Will's H6 Outback

Since I have been doing a few more things to the outback I thought I'd start a journal.

The car started off as a high kms car that I managed to pick up cheap because it had head gasket issues. The car was then converted to dual range manual and had the heads rebuilt.

As it sits today it has:

2'' Crossbread body lift
Raised springs
SubaXtreme front bar
SubaXtreme sump guard
215-70-16 BFG A/T's
Dual batteries
2 way
110db stereo
Roof top tent

And what I have been working on this weekend...

A new roof rack system.



As the plastic ends on my standard roof bars where not quite up to the job of holding the tent I decided to buy some pro rack roof tracks. The tracks are bolted in place in the standard bolt positions, riveted to the roof and sealed/glued with polyurethane.






The new rails will be used to support this!
Tradies rack that had been cut down to suby size. Hopefully got onto welding it next weekend. Will be designed to carry windsurfing gear/surfboards and rooftop tent.

 
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So got some pics together of a the rack with the tent on it, still haven't got around to powder coating. One of the snorkel and a couple from a recent trip to Thredbo.

For those who are interested the part number for the snorkel is STH25AA and is off a 25 series hilux. Have my lil bro holding it on the pic to show fitment.



ryyl.jpg




 
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^ looking great!

Dulagarl said:
You could get one from all drive subaroo. They will also be able to get a longer 5th gear for you. A few people on this forum have used em, including Kevin I think. No bad reports at all.
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Yep, they do excellent work!
 
^^^very tough looking outback mate! I like it.
The only thing not so good is your manual box. If this H6 came with autobox, Why did you do a manual dual range conversion? I would have kept the autobox because they are better in serious offroading and towing in my experience and honest opinion. The autobox do not have dual range but the torque converter in auto is more than enough to do the trick/job apart from that, the low range is not low enough in manual and they will not handle a very high torque motor like the one I have-approx.640nm of torque and 200+ kw at the wheels.
 
Your OB is looking great hydrowill. Can't wait to see it with the snorkel fitted, then it'll look awesome :raz:

Dulagarl said:
You could get one from all drive subaroo. They will also be able to get a longer 5th gear for you. A few people on this forum have used em, including Kevin I think. No bad reports at all.
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Kevin said:
Yep, they do excellent work!
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I'll 2nd that :ebiggrin:
I'm very happy with mine :biggrin:

Regards
Mr Turbo
 
I can't wait to fit the snorkel either! Just need more time in the week :P

If this H6 came with autobox, Why did you do a manual dual range conversion? I would have kept the autobox because they are better in serious offroading and towing in my experience and honest opinion.
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Tbh it wasn't even a consideration. The 4AT it came with sapped all go that the car had in the first place. This car is also my daily drive so it would bore the cr@p out of me if it where an auto. Tows the 1.2T boat no worries and TBH I won't be towing much heavier than that. Also I don't like the way you feel disengaged offroad driving an auto, becomes point and shoot driving which I'm not a fan of. Had no issues with the gear box so far, not like I have been dropping the clutch on massive amounts of revs, you would have to be silly to do that in an AWD anyway unless you are Ken Block.
 
Hydrowill, I concur with your thoughts on the manual gearbox. Scooby2 was chosen because she is manual, and we both love the car to drive. Very happy also with her latest efforts ... Towing up fairly ordinary tracks in low range she was brilliant.

I am not familiar with torque/nm or any of that stuff... Scooby2 is just a standard scubaroo and such a pleasure to take anywhere. On road, off road, towing she is brilliant. Am sure your H6 is also. I have been watching you roof rack modifications with much interest, and am still thinking Scooby2 could do with a RTT.

Best regards,
 
Hey Will, is the snorkel unmodified in that pic? Looks like a pretty good fit.
 
Bit of an update.

Hey Will, is the snorkel unmodified in that pic? Looks like a pretty good fit.
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Cosmetically it is a perfect fit, however there is not enough room in the guard for the flexible tube to make a bend. Too far from the airbox in the engine bay. DOH... Looking around I think one of the latest Triton ones may be a better fit. Matt might be paying you a visit soon :P
If anyone wants the snorkel $80 I believe I've seen one on a Forester.

The roof rack is currently at the powder coaters.

Rear tire carrier is currently being built and have a new bash guard! The bash guard is MUCH better than the subaxtreme one. Being folded aluminium plate with a much stronger mounting bracket that ties into the engine cross-member I expect it to do the job. I'll put a pic up soon.

Lift might get an overhaul soon too however that can wait for a bit.

Will.
 
Looking good mate. I started my rear carrier too, how are you going about yours?
 
I'm cheating. Getting the bloke who made the bash guard to build it. It will basically sit under the existing bumper which will be cut down a bit and will inlude a 50x50 hitch.

I don't have the skills or the time at the moment to learn the skills to build my own.
 
Fair enough, I've got the week off so i'm going to try and get some strut blocks and the rear carrier done.
 
Some pics of my new bash guard

Ignore my oil leak...





And a few from this weekend at the Grampians :)



My girlfriend testing out the suby on some mountain tracks.




Overall an eventful weekend where I learned a lot about recovering cars offroad (luckily not the suby). As usual the outback did everything I wanted it to.
 
Sure is mate, as you can see from the mark in the first pic I hit a rock that I didn't see coming into a creek crossing and it left little more than a scratch. The bracket you can see in the second pic bolts into the standard plastic guard bolt holes and also into the engine cross-member (not seen, under the guard). Strong as!
 
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Mounted my finished roof rack today, here is how it turned out.





And a close up of how it's mounted. Captive nuts I made out of some 20x3mm flatstock slide into the track. A bit of a PITA to get the rack block and nut to line up but it works.



I ended up using hex head bolts so they wouldn't catch anything as it was slid onto the rack (as opposed to normal bolts.

As for today it was a typical Melbourne all seasons in one day. I went from drenched and shivering to hot and dry more than once whilst fitting!
 
Nice looking rack there! Ill be doing something similar soon.
I remember you said you were going to put the rooftop tent on it. Is it wide enough for that?
 
Yeah mate, first pic on page 3 it is on top of the rack. Only thing I would suggest is though if you are going to make one yourself is to consider making it out of aluminium to keep weight down, especially if it's going on the standard bars. I wish I could weld aluminium (I also wish I could weld steel well :P)
 
Yeah those bash plates are pretty solid. I've had mine on for about two years now, and as many of you will know the underside of my car has not had an easy life but it has survived everything.

Outback is looking awesome Will!
 
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