carfreak85

Those SSR's are really cool. I'm so jealous...

Caved to the dealership hook-up. OEM part is a JECS piece...

Not on an EG33... Its a PITA, or so they say on the SVX WN. I've got a buddy who works at the local Subie stealership who can hook me up, but still, just looking for quality, new parts. The car is too nice for JY parts unfortunatly...

Need to replace two of them. Where did you get yours and how much were they?

I would agree that a fresh set of modern tires and new struts/tie rods/ball joints would really wake up any old subaru. It also eats up all of your $500 budget.

Sounds like its about time to change it. Even if you haven't put a ton of miles on it, the used fluid can start to do some bad things if just left to sit.

+1

If ambient temps are low, like in the dead of winter, you'd probably be able to get away with it. During the summer at WOT, I think you'll blow her up, especially without an intercooler or water/meth injection.

Horsepower is meaningless, especially when you have to turn. Build a lighter car and you will win. Witness any Lotus, Ariel, Caterham, Westfield, or any other little-bity car. They clean up Ferraris, Lambos, Koenigseggs, Gumperts and Nobles. I'll be generous and assume you have 150 WHP. @ 2600 lbs you're pushing 17.3 lbs per horsepower around the track. Your buddy in the rabbit, assuming your weight and HP estimates are correct, is pushing 16.4 lb/hp. He will still be faster. His little tires are not working as hard as yours. There is a reason the Lotus Elise has 175 width front tires. Drop some weight and your lack of grip will become less of an issue. Move some of the weight off your front end, and the grip will improve further. Shoot for something like 52% front/ 48% rear weight bias. The 5-lug conversion might bump you into another class, so read the most recent edition of the rule book carefully to see if that kind of mod is allowed in your class.

CAMBER!!! Actually, make sure those RA1s are new. As is less than 5-years-old. The tires are the single most important and impactful thing you can do to improve handling, then start looking for things to replace. The factory suspension geometry is not all that bad. Besides a serious lack of camber and caster, there is pleanty of travel, there is zero scrub-radius (at least on EA81s) and the ity-bity wheels/tires and brakes all keep unsprung weight extreamly low. Your list of mods to do: 1 - Best tires you can find 2 - Lightest wheels you can find (The enkei wheels in my avatar are 8 lbs per corner. 3 - You have camber plates, right? If you're not around 2-3* static front camber and 1-2* static rear camber, you need more. 4 - If you are allowed to strip the car, do it. Weight kills and compared to a 1600 lb VW rabbit, you are about 1000 lbs too heavy to win... Sorry. 5 - If you want more oversteer, put on the smallest front and largest rear anti-roll bars you can find. If thats not enough, simply pull the front bar. Still not enough? Put on a second rear bar. This info is based on my own personal AutoX experience and on my Vehicle Design degree.

Yeah, I use the E-brake too, it actually works pretty well if its adjusted properly. Poor man's line lock! Your wagon looks ill too, great stance, but hows the ride?

You mean like this? </hijack>

Did I read that they have a rotary in that?

No idea where Sugar City is, so its hard to give an estimate. If you can get the parts closer to you, I would do that, some of the stuff is pretty heavy...

I have all the parts needed to swap over to PS, if anyone is interested. Hard lines rack X-member rubber grommets hardware pump/tensioner bracket

Hmmmm, it seems that PeerBlocker doesn't like your website.

I'm assuming there were supposed to be pictures in here somewhere... I'm all for a purely RWD trans option! What did the W-series come in originally?

You want to use head gaskets correct? I was under the assumption that the parts all worked perfectly w/o gaskets. Thus, using gaskets (kind of a necessity, don't ya think?) would throw the manifold's alignment out of wack, necessitating the port work. In that case, I would oval out the bolt holes on the manifold and just slap it on with OEM gaskets. Maybe deck the heads a little. Using the dual-port heads will make up the lack of a 100% matched gasket surface. I would still suggest some blending of the ports, but you made it sound really tough, so I guess it's up to how you want to spend your time/$.

I would just like to point out to anyone comparing hyfly's dyno plots to their own, his chart is improperly calibrated. Not trying to be a jerk, but the HP and torque curves are supposed to cross at 5252 RPM, that's just a mathematical result of the calculations... With a grain of salt is all I'm saying. Hyfly, what fuel pressure are you running? The stock ecu expects about 35PSI, and the injectors are rated at that PSI to about 185cc. I suspect that simply bumping the fuel pressure with an adjustable rising-rate fuel pressure regulator would do the trick. Have it bump to 45PSI at redline and it will probably take care of any lean Air Fuel Ratios.

Having done some very serious staring and poking with finger analyzing of EA81 heads during the course of one of my power mechanics (engine design) classes, I can tell you with certainty that the heads are keeping you from making power. The uneven port overlap will indeed hurt overall airflow, but just look at the flow path once it gets past there. IIRC, the EA81 head has 12 turns from intake gasket to exhaust gasket. Ideally, there would be less than five. The intake side of the equation is far more important than the exhaust. You care more about getting air in than getting it out and, that being said, I would try using the heads the Weber manifold wants. Even if it is single-port and the resulting exhaust looks terribly restrictive, it is less of a compromise, power wise, than fudging on the intake port. Plus it will aleaviate your head gasket/milling problems. I would recommend porting the heads and matching the ports on the manifold. The engine makes so little power that you might as well do what you can to ease the engine's job of drawing the charge into the cylinder. You can do it at home, just be slow, careful and patient. The gaskets will be the template, try to blend the cut as far down the port on both sides as you can. You mentioned the cross-member gets in the way of a single-port exhaust. How 'in the way' is it exactly?

Been trying to get in touch with you for about a month, where you at?

Details, details...

EA81Ts only came with the under-hood fuel filter, so there ya go...

If you have access to a welder its not too bad, but that little turbo is wayyyyyy small for your 2.5, fyi.

Compaired to Tein, KW, DMS, JiC, or Ohlins they are. Cheaper would be something like KYB AGXs and Ground Control sleeves with Eibach race springs.