edrach

We experienced the icing problem with the Weber first hand today. Jrach was driving my weberized Brat and I was driving our Impreza on the way to the Xmas tree run today. Ten miles from Enumclaw Jrach pulled over since the car was running like crap. We got it started again and "limped" on to E with me following. I could see the black smoke from the exhaust whenever it started to run too rich; I could smell it too! Jrach pulled into a minimart about two miles from E and popped the hood. The left side of the weber's primary barrel was completely white with frost!. Drove the rest of the way to E and left the Brat at McD's and used the Impreza for our tree run. No problem on the way home since the temperature was just a few degrees warmer (rain instead of snow:mad: ). Anyway, I'll have to scour the PAP yards to find that plastic air deflector that will keep our weber from freezing over again.l

Thanks Ken for a great time. A pleasure following Zap up the hill and having you as backup behind. For those of you who missed it, this has been the best run in the 6 years I've done it. The most people, the most snow on the ground, and the most fun. Jrach scored two nice trees for his home and mine. Kind of scary for his old man seeing how high he climbed up the side of a mountain to get them. I'll post pics as soon as I can get them out of the camera.

A nice write-up; you should submit it to the USRM if you haven't already. Also, a good application of never-seeze compound on the bolts when mounting the shocks will go a long toward future problems with removing the bolts to replace the shocks.

Good to see you back.

I vote for the Redline 75W-90NS. I have 203K on our '91 Legacy daily driver and the gearbox is still going strong. I started the Redline when I bought the car at 93K because of a slight crunch going into 2nd. I installed Lucas gearoil at 196K and the car would crunch almost all shifts. Drained out the Lucas stuff and installed Redline again and the transmission (and I) is happy again. The '97 Impreza is currently on Castrol 75W-90 synthetic. Car is my wife's daily driver and my occasional rallycross car. Car seems to like the Castrol and is currently approaching 135K.

No it's not VLSD. I have a VLSD diff and when I spin the input both output shafts turn in the same direction. Turning one output shaft while holding the input shaft will cause the other output shaft to turn in the same direction. Look on the VIN plate mounted in the engine compartment (driver's side top of the fender well) and write down the transmission number. Google that number and hope something comes up; it should tell you the transmission type, ratios, and rear ratio. There's a link in the USRM that gives that type of information for manual gearboxes. With luck you can find similar info on automatic transmissions.

I found it on ebay by accident. Great piece of luck too. It's basically a 3/16" drift with a one foot shank. I don't need the extra length for the EA81/82 cars but it's real useful on my Legacy since there's stuff in the way of my hammer using a standard drift tool.

Bring it home and pull the timing cover ends off. This will tell you if a timing belt broke. If that's the case, you'll likely need significant repair costs since your EJ22 is an interference engine. At 125K on the car, timing belt should have been replaced as routine maintenance. Good luck with it and let us know what you find.

Glad to hear you got it home. Have a happy thanksgiving and let us know what you find.

Seats are pretty interchangeable. I just installed a '03 WRX front driver's seat in our '91 Legacy wagon. It bolted right in. I also use a WRX seat in our '97 Impreza; only thing is I had to move the seat belt receptable over to it since the belts are not compatible. I see WRX front seats in good condition for around $200 on nasioc all the time. Really nice ones go for a bit more. I bought one set for $50 since the bolster had a two inch tear in it. My sweet wife did a great job sewing a patch in place after I stuffed more foam into the bolster. You can't even see the patch if you don't look closely. Just a clarification: I didn't mean switch left and right seats; I put WRX seats into both my Legacy wagon and Impreza wagon.

Another thought is the ignitor if you have a Hitachi distributor. A failing ignitor has all the symptoms of a bad coil since it's intimately involved with making spark. Over the years I've had three of them fail on various EA81 cars we've owned. As a matter of fact I carried a spare (from PAP and tested at B& in all the old wagons and our Brat. Our Brat still has the spare in the glovebox.

I have an Accell coil also and NEVER had problems with it in the 7+ years its been on the car. It's the yellow one; my understanding is the silver ones are the crappy ones.

I second the fuel filter thing; change them both. Also, add some "dry gas" to the tank. It's that time of year again.

Sorry to hear your Brat died. I have to ask, do you have tow coverage in your insurance? With all the beaters I've owned, I have that as well as AAA. Insurance takes care of the under 10 mile tows and AAA takes me home if it's under 100 miles. Good luck getting it home and fixed.

You're in luck since you run ORG most likely. ORG is already discussing how to minimize your entry costs (by absorbing some of the fee) and it's not likely that you'll be paying $45 for a day's worth of fun. Just an aside; my comment is personal opinion, not fact. ORG hasn't announced how they will handle this as yet.

Typical non-member price for ORG and PRG events was $30. "Local" membership dropped the entry to $25. No one has announced how they're going to handle the extra $15.

My understanding is that the normal entry fee includes liability insurance for the owner of the field. The weekend membership includes some injury coverage for the "member." I'm still looking into what the actual coverage is.

I suspect it's the same as my '91 Legacy and I don't remember having any trouble getting it with a box wrench. Drop some rust penetrant on it for a few days before you do remove it; it'll make the job easier. I would suggest Jason at Mike Scarf Subaru (www.1stsubaruparts.com); he has an 800 # and is only a UPS shipment away; OEM is best for an O2 sensor. Never-seeze works well too.

The reality is that, there is nothing much in the membership fee that is not already included in the normal entry fee. PRG and ORG both have charged $30 per entry for non-members and $25 per entry for SCCA members and for those who purchase a "local" membership for the year (usually around $25 so if you run more than 5 events you save a little money). Only reason I can see for the SCCA membership drive is that their membership dropped significantly when they abruptly scuttled the Performance Rally series at the end of 2006. I believe this is the only reason for promoting a mandatory "weekend membership." I'm currently an SCCA member even though I didn't renew my annual membership after the SCCA stepped out of the Performance Rally business. Only reason I re-upped is to be eligible for contingency awards if I did well enough at the SCCA Divisional rallycross last May. SCCA is primarily a racing/solo organization. As a rallycrosser, I personally don't feel I get much for my $75 annual dues. Lastly (and this is definitely personal opinion and I have no indication or "gut" feeling about this) I feel that SCCA will drop the rallycross program in the next year or two unless the membership numbers increase dramatically. Rallycross is definitely a "step-child" in the organization. I received the latest issue of Sportscar this past week (one of the benefits of my $75 annual dues). A nice magazine, well laid out and published. Of the 130 pages, 54 were ads, one was rallycross and 76 were devoted to racing and solo. Granted, rallycrossers are a small proportion of the typical SCCA membership, but I'd rather spend my $75 for Subiesport magazine rather than be "hi-jacked" into buying a weekend membership everytime I run a rallycross.

You might talk to ORG about that since they'll be doing a rallycross on Sunday.

Snow White sounds appropriate although it doesn't have that "homey" touch.

Lots of things to do and see in and around Astoria. While in Astoria check out the Maritime Museum. I was there about 6 years ago and it was a "yawner." The exhibits have been re-done and when we were there two months ago, I could have spent another 3 or 4 hours there! Much improved. Head south on Hwy 101 (ocean view highway) and there are lots of things to see. Cannon Beach with Haystack Rock is one; further south is Manzanita Beach if you want to see/walk along the Pacific Ocean with about 5 miles of white sand (Manzanita is where I first saw the Pacific after growing up on the east coast). About an hour further south is the Tillamook Cheese Factory; lots of cheese and delicious ice cream. A couple of miles more to the south in Tillamook is the Naval Air Museum which is certainly worth a look. Somewhere south of that are the Sea Lion caves where you can see them lounging on the rocks. That's as far south as I've been.

Best of luck with the new baby!

As of January 1, 2008 SCCA will require membership for entry into any SCCA sanctioned rallycross, Solo, or road rally event. If you are not a member of SCCA already, this could add up to $15 to your entry fee for a weekend membership needed to enter the event. Details can be found at http://www.sccabb.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=5951&TPN=1. Truth in advertising disclaimer: In all honesty, I think this is a bad idea since I think it will discourage new-comers as well as persuading others to find other uses for their automotive entertainment dollar. I started the above-mentioned thread since I had not heard about it until recently and if I hadn't gone to a few SCCA local region meetings I would still be in the dark about it.

Congratulations to someone who must have used the search function to find a 3 year old thread and solve a problem.