Cyfun

Da fuq? How many splines should there be? The axle I got was part number 60-7009, which has 25 inboard splines, 30 outboard. I did have some trouble getting it replaced under warranty, cause I didn't have my receipt. Had to call their customer service, who found that my original axle was part number 60-7008, which was supposedly superseded by 7009. Maybe the 7009 is different somehow. Hm, so on the O'reilly's website, they list the 7009 as the cheapest front axle, then the SB8003 costing a bit more, but having 23 inboard splines instead of 25. Guess that's what happened. The "superceded" axle is wrooooooooong.

So my GL sheared the roll pin that goes through the inner CV and through the spline on the transmission. Axle is an O'reilly special with the lifetime warranty, was replaced under warranty. New axle and roll pin, new hub nut. Got them installed just now, made very sure that the roll pin hole was lined up when I put the CV on the trans stub spline. Tapped the roll pin in gently, it installed without issue. Reinstalled everything, torqued all my bolts. Took the car for a test drive, barely made it a few blocks before the frakking roll pin sheared again, and I had to limp home in 4wd with the axle banging around under the hood. What the crap is going on? Do I just keep getting bad axles? Or is is my transmission somehow at fault? I searched a bit but didn't see any instances of anyone else shearing the roll pin.

I vote you find a whole H6 car to convert, rather than trying to swap. Swaps always end up being more work than you expect. Plus, if you cannibalize this car, then you're down a car. And if you want to get some money back out of it, could always sell it. Kinda curious what it'd go for.

Did they ever find a way to make the EJ dual range transmissions viable? Cause from what I understand, the stock "low range" really isn't that much lower. And putting more than 140hp behind the EA d/r trans is just asking for clutch slip and grenading the thing. Either way, do you really need low range for racing? In my experience, I'd rather have wider ratios so as to not spend all damn day shifting. Throwing more power in the mix would probably solve the gearing problem, as well as some 4.44's.

Would having lower final gears really be that good for racing? Seems like you'd just spend more time shifting at lower speeds. Biggest benefit would be simply being able to crawl. I like that 6 speed idea, though. The 4wd Tercels do that: it's a 5 speed plus a granny gear.

Yeah the stock ones work best. You can find them for almost nothing since everyone likes to upgrade theirs to unequal length headers. And if they need it to exit behind the cab, can just run a pipe up the pillar and put a muffler on top of your roof. Might help a bit in keeping the bottom side of your car, ie your diff and fuel pump, slightly cooler. Might also make it easier to put a bigass skid plate under the engine.

For your tire monitoring system, why not just get a few cheap cameras and mount them under the car, looking at the wheels. The navigator could check them periodically and get a rough idea of how they're doing. Plus it might come in handy for viewing obstacles and seeing how the tires might hit them, depending on how you set it up. In any case, those cameras are cheap, like maybe $10 each, and you wouldn't have to worry about the pressure system confusing tires. For your exhaust, do what I'm gonna do: mount a WRX turbo header, where the turbo sits between the engine and the firewall. Then instead of a turbo, just have an exhaust pipe stick out of the hood. You gain a few inches of ground clearance and open up your exhaust flow a bit. In fact, my plan is to weld up an exoskeletal rollcage around my car, and pipe my exhaust up through one of the A pillars, and a snorkel up through the other pillar.

I only know as much about Frankenmotors as you, but this forum is the place to find such info. From what I understand, though, it isn't too painful, the whole point being to make cheap, reliable power with readily available parts. And if you trailered your car around instead of driving it, propane would work great. Otherwise, could always store a few 100lb tanks in the trunk, lol. But yeah, it's best used in situations where you don't stray too far from home, or can trailer your vehicle around. Rock crawling guys with Toyotas and Suzukis love it cause they can delete their crappy carburetors and deck their heads, increasing horsepower and reliability. Also, it allows them to tilt their vehicle almost completely sideways without encountering fuel starvation. I guess turbo cars love it too cause 110 octane means they can milk that much more power out of their motors without risking detonation, while cutting their fuel costs in at least half.

Never built one myself, but I hear Frankenmotors are the spoob. You basically throw 2.2 heads on a 2.5 block, and sometimes throw in a cam for good measure. It's a cheap way to increase your compression ratio, bumping your HP and torque up closer to 200. Also, another thing you might consider is running the car on propane. Would eliminate your fuel pump issues, and allow you to up your compression ratio, gaining a bit of power. Only problems are that it tends to run hot and burn exhaust valves, so valve and seat upgrades are worth it. And of course the biggest downside is that it's a pain to fill up on road trips, but you can always get a BBQ tank adapter and stop at Home Depots.

I would honestly think the stock Chineseium fuel door would be lighter than any other material on the planet. xD Relocating the battery is great for weight distribution, but having to run 12 feet of extra thick wire does add a bit of weight. But it'd still be worth throwing an Optima behind the passenger seat. The first thing I would do would probably be to find a clever way to cool the fuel pump and diff. Maybe some redneck engineered heat sinks and fans. And the mysterious disappearing/reappearing coolant is probably going to be a problem again soon. My guess would be another goddamn headgasket issue. At this point in the car's life, might be worth sourcing a newer and possibly more powerful engine, maybe a Frankenmotor. Or tracking down that elusive H6 Outback.

There's actually an SVX near me in pretty good condition for $750 OBO. Has 220k miles, though, tranny is starting to slip, but has a bunch of new parts otherwise, including some really nice snow tires. Insanely comfortable for a Subaru, I was impressed. Kind of a crime to bastardize it into an offroad beast, though. But hey, 220 horsepower with no turbo, AND a factory limited slip rear diff. And I could swap in a 5 speed or another automatic for super cheap. In fact, a guy in town has an 01 Forester that hit a deer, but has a good engine and trans, brand new clutch, new Optima Red Top, and new tires for about the same price. So one could combine both, possibly swap Forester struts onto the SVX, and have an interesting ride for a little over a grand.

Ahh gotcha. Ya know, instead of an Outie, how about an XT6? Or even an SVX?

Wait nevermind, these are an 03 and an 04. How do they differ from the new ones?

What's a good price on an H6? I see a few on craigslist here for $3000 to $4500. Also, could you possibly have a JDM H6 front clip imported by someone like ForeignEngines.com?

Excellent video! Love the split screen and editing work. It never ceases to amaze me how that thing soaks up bumps. And with most long-travel vehicles being so high up in the air, it's really satisfying to see one with a low center of gravity. If only we could get high-low transfer cases with good crawl ratios in automatic transmissions and mate them to H6's...

Very cool. So your car quit using coolant after you disconnected the rear heater lines?

If I were you, I'd do away with the rear heater core setup for now, as the car seems to be behaving much better, and all those lines are just another thing to go wrong. Ooh, perhaps the thing to do would be to install some valves going to the back, so you can open or close the flow to it as needed. By the way, one nifty thing you might consider installing is the Wix coolant filter. It'd designed for diesel trucks, but you can get a filter element without additives that works great on gas cars. Most folks install it by putting some tees in the lines going to and from their heater core, and mounting it between. Part number is 24019, but 24770 seems to be a newer and cheaper model. And I believe the filter you want is 24070. You can find them both at Napa and O'reillys, but I've seen them online for like $30.

Oh, did you take the t-stat out?

So glad it's running cooler. Imma laugh my asss off, though, if your new problem is that the car runs too cool.

A screen might impede the airflow. I'd just clean it real good periodically.

Could it be something as simple as your water pump going out? Or maybe your rad cap isn't holding pressure like it should. Have you replaced that yet?

A valid point. But good luck finding an H6 for so cheap. And remember, out here, cars with high miles are usually in better shape cause it's all highway miles at 80mph. I've had several vehicles with over 300k miles that were in better shape than most 100k mile cars.

Found you another project car: https://greatfalls.craigslist.org/cto/5556153526.html

I was thinking the same thing as Uberoo. If you really wanna put a radiator in back, you'd wanna run a couple of metal tubes under the car. However, metal or rubber, that's just more spoob to go wrong. I would still recommend trying to find a bigger front radiator. But failing that, I'd suggest putting that second heater core in the front of the car. If you had it vent out the hood, then you'd only have a few extra feet of heater hose, and it would also help vent hot air from the engine bay. I forget, did you ever rig up some air extractor vents in the hood?

This might be more viable than you think. You can get an imported JDM STI engine, trans, wiring harness, and ECU for about $3k shipped. However, as you probably know, putting more power in that car will just make you break spoob left and right, not to mention it'd probably bump you out of the racing classes you've been running in. If anything, a frankenmotor would be ideal... but I can't remember if you did that already or not, lol.