josh long

Morgan, I agree with you completely only the stock suspension was originally intended for picking up the kids, not auto or rally cross. I would however liken the difference in the RX dampening to the new STI stuff. For most applications this would be great. For sporty type tarmac stuff you will more than likley want to look at lowering the ride height significantly (1" range)This will lead to bottoming problems. And can only be properly corrected by increasing both compression and rebound dampening and spring rate. (this is generally done with a shorter overall damper too) If you know where to look, there is reading to find the base settings for an all wheel drive turbocharged rally car for both tarmac and gravel. (Ford is really nice and publishes information they derived from their WRC experience for privateers) With the above being said, after driving a car properly set up for gravel stage rally on both gravel and tarmac I would not care to spend the extra cost for tarmac only setup. The gravel set up on tarmac is so much better than what can be achieved for much much greater sums of money. And this was at gravel height!

It is quite possible your stock suspension is not one butt suitable for your type of driving. Like I said if your dampening was optomised for your intended use, there is little left to be gained by minute valving changes. Everything you said above was about set up, not dampening settings. The only exception is with your statement about the RX suspension, that I agree with for a low cost option. The RX stockers work quite well! The cost to grin ratio is quite high! For those confused about the above references you may want to read this. http://www.mrtrally.com.au/performance/howctc.htm

I am curious as to why you would ever want to change your suspensions settings if they were optomised for your car? The weight of your car should not change much. If you had an expert build your suspension with you cars weight, drive, and intended use in mind are you sure you want to change these settings. I have tuned suspension for full suspension bikes (downhill, and cross country) and motocross. Only to have the units I tuned come back with their owners looking all sheepish, saying I thought I could make it better. How do I put it back? Give somebody a clicker and they will turn it! If your going to "tune" your suspension be sure to take notes! The suspension I was showing you is for rally specification. If you are not going to jump or slide your car it is not likely needed.

The coil overs I was speaking of are inverted if you look at the picture provided you will see the telescoping portion is 40mm ...... go look at your struts they may be a little smaller. The cartridges are gravel spec Bilstein units. OR you could go buy effectively they same thing from DMS for like $3500- $4000. They are not externally adjustable. Josh

I have a buddy that built a set for a rally RX they would be in the $1350 range to duplicate. They are based on a 40mm inverted bilstine cartridge. look here http://www.specialstage.com/forum/cgi-bin/DCForumID8/1409.html John Vanlandingham worked for ohlins for a while Not cheap but this is the real deal. http://www.fireantracing.com/content/images/gpa_assembled.jpg Picture of some built for a Ford. Josh

It is Kris Barnes car, and at this time he is just going to use a turbo off a liberty we have here. There are plans for a much bigger unit shortly though. Josh

Yes this is being done at Frantic Four. The 99 rs is rearwheel drive now too. It should be fun! Josh

I dont think It can be refered to as stock anymore. Sure it uses some parts of the stock crossover pipe but that is it. This design will clean up the flow. The manifold comes no closer than the stocker and actually takes away heated surface area from the oil cooler area. The up pipe is ALL fabricated with the exception of the 2 into 1 flange at the bottom. I posted up some more pics of the progress. Josh

http://usmb.net/gallery/Josh-Longs-Pictures/000_0080 http://usmb.net/gallery/Josh-Longs-Pictures/000_0081 http://usmb.net/gallery/Josh-Longs-Pictures/000_0083 http://usmb.net/gallery/Josh-Longs-Pictures/000_0084 Check out these photos of a new turbo impreza project. Josh

Timing sounds off(belts), I did thid recently on my turbo wagon 11psi boost and no power/wierd backfires. Josh

1.21 jiggawatts Skipper you must be CRAZY! What turbo and how much boost are you running? Your exhaust is 3" right? fuel pump? base fuel pressure? and variation at max boost? Josh

Where's the dent?

If you can afford this car, not the payments, you can title a car like this in the USA properly. Just like this escort cosworth http://www.wrc-cosworth.org/dv/sale/CA1/CA1.htmlJosh

This was SUPER fun! Ken was smoking! Consistant and smooth. Although he seemed more intrested in how it sounded than his runs:D. There was a time that I thought I was stuckin Groundhogs Day the movie the yellow bumble bee...... Jeff was representing in my old Justy. I had a great time The Galant ran well although street tires were not the Hotline in the open class. The course was junk after our 1st run. The only bummer was my buddie blew the right front tire off the wheel, on the back sweeper. Josh

I will be there (SIR) in the morning in my White Galant VR4. Qman, do you think it would be ok to bring a Mitsu into the subie pits? Josh

The problem is the center cartridge wears over the time of its life. If you order the standard size rebuild kit, it fits a new, not worn cartridge. So it will infact do nothing for your shaft play. If the seat in the exhaust side is not perfect and in spec you get smoke. The problem with balance is they spin so dang fast. much faster than most garretts will ever see. My issues were I bought a standard kit for my blown mitsu 14b and the cartridge was worn. It smoked just as bad when done, as before. I later sold my cores and kit to a turbo rebuild shop for a small loss. After I put my group A t3 on my Mitsubishi, I may try the 14b on my subie. Josh

If you do not have the ability to measure the shaft O.D., and the bearings and I.D. and O.D. and the cartridge I.D. as well. Turbos and their "seals" are very exact in tolerances. The "seals" are more like rings than seals. If you cannot measure correctly these tolerances and or do somthing about bum measurements, have somebody do it for you. They then need to be balanced. You should pay between $200 and $600 to have it rebuilt. Learn form my mistakes I tried and then had a $135.00 box of parts. Josh PS if you have a bum one and want to see how they work take it apart! You cant make it any worse!!!

I agree I bought one for $20 and have now have a total of <$500 including a $200 stereo! Then there is the turbo wagon............... still under $1000. now with WRX intercooler and BOV cool stereo MBC. Josh

Let me be the first to say this is a very clear and concise post! Thanks Keith

I think you need to take a good look at the stock set up, your "performance" set up has to nearly model this. The fuel comes from the pump, then goes through filter, then the "rails", then to the regulator. This (regulator)is the restriction in the system that causes the pressure to raise or lower, then excess fuel returns to the tank. Tex or any one that is confused give me a call if you want to chat 253.230.3040

You are correct they are top feed. I never looked that close I just thought they were side feed like the EJ22t. Your last drawing was basically like the one I was trying to show. I just used a t in the line. to the fpr then on the other side port used a fuel pressure gauge. Josh

Is the stock fuel pressure regulator not rising rate? I think this is generally how most stock turbocharged fuel systems work. It makes the ecu maping more simple.

we made some for my buddies rally car, just like that you show. the only difference was we used top feed injectors this made it much easier. You want to run parallel fuel lines with the feed to the front center to disperse fuel to 1,and 2 then to 3, and 4 with the return to the afpr coming from the t in the rear line. Between 3 and 4. afpr = return from t between 3,4 3----t----4 Feed to t between 1,3 1----t----2 This is a mess .................. but do you get it? Take a look at how the og line flows, not so good huh?

I thought the legacy turbo had a different flange from the up pipe, like the WRX one....? Do you make an adapter flange?

I think most WRC teams use water injection to deal with the turbo inlet restrictors (34mm), the way they continue to get the same pop and more ft lbs of torque, is they up the compression ratio of the pistons. To continue without detonation they add water injection. I am positive that with the million$ of $$$$ spent they can use THE optimum compressor for the job. But I am not an engineer for a wrc team so I don't KNOW. I do not care to drag race, although many local import drag guys use it. I only care to have a good reliable and powerful motor. If it is good enough for factory teams It is good enough for my silly little club rally car. I cheat, I look at other sucessful efforts and duplicate them. The page I posted up is one of an entire book Ford put out on how to prep their cars for rally.