New vibe owner from IN

[CraftsmanQuad19]

Hello everyone! I just picked up my early 03 (03/02 build date) black GT for 400 bucks off a customer at work. Just over 210 on the clock and meticulously maintained. Jumped time at a stop light and we quoted her an engine. Had the head rebuilt and replaced the timing set and so far runs pretty good. I’ve put about 300 miles on it in the week I’ve been driving it. Changed the oil after about 150 miles and there was an awful lot of very fine metal in it. Hoping it’s just residual from the machine work on the head, but suspect a roller rocker isn’t rolling and is wiping the cam. The next oil change will tell though.

Anyway, the car is all black with the paint matched cladding, steel wheels unfortunately (thinking about a set of RPF1’s), 100% stock minus the cats...was planning on keeping them but melted the insides on startup and the sawzaw came out.

Absolutely hate where the clutch grabs, it’s very difficult to shift since it grabs right off the floor and my size 13 steel toes hit the floor before the clutch is all the way down. I know there’s an adjustment on the pedal just haven’t messed with it yet. Hard to tell the condition of the synchros with the clutch not wanting to disengage all the way. It’s ok around town but when it’s in lift it locks me out till the rpms fall to about 5800-6k

Anyway, I’m an auto tech from indiana, usually on the ATLTF.com forum by the same screen name, I like building with metal, and making things that weren’t meant to go fast well...fast. Mowers, cars, etc. currently building a turbo 5.3 c1500, going to 5.0 swap my ranger whenever I can kill that 3.0 (bout 320k on that truck...still kickin), and would like to build a fast awd vibe (my GT is a bit rusty, so it won’t be my current one)

Any questions just fire away!

PS....what’s the record for fastest 1/4 mile vibe...?

[Caretaker]

Welcome Sir. I appreciate your level of expertise and I won't hesitate to fire off the first question to you, even though it is a generic one.
I'm an auto enthusiast who reads a lot of publications and watches a lot of blogs regarding the worldwide auto industry. I try out many dozens of automobiles (mostly wagon-ish vehicles) so I know exactly what to buy when disaster strikes one of our current cars. I am likely to buy a Subaru Crosstrek and wanted to ask whether you have any opinions of Subaru longevity? Despite the "97% of all Subarus made over the past decade are still on the road" advertising, repair statistics and even respondents to Consumer Reports surveys don't paint the same rosy picture as those commercials. While it is likely that Subaru has moved on from the days of head gasket issues, similar to how Mazda has built one of the most reliable fleet since ending their relationship with Ford, it is nice to hear from mechanics on which brands are likely to still be in one's driveway after 10 years of service. Thanks for your time, and it is great to have you on our boards. Good luck with the rebuild.

[zbyers]

PS....what’s the record for fastest 1/4 mile vibe...?

Not positive. There are two members on the facebook group who have turbo'd their Vibes. Zane has a 1ZZ that started life as an auto, which he manual swapped. He was putting out a lot of WHP on a totally stock motor. Ultimately blew it at the track. He is slowly building a replacement engine and will be throwing in an E153 (I think?) trans with it to hold up to the boost.

Ben has a turbo 2ZZ. His is more of a show car, so not sure if he's ran it on the track.

FWIW regarding building an AWD Vibe...None of the AWD came with a manual transmission, if that's part of your plan. Obviously if you know how to build things, you can get around that. Just thought I'd mention in case you were looking and/or trying to find adapters for a manual AWD Vibe.

[tpollauf]

Welcome to GenVibe As you'll notice in my signature and avatar, I'm a lot like you (likely a LOT older though ). A few similarities include my 2004 Vibe GT having the exact same clutch problem where if you don't press it all the way to the floor, it's NOT 100% disengaged. This is now my daily driver and I've learned to live with it for now BUT plan on adjusting it sometime soon. By comparison, my 2009 Vibe GT is the total opposite where you barely depress the clutch and it's already disengaged. I was VERY active in my younger years restoring GM "F" body cars (Camaro/Firebird) up to where I got married and had kids. Fast forward 30+ years later and almost retired, I plan on re-living my youth and jumping right back into automotive restoration/modifications. Fortunate for me, I have a shop with 4 post lift, paint booth, lathe, milling machines, compressors, welders, metal bending equipment, etc ...... pretty much a guys dream lab. I also have a 2003 Vibe GT "project car" that I got for $500 and it sounds exactly like what you purchased. It will only run if you floor it while starting it. That's what I had to do when I picked it up and drove it onto a car dolly trailer. This was almost THREE years ago and hopefully I'll actually be able to work on it this year sometime. Get involved here where time permits and help educate us as you dig into these great cars

[CraftsmanQuad19]

Caretaker - the subaru engines themselves aren’t too bad, but the spark plugs are a bit of a pain to change. The bigger issues are in the CVT. My moms ‘13 Outback needed a trans at 147k, and she was quoted 8k for a new unit. The took 5k on trade in for a sienna. If you get a Subaru, it’s gotta have a third pedal. If you can’t deal with a stick, don’t bother with a Subaru long term.

Zbyers - I’m thinking a Honda k20 with a Honda k series awd trans, swap all the factory Awd stuff (driveshaft, rear subframe, rear suspension) into a stick shift vibe (base or GT, doesn’t matter) OR just engine/trans swap a factory Awd. Id be shooting for about 400 wheel on the first turbo setup to feel the car out and work out the kinks. I’ve looked around but nobody really seems to know how strong the factory rear diff and axles are. If anyone has any knowledge on that I would LOVE to know. Same goes for the viscous coupler, never actually looked under an awd vibe, but I’m assuming it’s in the input of the diff? Inside the case? If the VC isn’t up to the task I would pin it to lock it and use a stronger viscous on the driveshaft itself. It wouldn’t see a ton of actual drag racing, but I do plan on it occasionally just to see what it’ll run. Would be a lot of fun at the car meets when we hit up the dig spots, autocross, rally, it would really be the Swiss Army knife race car lol

Tpollauf - yeah the GM F bodies are a great bang for your buck! What generation were you most accustomed to working on? My buddy had a 96 Firebird with a 3.8 and a t5 that he traded straight up for an 04 impala SS Indy 500 edition. Neither car was in the best shape, but both ran. He always missed the Firebird though and ran a title search on it. Someone ended up rolling it not long after he sold it and it ended up getting squished. That was his prom car.

Thanks everyone for the warm welcome, I’m just having fun doing car stuff lol

[tpollauf]

What generation were you most accustomed to working on?

I restored ONE '68, ONE '69, and TWO '74's. Some pics of the 74 Firebird restored in the summer of '84. Three months of busting a s s while working full time and going to college These pics are almost 37 years old! GM vehicles were clearly the WORST when it came to rust protection. You just don't see 10 year old vehicles today looking this bad!

[CraftsmanQuad19]

For some reason I can’t see those pics. But you’d be surprised how many vehicles come in that are sketchy to put up on the 2 post lift. I can’t lift my vibe on a 2 post, and to me it’s not that old. The pinch welds are completely gone. I see 4th gen rams bubbling through, Chevy rockers are terrible, I see some of the 08-09+ (forget when they started the new gen) f150s rusting through too. Minivans, sedans, suvs, honestly it’s kind of pathetic just how rusty some of them are.

I’d say the first gen F body is my favorite, I couldn’t pick between one of those or a ‘68-‘70 charger. Or the 68-69 mustang, or a chevelle....nova....too many good late 60s early 70s muscle cars

[Caretaker]

WOW t; that's a beautiful job you did; congrats.

[tpollauf]

For some reason I can’t see those pics.

Some phones/Ipads and other portable media devices can't see all images posted. I use another forums host (watermark at bottom of the pics) and most people CAN see them. You may have to get online using a different device to where it lets you see them. I really need to learn how to host them here direct so all GenVibers can see them.

WOW t; that's a beautiful job you did; congrats.

WOW t; that's a beautiful job you did; congrats.

Thanks. When you're only 25, no wife, no kids, and motivated & determined to get something done ..... well IT GETS DONE !!!

A couple more pics then I'll come back down to earth and get back ON TOPIC!

This is the best part of the restoration .... the "painting" of the bird on the hood. One of these pics is the expensive decal from a '79 TransAm which I merely took a photo of so I could have color samples, and general layout, to use when buying the paint. The other pic is my hood. Look closely and you'll clearly see some "differences" and see which one is on my hood.