long travel Outbacks or making Subarus faster and more reliable offroad

[1 Lucky Texan]

adult is the 'common', the hatchling 'looks' to be the 'alligator' species, though, kinda tricky to tell for certain. You seem to be just a little too far north of typical range for the Alligator Snapper.

 

the chelonians are an extremely successful clade and 'probably' predate the dinosaurs by up to 10 million years....real survivors.

 

 

 

Edited July 3, 2019 by 1 Lucky Texan

[Numbchux]

4 hours ago, pontoontodd said:

Interesting.  Is your 2004 an H4?  With the H6 the downshift is violent, I like your manual shifting idea.

A leaking/flattened o-ring or cracked piston would make sense.

Nope, H6 VDC. And yea, it's very violent.

[Numbchux]

4 hours ago, pontoontodd said:

Interesting.  Is your 2004 an H4?  With the H6 the downshift is violent, I like your manual shifting idea.

A leaking/flattened o-ring or cracked piston would make sense.

Nope, H6 VDC. And yea, it's very violent.

[scalman]

those are some scary dinosaurs you have there...hehe i live in safe and boring enviroment here nothing to see just some deers and foxes and rabbits, no slow animals here that you could find and look at them ... so cool

[pontoontodd]

B came over last Thursday morning and we did some last minute packing up and hooked up the cars to tow down to Texas.  Our friend JCR had left South Bend a little earlier towing his baja bug so he was a few hours behind us. I had driven about 250 miles but the gas gauge was still above half. I was going to stop soon and the car started cutting out and the fuel pump was making a lot of noise, you could hear it occasionally get some fuel and quiet down, just enough to get to the end of an off ramp. We dumped in the 2.5 gallons of fuel from B's gas can but it still wouldn't start. I pulled the pressure hose off at the engine and a lot of compressed air with some fuel sprayed out of the engine side. B cycled the key a few times and we seemed to have a reasonably solid fuel flow. I put the hose back on it and fired back up and ran fine. Took 20 gallons to fill including the 2.5 we'd put in.  We got past Tulsa and camped at a city park at Stroud lake.

Friday was fairly uneventful. There were giant grasshoppers on the road leading into the ranch. Their body was almost the size of two adult human fingers. They could barely jump.

We made it to the ranch around 2PM, slammo and J were already there and we picked out a place to park in the shade of some trees that we ended up camping in all weekend.

We put the door bars, harnesses, numbers, and lights on the Outback and went through tech and registration.  While we waited around we saw some other critters:

I cooked some dogs and then we watched the handful of unlimited class vehicles (trophy trucks and ultra 4s) qualify. JCR had rented a small cabin on a lake near the ranch so we stayed with him Friday and Saturday nights. There were about ten long piers out into the lake, most of which had some kind of covered square pier at the end so you could fish in the middle ice fishing style.

[pontoontodd]

In the morning we stopped at a gas station so JCR could fill his baja bug and his gas cans and went to the ranch. There had been a Raptor run with 100 Ford Raptors at the ranch a few months before the race and it had rained a lot so the course was much rougher than in previous years. The bikes and stock UTVs raced four laps on the 31 mile course in the morning and immediately after that prerunning started and we were one of the first cars out. I took it easy on the rough rocky sections of the course, in general I went about 20mph but there were many times I was going 15 or 10 or even slower. B and I estimated that about two thirds of the time and at least half the mileage of the course was rough and rocky. A lot of that was 2-4” square embedded rocks. You can drive it at 30-50mph and it probably feels smoother but will just tear up the car. There were a few pretty steep and rough hill climbs, a few with rock steps/ledges near the top. The average lifted Subaru with good skidplates could make it around the course just not at the speeds we were doing it. The smoother sections were fun, there was a nice whoop section near the start of the course that was great and far more jumps than any desert course we've ever seen (they don't really occur naturally). We decided it was the roughest off road course we've ever driven. It took me an hour and eight minutes for an average speed of 27mph. The race was six laps (186 miles) with a seven hour time limit (5PM-midnight), so with pit stops included it would be difficult to finish in the time limit even with no issues. We filled the Outback before and after the prerun and it took five gallons, which was more than we expected so we decided we'd just add five gallons at each of our three planned stops. The only damage to the car we could find was that one of the lights on the roof was turned and another was missing its cover. We had JCR's phone with us so he had a gps track of the course in case he got lost in the dark. He has raced there before but the course was changed (shortened) from previous years because some sections were badly washed out. B took a couple of J's five gallon gas cans and our two and filled them all up with premium. On the way back to the ranch he stopped to get a picture of their white buffalo.

Then he noticed the Forester was running hot. He shut off the AC and it started coming back down. We replaced the water pump and timing belt when we had the engine and trans out a while back, I'm wondering if the new water pump isn't pumping like it should. It was in the 90s F all weekend.

 

One of the trophy truck teams we talked to just had four Baja Designs LP9 lights on the front of their truck and said they're more light than you need, better than the pile of lights and light bars they used to have. Said the LP6 is pretty good too.

Edited July 17, 2019 by pontoontodd

[pontoontodd]

For the race we parked the Forester in the main pit for refueling and driver/navigator changes. At the start of the race I rode with JCR in the baja bug, B drove the Outback with slammo navigating, and J rode with in the F100. The F100 was a well built prerunner with full glass and interior.

They started flagging off cars one a minute at 5PM which meant the Subaru started around 5:15. JCR kept telling us all weekend he was going to take it easy but it didn't seem like it while I was riding with him. I felt safe but he seemed to be pushing the car hard. It seemed to have stiffer suspension than the Subaru despite having more travel and better shocks but that allowed him to hit things harder without bottoming. The seats were comfortable and the open air was actually much cooler than the Subaru with AC on since we had about 100x as much airflow. Within two miles of the start we started hearing a banging noise in the rear and he pointed at the mirror and I saw the RR fender flapping in the breeze. By mile 3 it was gone. He continued to run the car hard and passed a buggy and a truck but did not catch up to the Subaru despite starting about five cars back. He was familiar with the ranch but I did help him navigate a little and slowed him down for a few hazards I don't think he saw coming. Both of our fresh air hoses kept coming off our helmets so every couple miles I had to shove them back on. At about mile 25 the lightbar above the windshield started flapping around (just one bolt holding it on) so I held that in place with my arm through the windshield opening for the last five miles. I had told him multiple times before the race I just wanted to ride for one lap but when we got to the fork for the main pit he just kept going straight on the race course despite me pointing to the pit exit. Fortunately I got him to pull off into the pits just before the start/finish line. We got out and I unbolted the light bar. A woman from the pit we were near came up to him with a water bottle and a quart Gatorade and he took the Gatorade and chugged the whole thing. He got back in the car and I zip tied his fresh air hose on his helmet. In the meantime B was driving the Subaru hard and had finished the first lap in under an hour. J was supposed to just ride in the F100 for the first lap but had stayed in for the second lap so I spent some time trying to find him. I got some water and tried to get video of the Outback going through the secondary pit (~mile 23) but never saw them come by. I went back to the Forester and waited and got a gas can ready. Eventually J showed up in the F100. He said he'd had a blast and he went to the bathroom and got some water. He kept going on about how he couldn't believe the Outback was making it around that course. About ten minutes later B and slammo showed up in the Outback. They had gotten a flat tire and the hatch wouldn't open so it took them a while to change it on course. Another wheel had a couple dents in it and was starting to slowly leak air so we replaced that and put a good spare in the car. We added five gallons of fuel and J got in to navigate. I told B at that point we had almost no chance of finishing all six laps so just take it easy. I hammered the dents out of the wheel which mostly stopped the leak but did create some tiny cracks.  In another hour they came back with no issues so I got in to drive and J stayed in to navigate. Five gallons of fuel was added and the tank was full so we had used ten gallons in 93 miles for about 9mpg, still worse than expected but better than 6mpg we thought we had in the prerun. By this time it was still possible with a good run to do two more laps by the 10:45 cutoff for starting the last lap but it was getting dark, I turned the lights on maybe five miles into the lap. Almost immediately we had an occasional tire rub in the RF, mainly when on the gas. I thought (hoped) it was just because we put on some different tires that were maybe not as worn. We discussed stopping to check it out but there weren't many good places to stop and it's a big hassle to get in and out of the car with all the safety gear so I kept going and it didn't seem too bad. After maybe fifteen miles it was starting to get a little squirrelly so I found a good place on a gravel road to pull off course. It looked like one of the bolts holding the RF control arm bushing had fallen out and then the other bolt/insert ripped out of the body. I jacked/strapped it mostly back into position and used a bunch of hose clamps and heavy safety wire to hold it in place.

While I was doing that J was pointing people by and letting them know we were OK. By the time we got back in the car and underway it was 11PM and we heard over the radio that the Subaru was the only car still on the course. I told them we were back on the move but had suspension damage so I was going slow the five miles to the secondary pit. We made it back and the repair seemed to be holding fine. JCR had finished five laps in time to start his sixth but decided he was done as he'd already vomited in the car. The F100 had finished all six laps by 10:30. The fastest lap time in a trophy truck was 38 minutes for an average speed of 49mph, which is slow for a desert race. For example in the Vegas to Reno the winning truck usually averages about 75mph. J told me he was bouncing around a similar amount in the F100 and the Outback but the F100 was going faster. Fortunately I had put my headlamp on when I went to pick up my street shoes I saw a black widow spider that had built a web in the left shoe.

I smashed it with a big stick. We semi posterior packed things into our cars and said goodbye to J and slammo and rode with JCR back to his cabin.

 

This is the first off road race we've ever done that I felt was almost too rough to be fun. Many of the rough sections of the course could be driven in a stock Honda Civic but it would be a very rough ride. It's sort of like harsh washboard, it's not really challenging just annoying and shakes the car to death. One more experience that makes me want to just trail ride or race point to point.  Also contemplating making the windshield and/or rear glass easily removable for desert racing.

 

Edited July 17, 2019 by pontoontodd

[pontoontodd]

We drove back to the ranch Sunday morning and I tried to put a bolt in place of the one that had fallen out but couldn't find the threaded insert, it probably fell back into the body. I did safety wire it to the body a little better. I had also heard/noticed something funny in the rear end while driving. The stamped “frame rail” the RR trailing arm mounts to had mostly torn loose from the body. I had intended to beef up this side like I did the LR after the failure in AR but hadn't gotten around to it, although this one failed in a different fashion.  Saw this garter snake eat a small frog. 

We took the lights, door bars, numbers, and harnesses off the Outback and drove it over to the driver's meeting at 10AM.  JCR finished second in the air cooled class. The F100 won the heavy metal truck class and we finished second. We hooked up the Forester and started towing home. Outback ran fine until we got to the highway and when I went to pull onto the highway the engine stalled and I could not get it restarted. It cranked fine and would fire a little but but wouldn't run. We rolled back out of the way a bit and switched cars so we were towing the Outback with the Forester. The low range really helps get started. We were driving by the temp gauge. We couldn't run the AC and could only average about 60mph to keep the temp gauge at the two thirds mark. We were planning on checking out a first gen Outback with a second gen Outback EZ30 and 4EAT in Des Moines on the way home so we headed north from OKC and went up through KS. We camped near a big man made lake in KS next to a little river.

The next morning we could average 65 with the cooler temps for a while. As it got back up in the 80s we had to keep going slower. There were some long climbs in MO and as I was going up one of them all of a sudden I saw a big cloud of dark gray smoke out the back of the Forester. It dissipated quickly but I said something to B and started to pull over and he says “don't worry, it's just the CV boot exploding grease on the cat.” He's driven across the country on an axle without a CV boot so he thought we should just continue. About fifty miles later I noticed if you gave it over about half throttle the RPM and speed would increase (not quite like a slipping clutch) accompanied by a ratcheting noise. I pulled off at the next ramp and had just barely enough torque capacity to get in the gas station. I parked the cars in the shade of a semi trailer and we replaced the CV axle. It was the most melted/smashed CV we've ever seen come out of a Subaru.

While we had things disassembled B wanted to replace the control arm bushing on that corner so we did that too.

B drove the next leg and a few hours later the same thing happened to the new axle we'd just installed. He pulled off to the side of a gas station parking lot and we discussed our options. I fired up the Outback and it seemed to be running fine but there was a rattling noise that seemed to be coming from the driver's side cat. I drove it around the parking lot and it ran fine so we hooked it up to the Forester and got on the interstate. Before we even got up to speed it started dying so I pulled over. We switched back and towed the Outback to the nearest exit and then went to a local Autozone and swapped out the CV axle in their parking lot.

Just another day in the life B said. We took state highways the rest of the way back, got to my house without any further issues. After we disconnected I was able to drive the Outback 100' into the garage and it died. B drove the Forester home.

Saw this caterpillar on the back of my house the next morning.  Probably one you shouldn't eat.

[travelvw]

Critters and carnage! Any video or pics of the race?

Seems the cotter pins held. I put anti-seize on the 'frame' bolts when I installed my Frana control arms, but you might need loctite? Heck, maybe I should have used some?

Bigger tires, better sidewalls, and more travel would go a long way for racing, but what you have is already perfect for trail riding.

Those LP9 lights are $500/e, I hope they're good for that price.

Based on where the center of B's wheel is in relation to the rocker, I'd say he has an additional 2" suspension lift over my 2.5" lifted Impreza. That's a whole lot of lift without a drive train drop.

K

[pontoontodd]

13 minutes ago, travelvw said:

Critters and carnage! Any video or pics of the race?

Seems the cotter pins held. I put anti-seize on the 'frame' bolts when I installed my Frana control arms, but you might need loctite? Heck, maybe I should have used some?

Bigger tires, better sidewalls, and more travel would go a long way for racing, but what you have is already perfect for trail riding.

Those LP9 lights are $500/e, I hope they're good for that price.

Based on where the center of B's wheel is in relation to the rocker, I'd say he has an additional 2" suspension lift over my 2.5" lifted Impreza. That's a whole lot of lift without a drive train drop.

K

We got about 4 hours of gopro footage of the prerun and race but it will be a while until I get that edited.  Nothing from outside the car, we only went by the pits every half hour or so and we were driving/navigating in something most of the time.

I thought about safety wiring those control arm bolts and obviously should have.  If I did everything to the car I thought it needed to make it perfect I'd be broke and I'd never get to drive it.

I have a few ideas for tuning the shocks to make it better on that small square edged rocky terrain.

The upside is that our class was all the trucks that weren't full tube frame (trophy trucks) and only that F100 beat us.

The Forester has at least 50% more CV angle than my Outbacks at ride height, we plan on putting softer springs on it soon to lower it and improve the ride.  The CV boot that failed twice is right above the cat, he's going to try to add a heat shield there.

 

[travelvw]

I hear ya', I have 3 project/driver's and can only really afford to do one right. Congrats to 2nd, look forward to any footage.

I think CV angle and what you can get away with (or not) is much more useful than 2" safe max lift or whatever, since every car is a different, especially when you add bumpers, etc. Based on what you sent me previously, plus I added my info now with your control arms (ride height, unloaded):

'99 Black Outback: 9* front, 6* rear

'01 Blue Forester: 15* front, 11* rear

'02 White Outback: 11* front, 4* rear

'07 WRX: 10* front, 5* rear

No idea what stock height CV angle is? Worth noting my 20k mile front '600hp' CV exploded after driving around town, soon after installing the new control arms (which are slightly forward and wider vs. stock), so that might go to show I am on the very edge of what they can handle up front (stock rear seems totally unstressed).

K

Edited July 19, 2019 by travelvw

[scalman]

did you though of rear diff torq locker that is now made for R160 diff ? russians have allready similar design lock-right lockers for those diffs too. just matter of time when we could be locked as well... then you dont need to mod car so much maybe if you have that rear locker . 

[pontoontodd]

1 hour ago, scalman said:

did you though of rear diff torq locker that is now made for R160 diff ? russians have allready similar design lock-right lockers for those diffs too. just matter of time when we could be locked as well... then you dont need to mod car so much maybe if you have that rear locker . 

I have seen those.  One problem I see is that without a low range, wheelspin is the only thing that allows us to climb steep grades sometimes.  Cut down on the wheelspin and we'd have even more problems in a lot of cases.  Also the improved traction would be even harder on the transmission, and I've already broken a few of those.

If you had a low range and went easy on it, the rear locker would definitely help in some cases.

[slammo]

First off I want to say thank you to Pontoontodd and B for letting J and myself ride shotgun in this race.  Our introduction to desert racing was definitely an experience for the books!  I've been collecting my thoughts from last weekend to share here.

The course was crazy rough.  It was easily just as challenging as the Ozark trails we were riding on in April, but done at twice the speed.  The small embedded rocks Pontoontodd was describing earlier basically felt like very abrupt washboards and were brutal at any speed.  Several of the hill climbs might as well have been driving up a staircase, and they were steep, blind, and rough coming down the other side as well.  I'd agree that the average Subaru with a lift and skid plates probably could have made it through the course, but it would have taken 4x the time and several of the climbs would have required a lot of momentum.   Plastic bumpers would not survive haha.  On that note, I disagree that a stock civic could drive it.  Probably half to three fourths of the course's length would have been drivable by an average stock economy car, but they would not be able to negotiate the tougher stuff without modification or damage.  I think we were lucky to only damage one tire and one wheel throughout the event.  That your car held up for 3 1/2 laps and beat many more dedicated builds is a testament to the chassis and suspension modifications you've made.  Most of the field of entrants was dedicated race machinery, and I only know of one other vehicle that was still street registered.

I only took a couple photos and video of the weekend, almost all of which was during prerunning.  Here are my brief video clips:  

 

Closing thoughts:  For a lot of "typical" car enthusiasts, horsepower is addictive.  Once they get some, they just need more and more and more.  I'm pretty sure that in this crowd, suspension travel is the same way - you can never have enough, and you're always wanting more no matter how much you already have.  It's a shame that there aren't more long travel options for Subarus, but I'm glad that yours are available and out there to show people what can be done.

[pontoontodd]

Tried to get the black Outback running better.  I spliced a fuel pressure gauge between the filter and the engine.  It reads in the 40s normally, in the fifties with the vacuum hose off, which is about 10psi higher than the FSM says.  When revved up it holds pressure.  Even when I ran it long enough and got it to die it would hold pressure until the engine died, then it slowly drops.  The accuracy of the small old pressure gauge I'm using could be poor.  I did disconnect the return line and ran it into a bottle and ran the car that way.  Pressure was still the same, seems like a good flow of fuel.  So I don't think there's a restriction or kink in the return. 

I noticed a little smoke coming out around the dipstick, if you remove that or the oil fill cap there is a pulsating flow of air with a little smoke/steam.  It seems to pulse about every other revolution of the engine indicating a bad cylinder.  Took the PCV valve off a bad H6 which seemed a little looser than this one, cleaned it out, and put it on, same puffing out the oil fill.  Took the intake off and there is a little oil from the breather hose.  Air filter and housing seemed fairly clean considering where we just went.  I have noticed it has idled a little rough lately, say the last month or so.  When I first put the engine in you couldn't even tell it was running at idle it was so smooth.  If you rev it up at all it smooths right out.  So I think it's probably been like this for a while and I'm just noticing the puffs of air out the oil fill.

We have noticed a rattle at idle a few times that seemed to be coming from the driver's side cat.  I pulled the exhaust and started unbolting it/cutting it apart and some pieces of plutonium came out:

The driver's side cat is all broken up, there are still a few big pieces in there that can't get out.  These might occasionally turn sideways and block flow.

The cat in the middle of the car where the pipes come together seems to be plugged, probably with debris from the driver's side cat.  Blowing compressed air in there has a lot more resistance than any of the other pipes.

Did a quick test with the exhaust completely removed and it still puffs air out the oil fill.

Bolted up just the two pipes with the front cats and it seemed to run without stalling where it would have before.

One time it did give a misfire cylinder 4 code.

Disconnected one coil pack at a time, every time the idle would drop and get rougher.  When reconnected the idle would pick back up and get smoother.  Never got a misfire code while doing that.

I am still working on some structural repairs we started yesterday (pix of that later).  My next step is to put the exhaust from a car I just got on the black Outback and see how it runs, maybe drive it around the block a few times to make sure it will stay running.

Anything else I should check/test?  How bad is a little airflow out the oil fill?

[pontoontodd]

Rule #1 buying a project car - buy something rust free.

 

This part of the body was basically held in place by ratchet straps and the parking brake cable for the drive from Texas to Illinois.  The failure was ultimately caused by the roughness of the course but the fact that this was probably at least halfway rusted off is the main reason it failed in my opinion.  Notice the subframe bolt has also ripped out of the body (right side of picture).

 

My friend got it basically back up in place, this is it partially welded back in.

Wrinkle in the door frame.  Door opens and closes tighter than before.

 

It's hard to tell from these pictures but the rocker is just completely destroyed.  Between getting smashed on thousands of rocks over the years and corrosion, there's not much left of it.

 

Welded back in.

Added a couple patches.  Also welded part of the wheel well seam that is split top to bottom.  Need to do some more welding on that but should at least clean the car first.

At the front of the piece that fell out there was about an inch gap in the body so I patched that too.

I had already done something like this on the other side.  Trailing arm bracket bolted all the way through the floor with tubes to keep the floor from crushing.  On this side I did the same with the subframe mount as that had also ripped out of the body.

 

Welded it on the top side.

When I did that I also welded a big washer to the bottom of the body where the subframe bolt had ripped out a big hole.

Edited July 26, 2019 by pontoontodd

[pontoontodd]

Rear crossmember was cracked on both sides so I welded that up.

 

[pontoontodd]

Front crossmember was cracked on both sides, welded that too.

 

 

If I keep this car I will probably swap the subframes off the car I just bought for parts, maybe seam weld them before installing.  Steering rack on this one is getting loose too, probably do that over the winter as well.

 

Edited July 26, 2019 by pontoontodd

[FerGloyale]

Wow.

It's incredible to see how much structure actually is holding up. Espescially given the rust rot of a midwest car.  

I mean, spoob seems to be ripped all over the place, but the car as a whole is still intact!  

I gotta say it's inspiring to see the confidence and quality that you display in quickly dispatching problems.  (metal working pun)

Gives me inspiration, I haven't found too many cracks or tears in my rust free car.  My car has been in rust free parts of Oregon it's whole life,   I have started to see just a few hints of spot welds failing, and a pair of cracks along the rear lower sheetmetal below the bumper.  I think it's sheet metal tearing back from before the skidplate.  But it could be stress from Bumper and trailer mounting used for recover points.  Also still weird creaking in the front on/off throttle.  

Starting with new rust free subframes and seam welding them is a great idea.  Might I suggest 97(-ish?)  Legacy Sedans have rear subframe with stiffening bracket mounts and bar that goes between the fore and aft lateral link mount tabs.  Or make braces that bolt in with the later arm pivot bolts.

[slammo]

[pontoontodd]

On 7/26/2019 at 2:40 PM, FerGloyale said:

Wow.

It's incredible to see how much structure actually is holding up. Espescially given the rust rot of a midwest car.  

I mean, spoob seems to be ripped all over the place, but the car as a whole is still intact!  

I gotta say it's inspiring to see the confidence and quality that you display in quickly dispatching problems.  (metal working pun)

Gives me inspiration, I haven't found too many cracks or tears in my rust free car.  My car has been in rust free parts of Oregon it's whole life,   I have started to see just a few hints of spot welds failing, and a pair of cracks along the rear lower sheetmetal below the bumper.  I think it's sheet metal tearing back from before the skidplate.  But it could be stress from Bumper and trailer mounting used for recover points.  Also still weird creaking in the front on/off throttle.  

Starting with new rust free subframes and seam welding them is a great idea.  Might I suggest 97(-ish?)  Legacy Sedans have rear subframe with stiffening bracket mounts and bar that goes between the fore and aft lateral link mount tabs.  Or make braces that bolt in with the later arm pivot bolts.

The cage probably helps the car generally staying intact, although it doesn't add as much structure as I originally thought.

Since I really want to keep the car running for at least another year or two I don't have much choice but to fix it.  On the plus side it costs almost no money, just a lot of time.

I am curious to see how my 2002 H6 OB and my friend's 2001 Forester both with long travel and both rust free hold up to abuse.  Our rusty to begin with 200k mile midwestern cars haven't held up well, that's for sure.

Will keep the 97 Legacy Sedan crossmember tip in mind.  The subframes on the parts car I just got look pretty solid so I'd probably just use those.

 

The frame damage that ended our race was where front control arm bolts in.  I think one of the bolts fell out completely and then the other one ripped out of the body.  I made up these plugs to weld in the body.  The big square one is for the outer bolt.  I'd already put in one like it but it must have fallen down into the frame when the bolt fell out and the car kept bouncing along the roughest desert course ever.

Cut the plate out of the side of the body to put the plug in.

Got it in there, this one was a tight fit so I had to tighten down the bolt to get it seated all the way down.

Welded it in place so hopefully I don't lose this one.

Welded the plate back over the hole.

Welded the smaller plug in for the inner bolt hole.  Welded a plate over the control arm bolt hole and adjacent subframe bolt hole.  Should do this on the other side over the winter.  Welded a seam that appeared to be splitting a little.

Painted it all.  Most of it's going to rust from the inside out but it makes me feel better.  (No pictures yet).

 

I took the H6 exhaust off the parts car and ran our crude flow test on it (compressed air hose wide open in the outlet to backflush/flow test).  Seems to flow as freely as you could hope considering it's going through a couple cats.  Far better than the exhaust that was on the black Outback.  Put that on the black Outback, still need to adjust the tube that hits the crossmember so it will sit right, but it's mostly on.  Ran it with the AC on to give it some load for about 20 minutes.  Still seemed to be running fine and not stalling.  Puffing air out the crankcase even when cold.  Will have to do some fab on the exhaust and assemble the suspension (going to safety wire those control arm bolts for sure this time) and then test drive it to see if that fixes the problem.

For reference the 2002 H6 OB (same engine) has no noticeable flow out the oil fill cap when running hot or cold.

[slammo]

Would a leakdown test on your 99 H6 potentially show you where the cylinder pressure is escaping into the crankcase?

[pontoontodd]

20 minutes ago, slammo said:

Would a leakdown test on your 99 H6 potentially show you where the cylinder pressure is escaping into the crankcase?

Yes but it would probably be less work to just replace the whole engine...

[pontoontodd]

The last body/rust "repair" I did was this.  Mini skid plate for the rear subframe has been a good improvement.  Now that the rocker is all rotted out/cracked up, the side mounting plate wasn't attached to anything.  Made one a little wider and welded it on to the rocker.  Not providing much structure but makes me feel better.  If we decide to do more desert racing next year, a lot of seam welding and cotter pins will be going into the car this winter.

 

Think I may have finally solved the rear hatch latch problem.  For years now it's been semi posterior, you have to wiggle the hatch and play with it most of the time to get it to open.  Made some adjustments that have seemed to help temporarily but it's been marginal.  This last time I had to get it open by pulling off the rear panel and messing with the rods and latch, I noticed the latch mechanism was super sloppy.  The old one is on the left, you can see the one rivet was starting to pull out, the other one is loose.  Just put in one from the parts car on the right, seems to work much more easily and consistently.

[travelvw]

On 7/26/2019 at 11:28 AM, pontoontodd said:

Rule #1 buying a project car - buy something rust free.

Sounds logical. Especially considering they are cheap and readily available.

Nice work! Those subframe/trailing arm bracket fixes should do the trick. Stitching the fatigue torn sheet metal together I imagine won't hold forever, but what can you do?

If you decide to swap to a rust-free body, probably worth applying what you have learned and do a full brace and seam weld to all the weak points before transferring anything? I know that's a lot of work but it sure would be nice to have a solid, well built car from the start instead of constant patching to hold it all together after rust and fatigue have taken their toll.

 

Slammo, thanks for sharing on the TDRA race.

K