Some cool new parts

I tried to think of something more cool than a half meter long carbon fiber gear shifter, but couldn't think of anything.

A picture of the parts. To the right is the carbon fiber tube, in the middle the aluminium thread insert that connects to the shifter knob and to the left a stainless insert that will be welded to the gear shifter joint. This will be glued together once I get the right angle to drill the hole into the stainless insert.

Everyone who has driven one of these know how enjoyable changing gears is, hopefully with these parts it can be done in style.

Another gear box, installing the rear coil overs

The computer trouble has continued. I just broke another computer and the homepage ratataksi.com has been mostly down for over a week now because of the internet provider's server troubles.

RJES bell housing changed to another gear box that has a limited slip differential. We also cleaned and greased the other CV-joints that were luckily in good shape. I noticed that the stock drive shafts feel soft, so they will be monitored for twist.

The coil over installation at the rear. The lower mounting point is the stock shock mounting point and the upper point is relocated.

We had to make this special tool to remove the oil cooler. It's an 1/2 inch socket that has been lengthened with a piece of roll cage tubing.

Last Sunday another car joined the family.

New parts for engine and some computer trouble

We got a couple parts for the engine. Mainly a oil filter relocation kit and a replacement for the intake silencer.

Lower in the picture is the part that replaces the intake silencer. The stock plastic box doesn't look like it has a purpose in the engine bay of a sporty transporter, so we had to get something different instead. It works with the stock intake tubing, it's just a bit shorter than the silencer.

The parts to relocate the oil filter and oil/water heat exhanger. These parts are probably made in china, but how can you complain with the price of 55 dollars and excellent quality? It has also mounting points for oil pressure and temperature, so these gauges will be very easy to install.

I really like the oil/water cooler in these subaru engines. Cooling the oil with the same water that cools the engine means that the faster heating water helps to heat the oil when the engine warms up. This makes the oil reach operating temperature quicker than normally. I'm still a bit worried how it will work in our use, because might be that the oil is kept too cool if it follows the water temperature, but I'm sure the japanese engineers have thought of this.

The broken water tubes were replaced and the engine mount is painted. Next up will be starting with the electricity of the car, which have been already almost planned.

On the internet side there has been some problems. The day before yesterday our service provider decided to block everyone's access to our homepage because the server it's on was attacked. This means that many of the people who tried to access our site yesterday or the day before can't (ever?) get in, me included. I'll wait over this weekend and send another email if they don't get it fixed. The traffic on the site is starting to get back to normal, but as long as I can't get in, probably someone can't get in either, which is a bit troublesome. So I refuse to send them my internet address so that they can fix only my problem.

The laptop I've been using for all this internet work also broke. Luckily I have everything backed up, but I still need to reinstall all the programs I've used on another computer.

Roll cage almost ready

Work progressed quite nicely this weekend, despite some subaru parts buyers bothering us. Only two tubes of the roll cage need still to be done, plus the shoulder belt mountings of the middle seats.

The upper left point of the main rollbar. There is still one tube missing, so this should be a quite stiff spot.

Here's a picture of what we had to do to install the roof diagonals. One corner had to be hammered out so you could get it more easily into place. Before welding the corner is hammered back in.

A picture of the interior.
Mika brought the corolla in for some maintenance. So don't worry, the car on right isn't our next race car project.

A closer shot of the tubes in the slide door opening. We ended making a low cross structure. If it would have been made any higher, it would have made entrance even more difficult.

We also got the engine parts painted, and we just heard that the flanges for the exhaust manifold are ready. The springrates have also been calculated, so next week we should order new shocks and springs.

Cannibalizing the spare parts subaru

We got the spare parts subaru from a company called Japan moottorituonti on monday, and took it apart. It was much work, but we didn't take much pictures. Here's the few we took.

The engine is off. We also got the wire harness and engine control unit, so we can easily get the car running with with stock parts.

The dismantled halfcut Subaru. There's still some spot parts to take off, eg. the pedals.

The no. 2 engine waiting for exhaust to be built. We also removed the parts to be painted from the first engine and prepared them for sand blasting.