rithsleeper

I've been towing my c4 vette and all my tools, jacks, overnight stuff, etc with my 4cyl manual 1994 Toyota truck. Needless to say it is quite tough. I have a dual axel, very nice open trailer with brakes. I also have a nice brake controller and use a WD hitch. I am almost full throttle anywhere I go and still get 15-17mpg. Hills are difficult but I only go to road atl, Cmp, roebling, and Daytona. The truck never overheats and is pretty tough. I have a camper shell and sleep in the truck at events. The reason I don't have a bigger truck is, this is my dd also and gets good gas mileage (27-30mpg).

So I was basically given a 1998 Subaru from my best friend's inlaws. This thing has 180k on the clock but immaculate. Even then exhaust looks perfect. It was starting to overheat so they parked it and suspected head gasket (very common problem amazing it went 180k without blowing sooner). The car was never overheated big time though. I pulled the engine and heads and it looks amazing! The car keeps surprising me and I really want it as my dd even more now that I've torn the thing apart. It is an automatic which is the only thing that bothers me...

The original plan was fix Subaru, sell truck (small trucks are really valuable right now) and buy a older n/a diesel or something with the money to have a tow vehicle. Great idea!

But then this happened...... I blew my new engine I just spent way too much money on. #1 piston exploded and it is at the machine shop. I'm betting it will be minimum 3k to get it back running. (Which is about what I expected to get for selling the Subaru or the truck....

I'm out of money. I just had to rebuild my wtw race car rotary and that was $1000. I'm really out of cash. Like if I try eating the cost on the engine I'll be in the red.

So what do you guys think about towing with the Subaru? It has way more power, Better brakes, lots of space to carry tools, could sleep in it, but the auto trans worries me about overheating... The car is way too nice to just sell to some *** muncher Craigslist guy who is looking for a deal. A hitch would be cheap and I could transfer all my WD hitch and brake controller easily. Any ideas?

BrianCunningham

Sounds like tail wagging the dog

I'd get at least a small SUV is not a pickup

firebirdfan

I wouldn't tow with ANY Subaru. They're not made for it.

I wouldn't have towed with the toyota truck you've been using either, but it's at least a hair more appropriate.

It sounds like you need to take a break from racing and get the financials in order. Attempting to have multiple race cars car, tow vehicles, and daily drivers while having ZERO cash is a recipe for disaster. Racing is hobby, nothing more. It sounds like you're one accident/medical problem/natural disaster from serious financial trouble.

Socko

I wouldn't tow a car with a subie either. If you look up the tow spec for euro subies, a number of them are close to 4k lbs. The reason for this was identified on nasioc or iwsti. I did a bunch of research on this when i was looking at putting a hitch on my sti to tow a tire trailer, and possibly other things that were smallish.

Lots of people tow 1-2k with a subie, snowmobiles, jetskis, tires. But to tow a car is a totally different thing.


You wont find anything better then a 22re, i assume that's what we are talking about here with the yota. They are just stupidly good, you can beat the hell out of them for a couple hundred thousand miles and they just ask for more. Get decent mileage, and cost very little relative to what they can do.

Sell the subie to come up with funds imo. If wont replace the pickup. Sure it probably has less rust on it. But other then that the toyota is the way to go.

harrydirty

I would also be wary of an overheated engine, especially Sube. Depending on how hot, how long, etc some parts, especially valves, could have been weakened. My wife's sube overheated, she continued to drive for a while, and shortly after we fixed overheating issue (head gasket) the engine dropped a valve.

It sounds like you're in a tight spot, good luck with whatever direction you decide.

rithsleeper

Thanks for the advice guys. Kind of what I was leaning toward. I do need to get my finances in order. I've just had a really big string of bad luck with engines. I was doing really good. For a while then decided to upgrade the corvette. I am not racing now because of all this bad luck. My corvette is used to instruct and HPDE 4. It costs me gas and a few rotors usually to drive a track weekend. I refuse to just give up on the new engine and just let it become another "car guy" who has a project he has worked on for the last 20 years covered in a barn and eventually sells it to make room for a kids something or other.

As much as it pains me I'll sell the Subaru and get things under control first. Then I'll hopefully find another solution down the road.

Lucky me if I die tomorrow no one cares! I don't have any children and unmarried, state heath insurance. Just teacher income.... I can live a little more reckless right now and I always have a oh crap option to sell off more toys like my motorcycle and dirt bike....

c4cruiser

I would strongly recommend you think about a 1/2-ton pickup or maybe a full-size SUV like a Tahoe or similar. Sure, mileage won't be anywhere near what you see with the Toyota as a DD, but I think this is more about towing safety than fuel economy.

I'm thinking you might be towing about 5500-6000 lbs total weight? Most small 1/4 ton pickups like the Toyota just are not rated for that load. Have you ever take time to weigh all of the stuff you haul? Add the weight of the race car, the trailer, tools, equipment, gas, and especially the weight of the camper and everything in it. Then add your weight along with any passengers. When you set up the WD hitch, did you record the tongue weight of the loaded trailer. You should have 10-15% of the loaded trailer weight as the tongue weight and then add that amount to the total weight.

The tires on the truck are more than likely completely inadequate for the weight on the rear wheels. If you look in the owner's manual for towing/hauling maximum weights, it sounds like you are grossly exceeding the maximum capacity of the truck. What model Toyota is it?

Bill Dearborn

Not sure about Subaru automatics and how much abuse they can take. I would never tow with a manual transmission. That pretty much went out in the mid 60s or even earlier after robust automatics were developed by the domestic manufacturers.

I towed my C4 and C5 with my 91 Olds Bravada AWD that had a 160 HP V6 engine. Towed for 5 years with lots of miles and lots of hills. I sold the Olds when it had 95K miles. It was using oil and pinging badly from carbon deposits. Transmission never overheated but the engine just couldn't take operating a maximum manifold pressure on a continual basis for 7 or 8 hours at a time. That vehicle was rated for towing 4300 lbs with nothing in the vehicle except the driver. By the time I filled it with tools and spare parts I probably added 500 lbs more weight. Vehicle got 20 mpg on the highway without the trailer and about 18 around town and 15 mpg while towing. Towing beat the snot out of the engine and I wouldn't recommend towing with a vehicle not rated for the load you are towing. With your C4 on the trailer and 4 spare tires mounted somewhere you are hauling about 5500 lbs down the road.

When I bought my Tahoe I got it with 3:73 gears and it was like there was no trailer behind the truck. The gas mileage while towing is 12 to 13 and around town is about 16. If you go with a used Tahoe make sure you find one with the 3:73s. Most people bought off the lot and dealers don't usually think to equip a large SUV or Pickup with a towing package and a higher rear gear. The nice thing about the Tahoe is it holds a bunch of stuff and even when I have it loaded down with tools, parts, tires, helmets, suitcases, rain gear, extra shoes, coolers and a large tent it is still like driving in your living room. It has been doing this duty since I purchased it new in Dec/2002, the 5.3L LS engine is still running fine at 101K miles, doesn't use any oil between oil changes and just keeps going and going. I just returned from two track events that ran over 5 consecutive days weekend and the rig ran fine at 70 to 75 mph in cruise control.

Bill

LateBreak

Subie's seem to be built right on the razor's edge of adequacy on pretty much every aspect of their design. Personally, I'd fix the Sube and sell it, buy yourself a Tahoe or Suburban with a 5.3, 00-02 seems to be the best range for quality and reliability. The only reason I suggest a Tahoe or Burb over a truck is that they seem to be quite a bit cheaper and also more likely to be in good shape.

ETA: Skip diesel anything if you have anything less than extraordinary cash reserves for potential repairs.

Socko

QFT!!!

Petrolburner

You never mentioned what model. I'd need to do research on what was available to even guess what model Subaru you might have.