Uberoo

Everyone badmouthed subarus when they came on the offroad scene and some people still do,but with some basic mods and a good driver they can be taken almost anywhere.So buy a cheap FWD micromachine and put some skidplates on to protect the important things.Then take it offroad with some friends and see for yourself how it does.If it does reasonably well, work on improving areas that were lacking like tire grip or ground clearance.If not your only out whatever you have in the thing. I took my stock 2wd 87 dodge dakota regular cab shortbox through some fairly impressive rocky jeep trails in colorado by driving it smart-putting tires on rocks rather than straddling them, maneuvering the truck to keep both rear tires on solid ground as much as possible,etc.Did all of that with no damage to the body or anything underneath it.The key was smart driving and only exploring when it was dry.Once I got back home in idaho I tried to do the same thing but quickly found myself spinning in the mud due to rain and tight wooden trails that retain moisture.My truck still runs and drives to this day and it weighs 3700lbs, but it also has alot more ground clearance that that microcar and very heavy duty drivetrain hence the weight.

So that video showed them removing everything to pull the engine out.Why could they just drop the transmission from underneath?

Well, if you insist on being the only racer with AC,you could always retrofit a filter to keep dirt off the evaporator.Or you can file all of the AC components in the round bin for weight reduction.

So from looking online it seems tubes are strongest with the largest possible bend radius, so I will rework the mockup to use 6.5" CLR on the top bends rather than the 3.5" CLR it has now.Also from searching the internet it seems the common consensus is to go with 1.5x.120 wall tube for vehicles from 2-3000 lbs. The importance of mockups I guess,changes now are much cheaper and easier than if it was made out of metal.

I might need to revise the upper bends for that main hoop they look a little too tight,Need to get ahold of my friend with the bender to see what his smallest radius die for 1.5" is.

About 20 minutes later I came up with this: Its not 100% perfect but its workable.

So I worked on more of the mock up today.Once I figured out the process for making pie cuts the whole process ended up fairly smoothly.Took about 6 hours to make the Main hoop.Pie Cuts Suck.After making one side I had to finish everything to see how it turned out.In my case the top ended up 4" too short,and the upper left bend needs a slight angle adjustment.If you are doing this this yourself you will most likely make mistakes,but they are easily corrected in the pvc. My first attempt.

For better or worse I was just going to use 1.5x.109 for the cage because its not a racecar but a slow offroader So the cage just has to protect against slow flops onto the side or roof.The cage will also be tied into the structural parts of the car body as well, not to mention tacked to the sheetmetal at various places So hopefully the body its self will add some strength to the cage.

I was pretty bummed about not being able to get anything done over the weekend so I went and bought 50' of 1 1/4 schedule 40 pvc to mock up the rollcage.I tried heating it up and bending it but it would kink or not bend very precisely even with the tube filled with sand.So I decided to try my hand pie cutting the bends, its a stupid amount of work but hopefully the "bends" will resemble smooth curves enough that I can give the complete PVC sections to him and he can bend up some tube with minimal time involved.Otherwise it would be cost prohibitive for him to make a cage from all the math involved,bending tube is easy when you have a jig to check it against.

So I've been doing little things here and there, but Ive been busy fixing everything else in the 'hood.So I cut out the driver side floorboard for its tube,I wirewheeled and ground away all the crap that was on the metal.Welded seams left over from cutting.Got the new tube fitted into place and tacked in before I ran out of CO2,and all the welding shops are closed on weekends,terrific. So I guess I will play video games and drink beer this weekend rather than work on stuff.I did remember to take a pic of the tube tacked in but thats all I got.looks remarkably similar to the passenger side except its on the other side.

It would probably be a good habit to remove the radiator from the car after each race and clean it out.It doesn't take long for it to get plugged up.

No you don't need to replace the head bolts, but chase and clean out the threads on the block, and clean up the threads on the bolts then lube the bolts on install.

Don't get a "JDM" engine unless its something that is hard to find stateside-SR20DET,2JZ,EJ20TT,etc.The "JDM" engines are different in many ways from the USDM counterparts-valve cover gaskets,water pumps,injectors,etc.So instead of buying those parts over the counter at your local pep boys,napa,etc you have to order them from Japan. Besides those "low mile JDM engines" have been rode hard and put away wet.They are replaced so often because as a car ages in order to be compliant with emissions standards it becomes cost prohibitive to keep cars around so most people just buy a new car every couple of years and the car gets scrapped.Now if you knew you were only going to a keep a car for 3 years,and all of your driving was going to be stop/go in cities with a long time idling, how much would you take car of the engine?2" of dirt on airfilters and jet black,chunky oil is common on those "low Mile JDM engines". With that knowledge I would only buy a JDM engine, if like I said, it was some rare engine that we dont get stateside.Then I would do a full rebuild on it to ensure it would live a long life.

I would clean the undercoating off but it is a necessary evil because of the offroad nature of the car.Otherwise the poor critter would probably rust out after one or two outings. Wheel bearings are a wear item but they press out,Hubs only fail if the CV axle nut was not tight enough or the bearings go very south.The 6 lug conversion adds 4 studs to each wheel when starting with the original 4x140 bolt pattern.Two of the original studs are pressed out,and their holes are either filled with weld or left alone.In my case they would be filled with weld because a portion of the star pattern would go right through the stud hole that is left behind. Grinding off unused mounting bosses on the engine is doable but it won't save as much weight as milling the block inside and outside.In my case because I haven't ever built an engine from scratch so most of my engines ARE wear items,go to junkyard and get engine,run it till it blows,rinse and repeat.I usually reuse the intake manifold and various other brackets so I can lighten those.

There isn't a JDM 2.5 because of japans/europe's draconian emission laws-2.5L are essentially treated as big block v8's in terms of tax rates.So 2.5 is a NA thing while everyone else got 1.6,1.8, and 2.0 engines.

Has anyone lightened the hubs or any of the suspension pieces?Sort of like this: I drew up a quick sketch in autocad and it looks like if I did that to the wheel mounting hubs it would lose 1/2 lb per wheel or roughly 2 lbs total.Thats AFTER drilling the hubs for 6 lug.It may not seem like much but it is rotating and unsprung weight.In addition to that there is some material that could be removed from the brake rotors themselves.Not to mention driveshaft flanges...

These articles will better inform you about what goes on under the hood,and maybe even give you ideas on how to modify your cooling system in a meaningful way once you get to the root cause of why you are overheating. http://www.autospeed.com/cms/article.html?&A=113176 http://www.autospeed.com/cms/article.html?&A=113177 http://www.autospeed.com/cms/article.html?&A=113178

For whatever reason you are not getting enough airflow through your radiator to effectively cool the engine even at speed.Non of my cars have needed a fan to keep cool above 30 mph because the car was pushing enough airflow through the radiator.Why wont yours? *Do you have a 2.2 or 1.8 radiator hooked up to a 2.5L engine? *Can you see through the radiator/ac condenser or is it plugged solid? *Are you using an OEM thermostat that is operating properly? Driving down the road at any speed above 30 the car should be ~200*F because its not generating enough heat/work to really be working the cooling system,At 60 mph it takes about 40 hp to maintain 60 mph on a flat level road with no wind.In other words,about the same as a 1.0L geo metro.If your overheating at that speed on flat ground something is very wrong with your engine. Do you have enough coolant,and is it the proper mix for summer weather?Do you have enough oil in the car?Are you sure you don't have a blown headgasket( quite likely if your running at 230+*F). Something is not right if it is struggling to stay cool, from the factory it was basically designed to do 80MPH+ through death valley for hours at a time with the AC on and not overheat. The vented hood,the rear heater core,fans,etc are all masking some problem and until you find out that is it will continue to run hot.Period,end of story.

But the cable/rod needs more force to activate,and lazy americans will complain about the effort .To be fair the cable/rods need to be lubed once or twice every 40 years or they bind up bad.

I thought you took your car offroad?removing the sway bar entirely gives you most of the "suspension travel" that is possible out of the front.With it connected, or with one end disconnected you have only about 2" max of suspension travel-IE lifting a tire if you go over a curb into a parking lot. Unless, of course all of your bumps hit both front tires at the same time. Removing the swaybar is usually one of the first mods I do to any vehicle that has even the remotest chance of seeing uneven ground. Both of my current dodges didn't even come with a swaybar from the factory, my 94 cummins has really stiff springs to support the weight of the engine and I haven't really noticed any sway with it.My 87 2wd dakota has soft springs to give it that "car-like" ride,even it doesn't sway much. Even the shortest vehicle of the bunch the 90 geo tracker rides and handles so much better without a swaybar,turn in is improved, and nothing short of a boulder in the road disturbs the thing going down the road. Seeing as this is a subaru forum,not one of my subarus has ever retained the swaybar for more than 2 weeks after initial purchase-including my FWD 93 legacy.Just because they handle so much better without the swaybar because the front suspension can actually work as designed. When your pulling the swaybar for testing remove the ENTIRE thing because otherwise it handles different from side to side because the swaybar binds up the wheel that it is still connected to.

then pull the swaybar and drive it around the the block a couple times.It is still possible to rally it around.It just kinda drives like an old truck.

Around here because so many of the roads are : A) poorly maintained, B)dirt roads, or C) non existent it is not uncommon to find AT truck tires even on passenger cars.The reverse is also true, some people neuter trucks by putting passenger car tires on them.My 2wd dakota came that way, but is now has a set of 215/75/15 BFG AT KO's on it.

You could get stiffer springs.That would lift it and provide the better handling of no swaybar. No sway bar has better handling because each wheel is allowed to work independent of each other(one of the key benefits of independent suspension I might add). Having a swaybar induces under steer on that end because the sway bar acts like a direct link between the wheels.So if one wheel hits a bump the other wheel similarly reacts, and thus reduces traction as a whole on that end of the vehicle. Thats the reason why no swaybar gives alot better handling on dirt/gravel or bump roads, however, manufactures discovered they could reduce body roll by designing suspensions that used soft springs for ride compliance while using swaybars to control body roll. Just taking the swaybar off will lessen the effective spring rate, the stock bars on subarus adds up to ~200 in/lbs per side, so an equivalent spring rate without swaybars would be 3-400 in/lbs depending on application.It would ride about the same and have about the same sway resistance as stock, while alloying the wheels to work independently as designed.

I just got back from a offroad event with my geo tracker.It had some mud and some tight forest trails.One of the trails had a bunch of really steep and tall kelly humps.All of the other vehicles would stuff their bumpers into the dirt, but the little geo just rolled right right over the humps and down the other side,then up another one...Felt like a rollercoaster. Those kelly humps were big enough that for a few seconds the geo would completely disappear from view.

Just ditch the swaybar. The ride will be smoother, it will offroad better, AND it will handle better on gravel,snow, or rough roads. Better yet, remove the swaybar and set your front wheels to -.5 to -1* of camber.Body roll is not a bad thing provided you have enough camber change and suspension travel to go with it.