Uberoo

jack up the rear end with the tires off the ground with the car in neutral. spin one of the tires,if the other one spins the same direction its a lsd, if it spins the opposite side its open or a worn out lsd. Another way to have the car in gear when its jacked up, if you can't turn the wheels its a lsd. There is also a sticker on the diff cover that may or may not be there after 31 years.

lincoln electric doesn't make lockers per say,they make welders than can turn the spider gears into a solid metal ball.same with miller or hobart.There is no locker availible for the R160 diff.its either repack your lsd or weld an open diff.

So today I was able to finish welding the roof skin the the structure as well as seam welding the other side.I had to remove various pieces of trim,the weather striping and the piece of tin that goes across the roof to help take out some of the booming that the roof does.Then I removed the passenger side door and wire wheeled/welded the seams that were behind the door.Painted all the various welds and put most of the pieces back on except for the driver side,still need to do some welding over there. So the entire roof feels alot more sturdy using my highly unscientific method of banging on the roof and trying to lift the car by its roof.It feels more solid and attempting to lift it there is no give when before it felt like it had a very small amount of play.I guess the big test will be when I can drive it and see how much the body flexes.

Makes since.

You should make your spare tire rack removable for races-less weight. also it might be nice to rework the suspension so that at least 31" tires fit and dont rub on anything just to get the belly up out of the dirt.Just thinking it might be able to go faster if it had a bunch more ground clearance.

lincoln electric does.

If just about almost all of this forum is based on subaru offroading one might think that they do pretty good offroad in stock form.The DR 5 speed has a 1.59 low,not nearly as good as a toyota but still pretty good. Look up some videos of NW washington offroad on youtube to get an idea of what the cars are capable of.Most of the vehicles have a standard 2-4" of lift,some 27-29" tires,welded rear diff,and of course a DR 5 speed.However there are some outliers, jeff's yellow wagon "butters" is pwered by an ea81 engine,8" of lift and 31's even though it is gutless .scott's blue legacy was AWD with no center diff lock to it had some problems with some obstacles.

I dunno mine didn't thread on but my car had a manual rack,while the ea82 donor had power steering so that might of had something to do with it.

I said space saver tires from a FULL SIZE CAR,tall and very narrow.If necessary you can use a router to open up the tread a little.I wouldn't recommend welding the front diff.I tried that on 83 saab 900 that I ran.I blew up a CV on hard pack dirt just trying to turn the car at slow speeds at my property.Then I had a machine shop lathe up a sleeve that was a press fit over the axle cup and those got tacked on, and still blew both axles in the derby.One in the figure 8 and one in the actual derby. Saabs are known to be able to hold at least 300HP on stock CV's on pavement for your information, but the stress of trying to turn on anything but ice or very wet dirt just blows them apart if the diff is welded. That was on a set of destudded snow tires.Tractor tires are also not a good idea just because even with an open diff the front has too much grip and will pop Cv's with the right (wrong) combination of throttle/steering angle, in addition to your front end not being able to slide if it gets hit.

So I've been so busy with work and other bs that today was the first time in the last 3 weeks that I have been able to do anything other than look at it. So when I cut out the floor for the driver side tube I left far to much of a gap to even think about filling up so I cut out a patch panel.I like to try to follow the three R's so I try to use used metal whenever possible.A friend had me cut the top off a 55 gallon drum so I cut the patch panel out of its lid..ground off the paint for about 1/2" from the edge on either side and welded it in place. then I welded the tube to it from underneath. After that I had enough of upside down welding on my back so I switched gears for some upside down welding that I could actually sit upright for. WINNING!!! So to make the A pillars as strong as possible and to better support the rollcage window hoop I started stitch welding the seams of the unibody as well as tieing the roof skin to the structure as well. I only got the driver side seams welded and 1/2 way across to the passenger side before the radio said it was 10:30 so I decided to call it night because I really don't enjoy being told by the cops to call it a night.So until next time.Dont worry.In 50 years when this is finally done, I will put a pics into a nice dedicated thread.

You can put ea82 front suspension under your hatch.just use ea82 everything except for ea81 top hats on the struts so it all bolts up.You need to extend the ea82 radius rods by 1.25 or 1.5" IIRC. You will need to cut your ea81 tierods in half and weld on ea82 outer tie rods.No need to lift it to fit ea82 stuff under there.But the ea82 stuff has more suspension travel and stronger axles.2" of suspension lift is ok. If you want more lift than that you will need to throw in a body lift as well. if you can't weld then you can swap ea82 front crossmeber + all the suspension bits,but that does require at least a 2" body lift to adapt it in. Your hatch uses a torsion bar rear suspension and just uses conventional shocks.To lift the rear there is an adjustment bolt on the center of the torsion bar accesible through the floor under the rear seat.Might have to spray out all the crud with a hose first.Also its easier to adjust the bolt if the rear tires are off the ground by jacking up on the rear diff.

No,more power will just stress the front axles even more.In addition to that bigger engines need more cooling which is not good in a cramped engine bay on a derby car that will mostly likely loose the radiator anyway.An old tired,clapped out low compression engine is far better for a demo derby than a powerful engine,you looking for reliability and not power. also spend as much time as possible making the car RUN and DRIVE before the derby.Before the derby the car needs to be daily driver reliable if not road trip reliable.As long as your still able to move under your own power you have a chance of winning so make sure the car functions as good as it can.Move the wires for the engine out of the fender into a safer spot, relocate the computer somewhere safe as well. I'll say it again because its worth repeating if at any point before the derby the car isn't reliable enough to just get in and drive to the grocery store(dont do that because cops dont like cars with no glass,lights,loud exhaust,and numbers on them driving on the street) its not worth running and your better off saving your money and not running because you WILL get taken out. Believe me there is nothing worse than being taken out because some wire came loose and loading up your car on the trailer 10 minutes in.Sure its an easy fix but your out all that time money and effort leading up to the derby.At the end of the night your car should still be running and driving(with a trophy in your hand) or there should be something VERY wrong with it that makes loading it on the trailer a PITA(suspension sheared off the car or a rod hanging out of the engine for example).

One thing worth noting is AFTER the T case is completed you will explode the factory EA81 rear cast CV cups with alarming frequency. So you will need to make some hybrid axles.Use the rear inner DOJ from a early legacy on both ends of an ea81 axle shaft.The legacy doj cups are forged and longer than the ea81 ones so they are much stronger and the CV joint is running in a much stronger area of the cup rather than right at the edge like the factory ea81 setup.

here is a pic of my old 8" lifted T cased ea81 hatch on 31" tires. (RIP) Basically use 1/4 wall steel rectangular tubing 3" wide and whatever height you want the lift to space down all the suspension points away from the body.In the front I used a stock cross member to hold the suspension and front diff, then I built mounts for the engine off that. Any lift over than 3" and the blocks need to be tied together,at 8" of lift there was enough room to tuck a 2x3" piece of rectangular tubing up to the body and link the front and rear blocks together forming a subframe. Then you can mount the T case to that subframe. Depending on which T case you use you will probably need to cut the floor to get the T case to tuck up high.That car used a datsun 720 case that was clocked as far to side as I could without the shifter hitting the seats, then the floor was cut so the T case mounted 1/8" below the seat rails. I shortened the shifter until it was basically just the handle to get as much room as possible. Make a cradle that drops the rear diff down, don't try to just space the rear diff down like any other lift.That mustache bar bends if you look at it funny on stock ea81 power offroad,Throw in twice the torque from the transfer case + bigger tires+ possible engine swaps and your just asking for trouble. Eventually, I added some tube to the body to support a rear mounted winch, It is worth noting that the engine/transmission can be moved up and BACK to give a better center of gravity seeing as the CV axles are no longer tied to the transmission.I didn't do that and my hatch was very front heavy,even after relocating the battery to the trunk, and mounting a spare tire and my tool box in the trunk as well.

The 84 GL should have a 1.8 EA81 engine,not a 1.6.The 1.6 only came in FWD DL form.With that being said the 84 gl is probally a better wheeler than the loyale is out of the box,its lighter and physically smaller.However,some things on it are not so good offroad. The front axles for instance wont take more than about a 1" suspension lift without eating CV axles like candy,while the ea82(loyale) tolerates up to 2.5" of suspension lift.When I say suspension lift I mean installing stiffer springs or dropping the struts lower than the rest of the drive train to get more ground clearance.A "body lift" just spaces the entire drive train away from the body while still retaining the factory geometry. Another thing "wrong" with the 84 gl is the weak 4 speed. Fortunately subarus are just giant lego sets. EA82 front suspension can easily be swapped in place of the factory ea81(84 GL) suspension,same with the 5 speed dual range out of the later subarus. Even the EJ22 is almost a bolt in deal, the engine mounts need to be slotted 1/2" toward the outside of the car but that takes 5 minutes with a die grinder. That all being said the "standard" lifted subaru tends to run a 4/3" lift some 27-29" tires and a welded or LSD rear diff and they do pretty well.However, they are not rockcrawlers because the gearing is too high once Plus sized tires are added because they only have 3.9 gear ratios with either a 1.17,1.42, or 1.59 low range.The added power of the ej22 kinda makes the lack of gearing a moot point because it makes enough torque at low-mid rpms that it will keep the car from stalling out.Since the standard offroad subaru is pretty mild removing weight from the car(as well as yourself if you have some extra to spare) will make it offroad better.For instance turning a wagon into a "4 door trucklet" by cutting off the roof after the rear doors makes a massive difference even if your only loosing 100 lbs of glass and steel. here is a picture of my old 83ish gl wagon with a 2" suspension lift, some 235/75/15 tires,welded rear diff, and weight reduction surgery If most of what your doing is swamp and forest terrain with out much rocks you could adapt some side by side tracks for a alot of ground clearance without loosing gearing because of the built in gearing of a tracked system.

Difference between hitting a rock at 5 mph and at 50 MPH.

https://www.amazon.com/Orange-Monitoring-Transmitter-Diagnostic-Temperature/dp/B0111PVHR2/ref=zg_bs_2201765011_2 I want to get something similar for my trailer because the roads are so bad around here I keep worring if that vibration is from the road or a flat tire.Right now I check the trailer about every 50 miles...

I didn't read all of my information from the internet.Some of my friends have jeeps,but non are the rubicon. So I was going off my own personal experience with those.You know those jeeps that came with dana 30's and no lockers.Other than your rubicon I've never seen a rubicon offroad,they are usually pavement princess around here.

There is my problem with jeeps.They are the easy button of the offroad world.If something can't be done with a stock jeep then throw money at it until it can,nothing on a jeep is partially durable or stout the only thing they have going for them their size.Axles are weak and are routinely changed out,They are underpowered until the 4.0 is ditched in favor of a SBC. Anything that makes it a jeep is changed out with alarming frequency for better parts. Toyotas,suzukis,hell even subarus are reasonably strong and stout because they were designed not with a massive aftermarket in place to fix the various shortcomings so every part had to be overbuilt to handle any thing thrown at them.That shows in how much stock components will hold up.Subaru parts are almost bombproof when subjected to 27-29" tires and stock gearing,its only when twice the power and four times the torque is fed to them that they become problematic.Stock toyota axles can handle stout V8 power when at best they were only designed for an underpowered V6.Jeeps on the other hand explode with tires that are one size bigger than stock with a locker,but for reasons unknown people see that not as a reason to abandon the Heeps but to throw cubic dollars at it. While a jeep may be capable out of the box it takes an exponential jump in terms of money/parts just to get them any better.Even something like a standard 4" lifted subaru with a welded rear diff can hang with a jeep on all but the gnarliest rock trails.Something more capable like a stock toyota or suzuki will run circles around a jeep offroad. That is my problem with jeeps,they are nothing more than the single most expensive POS's on the planet but through some miracle a massive aftermarket has popped up to fix the junk.Back when people started offroading subarus if they broke with the same frequency as a stock jeep than the whole offroading subarus thing would have never gotten off the ground.Now as it stands subarus are among the top 3 vehicles taken off the showroom floor and driven offroad.

So easy even a jeep can do it.

Non of that will help the engine live under alot of load at high temps,especially when the 2.5 doesn't like to rev as much as the 2.2 and has smaller bearings.If anything throw in some high compression pistons in the 2.2 and some better cams,then do what I said above.

*Drill a hole in front bumper shocks and collapse the shocks,weld the bumper in the collapsed position if your useing a bumper with shocks. *Unbolt the hood and slide it forward enough that you can bend down the front of the hood so it touches your front bumper. *Chain hood to front bumper and around lower radiator support use bolts to tighten chain as much as possible. *Use the maximum number of all thread hood bolts on your now shortened hood. *Stitch weld the body seams infront of the firewall. *Weld the side doors as solid as the rules allow+ whatever you feel can be argued for "safety" *Weld the rear hatch as solid as you can with the 6 3x3 plates that you are allowed. *Use a loader or bobcat or other piece of heavy equipment to pick the car up by the rear bumper, once the rear bumper starts curling upwards, use a BFH to finish curling it UP and IN to the rear hatch,chain it to the rear hatch and tighten with bolts *Find 4 TALL temp spare tires(full size car space saver tires) and use a torch to MAKE them fit your boltpattern,use washers along with the lug nuts to make sure the tires wont come off.Being tight is more important than being perfectly centered on the axle. *Slot the holes for the front strut tops hats INWARD as much as possible. *run a factory 4wd skidplate under the engine *If running an automatic, bypass the cooling lines that run to the radiator,because hot fluid is better than no fluid. Bonus * hammer the window seams flat then stitch weld the newly created seam.Do that for any accessible window seam Driving tips * DO NOT TURN AND USE FULL THROTTLE=broken CV axle *Try like all hell to not let the front of the car get hit,accelerate and take the hit on the door if you can *Always Hit perpendicular to another car *Never go for the other car's radiator because chances are yours will get taken out too. *Dont waist your time hitting end to end,and dont bother hitting anything behind the front wheels.ALWAYS hit the other car on the FRONT TIRES because the front suspension on any car is very vulnerable.With FWD cars the CV axle will pop fairly easily ending their night,and with RWD cars its not too hard to wreck the steering or even pop a balljoint which makes it very difficult to move. *Always be moving because moving targets are harder to hit *Put your head on a swivel to make sure your front end doesn't get hit. *Finally if a hit on the front end is in inevitable PIN the THROTTLE because with any luck your wheels will start spinning so the other car can't transfer as much force into the front of your car because sliding friction is less than static/rolling friction.

I'm kinda late to the party but with ea81's a weber 32/32 carb and a half way decent exhaust will work wonders.That and do not fear the rev limiter.Back when I still ran ea81's I would cruise down the street at 3.5-4K with shifting at 4k if i wanted MPG,But thats not fun.With the weber and the exhaust it would have no problems spinning 8500 rpm even with over 300K on the clock.There are two things that will kill an ea81 at that RPM; lack of oil and ingesting large quantities of water.Found out the water bit on one of my mudding trips-its not a good idea to go through mud/water up to the hood with no snorkel while spinning 8000 RPM.Bent every pushrod and one or two connecting rods. The sound the engine makes at 8500 rpm on the other hand is quite frightening.Subaru people that know what the engine is capable of with good oil pressure just stick our fingers in our ears and laugh,The unenlightened however jump off the sidewalk in fear.

In order to make a subaru engine that will last at 5K rpm for extended periods your gonna have to think out of the box and do some "race prep" (duh) on an engine you rebuild from the ground up. *Deburr all pathways for oil and coolant *Deburr/Port/Polish Oil pump same with the pickup tube *Remove casting flash and polish oil returns to the oil pan *Oil pan must have baffles that prevent oil sloshing away from the pickup under any circumstance *O ring the block and heads for a better seal *Massive Oil Cooler *Replace head bolts with head studs *Chase and clean out all threaded holes in the block,especially the ones for main caps,head studs,and the ones that hold the engine together.

without rules I can't suggest ways to "cheat".