RallyJusty

I am back on line with leroy the junkyard justy. I found a super clean 93 in thr local pick and pull, total in tact, with an engine showing some of it's insides on the outside. I picked up the whole car for 300 bucks, and sold the drive train (comlete) to a fellow for 150 bucks. I decided to toss the tube frame I was constructing in the scrap heap. It was the original rollcage modifed to a complete tube frame chasis. I hated the idea that it was never going to be a justy, so I shi* canned it and found a real justy to start over with. I have been a busy bee and have started the project in earnest. I decided to keep the twin 1.5 inch .120 wall square tube twin frame rail concept I had from the complete tube frame car. The whole drive train (front to rear) will be mounted on the twin tubes, and that has been tied to the car chasis. It will provide a lovely way to attach a skid plate. I have been documenting every step of the construction with lovely digital photos. Way more than I will ever post, but enough to give a decent picture of how I have proceded, should anyone evr really want to se them. I have taken the engine tranny in and out of the car at least twice a day (on weekends) since I started 3 weeks ago. I purchased a shop crane, and that has been a real life saver for this project. I am using a 1.8l EJ18 from my original '93 impreza. I have the aluminum adapter plate I made a couple of years ago tying the RX dual range tranny to the impreza engine. I have decided to hold off on turbo charging the engine, as the car will have about the same amount of horse power as the original turbo charged 3 cylinder, but more torque, and will be much more reliable. I still plan on mounting the radiator in the back like when I turbo charged the 3 cylinder, but I have a better plan to isolate the heat and noise. The battery will be in the back as well. Today I estabished the geometry for the lower control arms and upper swing arms, but will need to redesign the coil over shocks to match the shorter travel in this car compared to the tube frame car. I have built much nicer parts from aluminum for the coil-overs, and the adapters to make the hubs work in a control arm style suspension. I made the originals from steel, and they sucked. Strong but heavy and ugly. I have been working on this pile since 2002. maybe this time I have a chance a finishing it. Funny thing is I don't care. I am having a blast! Still, the next big thrill WILL be driving it! I have to put the pics I have on the blog I created for this project. I have been chomping at the bit to post what I have been doing, bit I wanted to get a bit of work under my belt first. Troy

Wow, I think you just weld a turbo onto the existing exaust manifold (steel and cast can be welded, but expect cracks unless you are very particular about your welding job), buy some plumbing bits from a hardware store for the oil supply (off of the oil filter) and oil outlet (drill hole into oil pan as high as is safe) using more brass fittings, use the heater hoses for your coolant water supply, and run it till it explodes. I inherited a few turbos from subarus that went the way of the dodo bird, or were changed out for something fancier. They gave about 6 to 8 psi (8 when I wrapped out that poor turd)so find the cheapest turbo from what ever junkyard special you come across. the smaller the better. I had a '59 Ford faillane in college. I cut the roof off of it and had a blast. When it became a pain in the rump roast the store, I had the wrecking yard come get it. I heard they used it around the yard for years. A college car project is disposable. Something this dumb wont get the chicks, so make it fun, not pretty. Also, I didnt blow up my car when I turbo'd it doing what I said above. If thats all you want, do it cheap. If you want a real car that will be much more trust-worthy, do what everyone else is saying. As for the injectors, I used the stock injectors, and used a pair of needle-nose vicegrips on the return line as a fule pressure regulator. I pinched the pliers until the engine stopped pinging... others have made much better systems. Mine involved late nights, a lot of redbull, and those imortal words " that's a stupid idea, what would you do THAT for?" and I did it with parts from the dumpster, and what ever was laying around after real work was done on someone else' car. Troy

I was shocked and excited to see this thread making the rounds again.. So much has changed for me since I started this thread all those years ago. Funny thing is I still have Leroy. In fact I am still working on the justy. As embarassing as that is to say. I took almost 2 years off due to work. Now I am back in town and have picked up a few new tools and a lot more time to build the car. I have been spending weekends on it for the past month. Right now I am re-working the rear suspension. I am modifying the trailing arm design from the donor RX to give more travel, at least as much as the front suspension, about 11 to 14 inches. Pain in the Arse. But now Leroy is only a Justy in spirit. A subaru powered stock-car in Justy clothing. Still, it is a justy. Better than a Brat. anyone can drive a Brat. It takes a real man to drive a Justy. let the bashing begin... heeheehee Admit it. If you drive a Brat, it's just because you couldn't find a Justy... Come on, you know I'm right.

I'm Back at it. The longest project I have ever been apart of aside from my marriage. It started as a turbo charged justy. Then we put a cage in it and it got rolled at a rally cross. I put an EA82 dual-range tranny on an Impreza 1.8l engine and shoe horned the thing together. I was getting ready to reinforce the suspension and I noticed that the roll really tweaked the body and in part the cage, more than I thought. I started cutting bits off and out to get to a nice point where I could straighten it out when... NOW, It has no body. Just a roll cage. I kept most of the body parts that will keep it looking sort of like a justy. I have it in 3 major pieces. The rear suspension clip, the roll cage, and the front suspension/engine clip. I have been going at it hot and heavy for several weeks to get it to this point. I plan on building a solid tube frame chasis on which I will attach the justy body bits. I want a safe car that will track straight, and that will sort of look like a justy. Now I wonder if it really is a Subaru. Granted 90% of the drive train is Subaru. But that is it other than cosmetics. This is the silliest thing I could do, but it wouldn't be as much fun if I had to build it for real. Then there is the fact that I want to RallyCross it. It will resemble a justy in a Picaso-sort-of-way. It will pass any tech, Safe is most important, BUt based on a stock vehicle may be pushing it. I know I can do it in Utah, those guys all know me. I hope I can do it here in Colorado. With any luck I will have it together and on all 4 in March and running by April. Then I have to make it look like a Justy, that will take more time. A lot of folks on this site build some crazy Sube-based beasts. Are one-offs like this Suabrus? or just Subaru powered monsters? Justy? Justy-esque? Justy-based? Just-no-way... Just thinkin. Troy

The engine is up front, and the radiator is in the back. I actually put the radiator in the back when we turbo'd the 3 cylinder. Thought it would make things easier. Cooling wasnt an issue, unless I was idling. The water pump on the small engine pushed just fine at working RPMs, but fell quite a bit at idle. The biggest problem was vapor locking, and collapsing hoses in the coolant system. I decided to leave the radiator in back when I put the larger drivetrain in place. The RX engine and tranny sit further forward than the transverse mounted 3 (obviously) and the result is the front of the engine is right at the back of the grill. The car hasnt been on the street since I started the latest work on it, and probably never will in it's current form. I would like to get a new justy body donor car and put the fun bits into a body that is in better shape (hasn'y been rolled). The cable linkage is out of a dodge/chrysler/mitsubishi thing. I cant remember. I do know that you need to cut off or remove the linkage complete right to the shafts on the tranny (including the non-removable end parts of the tranny linkage input shafts). I just welded the bits onto the input shafts of the RX tranny, fitted the other brackets as need to get the right geometry, and whammo, it worked. Didnt even take an hour to build once I had worked out the measurements.

The project sounds like a blast! As for the engine not fitting, that depends on your constraints. I put an RX drive train in my justy. The front of the engine pushes the radiator out a bit (ok, a few inches, so I moved the radiator to the back), and the tunnel down the middle needs to be changed to fit the tranny, rather than just a drive shaft. The linkage puts the shifter in the back seat, so I used a cable shifter out of some mitsubishi and got it back up front. or, you could just use the rear drive output right at the rear diff., no axle, and cover the front drive outputs. Then you could feel the power right behind your seat (not sure about the dimensions, whether or not that would fit). just my 2cents. Anytime I see one of these projects here I just get more crazy ideas!

I went to see the car. As it turns out, the body is in very good shape, and the interior is not too bad either. BUT The engine only runs on 3 cylinders. the guy at the shop said it was a "head" problem to the girl. The car runs very quiet still, just rough. no knocking or anything. you can hear the miss in the exaust note. I wonder if it is just spark or maybe an injector. I can probably get it for a song. she just wants rid of it. My question is does anyone have any experience with this type of problem, Is the shop guy right or full of ish. can I just put in a new plug or wires and have it tearing down the road smoothly again? thanks for any insight. troy

It's been so long, I doubt anyone even remembers the justy. Hell I hardly remember it. Well I am going to bring it out to my new home in Monterey, CA in September. I am planning a road trip to Seattle to pick-up a justy in much better condition to put all of my justy creations into. Only this time I would like the car to have a slightly more stock appearance. Right-now I have a chance to pick-up a '94 Legacy in trade for a mountain bike. It needs some engine work, but it is suposed to run. My question is will this car help me in my quest to build the ultimate justy? Or do I leave it alone and drive it as-is? Or do I just pass on the whole thing? -------------------Questions related to the justy-------------------- My justy currently has an impreza 1.8l engine mated to an RX dual range tranny. All of the drive train is RX from the engine back. I would like to use the Legacy to perform a 4 to 5 lug swap. 1-WIll the RX tranny take the Legacy axles? 2-Will the Legacy hubs take the RX axles? 3-Can I make hybrid axles combining the RX and Legacy CV's to make functioning axles? 4-Is the single overhead cam 2.2 from the Legacy a good engine to use? other than .4 liters more volume, does it have problems that the 1.8l doesn't, or vis versa? 5-I want to keep the limited slip Rear diff from the RX, or does the Legacy have a limited slip making this whole process that much easier (it is a Sun Sport Edition Legacy)? Don't bother wondering why I am doing this. Or for that matter wonder away. The drugs the doc gave me only shut up most of the voices. The "do the justy" voice is still loud and clear. Personally I think it would be a kick to show up at a track day in the justy and kick some euro car rump roast... or at least know that when I do spin off course that I can get out of the gravel traps without a tow.

I have an opportunity to buy, or trade a mountain bike for a 94 legacy sunsport. I think it could be fine to use for parts for my on going Justy Project, but I know nothing about the car or the package. do I want to keep it for goofing around in, part it out, or just let someone else take it? one thing i would like to do is replace the four lug system from the rx on my justy, and use a five lug like on the legacy. I have a dual range tranny I mated to an 1.8l impreza engine. Will the legacy axles fit the dual range tranny? That by itself would make getting the car worth it. Could I co-mingle the CV joints to build a hybrid axle to do the job? It really comes down to the front end, because I could just drop in the whole Legacy rear-end. Of course I do have the limited slip rear end from the RX. Maybe I need to consider just using the Legacy hubs with the RX axles all the way around. Does that Work? Considering the damn justy is still in colorado, I sure am spending a lot of time on it. Any help would be appreciated. I dont know how big a window I have on the deal, so I may need to move quickly.

The tire calculator shows a variation in speed throughout the range, because the relationship is not linear. The change in speed is releative to the speed , not the tire size, as a result, as the speed increases so does the adjustment. As an example, the average speedo has an inherent error of about plus or minus 5 to 8 percent lets say. Five to eight percent of 5 miles an hour is very small on over-all terms of speed compared to 5 to 8 percent of 80 miles an hour. As for the GPS. It will give speed of travel, and can be very accurate. But it is subject to the constelation and over head obstructions. The speed shown may not always be real time, and maybe based on old data. If you travel 300 yards and in that distance speed up, but the satelites are obscured, it will use data 300 yards old, and give speed calculated on that, and not your current position and speed. Food for thought if you want to avoid real time tickets with not so real time data. You can use the GPS, as well as a stop watch to calibrate your speedo and use the stickers to be accurate all of the time. I have gotten out of a ticket showing my notes for speedo calibration to a highway patrolman. I had done it for every 5 miles an hour up to 80 using 5 mile long baselines and my hp48 calculator. More than anything I think he was impressed that I even cared that my speedo was cranked.

yeah, flares for sure. I also need some new front quarter panels as well, so I'm deciding if I want to modify stock, or just build something truly ugly. The rear wheels are a whole different animal. I have looked at after amarket jeep and toyota flares.

How many Northern CA folks are there on this board? I haven't been on line with the board in an age. My Justy is still in CO, but I recently accepted a new job in Hercules, and call the Martinez area my temporary home. My wife is going to school in Denver, and won't follow me out for a year, so right now I am really just looking for a garage I can work on the beast in, before I commit to bringing it out. Besides, I'm not sure how the CHP is gonna view a justy with a full roll cage and wheels that stick out four inches from the body screaming down I-80. So, who is here abouts? Troy

I am in the process of finishing my EJ18/Justy project. I have taken everything off of the car and am in the process of checking all of my welds, grinding the tube frame and sand blasting the whole beast. I have requested 2 weeks vacation at the end of my current project at work to finish it. I had a turbo justy about 3 years ago. Easy project and damn fun results! My car is a bit of a stretch in terms of simply installing the engine. but it can be done. the engine has to sit fairly far forward for perpendicular drive shafts, or it can be set back further with modifications to the firewall, and some compromise to the angle of the drive shafts.

I get lucky every other week and get to read up on goings on here. However I haven't been so lucky with the car. I have been working 70 hour work weeks for nearly 3 months now. I have worked exactly 27 minutes on the car. Just wanted to touch base with the Subaru world to let you know that I am still going. Actually I have worked a bit here and there and have nearly completed the floor pan and fire wall installation. I designed the pedal assembly and am ready to build it. I also started stripping it all down from the fire wall forward. I want to check welds, sand-blast and grind, and take off as many sharp pokies as I can before moving onto paint and final assembly and eventual running it, wrecking it and starting the whole damn process over. I have a few hundred pictures in un-developed film to process and post at the sight. Real bad news and real good news. My neighbors are these great older folks. The husband has been losing his fight with cancer in his spinal cord. I have been looking out for their house, watching out for strangers and the like, and helping out as I can with my work schedule. Anyway, their daughter asked me if I wanted his 6 foot metal lathe with milling attachment for 50 bucks. Said I was a nice nieghbor and that they wanted me to have it. I hate the reason they offered it. This guy was 85 when I met him crawling around under his car installing a crane in the trunk for his wifes elctrobuggy. He never had a bit of slow in him until recently. I hope to do him proud by using the hell out of it. I hope I can be as busy as he is when I'm 85.

posted twice, what the hell?!

Having rally X'd a few Subes I can start.. Classes are generally unique to the region. The specifics of mods are also defined by the region. If you are just starting, I'd say don't stress about class. Even if they put you in open, the first few outings should be about learning your car, and more importantly yourself, and not about winning straight out. The snow tires wil help a bunch. Gear range (hi or lo) will depend on the layout. Some courses are so twisty that low range keeps you deep in the torque, and helps in getting about quicker. It can handicap you in more open sections. Diff locks are great, but not at the expense of the car. I raced a stock (as in bone) 2.2l '96 impreza with an automatic tranny and open diffs all around. I raced in open on street tires against real rally machines and other powerful beasts on real rally tires. I was able by the end of my first season to beat most of the open cars, and had learned enough about car control that the next step to going faster was getting the real tires, not more power. Rally cross is absolutley the funnest hobby I have ever had. My new car should give me hours of fun, when ever it gets done. you can see a pic of me and Larry (the sube) at my web site, at a glorious rallycross site in Utah west of Salt Lake.

I am in the proccess of building the pedal assembly for the Justy. The tube frame conflicts with the brake fluid reservoir. Has anyone ever re-located their reservoir away from the master? I don't mind loosing the power booster, but I think the fluid reservoir is rather important.

I think I fixed the problems some of you were having. I just kinda went with defaults when I made the page, and then hoped it would work. Luckily you posted your problems and I recognized your problems as some toggles in front page. I think it should work now.This setup is much easier for me to update than the IP provided web authoring tools. Look at me, some sort of web guy, that kinda sucks. It's more fun to look than to build, for darn sure. About the coil overs; They are home brew, based on 2000 explorer shocks, and some ricer aftermarket adjustable spring perches and springs. I built a pair before, and they worked very well. The key is to support the bits properly by welding in gussets and tacking the lower spring perch into place on the shock. VERY CAREFULLY. Done properly it is plenty strong, and can be re-used on the next set when this one dies. The shock engineer I spoke with from Rancho thought that they would never be used as hard as they would in their stock application. SO they should last as long as the car does. I got the perches and springs for free and the shocks were 15 bucks each at Checker. I'm too darn cheap to spend more than that on anything! I will be changing the springs to longer ones to take advantage of all 12 or so inches of travel built into the system. In a perfect world the total travel is over 14 inches, but the upper and lower ball joints just don't agree.

the upper ball joint is a 4 bolt upper for some type of chevy based stock car. I'll have to find the receipt to know for sure. It may even be from a ford. I'll get a close-up of the linkage to post on the web page.

That means you can see some of the photos I have of the car within the last weeks work. I know all of the current pics on the page are using a web cam, but I am getting the photos of the construction developed from film, and getting more digital pics of the car as it is right now (using a real digital camera). I am trying a new format using frames. I am not a web builder by any means, so the process is slow and painful. Check it out. Rough as the pics are, they show just how crazy the car is. I will be posting an update every saturday night, as saturday is when I usaually show the most progress. Pics will be posted at the same time, even if I have to use the web cam.

I put the radiator in the back when it was still a 3 cylinder. I did it because I didn't think the turb would fit well (as it turned out it didn't matter). I routed the whole thing with heater hose from a trucking parts house, and a bunch pipe bits to get around and through walls and such. It wasn't pretty, but it worked pretty well. The only problem I had was the hoses getting vapor locked and colapsing. I just used the engine water pump to move the whole system. The best thing I did was put in a high point well above the radiator and the engine. At the high point I put in a tap to put water in and bleed air out of the system. When it was air free, it cooled extremely well! The only time it got warm was while the car sat in line at the RallyCrosses. Just reving it up for a couple of minutes brought the temp right down. During a run it got downright cool. I had removed the thermostat to maintain a good moving flow, and it may have been too much. But it worked.

I finished up the last of the bracing and boxing for the front suspension today, and put the car on the ground! I have a set of Maxspeed lowering springs for it. I picked up the springs for free from my friend who sold them by the hundreds, but have no data on the springs. When I dropped it to the ground for the first time, it took a deeper seat than I was expecting with the stiff springs. That in fact was good news. I thought that the springs would be too stiff, and I would have a twitchy car. I do have a set of secondary springs I can put up front to give me more travel, a bit more compliance, and the ride height I want. The rear doesn't weigh enough to move the springs more than 7mm (the front dropped 37mm). That will change when the radiator,battery and computer go in, as well as the seats and other brick-a-brack. I still don't expect the rear end to drop much more than an inch when fully loaded. The double A-arms are crazy! the coil-overs go through the upper swing arm and tie to the lower control arm next to the propshaft, just back from the hub, and give the car an off-road truck suspension look. I triangulated the bracing enough that it should handle everything I plan on tossing at it, and that adds to the baja 500 look as well. I want to get pics up so bad, that I will go ahead and post some webcam pics tomorrow. I'll take new ones during the day to try for better light. 'Till tomorrow Troy

This car will be driven like I stole it! I am trying to make it strong enough to take some fairly decent jumps. I'll probably roll it before I jump it though. I tried to get some photos with our little web cam. They sucked. I'll get the digital camera from work tomorrow and try again. Since I know how to get the pics on my web page I'll probably put them there. I've been too lazy to get the updated version finished and up, so they'll be on the old one.

Don't get pissed... I kept the turbo and threw the rest away. Engine and all ran great, but the ECVT was dead. I had no place to keep it so it went to the scrap yard. Of course nobody wanted it until 3 days after it was gone.

Thanks all for the encouragement. I will keep on calling it a Subaru. Still, the pics are coming, and you'll see just how frankenstien this is. About the body work: The front end was mashed in a roll-over when it was just a turbo-charged 3 cylinder. That is to say the sheet metal was crinkley or just plain flatened. I am still looking for a junker in the paper I can get for cosmetic bits and pieces. I want it to be a "Justy in spirit" as well. Otherwise it will be what it is. I have some crazy plastic that can be heated and formed into shapes. When cool it will retain the shape and be quite flexable. I may just find a willing Justy owner and do an overlay. I just finished tacking the upper mount for the driver side coil-over in place. I am going to try to get some semi-decent pics with our web cam and link to them in an hour or two. I am kind of pleased with how my compromises turned out. I'll put the pics in a new post. Then let the flames begin! Troy