Can I still post here? - 98 2.5GT

[jamal]

the more caster the better. more steering effort, better feel, more camber gain. Less caster makes the steering feel soft and floaty and like shit. Subaru finally put 6 degrees in the new cars off the lot. A bmw has 10+ degrees.

[Legacy777]

Yeah that's one thing I could use some more of....caster.

[jamal]

some new stuff:

I bought this thing because I was incredibly tired of my 2nd replacement throwout bearings squeaking:



The trans snout was pretty messed up:



Now it's better:



I also made some new shifter bushings out of parts from mcmaster:



And got a pitch stop mount from my friends over at AFI turbo:



Results are that the shifter feels awesome, the clutch feels awesome, but holy crap did the pitch stop add a lot of noise and vibration.

[Legacy777]

If that pitch stop mount is your only hardened mount then yes it will add a bit of noise. With the engine & trans mounts, it's a bit noisy.

[jamal]

yeah, one mount significantly stiffer than the other probably isn't the best way to go about it. The torque solution parts look pretty good but they need to come out with a trans mount. Oh well after two days I've gotten used to it.

Pretty much everything I put on the car makes it louder and stiffer anyway. The lower profile tires, ALK, and stiffer top mounts make for a pretty good bang when i go over expansion joints and stuff.

The car does actually seem to shift better and I think it's because of the pitch stop. I didn't really make a big change to the shifter bushings- I just stopped the rattle the from full metal ones I made previously. less movement of the drivetrain means more direct action on the shift forks I suppose. Now I just need pick up tha kartboy short shifter and get the whole thing over with.

[AWD_addict]

I'm using a similar DIY metal shifter bushing for that one. It feels so much crisper than the stock cushy parts. Great result/price ratio for that mod.

[jamal]

Got some new bushings today:



They go in the rear upright where the trailing arm attaches and are Turn in Concept's newest product. I was fortunate enough to receive a test set in advance. Here's one compared to the stock bushing:



A piece of pipe, a nut and bolt and some washers made it pretty easy to remove the stock ones:





Then the new ones just press in by hand:








still working on the review. First impressions are that I notice a difference and it's good, and all the rest of the bushings back there need to change asap.

[jamal]

Some more stuff showed up today:

[jamal]

picked up another set of STI struts last night:



And they are not ordinary sti struts:

A shop out here called Feal Suspension takes the stock inverted sti struts apart, cleans them, polishes out any scoring on the inserts, and puts in a zerk fitting to re-grease the internal bushings.

Oh, and also they will custom re-valve the dampers. These are setup for my Racecomp Engineering black springs, so they got a little bit stiffer and have a little more low speed compression. The curves are pretty similar to the ohlins fixed perch strut so I'm thinking they're going to work pretty well.

[Florin1]

:drool:

[beatersubi]

The re-valve service that Feal provides is a great deal. I have a set of Sti's here I've been meaning to send Odi for a while.
What is the rate on those springs? Let us know how they ride when you get 'em in.

[jamal]

Spring rates are something like 285f and 270r. I have them on the car right now with stock sti struts and I'm going to run both sets on a shock dyno to compare them.

Also I had my car washed today and it looks pretty good:

[beatersubi]

I'm going to run both sets on a shock dyno to compare them.

Also I had my car washed today and it looks pretty good:

Yes it does.

I'm going to run both sets on a shock dyno to compare them.

I wish I had access to that level of facilities.



Why is bbCode off, and how do I turn it back on?

[Legacy777]

When your posting, you need to uncheck the box to disable bbcode. Not sure why it's off

[jamal]

starting to stack up quite a pile of parts. Here's some more stuff:



So that gives me:
WRX front brakes
H6 rear brakes
centric/stoptech premium blanks (couldn't justify spending 2x for slots)
Stoptech street performance pads
techna-fit SS lines
motul rbf600
cusco MC brace

currently on hawks and very old not so straight rotors.

[jamal]

Put a good 6 hours of work into the car today.

Firstly the new brakes are on. It's like a night and day difference over the old Hawks.



Also put in the rest of my suspension bushings.

Front lateral links came off easy:



Rears not so much:



thankfully we just bought this car so I stole the bolts off it:



These ones were also a pain in the ass but I eventually found some sockets and press tools that got the stock ones out:



all done:

[beatersubi]

Had her out yet? Big difference in handling?

[jamal]

brakes are way way better but it was raining last night so I didn't really get to test it out. I did manage to set the alignment back right where it was though by just marking the bolts- have less than 1/16 out.

[beatersubi]

Do you have proper equipment to check that with, or is that with strings?
Do you mean that you set your rear toe out? I did that on an autoX Leggy once and it made for much more lively handling, but its hell on tires, from what I understand.

[jamal]

how much toe out did you have?

I just marked the bolts when I put them off, put them back in the same spot afterwards, then checked it with toe plates. I figured it was close enough to not bother trying to adjust out. I'll be doing those struts fairly soon and an inner tie rode so I'll need a full alignment then.

[beatersubi]

I think it was slightly more than 1/16", definitely less than 1/8", but it sure made a difference.

[jamal]

hmmm. I wouldn't expect much additional wear, plus I don't have much camber in the rear of the car. Will have to keep an eye on it though.

[beatersubi]

That car wasn't a daily driver and didn't belong to me, so I can't directly report the effect on tire wear. I've just heard from others who use their car for double duty.

[jamal]

well it's been like 8 months. I put on the roof rack and a guy took some pictures of my car in the meantime:



whole folder of them here
http://jamalb.net/pictures/mycar/

[Legacy777]

Looking good!

I just bought an 06 silver lego wagon. I'm not sure what I want to do with the wheels and whether I want to keep them silver or go dark with a gun metal. If I could find a lighter gun metal I think that would look good.