Starting to aero the Subie.

[pasadena_commut]

Originally Posted by brucey

I dont have the plastic fender guards. The wheel wells on my front end are completely open. I could hide a LOT of cool stuff in there.

Some of the pieces on the fairly complex stock air intake are there to give water a place to drain out before it gets to the air filter. With your fender liners gone and a straight pipe to the air filter, splashing through a big puddle could result in a lot of water being sucked in. Worst case this could hydrolock the motor. You might want to consider putting the intake back together from the filter forward to the hose that sits above what looks like a black gallon milk container, and then run your duct from there into the fender. That junction is quite near the hole you are currently using. That would still keep the hot engine compartment air out of the intake, and yet provide some protection against water intake.

[brucey]

I know all about hydrolocking



I'm not too worried though, I avoid standing water like the plague, and the intake dips down before it dips up. Water has to climb almost a foot before it even gets to the filter.

[brucey]

Gonna start an undertray with my big ol' sheet of coroplast. It's tucked up underneath, but it still looks nasty as far as aerodynamics.

[pawilkes]

i did some much less scientific testing with my mirrors folded in vs out and found that at 75 mph, i did about 1.5-2.0 mpg better with them folded in. i would imagine an entire delete would push it to 2.0-2.5. I'm planning on getting rid of mine and putting some internal side mirrors on.

[pasadena_commut]

Here is our Subie. It's not an outback, just the regular wagon.

There are three main paths for air to get into the engine compartment: the upper grill, the lower grill(s), and through the gap behind the bumper (see the 2nd picture where my foot is visible under the car, while looking down the front of the radiator). The engine intake is kind of interesting. The stock tubing is shown in the 1st picture. Oddly when poking my fingers through the front upper grill I could not feel this "funnel". This is because there is a deflector attached to the hood (3rd picture) which lowers in front of the engine air intake as the hood closes (4th picture). It does not seal the intake, it just prevents air from being rammed directly from the upper grill into it.

There is a 4th path for air to get in at present, but not a very good one. The fog light delete panels are actually grills and let air into the wheel wells (which are covered), and it can exit from the large hole in the fender that brucey used for his engine's air intake.

The changes I am considering making are fairly minor and are shown in the 5th picture. The license plate partially blocks the center low grill inlet, so I figure move it down a bit further and finish the job. Seal the flog light delete panels and the upper grill. The cross bars on the rack are already off, and the mud flaps come off this weekend.

Any thoughts on the opening on the bottom from the 2nd picture - seal it or leave it open?

[brucey]

Bringing this back from the dead..



Bad picture, but I finally got around to putting an underbody panel on. Was pretty straightforward. I really wanted to have a solid piece (1/4 alu) protecting the oil pan, but it seems to be holding pretty well so far. You can also see the center pieces in the (bad) pic. I'm wearing about getting the coro much closer to the exhaust manifold but there is a lot of gap filling done underneath. The car actually seems to be running cooler from this.

[Otto]

Originally Posted by brucey

Bringing this back from the dead..



Bad picture, but I finally got around to putting an underbody panel on. Was pretty straightforward. I really wanted to have a solid piece (1/4 alu) protecting the oil pan, but it seems to be holding pretty well so far. You can also see the center pieces in the (bad) pic. I'm wearing about getting the coro much closer to the exhaust manifold but there is a lot of gap filling done underneath. The car actually seems to be running cooler from this.

Brucey, if you're having heat distortion or melting problems with that coroplast, it should be apparent by now, or soon will be in the hot summer weather. The heat distortion will then define the parameters of how much to trim the coroplast. Otherwise, you could use aluminum foil tape on the edges of the coroplast closest to the heat source(s). Being aluminum, the foil tape will not only strengthen the coroplast, but also rapidly disperse heat from hot spots, alu. being an excellent heat conductor.

[Thalass]

I like that underbody panel! I wonder if I can get coroplast over here. It would be good practice for the brumby I want to fix up and convert to electricity.

[bgd73]

aero a subie. unique. I drive an 87 let it all hang out of course, aero doesn't matter , it's like a perfect gyro.
the skid plate, I have seen it prefabbed at a subaru lift kit site, aluminum.
I just slimed my kb with muchkins from dunkin, wolfing em down like golf balls. haha. have fun. the boxer needs a strong downdraft for the injecteds, its in the cam timing to demand that function. poke some holes in that thing ...cold air intake or something.