thecarman

Just so folks know, Part number is 21200AA120 is NOT a 180 degree thermostat. I ordered one from 1stsubaruparts.com and it is marked 88 degrees C, which converts to 190.4 degrees F. Not a big deal to me, since I was ordering other parts anyway and it only added $10.76 to the order, and I'll save it as a spare, but just wanted to let others know.

I stuck my hooks in the factory installed "loops" at all four corners of my 89 GL-10 wagon to tie it to my flat bed trailer. I have hook "clusters" with several different hooks on them. Then I attach my chains or straps to the cluster. That's what most dedicated (full-size semi) car carriers use also, except they have their hook clusters permanently mounted on the end of chains. And the chains go around ratchets built into the carrier, which they use a 2-foot bar to tighten. Some veicles have slots in the frame (or uni-body frame rails) that carriers hook into, but I'm not sure if Subs have these, and I'd rather use the loops than the slotsanyway. Using the slots, it's ofen a lot harder to reach them, and a lot of times the hole gets distorted from you pulling on it. I have towed A LOT of cars. Most import cars have better tie down points like this than American cars. I always heard (may not be true) that this was because of the need to tie imports down better on their journey from overseas. Or maybe it's just better planning on the part of the imports. Imports seem to have at least one good hook point front and another rear. And if you're lucky there is one at all 4 corners.

I personally use .023 wire for sheetmetal work in my 220V Miller MIG. I use .035 for thicker stuff. My MIG came with .030 out of the box, but I found it was too big for sheetmetal. I'd use .023 on most (or all) of that project, and see how it works on the thicker uni-body structure stuff. I'm not sure how thick the Subaru structural metal is in the uni-body, but I wouldn't guess it's very thick. And you could get by with a cheaper 110V MIG, since you wouldn't be welding anything thick enough to need the 220V machine. If you can afford the 220V machine though, it would be nice to have, as it likely has a longer duty cycle than the 110 (you can continuously weld longer without overheating the box, tripping the internal circuit breaker, and waiting for it to reset), and would be there for thicker stuff if you need it. But I have plenty of friends who do fine with only a 110 box, and some are even flux core wire, not MIG. And I second what GD said about the arc welder - would *NOT* work well for all the sheetmetal work. Oh - one more idea. I got an auto-darkening helmet a while back, and I *love* it! No more flipping the mask up to see and then "head nodding" it down to start welding. No more guessing exactly where my wire is before the arc - I can see it! But everyone has their own opionion about it. Mine is an expensive Miller one - was about $200.

That is cool! I found one of those on the trail last year and kept it because I thought it was neat, but I had no idea what it was. Now I know! (and knowing is half the battle...)

Gotcha. It's not running hot now (on stock digi-dash gauge). Was just going to replace the t-stat as preventative maintenance, and figured I'd stick in the cooler one since all I'll do with this car is RallyX, no street driving. But I'll stick with the one I've got for now. Will be putting in aftermarket gauges in the next few weeks, so will see what temp it's running at then. Thanks!

I just called 1stsubaruparts.com trying to get a 180 degree t-stat, and they did not have a listing for it (or couldn't find it). Going to order it along with my new PCV valve and oil cap. Does anyone have the part number for this cooler t-stat vs. the stock temp? *Not* trying to get into the debate about whether to use Subaru part vs. aftermarket. Is there even a 180-degree part available? Thanks! Richard

Smelly Cat asked what size wrench to use on the valve. I removed mine last night with 19mm. 18mm was too small.

Thanks again. Compression tester and Leakdown tester have been ordered, and as soon as they get here, I'll post up the results. And will check out the PCV system parts the same night.

I could not find my compression test gauge in storage, so will have to buy or order one, getting ready to look online now for what's available. Will definitely check out whole PCV system. Good to hear that there could be *something* minor wrong with it, but I realize until I do the compression test I'll have no idea. For a PCV system that is in working order, what keeps the two breather inlets on the intake side of the turbo (the suction side, not the compressed side) that are tied into the crankcase from sucking oil out of the crankcase? Just the fact that there's no oil there, just oil vapor? (Did that question even make any sense?)

Here's a pic of how much oil is on the hood, from spewing out the oil fill cap: http://www.triadfoundry.com/richards_pictures/subaru/GL10rallyMar08_5.JPG Here's my Home Depot super ghetto divert-the-oil-and-smoke-so-you-can-breathe-in-the-car setup: http://www.triadfoundry.com/richards_pictures/subaru/GL10rallyMar08_6.JPG In that pic you can see the oil on the engine also (yes, it is really clean oil - the engine was really clean before, and we had just changed the oil)

More learnings I should mention: -If you have a chance to have someone you know, say maybe the co-owner of the car, ride shotgun for like *12 runs*, one of the two of you should have sense enough to think that the passenger could watch stuff that the driver doesn't have time to look at, like the boost gauge, so you won't be wondering after the event what max boost you were hitting. - We're going to remove the passenger side headlight (we don't run at night) and put the cone filter there, rather than in the front lower corner of the inner fender where it is now. The very bottom of that inner fender is torn open, and let mud get thrown on the filter. I think we'd get more air from the headlight opening anyway. - Come prepared to the event in terms of clothing. It was not supposed to rain, so I was wearing jeans with a t-shirt, with a sweatshirt over it. Then it started raining as soon as we reached the track. I was so freakin cold! I wore my helmet all day to keep my head warm and dry. My shoes were soaked all day. I should have at least taken my jacket and an emergency poncho, just in case. And a hat. I had brought all kinds of tools and spares, but no spare clothes! - Corbeau race seats are nice! I was so comfortable all day. I fit in the seat really tight, which is nice because I never had to brace my leg against the door and slide around in the seat like in the autox cars I used to run. - Defrost, heat, and windshield wipers are nice!!! Don't take them out of your car! I was so glad we had these for this one event, and will keep them working, even if we never need them again. - A full day event like this is quite an effort. The club ran a rallyx for points on the same track today, and we were pre-registered for it, but decided since it might rain (and was going to be colder) that we would skip the 2nd day event. I was sad about this (see next learning below), but after waking up today, I'm glad we decided to skip it, because I AM BEAT! I am so sore and tired from so much driving, cheering, standing in the cold and wet, and working the track while other groups drove. - This is ADDICTING! I want to drive like that all the time now! Can't wait until the next event in May.

My friend Marek and I bought a 1989 GL-10 4WD Turbo wagon from NKX on this board. Our first rallyx was this weekend, and I thought I'd share how it went. The car -------- - 1989 GL-10 4WD Turbo wagon - Pretty much stock drivetrain (ea82T, 5-speed fulltime with diff-lock, 3.7 axle ratio, rear LSD, rear disc brakes, no rear sway bar) - almost 200,000 miles on car - MSD coil, air intake with cone filter in inner fender - stock full exhaust with stock cats and "performance" muffler - manual boost controller set for stock boost level - stock 13-inch alloys with new stock size generic brand snow tires - stock struts, springs, everything - interior ***stripped*** except for dash and power window motors - Corbeau race seats in front, no other seats - Our goal is to keep it cheap, fun, and cheap. - Not licensed for the street, because I already have a tow rig and trailer, we want to keep it cheap, and we would be trailering it to the event anyway to make bringing all our stuff easier (and in case something breaks). The event ---------- This was a rallyx "school" put on by the Tarheel Sports Car Club in central NC. It was only $30 per driver to enter. The track is a smooth one, no jumps, no rocks, no bug ruts. The instructors are the more experienced rallyx drivers in the club, and rode with the participants, giving advice. They broke the course up into 3 sections, and each group of participants had an hour to practice on each section. 1) short timed section where you could practice launch and a right-hand sweeper. Could look at your time each run and try to get faster. 2) 4 cone slalom, different difficulty depending on whether you started left or right 3) mini course with BIG left hand sweeper, you could slide into the trees if you got real crazy on the exit of the sweeper (such as full-throttle never back off driving style in a modified 2004 STI) Then in the afternoon a full course was set up and each driver got 6 timed runs. It was ***MUDDY***. It rained all morning while we were there. Her's All AWD/4WD cars are grouped together in one class for this club, regardless of car model and modifications. So we can change whatever we want on the car. How we did ----------- It was so much FUN!!! So much fun we forgot to get pics of our car in action. Marek has some pics of the other cars, so I may post those later, just so you can see what the track was like. Here's what the car looked like after: http://www.triadfoundry.com/richards_pictures/subaru/GL10rallyMar08_1.JPG http://www.triadfoundry.com/richards_pictures/subaru/GL10rallyMar08_2.JPG http://www.triadfoundry.com/richards_pictures/subaru/GL10rallyMar08_3.JPG It was awesome to launch the car, go through 1st gear, then slam the shift to 2nd and feel the whole car drift, and listen to it kicking up the mud and gravel as it dug in. Our skinny snow tires really worked well. I'd say we had the best traction of any car out there, given that all the other AWDs were newer cars with wider tires, some without rear LSD. The other AWD cars that were there were a stock plain 1.8L Impreza coupe, Impreza 2.5RS with new tires and a few mods (he had the fastest track times, and was a great driver), Impreza Outback Sport, WRX 4-door, and 2004 WRX STI with mods (wheels spinning full throttle the whole course, very entertaining, still fast times). The fastest time was the 2.5RS with a 26.xxx second run. I saw the STI get a 27.xxx second run also. Most AWD class runs were 30+ seconds, with some 29s and a few 28s. My last run was my best run, at 27.6 seconds!!! And that was taking it a little easy on the car (see Mechanical Issues below), and screwing up big in a slick left hand sweeper that I never got just right. It was definitely faster to get a little wild, really push yourself, and not be afraid of some tail-out action. You had to find the balance between pushing it enouh and pushing it too far. Again, this was so much fun, and as this track was smooth it really didn't feel like we were beating on the suspension of the car. The beating on the drivetrain depended entirely on the driver. The course was set up such that no reasonable driver would get their car even near any trees (it was an open field, bordered by trees). Mechanical issues ----------------- See this thread for my pressurized crankcase issue: http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=86881 The tailpipe had a cold weld (no penetration) just in front of the rear axle, so after the first timed run someone told me my muffler was hanging down. No problem, we popped it out of the rubber hanger and removed it, as shown here: http://www.triadfoundry.com/richards_pictures/subaru/GL10rallyMar08_4.JPG We didn't care - we had planned to removed most of the stock exhaust before the next rallyx event anyway. What we learned ---------------- - The car is very fun, and works great as is. Definitely works for what we want to do. Might not win, but is fun, which is what we are after. - Even with stock-ish power levels (which is what I assume this car is making), it was a BLAST to drive - I changed my driving style. Initially I was either full-throttle or no-throttle, just off and on around the track. But it is faster to be smooth with the throttle. - Sometimes (especially in really slick mud) you need to "slow down to go fast", meaning go slow getting into a corner and make sure your car gets turned in, rather than just full-throttle pushing through the corner and off into the deeper mud. Also no time benefit to doing full-throttle slides off the track into the deeper mud. - When it's real slick, go wide into undisturbed ground if you can, and get turned in to a corner before you hit the slick stuff where everyone is running. - When it's real slick, look for ruts or dry spots that you can use for traction. Basically be looking for any traction you can find. - The course changes as more runs are made. The AWD/4WD class ran first, and at first the traction wasn't bad as the grass was on the course. But by the 2nd run the grass was gone, and it was SLICK. Then by the end of our class, we had sprayed the mud off sections of the track, reaching the dryer clay below, so the FWD classes definitely had some good traction in some areas. - We will be making a skid plate out of aluminum. No need for one at this track, but the other local tracks are rougher. - We need mudflaps. - Need to work on getting the car to turn in better in the really slick stuff. All the AWD/4WD cars had trouble with this. - In the (semi) dry sections, turn in was great, and was easy to get the tail out, even without a rear sway bar. - Would like to see how the car works on a totally dry track before making any changes that affect handling. - We could be competitive (on this track at least, and against these drivers) against the newer cars. Again, we're not hung up on winning, but it was nice to see that we were not left in the dust.

Thanks! What is a C/N? For the PCV - When I pull the PCV hose at idle, I get suction thru the PCV valve on the manifold (a vacuum leak). If it was plugged, then I would not get that suction, right? Or I guess it could be partially plugged? How does the PCV work when under boost? Doesn't it close because of the boost pressure in the intake? I will check the PCV and EGR valves, as suggested. I already pulled all the PCV system hoses in making my "oil/smoke diverter open crankcase system" temporary solution. None of the hoses were plugged or cracked. Some were hard, like you said, and should be replaced, but that wouldn't cause this issue. Need to look in storage for my compression test set, or just go buy a new one. And I agree - leakdown would be the way to go.

***Please do NOT mention an EJ swap in this thread. I'm going to start a separate thread about that once I diagnose the problem with my ea82T*** Issue ----------------------------------------------- On my ea82T, I have oil smoke coming out the oil fill tube, and there's oil residue coming out with the smoke. At idle, the oil cap rattles like a pressure cooker valve and puffs out smoke. If I drive the car real hard, like full throttle over 5k RPMs in first gear, the engine bogs and produces a big puff of smoke. I assume this is the engine sucking oil through the breather into the intake. If I shift, the bog is gone. The car still idles and runs fine, and I have not noticed a drop in power (other than the bog mentioned above). There is no water in the oil, or oil in coolant. Breather/PCV system is NOT plugged. Questions ------------------------------------------------ 1) Is this bad piston rings? 2) Could it be a bad head gasket or cracked head? 3) Could it be anything else? 4) Any steps I should take to diagnose, prior to disassembly? Background (I put this 2nd, so that folks could skip this part if they want) ----------------------------------------------- I bought an 89 GL-10 turbo 4WD wagon from NKX on this board a few weeks ago, with a known weak motor (he said there was low compression on one cylinder). Engine is stock with almost 200k miles. Has an MSD coil, cold air intake, and boost NOT adjusted higher than stock. Car ran fine, but when we pulled it in the garage last week, I noticed smoke coming out of the oil fill tube after I pulled the cap. Went ahead and changed the oil, oil was clean, no water in it. We ran the car in a rallyx this weekend - this is the first time we have driven it since buying it, it is not licensed for the street. (Car performed great - even with this issue! Will post a separate thread with my experience.) 2 drivers (we both own half the car). I was getting on it pretty hard, hitting redline in first gear and then banging 2nd. We noticed some engine compartment smoke but weren't sure where it was coming from, then at the end of one run, when I was at 5psi boost going through the finish gate (I had just happened to glance at the boost gauge), the car bogged, dropped like 1000 rpm, and smoke came out the exhaust. Popped the hood to see oil all over the passenger side of the engine, had come out the oil cap as mentioned above. Checked the oil, and the level was still in the operating range, so kept driving. Ran the car the rest of the day and treated it a little easier, shifted sooner out of 1st gear, but did hit the "bog" once more. Over the course of the day (a LOT of driving) the oil level dropped from top of operating range to 1/3 above lowest safe level. We were going to run the car for a 2nd day (it was a 2-day event), so rigged up a down tube off the oil fill tube to vent the oil/smoke down and out under the car, and also plugged the crankcase breather inlets on the intake (so it wouldn't suck in more oil), plugged the PCV, and routed the crankcase vent tubes (1 in each valve cover and 1 at center top of engine) down and out of the car. There is alot of smoke from the open tubes, but I think it would work. But this morning we were both so tired from yesterday's training/comp that we decided to skip today. So I don't know how my "modified" crankcase vent system would have worked to limp the car through the 2nd day competition. Our next rallyx event is not until May, so we have time to fix the car, so want to diagnose the problem, then explore (in a separate thread) my options for fixing or swapping. Thanks! Richard

baccaruda - if you decide to have the belt buckles cast, my parents run a small scale sand-casting foundry in NC, and do aluminum, brass, and bronze. (Unless you already have someone in WA to cast for you)

Thanks WJM! When looking at the cheap coilover kits on eBay, how can I make sure one will work on the Subaru? Are there certain GL-10 struts that such a kit will/won't work on?

Sorry for bringing back such an old post! Can you run camber plates like this with the stock strut/spring? Or do you have to go with coilovers (or a different strut) with a smaller diameter spring? Was mainly wondering if there is enough room in the strut tower with the stock diameter spring to move the strut for as much negative camber as WJM achieved? Thanks!

I think I have what you need. Came on spare set of rims that came with the car I just bought. They are yours for the cost of shipping. PM'd you.

Could I feasibly swap the dual range 4WD 5-speed setup from my 85 GL-10 turbo parts car into the OBS? The decision to stay with the 89 turbo wagon for now is that we are just getting started and are staying on a budget. We're not planning to throw a bunch of money at the wagon, just use it as-is to get started rallyx-ing, see how we like rallyx, have fun, and decide what direction to go to next. Not initially investing any work in the wagon other than an oil change, overall check of fluids, and swapping on the extra set of snow tires/rims that came with it when we bought it. I guess I'm just thinking out loud with the 99 OBS parts, no concrete plans for mods yet.

A friend who runs a body shop called me this weekend because he's getting a wrecked 99 Impreza Outback Sport - has been hit straight in the front, deployed airbags. Has 100k miles on it. He's going to pull it out on the frame machine and make sure the engine is OK, etc. I know the radiator got pushed back into the engine, so likely has broken timing belt. He's going to see how bad the damage is and then decide whether he's going to fix and sell it, or else part it out. He was wanting to sell me the whole car to use for rallyx, but it's an automatic, so I don't want it. (please no replies telling me to run it anyway) If he decides to part it, what can I use off this car on my 1989 GL-10 turbo wagon rallyx car? I thought about getting the engine (2.2L) for a later swap into my car. Can I use the front and/or rear suspension for anything? I mean, are some of these parts useful in a 5-lug conversion or something? Of course, all this depends on him actually getting the car. If he decides to sell parts, I'll post it in the for sale section here in case any of the Impreza owners want body parts, etc.

It does have the checkered seats. It does have the digital dash. The decal on the door just says "TURBO 4WD", not RX. The 7th digit in the VIN is a 5, which that VIN decoder URL says means "86 Turbo, GL-10 Turbo 87-89, GL full-time 4wd 3-door 87". This car is an 85, and even though 85 is not included in that description, that page shows that RX would have had a different 7th digit. If it's not an RX, is there any chance that the trans has 1.2 low range, or did everything other than RX have 1.6 ratio? Not a big deal, I'm just curious. Is there a way looking at the trans in the car (without counting engine revolutions) to identify what ratio the low range is? Does the trans shifter indicator I mentioned (4WD Lo, 4WD Hi, FWD) answer that question? Thanks again!

OK, got outside and checked the sedan. What I found: - rear disc brakes - 3.7 rear axle sticker - NOT LSD - Front seats look cool (besides being really, REALLY dirty), but I have no idea if they are RX specific - t-case shifter sticker (which had come off but was on the floor) says something like 4WD Lo, 4WD Hi, FWD Can I tell from this if the low range ratio is 1.6 or 1.2? Thanks! Richard

Thanks for the information all!!! If I want to figure it out by the VIN on this sedan, where can I look to decode the VIN for that info? (I don't think Carfax would say RX, or would it?) I am interested to know if the sedan has the 1.6 low range or the 1.2 low range. I think that 1.2 low range would be killer on the rallyx track (like a 4.44 overall ratio with the 3.7 diffs), but maybe the 1.6 would be too low (5.92 overall with 3.7s)? I'm considering swapping the dual range trans from the sedan into the wagon if we ever have the need (like are replacing the clutch on the wagon anyway, or pull the wagon engine to re-ring, or whatever). We are just doing rallyx with the wagon (you know, the dirt autox, not a rally), and our competitions are not very formal (very few classes, we're lumped with ALL 4WD/AWD cars, regardless of mods). We're not in it to win, just to have fun in a cheap car. If we do well vs. the other drivers, that's just a bonus. We'll use the EA82T wagon for now, just want to attend a lot of events and have fun. May swap in an EJ (or even get an older coupe/hatch or get an Impreza) if we get the desire later. I'll start a separate thread about the mods the wagon already has, how it does in the rallyx, and what other mods we do to it in the future.

I picked up a parts car from Virginia, and I'm trying to figure out what it is. It looks just like the black 4-door at the top of this old Subaru ad (same color, same hubcaps, etc): http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/Literature/brochures/1985-h.jpg It is an 85 4-door, turbo, 5-speed with dual-range 4WD. Says 4WD TURBO on rear doors and on panel between tail lights. Had rear spoiler, but it is missing. Has "Electronic Height Control" air suspension. It does have a rear swaybar, but I'm not sure about rear LSD - should have looked at the diff when I had it on the trailer - it's now a low rider with deflated air suspension sitting in the dirt, and I can't see the diff. The car is in bad shape, and I have not found out if it runs yet (or even if engine is not seized). Is this just a GL-10 4WD turbo sedan? What does Turbo Traction mean? What is an RX? Sorry I'm such a Subaru newb. Last weekend I bought a 1989 GL-10 Turbo 4WD wagon from nkx on this board. 5-speed single-range with center diff lock and rear LSD. There is a local pretty informal rallyx series in central/eastern NC, and a friend and I plan to run the wagon. I'm trying to get a mental inventory of all the good parts I have between the parts sedan and the wagon. The wagon runs/drives as-is, but we plan to add to it as time and $ permit. Thanks! Richard