Leaderboard

Well as I am a grandfather but my Impreza isn't an old land yacht I'm going to go with the KYBs

for now. . . 20 Imp Sport (mine), 21 Xtrek Sport (hers), and the 80 Zero, (My kid's first car) Some of you may recognize that one.

Yes there is a black single pin connector under the drivers side kick panel. You have to connect the pins and then turn the ignition switch on, but don't start the car. Count the CEL light flashes. Lots of videos out on youtube, here's one. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3y55wdRsa3Q Larry

So, after around 4 years of doing nothing but home improvements projects to the old and new houses, I finally got around to doing a needed project on the old girl. At the time I put her back together, there was a coolant leak coming from the heater somewhere. Since it was close to the JCCS show and I didn’t want to deal with it right then, I just bypassed the heater. Fast forward to now and I got some time to address the issue. Doing some testing confirmed I had both a leaking heater valve and heater core! So out came the box and I first wanted to check the heater core. After getting it out and testing in a bucket of water while filled with air it turned out to be a small crack in one of the side tanks. A little heat and solder fixed that. The bigger problem is the valve. I know these are at this point basically non existent. I did have a spare heater box but of course that valve was also leaky. There are universal valves out there, but they are either cable operated or vacuum operated but the main thing was they all seem to be 5/8” connections where this car has 1/2” hoses. I know you can adapt the hose but I wanted to see if I could find a cleaner solution that would be as close to bolt on as possible, short of finding a NOS piece. Turns out the solution for me was in the garage next to the Subaru. A Datsun 1200 heater valve. While not a bolt on, it does have the correct 1/2” inlet / 5/8” outlet in a 90* configuration. Best thing is they are still readily available. Ordered a new one and swiped the one on the car to modify for the Subie. Here are the pics of what is involved in making it work in the stock location. Basically welded the 1200 valve to the Subie bracket.

for me, personally, i have zero complaints with the KYBs. Firm, without being harsh. and yeah, if you are replacing worn out units, there is a BIG difference.. Gabriel and Monroe are just too soft for my liking. They might be fine on Grandpa's old land yacht, but not on a Subaru. lol

MUCH easier to install and easier to acquire. No dash pulling to get a harness - just attach the LINK harness directly to the manifold harness and mount the LINK in the engine bay (waterproof). Also no MAF anymore which makes intake plumbing easier, and no need for ANY of the superfluous sensors or any emissions garbage such as fuel temp and tank pressure, EGR, EVAP, etc. All that is eliminated. And no need to run 30+ year old electronics that are difficult to replace and suffer from capacitor leakage, cracked solder joints, and WAY more complexity than is needed for a simple EJ swap. GD