Project Baja Foz!

Hey everyone, this is the new build for The Wandering Foz, continuing where the old thread left off: The Great Alaskan Tundra Humper

IMG_3756 by jeremiah stewart, on Flickr

Goal:
I have wanted to race the Baja 1000 since I was a little kid, but a few years ago I came across the Mexican 1000 which is a little more grassroots and easier for a normal guy like me to race in. So that's the goal! I wanted to race in their "Rally Raid AWD" class using my Hotbits coilovers as they were at the max travel for that class, but most years there is nobody in that class. Might as well try to be competitive if i'm entering a race right? So the class I'm shooting for is Score Class 7 or BITD 7200. In the Mexican 1k it'll either be "Heavy Metal Class" or "Pre-run Truck".

For now I will only be focusing on suspension so I can stay on track to be able to take the foz on a roadtrip planned for May 2017. A roll cage and a bunch of safety items will need to be built after the roadtrip unless I have the time to do the rollcage this winter. Shooting to make the race in the spring of 2018, but if the foz is ready sooner than then, then I will enter a domestic race to get my feet wet.

Plan:
  • Dual A-arm front suspension cycling 18-22" of travel
  • Dual A-arm rear suspension with toe link (will make sense later - similar to the PPI 015 Toyota) cycling 20-24" of travel
  • 32" tires on factory offset wheels to allow for longer arms and more travel while keeping it under the BITD max width of 85"
  • Either King or Fox internal bypass coilovers all around
  • High compression EG33 unless the length is more than I want to build around, then it'll be an EZ30
  • Extended length axles (+8") probably from DSS

Follow on Instagram:@thewanderingfoz
 
You can't stop such a project !

What CV axles did you finally use ?
 
It's been a long time with no update, but now that my roadtrip around america is complete (over 20,000 miles traveled this summer), I have the time to give a little update.

First off, thank you guys for the kind words and support, I appreciate it!

So to answer Jf1sf5's question, the axles I'm using in front are a 930 inner CV's with 1.1" of plunge an 27* max articulation bolted to Subarugears 930 flanges, then on the outboard end, they are late 90's Ford f250/350 specific joints made by NTN with Subaru stubs welded to them and some super beefy chromoly shafts in between the joints:

20170604_123531 by jeremiah stewart, on Flickr

The work was done by CVO (Constant Velocity of Ocala) and they cost 950 USD plus 400 for the Subaru gears flanges in case any of you are interested.
Some of you may be wondering why I didn't go with DSS, and that is because I called them to get an idea, and the guy was not only unfriendly, but hardly helpful and slightly condescending and also they charged twice as much.
I also contacted RCV, who was way more friendly and helpful, but they were going to take much longer because they would have needed me to mail them my stubs to take measurements and 3d models, but I didn't have the time back then.

Now for the update:
I got back to Alaska on September 3rd and only stayed for a little over a week because I had to get down to Oregon soon for work. But while there, I did spend some time with the Foz to at least get it running.

During the trip, I had been thinking about the IACV code (24) and figured that there must be a wiring problem, either a ground or power wire to the sensor. So I tested for 12v on the power wire and then tested continuity from iacv plug to ecu plugs for the two signal wires and they checked out fine. Then double checked that the ecu was putting out the right power to those wires and was pretty stumped at that point.

I came across an old forum post somewhere that claimed that old subie ecu's will throw a false code 24 for the IACV if the "backup power supply" wire to the ecu doesn't have constant 12v. I thought there was no way, but sure as ****, I tested that wire at the ecu plug and it had 0 resistance to ground; I merged it to a damn ground wire! After wiring that properly (though poorly), it still wouldn't start. So we checked for fuel, and of course there was no gas! After putting gas in it, the beast fired right up. We took it on a little trip around the block and it seemed fine, though I still haven't had a chance to really open her up because it's loud af. So with that sorted, I hung the fenders and bumper on so I could finally see what it looks like, and I think it's pretty awesome, just needs bigger tires.

DSC03922 by jeremiah stewart, on Flickr

DSC03923 by jeremiah stewart, on Flickr

You may notice that the front camber is positive, and the rear negative; that is because my front ball joint contraption is no good, even though it fits nice and tight in the knuckle, it can still rock back and forth, causing the camber to change. I'll be fabbing some new knuckles soon, as well as some cool new control arms to try to mount the shocks better since the cantilever setup (sorry I never got a pic of the finished product) weighs a good 50lbs total.
As for the rear camber, the drivers side inner trailing arm mount is too low. But to get more travel in the rear, and for less weight, i'll be switching to a 3 or 4 link IRS similar to a RZR or Can-am X3 respectively.

That's it for now; the Foz is sitting in Alaska for now, so I can't work on it, but I can make the control arms and probably the rear setup before going back up to Alaska, if I decide to.
 
Hot damn! Look at that axle!! :lildevil:

Will be interested to see the new rear suspension design. How's the front cantilever design going?

Looks great mate!! :monkeydance:
 
That's awesome.

Needs a snorkel :lildevil:

Top effort. I wish I could make bar work like what you've been doing!

Keep up the good work - and stick with it, don't let this die because "it's got the better of you" or you've lost motivation because of... - just think of how far you've come and complete the project.

Last thing, where's its first outing going to be?

Cheers

Bennie

PS, I didn't think I'd ever see a trailing swing arm "L series" arrangement on a forester! EVER!!
 
Amazing car. So you can drive only in alaska with that thing?
 
Alright guys, here's an update:
In January the temperature finally warmed up to 30*F so I drug Ol' Silver out of its snowy grave as it began to rain:

DSC06783 by jeremiah stewart, on Flickr

DSC06788 by jeremiah stewart, on Flickr

DSC06791 by jeremiah stewart, on Flickr

DSC06802 by jeremiah stewart, on Flickr

DSC07431 by jeremiah stewart, on Flickr

This began the escapade in trying to get the thing running right. I changed the spark plugs, checked fuel pressure, injectors tested bad, knock sensors tested bad, fuel pump was questionable. When I replaced the fuel pump with a Walbro 255, I noticed that the charcoal canister hose I had connected to one of the lines on the pump housing was actually the line that sucks fuel from the other part of the stock saddle tank. So fuel was actually flowing into the tank through the return and also flowing up that line because it was under vacuum, to the engine. So with the cause of the flooding fixed, I pulled the springs off the coilovers to look at clearances at full bump (something I never got the chance to do):

DSC07443 by jeremiah stewart, on Flickr

DSC07449 by jeremiah stewart, on Flickr

DSC07450 by jeremiah stewart, on Flickr

DSC07440 by jeremiah stewart, on Flickr

Conclusion: It's obvious that I need to do a lot more cutting to the fenders, but the ground clearance and front/rear ride height is almost exactly where I wanted it to be. The front had 1" more ground clearance than the rear which will be 4" with 33" tires. The rear will be 3" with 33's. This was at 17" front travel and 21" rear. I do wish the rear were squatted a couple inches lower to have some reserve bump travel to prevent bucking but that would mean cutting the quarter panels up to the bottom of the windows. Moving the diff up would be easy though.

Here are some shots from the day I did some test driving:

DSC08242 by jeremiah stewart, on Flickr

DSC08122 by jeremiah stewart, on Flickr

DSC08143 by jeremiah stewart, on Flickr

I'm still facing an issue though: the engine runs perfectly smooth and reliably, but it seems down on power and oddly loud (even for a dual 2.5" exhaust with glasspacks). It seems like it's retarding timing but there are no codes and everything seems to test fine. I also tried the ECU from my Impreza with the same results.
That's pretty much it for now.
 
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Thanks for the update - just "slight" rubbing on full compression :lol:
 
That car (I guess you can still call it that) is truly amazing. Mind you, your daily is amazing too!
 
I am back to work on Ol' Silver, but not in the physical yet. So a couple months back, I tested the foz out at the dike by running it through whoops and hitting two little jumps at only like 45mph (the nurple did this section at about 55 to 60mph with the Hotbits). We got back to the shop and found the front coilovers rubbing on each other and the left side cantilever rotated out of whack. The mounting plate for the cantilever had bent up around the bolt that goes through the frame rail. I suspected this would be the failure point of the cantilever setup, but it was still a bummer.

Fast forward to now: I have motivation again, so I designed some lower control arms to allow me to mount the shocks vertically like a truck. I always thought there wasn't enough room but I mocked it up recently and there is just barely enough room. So once I get these cut out and put together, I will make upper coilover mounts and then hopefully the front will done for the most part.

Screenshot (7) by jeremiah stewart, on Flickr

Screenshot (8) by jeremiah stewart, on Flickr

The next project will either be changing the rear suspension or building a cage with a spare tire mount that will stick out through the hatch and hold two spares vertically with the fuel filler neck between them. That should help the weight distribution a bit.

I should also note that I have decided to change focus on this build. I do not plan on racing it anymore. I just want to make it a little pre-runner and use it to keep getting better at fabrication and to keep learning more about suspension design.
 
So a few months ago I got my LCA pieces and started to weld them together and also started trimming the fenders for 33's. I also started making a tow bar for it so I can pull it behind my GX470 though i'm not sure it'll be as good of an idea as I think it is. Currently all projects are unfinished, including the roof rack I made for the Lexus that is now completely rusty lol. It's a PITA having to do everything at my work because I have to be able to get the car in and out of the shop in one weekend which often means that I tear it down to get measurements or to mock stuff up then have to put it all back together just to drive it home and let it sit for a couple more weeks.

20181130_211902 by jeremiah stewart, on Flickr

20181130_190918 by jeremiah stewart, on Flickr
 
I finally got the front end done, and even welded together some rear axles and swapped the 33x12.5r15's onto the Methods. Did a few test runs in the snow, and there seems to only be a few issues, one being that the center differential is very lazy and stupid so i will need to wire up a lock switch. The other issues are the drivers side rear cv axle pulling apart (I must've made it a tad bit too short), it needs real bumpstops, and the headlights and dash lights don't work.

Need to clean up the engine bay a bit:

20190303_131516 by jeremiah stewart, on Flickr

DSC01016 by jeremiah stewart, on Flickr

I made a tow bar and wired the rear Subaru trailer plug to the Lexus' 7 pin plug so it has lights:

DSC01184 by jeremiah stewart, on Flickr

Got the side windows tinted 15% and had this beautiful Tecate decal printed by my buddy:

DSC01350 by jeremiah stewart, on Flickr

DSC01357 by jeremiah stewart, on Flickr

DSC01353 by jeremiah stewart, on Flickr

DSC01341 by jeremiah stewart, on Flickr

After I fix the axle, i'll get some videos of this thing.
 
Beautiful, can't wait to see the video, must be noisy though....
 
looks sick , wow but that front radiator unprotected... ouch, and its looks low that front is so low to ground ...with all that flex its so low
 
That engine looks sooo good in there. :)

If it was a straightforward process I'd so be shoving my EG33 into my Foz.

As it is, I'm facing the hard decision on which one to repair first. The SVX needs brake work (still) and registration and the Foz... two words... Head Gasket. :(
 
Looks great, that articulation is amazing!!!

The radiator/approach angle is a bit of a worry, any plans to lift that out of the way?
 
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