Project RS

[flintster55]

Yea my first rear diff fluid change was quite an adventure too. I had it up on a lift from doing the trans at the same time. I tried the suction gun method and like you, ended up just using some tubing and gravity/squeezing the bottle. What fluid are you running in the diff?

6600 on some PP is also pretty impressive. I run the same just 10w30 and I have been doing mine around 4000.

[ScottyB]

What fluid are you running in the diff?

6600 on some PP is also pretty impressive. I run the same just 10w30 and I have been doing mine around 4000.

i'm using mobil 1 75W90...i'm honestly not that concerned with the rear end since it's an open diff anyway. i just wanted something that would last for a long time so i don't have to screw with it again :lol: i considered royal purple but mobil was cheap as the synth fluids go.

my last run on PP was 6000 and the wear metals were extremely low. they recommended i take it to 6500 next time so i tried to time it around that milage. we'll see how it turns out.

if i had a turbo car i'd probably err on the 4-4500 mile side especially if you're not stock. its just alot of heat for the oil to manage.

[flintster55]

i'm using mobil 1 75W90...i'm honestly not that concerned with the rear end since it's an open diff anyway. i just wanted something that would last for a long time so i don't have to screw with it again :lol: i considered royal purple but mobil was cheap as the synth fluids go.

if i had a turbo car i'd probably err on the 4-4500 mile side especially if you're not stock. its just alot of heat for the oil to manage.

Very nice i'll probably stick to 4000 or so just for the peace of mind and not push my luck. From what I've read, the rear diffs aren't very picky and most guys run the cheapest synth they can find with no problems.

I'm trying to decide what trans fluid to run this time. How have you liked the Extra-S? I've run Redline 75w90NS and it was okay at best- only plus was cold shifting was much better. Now I'm on just generic Supertec dino 75w90 and the shifting feel is actually slightly better and smoother, but shifting when the trans is cold is not pretty. I'm trying to decide if I should bite the bullet and order up some Extra-S from a vendor online or just stick with cheap $4/qt dino??

[ScottyB]

I'm trying to decide what trans fluid to run this time. How have you liked the Extra-S?

to be completely honest i don't think Extra-S is substantially better, it's just that i feel more at ease that it's an OEM mixture and will work well with the components of the tranny over the long term.

i came from stock fluid and it was trash...had an awful time shifting the car. to this day i still have issues where it doesn't want to fully go into 1st from neutral (thats alot of fun at a light where everyone takes off except me) and reverse usually takes a couple tries. overall the S is an improvement and when it's fully warmed up, it shifts like butter -- but then again i bet most fluids are. when it's cold its definitely pretty good as well. on my old fluid downshifts in the cold were tricky especially into second.

if you can find someone who bought a barrel of it, or a dealer that will allow you to come in with a milk jug and fill up on it (my local one did, which is how i got it) then i'd say go for it. otherwise just pick what is approved and feels good to you. our trannies are just PITA, nothing will make them perfect.

[ScottyB]

got my latest report back and i'm very pleased. i will most likely call a 7k mile oil change interval the ceiling for Penn. Platinum 5W30 and leave it at that.

i only autocrossed once on this so it almost wasn't worth mentioning but i figured i would anyway. i just don't want anyone to look at the report and think i did half a season on it since they said i autocross.



The viscosity and TBN readings surprised me a bit. i would have thought they'd be lower.

[ScottyB]

finally got the new header on yesterday and in typical fashion what should have been a 2 hour job at most turned into 8...got every bolt off except for 1 at the header/cat flange and it turned out that the stupid nut was seized to the bolt.

i ended up rounding the thing off and then it started to rain. so i bolted everything back up and drove to a few places to see if they could heat it up or cut it off but nobody wanted to tackle such a small job ($100 minimum, don't have the time, etc) so i finally had the brain cells to try Autozone and got one of those socket kits that takes off rounded/painted over/rusted bolts. worked AWESOME, except that to break the nut off i had to bench press what felt like 300 pounds with about a foot of space to move around under the car. then i was able to take the bolt to ACE and find a replacement bolt and another nut with a crazy exhaust leaking car...argh.

anyway the new header sounds pretty cool even with the stock STi exhaust and picks up a little more over 4k rpm. it's also a good bit lighter than the stock piece.

i don't like that it makes a lot of racket underhood when you open it up (thin walled tubing) and the headers shed alot of heat when you're at a stop (might be bad staging at an autocross).

overall though i'm looking forward to the power and milage increase for what i put into it (total of $45 to re-weld a few cracks) and i can't wait to hear how it sounds with the new exhaust i picked up...

[.RJ]

and it turned out that the stupid nut was seized to the bolt.

What I do when that happens is just break the bolt (vice grips) or cut it off if heat/penetrant doesnt free it, and replace the nut/bolt. Not worth the time to get it cleanly off unless its some kind of specialty fastener or its threaded into the chassis.

[ScottyB]

What I do when that happens is just break the bolt

yeah i hit it with penetrant the night before to let it soak but it wasn't going anywhere. so i did end up breaking it since it was too tight to cut and nobody would torch it. it just sucks that in the end i had to exert a ton of force on it before it finally gave way. i just wish the stupid thing would have broken off easier...i feel like i've been hit by a car

[flintster55]

Nice work man. Still UEL right? What exhaust you picking up?

[ScottyB]

Nice work man. Still UEL right? What exhaust you picking up?

thanks...i went from the stock EL to a used Borla UEL. the stock EL header is very restrictive from what i've been able to see now that it's off the car. yuck.

right now i have a stock STi catback and i picked up a used Borla catback for early 2.5RS's. i think it will help the power to step down from 2.5" to 2.25", 2.5 is just too big but i couldn't pass up a free exhaust back when i got it. the borla muffler is straight through compared to the baffled construction of the STi. i'll probably run the borla for a while to get a feel for it and then put another muffler in-line to quiet it down further because it's probably going to be too loud for my taste.

aside from the too-big size, i don't like the sound of the STi anyway so i'll just be selling the STi axleback to recoup most of the cost of the borla catback. seems its a popular part for the WRX guys.

i'm pretty happy...overall this entire project will set me back about $150 (welding, catback, gaskets, new nuts/bolts) assuming nothing else breaks and i get what i want for the STi axleback.

[ScottyB]

finally got the new borla catback on. i ran into some problems where it was just a bit too long and the huge tip on the muffler was nailing my tow hitch even with XL exhaust hangers. thankfully a local shop cut it down an inch and replaced the tip with a simple 2.25" pipe for cheap. once i got it on, the stock bolts were too short to mate the midpipe up with the cat but ACE hardware came through again for me.

now it fits, looks almost totally stock and wow does it sound good! its a little raspy and flat when its cold but once it warmed up, it is completely different than the STi catback. it burbles at idle and from there on out it growls like a proper rally car. on the highway there isn't any droning either. i was expecting a much louder exhaust and thankfully thats not the case.

so, that wraps up the exhaust chapter of my car. i'm satisfied with the increase in power, milage, the better sound and the fact that it cut about 20 lbs. off the car is nice too.

pictures and videos to come!

[WRXtranceformed]

Nice I can't wait to hear what it sounds like! Every time I hear a Subie with a good exhaust on the road I still get a boner. It's that sound that you can distinguish a half a mile away.

[ScottyB]

well, i decided against autocrossing this weekend so i felt the need to accomplish some car stuff :lol: so here's some pictures and video of the exhaust:

Borla part# 14885...it was too wet today to throw on a coat of flat black, but that's the plan. i don't like the looks of blingy exhausts but i especially don't like the looks of rusty, dirty, exhausts like mine!





one problem i've always had with alot of exhaust videos is that people take videos of their exhaust when they start the car, so the exhaust isn't even warm (can sound totally different) and then they proceed to rev a cold car (cringe) or they only rev it to about 3 or 4k which doesn't help me get the full effect. but mostly, what can you get from hearing a car rev in place? its not under load and its only a second before you're bumping the redline, so you don't get a very good sample of the true sound. so i decided to create the HitchcamÔäó and drive around. that's right, i ziptied my camera to the hitch. duct tape was at the ready just in case...

exhaust video

[WRXtranceformed]

Yea! That sounds awesome!

[Sijray21]

wow! that sounds awesome! i <3 boxer exhaust notes....mmmm

great idea for the video!! under load definitely sounds different and this gives more of a true sound to the video - especially without the frequency alteration of a fixed observer of a moving object

[Apoc]

Man, people should do that for on-track racing. Probably a much more interesting video most of the time.

[ScottyB]

thanks guys. and yeah i agree, i wish i could watch more racing action from this angle. especially series like spec miata where you know there's going to be some bump drafting!

[Maengelito]

Man, people should do that for on-track racing. Probably a much more interesting video most of the time.

I've been thinking of doing this for a long time, and it'd be so easy since I've got a hitch but I've been too lazy to get my own camera mount for my existing rollbar let alone some custom hitch mounted pole that'll give me a 3/4 view of my car on track.

[Chris]

sounds great Scotty! nice idea for the camera mount

[Nis01]

Miss that sound so much. Sounds awesome, that video mount position really sets it off.