Hi all,
Long time no see. Anyways, bought this BRZ off the forum:
ProDarwin for sale thread
Boxhead Tim original ownership thread
As you can see, long history but new engine, lots of upgrades, and a good price.
Picked it up a few weeks ago, met a GRMer which was cool, and drove it from NC to Ohio. Stopped for this pic at pilot mountain
I'm the meantime I've been fixing any rust issues. The unibody is very sound with only a few spots of surface rust that are easy to take care of, but visible surface rust on the subframes (mostly the welds) so I grind off the rust, wash it, hit it with Krud Cutter, and then paint it with rustoleum rust reformer.
It drives great. It handles like my c5 Z06 does, but is slow so I don't feel like I'm going to kill myself with it. It's kind of a mix between the z06 and my previous 2008 Civic SI which is slow but was super fun to rev out.
I was actually thinking the other day that this car would be perfect with a high revving Honda engine.
Alas, there's no reason to replace a new engine
Unless you spin a bearing on your new engine.
which I believe I just did.
So video of my issue incoming, since I could use some advice lol.
Im preparing myself to rebuild the funds and purchase a kswap since the fa20 seems to be a dud
Oh damn, didn't this car have a ton of reliability fixes to the engine already? If so I'd have to wonder if there's some production issue making some FA20s far less reliable than others...
Time for some Ellis Motoswap, Inc
So this came about after a spirited drive through some country roads. I wasn't beating on it, no money shifts, etc, but was driving a little fast.
The sound isn't apparent at all under 2000rpm, but from 2/2.5 through 4/4.5 gets very rattly, then *goes away* but that may just be other sounds covering it up. It seems to only be tied to engine rpm.
I was 10 miles from home so just drive it back to the garage. It drove fine- no CELs and wasn't short on power or puttering around, etc.
Found a heat shield that rattled quite a lot because of a lost clamp and fixed that, but that wasn't the solution because I'm not that lucky.
Anyways, I can post videos of whatever, but any ideas other than my initial impression of spun bearing?
My thoughts are to start with changing the oil to check for glitter and do an oil analysis. But I doubt I'll see metal if it's still running fine.
What else should I be looking for?
In reply to GameboyRMH :
Yes it has all the reliability mods. Maybe I'm wrong and it's not the issue I think!
*I am not familiar with subarus!*
Every spun bearing I have seen has resulted in very poor oil pressure (except for 1 time).
Rods don't usually stop banging around during certain rpm if it was a spun bearing.
I have had stuck / slightly bent valves sound like that when they came in slight contact with the piston.
Do these wear out timing chain guides?
Yeah I don't think that's a spun bearing, those you can usually hear from idle and it gets progressively worse with higher revs. Also check that the serpentine belt tensioner isn't chattering, that can happen when the crank pulley fails which can turn into its own catastrophe.
In reply to wvumtnbkr :
That makes sense. I was thinking if it's a bearing maybe I'm just not hearing it at low revs, same as it being drown out at higher revs.
In reply to GameboyRMH :
I have had that failure before and I don't think it's that because of where the sound is originating (not discernible on the video of course), but it's a good thing to check!
So haven't had any free time today but upon a quick look at the crankshaft pulley/harmonic dampener- I am getting some vibration.
will have to get my girlfriend to rev it while I look and get a video for everyone.
I would absolutely be relieved of that was the issue (assuming I didn't drive it enough to hurt anything, which was about 15 minutes)
The stock crank pulley is a known weak point, it's a good idea to put an aftermarket one on as a preventative measure. Be sure to get a fresh crank bolt, reusing them on this engine is asking for trouble. Also don't run an undamped lightweight pulley and a lightweight flywheel at the same time, that causes rapid bottom-end bearing wear on an FA20.
In reply to GameboyRMH :
Ok, I will definitely look into that!
wild that I've seen so many weak points for this engine but hadn't heard of that yet lol.
In reply to GameboyRMH :
Ok, here's a video of the crank pulley. I assume if there's an issue, there would be wobble.
I placed a board there so one could see any movement easier.
personally I don't see an issue
Crankshaft
Yeah the pulleys look OK and the noise doesn't match up with any pulley movement, so sadly I think that eliminates the pulley theory...
I will be throwing on a code reader to see if there is anything not showing on the dash, as well as checking the oil and sending in for analysis.
That's is all that I think I can do without starting to tear into the engine at least. And I will contact the engine seller to see what sort of warranty there is (I have all the reciepts from past GRM owners).
Sure sounds like rod bearing to me. An easy check is to drain the oil and cut the oil filter in half. I suspect you will find glitter. Sorry :(
Someone else on this forum did a K24 swap in their BRZ, and it turned out amazing.
In reply to maschinenbau :
I'll be doing that this weekend as I've been gone all week.
really torn on how to approach this as I see 3 options:
1: sell at a significant loss (probably $5k loss)
2: find used fa20 and hope it holds (don't trust the engines and they're going for at least $4k which is insane)
3: kswap (save my monies, learn a lot, and earn my money back assuming I'll be into the car ~$23-24k and kswap sell for around that. Plus I probably wouldn't sell).
So sounds like an easy choice but I also recently bought a house that is taking a lot of fix up time lol.
I don't think it sounds like rod knock. Could you have a worn motor mount that's causing something to bang around? I don't really know much about these engines or cars but I think it's worth poking around with a mechanics stethoscope to isolate where the sound is coming from.
On mine, the knocking engine eventually developed a whole pile of cam codes. Also, didn't this engine just go in? Two owners ago, I know, but they were both GRMers so if there's any warranty stuff you may have help if you want to try and collect on it.
Well here's a close up of my oil:
used a new, clean see through plastic container to catch the oil. I've seen worse for these engines but looks like bearing material to me.
Dang 
I'm curious what the inside of the filter looks like too.
Well, inside of the filter looks fine by just looking inside of it, but I don't see how I can cut it apart without making a bunch of shavings so right now it's just on the car
Use a pipe cutter, the kind that looks like a brake line cutting tool with the wheels. Angle grinder cut-off disc can also be used to score until its thin enough to tear open.
