Hodaka Rider

You ever been to Nelson area? Mucho trails here! Let me know if you're going to come up, I can introduce you to some riders. (I'm not into the serious riding myself)

How do you think this will work, will i gain much benefit from it (im looking for low to mid range power, like for general driving, not for a race car) Stock size from heads is good, maybe slightly bigger. 2.5" is WAY too big for the rest on a non-turbo. 2" would probably be the best for your purpose. If you wanted to move the power up to high RPM's, 2.25". 2.5" will lose you power everywhere on your application.

Hmmm... Points, if I remember right. Haven't actually had to work on it since I replaced a melted piston about 10 years ago. Really fun bike! My dad was the original owner - he was partners in the local dealer for awhile.

Ummmm... look up a few posts, paying attention to the names of posters. See it? Oh wait, just look at my name on this post. Yah, I'm the ORIGINAL Hodaka Rider. 1973 Combat Wombat, baby!

You forgot one of the most important tuning items of all: beer. In fact, Big Rock brewing in Calgary (TWE's home city) makes some very fine brews. So does my local brewery, Nelson Brewing Company . As for the exhaust tubing diameter, 2.5" will still give you faster spool-up than 3" on a smaller motor. 3" may give more ultimate power above 6500 - 7000 rpm, though. The fact is, you still need to keep exhaust velocity up on a full street exhaust (yes, on a turbo). If you had a short race DP exiting right under the passenger side door, then a 3" might be better than 2", but otherwise you still need something to help keep the velocity up. Actually, 2.75" might be a good compromise, but good luck finding 2.75" pipe. quote (from a company that has been specializing in turbo performance for a long time): "Most cars don’t even flow enough to take advantage of a 3" pipe at 20 psi and 7500 rpm. What happens when you put too large a diameter pipe on your car is that the off boost performance suffers terribly. A turbo car has to make boost before it make power. You also have to drive your car normally most of the time. This concept does not apply to a dedicated track car that just stays on boost all the time so don’t call and yell at me about it. Too large a diameter pipe does not have any exhaust velocity or extractor effect until very high rpm. Removing all the backpressure from a system will allow the turbo to breathe more efficiently once it is on boost, but it will generally delay the turbo from coming on boost. The Catch-22 here is that the engine off boost needs a certain amount of backpressure to develop the exhaust flow that will allow the Turbo to spool-up. You need to compromise with an exhaust size that will allow the car to run correctly over its entire RPM range."

FYI: Rear disks were available on some N/A wagons.

Yes, I know. In fact, my Passat also has a full, proper coil-over suspension (main/tender springs, adjustable height/rebound). We have a Jeep Liberty for off-road right now. If it gets too annoying, I will have to look into building a hatch in a year or so. I really wanted something with some power, lots of room, and a 5 speed. And I didn't feel like going to the trouble of converting a Legacy Turbo wagon the 5 spd. (although I seriously considered it).

Well, my Soob sailed off into the sunset with it's new owner yesterday. Kinda sad to see it go after it's taken me so far, but it was time to move on. I'll still be floating back here now and then, maybe even pick up a hatch in a year or so. For now, though, I'm driving a VW. 1992 Passat Syncro (AWD) wagon. Less than 200 in North America. Supercharged. Fun!

This is going OT pretty fast. Oh yeah, I'm pretty sure the Liberty does not qualify as a minivan, Honda. Thats a funny one. A minivan with seating for 5. Oh yeah, it's not AWD. It's dual-range 4X, and 3rd gear low range is about the same as 1st low in my Soob.

OK, here's some more info: It's my decision to get rid of my '83. Too much rust, rod knock, needs new clutch, etc, etc. This does not rule out an old-skool, but I would need much more power than I currently have. And I need a child seat, too. Phat: After driving the Liberty, and off-roading It, I actually have more respect for it than I thought I would. Besides - it's her vehicle and we need it to tow the trailer. Not sure where you got the "rebadged GEO Tracker" idea from, either. Oh yeah: you will not find EITHER of us behind the wheel of a minivan. No-way. Uh-uhh. Fuhgeddit.

Good idea. Did I mention that I need a wagon? And that I WILL NOT drive an automatic? I don't know about the states, but in Canada all of the Legacy Turbo wagons were auto's. How hard is it to swap?

Here's the situation: my new wife came with 2 wonderful daughters (3 and 7), and I now need to replace my '83 with something a little more family-friendly. After several discussions, it has been decided that I can get pretty much whatever I want (within certain price constraints) - as long as it has room for all four of us and some gear, is reliable, gets reasonable gas mileage, has reasonable power, and looks good. Here's the hard part: we already have a 2004 Jeep Liberty, so pleading for an old-skool soob is getting difficult, considering their shortfalls on my list. What should I do? Stick to old-skool, or get a newer Soob?

My question is this: are we talking the entire Bow-Wow chain (Canada and US), or just the one you're dealing with? If it's the whole chain, I'd say pretty much everything that has been mentioned. The nearest B-W to me is about 4hr's drive, but it would be nice to know that I can get everything I need from them. Oh yeah, how about an entire rebuild kit to go with the cams? I'm talking gaskets, rings, bearings, hardware, even pistons (in up sizes), rods, valves, etc. If they are sourcing their Soob stuff from Altrom, most of this is available already.

I put an 8140 in my ride about 4 years ago, after researching ignition systems and the available coils out there. Seems a few bad ones have been sneaking out of the factory lately, but I still stand by the choice of the 8140 as a great upgrade, with the best direct compatibility with the factory ignition (ie: primary resistance, fits in the factory location). As stated somewhere else though, the chrome version does not seem to be as good a choice.

WOW! You have a Sammi case in your Soob already? Sweet! Do you have any pictures? I'd like to see how it goes in there, as opposed to the Nissan / Datsun unit. 4:1 would sure be nice!

Picture 2

Now, I know we no longer have an "Off-Topic" forum, but I really had to share this. Could'nt believe my eyes last night when watching the movie!

Looks nice. Pretty comprehensive, I think. Are you going to put a better set of head pipes on there to replace the horrible factory setup? Should get you spooled faster and reduce heat at the pass. side head.

There used to be a couple Gen1 Brats around here, I think one of them moved to Revelstoke. One of the board members (rguyver) in Kelowna has a turbo Brat, and I think he or one of his friends has another.

Sorry about the delay before reply. I let them set for about 24 hours before using them much (besides moving the car out of the alley after about 8 hrs). Can't remember exactly when I did it (think it was Sept), but I triple-checked them after reading your post, and they are definitely OK. The 3M is designed for a 24 hour cure, so that could be it.

That's odd. The stuff I used (3m windsheild stuff) Is holding up just fine. No meltation or any other breakdown.

Yep, that's what I found, too. I posted about doing this on my car last year, and now have 1000's of K's on the mod, still working great. I did mine in place (on the car) and used duct tape to block one end of each mount. Highly recommended. I also made sure the tranny was centered in the mounts and tunnel before injecting the goo, and let everything set while held in place.

Not to get OT, but some of the early Rabbit diesels were very good. We had a few of them, put lots of K's on them. We had a '78 4spd and an '83 5spd, and the '78 would run circles around the '83. Never heard of major cylinder wear in them before, either. I guess it's all in the maintenance (dad was a stickler).

Yup, I'm in Canuhduh, too. Nelson, BC.

100mm?!! I think not! That's like 4 inches!