From August 13th lol. Yeah. I said fuck it and let it ride. I'm trashing the tires anyway. They are well fucked. Can't complain too much, these tires have like 40k on them.
I'm back on my winter setup now. Getting an alignment tomorrow morning.
In other news, I've been going down the transmission build road. I have 2 options. Build the 5speed. Or swap in the 6speed. The 5spd will be more expensive to build, but is lighter and a simpler design and needs less changing of parts. The 6spd is a lot stronger stock, maybe even as strong as a built 5sp. But it's heavier and requires changing a lot of parts. I also think the 5speed has better gearing for my power band. The 6spd with shorter ratios will be better suited for higher RPMs, but I'm topping out at about 6500-7000. Even with a new turbo, on the stock heads, I don't expect to rev higher than that, just more power.
One thing I definitely want is DCCD. It's a great thing to have a center diff with variable lock. Even better that it can be electronically controlled based on how you're driving. 6spds come with DCCD stock, and are not compatible with the 5spd trans. And a few JDM/EDM 5spds have them too, but they are rare and hard to find and a bit pricey (expecting to pay $500 for the diff and tail housing alone.)
So I went searching. I stumbled on an ad from last year for a whole trans. JDM 99-00 STi RA 5sp with DCCD and helical LSD front diff. Broken 1st gear. Seller says it "clicks in first gear". So I messaged the guy and he still had it! Best of all he's local! This is unreal. I asked what he wanted out of it and if he would sells just the tail housing and center diff. Says he won't split it and wants $500 for the whole trans. I asked him to meet up so I can check it out. And we settled on $475 for the whole thing.
I can't use the front diff unfortunately because my axles are a male stub and this diff needs female axles.
The plan is to build this trans with PAR gears (1-2 straight cut, 3-4, helical, OEM 5th) swap out the front diff with something else compatible with my car, and then a trans brace (apparently they flex), and a DCCD controller.
I still need to find out if I can use this trans case with my car. I don't think it's any different. I should be able to sell the front diff for a couple hundred bucks too. These things are rare.
ph34r:
