, instead of left next to D. I checked where E connects under the throttle body and it is connected properly. There is a screw in the connection that only goes one way. I just want to get confirmation of that before I hook these two together. I don't see any other hard line that appears to be a coolant line. Did anyone else run into this?


Thanks again,
- Lou

[mikeb75]

I think you're going to need someone else to chime in on the D/E looping issue. I would say you can loop together the heater-core with the coolant crossover pipe - but don't go by my recommendation!!!
I pretty much rerouted all the lines from the water pump so I never actually bothered with looping the heater core connection. The only coolant lines I kept were the one that goes into the crossover pipe and the one that feeds the turbo/upper reservoir.

[Scargo]

I see you are working with a 2004 Impreza WRX 2.0L turbo (EJ205)
Here are manuals you can download. Some non-Subaru manuals I've used have not been very good.
https://www.subarupartsdepot.com/oem-subaru-parts.html for parts blow-ups can be very helpful for seeing how things connect.
I wonder if you really must have all the OEM emissions stuff in place to pass? Often, if the engine is warm, it will pass with much of it missing or inoperable. Plus, it's a special case as a homebuilt, isn't it?
I'd try and help more but I'm not familiar with the older WRXs.

[Sgt.Gator]

B is for the power brake booster hose which is now gone. Cap it or re-pupose it for a boost gauge.

A & H connect to your balance bar that also connects to the intake, which is hard to tell in the pics but I think is what you have labelled as J. A better pic of J would be helpful. They are very important, re-connect them. On the WRX and Legacy it's tube that runs across by the TMIC with three ports. See the attached parts diagram.

G11_08201133.png


F & G each run to the Boost Control Solenoid. I have attached a diagram of vacuum hoses for the 2.5L in a Legacy, but it shows a Grimmspeed BCS connected. and may be helpful for other ports you are figuring out.

fuel_intake_combined vacuum hoses.jpg

[TX-Lou]

I see you are working with a 2004 Impreza WRX 2.0L turbo (EJ205)
Here are manuals you can download. Some non-Subaru manuals I've used have not been very good.
https://www.subarupartsdepot.com/oem-subaru-parts.html for parts blow-ups can be very helpful for seeing how things connect.
I wonder if you really must have all the OEM emissions stuff in place to pass? Often, if the engine is warm, it will pass with much of it missing or inoperable. Plus, it's a special case as a homebuilt, isn't it?
I'd try and help more but I'm not familiar with the older WRXs.

Thanks for the links! I'll see what I can find. Unfortunately Texas has some funky laws about home built cars. And emissions testing in Texas is a county by county issue. We live in a county that does strict emissions testing.

- Lou

[TX-Lou]

B is for the power brake booster hose which is now gone. Cap it or re-pupose it for a boost gauge.

A & H connect to your balance bar that also connects to the intake, which is hard to tell in the pics but I think is what you have labelled as J. A better pic of J would be helpful. They are very important, re-connect them. On the WRX and Legacy it's tube that runs across by the TMIC with three ports. See the attached parts diagram.

G11_08201133.png


F & G each run to the Boost Control Solenoid. I have attached a diagram of vacuum hoses for the 2.5L in a Legacy, but it shows a Grimmspeed BCS connected. and may be helpful for other ports you are figuring out.

fuel_intake_combined vacuum hoses.jpg

Thanks for all of this info! I'll try to get a better picture of J today and I'll go over the diagrams you posted.

- Lou

[STiPWRD]

A: Intercooler hose for oil suction (I'm running an oil catch can so routed them a bit different than stock)
H: Intercooler hose for oil suction
B: Vacuum reference for the brake booster, not used on the 818 – cap this one
C: Air hose near fuel lines, possibly connected to purge control solenoid (J)?
D: Coolant hose – connect this one to E. The small hose coming off D can be capped, it goes to the throttle body nipple K.
F: Wastegate nipple: connect to G
G: Compressor nipple: connect to wastegate nipple (F) with T-fitting to wastegate solenoid.
J: Hard to tell from the angle
I: Turbo inlet hose nipple, connect to wastegate solenoid
K: Coolant nipple on throttle - Cap this one.
L: Coolant nipple for throttle – Cap this one
M: Oil hard line, might need to replace this with banjo bolt

Here's a useful picture of how to connect the wastegate hoses:
boost controller connections.jpeg

Disclaimer: I deleted some of the emissions parts off of the engine (purge control solenoid) so I'm not positive on the routing as it goes to the back of the car where the charcoal canister is with a few other emissions solenoids. I'm running a smaller charcoal canister directly off of the gas tank. Also, be careful not to hook up your emissions system such that it pulls a vacuum on your gas tank as it may implode.

[redfogo]

TX-Lou I have an Ej207 and my coolant lines are just like yours. I made my own hard line to connect D and E together. I used some A/C hard lines and bent them tell I got the shape I needed. Then I used and cut the U line FFR provided to connect everything up. Here are a few pictures.



I have a few other on my website here --> http://redfogo.com/index.php/catch-can-install/

I will make sure to add a section about this on my website under a coolant line tab when I get the chance!

[TX-Lou]

Thanks guys, that helps a lot!

I'll try to take a better picture of J as soon as I can.

So, if A and H are the hoses that attach to the hard lines that run along the stock Intercooler and are used for oil suction, what do you recommend I do with them? I can pull off the hard lines from the stock intercooler and connect them like they used to be. However, when they connect to those hard lines there are three connections. One for A and H respectively. Then there is the last connection that has to go somewhere. I have a picture from our tear down that makes me think it goes to J. But that really confuses me since J is attached to the cold air intake. PhotoBucket is down right now so I can't post it. I will as soon as I can. J is the connection that comes off the bottom of the intake in STiPWRD's photo of the wastegate hoses. It is the one to the bottom left of the picture that appears just on top of the right side of the box underneath the intake pipe.

Thanks,
- Lou

[TX-Lou]

Photobucket is back. Here is the picture with A and H labeled, and a line on the 3rd hose that I think may go into J.



Thanks,
- Lou

[mikeb75]

Head breather tubes & crossover. Are you going to run a Air/Oil separator? If so you will run new lines from H (& H) into the AOS. Otherwise, if I remember correctly they plumb into the PVC.

WRXPVC_diagram.jpg

[STiPWRD]

Mike beat me to it but here's another site showing the same diagram:
http://opposedforces.com/parts/impre...llustration_8/
A and H come off each cylinder head and get T-d together to J. Since J is on the intake tube, it will always see vacuum and (I guess) suck oil vapors from the heads? This is the reason I'm running an oil catch can in between, so my intake doesn't get covered in oil mist.

This may also be useful for figuring out C:
http://opposedforces.com/parts/impre...llustration_3/

It appears that C runs to the purge valve and purge solenoid coming off the front of the intake manifold.

[TX-Lou]

Awesome! It is all making sense now. That is definitely it. I'll go with a catch-can as well.

I think that answers all of my questions.

I've got M hooked up already with the Blouch braided line and banjo fitting with new crush washers. Plugs have been ordered. Now I just need to plumb a few connections, find the wastegate solenoid and hoses and put in a catch-can.

Thanks again!

- Lou