Alrighty then!! Well, with only 3 weekends left until we leave for Mexico, there is lots of things still to be done. On Monday, I went down to Sandlake to see how fellow Outta Sight Racing teammate Luke was doing testing out his insane CB500 dirt bike! Here's what I posted on his thread: http://www.advrider.com/forums/showpost.php?p=21088002&postcount=449 I cruised around on the sand and quickly realized that the 03 Forester front struts we put in are very tired indeed. But we figured they would be and I have a brand new set of 1st Generation Forester struts in my garage and we are going to be switching all of the hardware over to the new ones and install all four! Luckily, Cory is making the trip down and will be helping me this weekend getting the new suspension on and dialed in. Today I switched the hardware and springs from the 03 Forester rears to my new 1st gen Forester rears. There is a bit of difference in length...not sure what exactly this will all mean since I'm using 03 springs....we'll see soon enough. We will also be installing two new front axles because when I was under the car with Ray, I noticed one of the boots starting to crack a bit. I don't know the history of these axles, its better just to replace them with new. Then I will use the old ones as spares. Oh yeah, we'll also be doing the ball joints. And then on Monday, the car will go in for a proper 4 wheel alignment finally! One of my sponsors from the first year came back on board and this time they actually donated some much needed....and appreciated cash; which gave me the ability to buy the axles!! Thanks to Dick and Bob Crosley of the Tillamook Country Smoker for once again supporting Outta Sight Racing. That means in addition to steekers...we will have some more jerky to hand out to kids in Baja and to soldiers at the military check points. http://www.tcsjerky.com/ The door decals arrived today and I am having a few sponsor stickers made up....hopefully the car's decals will be complete by Monday if I can find the time to get it done! A lot of what we will be doing these last weeks is really just the finish stuff. I am working on the secondary door latching system that is required by NORRA and the window nets are on the way. Then looking at tool and spare part storage and how we're going to carry water and stuff. I did find a fire extinguisher that meets NORRA and was not white or red...It looks like it was made for this car and matches the roll cage very nicely!! Thanks Ace Hardware! More to come...
How easily did your axles come out? I recently went to change out the axles on my 03 H6 and could not get the axle to budge from the knuckle, on either side. No amount of heat seemed to help either. Had to take the car to the local indie shop and they tried their hydraulic press, only to have the end of the axle shatter. Seems the splines were just welded in and this is on a car that saw little to no salt in it's life. I had to replace the knuckle assembly on both sides as well as the axles and bearings. I wanted to cry when I got the bill. What should have been a couple hours of me under the car ended up costing a small fortune. I wish someone would pay me $121 per hour for my labor! Loving your build and looking forward to the story of your race. - Ken
Hey Ken, sorry to hear about your troubles....as a native of the northeast, I remember and don't miss salt roads at all. We will be doing the axles on Saturday and I will be sure to post up how it goes. Luckily, this car has been great in terms of removing undercarriage components. Even the black Impreza I bought first was a bitch...this one has been like butter..so I hope the axles prove to be the same. I did get a visit from Santa in the brown truck and my race collars and window nets arrived. I was mocking shit up and I think I maybe able to use the rear seatbelt components out of the Outback to make our window net installation kit...and save a little money in the process and recycle some OEM parts. Peeling the plastic coating off of the buckle: Zipties are just for mock-up obviously.. Ray will have a little bit of welding to do...but it should look something like this when we're done...
we used to do this with our old roundy round cars, we'd get a pair of gm belt extenders, sew one to the net and weld the other to the cage, worked perfect! Just make sure to orient the releases so they can be easily reached.
When I ordered the door decals..I ordered them too big. They were not going to work. Luckily, Lonnie is the man, so he did some cutting and came up with some great solutions. Using elements from the original decals and some he made up, we now have most of our numbering and graphics done. There are still a few things we will be doing and sponsors to add. The RSM in front of the 12 is the NORRA class I am running (Rally Stock Medium) and it is required to be there. Cory came down this weekend and we worked two full days on the car. We had both wanted to go to the Desert 100 motorcycle race in Odessa for a little fun and to watch Luke race his crazy bike, but with only 18 days until the green flag drops in Mexicali....I had work to do. Luckily, Cory was here to help. I know that Cory took a couple of more photos than I did, and I hope he posts them up here. But we were very busy and really didn't even think of taking a bunch of photos. Since Cory is signed up as a co-driver and may have to drive the car if something happens to me or Laura, he wanted to make sure the ergonomics would be ok for him.... Yep...that'll do Before we got started on Saturday morning, we called David and got the lowdown on removing and installing the front CV axles. Good thing we did too, because our internet research had people saying that the brake caliper needed to be removed and pulled out of the way..this of course, is not true. I would say that internet advice is about 50% accurate.....either its right, or its wrong The axles came out like butter and while Cory was working on those, I was messing with the struts. One of the front struts was completely blown. We built up some hybrid struts using 03 (2nd gen) Forester springs and hardware with brand new 1st gen Forester struts. The results is the car has some more instant lift in front..even with one of the spacer blocks removed. Of course, you'd need to see pictures of this...which of course I don't have. The struts are longer giving more travel and the springs are a little stiffer, so bottoming is less of an issue and less harsh when it does bottom out. We also contemplated removing the front sway bar, but for now, opted to keep it in. Even with two 1 inch spacers in the rear, the front is higher. It actually works for this style of racer so I think I will leave the one spacer in the front instead of trying to level the car. Now it looks like a mini trophy truck Ok. It doesn't, but it does give me a higher approach angle and will help with the Vados and whoops in Mexico. The car handled great and I was scheduled for a proper alignment for Monday morning. While testing the car on Saturday, we had an oil cooler line come off and dump oil all over the place. This is the 2nd time this has happened so we are now going to fix this known issue with some better clamps and/or hoses. Then while testing on Sunday, the car started misfiring. It was throwing a code saying it had a misfire in cylinder 4. I was a little anxious...well, I'm very anxious about everything with the race being only two weeks away. We figured it was either a spark plug or wire issue or maybe a clogged fuel injector..as the gas tank had been low for awhile..maybe something got sucked up? I filled the gas tank and dumped in a can of Sea Foam for good measure and headed back to the shop. When Cory removed Cyl 4's spark plug cap...some water splashed out. It would seem that while I was testing the car on the forest road without the skidplate and aiming for every puddle and hole I could, some water got inside and was causing the problem. New platinum plugs, dielectric grease and better cables and we were back in business! That is of course before Cory noticed a nice fuel leak coming from somewhere on top of the fuel tank. When David built the motor, there was some issues with the EVAP system and he changed it up a bit. We always had the odor of fuel whenever the car was filled up. We were going to address this issue but kept forgetting because I have been too cheap to fill the car up I did buy a new gas cap and we installed that this weekend. Well, it seems that the old cap probably allowed venting through its shitty o-ring and the new one did not...so my theory is the tank is self venting through one of the top inlets or outlets or perhaps a bad rubber fuel line; as we all know how great ethanol fuel is on components. Well, now I was really anxious,because to drop a Subaru tank just to check the fuel lines on top requires you to remove the exhaust, the driveshaft, the rear differential and the rear axles....not exactly something we were up for doing. I called David and he said it would be about a 3 hour job for him to do it, but he'd rather do it at his shop because he wants to fix the EVAP problem once and for all. I put the old fuel cap on, and yesterday drove the car to Vancouver without incident. Besides for the fuel issue, which is now being addressed, the car is running perfectly. The suspension is probably as good as one could get using stock components. and everything but the alignment is spot on. The alignment was so bad that on right hand corners I had understeer and on left hand ones I had oversteer Once David is done, It will finally get that alignment! So basically, the only things left to do are to figure out what we are bringing down with us and how we will mount the spares and tools in the back of the car. Tim has a little bit of work to do with the aux electric stuff and Lonnie has a few more graphics to put on. Ray is figuring out the window net system and that should go in later this week when I get the car back. And I have some other fantastic news (for me)...David is now coming to Mexico with us!! That means that the guy who built the race motor, and knows these cars up and down, is going to be at the bivouac waiting with tools if necessary! I think our chances of finishing, and finishing well, just went up a whole bunch!! Now if we could just figure out why the cruise control won't work....I'm really dreading the I5 slab haul without it! We've replaced every component except for the steering wheel switch.....David is doing that now. We also keep adding more Mexican components to the car to help get it acclimated for the race... Viva La Mexico!!
Well, now I was really anxious,because to drop a Subaru tank just to check the fuel lines on top requires you to remove the exhaust, the driveshaft, the rear differential and the rear axles....not exactly something we were up for doing. I called David and he said it would be about a 3 hour job for him to do it, but he'd rather do it at his shop because he wants to fix the EVAP problem once and for all. Any thoughts or ideas about making an access port/hole/cover over the top of the tank, in case this area needs addressed in the future, while in some remote location?
There are already two small ones...but I like your thinking Rick! I'll talk to David about it. ** edit ** sounds like David was already on it...lol **edit**
Looking good! Your Ebrake seems to be pulled to the max! Any idea if its the pads or the cables? Just something to consider! Just a cosmetic thing really, but if Lonnie has yellow/clear Laminex, have him put it on the fogs. It'll really protect them from rocks! Also, it really sets off the frontend! If he doesn't and you still like the look, get Krylon Stained Glass paint. 2-3 quick coats and it looks real nice, but does nothing for rocks! I used the Krylon this last weekend, because I plan to put my yellow Hella 500 lights in but need a new housing and the adapter brackets. The Hellas will get Laminex'd! I'm really interested in doing a similar Forester lift, its nice hearing and seeing how its coming along! I'd like more info on David's 2.2l heads on the 2.5l, specifically how difficult it is and the details. I'm considering the same when I need to do my headgaskets. I got the impression you copied his posts, from another thread or forum. Do you have a link??
David's posts were emailed to me, but you could always contact him and pick his brain: http://www.appleautomotiveservice.com/
I just re-read that whole thing...very good read! Thanks for posting that link, I had forgotten he put that up. I love the 140 mph comment..
David began working on he gas problem right away. He had to do some re-plumbing because the 2.2 intake we had used (that came with the 2.2 head) did not have the same EVAP plumbing as the 2.5 that came with the car. So he moved all of the components and hooked everything up hoping that would solve the problem. Well, he was awoken at 2am to the smell of gas coming from his garage. Which meant it was probably something else that was causing the odor or leak...but he did clear the Evap code we were getting That meant he had to pull the tank, which basically involves removing everything underneath from the front doors back He quickly realized that the "book" was wrong calling it a 3 hour job. Be he is persistent and once he dropped the tank, he did end up finding a small hole which came from a sheet metal screw that was screwed in through the floor (not it). The car always had the gas smell, so not sure why that screw was put in there by the previous owner(s). Of course, I did work on the car removing the interior while drunk so there is always that..... Here's David pointing out the hole: Here's David pointing out the hole after I asked him if he would have the car ready for pick-up this morning: David is going to repair the hole and then throughly test the tank before reinstalling. He also picked up two new rear axles since since he had to remove the old ones anyway and they were looking bit tired. We now have the old ones as spares. David also noticed that the driveshaft joints were beginning to show some wear and he said if we could find a nicer one we could install it, but otherwise, it was fine and would be good to go for this year. Subaru does not have replaceable U-joints, you have to replace the whole two-piece driveshaft to the tune of about $400 bucks for a reman unit :eek1 We'll get that worked out and he hopes to have the car back together soon. Lookie here! Only 12 days until I leave Oregon, and only 16 days until race day! Those are probably all unnecessary parts anyway....right? :huh
Why worry about missing half the car when the graphics look so good? The car will come together nicely, you have great people working on it. Ko
Shit, I guess I spoke too soon about your project going smoothly and jinxed you. 1,000 pardons. I love Subarus, but sometimes the amount of hours to do certain jobs makes me ill. Replacing the valve cover gaskets this weekend and expect 3-4 hours just cause the space is so tight. - Cheers
Man it's great you caught that hole before bashing around in the hot desert for several days. That would have been hell.
You nailed it. The truth is, I only succeed at these crazy ideas because I have a knack for getting very good people involved and together, good things happen! David is busy right now at his shop so he has been sneaking in time all day today and yesterday working on the race car. He just called me a few minutes ago, and the tank is in and he is finally calling it a night. I will be heading up tomorrow to help button the rest of the car up while he is busy rebuilding a real customer's motor. Today, David had some fun with me and texted me saying he hoped the tank would not explode...and included a staged dramatic photo. First, he was going to weld the hole (don't worry, he's done this before and stayed in a Holiday Inn Express just to be safe): Done: He got a new fuel pump too...just cuz we were already in there. New and old: Tank repaired, prepped and ready to go back in: He says I'll be driving the car home tomorrow.......I'll keep you posted