24 hours to engine swap my BRZ with an FA24

0:00 I bought this very neglected BRZ, and I'm going to bring it back to life.

0:03 On the last episode, we cleaned it all up.

0:05 We got some new parts for it, and we painted them.

0:08 And since the engine that came in the car was damaged beyond repair,

0:11 we had no choice but to get a new one.

0:13 And I'm excited to show you the engine that I decided to go with.

0:25 The Subaru FA24, 2.4 L of boxer

0:30 naturally aspirated power from the second generation BRZ.

0:33 A significant power bump over the factory FA20 in the first gen BRZ.

0:37 And now I know what you're thinking.

0:39 You wanted some radical engine swap in here, because this is YouTube after all.

0:43 But sometimes the best engine option is not the craziest one like a Viper V10.

0:47 The FA24 swap just makes sense.

0:49 We can retain all of the OEM amenities that makes

0:52 cars function well on the street like air conditioning.

0:54 And we get a huge increase in horsepower.

0:56 It's not a perfect direct bolt-in swap, though.

0:59 We do have our work cut out for us to get

1:01 this Subaru big block engine into our first generation BRZ.

1:07 Subaru.

1:09 You know, I I don't usually purport to enjoy Subarus,

1:13 but I think you made the right choice here.

1:15 And it's not a K series.

1:17 Crucially, it is not a K series.

1:19 Yeah, that is rather unfortunate, but No, no.

1:22 Your addiction on K series has become so bad that I am

1:26 promoting the use of a Subaru engine instead of a K series.

1:30 Yeah.

1:30 Yeah, this engine also costs three times more than a K series costs,

1:33 so we're already starting off four Sorry, four times more than the And And also,

1:40 you told me off camera,

1:42 you told me that you were going to help me swap this if I bought it, right?

1:45 That's right.

1:45 That's right.

1:45 And that's why I'm here.

1:46 All right, yeah, cool.

1:47 All right.

1:47 Yeah, it's it's my birthday today.

1:49 Oh.

1:50 So.

1:50 And And I knew that.

1:51 And I did know that.

1:52 Yep.

1:53 It's called 24 hours.

1:54 And even even 24 hours FA24 swap in 24 hours.

1:57 We'll call the start.

1:58 9:00 9:00 a.m.

2:00 Eastern Standard Time.

2:01 Eastern Standard Time.

2:04 Yeah.

2:04 Good thing we're not doing it California time.

2:06 And begin Let's go.

2:14 All right.

2:14 So, everybody's assigned with tasks.

2:16 We got Ben Thorn working on the actual chassis of the car.

2:20 He's going to be taking off the bumper, the hood.

2:22 We got Ben Lin working on the transmission right now.

2:25 We're going to get rid of that cuz we don't need it.

2:27 We already have a transmission in the car that we will be using.

2:30 That's automatic transmission anyway.

2:34 I I got I already got two items checked off this list, guys.

2:36 You got to pick up the pace.

2:43 Oh.

2:45 This core support has seen some action.

2:47 Wow.

2:49 Did you Oh, he's welded already?

2:50 Not just welded.

2:51 It's like welded with like a freaking battery and a wrench.

3:02 Ooh.

3:08 Why Why Why is there like This looks like a thong.

3:12 All right.

3:13 Should be good.

3:16 All right.

3:21 Woah.

3:21 Look at that.

3:23 Comment below if you're looking for a 2022 BRZ automatic transmission.

3:27 I've got one for you.

3:28 All right.

3:28 This is probably got fluid in it.

3:36 Look at that.

3:38 Woah.

3:45 Not a whole lot needs to be done to the FA24 engine just

3:48 to drop in an older gen BRZ except for a few things like the alternator,

3:53 the RS motors cam wheels, and the crank position sensor from a Prius.

3:59 So, we need to take these fuel rail covers off, especially on the driver side,

4:03 because we're going to be we're going to be using the FA20's fuel rail covers,

4:09 mainly because the DI controller actually attaches to the FA20 on the fuel rail.

4:15 So, we're going to use that, but we're going to have to clearance it.

4:17 And then the other reason that we have

4:18 to take these covers off is because because we

4:20 needed to get this particular wiring harness off

4:22 so that we can use the FA20's wiring harness,

4:26 which we're going to have to modify.

4:29 All right.

4:30 So, these motor mounts are the FA20 mounts

4:33 that came with the car that fit the subframe.

4:36 We got to do a small little adjustment to them.

4:38 We're going to cut this little notch off so that it fits up to the FA24,

4:42 and then we can just use OEM motor mounts.

4:43 OEM motor mounts are always the best.

4:48 Got it.

4:55 Man, I took about half the car, got the motor mounts adapted and everything,

4:59 and what you guys got the engine mounted on the stand.

5:02 Oh my goodness.

5:04 I told you, you gave him the easiest part.

5:11 So, this is an STI intake manifold.

5:16 Just kidding, it's it's not.

5:17 It's a first generation FA20 intake manifold.

5:22 It's aluminum instead of plastic, and it's red.

5:25 This is supposed to make more power, but also looks better.

5:28 We need this throttle body on this manifold,

5:31 which we have an adapter kit thing for.

5:33 All right.

5:33 Well, I'm just going to get swapping swap everything.

5:41 This is for boost.

5:42 We're not going boosted yet.

5:45 So, we're going to plug that port.

5:47 App sensor.

5:48 That's just going to go right there.

5:52 Oh, wow.

5:53 That comes up really easy.

6:17 This is the crank position sensor.

6:19 We're going to replace this with the Prius sensor.

6:23 We've still got to take out this uh this little adapter piece.

6:27 So, this is the factory crank position sensor housing,

6:31 and this is the new RS Motors housing for the Prius

6:36 crank position sensor that we'll be putting on this engine.

6:39 One neat thing about this swap is that a lot of the development on these parts,

6:43 like this uh mount for the crank position sensor,

6:47 all developed by Ron at RS Motors,

6:50 who is actually the same Ron that has like built my Evo for time attack.

6:55 He built the motor in my S2000.

6:57 Really cool guy.

6:57 I had no idea that he was doing this FA24 stuff,

7:00 but And he talked to me a little bit about like

7:02 his development with this, and like what all has been done,

7:05 and it was like genius.

7:08 Next up on the list is to remove the timing cover.

7:10 We have to remove that in order to replace the cam trigger wheels,

7:13 which make the ECU think that it's an FA20.

7:16 This eliminates the need to modify the tune.

7:19 And after taking off some bolts, it's a good thing that we're getting in there,

7:22 because of what we found is a bit concerning.

7:25 So, Ben, I uh looked over all these bolts and found some RTV that was still wet.

7:32 Still wet?

7:33 Yeah, look at that.

7:33 Look.

7:34 It's it's literally pliable.

7:39 Oh, good.

7:40 Yeah, so definitely definitely need to change this out.

7:45 That is crazy.

7:46 So, obviously Subaru's reputation is not the best.

7:49 The EJ engine's not super reliable.

7:51 I have personal experience with that, as you've

7:53 probably seen on the channel of times past.

7:55 The FA24, however, I'm told is different.

7:58 It's supposedly the good one.

8:00 However, they assembled these engines incorrectly,

8:03 and they used way too much silicone sealant to plug up the oil pan,

8:08 the timing cover, I guess all sorts of stuff.

8:10 And that silicone gets into the oil and then

8:13 clogs the oil passages and then spins the bearings.

8:16 So, uh Subaru, you you almost got it.

8:19 You you were only you were this close.

8:21 Um but the solve is pretty easy.

8:23 It's just a little time-consuming.

8:24 You just got to take everything apart,

8:26 take all the RTV off, and then reassemble it with Honda Bond.

8:30 So, that's what we're going to do.

8:31 There are 32 bolts that hold the timing cover onto the front of this engine.

8:35 There are five 10 mm.

8:37 You got those.

8:38 And there are 27 12 mm.

8:41 And this is 26.

8:43 One 26.

8:45 And this is 27.

8:48 27.

8:49 Woohoo!

8:56 All right.

8:56 So, now that all the bolts are removed,

8:58 we can go ahead and take off this timing cover.

9:00 It is very very important to stick with just the pry spots.

9:05 You don't want to mar up any of the main mating surfaces with this.

9:08 Just got to take your time, be very cautious, and don't ruin any of them.

9:13 Good thing about this RTV is that's still pretty wet, so it's easy to remove.

9:20 There's leaking oil on the floor.

9:24 Oh my god.

9:27 You know, I feel bad for Ben's floor.

9:30 You guys are stressing me out.

9:31 I guess we should have drained the oil.

9:34 I drained the oil?

9:35 I didn't that on the list.

9:36 It's my fault.

9:39 Is there oil in the oil pan?

9:41 Yeah.

9:41 Oh my god, Mark.

9:45 Step one, drain oil.

9:49 So, now that we got the timing cover off,

9:52 we can go ahead and start working on these wheels here.

9:55 These have to come off, and we are going to be putting on these wheels.

10:01 So, what this does, this allows us to run the FA20 ECU.

10:05 It's a believe 6° difference, and we don't have to tune it.

10:10 Hey, hello, I am Hey, Len.

10:14 This is Len.

10:27 All right, we're going to slowly turn the engine over.

10:30 Okay.

10:31 Okay.

10:32 Okay.

10:32 Okay.

10:33 Remember all that RTV that was on my hands?

10:36 Well, I want to make sure that none of that is in the oil pan.

10:39 So, we're going to go ahead and take off

10:41 the exhaust header and take off this oil pan.

10:43 Make sure that none of that's in there.

10:45 Dude, this is This is terrible.

10:48 RTV in there?

10:49 I mean, is it at least dry?

10:59 Well.

11:07 Well, it's like a good grilled cheese.

11:11 Oh, no, but this is the good engine.

11:12 This is This is the good one.

11:14 Oh, RTV right here.

11:16 This is what they say is the problem with these.

11:23 What?

11:23 Get out of the Get out of the way.

11:25 Oh my gosh, this engine might already be toast, honestly.

11:28 Holy cow.

11:30 What?

11:32 That's RTV right there, that gray stuff.

11:35 It's crazy because you hear about this kind of stuff.

11:38 Yeah.

11:39 And you think it's over exaggerated.

11:41 Yeah, I mean you can see a little bit

11:43 where oil can still come through, just a little bit.

11:45 That's insane.

11:47 That is a lot of RTV.

11:48 So, how are we feeling?

11:50 This is the good one.

11:51 Right, right.

11:52 But it's also good that we took off.

11:54 Dude, do you think the bearings are okay?

11:55 Like this engine's not 50,000 mi like that.

11:59 Uh what?

12:00 What should it look like?

12:01 checking the bearings.

12:01 You going to check the bearings?

12:03 the bearings.

12:11 That took care of most of it.

12:18 I'm glad we decided to do this and not just like assume somebody else did it.

12:22 There is a lot of RTV.

12:23 Have you noticed all of this up here, too?

12:25 Like Dude, the flapping and This is the sound of catastrophic engine failure.

12:33 All right.

12:34 Now we got to clean up all the surfaces.

12:35 Yeah.

12:36 The fun stuff.

12:39 All right, hop to it.

12:40 You got it, bud.

12:41 Go ahead.

12:42 You You said I'm the supervisor, so go ahead.

12:44 No, I think I said I'm the supervisor.

12:46 No, no, no.

12:46 No, I'll watch.

12:47 Go ahead.

12:47 You got it.

12:48 No, you told me that I was in charge of Well,

12:51 Mark worked on cleaning up all the RTV off the surfaces.

12:54 I made a trip out to Advance Auto Parts to get some supplies that we needed.

13:07 Okay, let's see.

13:08 Do you think we need some more some more RTV?

13:12 And we are putting a Subaru engine together here after all.

13:16 All right.

13:19 Kidding.

13:20 I'm kidding.

13:38 So it is 4:00 p.m.

13:40 Which means we are 7 hours of basically scraping RTV off of surfaces and getting

13:46 it ready to put covers back on and oil pans back on and stuff like that.

13:50 Once we do that, we will again start making progress really fast.

13:54 Uh we got David Granstaff here, uh my old high school buddy,

13:57 and he's helping us he's kind of our Mr.

13:59 Wizard.

14:00 So he's uh he's helping us uh get some of this wiring stuff figured out.

14:04 Just a little over a quarter of the way through our 24-hour allotment.

14:08 Ben's having a great birthday, I hope.

14:10 So.

14:11 Why am I shaking?

14:14 He's playing dimes.

14:15 Why am I shaking so much?

14:16 That's crazy.

14:21 All right.

14:21 Threads hidden?

14:22 Yep.

14:54 This is broken.

14:55 We have another one.

14:57 FA20 cover.

15:13 This is uh the pattern that you need to follow for all twen- uh sorry,

15:18 32 Yeah, not not not 27, 32.

15:22 32 timing cover bolts.

15:23 This this is pretty insane.

15:25 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

15:26 32 32 Now go back and check them all.

15:33 So, uh fuel pressure sensor from the FA24 just got

15:39 to swap it to fuel pressure sensor for a FA20.

15:42 You know, I know I'm just uh thinking of it thinking about it now.

15:46 Uh But maybe we should have changed out this like valve cover gasket.

15:50 Can you see the leak from your house?

15:52 No, I can't see the leak from my house.

15:54 I can't hear the rod knock from my house either.

16:14 Looks like it.

16:30 Okay, it is 6:30 6:28 to be specific.

16:34 That is 9 hours in 9 and 1/2 hours in.

16:39 I I honestly thought we'd be a little further along

16:41 um but the engine is mostly together so that's good.

16:44 They're doing wiring now.

16:47 Yeah, little things that are making this take a little longer than I wanted to.

17:00 All right, we got pizza.

17:02 Hungry some pizza.

17:03 After 10 hours of grueling work, the morale on the team was looking grim

17:08 but it's nothing that some food can't fix.

17:10 And with all the renewed energy,

17:12 I was eager to install my favorite new part, the red intake manifold.

17:16 But I was let down once again when Mark told me that he

17:19 hadn't wired in the coolant temp sensor that goes under the manifold.

17:23 And he handed me a honey-do list to go shopping back

17:25 at Advance Auto Parts to get some other supplies that we needed.

17:29 Meanwhile, the guys continued working on the engine.

17:45 Uh we've been using a guide document, but there's uh you know,

17:49 occasionally just stuff that either is different for our situation

17:52 than what the guide document said or you know, they might have forgotten.

17:56 Um but these uh these connectors just need a couple more inches.

18:02 Think we can all relate?

18:03 Well, if we go under, my pinky can go through, so it could.

18:18 Now, now we're going to put the intake manifold in, right guys?

18:23 Okay.

18:24 Hey, this is not bad.

18:25 That's touching right there.

18:26 It's sitting on that.

18:27 Oh, dang.

18:38 Okay, now the intake manifold going in.

18:40 Intake manifold's going in for real now.

18:43 Now, it's for real.

18:50 It's on.

18:51 I think it's on.

18:52 Oh, oh, it's on.

19:12 Just take a minute to admire K-Swap.

19:17 You know?

19:18 Take that.

19:18 Put that in the beer Z.

19:28 This comes with the pilot bearing pre-installed.

19:33 Mark, you're so cool with that backwards Quad Lock hat.

19:36 Oh, thank you.

19:37 And the Eclipse merch.

19:40 It's how you know it's getting late.

19:40 I'm complimenting you.

19:41 Uh yeah, right.

20:15 What a beauty.

20:23 Oh my gosh, it's not even twisting.

20:27 It's Oh my gosh, it's crazy.

20:30 Yep.

20:31 Yep.

20:31 Yep.

20:31 Yep.

20:31 Yep.

20:32 Yep.

20:32 Yep.

20:33 Yes, sir.

20:35 All right, update.

20:36 It is 11:08.

20:38 Uh so, that puts us at 14 hours in.

20:41 Energy's still good, but I feel like energy's about to go down real fast.

20:45 So, uh let's get this thing in as quickly

20:48 as possible before we all actually get tired.

20:56 Here's There you go.

20:57 Yep.

20:57 Yep.

20:57 All right, we're in.

21:02 You're getting there.

21:03 All right, so the car is in gear, and we are turning the crank bolt.

21:08 The rear tire is moving.

21:10 Very slowly.

21:11 Engine is officially connected.

21:13 All right, so we're going to drop the engine now.

21:15 Looks like the engine mounts are pretty much lined up.

21:18 So, does it look good?

21:19 How does How does she look?

21:21 It looks good, man.

21:22 Looks like it belongs in there.

21:38 All right, so we're kind of wrapping up the last little bits here.

21:42 Still need to put a battery in.

21:44 And we got a battery from Advance.

21:46 Is that the negative?

21:47 Are you sure?

21:48 Positive?

21:49 I'm positive.

21:51 Hey, we found Fuel comes out of fuel lines.

21:57 We're kind of allowing fuel to come out of these fuel

22:00 lines because we don't want any debris going into the injectors.

22:04 So, we're just uh priming the system a little bit, if you will.

22:08 We're running Valvoline Restore& Protect in this thing,

22:10 even though obviously the engine doesn't need any restoring.

22:13 We already looked in there.

22:14 There's no oil tarnish, which is fantastic.

22:16 But, we do want to make sure it is protected,

22:18 which is why we're using nothing but the best, Valvoline's Restore& Protect.

22:24 I mean, it's in between the dots.

22:26 It's It's just just barely below.

22:28 I mean, it's it's sitting right there.

22:29 Oh, okay.

22:30 I think I think it's fine.

22:31 At least for a first start.

22:32 Good enough.

22:33 Good enough.

22:34 Good enough.

22:35 Just like uh this engine is good enough together.

22:39 Uh we're going to we're going to crank it over,

22:41 make sure there's oil pressure and all

22:43 that, and make sure the engine actually moves.

22:48 Oil light went out, so Let's start this thing.

22:56 Hey.

23:01 That's not all four cylinders, okay?

23:05 They figured it out.

23:06 It's like, "Hey, what's going on?

23:08 I haven't had an engine in like 5 years." Yeah, okay.

23:12 It's smooth now.

23:15 Okay.

23:14 Yeah.

23:14 We should have done a 1.6 L swap in 16 hours

23:17 and apparently instead of instead of an FA24 in 24 hours.

23:21 So, it is successful that we can engine swap an FA24 into a BRZ within 24 hours.

23:30 For a for a swap, that's And and we had lunch and dinner.

23:34 First crank.

23:36 Yeah.

23:36 Oh, yeah.

23:38 startup.

23:38 16 hours to a to a an engine running in the car.

23:41 Well, um it's it's been fun.

23:44 Yeah, let's let's all go to sleep.

23:45 Happy birthday.

23:46 Let's go to sleep.

23:47 Which is now over.

23:49 Yep.

23:49 Yep.

23:50 You You have a um engine that starts in a BRZ and doesn't drive yet,

23:57 but We'll We'll get the We'll get the car put together next episode.

24:00 But, we got a lot in the next episode though.

24:02 Yeah.

24:02 Yeah.

24:03 Yeah.

24:03 Yeah.