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Old 04-07-2020, 08:18 PM   #207
TheLonat
Scooby Newbie
 
Member#: 513284
Join Date: Apr 2020
Location: Draper Utah
Vehicle:
2008 N/A 5mt outback
2 tone brown and gold

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Quote:
Originally Posted by sureshot007 View Post
When I was your age, if someone had given me good advice in response to this question, I would not have listened to them. Having the gift of hindsight, I would have seen the value in the advice, and realize how beneficial it would have been to not only heed the advice, but to really understand why.

Alas, when I was your age, I didn't listen. And so I've made all of those mistakes already.

I know how you feel: no money, but labor is free. What's the worst that could happen? I just want to have fun, so who cares if it's a really good idea. I'll learn a lot by doing this, and I can apply that to future endeavors. The car isn't worth much now, so it's not like I'm really losing any value. Etc, etc, etc....

I'm saying all of that so that you know I won't be offended when you completely dismiss everything I'm about to say. I don't take it personally at all. But just in case anyone else is interested, here is what I learned doing this conversion:

It's less fun and less reliable. If you want RWD fun, just buy a RWD car for cheap. A 3rd gen Camaro or fox body Mustang will be more fun as RWD cars. Doing this just for the novelty of doing it is silly. The car's suspension wasn't designed to be RWD, so there isn't enough squat under acceleration to transfer the power, so it just handles like ****. I broke so many axles. Admittedly, I was harder on the car than just about anyone in the world would be. Axles should last longer than 5 miles.

I did this. And I wish I didn't. Use the car for what it was intended, AWD winter shenanigans, and get a cheap RWD car (F body, E30, S14, etc). Sure, it would cost more up front, but when you are done, you'll have 2 cars worth 80% of what you bought them for...instead of 1 car worth 20% of what you paid for it.

But, the road to good intentions is paved with bad ideas. So I know you are going to try this anyway (especially since you want to do BC Coilovers). So just make sure you get a spare center diff to weld, and do a really good job, because it's super easy to warp it so it's not perfectly aligned. If you are going to weld the rear (which I do not recommend, it really, really sucks on the street), make sure you get another spare R160. This way, you can swap it back to normal pretty easy. Hopefully your car isn't so rusty that you'll be able to get that rear diff out easily. If you can source even a VLSD, that's better than welding for street driving. If you'll be RWD, you won't have to worry about matching the front final drive, so you can get one from any GD WRX.

Good luck.
You know what, Ill take your advice. I guess ill just have to wait a while to get a different car. I just pulled the engine to do a clutch job and rear main seal and some other things. The headgaskets have been done so I guess If I don't abuse this car it will last a while.
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