RHD Engine bay layout from: CarTop (Japanese magazine). VLN car.
 

Here are some pics I found in a Japanese car magazine called CarTop that I picked up last week in Tokyo. It is the RHD setup without A/C, probably from the racecar in the VLN race.
Sorry for the poor quality but I can only use my phone for pics as I am in a remote location.

Cheers

oil changes are going to be stupid easy now. (compared to my rx8)

If this is called poor quality I wish every magazine/brochure pic we've had so far is this poor.:D

But yeah this is the VLN race car so many components may not be the same as the production counterparts. Still thanks.:)

Ooh, thanks for the HUGE engine bay photo!!! :respekt:

Thats old news we have a topic of that same shoot 2 weeks ago

Yeah sorry had a quick look but didn't see it. :bonk:

Thanks anyway, I hadn't noticed the other thread. :happy0180:

Can we get a better scan, instead of iPhone pics of the mag, please? I know that not everyone has a scanner, but it will be really awesome.

Sorry I don't have an iphone... Don't play that way. I can scan it when I get home in a week or so, but like I said I'm in a remote location at the moment. All I can see is red dirt and bushes... Sorry!
Although I do think my pics will come out better than my scanner! :)

Whats with the plastic arches?

You can see that from the suspension towers-forwards its plastic arches:iono:

Weight saving..... yes ok........ but never seen this done on a production car before....

Those appear to be the fender liners. The only production car that I know of that does that is the panamera and its has a massive triangulated support section to allow that. You can see the roll cage on the race car coming through the firewall to the strut towers to add support (I don't mean the strut tower brace part). I'm fine with it either way but I'd assume that gazoo cut that metal out (after welding up the strut bar and bracing to the cage) and that the production car will have metal there.

The current model Legacy/Outback has the same exposed fender liners:

http://images.thecarconnection.com/l...00238791_l.jpg

That intake scares me...From the throttle body out we already have the standard ripples in the tubing. Then it goes 90degree's left into the air box. Quite the angle I must say...

What I dont get is the HUGE (if I may) tube that comes out of the same main tube and wraps around the engine into a doughnut looking canister? Doesnt look like the pcv pipe because that one seems to be located near the throttle body.

Not only that but if you look closely at the air box there is another tube coming out from the bottom...

4 tubes? 2 of which make sense, the other 2...I dont even know!

Oh yeah.

This is the best engine bay shot I have seen and I seen the other (old) thread. Maybe merge? :iono:

Maybe.

But I'm just a driveway mechanic. Every time I look at that engine, I wonder if I am going to be able to work on it like I can on an inline-4. I guess I could learn it, tho.

What are you concerned about specifically?

The spark plugs might be difficult to get to. Mine are not to bad on my Impreza but the DOHC motors have plugs in a tough spot to access, however this isn't a turbo motor so less stuff is in the way.

My concerns about where the motor is now, moved back to right above the subframe, is access to the oil pan and headers. Normally they are VERY easy to access on Subarus but if the bolt locations are all right over the subframe, the engine might need to be raised to get to them :(

The stuff I do is along the lines of:

--Oil and oil filter (I know it's on top, but that's a good thing?)
--valve adjustment
--coolant flush
--brake and clutch flush
--radiator flush
--will it have a timing chain or timing belt?
--spark plugs (you mentioned that)
--air filter (shouldn't be difficult here)
--I guess having two heads instead of one seems like twice the work

Responses in red.

Sounds good . . .

. . . except this -->> "--valve adjustment Self-adjusting valves with shims, no service needed" <<-- is a contradiction. If it has shims, then it is manually adjusted by replacement of the shims. And that means working on the heads. Two of them. And you said they were less than easy to reach.

Excellent question. I'm wondering if it is some variable intake acoustic stuff? Or a BOV/BPV, heh...

Well once the shims are in there and correct, they don't ever need to be touched again. Most of that work would be done with the engine out of the car during whatever work you were doing to the heads.

I'm not sure about the valve cover gaskets with this motor and accessibility, but once they are off you should be able to access the valvetrain without removing the motor. But I never saw any sort of valve adjustments ever done on the newer motors unless it was a major head job of some kind, some sort of large scale rebuild like a headgasket job or blown shortblock.

FYI, removing the motor entirely isn't that difficult of a job.

I'm sorry, but one of us is deeply confused.

Valves are a wear item. They have to be adjusted. Not only that, but a shim-type adjustment usually requires removal of the cams. And, of course, you need a shim set or access to one. In other words, it's a big job. Rocker arms with screw-type adjustment are another story.

It will be interesting to see what type of valves are on the production FT-86.

Maybe I'm using the wrong terminology, I don't know, its been awhile since I've had to deal with this (I've been working with the old OHV Subaru motors lately more than the new stuff).

The DOHC EJ's used buckets and you don't replace those unless you are doing a full valve job. They are considered a non-maintenance item. Here is a photo of the old style buckets on the left, and the new FB style valves on the right:

http://car.watch.impress.co.jp/img/c...ml/16.jpg.html

As for the new motors, not sure. I do know the shims on the EZ 6-cylinders are also non-maintenance not to mention ridiculously expensive ($75+ each) and the EZ motors are closer in design to the FB motors.

Either way, unless you had something go wrong, like a burnt valve or headgasket blow, or installing new cams, you won't have to worry about this at all.

Edit: Here is the maintenance schedule for the 2012 Impreza with the FB20 motor, 105,000 miles or ~10 years, inspect valve clearance. Thats it. I know for a fact that dealers DO NOT do this inspection unless something is actually wrong with the car.

http://www.cars101.com/subaru/maintenance3.html

^^There are a lot of smart guys on this forum. Maybe one of them can explain this.

Buckets and shims are not an either/or choice. They are two parts on the shim-type adjustment design.

Only self-adjusting valve designs require no adjustment. A self-adjusting design would be hydraulically self-adjusting — not often used on high-revving sports cars

Either way, I know that Subaru owners don't do valve adjustments on the current motors as a part of regular maintenance. Not unless the valves or tapping or its having misfires or something indicative of an actual problem. Although thats probably due to the 7+ hours of labor involved...

Subaru people tend to worry more about headgaskets, timing belts and burning valves (or blowing pistons due to oil starvation with the turbo motors) than actually adjusting the valves as a maintenance item.

Come to think of it, I should probably check mine. I'm at 110,000 miles and I need to do my timing belt soon. I do have the occasional misfire code. I should just pull the engine and do both.

There is definitely something up with the intake snorkus. I'm guessing there is some engine noised pumped into the cabin. This page of the training manual says something about it too... I wonder if someone could translate the larger parts of the text.

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/attac...6&d=1321381137

Well, if you are saying that Subaru recommends that the valves don't need to be adjusted until 100,000 mi., then that's possible. Honda recommends that interval, too (although you'd be crazy to follow it).

This has been covered a few times, but yes, it appears to pipe tuned intake noise into the cabin.

Anyone have a link to the translation? Guess I missed it.

I don't think it was translated. Just in conversations in other threads and comparisons with similar setups like mustangs have.

Yea I'm wondering too. I'm also wondering how expensive aftermarket intakes will be..lol

Guess we shall find out soon enough!

That depends on the R&D spent on the intake. For normal filter on a stick stuff it'll be normal price, there's no real R&D there. For tuned systems you'll be looking at potentially more.

Every intake will get rid of the in cabin noise gimmick I'd think. Should be lots of room once all of the intake resonators and such are removed.

That is kind of gimmicky, don't you think? Is that what buyers want? A car that sounds like it does something? Or do they want a car that actually does something?

Hmm.. I guess both? Not sure. I guess it also depends on exactly what effect it has. Louder cabin is good when wearing a helmet to hear the engine near redline but an intake solves that problem without the extra piping and such.

Maybe that piece of 100% of Yamaha's contribution :P let's hope not lol

Everybody loves Yamaha. I do, too. But I had one of their liter bikes. A 5-valve Genesis head that, for 10 years, was produced with a known design flaw having to do with the valves. I guess they ain't perfect.

I like the camber plates on the first photo.

Gotcha. Never thought they would save weight by making a cabin noise gimmick...lol :barf:

I just hope they have the CF intakes like the S2000's that still retain the box shape.

Yea I'm def. looking at a tuned system. Intake manifolds and SRI's or CAI's will be made I'm sure.

Since this is an NA motor, i do not see why that plastic intake cover could not be ameliorated!

Time will tell..:burnrubber:

^^Then, this will be good for the 0.1% who are going to race the car in stock trim. Just strap on your genuine authentic Steve McQueen replica Bell helmet and zip off to Sebring for 12 fun-filled hours. But it's more likely that the cabin noise gimmick is meant to make a nice vroom-vroom sound, so that ricers and would-be racer-bois will feel all tingly in their tighty-whities when they drive down to Target for the weekend shopping.

:bellyroll:

I only do 14 hour races at sebring, 12 hours is too short :)

Keep that up and you will ruin your rep as a would-be racer-boi. :bellyroll:



I wasn't referring to you. Except to the extent that your use of the car will probably not be representative of the majority of buyers.

But, then, you knew that.

:happy0180: