Alrighty, so I ended up picking up a motor last weekend and pulling the one in the car out. I was fortunate enough to find out that I have a JDM motor importer about ten minutes from me so it was a 45 minute trip to pick up another K24A.
It looks a lot cleaner than the one in the car and all of the sensors minus MAP were intact, which is nice for my overflowing spares collection.
Water pump housing studs, oil pan studs, and coolant outlet studs all came right out of the block with zero trouble. I was not as lucky about with the motor in the car, but whatever.
Yoinked the old motor out
Found a spot where the oil pan had been rubbing the subframe, kind of annoying.
Old motor seemed alright, but the valve springs looked really weird to me so I am kind of glad I pulled it. I intend on measuring the rod bolts after I get the garage cleaned up again.
Drilled out the jiggle pin in the thermostat to help bleeding this time around
I did the Supertech valve springs, valve spring seats, and valve stem seals. On the very last intake valve I forgot to check that the cylinder was at TDC and ended up knocking the valve into the cylinder while trying to seat the retainers. Pretty much assumed I was fucked but I ended up being able to fish the valve stem to the valve guide and feed it back up into the head by carefully turning the motor.
Can't believe it actually worked, if it was exhaust side I don't think it'd have worked out for me and I'd be pulling the head.
Cams go in....
Opted to go K24Z timing chain guides since the exhaust side one has a larger guide section.
Motor is back together now, sealed everything so it can dry overnight.
Anyway, the plan is to toss it back into the car and hopefully have it driving tomorrow. The Subaru dealership still owes me 4 driveshaft bolts and nuts with no sign of shipping, so that is kind of annoying as I'd like to replace them.
We shall see how it goes.