Pete. (l33t FS) said:...the headgasket delete.
I am glad that there is a solution to the Subaru head gasket problems. I never would have been clever enough to come up with the idea of deleting it entirely. "Your head gasket can't blow if you don't have a head gasket." I need Eddie Murphy to tap his forehead now.
In reply to GasTungstenArc :
With over 200k miles, I doubt there is any issue with the gaskets themselves. But the key thing is that I want the valves and seats cut, to minimize the chance of D chunking an exhaust valve, which is the only real failure mode I have seen in turbo Subarus.
GasTungstenArc said:Turbine said:In reply to GasTungstenArc :
Not to threadjack, but I'm pretty sure I sold you the car that donated the engine to your Fox Quattro. Unless there's another shortened, widened, Audi Fox Quattro out there.
There are so many that I have lost count. But to be serious, the car is doing well. I sold it to another enthusiast, who is nearing completion on the project. He is currently engaged in a push to have it ready for Carlisle. He's not sure if he's going to make it, but he's trying.
Imagine being under a lot of stress to finish the Fox before Carlisle, spending every weekend and available amount of credit trying to get it done in time, no doubt propelling oneself onto the Christmas Card list of Capital One and PNC as well as funding Elon Musk's stake buyin of Twitter.
Then finding out, oh, about 2 months before the finish line, that the site is closed and Event #1 is most likely cancelled. Along with Event #2, 3, 4, and so on.
*sad trombone*
I assume there's some reason you guys can't make the actual first event that's still on the schedule at the site that still exists? Sounds like it's time to make some Detroit travel plans...if they ever release a schedule.
In reply to dps214 :
I'll be at the Bristol Forest Rally on the weekend of the first event so even if the car is ready I won't be around to tow it. If OVR can't find a site then it may be some more Detroit and WDCR events for us.
Yah, I had been ignoring the event at Joe's because there is no way I can have the RX-7 ready in time. It is still too cold to work in the garage for very long and I want to pull the engine and find out why the rear rotor has extremely low compression. Am assuming I damaged something when a timing light error had the timing 15 degrees advanced from where I wanted it.
I'd run it that way for Nationals but not for regional events.
Not JVAB struts have arrived.
The color scheme is nice.
The PT Cruiser mounts fit the A2 Golf struts perfectly.
And they bolt up to the knuckles
And 62cm tires fit the spring seats
And the stroke is perfect
Center exit. Hangers and big ricer tip to be done later.
And here ends the part of the story where I know what I am doing.
Today is take apart the Subaru the rest of the way day.
Because let's procrastinate some more on those strut towers. And something about Evan needs the car moved out of the way for patio reasons (actual patio, not Margie patio) and next weekend is The Weekend.
The subject of the wing has come up.
Well, it is simply way too big for the Mini.
The Forester has roof racks in the way, but the XJ does not.
This... annoys me. It fits the body lines perfect and lines up perfectly with the taillights, and the trunk can open and close.
Not about to drill holes in Swedish metal though. Just because it fits doesn't mean you should put it there.
Okay back to putting a Subaru drivetrain in an R53 
In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :
Magnets are the obvious mounting solution then!
Screwing around is not all that got done today. I think I have a working plan for making strut towers that won't blow the inner fenders apart.
Of course I come up with the idea right before I have to leave.
For the sides, some of the 2x2x.062 tube is cut into angle iron sections, a big pie cut is removed for the curve, a small pie cut in the forward (longer) piece so it can follow the leftover chunk of shock mount brace inside the chassis rail, which is close to the correct angle but not quite.
Some more 16ga sheet is cut to brace the top of the inner body, bent inward to clear the bulge, mangulated a bit because the body starts curving down and in toward the back, rosette welded to the spot weld points that originally held the inner wheelhouse panel there, hammered/air hammered up, and the bottom was left long so it could be hammerformed into the outer wheelhouse panel.
Next week, must remember to buy more .023 welding wire, and BRING HEARING PROTECTION
I believe I have a spare spool of .023" 70S6 that I would donate to your cause. I seldom if ever use .023"--or MIG for that matter.
for 4 1/2 months, I had a WRX...
I decided the next step is cutting the right rear because something doesn't quite look right height wise.
Duplicating work is easy amd annoying. Easy because you know what has to be done. Annoying because you want it to be identical to the other side.
This cut brought to you by Torch blades. They rule.
Trying to sort the height to put the strut towers at.
At Subaru Standard, at this Mini Standard ride height, there is like two inches of droop travel and way too much compression travel.
Found some info, since my Official Subaru Manual is on my phone, which is fully busticated, which is why this weekend's photo quality is garbage...
In response to the suspension question: Suspension comparison between 2002 Impreza 2.5 RS and WRX. ------------------------------------------------RS--------------WRX Stabilizer bar diameter (mm)----F:--------------20--------------20 --------------------------------R:--------------13--------------20 Travel (mm)---------------------Front Jounce---100--------------80 --------------------------------Rebound--------100-------------110 --------------------------------Rear Jounce----115-------------110 --------------------------------Rebound---------90--------------95 Spring Rates (N/mm)-------------Front(MT,AT)26,27.7-----------28.5 --------------------------------Rear(MT, AT)20.5,22.6-------20.9,23.1 Roll center height is the same for both models. Information is taken from the Motor Vehicle Manufacturers Specifications. I hope that this helps with your research. Best wishes!! John J. Mergen Subaru of America, Inc.
Since the forum mangled that:
Front jounce/rebound from ride height is 80mm/110mm
Rear jounce/rebound from ride height is 110mm/95mm.
95mm is, um... more than two inches. Hm. I may have put the subframe in too high. Oh well, forging on!
That is 95mm lower than Mini Standard Ride Height, which puts the strut tower top at 17.5" from the subframe mounting point. Subaru Standard is 18.42".
More hmm.
I guess I should start by making the strut tower tops...
Some may recognize this as a skid pkate from the 74 rallycross car. Not that one. Not that one either.
Also put a lovely hole in my Ninjaneer shirt when it caught fire but I really wanted to finish a weld first...
At a stop because I would like different materials for the strut tops than what I have here. Making notes here because if I don't, I will forget.
The rear strut towers will need a 3 1/4" hole, the fronts will need a 3 3/4". The rear mount pattern is an equilateral triangle 3 3/4" tall and 3 7/8" wide. Per Subaru, by memory, the outer bolts (the "top" of the triangle) are 47.change inches apart. The strut tower must be 5" deep to the inside of the outer bolts for spring/mount clearance. This means that the strut towers will need to be 37.change inches apart at the top, which is almost the same width as the chassis rails so let's go with that. The body is 49 1/2" wide and 50 1/2" wide at the tops of the towers.
What I would like to do is make the plates that will form the strut tops, and a device to hold the inner bolts, oh, 39 1/2" apart. Call it a negative jig.. thing.
But I do not want to make the tops from 16 gauge or even 1/8".
I am really stressing over the rear towers because they NEED to be strong, and positioned right. The cage will tie to them, they will close up the giant holes in the sides I made, the fronts will be the starting point for the rear bulkhead that will seal the engine radiator from the chassis. If they are mounted off, everything will be thrown out of whack. If they are insufficiently strong, it will be even more of an undertaking to redo them.
Today has not been without progress. The reinforcing plates have been stitch and seam welded fully around the perimeter, as well as rosette welded in spots. Welding on my back sucks and I wish for a welding blanket... which is another thing to get while getting the hole saws.
Not to get all pedantic and such, but you're not building a Mini (1959-2000), you're building a MINI (2000 - present) !
I think this is a fantastic build and can't wait to see/hear it run and drive!
Pete,
If it means anything to you in this context, here was my solution on the SWB quattro Audi Fox:
I made the two rear strut tower caps. Let me restart: I OVERmade the two rear strut tower caps. They were 1/4" plate for the mounting surface frames in by 1*2 square tubing. I then got a measurement center-to-center from a 4kq and estimated the lean-in angle of the strut housing. Then I cut a tube to fit between the left and right towers, holding them at the correct distance and angle relative to each other. Then I introduced the assembly to the car. Once I was satisfied that the assembly was correctly positioned in the car, I connected down tubes fore and aft of the assembly, then proceeded to weld the tubular structure together. Then I skinned it all in with sheet metal.
The caps certainly didn't need to be that beefy. I learned a lot in retrospect about my project by watching Binky. I probably could have kept 100lb of tubing out of that car if I had made more informed design/materials choices. But in your case, you are building a race car and tying the towers into the cage, so my way would work.
3/16" seems to be standard to prevent tower mushrooming.
My general idea involves making a squared guide to ensure that everything is even side to side, height is still up in the air so to speak.
I am pretty sure I know how I will be attaching the upper plate to the car.
So, some good things, some bad things. Majorly screwed up a measurement. Fortunately this is not a mission-fatal error but it bothers me all the same.
I didn't actually get any pictures of the negative jig thing that I made to hold the struts in the correct location so I could measure off of the inner fenders. You'll just have to use your imagination...
Harbor Freight thought these were ATV winch mounts. They look more like strut towers to me, just need a little trimming and a few more holes.
Hope today goes better than this...
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