So why are YOU daily driving your rally car?

My OutbackXT started running like garbage, no codes thrown, I figured a dying o2 sensor or something, so I parked it ordered tune up stuff and took my time getting to work on it. "I'm gonna reconnect with my rally car, we miss each other". (Rally car took a backseat to my motorcycle project these past few months)

Driving it to work gave me a chance to finally get my coworkers and neighbors into it and go do donuts and hit some gravel on the edge of town. Having fun, people love race cars. Kids LOVE putting on the harness, big smiles.

Still haven't figured out my XT. I stupidly did all the hard unnecessary things (like borrow known good sensors from busy friends after work) before I got started on the basics like looking at compression and timing. Swapping parts on it at night when my buddies have been available means I've been DD'ing my rally car for about two weeks... I finally looked at compression(a total bitch to do on this motor in the car) and it's low on both left bank cylinders. Tonight I'll go count teeth on the timing belt and see if it jumped a bit.

I'm very much sick of driving the rally car now. Yesterday I sat through a entire traffic light cycle because of my super low windshield sun blocker vinyl.

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Brap Brap.

did you check for a bad intake gasket?

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I would rather drive a slow car fast as a fast car slow!
first rule of cars: get what makes you happy, your the one paying for it!

The sitting through the light made me chuckle.
Ironically the rally car is my most reliable vehicle. There was a point a few weeks back that the Outback started seeping coolant quickly from the radiator, the A4 Avant puked all it's coolant through the heater core (and now from the radiator after replacing core), and the gen 1 Cummins has a substantial leak from the pinion seal. The other four cars I currently own are not road legal. One of them is getting dropped at junk yard today (97 OBS), the 96 Impreza with bad engine may follow. The 02 Hyundai is junk too but it's kinda begging me to buy a Gen 1 Eclipse or Talon and do a fun AWD turbo swap into it and WRC Replica look. I wonder if the 4G63 Hyundai valve cover can still be found...
I digress.
Good luck with the XT. We got the base 2.5 non-turbo in hopes of avoiding too much maintenance and traffic tickets. It's been a relatively problem free 60k miles since we bought it, probably about time for some routine maintenance. Only major service was after I smoked the clutch in a big winter storm trying to get home with a car full of underdressed kids. It's up to about 1500 miles per quart so not quite to the 1200 miles that Subaru considers a problem.

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Grant Hughes

i daily drove the rx7 rally car for about 2 months. 1.5 hours commute each way too.

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First Rally: 2010 First RallyX: 2004 (a bunch)
Driver (0), Co-Driver (7)
Organizer (3), Volunteer (3)
Cars Built (2.5), Engines Blown (2) Cages Built (0) # of rotations (3.5)
Last Updated, Apr 9, 2023

Haven't looked at the intake gaskets yet.
I checked the cam timing last night and it wasn't off a tooth or two like I'd hoped- so the compression loss on those 2 cylinders has to be something else more expensive now. Yay.

If I was knowingly going to DD the thing for 2 months I'd install a stereo!

Grant, the rally car is for sure my most reliable vehicle. Even my mountain bike and R/C crawler are out for repair. There isn't anything I own that I haven't put more love and care into. Trust it to get me anywhere, numb and deaf, but I'd get there.

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Brap Brap.

Found it...

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Brap Brap.

sorry, i was hoping it was something simple. did it damage the cylinder?

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I would rather drive a slow car fast as a fast car slow!
first rule of cars: get what makes you happy, your the one paying for it!

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biggreen96
Found it...

You don't need forged pistons..
Why a guy I know who works at Seventy-leven said a guy came in whose cousin know a ghuy who dyno 456 hp on a stock bottom end, mang.. So just cause we see like that regularly with cast doesn't mean forged is the solution.. uhn uhn.

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John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

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tdrrally
sorry, i was hoping it was something simple. did it damage the cylinder?

Nothing that I can feel, but I can see a slight area of missing crosshatch.

This car is 100% stock tune. No extra boost or anything not even a K&N.

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Brap Brap.

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biggreen96
This car is 100% stock tune. No extra boost or anything not even a K&N.

That's likely your problem right there. Subarus of that era (even still) are notorious for going lean during the spoolup crossover.

That's what I'm seeing now after doing some research. Thanks emissions requirements!

I'll enrich my tune after I get this thing going again. I have a open source tuning tactrix cable I haven't put to good use yet.

Does anybody know where I might be able to buy individual piston rings for this junker?

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Brap Brap.

Quote
biggreen96
That's what I'm seeing now after doing some research. Thanks emissions requirements!

I'll enrich my tune after I get this thing going again. I have a open source tuning tactrix cable I haven't put to good use yet.

Does anybody know where I might be able to buy individual piston rings for this junker?

Uh derp derp, uh I dunno, I honly have built one or 2 motors evar in the last couple of months but if'n I's wuz youse, and I hain't I think I would be mighty worried about the other pissed-ons doing the same thing since they're like twirling around in the same motor and suffering the same conditions-n-stuff..

Youse hain't worried?

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John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

Great! I need just 2 top piston rings, the normal size 99.500mm

Nope not worried!

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Brap Brap.

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biggreen96
Great! I need just 2 top piston rings, the normal size 99.500mm

Nope not worried!

Shouldn't fresh rings be on the replacement pistons you're getting? Rins won't do any good on the piston you posted the piccie of ya know?
You have fresh pistons?

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John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

I just tig'd the ringlands back on and smoothed it up. Saw a cool YouTube vid showing how to do it.

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Brap Brap.