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And as of yesterday this project (and my 850) are on the market. Financially and time wise we cannot afford to do anything on it. It’ll be on marketplace once out of the storage unit. Sadface.jpg

I have a little press tool for reforming busted door lock holes if you want to use it. It remakes the wee ring that's pressed into the steel if it's been busted out

If anyone is wondering why I'm worrying about rolling guards etc, this thing has had 2 new guards stuck on rear at some stage they did a real nice job but didn't trim back the inside lip after fitting them so even stock wheels touch occasionally with a trailer on or passengers going in driveways. Just a tidy up and creating a little extra room at same time. Its going to squat a bit harder now so I better fix this before any new tyres go under it especially my slicks.

must be a twin, I havent ventured that far in it yet

For anyone looking, diff measurement from backing plate to backing plate is around 1220-1225mm. A MK2 Escort is about 1225mm as well. Some firewall /wheel well holes plugged up with much help, a work in progress: Some locks fitted, passenger and boot lock. One of the POs had welded a plate behind the lock holes to patch them, absolute bloody PITA to remove. We've gotten there in the end, drivers side to go. Annoying missing a door lock rod connecting everything so Ill have to fashion one from some 3.5-4mm wire.

Hadn't realized it was a link SMH!!

2GR sounds pretty rad

I mean Barra+t

So looks like this needs a bit of a design change. I took it for a decent blat tonight and about 10kms of 60mph the temp gauge started climbing and the overflow bottle was steaming. I limped it home and had a bit of a poke and a prod around. The rear radiator had overheated. The hose line from the thermostat/outlet was hot up until the booster pump. The front rad was cool to the touch. So I have a few options here. I have a bigger ewp I can fit. Also I can try it without the ewp and just the mechanical pump. The water coming out of the overflow was pretty cruddy so I might give it another flush. I also have a thermo fan for the rear rad but I dont think that is the problem. Might give it an overnight burp with the rear lifted too. It's pretty tricky as there are so many curves and turns in the hoses. One thing I also need to try is putting the outlet of the booster pump on the top. But I have to figure out how to do that due to hose angles. Might be easier to move it to the other side after the front radiator.

Did i see you on Gasson st the other day or is there a twin?

@Nominal is on the money there! Pretty cheap imo, but then again I'm used to mazda tax

They look good! Unfortunately mine are fairly complicated due to the size of the rotor and wheel. It's made it challenging to get air the in, but i'm pretty confident what i've done will have a pretty big impact on temps. First Prototype: My original version probably would have worked with the rotor hat holes blanked off, but while i'm busy fixing those I may as well do the job properly and hopefully for the last time.

Did you click the link?

Sorry there is so many choices to choose from so I don't know what you are meaning by obvious

The best generation of Impreza in my opinion. Subaru made their best looking cars in the 90s, GC/GF look much nicer than the models that followed, the SVX was in production, and even Legacy sedans were nicely proportioned. It’s a pity that the majority come with open deck blocks, PBMS give a power number that they believe is the upper limit, and lower spec WRX like mine come without any of the cool DCCD/quick steering rack/td04 and lower power/lesser suspension etc. Anyhow. Love reading about your Impretza (How the poms pronounce it), it’s high spec as it gets and you probably wont lose money on it.

Cheers mang, these old pigs are new to me, but i know there are plenty out there that have forgotten more than ill ever know about them, and everything that could be done has been done 100 times before, so thanks for sharing your experience At the moment, the engine is the least of our worries, seems to start and run well now with the pretty minor refreshing we have done so far. Its unlikely to be driving very far any time soon. Ill certainly be grabbing those sorts of bits and pieces when they appear if i see them to build up a 'performance package'. I had a look at a couple of V* commies when i was at PaP for the booster etc you mentioned too, so thanks for that (all 3 were already gone). Commies of that era are pretty common FBMP wrecking fare in my part of the world too, so will go that route when im back home and dont need to have suspicious looking heavy meatal objects in my carryon Also, KPie isnt too fussed about going fast, this engine is also part of the cars family history (173 and 4 speed from the family torana her brother rolled), having said that, she would be happy with a V8 too, simply because "those are the ones that make that noise that i like :)". While she has good taste in cars (pink hq) and poor taste in men (me), she neither backs trailers (just nope) nor fillets fish (life long vegetarian) , but please dont let that stop you from offering your helpful advice

Drove this from my work shop to home on the weekend. I live on same street as work shop so we are talking less than a 2km drive. I had my wife and 4 year old drop me down at the workshop to pick it up. When i backed it our of the workshop my young fella who was in his car seat with the window down goes "I DIDNT KNOW THIS WAS FIXED!!! CAN I GO IN IT!!!" unfortunately the interior was such a state with no rear seat and car parts all through it that it wasnt possible this time, but he was FIZZED. Got it home and had a pretty big grin on. Reckon its time to push on and finish this thing so can load the family in it and do some summer time driving. was a big mood booster thats for sure

/carpeted bonnet

Err, yes actually. PM?

1ur-fse

I would have thought the choice was obvious.

I do like the look of big tyres however if these offset do end up not working I'll find something more suitable. Pretty common on holdens to use X5 wheels but im finding people must be stretching on stupidly small tyres. Other than the bumper support I got wrong I don't want any other hurdles come cert time.

Being a self-confessed 6 cyl Holden slut I feel morally (and immorally) obliged to subject you all to ‘the World of 9 port Holden 6’s according to the long winded sr2”. · Any girl that drives a pink 6cyl HQ has to be tough and cool and if she can back a trailer and fillet fish Kpie just may have found the perfect woman! · All blocks from the 149 to the 202 share the same external dimensions and bellhousing stud patterns, the only difference being in the cylinder wall thicknesses. The 3.3 (202) Blue and Black motors blocks are the same but they were fitted with 12 port heads and only appeared in the nasty horrible “modern” Commodores. · All red cranks were the same with the exception of the 202 which had the stroke increased from 3” to 3.25” and has larger main journals. There were both steel and cast versions of the 3” crank with the steel crank being the traditionally preferred option but in my books if Brock won Bathurst with a cast crank its good enough for me. The Blue/ Black crank shares the same journal dimensions as the 202 but is counterbalanced and runs smoother. · With the increased stroke the 202 runs a piston with a higher gudgeon height to correct compression ratios. Some claim this makes the 202 more prone to piston failure but in 40 years of playing with Holden 6’s I’ve never seen anything to substantiate it. · Bottom line is there is still no substitute for cubes, a 202 will always produce more HP and torque. That aside I’m still in love with the smaller displacement engines. The 186 was a square 3” x 3” engine that really started Holden 6’s being taken seriously and who could forget Brock canning the living daylights out of a 173 (2850cc) Torana to take out Bathurst against the bigger V8’s. · The 9 port head with its siamesed inlets is somewhat asthmatic and comes in a high or low compression variation, just Google it’s easy to spot the difference. Be a little careful of running the high compression heads on the larger displacement engines. They were originally designed for 100 leaded gas; combine this with the fact that most of the heads and blocks out there have been skimmed a few times and you’ll end up with too much compression for modern gas and will have to pull a lot of spark out to avoid pinking. Don’t even contemplate going over a 9.5 to 1 compression ratio. · First step is to fit the HEI ignition from a Blue/Black Commodore. You’ll get better starting, economy, smoother running and reliability. Remember to get the ignition coil as well; it’s different from the old ballasted coil from the points setup. · A good set of headers with a carburation upgrade makes a big difference (you do need both). I avoid 350 Holleys like the plague, they guzzle gas, are pricks to setup and aren’t much of an improvement on the standard carb. A 34 ADM Weber of an XE/XF Falcon is a great improvement and my favourite single carb for a mildly tweaked Red 6 is the progressive choke 28/36 or 32/36 DCD Weber. The 390 vac secondary 4 barrel Holley is the choice if you’re building a single carb monster. · Just a quick note, although it flies in the face of conventional wisdom with a single carb setup always have the water heating on the inlet manifold connected. The benefits of keeping the air/fuel mixture in suspension outweighs disadvantage from the reduced density of the inlet charge. · With 3 siamesed inlet ports a triple carb setup is the obvious (and expensive) way to go. The XU1’s ran Stromberg’s - very hard to find an original set these days. Triple 1 ¾” H6 SU’s are Classic and easy to tune and live with while a set of triple DCOE Webers needs big money and even bigger engine mods. · An aftermarket cam makes a huge difference, don’t go too silly on the specs, when in doubt keep it mild. Franklin cams are the experts. · With ignition, exhaust, carburation and camshaft sorted you’ll have one very sweet street motor. · The Holden Red’s 9 port head is its Achilles Heel. This is where you can find the real power with larger valves, porting and flow testing but it gets expensive very quickly. If you can find a Yella Terra head (there’s still a few around) snap it up, the red 6’s love them. Sorry for the lengthy diatribe, once I started it was hard to stop. Just remember these motors first saw light in 1963. You can’t compare them to modern motors but for a readily available, easily modified, classic motor they are nothing but all class!

Have you got any LoRaWAN gear?

Visited Simon at Goodparts today. Inspired by you, he's tendered for and got a late 1800 Wing. He's going to offer the engine and electrics as a package for a car transplant....