Building a Subaru Track Car

First Winter Project: Transmission

2012-01-06T07:03:00.000-08:00

Here are some pictures from the recent project I’ve started:

First step – On the bench with the tail housing (Center differential housing) off and draining.

Once I got the case open, Inspection suggested that a broken 5th gear was the cause of this “noisy” transmission I got for free as a donor case. Not sure how it was driven at all like this but good thing I have an extra.

With the gear stacks removed, I laid out the old “donor” parts on the right with the new JDM parts on the left. Going to have to some mix/match to make sure the bearings and gear ratios are what I want. Overall I’ll be upgrading the front differential (just to the left of the case halves) from an Open differential to a helical LSD differential. I’ll use the pinion shaft out of the JDM transmission to move the final drive from 4.11 to 4.44 to get better acceleration on the track.

More to come. Let me know what you think.

Season End - Results In

2011-12-14T13:57:00.001-08:00

I've been slacking a bit on posts... Ok, more than a bit - a lot. This winter will bring some interesting mechanical changes to the car and some new sponsors who you'll like to know.

2011 was a good season and the final results are in! I ended up securing a regional class championship (NASA Northeast PTC Champion) as well as a podium spot in the overall regional drivers championship (Over 150 drivers). I missed out on Rookie of the Year by a measly 10 points (out of a total of 950 or so) but I won't complain too loud about runner up. All-in-all it was a great year.

Some new things to look for on the blog soon enough; Aerodynamic Modifications, Transmission Modifications, New Suspension and Spring Rate Setup and more. Should be an interesting rush for the first shake-down of the season in April!

New Improvement

2011-08-24T12:55:00.000-07:00

Battling with some other "quicker" cars I've come to realize the RS really struggles on the straits. Although I'm dealing with some aerodynamic issues (driving a brick), a lot of the challenge has been just being 40-50 down on horsepower. The solution was to change a few items on the suspension to gain back some class "points" and modify the motor's compression ratio in exchange. Now to see how she does on the dyno. I'll also be changing a few aerodynamic items including removing the hood scoop and adding an under-tray but larger modification will take some time - most likely in the off season.

Another Trip To Pocono

2011-07-20T07:17:00.001-07:00

So another trip to Pocono Raceway ended the same say it did last year... bent wheel. Same corner of the car, same date, same track. Arg, at least the suspension and other bits are ok. Onward to wheel repair shop...

Doing Ok

2011-07-19T07:16:00.001-07:00

So far I've had a few races under my belt winning my class at Summit Point, and coming in a close second at NJMP. Pocono most recently was successful placing on top of the podium on Saturday but I had to step out of Sunday's race due to the track conditions.

Next up is NJMP Lightning in August. Hopefully I can bring another 1st place finish in!

Passed

2011-03-20T21:12:00.000-07:00

Finally finished up the car and have a short list of things to do before the first track day at Lime Rock. I headed over to EFI Logic's this weekend to go through the NASA Competition Race Tech Inspection. I did pass which is a relief, but still have a few tidbits to finish up. After a garage clean, maintenance on the tow vehicle, and a few other misl. quick projects I'll be back on the RS for a fuel system make over, minor tweak of the suspension and the general maintenance needed for the track day. Official Weigh In was 2600 lbs with about 5gal of fuel in the car. Looks like I'll need some ballast :)

Window Net (1)

2011-03-17T05:24:00.000-07:00

Last night I finally finished re-designing the window net for proper operation. When DSX originally installed the window net it was on the inside of the cage and considered illegal. It also did not fully drop away from the driver to allow for proper egress.
I used an amazon.com belt buckle and latch and welded it to a threaded rod. Attached that to the cage for easy disconnect/connect. Also fabricated a few brackets to bolt up the heim joints on the rear connection points.

Here's what the window net looks like now:

Seat Bracket Almost Done

2011-03-14T05:34:00.001-07:00

So the welds didn't come out as good as I'd hoped. Mostly due to my bad TIG skills and running out of gas 3 times during the project (3 tanks, all partially full, uggg).

Anyway, it's in and I just have to stitch weld up the mounting plates, drill a few holes and move on to the next project.

Seat Mounting

2011-03-11T12:08:00.000-08:00

So more work is being done to the seat now.

Basically when DSX did the seat mount, they built off the cage and tied it into the stock mounting points for the stock seat (front cross member). I originally told them I didn't think it would work due to needing a slider at some point (the short co-driver ) but whatever. Now that I've determined it WONT work - I need to re-do it.

So far I've cut out the existing seat brackets and mounts and will re-make the 1-1/4 seat mounts to support the sliders AND brackets. I'm going to tie into the body with a single bar and run the bars off the cage at a 45 like the

existing setup was, only extend them by about 4 inches. Also the mounting plates for the seat will mount perpendicular to the tubes coming off the cage so i can alter where the seat mounts if needed down the road WITHOUT cutting the whole damn setup out... grr.

Oh - and Myles from RaceComp Engineering and Charles from SafeDrives hooked up some new parts too.

500/500 lb/in springs Front and Rear and window nets.

More Offset

2011-02-23T06:43:00.000-08:00

So as the season open gets closer, the time to start working on the RS has begun. Just a small modification to the overall track of the car. Here's a shot of 15mm wheel spacers kicking the track out enough to fill the wheel wells as well as get some extra stability. I just hope the scrub isn't too bad and wheel bearing life is maintained.

NJMP

2010-11-01T05:19:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcxEwPZ7XKY - Almost into the 1:35's!

There's something very gratifying beating up on 300-320 hp evo's all day, but it's all in good fun! Looks like I was just about into the 1:35's at New Jersey Motorsport Park for the last race of the season. Went all year on one motor, one set of brake pads, one set of rotors, and really only replacing a water pump on the first event of the year (shakedown). I shouldn't of even really used the pump but that's what I get for trying to be cheap.

I've decided that the turbo route is too expensive at this point so I'm going to try to do some additional minor modifications to get the car legal for a Performance Touring class. Not sure if I'll be competitive at all, but I need the experience.

Not Lost, Just Busy

2010-10-14T21:45:00.000-07:00

So there's much to talk about - Been to a ton of tracks and will finish up the season at New Jersey Motorsports Park at the end of October. I have some winter plans which won't really involve a swap just do to financial constraints, but will involve some work. I'll get some more recient photos up soon. Monticello - Watkins Glen - Etc.

Stay Tuned.

Pocono

2010-07-19T05:15:00.000-07:00

Went out to Pocono for the 4th event of the season. Car's still running well - Was putting down some nice lap times minus the bent rim (rock at the end of the track out curbing). Next step will be brake ducts and forward under-tray - Also would like to fix the darn fuel starvation issues :(

Check out the video below for some in-car around the double infield configuration.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoeVAyKyFrg

Brake Wear?

2010-06-22T04:38:00.001-07:00

I'm anal - I know - But when it comes to the track car I think it's a good kind of anal. I like to inspect every bolt on the car after each track day to make sure there are no points of failure. So my first point of inspection after Lime Rock was the brakes... You hear a lot of complaining from the high horsepower cars or heavier cars about brake wear and being that I ran 3 pretty full-out sessions at Lime Rock I figured I'd pull the wheel off and see some destruction...

In fact I saw the opposite - I had virtually no brake wear! This is very nice for a few reasons - 1) I don't need to buy brakes every other track day (save me about 200$ right there... per front set) and 2) I'm not overworking them. I still think I should get some brake ducts (Didn't have them for Lime Rock) just to have a little extra safety - especially on a track like Monticello coming up on Friday.

Lime Rock

2010-06-21T13:12:00.001-07:00

So I had the car up at Lime Rock last Thursday and she really performed well. I was running high 1:04 laps on street tires when I wasn't in traffic... The car can be setup a bit more to get rid of the push at entry and stablize it under braking. After 3 sessions of some pretty good abuse, I have virtually 0 brake wear and tires are still good.

I had a guy come up to me after one of my sessions and ask "So what turbo do you have on this thing?" - My response is... "I don't - it's the stock 2.5". The expression on his face was pricelesss haha.

I did have a small problem with leaking coolant. The car never overheated, but I'm thinking the water pump may be bad due to the previous event at Monticello. I'll take her apart and prep her for ANOTHER trip to Monticello on Friday.

Weekend Projects

2010-06-08T08:25:00.000-07:00

So over the weekend I worked on the RS a bit more. Cut out a bunch of unneeded metal off the front of the car (could cut more, but decided not go nuts just yet). I removed material basically because I wanted to offset the weight added with the addition of the oil cooler and brake ducts.

I Fabbed up some brackets and mounting points for the oil cooler and hooked it up to the thermostatically controlled sandwich adapter I have. used -10 line to keep the restriction down. I had an old steel oil cooler laying around from a previous car. It's not the best cooling but it will get the job done for now. I tried to tap all the brackets to reduce fasteners needed to speed up removal if ever necessary.

I then installed some inlets for the brake ducts. These will be modified over time as they are no where near optimal for flow but they are just temporary to get some air on the brakes in time for Lime Rock. My goal will be to build an inlet using some fiberglass to allow for more aerodynamic efficiency. All in due time...

Brakes

2010-06-04T11:40:00.000-07:00

So it's been awhile since I last posted most because work has picked up a lot.

I've been awaiting my second track event with the RS at Lime Rock - and in preparation I need to install brake ducts and an oil cooler. I ordered up some 3" high temp brake tubing and clamps and will fabricate up some ducts. Stay tuned for the progress:

Tow Vehicle

2010-05-11T07:57:00.000-07:00

So I've been looking around for a truck for awhile now to use as a tow vehicle for the race car. I've been using my Dad's F250 and I like the truck so I've kept my eyes open for something similar. I eventually found a 97 Diesel F250 which I think will suit towing a littler better. She's old and has her ugly side but she runs strong and the transmission shifts well. Aside from the minor electrical issues I think she will be a good truck once I get the kinks worked out.

Decals

2010-05-07T07:57:00.000-07:00

Race cars need stickers... I mean come on. So the company I work for decided to sponsor me a bit. Nothing crazy but every little bit helps. I got some decals made up and slapped those babies on the side. My friend Nick from work helped me out (He also owns a family business called Silver Fox Signs).

We applied the decals wet for the most part, soaking the back of the decal with a water/soap mixture. We lined them up and used a squeegee to push out the bubbles and make sure the vinyl was in good contact with the paint. About 30 minutes later we were finished. I think it looks pretty nice.

Exhaust

2010-04-30T05:29:00.000-07:00

Thursday night seems like a good night to build an exhaust. So I did. Thank god FedEx got a clue and delivered my mandrel bends on time - without any fuss. (Long story about FedEx and not delivering stuff - for another time.)

The stock exhaust is extremely restrictive and being an off-road, trailered only car, I have no need for items like; catalytic converters, resonators, non-mandrel bent 1.5" tubing. I ordered up some 2.5" mild steel thin wall tubing from Columbia River (http://www.mandrel-bends.com/). I was passed to that site by a friend awhile back - they offer good consistent products for good prices. I also had to run to Napa to get a 10' strait section of pipe which would of been killer on shipping.

So the goal with all my exhausts is mainly to make them as short and as strait as possible to maintain flow and reduce turbulence. The downside is I have to mate it to my aftermarket axle back for those tracks with noise restrictions. I'm going to add a little strait pipe to bypass the muffler for all the rest.

I started with the largest strait section first, putting it on jack stands trying to get it as close to the body as possible. The transmission cross member required me to jog it out a little and then make a hard 90 back into the header. I cut a few 45 degree bends at strategic points and joined them with pie cuts (cuts of a mandrel corner). At the tail section I made a small jog just to locate the main strait section to the rearward flange to mate with the stock axle back. Top it off with an o2 sensor bung and called it a night. (My dog felt the need to try to clean my new exhaust... sigh)

Overlays

2010-04-27T05:59:00.000-07:00

Decided to throw on some yellow vinyl overlays on my headlights... This really serves two purposes - 1) It counts as "Taping your headlights". A lot of racing/HPDE clubs will have you put tape over glass headlights to keep the shrapnel down if you were to hit someone or something. The overlay is like one big piece of tape. 2) The yellow hue allows me to be seen a lot better in the rain or in low light situations. If I ever race in rain, fog, humid summer day... whatever - I'll be able to let the driver in front of me know I'm there.

The installation was kind of crude. I used a heat gun to stretch the vinyl over the headlight and sprayed the back adhesive with some water to give me a little time to position/push out the bubbles. It was a little tedious and didn't come out perfect but I'll make due.

Cage Padding

2010-04-21T05:15:00.000-07:00

Installed my roll bar padding last night. Stuff cost me an arm and a leg but it's required by safety regulations to have it. Bad part is, since I have to have an instructor as I run with these new clubs, I need to have it installed on both the driver and passenger sides of the car... so $300+ later, I have the padding...

The install was pretty strait forward. I used the 1" SFI certified high density padding and just cut it to length with a hack saw and notched where the padding crossed pipes with a 2" hole saw. I started with the longest pieces first. All the straits with minimal overlap of other pipes - so the a-pillar tubes, top door bars, rocker bars, etc. Then I worked from longest to shortest to make sure I was using my padding resourcefully. There are a lot of bars in this cage, haha. and even with 40 feet of padding, I still had to cannibalize some extra from my endurance car.

I secured the padding with black zip ties that were included in the package (they are horribly dry and brittle, but I made it work). I'll most likely replace them down the road with a thicker zip tie to get a tighter fit.

Action Shots

2010-04-20T05:16:00.001-07:00

Finally found some pictures from the SCCA Auto-X on the 11th. These aren't the best and I'm working on getting some video, but they work. Interestingly enough they do show the full body roll on both images as I'm hard into a corner - virtually none haha. I've been thinking about coming down in the rear about another 1/2 inch, but I'll 1) need to wait until RaceComp sends me my new springs and 2) see the other side of the body roll (fully compressed) to see if I'm too close to the fenders.

Side Windows

2010-04-19T05:05:00.000-07:00

So over the weekend I put in some temporary lexan side windows mainly for transporting the car. I bought some C channel aluminum, screwed it to the inside of the door and set the lexan down in. When you close the door you can tuck the lexan under the weather stripping to make a fairly water tight seal. I may have to apply a bit of tape to the vertical face at the rear of the window just to make sure it is sealed and doesn't fly off during towing. Still trying to diagnose why my damn STRI oil pressure gauge won't work - I think the sensor has failed which really frustrates me. But I guess that's part of it haha.

Nice to come home and...

2010-04-16T05:12:00.001-07:00

...see new parts on the table! - My D-Ring kit came (for the Hans) and my wide, 17" rear view mirror. I've used these mirrors before on my endurance car and they are awesome. You almost don't even need side mirrors as they let you see almost 2 lanes to the left and right. New Jersey Motorsports Park isn't going to work out - I was on the waiting list and no one canceled (despite the impending rain...) Oh well - Next event will be an Auto-X next weekend then on to Monticello in NY first week of May.

First Race

2010-04-12T05:17:00.001-07:00

So I dropped her off the jack stands and took her for a spin in the driveway. She works! - No additional problems, actually sounds a lot quieter than I expected (with solid bushings). Eagerly anticipating my Sunday deadline I washed her up and made some minor tweaks to interior. I put my race numbers on the side and pulled her on the trailer.

5am on a Sunday is not my ideal time to wake up but I was very excited. a 2 hr drive up to Devins Air Force Base was pretty quick seeing Jeff and Todd were "late". They tended to motivate my right foot a little.

Despite the horrid SCCA format for their auto-x and the 6 hours of waiting around I did before I ran the car - oh my word did the car handle. I had a few people ask me "Is this on slicks?" (It's not by the way, haha.) The turn in on the car is ridiculous - not like any Subaru I've ever driven. It's very neutral and rotates on command. The motor held together after being beaten off the rev limiter a few times and feels very, very strong. The power band feels very linear and I caught myself wondering where I was on the tach just because the TQ was so sustained.

Needless to say I'm a happy camper. Now we prep for New Jersey Motorsports Park.

Clean Up

2010-04-09T05:54:00.000-07:00

Last night I just spent some time working on my short list of "things left to do". I fastened the fuel and brake lines to the chassis and pulled them away from the driver/passenger's legs. On the fuel side I separated the main high pressure line from the return/vent lines just for the heck of it. Figured it would reduce any wear/breaks. I then moved to securing the interior wiring harness. Wrapped a a lot of the exposed parts in electrical tape and fastened it to the chassis. I also modified the seat bracket for the drivers seat to move it a bit closer to the pedals and bought some grade 8 hardware. Fixed the trim and I picked up my newly painted hood elements and fog covers.

Another Late Night

2010-04-08T05:32:00.000-07:00

So I'm down to the short list - tied up a lot of loose ends last night. Jack came over again and helped dial in the alignment now that the suspension bits are properly adjusted and modified. WRX axles were added to the rear (I was maxing out the RS axles). I laid out the harnesses to map out where I want to run them and reassembled the steering column electronics (headlights and wipers). I cleaned up the engine bay adding the timing belt cover and fabricating up a bracket to hold the power steering reservoir. Now I have to buy a few more minor things (trunk gasket, rear view mirror, bulbs for the brake lights, etc.)

Oh and you have to have a race dog :P

Dumb...

2010-04-07T05:47:00.000-07:00

Note to self - "When raising the rear sub frame up - check to make sure things aren't going to be crushed due to lack of room!" - Last night I fixed up the brake line that broke. I had to drop the rear sub frame and remove the passenger side straps off the gas tank just to replace this hard line. The issue was when I raised the sub frame up 1/4 inch or so, I neglected to see there was a brake line run in a very tight area between the frame and sub frame. I ran a new line (with the help from Doug - he loves coming over and removing/installing sub frames) and put everything back where it was.
After everything was bolted back up I figured, what the hell it's 1am anyway, why not install the rear Lexan window. Done and done... Now I need to figure out how to attach the stock trim pieces...

Dialing in

2010-04-06T05:23:00.000-07:00

So my time on Sunday was spent "getting" the car aligned - well it didn't work out as well as I would have hoped. We ran into some snags in terms of tire clearance and such so I brought her home and started to fix the issues. Jack from EFI Logics swung by to give me a hand.

The biggest pain in the butt was the rear springs - RaceComp Engineering gave me a 6" 340 in/lb rate rear setup with a helper that compresses to about 1 3/8" - I needed about 2" of extra clearance on the inside of the tire to be able to move the wheel under the fenders appropriately. We removed the helper and jacked up the springs and got the room we were looking for. After the spindle/strut was set, we set the camber plates to the middle (to give me adjustability out and in) and then shortened up the lateral links to pull the bottom of the tire under the car. Very effective - Jack really knows his stuff. (And I might add - Myles from RaceComp was VERY understanding about my situation and is going to ship over new springs/helpers to fix the clearance issue - Thanks!)

Moving to the front the camber plates I installed add caster when you add camber. Although that's nice - I think it will hurt adjustability on the track. We decided we'd just re-drill the strut towers to the "GD" style which allowed me to mount the plates where they will only add/remove camber without effective caster at all.

And then to top it off - I made my nice ABS plastic insert to mount the gauges :)

8 hours of sleep in 3 days

2010-04-05T05:22:00.000-07:00

This weekend was nice, warm temps, sunny - and without sleep for me. I pulled an "all-nighter" Friday into Saturday trying to prepare for an alignment at EFI Logics in Bethel, CT. So besides the exhaustion - I made quite a bit of progress on the car.

First and foremost the engine runs! By 4am Saturday morning I was able to modify some Ebay stainless steel headers to extend them past the turbo cross member. The work was a little "rushed" but it came out ok. The headers are very low now so I may end up raising them up another 1/4" to 1/2" but I need to be sure they don't rub on the cross member and cause false knock readings. After cranking the motor for about 20 minutes to lube everything up - I connected the engine electrical and hit the juice - Bam started up within 2 cranks - perfect. Runs good, no weird noises - The car drives - but I still need to do a bit of work on a broken brake line which is 1) a hard line and 2) ABOVE the rear cross member (uggggg....).

Installed some hood pins to eliminate the hood latch and assembly off the nose of the car - Boy was that nerve racking at 6am drilling into my JDM Aluminum v6 hood. Once I figured out where the holes go it was cake from there. the biggest pain in the butt is just getting it all to line up properly.

After all said and done I pulled the car out of the garage and got 50 feet before a maxed out a rear axle and caused the diff to lock up hard. I had to remove the rear axles just to move the car on the trailer. Once loaded we were off to EFI to get the car aligned.

At EFI I noticed a scraping noise coming from the rear which was accompanied by 5 guys saying "Wow this car is hard to push, is the e-brake stuck?" Turns out I grabbed bolts for the rear calipers which were about 1/16" too long... I'll blame it on my delirious, sleep deprived state. Once fixed, we rolled the car up on the lift and Jack proceeded to fix her up. (also had a front windshield installed while I was there).

Steering Installed

2010-04-02T07:13:00.000-07:00

Got the quickener back and installed. It did require a bit more "modifying" and tweaking than I would of expected for spending 500$, but whatever - it's in and it's working. The only hesitance I have is the brake pedal hits the planetary gear housing. That being said, the brake system is not bled which will dramatically impact how far/close to the floor the pedal goes. Larry from L&E Fabrication said it is normal and I won't have any problems. I hope he's right.

Also added another Lexan window to the drivers side and started to modify the headers for startup. The Ebay knockoffs I purchased were mislabeled on the site. They are made for the earlier 2.2 style motors which has a different head design - the distance between the L and R head ports is more narrow - so I have to extend them. It was also mislabeled as the size of the ports are NOT 1.5" they are 1.75" - which means the stainless pipe I bought to modify the headers - is wrong. I'll be looking for more steel.

Side Windows + Steering

2010-04-01T05:16:00.000-07:00

The next logical step to installing the rear window is the sides. Let me just say - the rear window was a pain in the arse compared to the sides. So much easier to cut, fit, and install. The only bad thing is where I'm mounting the lexan to - I'm screwing into the B-Pillar and I underestimated the structural integrity of it lol. Thin (aprox 14 gauge) steel is no problem, but these B-Pillars have triple and quadruple walled crazy engineered steel which requires me to drill it out. Self tapers have no chance lol.

Also received my steering column - before I installed it I did a final paint and prep on the floor and on the dash beam just to make sure that I wasn't going to hate my life later. It's much easier to get to everything with the windshield out. Paint looks nice, but I could only really afford to do the front to reduce the time I spend on this beast. Anyway - Tried to install the column and it's hitting some crap - I'll have to do more cutting/modifying.

Lexan

2010-03-31T05:15:00.000-07:00

Last night I started working on the Lexan windows. It's a bit more work than I expected mostly because I only have a pair of metal shears to cut the stuff. Luckily, it's only 1/16" thick so it's not too bad. I used a cardboard template of the glass window to start my cutting. I added about 1/4" to the outside of the template for some wiggle room, but found I didn't need it in the end. It was extra cutting, but adding material is always the hard part when you cut something too short haha. The fitment is ok, nothing spectacular, but I think it will look ok when I put the trim back in and seal it down. I fastened it with some self tapping, hex head screws which I popped right into the metal window frame in the body. 1 down - 4 to go.

Window Net, Sunroof, and Roll Center

2010-03-30T05:18:00.001-07:00

Last night was wet... of course... But I did have a good visit from Sean. He came over to finish a few pieces of the cage. Primarily, he was assembling the window net brackets. I won't need it right away, but I figure what the heck - might as well have it there for when I need it. The process went fairly smoothly from what I heard/saw - we will need one other little piece to the net to make sure it drops away quickly in an accident. Today's task will be to try to find a place around here who sells 1/4" thick flat stock steel for the seat brackets.

While Sean was swearing at the window net, I took the time to uninstall my stock ball joints/tie rod ends and install the new roll-center kit I purchased. Even with the Tarmac 2 ride height set to "normal" the a-arms do sit a bit higher than horizontal which alarms me. I want to keep the suspension as flat as possible to reduce binding. This system should lower the ball joint and keep the arm flat - same principal with the tie rod end.

After all the fun - I brought Sean back to DSX and he cut me up a nice piece of aluminum for the roof to cover the sunroof hole. Sean built a pattern

I hate painting

2010-03-29T05:35:00.001-07:00

So it seems like it would be easy right? Just slap some paint on the cage and be done with it. I wish.
I spent a good 5+ hours so far prepping and priming the cage and other bare metal pieces on the chassis. As I mentioned in previous posts, I didn't like building cages due to my lack of patience, same goes for painting them haha. I do need to make sure this very expensive asset doesn't get eaten by mother nature though, so I endured. I'm using a flat black primer on pretty much everything for now. A lot of the interior will be gray, but flat black is a good alternative so I can protect the items, reduce the glare, and not have to worry about putting 50000 hours into paint work. My buddy who has a paint booth offered to help - I think I'll take him up on it haha.

Back from Houston

2010-03-28T04:53:00.000-07:00

Week delay is due to my job - I guess I have to continue to earn an income while I blow it all on this car right? Anyway - started to prep and paint the cage - Doug came over and was scrubbing away with a rough scotchbright pad. I'm going to do the floor and the majority of the cage with a gray and the rest and critical "reflective" points (Rear deck and A-Pillars) in a flat black. I also need to fix all the holes in the floor - another excuse to use my plasma cutter! :)

Paint and Window Prep

2010-03-19T05:43:00.000-07:00

I started to put all the goodies in the motor and get ready to start it up - then I realized... I don't have a steering column! Ah well, I'm dumb - and I didn't feel like hot-wiring the car on initial start up so I moved to putting some of the minor components back in.

I wanted to put the peddle box back together so I could have a clutch and such - but I realized, if I do that - I can't paint the floor. So - I grabbed some flat black Rustoleum "Rust Converter" paint and went to town. I prepped the surface with a scotch bright pad and cleaned it up with some acetone. after I was sure it was fully evaporated and dry, I sprayed on the paint then installed the peddle box.

At the same time I had the paint out I figured, what the hell - Might as well paint the window frames where I messed them up using the braided wire. I masked off a nice area around making sure to keep the paint off the main body and went to town. I figure when I install the Lexan it will almost appear to have a smoked look like the stock windows (from afar anyway).

"It's In!"

2010-03-18T05:18:00.000-07:00

McLovin' said it best - It's In! - Doug came over and helped me throw the engine in last night. Took 10 minutes to mate it to the bell housing... So why did it take all night? Well - 1) Timing belt covers were wrong - tried to pull some off my other motor, no beans. Then it took is 3 hours to find the damn box of sensors (Crank Position) which was sitting in the back of the RS the whole time. Sigh.

Ah well, it's in and bolted down - It's starting to look like a car now. I just hope she starts.

More Productive Night

2010-03-17T05:36:00.000-07:00

So last night was a lot more productive - Jeff and Doug came over to press in/out some bushings for Doug's Evo which kind of inspired me to keep working. I ended up doing a few things including power washing the engine bay, installing all the struts, starting on brakes, rolled/flared the fenders and getting pretty close to a finished motor.

The engine bay was really filthy and I was hoping to have enough time to repaint it. I'm quickly running out of time so I figured, screw it - I'll just try to get it as clean as I can with the power washer. Surprisingly it came out exceptionally well - I really forgot how white this car is haha. "Purple Power" + Power Washer (and a little elbow grease) = clean!

After I pushed her back into the garage I lifted her back up and proceeded to remove the wheels and roll/flare the fenders. This really sucked because the drivers fender lip is rusted to hell so of course no matter how much I heated the paint, it chipped. I figure I'll deal with it next year. It will be an eye sore for now, but whatever. Race car's don't have to be pretty right?

After I got bored/frustrated with trying to get the brake lines to fit up properly - I moved over to the motor. I finally dug up some of the intake manifold bolts and threw her back on. As soon as I can find my crank positioning sensor and get the timing belt covers from Subaru, she'll be on her way back in.

Suspension

2010-03-16T05:18:00.000-07:00

Slow goings last night. I started to install the sensors into the galley plugs and broke one off.. great. I don't think I was over torquing it but whatever... I'll buy a new one.

So moved on to working with the suspension - put the spindles back in with the axles, bolted up the new RCE Tarmac 2's and reconnected all the front components. I still need to do small stuff like add the cotter pins to the castle nuts and such, but it all went together fairly easily.

I also mounted up my JDM bumper beam and fit up the front bumper. I think I'm going to have to invest in some type of latch or quick connect/disconnect for the bumper to get the car on and off the trailer easily. Also, I've cut so much crap out to save weight there really isn't anything keeping the bumper in place other than 2 plastic clips haha. I'll figure something out.

Front Torqued - Rear Sway On

2010-03-15T05:21:00.001-07:00

Got my Cusco rear sway to mount - Took a little modification of the mounting plates but it's on and ready to go - I may have to do something different with the end links or maybe even hack off the ends and weld new ones on but we'll see. The bar doesn't like to work well with the adjustable lateral links. Ah well.

Also, took some time and swapped out the RS steering rack for the WRX one and made sure to replace the rack bushings with some Whitelines. I didn't get time to mount the new coilovers, but I torqued down all the suspension components otherwise. After that was done I bolted down the fenders and headlights/side markers to make sure it all lined up (still). Hopefully tonight I can get the rest of the suspension on and start rolling the fenders. If Subaru has my parts - Ill get that darn motor together.

FedEx Lady!

2010-03-13T20:38:00.000-08:00

Today - After watching F1 qualifying of course - I was visited by the FedEx lady carrying two large boxes. Excited, I quickly opened them to find my RaceComp Engineering KW Variant 3's! 400/340 spring rates with duel way adjustability.

After I unwrapped the suspension I started to get back to work on the engine. I had to run to Sears Hardware and buy some new allen key bolts to replace the very corroded/stripped ones I had to drill out. After getting all the hardware, I put both the cams in, adjusted the valve clearances and started the final "buttoning up". I'm going to put the motor in without the intake on it for now as I'm still waiting on parts from Subaru (bah). Tomorrow I'll see if I can get the steering rack swapped out and the rear Cusco Swaybar installed.

Continues

2010-03-11T05:09:00.000-08:00

Tonight I spent a few hours assembling the motor a bit more. Put the timing belt pulleys/stuff on along with the 08 STI Oil Pump. Threw the stock water pump on but with a new thermostat. Put the rest of the oil pan stuff on as well - although I had to modify a few things to support the 08 STI oil pickup. EFI had a STI oil pan laying around which I had the machine shop clean up so I could use it (More baffling for the win).

After that, I started cracking into the heads to change out the cams. I'm a little annoyed with the Northeast Auto and Machine for their "cleaning" of the heads. When I removed the rockers, there was so much gunk and excess oil behind them. I really wish they had disassembled the heads to clean them - or at least offered it to me for a bit more money. Would have taken it. Anyway - Had to drill out a few of the bolts holding the retainer plates on the heads - I hate corrosion.

Engine Reassembly

2010-03-10T05:00:00.001-08:00

Reassembly in progress! - Finally got around to putting assembling the motor. Took forever to get it back from the machine shop for one, two - bearing availability is scarce (Thanks Economy) - and three... well - Not a lot of available time heh.

The basic block assembly is pretty simplistic as long as the machine shop did their job correctly. I made sure to check the bearing tolerances and oil clearances prior to assembly with some plasti-gauge. Turned out to have rod bearing oil clearance of about 1.5 thousandths or so. With that - Added some assembly lube and went to town. Placed two pistons in the bottom case half first with rods attached and used it as a "base". After those went in I placed the first halves of the mains in and set the crank down (making sure to place the other two rods on the crank first).

Once it seated properly I put the other mains on the alternate block half and set that down on the first making sure the rods pushed up into the appropriate cylinders. Spinning the crank I lined up the rods/pistons and knocked in the pins and made sure to place the retainer clips back on.

From there it's pretty much done - torque everything down on the block and start buttoning it back up in reverse order as we took it apart. I've come to appreciate the heavy lifting the
machine shops do.

Paint Work

2010-03-08T05:21:00.001-08:00

Junior was nice enough to hook me up some some paint work on the odd colored panels of the car. I had to replace the door and fender due to some previous body damage but the blue/black on white combo wasn't very attractive. Junior did a great job for what I gave him (basically spray it and go - don't worry about fixing dents and such). Even though the paint would be appropriately blended to other panels if it was a street car - a few decals and some brake dust will mask the disparity.

Cage Completed

2010-03-07T17:36:00.000-08:00

Sorry for not updating for the past week or so. Been super busy and also took a little time to head to the mountain for some snowboarding.

Sean from DSX completed the roll cage and I picked her up yesterday. He added in a cross in the roof, brace from the rear plate to the bottom of the main hoop, and tied the strut towers together. The welds came out extremely well. Even the MIG welded plates look awesome. I'll let the pictures do most of the talking:

Cage Update

2010-02-25T05:23:00.000-08:00

Cage is pretty close to being done. I took a trip down to see Sean at DSX last night and get an update. The A-Pillar, Rocker, Halo, Driver Door Bar are tacked into place. Sean mentioned he'd start finish welding up the rear of the cage later today to seat everything in place, then work his way forward adding in the offset X in the door and other optional bars (Roof X, Strut Tower Brace, etc.) The Drivers Door bar was kicked out a bit to give me a bit more room inside the car. I think it's going to look pretty neat once it's done (Good thing I gutted the doors beforehand) I'm pretty excited to get it back and start working on paint. It's turning out to look like a real race car now, haha.

Gears Together

2010-02-24T05:26:00.000-08:00

Last night concluded my transmission work (hopefully, lol). I got the box back together within 3-4 hours. We'll see if I put it together correctly, haha.

I'm glad I took it apart in the first place because i had gunk everywhere. I even had some sort of buildup on the inside of the gear stack pinion shaft. A little dip in a few gallons of 93 octane dissolved and cleaned just about everything. I made sure to be extra careful with the bearings as just a little bit of dirt could really jam them up. I made sure to re-lube them and reassembled the gear stack. following the stacks I made sure to clean and re-lube the front diff as well as get all the particulate out of the case itself. A good portion of this build was just having the time to make sure *everything* was clean. Threw the transfer case back on and called it a night!

Motor Back

2010-02-23T07:27:00.000-08:00

Finally got the motor back. Heads are cleaned and machined (have to take them apart anyway to replace the cams - But I'll do that later on) Block was measured, (.001 out of round but whatever) honed and cleaned. I couldn't get my hands on some ACL race bearings, so I just settled with the normal stuff. As long as it lasts one season I'll be happy. The crank was ground and polished - they took .010 off the face which isn't too bad, but it did require machining. So, I'll be reassembling it soon - Hopefully before the car comes back from DSX.

Cage Update and Working Center

2010-02-22T05:25:00.000-08:00

This weekend was kinda hectic - haven't been able to post but I have made a lot of head way. Sean at DSX has moved along great on the cage, finalizing all the rear bends/fitment. I think it looks great so far. He mentioned he's going to bend up the A-Pillar tubes next, install the front box plates, then move to building custom seat brackets to integrated the seats into the cage. It's a bit interesting trying to build the car for both Jamie and myself as the seat positioning will be a bit different for both drivers, but Sean has some cool ways of accommodating.

One really cool thing Sean did was aligned the main hoop cross with the X on the down tubes to allow for more visibility. They all pretty much cross at the same point, allowing me to see a bit more out the rear window. He also rocked back the main hoop just slightly (still within NASA specifications) to follow the B-Pillar body line and make the car more rigid by tying into it.

In addition to the cage, I found some time to grab a used (not destroyed lol) center diff from DSG up in Mass. (Thanks Bill). Cleaned up the internals on the transfer case, washed the transfer gears and re-lubed them and reinstalled the center. It was a fairly easy process, just need to make sure you don't forget the shim! haha. Now it spins without making a terrible grinding noise, lol.

The Carnage...

2010-02-19T05:36:00.001-08:00

Really I can't get a break with this damn car. haha. So in disassembling the transmission to fix what I thought were the rear bearings - turned out to be the transfer gear bearing on the center diff. So I decided to remove the center diff and do some inspection. I was given a "Free" transmission by one of my friends (Thanks Justin) although - the word "Free" usually comes with disclaimers.

After I popped my transfer case apart and removed the diff, I realized that the bearing (although still intact) was pretty destroyed. So I removed it - Quick bearing separator action in my press and off it came. When I cleaned it up with some brake cleaner and inspected it a bit closer, I found there to be hairline fractures of the center differential casing. This must have been caused by the bearing overheating.

So - That "Free" transmission... I figured, Hey! Maybe the diff is good out of this one! - Well after draining the metallic sludge from the box and fighting with the seized linkages - I pulled the center diff out of that one. Not only was the transfer gear bearing obliterated, but the diff itself was physically busted. You can shake the diff and hear parts floating around. ah man - At least it's not a 6 speed, lol.

Plates and Main Hoop

2010-02-18T05:13:00.000-08:00

So I swung by DSX last night to talk with Sean and take a peek at the cage so far. He's boxed off plates for the main hoop and down tubes. I personally think the look of boxing up the plates is much more clean - I don't know if there's added safety behind his madness, but so far so good. Sean said he'd fabricate the rear of the car first then move forward so I expect we'll be seeing some down tubes soon.

Goodies

2010-02-17T05:29:00.000-08:00

So even though there's nothing really to work on yet... And I'm bored out of my mind... That doesn't stop the goodies from rolling in. My Delta 2000 grind cams cam in last night (found them after I buried the box in snow by accident with the plow, lol). These should help move the power band more towards the higher RPM range. Living above 4500-5000 RPM on the track all day would be kinda sucky without being able to access what little power this N/A has. Hopefully tonight I'll take a trip down to see Sean and take a few pics of his work so far. Stay Tuned.

Cage

2010-02-16T04:56:00.001-08:00

So I loaded her on the trailer last night and brought her over to Drivers Seat Xtra's in East Hartford. Sean scoped her out and has a good plan for install the cage. I'm pretty excited but I wont have my baby for at least a week or so. Good thing I have other crap to finish!

Windows and Cage Ready

2010-02-15T19:20:00.000-08:00

Well the deadline to diliver the car to DSX has arrived quickly. I finished prepping the car by removing the windows, throwing the front wheels back on and bolting in the seats. I wanted to vaccume out the interior and pretty it up for most of the work, but that was kinda sidelined.

The windows were a little tedious, but not bad at all. I've read up on people removing them with piano wire or guitar strings but really a braided wire that's strong works fine for. I went to Harbor Freight and snagged a little window remover kit which had that plus some other handy stuff in it.

Although being a 2 person job, the windows came out perfect and all in one piece. I want to retain the windows to use as a pattern for Lexan down the road.

So now she sits, quietly... awaiting the trailer. And ya, I know - My garage is a little cluttered, haha.

Weight Reduction

2010-02-14T20:23:00.000-08:00

So before I bring the car for the cage I have to make sure I cut out all the brackets and remove other little crap that I wouldn't be able to get to otherwise. Once a lot of the bars are welded in, it will be very difficult to get a grinder in behind them. After cutting though the cabin stuff, I had to reinstall the interior I'd be retaining for the track IE: Dash, Heater Core, Blower Motor, etc. I have to make that Sean from DSX can work and build around the existing interior.

I dissected the blower motor and removed the AC core. This saved a bit of weight, but mostly because I welded up the holes and can't physically accommodate the lines that protrude though the firewall.

Following the blower motor and heater core, I hacked all the extra crap out of the dash. I can't believe how light the existing dash is without all the crap in it (airbag, vents, etc.)

I think the coolest thing I did today was Plasma Cut the doors apart. Kris came over today (Drive the EVO in February!? No way...) and helped me out. We made quick work with the doors and probably freed up another 25-30 lbs in both doors. I left the factory door bars in just to be on the safe side.

Rolling Chassis

2010-02-12T22:23:00.000-08:00

This weekend needs to be a rush to get the car to be a rolling chassis. I also need to install the heater core, dash, etc. in the interior because the car is going to get a cage installed next week.

The installer is Sean from Driver's Seat Extras - Same place that Subimods is housed in East Hartford. Sean is the guy who designed and constructed the cages for all the EFI ST-2 Cars (minus Jack's). He really knows his stuff and is designing a cage that will be legal once I start wheel to wheel racing.

Damn you, Whiteline!

2010-02-11T05:51:00.000-08:00

Sway Bar installations are one of the easiest and quickest modifications to do on any Subaru - So why did it take me longer to "attempt" to install one than the entire rear end? Oh let me tell you.

Start off with breaking the rear bolt on the drivers side sway bar bracket. Ok, whatever, I'll have to drill it out... So I throw a ton of PB Baster on the others and wait a bit. During this time the snow off Jamie's car is melting into a pool of water right under the back end of the Track Car... Grreaattt...

Move to the passenger side, break that one too - Damn it. Go get the drill, center punch, some bits and a tap. Start to go to town on the bolts - All but one of the bits I brought with me - Dull as a rock. Get more, finally drill them out and the corrosion is so bad the bolts are totally frozen in the frame. So I grab the tap and cut new threads hoping to clean up the existing ones. That works wonders.

Bolt the new brackets up and then I go and grab the sway bar. Now for all those who are already saying "well Mike, an STI bar doesn't fit an RS" - Ya, I know. But the lateral links I'm using are from an STI to move the track out and I've fit up STI bars in that way before on a few swaps. Only problem is that Whiteline must of revised their bar - they only have a small (2 inch) section of strait pipe where the bushing fits. Since the RS is a bit more narrow than the STI, it wont mount to the brackets properly, ug.

The solution here is to check on a few other brands of bars, I know I've used a Cusco in the past so maybe I'll try to source one of those. I guess I should've known things were moving along too smoothly, haha.

Front Installed

2010-02-10T05:40:00.001-08:00

Installed the main group of front end components with Doug last night. I need to have a rolling chassis that steers to get it on the trailer and to the cage shop. I'm going to use a STI turbo cross member for a few reasons. One being I wont have to replace it down the road when I do the swap, two it uses additional factory bracing and three, it allows me to use the stock 20mm STI Front Sway Bar (mind you is installed backwards in the picture, haha).

For those of you who told me the RS steering rack will not fit in the GD STI cross member - it does. I'll be using a GD rack after the steering column quickener comes back, but for the time being I'll use this one to steer the car.

I also found out that the problem with the transmission lies in the transfer case bearings. So even though I pulled the whole damn thing apart to replace the TRANSMISSION bearings - those are fine. Ah well, at least I'll have bearings for when they decided to leave me.

Rear End Installed

2010-02-08T22:11:00.000-08:00

So Doug came over again - and oddly enough, I was doing the exact same job as the last time he came over - only in reverse.

We cleaned out the rear differential and bolted it to the new Diff Mount. We then inserted that into the rear cross member upside down and slid on the T-Brace. Torqued everything to spec - then started to assemble the lateral links. I ended up picking up some adjustable Perrin lateral links (which are mostly spherical links) and installed those prior to bolting up the cross member to the car. We also added grease fittings to all the poly bushings to lube the inner diameter of the metal sleeve.

So here's the moment of truth - The one thing about solid bushings is that if you didn't get the spot on and the frame isn't 100% true, they don't work. We jack up the rear end place all the bolts in the cross member (few threads) then lift up the T-Brace and slide in the bolts. IT FITS - perfectly. I may have to consider shimming the T-Brace if the diff isn't sitting perfectly level, but that's for a later date. I think McLovin said it best, "It's In!"

Knuckles and Final Bushing

2010-02-07T13:23:00.000-08:00

I finished turning up the aluminum bushings and steel sleeves to go into the T-Brace. They seem to fit perfectly, but the T-Brace looks a little bent now that I have perfectly measured/straight mounts, haha. Hopefully it's not too tweaked and I can mount it later. The only way to fix it will be to just cut the welds and re-weld it strait which wont be a huge problem. Annoying, yes, but fairly easy.

So now that the sub frame and T-Brace are finished I moved to the knuckles. The sandblasting never worked out, so I just defaulted to the old school wire brush and painted them up. High Temp Black should do the job just fine.
I also pressed in the new bearings - although not heat treated like I wanted, they should do the trick for a few track sessions until I can source bearings with steel cages to treat.

MIG, TIG, and Plasma!

2010-02-04T05:16:00.001-08:00

I finally got around to buying some replacement consumables for my 110v plasma cutter. My mom picked it up for my Dad awhile back and I kind of... well... "adopted" it for body work use, haha. It never really worked correctly and frankly, I never had much use for it until now.

I figured since I was still waiting for parts for the suspension, brakes, and transmission - as well as waiting to turn up new T-Brace bushings I might as well start welding up some unnecessary firewall holes.

Kris let me borrow is TIG (thank you Kris) to replace my crappy 110v MIG. The MIG is nice for slapping two pieces of metal together like the transmission jig I made. However, when it comes down to really thin sheet metal, I just can't get my MIG to not burn through.

The TIG is a bit harder and welding upside down and on a vertical surface pose their own challenges but I think I managed. The welds look good where I had the proper gap between panels, but where it was more than 1/16th of an inch, it just looks like boogers.

Ground down the welds never the less to make a (relatively) smooth surface. Still rough from weld aftermath, but whatever, it's a race car right? Threw some primer on and went to bed.

Subaru 1, Mike 0

2010-02-03T05:28:00.000-08:00

Subaru wins this battle - bastards. I was trying to press out the T-Brace bushing last night. Ended up firing a metal slug into my leg while trying, haha. Anyway - those who want to remove the T-Brace bushings - be warned: There is a lip that the bushing presses up against which you can't really see due to the deformation of the urethane. I got it out, but only after I cut the lip off.

After I filled the garage with black smoke and soot from cutting the rubber I just went inside and designed up some new solid bushings in Google SketchUp. (neat program by the way...)

So the odd height of the drawing is related to what I had to subtract out of the total height of the bushing to accommodate for when I raised the rear cross member up. I need to make sure the diff sits as level as possible to avoid drive train tweaks.

Painting

2010-02-01T19:00:00.000-08:00

In between waiting for the parts and waiting for the specialty tools to get here (to finish the trans) I figured I'd clean up some extra parts. The rear cross member and T-Brace are rusty as I mentioned before... Couldn't come by a sand blaster soon enough to meet my demands so I just cleaned them up best I could and slapped some primer/paint on them.

I also cleaned up the front body work a bit and put a few coats of white paint on it. I was told white might not be the best choice for the track car as it may get really crappy - but whatever. If someone has a better suggestion - please let me know!

Transmission

2010-01-31T16:45:00.001-08:00

As I await more parts to finish assembling the suspension - by the suggestion of Jack from EFI I decided to dive into the 5 speed. The transmission had a 4th gear whine which sounded like a bearing issue. They aren't too bad to get to, but I do have to disassemble a good portion of the gear stack.

I'll have to come across a few new tools (is that ever a bad thing?!). Gear stack requires a 27mm, 35mm, and a 50mm deep well socket. There are some specialty tools I may have to purchase from Subaru, but I think I can get by for now with a bearing separator. Everything looks good though, transmission doesn't appear to have much wear except for a bit on the spider gears on the front diff. Nothing to be alarmed about I don't think.

So tomorrow, it's to a wake (ugg) then to Subaru to price out some tools/parts.

Sorry Rob!

2010-01-29T06:10:00.000-08:00

Despite the snow and crazy drivers on the road - I managed to get to Northeast Auto and Machine to ask about my block and see if my spindles were done (I had them pull the ball joints out because they were seized - and really - I didn't want to fight with them, haha).

I walked in and asked for Rob - He emerged covered in grease as usual. I asked if the ball joints gave him any trouble... he responded, "I'm going to drop my pants and let you know exactly what happened." At this point I think it's just a figure of speech - Nope - He drops trow and I see a HUGE (8-9" diameter) bruise on his left leg.

Of course, I start laughing hysterically and ask what happened - he proceeds to tell me the story:

"I was trying to remove the ball joints and was using the torches to heat it up. After a few heat cycles and attempts to remove the bolt that holds the ball joint in, I decided to turn up the juice. I placed the torches on the table and let the spindle get CHERRY RED. Well - It got hot enough that the ball joint exploded, sending it (seemingly physically impossible) past the bolt that holds it in the spindle, out, across the room, and hit me in the leg! It was like someone set off a M80 right next to you face!" - Rob

I felt so bad I suggested he doesn't try the other one - but he wanted to. I'll call him at 4 and see if he's still alive.

Needless to say - I didn't pick up my spindles, haha.

Out with the old - In with the new

2010-01-28T05:19:00.001-08:00

The past few days have been hampered by brake booster going bad on the girlfriends car - however, progress has been made. My order from Subaru is ready for pickup and I found a local friend who will give me a hand with some sandblasting to remove the surface rust off my cross member and other structural pieces. I also got some of my parts from Subimods (whiteline bushings and such) and started to press them in. I finished last night off with pressing in the forward a-arm bushing.

Physics!

2010-01-26T05:49:00.000-08:00

Physics rule. So tonight I pressed in the steel sleeve into the aluminum bushing. Worked very well with the measured tolerances we figured out... I did make it a little easier by placing the sleeve in the freeze and the bushing in the oven. (by the way, 350 degrees seems like the optimum temperature, haha.) I didn't go too crazy as I had to replace a brake booster (WRX in the background...)

After the bushings were together, I put them back in the freezer to cool, then pressed them into the differential support. I had to center the bushing a bit as they aren't stepped like the stock rubber ones, but that wasn't bad.

Once everything was pressed in, I placed it in the rear cross member and it fit perfectly. I mean no prying, no bending, just slid in perfectly. There is a little slop in the stock hardware and stock cross member, but as for the support the bolt holes are exactly the correct width. Once it's torqued down I'm sure that will be removed.

Home-Made

2010-01-25T05:29:00.000-08:00

So I went down to my parents house over the weekend and turned up some custom rear diff and sub frame solid bushings. Even though my dad pretty much missed two football games he helped me finish these bad boys before I left. (Thanks Dad). I had 3 Subaru OE sub frame bushings (from god knows where, lol) so I decided to press them in backwards. This would allow for an additional 1/4 inch of rise in the rear sub frame and allow the lateral links to sit more flat when I drop the car. We had to mill down the lip on one, as well as create a 4th.

For the rear diff, we used a aluminum bushing with a steel sleeve. Aluminum is just way too soft to stick a steel fastener through it. It would for sure destroy itself within a few track days. We engineered the pieces to be press fit so I'll have to press the steel sleeve into the aluminum bushing, then press the unit into the diff support. (note, I'm using a different style cross member because the other one was bent to hell...)

Anyway, here's how they "turned" out.

Funds

2010-01-23T20:29:00.000-08:00

So today I parted ways with a good amount more cash by heading over to good ol Subaru. Bought a bunch of new parts (rings and such) for the motor as well as some new bearings which I'll get coated with a fancy anti-friction coating (recommended by Jack at EFI). I'd rather not replace wheel bearings every other race weekend, lol.

Also had some time - in between helping a friend with his suspension bushings - to press out my old wheel studs and press in my new ARPs!

I think I may need to use a WRX/STI rear cross member - This RS one is really bent up.

Backing Plates

2010-01-22T05:55:00.000-08:00

More bent and rotten stuff - Arrgg... Just add it to the list of OE Subaru parts I'll have to pick up. I was pressing out the wheel bearings and realized how messed up these plates really were. I put the minor amount of force needed to remove the hub from the bearing and the crumbled from rust. Also, after I got them off I realized they were pretty bent... must have been related to the bent lateral link and tweaked sub frame...

Bearings and Bushings

2010-01-21T05:34:00.000-08:00

Last night I started pressing out the bushings and bearings on all the components. So far so good - with one minor issue which was that damn axle... The axle seized itself into the hub and I've been letting it soak in penetrating oil for awhile now. Finally decided to heat the heck out of it and press it out... I ended up putting a 4 foot bar on the press pump lever and putting (probably too much) a lot of force on the axle. It finally popped, but I mushroomed the end of it a bit. Hub still looks good. So now I sit back and wait for Joe from Subimods.com to get me my parts. Quite the bushing/suspension kit, haha.

Off to the Machine Shop

2010-01-20T05:51:00.000-08:00

I took the block and stuff down to the machine shop yesterday. Hopefully it all turns out well. Northeast Auto and Machine is a really nice group of people. They've done a ton of Subaru stuff for me and my friend in the past and seem to really know their stuff. It's pretty local (East Hartford) so that's a bonus. They mentioned that the cylinders get out of round over time - let's hope my little beast will still be in good shape.

Bent and Broken

2010-01-19T05:19:00.001-08:00

Last night I was joined by Mr. Doug who helped me disassemble the rear end. It was a lot easier with two people trying to remove the damn stuck and stubborn bolts. An hour or so later we had the rear assembly in pieces and closely inspected the parts. We found the lateral links as well as the sub frame to be bent. My assumption is it may have slid into a curb or something enough to tweak the sub frame. All is well though as I have about 4 more rear subframes in my shed and a set of new lateral links. Hopefully I can get my bushings by the end of the week and start stiffening this bad boy up.

Rear Down

2010-01-18T06:02:00.000-08:00

So, decided to remove the rear yesterday as well. Would have been out within a half hour if not for breaking a tacked nut on the back side of the rear uni-body loose... There was a grade 8 bolt that holds the sub frame in that started to bind - and of course the only thing I could do was put a nice breaker bar/pipe extension on and turn. Ended up having to hole-saw though the side of the frame rail to get access. I don't think the hole will hurt the structure's integrity of the car, but I'll weld it up down the line.

Front Removed

2010-01-17T15:40:00.000-08:00

Today was pretty quick - removed the front suspension in preparation to swap bushings and parts. I ended up pulling the whole thing down as a unit so I could disassemble it out from under the car.It's always easier to get the proper leverage on rusty and stuck bolts without trying to turn a wrench in the 6 inches of space between the cement floor and the bottom of the car, haha.

I'm going to need to replace all the bushings, steering rack, a-arms, and even the cross member. I'd prefer to use the "GD" (2004 STI) A-Arms to widen the track. With that I'll use the GD cross member to support the wider A-Arm mounts. Since I've collected a ton of extra STI parts, I figure I might as well use them.

Only bad part about today was the damn axle stuck in the hub... It's totally seized. I went as far as throwing it in my 2 ton press with no luck. I guess I'll bring it to the machine shop along with the motor stuff, haha.

Motor Breakdown

2010-01-16T20:17:00.001-08:00

Since we decided to stay with the 2.5 N/A block we settled on rebuilding it so keep it reliable. Last thing we want is to pop a motor on the first race of the season!

Most of the motor removal was routine - Removing the fuel lines, drain the radiator and oil, move the power steering aside and pop off the motor mounts.

After we removed the clutch and flywheel (why I might add was in very good condition... totally reusable) we put it on a motor stand and started to disassemble. The intake manifold came off easily by removing the 8 bolts and disconnecting the various sensors. Next we took off the timing belt and other "front of the motor" pieces including water and oil pumps. After that - off came the heads and we dove into the block.

I had to make a quick trip to Sears to pick up a 12-point 3/8 socket to get the block bolts out. Once they popped loose, we tapped out the wrist pins and pulled the block apart. Everything looked pretty good... crank wasn't scorn too bad, pistons look reusable... rods fine... I do feel a lot better about the decision to rebuild it though because the rod bearings looked very discolored which could be a sign of poor oiling.

Back To Work!

2010-01-15T05:33:00.000-08:00

So back to work. It's been awhile since I last posted mainly due to trying to keep the finances coming in. Economy kinda put a hold on extracurricular activities for awhile. So we're back in the swing of things now and need to get this baby done by March. We decided based on cash availability to stay with the N/A motor and 5mt for now... But we will rebuild it. Stay tuned for some "inside" shots.

Bad Wiring Phantom Guy... Grrr

2009-07-06T08:31:00.001-07:00

So over the weekend we made some additional progress with gutting the car. We needed to remove the dash to get at all the crap behind it (Heater Core, Blower, AC junk, etc.). We still haven’t decided how we want to proceed with the dash, but I believe we’re leaning towards a aluminum sheet metal flat dash. Something similar to a Nascar style.

We removed the remainder of the trunk interior and insulation before moving on to mounting the new door and side mirror. Every piece of covering we remove has a chance of uncovering some gremlins. We’ve already identified a few areas of very minor body rust we will need to repair. Luckily, most of the rust is localized to spots where we can just cut the metal out without even having to weld in new pieces. An example would be on the inside of the trunk where a weather strip sits to prevent water from coming into the car. So far we haven’t found anything structurally compromising (Thank god).

So to get to the title – Bad Wiring Phantom Guy – Curse you. We had to remove and re-wire a botch job on a car alarm. There were random, non electrical taped connections as well as they had the unit integrated into the ignition as a “lock out” for any potential thieves. All I have to say is thank god it wasn’t the cause of an electrical fire – because that’s where it was headed, haha.

Wheels!

2009-07-02T19:39:00.001-07:00

Ok - been a week or so since I last posted. We've been trying to source some new wheels, tires, and brakes. The problem has been sizing. We need something that can fit over a 4 pot front brake but also is small enough to keep the unsprung weight/rotational mass low. That being said - I've been trying to find a buyer for my 17x7.5 SSR Comps but I think they will be ideal for our needs.

We're moving towards using a 245 wide tire for the remainder of the season and next season - Any more will require extensive fab work to widen the fenders. Still, 245 meats are going to need a little hacking to get the job done and will squeeze onto these 7.5 wide SSR's just fine.

Moving along - I sourced some used G-Forces which we'll use for the time being to test fit and be able to roll the car once we bolt up the brakes. I also think they will be pretty good for a few Auto-X days. The previous owner blistered them very bad so I wouldn't trust them on a track - free is a nice price though. :)

So what do we do...

2009-06-25T18:37:00.000-07:00

We're debating - Keep the dash - Get rid of the dash... Personally, I think get rid of the crap and sell it to put some cash back in the car fund. But - What do we do after it's gone?

Here are a few of our options:

Painters tape over the existing dash and lay a thin layer of fiberglass and resin.
Remove the dash and build a custom dash out of a "net" or "skeleton" of balsa and hot glue. and glass over it.
Aluminum sheet metal.
Zip tie the cluster to the dash beam and race it!!! (ya I'm sure tech inspection would approve that, haha).
Get some thin PVC type material, heat gun it, and shape it into what we want - lay some glass over that.

There has to be at least 40-50 lbs in the dash, heater core, AC crap, and blower. Not to mention the random brackets and airbags.

Feel free to comment, we need some ideas!

Finishing Up

2009-06-24T19:20:00.000-07:00

So last weekend we finished up the front end body work. Tacked in the new panels and primed them up. Everything lines up perfectly... other than the radiator brackets which totally confuses us... maybe the piece was stamped wrong? - Anyway - That can be a quick fix with Kris' TIG Welder and some Aluminum :)

The tacking and seam welding went very smooth and was easier to align than expected. I guess that can be attributed to the minor damage up front.

Once we finished we moved to removing the interior. It all came out easily and we made sure to preserve each piece for resale down the road. Next step will be removing all that sound deadening - Ugg - Dry Ice here we come...

Motor?

2009-06-24T18:28:00.000-07:00

Well - Opportunity presents itself - I think I'll take advantage. A local friend of mine came across a EJ205 (US 2.0L Turbo motor) out of an 2005 Subaru WRX. We picked up the ECU, Wiring Harness and motor (bad short block - spun rod bearing) along with the stock radiator, fans and other goodies. The seller had his car totaled when a tree feel on it (Sorry Junior!) but he was able to help us out with costs. - If we end up preparing this car for NASA ST-2 Classification, we're going to need a little more power than the stock 2.5 naturally aspirated motor.

Step 1: Body Work

2009-06-24T17:43:00.001-07:00

On the 15th of June, we started working on the structural body work. The front end came apart a lot quicker and easier than we originally thought. We put in about 4 hours worth of work to take out the damaged Radiator Brace and passenger front sheet metal. We had to straighten out the mounting points for the fenders but all it took was a few hundred whacks with a hammer :)

We had to drill out about 50 spot welds and use a metal chisel to pull the damaged panels away from the frame. Once that was done - we cleaned up the metal and made sure it was all ready for the new pieces to be welded in.

While we had the whole darn thing apart - we figured it wouldn't ever get ANY easier to do a timing belt and water pump. So we did.

The Beginning !

2009-06-24T17:26:00.000-07:00

So the ultimate goal of this blog is to keep both a log of our personal progress and build history, but also as a user guide for those who have interest in a similar project down the road.

So we found our Subaru 2.5RS shell at a local auto auction for around 1400$. The reason for the low price was it has a salvaged title and accident damage to the front passenger side. The research we did on the chassis revealed it had been in an accident with a truck, localizing the damage above the frame.

Closer inspection - we found the frame is straight, motor unhurt (besides the cracked timing belt covers and bent power steering pulley, haha). Cosmetic wise, she's hurt - but nothing we can't fix! (Plus... race cars don't need to be pretty, do they?)

Pictures as of the beginning (Project Started: 6/15/09)