El_Freddo

^ posting after this one, bit of a theme going on here as you’ll see below:

The last two weeks were pretty big for Redback - an overnight trip to Melbourne with Mrs El_Freddo where we fluked seeing and hearing the Steam Rail “Snow Train” pass through Flinders St Station in the CBD. Pure fluke, and the steam whistle is not the same in the city as the country. I couldn’t imagine steam engines working throughout the day whistling all the time!

The next day we cruised around town a bit, checked out some shops etc before heading to the appointment we were down there for:



^ parked on Little Collins St.

Before leaving the multi-storey carpark we headed to the top level for some pics because why not? This one is my favourite, it was a bit hairy leaning out over the edge to take it…



During this trip I realised what a bastard my clutch was to use. I drove her to work one day again, once home I pulled the old cable out which seemed fine. Subarino guaranteed me the cable was the issue and when not under load they seem fine - but they’re not.

I put a new one in that was earmarked for Sunnie the Brumby (waiting in the wings to be sorted out for club rego). What a difference! It was like driving with a power assisted clutch compared to what it was before! No groaning clutch pedal either. This is what I used to change the clutch cable over with the old cable in the pic:



The rest of the week was spent getting used to the lightness of my new clutch feel.

The following weekend, the one that’s about to end at the time of writing this, I headed to Bairnsdale to catch up with an old forum friend and for my son to attend his child’s birthday party. It was a good catch up! We camped out last night in the swag then took off for home this morning.

I decided the night before that I’d look into darting up to the Dargo Pub for some pics and a drink. Sadly we were there too early for a drink or a sticker purchase but we enjoyed breakfast from the general store across the road. Little El_Freedo #2 and I sat out on their verandah in 7°C with the crisp alpine cold air to eat breakfast, don’t want crumbs in the brumby where possible! I do miss being in the snow (up higher than Dargo) so I really enjoy that crisp cold fresh air when I am in it.



^ I don’t think I need to say where this is - it’s probably the most photographed pub in Australia I reckon.

I heard it’s rare to get a pic with only you or your group out the front of the pub. My trick was to rock up before open time on a Sunday morning. Worked a treat for me!

For the most part the drive home was pretty uneventful which is good. There was a road from Dargo rd to Briagalong rd (Brenda rd I think) that was fun to drive. It was twisty and up and downy with lots of on and off throttle and some high speed flows. Very fun. The city driving was busy but flowing well.

On the northern side of the city when we hit the Hume (another detour) the wind was horrendous! We were buffered around as the wind came from the NE with some rain and really low cloud. It was proper winter weather with a bit of an alpine touch to it - bit of a theme of the day weather wise.

I haven’t added up all the kms done or the amount spent on fuel. The latter I don’t really want to know. It was cheaper than driving the Pajero by a long km.

I’m keen to work out my L/100km - at one point I reckon I got close to under 9L/100km.
But she’s also using some oil in there too which sadly is standard these days.

The most we paid for 98ron was $2.40/L and the least $2.12 (sadly a good score at the moment). Bring back fuel prices from three weeks ago pls!

Overall an awesome trip with lots of kms, a variety of roads and loads of tunes and convos with LEF#2. The brumby, as usual, didn’t miss a beat!

Cheers

Still doing it soon I guess.

That or it was posted on bookface and I missed it, wouldn’t be surprised at that - I always miss the end of year bbq because of this.

Any new updates Tim? I was enjoying following your progress while they came through…

Not a great deal going on with Redback other than taking on daily duties this term.

She’s road tested Subarino’s metal 3D printed thermostat housings that will accommodate the power steering setup or non PS setups. Neat unit and no issues. Very interesting with the metal print!

Last week was a bit of a rough one - 700kms in three days (she did a stint of 1300kms in two days without any issues) that saw her cop a set of keys in a tyre and a ripped out exhaust hanger in the space of two days…



^ picked those up at low speed. Seems many cars ran them over, I was the “lucky one”. You might see this pic crop up somewhere else too, I won’t give it away.
I’m currently running on the produced in 2009 tyre :shock: All is well though. The tyre with the hole in it from the keys took well to a plug that I fitted, I just need the motivation to swap the wheels over again so I have my nice scorpions rather than a very crusty sunraiser wheel.

Then taking an intersection turn, nothing hard or harsh, the exhaust hanger parted company with the pipe it was holding. Took out a good section with it, about 50mm by 30mm in an oval like shape - zero warning prior to it letting go:



^ that was fixed and braced after work the next day. It didn’t sound very good. There’s something to be said about exhausts without leaks!

Then back to doing Brunby things, this time transporting some G size argon mix bottles for work:



^ perfect fit with room to spare :mrgreen:

I’m chasing an annoying rattle in the console/dashboard area just left of centre somewhere. It comes on strong at 80km/h and is engine rev dependent as it mainly does it in 4th gear. I probably need to pull the console out to find the issue.

In other news I’m trying to push my turbo conversion forward to have it done in time for Subinats ‘26 - but I feel there’s so much to do and little time to get it ALL done - and no facilities to do it in other than a carport that’s got a course rock surface. Work’s shed area and workshops would be sweet but a) I doubt they’d want my project lingering around for several weeks and that would in some ways reduce my access to the project.

I’ll see how I go, I’d like to be turbo AWD converted before Subinats but I won’t be starting the conversion on Redback unless I know I can get it done with some time to iron out any bugs - I’ve only worked on it for the last 7 or so years, another year won’t hurt, just something I want to “present”. There are a couple of unknowns until it’s in the car and driving.

Wiring loom is 90% done and wrapped. I have the wiring that merges with the MY loom to go - this will most likely happen once in the brumby.
The airbox is an issue - it’s too big for the MY engine bay in the factory position. Battery will remain in the factory MY space so this makes it a bit tricky - I’ll use a half sized battery like many modern Subarus.
I’m still finalising my gearbox crossmember at this stage. It’s just time needed here.
This week I tweaked the modified gear selector linkages. I’ll know this weekend whether it’s what I want - even then could still need tweaking again.
Engine is still waiting for its heads to be fitted - and they need some modifications before they go on (easier off the engine). This will be covered in a future write up.
Slotting the engine mount plates allowed me to gain 15mm between the engine and the radiator. There are other benefits to this with the turbo too - MC bleeder nipple clearance with the TD turbos. VF isn’t an issue due to a vertical waste gate shaft. More on that later.

That’s it for now.

PS: the 1300km trip was a weekend mission to Bairnsdale and back to refit the front hubs on our family bus come off-roader at a mate’s place. We later returned to pick it up and head home “the long way” via Dargo and some choice tracks over the high country before ending up on the Murray for a night before we arrived back at home. So good - on both trips!

USMB came alive again! It got a big update with a new look. I’m still getting used to it.

Suby club seems dead again after that last little blip. Wtf is everyone??