carfreak85

I've got a couple that I need to tend to anyway, what does this procedure require? Resetting gears or anything like that? Can new syncros and seals still be bought from Subaru?

I wasn't trying to dissuade you from this project and I'm willing to lend as much knowledge as possible, as well as stealing any data that can be applied to my wagon. Do you have any pictures of the car to share?

I guess I have some experience in this department. Three of my friends, all in the same span of time, bought three 944s of various trims and years. All three were bought on a budget or with purchase price as a major deciding factor. All three were maintained by the owners, for the most part and the three cars combined to cover just about every repair imaginable. From their experiences, this is what I have gleened... Parts are expensive. Pelican Parts is a good place to shop, plus they have helpful, USMB-esque forums! Most 944s were originally purchased by less affluent enthusiests leaving most with spotty maintenence histories. Buy the best example money will buy and have it checked by a Porsche mechanic before cash changes hands. If the timing belt breaks, engine=toast. A special tool is needed to install and torque the belts, so be weary of repairs in this department by the home mechanic. Check your grounds! You can carry three guys and three Peugeot wheels/tires or two guys and a full set of pugs. If you install a stereo with a sub, ditch the spare tire and build a box to fit under the rear carpet. More cargo space, out of the eyes of theives. Handles great, looks great, lots of OEM and aftermarket love compared to Subarus and some collector value built into the later Turbo S and Silver Rose editions/968. Not AWD... I'll close this brain dump by saying that all three of these friends own/ed turbo charged Subarus after selling their 944s. 1991 Legacy SS, 1994 Legacy Touring Wagon, 2002 WRX sportwagon.

You didn't mention at what level you were planning on competing on... Local, regional, national. In my opinion, you could build an RX to be a great local/regional racecar, but unless you are an unholy awesome driver, you won't get far with this platform. This chassis is old, unloved and underdeveloped. Most of the mods you would be doing would be homebrewed. There really aren't any "bolt-on" mods. That being said, if you're just doing this for the love of Fuji, it would be a fun build and would surely entertain everyone here. Just want to let you know the realities of competing with an unloved, obsolete car. I've done one autocross event in my '84 GL turbo wagon (countless events in WRXs and STis) and there were a lot of things I would want to change. Let me know if you have any setup questions.

Nope... Looks like crap man. You should take them off and sell them to me for REAL cheap. Ugliest wheels ever made for a Subaru! JK, looks really good!

Go on... Used aircraft parts? SUB4 perhaps?

That is pretty effing sick! :slobber: LOVE the stance, although impractical for me, it looks like it would make a great snow plow!

I have one of the mufflers off my friend's Mustang's old Flowmaster American Thunder exhaust system. Not a glass pack, but still not a straight through design, which probably hurts the power some. My reasoning for using it? 1) It was free. 2) It has 2.5" inlet and outlets. 3) It is pretty thin in the vertical plane giving me more ground clearence. 4) It was free. Video here: http://rides.webshots.com/video/3001985700044565751uYvAhl?vhost=rides BTW, its a turbocahrged car, so your results may differ, but it is a FlowMaster.

Dyno proven or seat of the pants? Subaru uses unequal length headers because they are cheap to engineer and manufacture. 90% of the engines Fuji makes are more about smooth, quiet operation rather than out and out performance. To have an equal length header actually do its job, a lot of CFD and math needs to be put into the design to achieve the desired effects. This is money that can be saved by making a header that simply merges two seperate exhaust flows into a single pipe (Then split it again on newer ones for the 100% pointless dual mufflers). Subaru's Group N challenger, the STi Spec C, uses a twin scroll turbocharger which has a similar effect as EL headers in that it is more efficient at extracting power from the exhaust pulses. I'm not sure if that car uses EL headers. The "boxer rumble" or deep bass-like boom is not a Subaru only thing. The poorly yet cost effective headers Subaru uses do make it more pronounced, but like many have mentioned already, air-cooled VWs also emit a classic boxer burble. Follow any Porsche and you will hear the deep rumble from their posteriors. Based on this we can conclude that despite all the different styles of exhausts, port design, bore/storke ratios, fuel systems or induction tuning, all horizontally opposed engines make something like a "boxer rumble". As for how you can enhance it, uncork the exhaust (Not the intake) and make the headers MORE unequal. Beyond that I have no idea.

Siiiiiiiick! Just the kind of thing I'm looking for! Could you email those charts to me? car_freak85 at hotmail dot com What type brand of dyno was it?

Well, when you are near the Bellingham, WA area I would recommend taking Chuckanut Drive. It is the original highway for the area and parallels the freeway for several miles until you get to Bellingham. Once you are in Canada, the only thing I can suggest would be NOT to drive through Vancouver. One highway will take you around (The one you want to take) while the other dumps you into downtown Vancouver and the signage and traffic lights will make it nearly impossible to navigate during most hours of the day (What do you think of when you see a flashing green traffic light in a busy intersection, hint: they use the same 3 color system we use down here...) Have fun up there! I prefer hiking up to the top of Blackcomb Glacier and riding round the backside on the cat-track, but whichever mountain has the best snow/shortest lines will be a hoot on a top-to-bottom run!

Front or rear? I'm rocking RX front springs on my hatch and they are quite a bit stiffer and a bit taller than normal EA81 4WD springs. Had to take off my front anti-roll bar b/c the front end was TOO stiff over one wheel bumps, overwhelming the old, probably OEM struts and making the car pogo a little bit.

There is a thread out there that discusses this. Some sort of Frankenstein transmission. A quick search should find it, its several pages long.

I'm enjoying this build a lot! Great looking color, btw.

Great kit, we have it on our WRX, but I swapped the Axxis front pads for some Hawk ones...

Cross-drilled rotors? I hope those were included with your 5-lug parts... Bad, bad, bad for rotor longevity.

Are you a board member?

I'm surprised your under fender area is so solid, nice update too, keep them coming!

Do a Google search on oil filters. There is a mountain of information on this subject.

I have two different compounds for my wagon, one for street use and one for the track. HPS pads I got new and were sorta spendy, but not bad and the track pads I just got on ebay for under $20 new.

You mean besides the lift and wheel/tire combo? Are those STI rims?

Listens quietly...

+1. Only thing I had to do was massage the Jeep shock's top mount to accept the larger Subaru bolts. Additionally the lower mount's insert/bushing bore is too large for the EA81 bolt. I think having the rear torsion bars on an EA81 would be detrimental if you were trying to air bag the car. To get the height adjustment you could some how connect an electric motor to the OEM rear suspension adjustment bolt in the torsion bar housing. Or just remove the torsion bars but keep the semi-trailing arms in place, using universal air bags with custom mounts to control ride height. The possibilities of adjustable-on-the-fly ride height used off road could prove useful in certain conditions...

I ran across a pretty gnarly lifted Gen 1 BRAT in the Lynnwood PAP years ago that apparently once belonged to a member of the Hatch Patrol. Don't know his name, but I grabbed a few of its parts, all of which have been lost. I think one of Zap's old Subaru Fun videos featured it once or twice, but I could be wrong. Maybe one of the vets could speak up on this? Not many people have lifted a Gen 1 BRAT or any Gen 1 for that matter and all are basically custom one-offs, not a production type kit. There are several fabricators who are members here who would probably be glad to help.

I have pics somewhere of an EA81 with rear air shocks fitted on a wagon in Oz, so it is possible, I would imagine a Jeep application would work since those are the equivalent shocks that I have installed on my 4 inch lifted hatch. If you're looking to put these on a stocker, I think you're gonna have to look long and hard...