KZJonny

https://toptirereview.com/continental-extremecontact-sport-vs-michelin-pilot-sport-4s/ Interesting comparo between the PS4S and Extreme Contact Sports.

I'd like to try both of those side by each. I guess I've got a little brand loyalty with Continental, since I have them on my cars, motorcycles and bicycles... hah! They were the right price on sale when I needed tires tho, so I felt good enough about that. Maybe I'll get the chance to go for a ride in something with MPS4S at the meet-up. (We also may be talking amongst ourselves at this point. OP with one post and one login... )

How hard are you going to flog it? Intended use etc… Pilot Sport 4’s are undeniably awesome, but also pretty expensive. If you’re not going to be at a track with them, you may be spending more for not much gain. For 2/3 the money, I really like my Conti Extreme Contacts A/S tires. Where I live, we can have extreme rain events and early/late frosts and snow, so I can’t risk UHP summer tires. Much depends on the use case scenario…

While I don't buy *all* OEM stuff, I think if you really look at price differences between OE and good quality aftermarket for Subaru, it often isn't that much of a difference. That is to say, that while they're pricey, I think a lot of the OEM Subaru stuff is priced kinda reasonably for what it is. There isn't quite enough room for the aftermarket (or at least the good quality stuff) to really price low and make much money. I've seen BMW OEM stuff be so incredibly expensive from the dealer that there is a lot of room to make a good aftermarket part, at a much better price and still turn a profit (BMW just as an example...). Maybe the case, maybe not. Subaru is also a pretty small player on the automotice market here in general too. Probably lots of parts some companies could make easily enough, but they've run the numbers and it doesn't make sense to bother given the size of the Sooby fleet out there....

If you think you'll need to cut out the toe adjusting bolts, which if you have *any* rust is likely, do yourself a giant favour and get a carbide tipped blade for your recip, if that is the weapon of choice. I wasted a bunch of time dulling normal metal blades until I caved and spend the ~$15 on a single good blade that went through the hardened steel easily. I replaced those bolts with the MOOG version as they have a zerk fitting on the bolts head and send grease into the void left by the cam shape, which the reason those bolts seize so hard in the first place. I personally do not think the 1/16" grease passage down the bolt will affect it's strength. Opinions may vary. Top choices for ball joints seem to be OEM or "555" brand. Ima try the latter when mine go. I figure if they survive an actual rally race, then they'll probably serve on my car for a while. Curious to see what info comes up on coilovers tho. I'm happy with my struts and springs, but when the supply of cheap JDM takeoffs dries up, it might be time to consider some streetable coilovers.

Let me take some photos of the sills on the parts car I have sitting out front. RBP is the '05 only dark blue yes (Royal Blue PearL?) I'm don't even know my own paint colour. They may or may not be better than yours, so I can DM or text photos to see if they're worth pulling off and dragging down. They are at least OG Subaru paint, so might be worth having the extras so you can do paint correction on one set and still have some on your car in the meantime? I also have 2x sets of B25 heads, so I'd be willing to part/trade away the ones that are not on my spare engine. They would need a cleaning/checkup, but there is no obvious damage to them that I cam see and cam journal wear looks to be about normal for a 24x xxx KM engine. Let me know about any of that. If I had more room, or was willing to tow a trailer down with me to haul back parts (I am not, there are too many twisty road on the way down/back up), I'd find some cash for that trans, just to have a spare. As it is, you've got too much nice stuff that needs a home!!

LHS? I would start by looking at fuel lines probably. Shouldn’t be much to leak below/around the door… I’d think fuel must be running along something and dripping off on the left. Fuel tank seams are also a common failure point. Hoe full was the tank when you were driving/smelled gas?

By rocker covers… do you mean the plastic sills below the doors?

Just replaced ~4 year old Moog sway bar links in my DD Outback. Probably only did 30 000kms, since I don’t really drive all that much. Roads here aren’t great, but I wasn’t thrilled with that time/distance. Easier fix than ball joints tho. I installed Moog Ball joints last fall, and I can at least say with confidence that they fit well and came with the right pinch bolts. Hopefully they last, the price was right for the DD.

Jealous of your 6MT! Offer stands dude. Give me enough time to install and run power. Lift is yours for as much time as it takes to do that swap. Even working in the driving hours, I bet it would be faster with a lift.

Yessir! No more raIn on the inside...Lol! I understand the jealousy, for sure... But fwiw I haven't done things like go out for dinner or casual pints in years now.. I can't remember the last time I bought myself any new clothes, (4-5 years, aside from new steel toes for work...) and I grow a HUGE amount of food in my garden each summer, partly because I love to, and it also saves pennies to put towards this stuff... I know we all do things like this for our passions, so I'm not the exception. I just never mentioned it in the thread, in case somebody thought I'm some sort of silver spoon kid... I am assuredly not. You should see the state of the inside of my house. (It's clean!!! but all the 50 year old crap that it came with has not been replaces, and it likley won't soon.... you make choices.) All that said, mi casa su casa dude. I know Ottawa isn't exaclty around the corner, but if you ever lined up a job like a 6mt swap or whatever, you just drag all that stuff down here on a weekend, and we can get it done in an afternoon rather than a week worth of being on your back with the car on jack stands!

Yeah, I think it was worth the cost and the wait. I'm no mechanic, but I do mess around a lot on cars, help out friends when things break, and have met some people along the way that I would lend the space to if they really needed a lift for a job. (No dude, you can't use my lift to do your oil change....) Out of purely morbid curiosity I took a look at the cost of these things post-pandemic, and they are almost 100% more expensive than when I paid for this. So.... some times planning ahead and making regrettable impulse purchases while on the phone with a salesperson can work out for you. I can say with certainty that if I'd waited until the garage was up to pay for this, I wouldn't have it.

Why is it that only when I am flat broke that things I want or need come up available!?

I have an idle thought that perhaps the group mind can answer. I was considering getting a pressure bleeder for doing brake fluid changes, since I almost always do this solo, and the pump into a coke bottle method gets a little tiring. It's a bunch of money tho, and I can maybe live with doing things the hard way for a while. BUT i also occurred to me that since our clutches are such a PITA to bleed out, that perhaps the pressure bleeder could do double duty on that as well, which would probably make the spend a whole lot more reasonable. I do not believe that there is an option on the list of caps that come with the bleeder that is going to fit the clutch master however, so I was think of getting a spare cap and drilling it out to accept any kind of fitting that will attach to the power bleeder, with some kind of glue/expoxy whatever to keep it all sealed up. Somehow my random stash of parts doesn't have another clutch master cylinder cap on it. Most of the parts cars I've come across are auto.... I guess people hang on to their MT's a little more dearly... SO... does anyone have a spare clutch MC cap that I can has to use in an experiment?

I've read rumours that the OEM is Timken anyway, but that is not something I can back up. I've got plenty of KMs on the ones (timkens)(on the OBW, and that thing hauls stuff around all the time +plus occassionally towing my motorcycle + trailer, camping trips filled to max, kegs of beer, etc..... The GT does less hauling, but more twisty road. I'll keep tabs on how long they last under less weight, but more.... duress?

ohboyohboyohboyohboy…. Almost 2 years later, it arrives. It had not really been annoying not having power to the garage up until now. Time to start spending again, I suppose.

I won't now. My mistunderstanding was based on parts databases that had separate part numbers for AT vs. MT. Now that I know they're the same (or functionally the same anyway), regardless of trans type, you can bet Ima start hoarding all the green cap axles I can lay my hands on. Around here the ends get pretty beat up by rust, but I'll have a go at rebuilding a couple before I spend Raxles money on a set for the GT.

How do you like the Primitive pan? I was shopping around trying to find some UHMW plastic or similar to make something up for myself, and between purchase and shipping, it’s going to be like 1/2 the cost of just buying one of these…. So, when mine finally breaks, or I get angry and smash it, I’ll be looking at aftermarket for a replacement.

I’d really like to go for a cruise in that car once you’ve got the built engine in there. I know this site focuses on Turbo cars, (makes sense, but still..) but I still like the torque and reliability of my OBW… and it has next to no handling mods. I can imagine set up like yours it would be a riot of a DD.

It’s N/A tho, so how big of a difference does that make anyway?

Welcome to the forum! What do you drive?

Yessir.

Totally off the topic at hand, but as I read msprank's last post I thought of something which made me laugh. First of all, yeah, of course you'll get beer from me for putting in all this effort. I may end up having to bring a fair bit, to cover 'debts' and let every adult who wants to try or swap beer have one. Second, and this was the laugh is that I just realized that most of you lot are probably reading my name as "Kay-Zee" or something like that, when of course it is not. "Kay-Zed" is the correct pronunciation. If I ignore you when you talk to me, let me apologize now in advance, it won't be intentional, just my not recognizing what I'm hearing. Lol!

120kg of pelletized hops. That’ll last… a few weeks. Hah!

I like the idea of black on Heather Grey, kinda less obvious. and if it didn't make the printing costs silly I would go for a small logo on the front, offset to whatever side (I suppose wearers left is standard) with a larger logo on the back. As far as the names thing, I'm ambivalent and always find it fun and a great memory thing to bring along Sharpies and get people to just sign the thing for you. Makes it a little simpler, in you get a custom tee you can hang up somewhere. I'd buy two, one to wear out and another for the garage wall with peoples signitures and LGT handles on it. Whatever people want to write.