Project: The Chariot of Victory

[SlimKlim]

Taylor and I have been scheming for a while to go 50/50 on a shoestring budget RallyX car. After scouring CL and all the other online junkyards for a couple months we resorted to posting a thread here, and Scotty posted the winning candidate 2 hours later.

We ran down to Wardensville WV yesterday morning and spent the morning inspecting and test driving. The owner was a nice older guy who was just horrible at selling a car. He listed off every bad thing he could think of and stayed in good humor while three random dudes went elbow deep into a Subaru they hadn't bought yet. After we satisfied ourselves and took it for a test drive we threw him an offer and landed on $900 after a pretty painless negotiation.

It's a 1997 Subaru Impreza Outback with the 2.2L and a 5 speed with about 202k on the clock. The rear wheel bearings are so bad at times I was genuinely worried I might not make it home. The ignition key is so worn down it takes 30 seconds of wiggling to get it to turn. The shifter has a major case of whisky dick. Its throwing an O2 sensor code. The exhaust is leaking before the rear muffler. It rains oil from every gasket. All of the shocks are blown. The tires are several sizes too tall which I suspect is contributing to how glacially slow it feels. There is a weird, high pitched metallic rattle coming from the dashboard under heavy acceleration. I'm not sure it's ever been vacuumed, and smells like cigarettes and death. Both rear fenders have fairly severe rust and a good percentage of the clear coat is gone.

BUT! We did a compression test and she's even across all cylinders. We scanned it with the ultra gauge and found no significant codes. We also poked around the fuel filler neck as instructed and it seems solid. The motor starts right up (once you get the key to turn), and idles buttery smooth. It pulls hard and doesn't miss a beat when you wring it out (as hard as 135hp can on 205/70/15s).

It's terrible. It's wonderful. It was $900. Just look at our stupid, happy faces.









This hood scoop makes me feel good. More cars should have them.



All snuggled up and safe in her new home. In my garage the 90s never died.



The dog found many interesting smells.



And finally, without getting too ahead of ourselves, here is the immediate plan.

Change All Fluids
-Oil
-Trans/Diff fluids
-Flush Coolant
-Flush Brake Fluid
Replace Rear Wheel Bearings
Replace Valve Cover / Oil Filler Neck and other common culprits for oil leaks
Do something about the interior smell
Bypass the ignition with some switches so we don't have to constantly negotiate with the worn out key
Repair exhaust leak
Replace failing O2 sensor
Plus a general tune up, check/replace filters, clean the throttle and MAF, etc.

The DMV was already closed when I got back, so I guess I have to go sometime this week to get the title and registration done. It doesn't have a snowball's chance in hell of passing safety inspection without the wheel bearings and exhaust leak fixed, so it doesn't really matter anyway.


Thinking a little further ahead:

-As suspected my head is nearly touching the headliner even without a helmet. I think we'll end up doing at least one fixed back, if not both fronts.
-We'll be on the lookout for some used winter tires
-Making some skid plates couldn't be a bad idea
-Taylor wants to try to bondo and paint the rust spots, because he can. :dunno:
-Should we put new OEM spec shocks on it or just roll with the blown ones?


Does anyone who has done this before have any suggestions on how to class it? Here are the 2017 Rules: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="https://dk1xgl0d43mu1.cloudfront.net/user_files/scca/downloads/000/019/072/2017_RallyCross_Rules.pdf?1485358129">https://dk1xgl0d43mu1.cloudfront.net/us ... 1485358129</a><!-- m -->

In short, there are 3 main classes which are divided by drivetrain. So for example SF = Stock FWD, PR = Prepared RWD, MA = Modified AWD.

If we stay in stock we can do winter tires, skid plates and "harnesses" but we can't change the seats. If we do change the front seats and want to stay in prepared we can only do the "minimally required" modifications to the interior to install them and the rear seats have to stay in. If we want to go into modified then we can do basically whatever we want to it, i.e. put it on an extreme diet.

Open to any thoughts and suggestions, for either the car or how to class it. :thumbup:

[JPolen01]

This is going to be awesome.

[Senor_Taylor]

After much negotiation, I'm sold on stripping her, removing the harness and trimming it, ac delete, ps delete, remove windows and replace with lexan, acid did the chassis and replace everything not rotating with carbon fiber.

All for under $500.

That said, I'm down for whatever. The front seats must be swapped for proper ones, that is certain.

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[WRXtranceformed]

I wonder how much meth at any given time that thing had in the trunk

Awesome, can't wait to see this come together

[SlimKlim]

After much negotiation, I'm sold on stripping her, removing the harness and trimming it, ac delete, ps delete, remove windows and replace with lexan, acid did the chassis and replace everything not rotating with carbon fiber.

All for under $500.

That said, I'm down for whatever. The front seats must be swapped for proper ones, that is certain.

Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk

No carbon fiber driveshaft? And don't forget the speedholes, speedholes make everything better.

[ScottyB]

this is so awesome. $900? you did fine.

rip the headliner out and get some headroom. its also part of the reason it smells so bad because its holding all the cig stench. get the carpet out of there while you're at it and just put some skateboard grip tape down on the floor under the pedals in its place. so much easier to clean dust out. trust me you'll get sick of trying to get dust out of the carpet.

the bearings are kind of a pain. you can see my thread where i did mine. its been forever so i don't remember all the tools you'll need but i know you'll want a slide hammer to get the bearings out of the hubs.

90% chance the leaks are coming from the VC gaskets or the oil pan seal. just get what you can on the top of the engine and if its bigger than that (crank seals or camshaft seals on the front side) just deal with it later. oil is cheap, keep filling it. any other big leaks will need the engine yanked to access (good news though, subaru makes it super easy to pull engines).

shifter will be easy to fix, there are lots of kits for bushing replacements for the 5 speed. just crawl under while you're fixing other stuff, should take about an hour unless stuff is super rusted or seized.

get OEM shocks, anything more will be overkill for this right now. blown shocks will let you get by for now but on course the car is going to be unpredictable.

those tires :lol: get anything with some tread depth but snows are a fine choice. anything over a 50 aspect ratio is good, less is not enough sidewall for dirt use.

for classing, right now you will want to try to slot into SA, or Stock All wheel drive. its going to give you the best shot at podium and those classes are usually well populated because its easy to arrive and drive with anything. as you continue to mod, you'll move up to Prepared AWD and then finally Modified AWD which is the big boy class where dedicated rallyx'ers drive and/or stage rally guys who like to blow the dust off their rally cars in between rally events - in other words you don't want to class yourself into anything more extreme than PA. your #1 goal is to make the car reliable at a stock level, then #2 is to drop all the weight you possibly can.

KEEP your power steering. this is a front heavy car and once you get good you're going to be moving the wheel a LOT because you're going to be sideways all the time. if you lose the PS you'll be slower. i don't know anyone that rallycrosses at a high level who removes the PS on purpose.

[SlimKlim]

Can we stay in SA if we remove the carpets and headliner? It seems like they don't want you messing with anything in the interior to stay in stock. Surprisingly we can get away with our planned muffler delete to fix the exhaust leak and stay in SA.

Speaking of grip tape the cover on the clutch pedal is missing and its kinda slippery, wont be any better with a muddy foot, so we'll want to come up with something to fix that, i'm not picky about what it is.

[ScottyB]

Can we stay in SA if we remove the carpets and headliner?

i'd have to take another look at the rules to be sure.

honestly, i'd be amazed if anyone actually protested you about it at an event regardless of whether its technically legal or not. what's a carpet and headliner, 2 pounds? call it a safety mod due to mold/checking for rust or something like that.

[Apoc]

Coexist!

[xvxax]

Since the car has such a laundry list of parts it needs, if you want to try stock and are worried about the seats, this thing is amazing for rally cross and autocross and is legal for stock class. <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.cg-lock.com/">http://www.cg-lock.com/</a><!-- m -->

[EclipseTurbno93]

I'd just pick up a cheap set of grippy pedal covers off amazon or something, or even a stock one won't run you more than like $10

[Jake]

Looove this. I'm in the "strip it out and put proper seats in it" camp regardless of rules. It's way more fun to beat on a car when you aren't spending 50% of your energy staying upright using your knees against hard plastics.

[DavidL]

This is incredible :thumbup:

Let me know if you ever need a hand!

[CaptainHenreh]

[*insertusernamehere*]

Yaaaass

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[SlimKlim]

Scotty, thoughts on replacing the hubs vs replacing just the bearings? Hubs for both sides will run about $80-90, bearings will run about $40. It seems like we could save at least some labor, and honestly it's the scariest noise I've ever heard a bad wheel bearing produce, and I've experienced quite a few, so I'm wondering if it's wise to just replace the whole hub assembly.

I've been poking around for a decent DIY but everyone's goddamn photobucket account is over the limit and reading text is only so helpful when you've never torn into this kind of car before.

[CaptainHenreh]

Scotty, thoughts on replacing the hubs vs replacing just the bearings? Hubs for both sides will run about $80-90, bearings will run about $40. It seems like we could save at least some labor, and honestly it's the scariest noise I've ever heard a bad wheel bearing produce, and I've experienced quite a few, so I'm wondering if it's wise to just replace the whole hub assembly.

I've been poking around for a decent DIY but everyone's goddamn photobucket account is over the limit and reading text is only so helpful when you've never torn into this kind of car before.

For the rear, hubs vs bearings is literally the same amount of work + four bolts.

[ScottyB]

For the rear, hubs vs bearings is literally the same amount of work + four bolts.

i think he means installing hubs with the bearings already in place.

that's probably what i'd do. those bearings may already be so far gone that its scoring the hub. regardless its easier to just install a whole new dressed hub vs yanking and pressing bearings.

[CaptainHenreh]

For the rear, hubs vs bearings is literally the same amount of work + four bolts.

i think he means installing hubs with the bearings already in place.

that's probably what i'd do. those bearings may already be so far gone that its scoring the hub. regardless its easier to just install a whole new dressed hub vs yanking and pressing bearings.

Oh I gotcha. I'm thinking "hub" vs "upright assembly". Dad and I pressed new bearings for the forester, but lol he just read the bearing # off the bearing and ordered it from an industrial supply company. Something like $12 each.

[Steve85]

This is awesome! In for updates and spectating especially if you guys have an event at Summit.