Being a brand new member means that your first few threads and posts are moderated if they're not inside the new member's section, and they're moderated automatically if you have hyperlinks or images in your first 3 posts. It's a way to filter out the spammers and trolls. If you have any other trouble with the forum, feel free to PM me! Just follow the rules, especially when it comes to the FS section! :beer:
That said, COOL SWAP IDEA! I recently saw pics of a GF4 Impreza wagon that was 2JZ-GTE swapped & RWD converted, and I've always had a huge, enduring soft spot for the 22B and by extension all GC8's, having seen videos of the 22B in action back when a video was a 60mb download and it took 35 minutes to do over dialup
My only foray into actual Subaru builds was in assisting my best friend in doing a single turbo & manual trans setup on his '92 SVX. I always thought an EG33 would be a really fun swap into a GC8. But a 2JZ is just that much sweeter if you're going RWD!
Yes, an Explorer 8.8 is a great option if you're doing live rear axle. When you drop that 8.8 out of a suitable Exploder, find a second Exploder with the same rear end, and take the short side axle. That way you can do a very simple and straighforward narrowing job by cutting the long side axle tube to suit, and installing the short axles in either side. That should hold up long enough to get the car sorted out before ordering beefier axles & C-clip eliminators and all that stuff, and when you do - it's all off-the-shelf sizing on everything.
Another thought - A lot of Lexus differentials work wonderfully with the 6-spd ratio spread, though an LSD for them isn't cheap at ~$1k. Personally I'd seek to keep the factory IRS to preserve more of the GC8's natural handling, and while fabrication's involved either way, going live rear axle and getting that suspension all sorted out will usually gobble up any savings in the LSD itself.
Yet another thought - R154 5-spd's from the turbo MK3 Supra hold a lot of power as well, and are much less expensive than the Getrag 6-spd - it'll be around $1000-1500 for an R154 that's set up for a JZ engine, whereas 6-spd's start around $3500+ these days.
Being that the GC8 will be lighter than a Supra, that means less stress on the driveline, so an R154 would likely hang in there with even more power than the 800-ish it'll survive in a Supra. There are also a lot of ways to beef up an R154 should something fail, or if you just want to hedge your bets.
If you use the R154, too, the gearing would match a MK3 Supra's factory LSD diff, which are basically so cheap as to fall out of the sky, and install a Weir performance LSD rebuild kit and have a solid clutch-type LSD with matching gearing that can take the power, and usually for under $400 total. You could probably even get the whole subframe assembly out of a MK3 for virtually nothing, and use that as a fabrication template to install it in the GC8's rear end. The CV axles would be the only probable hiccup, really.
But if you're set on a solid axle 8.8, that'll kick ass at the drag strip for sure!
