Unique Motorsports

No it’s not typo, it’s a brace to brace the brace. Looking a few post back, you will see that I somehow managed to break the transmission where a bolt mounts the torque mount to. That wouldn’t have been so bad if the other bolt didn’t fall out a few months before. The end result was a brace that would actually pivot allowing the engine to twist while power was applied. This in turn would cause the gear lever to pull forward and actually pop out of 1st, 3rd, and 5th gear.
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Finally a chance to build something using melted steel. Not sure what it is about basic fabrication work, but it’s almost always a good time. Add to that, I haven’t actually made anything in a while so it’s nice to keep the skills fresh.

The project started by loading up my welder, 4.5” angle grinder, electric die grinder, wire brush, gloves, welding helmet, porting bits and a few other misc fabrication tools into the Skittle and headed off to James for some work on his Beastly rear wheel drive Impreza.

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Generally, this would come before round 2, but that doesn’t always work out. At any rate, here are the pictures from filling the transmission mount.

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Ordered a “new to me” Aveo motor mount which I could properly fill with some 3m Window Weld. 3m window weld is a great alternative to polyurethane motor mounts if you do not have the money for polyurethane or if they are simply just not available.

While swapping out the old mount with the filled motor mount I noticed 3 of the three bolts which hold the rear pitch mount bracket to the engine are actually missing. This in turn makes the entire mount swing and therefore the engine itself  is able to just rock as though it’s completely missing the rear torque mount. Below are the images of the filled mount, missing bolts and the installation.

The video is set to “The Underground is Cheap” by DertCheep

UPDATE: I setup a temp fix… which is now permanent. One of the three bolts can’t be used as the transmission housing where it bolts into is actually broke. I didn’t stick my head up where it would be attacked by my exhaust and therefore only noticed this last night. The third hole where the “temp” fix resides consists of a Subaru stud welded to a piece of round stock which is used for things like exhaust hangers. It twisted off with about 18 pounds of torque so the bracket will have to be removed to take it out. The other bolt gets tight as I try to remove it so I’m not taking it out in fear of it actually breaking. That said, it is how it is and that’s how it will be. The stiffer motor mounts will keep some of the pressure off the transmission mount anyway so I’m sure it will be fine.

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With around 75,000 miles, I started getting some excessive oil around the valve cover base. I had a full blown oil leak where the valve cover protects the spark plug galleys from getting any oil in them. This made for a couple of oily plugs which does not work out to well for performance. The install went pretty straight forward, while I was in there, I also removed the Exhaust Manifold and did some minor gasket match porting on the head and exhaust manifold.

The minor port work I did had some surprising results. There is a “test turn” which I would normally take around 65 as that’s all the car could really muster. After the porting, I am through third, into fourth and find myself lifting as 75 is a little too fast for this turn.

Check out the slide show and enjoy the sounds of Blap Blap by Vegas DJ Dert Cheep.

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