pontoontodd

Our drive down to Texas went fairly well this time. As we were getting to the ranch our truck was reading 15V, it's normally 13 or 14 while running. We had to stop at the gate and then the truck wouldn’t start. We push started it with the Subaru (towbar attached). I removed the starter and tested it with another battery to see that it was good. The battery in the truck read 13V but when under a load it dropped to 5V. We took that and the alternator to Autozone in Odessa. They tested the alternator and it passed. I bought a new battery and that fixed the truck. Racing Sunday consisted of a 150 mile race from roughly 8AM to 1PM and another 150 mile race in the opposite direction on the same course from about 3PM to 8PM. This was the same fifty mile loop we ran on in January. That is a 30mph average speed, normally desert races give you enough time to finish with a 25mph average speed so we had to push the car a little harder than we'd normally have to. Sunday morning we got up before 6AM and checked fluids and went to line up for the race. I drove the Subaru the first lap. They have an unlimited class (class 1 and trophy truck), a water cooled four cylinder buggy class, a heavy metal truck class (frame rail trucks), and an air cooled buggy class. They put us near the back of the heavy metal truck class. We asked if we could start last in the heavy metal class but they already had the lineup for scoring and didn’t want to change it. There were six or eight trucks in our class, Raptors, pre runners, etc. While we were staged I realized we’d forgotten the gopros but by then it was too late to set them up. Just after the start I waited for the truck behind us to catch up (about a minute spacing at the start) and let him by. After about ten minutes I turned on the AC and ran it for the first lap. After we started the race I realized we’d forgotten to charge the AC so I told our friend to remind me to do that before the second race. At first he thought I was joking. We saw three or four entries rolled over and a couple others broken down on the first lap. A few air cooled buggies passed us (they started last). There was a red 80's Cherokee in our class which we eventually passed. We were able to finish the first lap in about an hour and a half without pushing the car too hard so I figured we were running a good pace. I had another friend drive the next lap. He put in a good lap and we helped them switch seats for the last lap. Our friend who had navigated the first two laps told us he was just going to take it easy on the last lap and try to finish. That lasted about ten minutes and then he was going just as fast as we were. Sounded like they got good air on a few of the jumps. By this point the temps were occasionally creeping up so they had to cycle the AC on and off. There was a Bronco pulled over at one point that they passed by. Shortly after that they started seeing lights way back in the mirrors and figured the Bronco was going again. Our friend decided he’d try to stay ahead as long as he could and then pull over. They said it took quite a while and eventually it turned out to be a trophy truck. A few turns after it passed them they saw it rolled over. Occupants were OK so they continued on. Later on we heard the guys in the trophy truck saw the Subaru and thought “we’ll pass him on this straight. Wait, he’s going 85mph!” We never saw much over 70 on the speedo but it did take them a while to catch the Subaru. We finished the first race with 10 or 20 minutes to spare. Here is the only picture I have so far, just the Subaru cruising through the pits. We charged the AC in the Subaru. I only had one can of R134a, which was almost enough to fully charge it. Put on the gopros and added a little engine oil and PS fluid. I drove the first lap of the second race also. We were still running an hour and a half pace and everything was working great. We switched drivers again for the next lap. Near the end of that lap they texted us that one of the shocks was leaking so they were limping it back. When they finished that lap we had just under two hours to finish the race. There definitely wasn’t time to fix the shock and finish the race. We might have had enough time to put a stock strut on but it was likely to bend if beaten for two hours at anywhere near the pace we were running that day. We decided our best option was just to drive it more cautiously and hope everything held up. It was definitely a good thing the top of the strut mount is attached to the cage. My friend drove and I navigated the last lap. He put in a good lap about ten minutes slower than our normal pace. By this point we could only run the AC about ten percent of the time or the temps would go up. We finished the second race with ten or twenty minutes to spare to the excitement of nearly everyone there. We had several people tell us they loved the Subaru and everyone we drove by seemed to be laughing, clapping, or giving us a thumbs up. Later that night they had a meeting thanking everyone and giving out plaques for finishing. When it came to the heavy metal class he said when he first saw this car, he thought the team should just leave it in the pits and not bother getting out on the track. We went up to get our third place heavy metal truck plaque (probably because only three finished). A couple of my friends wanted to go to Carlsbad Caverns and Guadalupe peak while we were in that part of the country, so we parked the truck and wound up putting at least 500 miles on the Subaru before we headed back. The Subaru had an occasional shake in the steering but otherwise ran and drove fine. It was still running a little hot, couldn’t run the AC. They said the Whataburger and Denny’s were the only restaurants open at 11PM on a Saturday night, so we went to the Whataburger. I’m pretty sure there was some kind of drug deal going down in the men’s room when I walked in and there was an armed security guard standing in front of the counter. The car continued to run hot the whole time after the race, the first day we were cycling the AC on and off, by the end it was in the 80s and we were cycling the heat on and off (mostly on) to keep it from overheating.

I made the plastic bumpers on my 96 Impreza and 99 OB bolt on. You can drive them around looking stock most of the time, then unbolt to go offroad. Huge improvement in approach and departure angles.

Wired a switch in parallel with the stock wiring to force both fans on high. Spliced four separate wires into the fan side of the connectors for the hot leads. Probably should have done the grounds while I was at it. This is what it looks like shrink wrapped, wire loomed and tied in place. Used a big 40A inline fuse right off the battery. Ran two wires from the fuse to this four pole single throw switch. All of those leads are wired together. The four going to the fans are kept separate so the ECU can do its magic with the switch off. The radio and CB both died a while back. We had replaced the CB a few weeks ago. I got a new radio/head unit so I put that in while the console was apart and I was playing with wires. This is the old aftermarket stereo wiring. I think I hear baby Jesus cry every time I see it. My wiring for the new stereo. This is what the switch looks like installed.

What is different about it?

I picked one of these up at a junkyard in town out of a Chevy van: Appears to be a centrifugal air filter with a dust trap on the bottom. If nothing else the filter is about twice the area of the Subaru panel filter. Made room for it by removing more of the ABS and the stock airbox. It just fits. I was able to tweak the sensor bracket on the strut tower and bolt it to that and added another mount where the ABS module was. Got a silicone hose adapter to get the MAF sensor closer to the engine and turned up an adapter to mate the MAF sensor to the Chevy airbox. The intake is pretty high in the engine compartment but pointed slightly down. Made a splash shield so the tire doesn't fill it with water. The air also has to flow slightly uphill so I'm hoping it works well in water and dust.

I blast the radiator every time I take it to the coin op carwash. Try to get between the condenser and rad but that's difficult. The water was definitely brown for a while at first when I went after Texas. I'll probably try to do that again before we go.

We talked about all kinds of different alternatives, including making a screw/scissor jack. It seemed like making the HF jack work was the best option. Yes, the fans are two speed. They are controlled by the ECU. There are three pins on the connector, one for ground and the other two for power. They go to two pairs of wires on each fan. I assume these power two sets of windings. If you power one pair the fan spins, power both pairs and it spins much faster. I tried it on the car and they definitely look like they're spinning much faster than they were in Texas when I have power going to all hot leads. Just have to clean up the wiring and I'll post some pictures. I'll consider the speed holes if it still runs hot, but I'm hoping we have it under control now. I might make them in a slightly more controlled fashion though...

Went through the struts after we got back from Texas and changed the valving a little. The main issue I found with most of them is that the bushings had slid down in the strut housings, so I added some screws right below them to prevent that. We've had to replace all the wheel bearings on the Outback at least once, some of them twice, and it's very time consuming. The front wheel bearings were both a little loose. I got a pair of front spindles for a 2005 OB with bolt on wheel bearings and they seem to fit perfectly. The ABS sensor is totally different but that's long gone on my car. I did have to turn up some spacers for the CV joints (probably because I don't have the ABS rings) but the splines fit. The 05 spindles look stronger to boot. While they were off the car we took the wheel bearings and ball joints out and antiseized them. We'll still have to at least partially disassemble the suspension to replace the wheel bearings, but it should be a much easier job. In the short run the knuckles and bearings cost about the same as getting new bearings, seals, and hubs for the original knuckles and they're not sloppy yet. Also, I've got the original ones for spares.

I almost bought a high lift jack but they are big, heavy, potentially dangerous, the base is small, hard to use on any car, etc. So I decided to make the HF scissor jack work after not being able to find anything else I liked. The failure before was from the teeth at the bottom of the arms slipping past each other. They are probably too narrow, but part of the problem is that the base distorted and allowed them to skip past each other. I'd wanted a larger base before it failed, so I made a new one. The top was not very good either so I made a new top also. I cut a few plates with teeth to weld to the arms. This is what it looks like welded and painted. We made it bolt to the backside of the spare tire mount using the same two bolts. Since that had been cantilevered off the cage and the spare flexed around a bit while driving, we added a tab to the jack that bolts to a bracket we made on the fuel cell mount to stiffen it up.

Thanks for the advice, I was already thinking along those lines. I never realized until I recently read in a different thread that the Subaru fans are two speed. Should have been obvious from the wiring. Of course they never run now that we're back home in freezing temps but when they were both working they seemed pretty slow, I'm guessing they were not running on high. I looked over the wiring diagram and played with an extra set of fans I have. My plan is to wire a separate fuse and 4PST switch straight from the battery in parallel with the stock wiring. There are some high quality, high output aftermarket fans that we've used on other things, and they're not too expensive. I have also heard that the OEM electric fans are generally more output and more reliable than the aftermarket fans, which makes some sense. The OEMs probably put more R&D in and they have to last hundreds of thousands of miles. I did also think about putting some vents in the hood.

This is judging by wire colors, you might want to unplug the relay and use a probe to verify. There is a row of four relays and a pair of relays. It is the last one in the row of four closest to the pair. It is labeled AC #4 on the fuse box cover.

Thanks for this info, makes sense now that I look at the fans, wiring, and wiring diagram. So it seems from testing them and looking at the diagram that both hot leads need power for high speed, the black one is ground as you say. I've had issues with at least one pin on the fan connector failing and overheating when running hard. When it ran hot it looked like the fans may have just been running at low speed once I got them both working. Can I just wire both + leads for both fans to a switch on the dash as an override? I'm thinking straight from the battery to a 30 or 40A fuse, to the switch, back to all four fan wires. Or is there a good fused lead I should splice into? This would run both fans on high regardless of some sort of sensor/ECU malfunction, relay failure, or another fan connector gone bad. But they will still come on and off normally with the switch off.

The easiest way to get a 2" lift is just to add strut spacers. They're easy to make or you can buy them. The car right now isn't lifted much more than that. We've made completely new struts and front control arms. The focus was more on increased wheel travel, strength, and ride quality than lift. That all starts here: http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/topic/144953-99-outback-build-advice-wanted/page-4?do=findComment&comment=1268549 The race in Texas was at a private ranch. They only allow race cars and trucks on the course during that weekend. I know there are some off road parks in Texas, there is a soft roader club that goes to them occasionally, a bunch of them have Subarus. Otherwise check out http://www.riderplanet-usa.com/atv/trails/texas_list.htm They list which parks allow 4x4 / street legal trucks, how big they are, what kinds of trails, etc.

We talked about that, not sure how much it would help. Yes, just the stock fans right now. They seem to be working but their speed isn't very impressive. Are there any fan upgrades I should look into?

Our friend who knows a lot about rally cars thinks our overheating problem is airflow related. He says when the front bumper cover gets ripped off the car will usually overheat. Here is what the front end looked like before: We decided the stock bumper support and the HIDs were blocking a lot of airflow so we should move them. The bumper support was really just a place to screw the plastic bumper cover to when I'm driving around town. We drilled out the spotwelds to remove that. We can just weld some posts on the square bumper to remount the plastic bumper later. There was just enough room under the stock headlights for the HIDs. Pattern is still good. The next step was making an air dam to keep the air from spilling under and around the sides of the radiator. This is before we peeled the covering off so you can see what it looks like. There is a strip of black rubber molding around the edge so it doesn't cut into the condenser. Here's what it looks like now.

Here is a short video I put together of parts of the fifty mile course in Texas.

100% apparently. I thought since it's rated for 2.5 tons and the front of the car is about 1 ton I'd be safe, but no.

I looked into long distance towing and I could get the Subaru towed back from just about anywhere in the US to my door for about $600. We spent more than that in fuel in our truck getting to Texas and back. It would be inconvenient but far cheaper to get it towed back from somewhere than buy, fuel, maintain, license, and insure a tow rig and trailer. Finally took a picture of the knuckle that the interstate did some grinding on. This is after our repair in Texas, which held up for a couple thousand highway miles and about fifty miles offroad. Swapped it out with a different knuckle when we got home. Also, that HF scissor jack folded while jacking up the car the other day:

How does it compare to some of the videos I've posted, like in Kentucky? Any pictures or videos of particular rough sections in Nevada? Just trying to see what we're up against. Like I said, one guy we talked to in Texas said the V2R is much smoother than the course we were on down there. I've talked to other people who thought parts of it would be rough in our car but that we could make it.

Yes, it would make more sense to me to cover the flywheel and clutch. They want it covering the part of the trans with gears. I have never heard of the gears in a Subaru trans exploding but those are the rules. Also, it's hard to tell from those pictures but it does go forward to the firewall.

Working on replacing the RR knuckle we had to repair in TX. I had another one from a parts car that to my knowledge was not abused at all. It had a small crack in it at the base of the strut mount just like all of mine did. Ground it out and welded it up. Got the old one off the car which was a PITA since the long bolt had rusted into the front bushing. I know I've had it out before and anti seized it but I still wound up wrecking the bolt getting it out. So I'm waiting for one of those. Anyone know of a stainless and/or high strength replacement for those? Or some other solution, such as RTVing that central pocket so it won't rust as quickly? Got this scissor jack from Harbor. It's 2.5 ton and meant for leveling trailers. Relatively light, fast and low effort and lifts about 24", more than enough even with the long travel. Can use a cordless impact for more speed, it's even 19mm hex like the lug nuts. Just have to find a good place to put it in the car and do something with the top and bottom pads. I got a dust cover for the bottom of the bellhousing from the dealer for $7. Unfortunately there is a giant window in the bottom of it??? So I cut, bent, riveted, and RTVed a piece of aluminum sheet metal on the bottom of it. Not pretty but it should keep the grass out. It also doesn't cover the notches in the engine block on either side of the flywheel. So I RTVed those too after I bolted it in. Here is a bad picture of it installed. While we had the trans out we made a scattershield for the trans from 1/8" 4130. They don't care in TX but we'll need it for BITD (Vegas to Reno).

My 2c, next time you decide to do a project of this magnitude, it would probably be easier and stronger to just start from scratch. Ideally you would build a full tube frame/cage, but you could just have a basic ladder frame connecting the suspension and drivetrain mounts at the ends and then mount a shell on top so you can make it street legal. It usually only takes a couple guys a few weeks to build a tube frame. I think the frame would be stronger and it would probably take you less time overall. Easy for me to say that now.

We've never had to tow any of our Subarus home after years of beating on them offroad. Again, not saying it won't happen, just doesn't seem to happen often to us. I will see if I can borrow the tester that goes on the radiator from a parts store. I have compression and leakdown testers but they would be a PITA with this engine. I do keep thinking about the H6 swap but I think if the engine came out I'd just do rings, bearings, head gaskets, and get a low end profile ground on the cams. At this point I'm just waiting and saving for a third gen OB so I could get the H6 and bolt on wheel bearings. Each lap is about 47 miles long. The race is five laps, so almost 250 miles.

The outside of the brake disc was starting to get ground but wasn't too bad. We've talked about trailering it a lot. Normally it's just one to three Subarus. So we'd need some kind of tow vehicle and a trailer, which I don't have the room for, and then we'd have to buy and maintain those too. Our philosophy at the moment is that in the long run it will be much cheaper to get the Subaru towed back home once a year or two, even if it's a $500 tow bill, than to invest in a truck and trailer. We don't often use the box truck to tow the Subaru. It wouldn't notice the extra weight of a trailer and it would be a little safer. I already ordered a bellhousing dust shield from the dealer, but you are right about having some sort of skidplate below that. The overheating could be a head gasket issue. In the last six months I have had to add coolant to the radiator a couple of times and the overflow seems to occasionally puke a little coolant out. So I'm not sure if I'm overfilling it or what. I think the radiator cap was bad, replaced that recently. How would I know the headgasket(s) are bad? PO claimed they'd been replaced. The course was a lot of fun. Really about perfect for what we're doing, challenging but not too difficult that we didn't think we'd make it. I'll put up video eventually. I didn't hear about anyone running out of gas. The loop was about 47 miles and at the 17 mile mark you went back by the pits. I think almost everyone there besides us had raced there before and knew what they were doing. Most of them had 20++ gallon gas tanks. We burned about 5 gallons of fuel in one lap in the OB and about 8 in the buggy.

Sounds like a simple solution, might even just be able to use one of the three bolts already holding it in. Wasn't a problem last weekend.