It seems my clutch is on its way out as I was on the motorway yesterday in 6th gear, doing 70mph (honest!) and started to overtake and went WOT for a bit of fun. Unfortunately after a couple seconds of opening the throttle the revs shot up but the car speed didnt so I backed off immediately and was left with a lovely burning clutch smell in the cabin

Ive been told its not unusual to experience clutch slip in the higher gears due to the ratios between the gear and the flywheel. One thing is for sure, it will only get worse. Bummer.

So, time for a new clutch.

Ive been reading that it is easier to change the clutch by removing the engine with a hoist out the engine bay rather than removing the gear box from under the car. Any advice on that?

As Im going to be pulling the engine out, now would be a good time to do any other work thats recommended so some Q's coming up...

* Do the wheels have to be off the ground? I ask as I have a set of ramps and 4 peices of old railway sleeper that I use when working under the car. I just drive up the ramps onto the sleepers and it raises the car enough to work underneath. Or do I need to 'suspend' the car on stands so the wheels 'hang'?

* Im going to change the flywheel, is a lightweight flywheel recommended?

* New Engine Mounts too?

* Ive got a good selection of tools but do I need a specific tool to remove the clutch and flywheel? Something to stop it rotating when undoing the bolts?

Any other advice would be much appreciated.

 

If using an engine lift the car won't want to be too high or it won't clear the front when lifting it out. When I did mine after undoing the underneath bits I dropped it back on to its wheels

 

Good point!

Did you have to pry the engine and gearbox apart from the engine bay?

 

You will have to pry them apart yes. If it's never been apart they put up quite a fight, start with a small screw driver and work the crack bigger.

 

Dont pry with anything, can crack the bellhousing or very least gouge it to hell, rocking the engine will free it, make sure you remove the pin for the clutch fork though.

 

Watching this thread

 

I've had mine apart 3 times and haven't cracked anything

 

Work has begun.

Everything has been disconnected or loosened, next step is to lift the engine out. Separating the engine and transmission should hopefully be quite easy as a gap has already appeared since loosening the bolts holding them both together so with some gentle persuasion hopefully they will come apart easy.

However, potentially found some bad news

I think my head gasket has gone on the right hand side, theres some weeping at the head gasket up between the oil filter and exhaust manifold so its going to need some inspection once the engine is out. The left hand side is clean and dry. Part of me says just leave it but my sensible head says change it but it adds a lot more work before putting it all back together again. Opinions?

Took me a whole day, about 8 hours to unbolt everything ready to lift the engine out. Separated all the parts and put fittings in little bags labelled up so I know whats what. The worst part so far was the downpipe, what a **** that is to remove. One of the top bolts that also holds the turbo heat shield was completely seized so I resorted to the angle grinder for that one, also have a question about the downpipe...

The exhaust system fitted by the previous owner is a Magnaflow 3" cat back (model number 16824), now the decatted downpipe looks tapered to me and fits to the Magnaflow centre pipe with a cone gasket, not with a flange face gasket so does that mean the downpipe could be 2.5" and the centre pipe 3"?

Time to get back to it!

EDIT: Aha, found the answer to my exhaust question thanks to someone else asking the same thing about the Magnaflow. The centre pipe does taper from 3" to 2.5" to mate with the OEM 2.5" downpipe. Found in the Q&A here - https://www.rallysportdirect.com/par...ck-exhaust-3in

 

Engine is out!

When the job is all done I'll update with some piccys but for now, the engine came out no worries, found out some interesting things along the way too...

* First of all, every guide Ive seen says to raise the vehicle and Im guessing most people use or refer to axle stands to lift the vehicle and work underneath. Ive used a far more safer option of driving the front end up on to ramps/wooden blocks - cut down railway sleepers infact. Ive done the whole job so far with the front of the car sat on its wheels so there is no risk of the car falling.

* Most guides Ive seen say to remove the alternator and power steering pump - I think I know why, see next point. All I did was remove the two power steering hoses and tied them back out the way pointing upwards stopping any fluid draining out, there was a little spill but far easier than removing the whole pump. The alternator stayed in place.

* I think others have said to remove the alternator to create an anchor point with the alternator bracket to fix the lifting chains. I read a comment on one website that they used a couple of old seat belts wrapped around the intake manifold, so I did the same and it worked brilliantly! No chains and the lifting point is centralised. As for anyone concerned if the intake manifold can take the weight, I would of thought its fine as its solid metal and bolted to the engine with 12 bolts so I'd hope it dosent snap off! Just a pointer, if you use this option be really careful to feed the seat belt around the intake manifold pipes ONLY, there is some hoses and metal pipework (fuel lines?) right underneath the intake manifold, be careful not to wrap the seat belt around them and lift as that could crush them.

* I unbolted the arms from the bonnet lid and held it back a little further with rope as I was not sure if the hoist would clear it or not. Looking back, I think it would of been okay but hey ho.

* With everything disconnected and the transmission supported I lifted the engine out, it cleared the front bumper no problem and set it down onto an engine stand. Just for reference I was able to rig up the engine lift on the 3rd jib hole so the max weight at this point is 500kg, the jib at max length (4th hole) is 250kg. (I think it goes, 250, 500, 750, 1 tonne) Its a Clarke 1 tonne engine lift bought from Machine Mart.

More to come!

 

Engine is back in, hooray!

Changed the flywheel and clutch, bolted everything up and got the engine back in...which was fun lol. It was easier taking it out! There was a lot of adjusting, re-adjusting, up a bit, down a bit but eventually I got the guide studs and bolt holes to line up, got some bolts in and started to pull the engine and transmission together. I did get a bit concerned at one point as they didnt exactly 'slide' together, it put up a fight to the very end, I had to use the bolts to bring them together and close the gap. With so much resistance I did get a bit concerned that something was not right but I hand cranked the engine a few times as I went and nothing seemed to be stopping it turning other than the cylinder compression.

Tightened all the transmission bolts, lowered the engine back into its engine mount holes, relaxed the hoist, stood back and a sigh of relief.

Just got to put everything else back together now before crossing my fingers, closing my eyes and turning the key! Gulp


EDIT: I was trying to figure out what exactly was causing the resistance when mating the transmission and engine back to together, is it the transmission spline sliding through the clutch plate? I did apply a little spline grease as I was told not to plaster it on otherwise it ends up flying all around the casing. Any ideas?

 

Your resistance is likely to be you pushing the dowels into the block on the bellhousing that align the two.

 

Thread revival!

Well its finally all back together and on the road again. Hooray!

I did close my eyes and cross my fingers when turning the key for the first time again, praying that everything was in the right place and nothing going to go bang.

Its been off the road for some time whilst I parted with my hard earned cash every month to fix/replace things that needed doing, I figured Id do it all at the same time whilst its off the road and being taken apart.

Drives nice now, no issues and new clutch seems fine. Happy days.

Now to quieten this exhaust a bit.

Everything disconnected, engine coming out:



Im sure somethings missing...



Aha, found it...



Where I wrapped the seat belt straps around the intake manifold -AVOIDING THE FUEL(?) LINES THAT RUN UNDERNEATH IT!!!

 

Nice work! What clutch and flywheel did you go for?

 

I got the Exedy Pink Box (I'll update with the part number, can't find it right now) and a standard genuine Subaru flywheel.

I considered going for a lightweight flywheel but decided against it as it changes the driving characteristics as it's lighter. I basically went OEM as apparently Subaru use Exedy from the factory and the Pink Box is just an 'uprated' OEM clutch and not designed for racing etc.

 

Think i will go down the same route, pink box and oe flywheel, when the time comes.......

 

Engine out for a clutch change? wtf

Had the head gasket gone?

 

^ On the driveway it's far easier to lift the engine out from the engine bay than drop the gear box from underneath.

Plus other things can be done on the engine but no didn't do the head gasket.

 

crikey, why not hire a ramp :S

how come? although damage to the engine has prob already been done to be fair.

 

Engine hoist in the garage sheltered from the rain sounds better to me

Didn't have the time to rip the engine apart, besides since changing all the cooling components - water pump, rad hoses, rad and thermostat -the problem seems to have gone away. Fingers crossed, problem solved.

 

Have you ever taken a Scooby engine out?
I've only done it twice,I recon the 3rd time I could do it in under a hour,so why wouldn't you use that method?

Well done the the OP glad it all went well

 

I was thinking the same thing. Having removed the engine many times (about 10 maybe more) and removed the gearbox 3 times (2 times 5 speeds boxes on my back and 5 speed out, 6 speed in using a lift). The engine out method is deffo the option I would be using to change the clutch.

Good effort from the OP

 

Cheers guys

Its the first engine I've removed from a car and tbh it went really smooth, a good learning curve. I was just glad I could do it all in the garage so I didnt get rained off every weekend.

The poor thing was in need of some tlc/good servicing as I dont think the previous owner looked after it very well. The clutch is a good indication of this since its only got 50K on the clock and the clutch was completley burnt out.

Probably had one too many launches or clutch slips me thinks.

 

We'll done mate , I always use the engine out method for the clutch aswell ,, mines still running a standard clutch @ over 500bhp so they are stronger than most people think

 

You must drive like miss daisy? You cant launch a car that heavy with a stabdard clutch?!

 

It's my road car so it's never been launched as there isn't really any need with over 500bhp on tap and on the road ,, I did try once at a hill climb but you tend to look a **** when you forget to switch off the traction control as not a lot happens when you lift the clutch then lol,, I don't drive like miss daisy either I just make sure the clutch is out before I put my foot down so there is no chance of me being the cause of it slipping ,no point in having 500+ if you don't use it,, my mates also still on the oe clutch in his 450bhp bug and has done loads of track days and events in his and drives it like its stolen ,, my hawk also had a oe clutch @ 380 for a few years without needing to change it so it's not like it's the first Scoob iv done this with ,, and for the £30 it cost me to have one refurbed I'd rarther swap it out every few years than pay the metal money they want for a uprated one just so I can do a launch or two

I dont mind spending money just not when it can be done cheaper and works just as well

 

Fair play, yes i suppose its the "inbetween" off and on that causes and issue with the standard clutch.

Launch control and traction control still on? I bet the car didnt know what the hell was going on!

 

No it just lit every light on the dash up like a disco made a load of noise an just sat there and then I had to look across at all my mates laughing at me , but it's all good fun and I took it as a sign that it doesn't want to be launched lol