renob123

I'm pretty sure I used the ones that matched the heads. With an open deck, it doesn't matter where the coolant passages are. You don't want to block off the passages in the heads, though, so you get the ones that match the head. Unless, of course, I'm missing something. Jacob

You can use whatever head gaskets you want. I used MLS for obvious reasons. Jacob

Mine has surprisingly little throw. How did you handle the rear mount? Keep in mind that my work blocks your pics, so if you posted it, I wouldn't know. I'd change every last plastic/rubber piece in there. I did that when I went to the 5-speed D/R, and it helped tremendously. After that, you'd probably be looking at changing the mounting point of the two rods to reduce the throw. My first guess is that you'd want to mount it down the shifter a little further. Jacob

Shawnw's price is pretty good, so I'm not sure if it would be worth trying, but couldn't you just use hatch/Brat/Leone shafts and put the EJ inners/outers on? Jacob

My shifter ended up being further back. How is your stereo mounted? Your shifter may be fine with a slant console for your stereo, if you wanted to go that route. I like how a normal Legacy shifter sits. It's up a bit so I don't have to reach as far to shift. Since you're cutting and such anyway, you could probably set it up to need less throw, though. Jacob

I was thinking a center speaker or sub or something. Maybe a brake bias controller. A strobe light pointing down would be pretty funny. I love that the cool stuff is under a Brat that looks like a total piece of garbage. I have a couple trips in the works. One of them is for rallyx. You should come out. Jacob

Thanks. As I said before, you'll be happy with the LSD. You should go on NABISCO and look up the thread there. They list some parts you can order from McMaster to replace the cheap parts inside the diff. I'm surprised at how the axle thing worked out. I called EMPI and was directed to a person who makes the axles. He answered my questions so readily that I didn't know how to handle it. If anyone has some suggestions for the hole in the floor, please let me know. I'm sure as soon as I weld it shut, I'll come up with some awesome idea for it. Jacob

I doubt you will for a while. At your stage of build, you have no way of knowing what your weakest link will be when you start driving it. Jacob

It works very well. I've only had 1 rallyx with it so far, but it's leaps and bounds above an open front. I can keep my foot pretty much pegged to the floor and keep control. I think this type of diff will also help with braking. Jacob

I'm sure some of the locals have been wondering why I was volunteering in GD's shop and taking his verbal abuse and liberal propaganda rants without getting paid:lol: Well, I was trading some of my time so he could help me put a '95 STI 5-speed gearset in my Brat. It came in a box of parts I bought from some high schooler. GD and I pressed a bunch of bearings and such off and added new bearings and synchros and stuff: While I'm in there, I may as well throw in an OBX front LSD: It uses a WRX spline count, so I bought a bunch of EMPI axles and swapped the inner joints, making Brat axles with a WRX spline count: I think from the top down it goes WRX, Brat, and Brat-WRX. They fit: Here's the OBX LSD with 4.11 ring. Edrach was kind enough to bring down a clutch-type rear for me so I could get maximum grip on both ends. Big ups to GD for this part. I'm not anal enough to do this type of thing. At least not well. Since a '95 STI had a hydro clutch, we used a case from a '97 Legacy Brighton, which uses a cable clutch. Here's the gearset in the case: GD made a crossmember and shortened the EJ linkage so it would fit. Hopefully I don't do this to the EJ style mount: Here's me at the rallyx the next weekend: I'm not totally sure what I want to do with this big hole, but I think it should probably get covered somehow. Ideas? Overall, I have a massive traction advantage now. Also, the power of the Frankenmotor is much more usable. There's minimal wheel-hop, and I can pretty much floor it and not lose traction. At least in the dry. I'm hoping to be pretty competitive in the drier events this year. I haven't figured out what I'm going to do for muddy events. I'm thinking about cutting my 13" rally tires for mud and sourcing some 14" soft compound tires for dry events. With the 6-lug swap, I can order cheap wheels off of Summit in 14" and 15". I didn't want to choose between the two sizes until I knew more about how these short gear ratios work. Jacob

I'm glad you had good luck with him. I tried to get my Brat aligned there, and as soon as he heard what car I had, he turned into a real butthole. I ended up taking it to Firestone in Beaverton. Jacob

Lots of people don't put those seals in right and end up with the same leak 10,000 miles down the road. GD will do it right for way less than the dealer. Jacob

Yes, I agree with that:) Jacob

STIs have clutch-type rears. Jacob

There's one across the street from you. STIs are 3.90. Nice. You'll be happy with it, I'm sure. The machining on mine was acceptable, just not as shiny as the Quaife. GD and I just replaced the washers and bolts like the instructions on NABISCO said, and it seems to work fine. Not all WRXs came with an LSD, actually. Jacob

I consider the whine a benefit because it makes it sound like I'm driving a WRC car:) As for daily driving, I've been daily driving mine since it got put in. It's obvious that I have a monstrous traction advantage, and I haven't really noticed it being inconvenient in any way. Given how it worked in the mud in the last rallyx, I'm betting it would be a marked improvement over any other Subaru 5-speed. Having power steering, like GD said, would probably make it more of a thing to get used to, rather than in my case, where it's a thing that requires more strength and grip. Jacob

My comments aren't geared toward the flatbills that may be lurking here. I doubt they'd make it this far into reading a thread like this. They're for the people on here that take these things apart and put them together. In Edrach's case, his transmission is a pretty recent rebuild, and his synchros work very well. Also, I'm betting with practice, you'd get faster:) Jacob

I don't know of any common MC upgrade. I rebuilt mine, and it's ok. In theory, if you used a bigger booster along with the bigger MC, you would be fine. Shawnw has a post on adding a bigger booster to an EA82. It'll probably take some chopping, which I'm betting you're comfortable with:) Jacob

DO NOT use a Legacy/Outback master cylinder on your (mostly) stock braking system. I tried it. The pedal feel was awesome, but actual stopping power was decreased to the point of being dangerous. NoahDL posted something about the physics behind it, but the basic idea is that the pressure drops, so your pads aren't squeezing against the rotors enough. Jacob

If you're on an IWSTI.com budget, you'd get the Quaife and have a shop do everything. If you're on a USMB budget, I'm betting most people would prefer to buy the one I have and do the work themselves. Edrach: I'm sure James would give you some kind of senior discount:lol: Jacob

You bring up a good point, Brian. To further cloud the comparison, the clutch-type in my Brat is way grabbier than the clutch-type in my other car. You did mention a noticeable difference in the mud, though. Jacob

Oh yeah, I mentioned a while ago that I'd tell you when I was considering selling my VLSD. That time is approaching. The helical cost me about $400 from eBay. It's the OBX one. There's a thread on it on NABISCO. There didn't seem to be too many issues/failures with it, so I opted to give it a shot. I'd forget about hunting. Any used one will go for a lot of money, and a new one aside from the OBX will be even more. There's always Phantom Grip, but lots of people dislike it. Jacob

Zap likes to keep his threads very tidy, so I'll put my front LSD info here. I haven't had enough time with it to establish any concerns about over/understeer. The thing that makes it dangerous is that when you corner, then hit the gas, it wants to straighten out the steering wheel very quickly. The people on NABISCO probably don't notice that because they have power steering. I think it's great, though, because in rallyx, the steering wheel straightens out by itself faster than I can turn it back. If you're not as big as me, and you drive like a retard, though, it'll probably get you into trouble. Jacob

I'm posting mainly for the subscription, but since I've had both in my Brat, I'd say that the VLSD is good for stock power, but it doesn't help with 180HP or whatever I have now. The clutch-type does help with that type of power, and you can rebuild it/reramp it to get the characteristics you want. Jacob