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Brat is still alive and kicking.....

Drove to a large old gold mine called gold hill, supposedly mined in the 1850s. We saw a few stacked stone walls a few feet tall sloping up to the mine. Took a trail that wound up going along one of them, it was there to hold the road up, still holding 170 years later. At first B was hesitant to drive up but when he saw me going up it without any issues and taking pictures he decided to follow. We made it to a little flat spot at the top and checked out the main mine pit on foot. Found some quarts crystals. Did some five point turn arounds in the little flat spot, hanging the bumpers over the edge of the cliff, but got down without incident and went to the pony express trail. Again, mainly gravel roads, but all kinds of roads/trails off of it and good scenery. We camped just off the route in Overland canyon. One of the most beautiful sights any human has ever witnessed reflecting a nice sunrise. By this point it was clear the electric fridge slammo gave me wasn't working. You could hear it running but the sound was different and it wasn't getting cold. Also had noticed a weird smell when I opened that door of the car so I'm guessing the refrigerant leaked out. Important ingredient for staying out of civilization for extended periods of time so I'm probably going to buy a better one. Saturday morning we finished the pony express trail. Over the last couple days B had mentioned some vibration in his car, at first he thought it was washboard on the road but mine was riding smooth. We swapped a few of his tires around, never made it better, the last one we switched seemed to make it worse. Then he said it got a lot worse. Driveshaft was missing three bolts on the diff flange and the remaining one was loose. We put in some spare bolts and continued on smoothly. Pony express route generally follows the southern edge of the salt lake basin. As we went farther east there was actually traffic on the road, which was unusual for the week. Not sure if it was because we were getting closer to the Salt Lake City metro area and pavement or because it was Saturday or both. Also I think this is where we saw the first UTVs on the trail all week. We'd become accustomed to seeing a few pickup trucks a day or maybe a Jeep if we stayed off pavement. When we got to the first vault toilets (at a campground entrance) there was almost steady traffic on and off the road for people using them. Continued east, not long after we got on pavement we saw a stunt area not too far off the highway so we started driving towards it. As we got closer there was a truck and trailer parked in the main trail, something we saw in Gold Hill the day before. In this case though the guy on the flatbed trailer was setting up to do some target practice. His buddy waved us by and we found the little hills and trails we'd seen from the pavement. Made some PB&Js and found a different way back to the highway. Along the way we saw a few other fairly large stunt areas with all kinds of trailers and dirt bikes, might have to check those out sometime, maybe during the week. Stopped at the closest gas station, filled up with gas, swapped out air filters, and aired up tires. B mentioned as we drove into SLC metro that we could probably see more cars at one time than we'd seen in the entire previous week. Drove back home without any other issues. Cruise is working pretty well in Impreza. AC works great but if I used it on long mountain grades the coolant temp gauge would start to climb. B said he did about 3900 miles, I'd guess around 1000 of that was off pavement. Need to figure out the cooling issues with the Impreza, after discussing it with slammo I'm thinking maybe thermostat. It's most often a problem at low speeds while climbing or driving on sand but will start to go up sometimes going up long grades at high speeds with the AC on. Impreza takes some cranking before it starts sometimes, usually after sitting overnight. Wondering if it takes a bit to build fuel pressure. A few times, sometimes after some hillclimb, we'd hear the fuel system make a gurgling noise after the car had been shutoff for a minute. We used our jerry cans twice and I rolled into gas stations on empty four times. And that was after cutting our trail riding short so we didn't run out. It would be great to have more fuel capacity so we can wander better. I discussed the propane spare tire well tanks with slammo and he found one for about $300US shipped with 10 gallon capacity that should easily fit. https://shop.vanmeenen.com/en/lpg_cng-tanks-&-valves-1/lpg-toroidal-tanks-42 I'm thinking a vent/overflow hose to the main tank and another line with reversible pump. Then it can just be filled by the stock fuel filler and when the stock tank runs low it can refill that. Definitely need to finish the rear bumper for the Impreza, would have made the recoveries easier. Super happy with the performance and reliability of the Impreza overall. Forester holds up well too but definitely needed the low range to do some hill climbs the Impreza could do in high range. Still a great way to explore the back country and hit some fun trails. It also seems like on our last few trips a lot more people than usual have been complimenting us or commenting on the cars. These turn of the century Subarus are getting more rare in general, and who doesn't love a first gen Impreza, but it's still a fun surprise. Over the winter I want to make the straight cut planetary low ranges and get caught up on editing youtube videos, we got some good footage this past week.

it was one of those rare cases where id say: easier done than said even with the window stuck on up. all done in 20 minutes. in the name of science, opened the old motor, all damage was due to water ingression, god knows how it got there

Rear bumper fabrication conclusion. Added some slider tubes to protect charcoal canister, hang muffler, and provide some kind of ramp when backing over obstacles. Added tabs for license plate and license plate lights. Added lateral receivers for jacking and winching. Ready for paint. Might get the old rusty front bumper on the white Outback painted at the same time. Should protect the body from trees and make recoveries easier. Slammo had suggested the thermostat in the EZ36 in the Impreza might be bad. I drained the coolant, cleaned the radiator (seemed pretty clean inside and out, don't think that was contributing to the problem), and removed the old thermostat. It looked fairly clean but is most likely 11+ years old and sat for a year or two dry. Tested it side by side with a new one from the dealer by bringing a pot of water up to boiling. New one (bottom) definitely opened sooner than the old one. But after a few minutes they both opened the same amount. While slowly cooling down they looked the same. Did that twice, same results. So hopefully the new one will help stabilize engine coolant temps. Still might add inlet and outlet temp sensors that have a calibration for the Haltech.

Drove up to Z's Friday night. He noticed one of the brake lights in the Impreza was (artistically) burned out so we went to Oreillys and got a pair of bulbs. B met us at Z's, we headed up and camped in northern WI. Saturday morning we headed north and Z took us on some ORV trails north of there so we headed north on those. Within four miles we saw a black bear and a bald eagle and some other wildlife. The main one Z had intended to take us on is ATV only. So we just drove up to the UP. Started out in an area north of Norway we'd only been through once and found some other trails and potential campsites there. Next two pictures are of one of the fairly long rocky hillclimbs (by UP standards) we did that weekend. Saw a wolf pup(?) walking down a side road, took a few pictures and let it be and got to the (nearby) dead end. Found a hillside with some big sandy hillclimbs so I tried one but stalled out and backed down when it got too off camber. Hit a different one and made it to the top. Found a human shaped sculpture made out of chainsaw parts. This sign was a bit misleading, while the road was rough by many peoples' standards, it was about average for what we drove on that weekend. Got to a man made dam that appeared to have blown out and then repaired by beavers. At the bottom where we had to drive by it there was a big leech sucking on a dead crayfish. Forester had been making a lot of exhaust noise under load so we stopped to fix that. One of the bolts had fallen out of one of the exhaust flanges so we found a nut and bolt and B got it back together while I cooked some burgers. Z spotted a big Eastern Fox snake in the trail. Wandered north and hit a bunch of trails and found a giant pile of potatoes in the woods. About a mile from the nearest farm, not sure if it was just a handy berm construction material or if they just needed to dump a bunch of potatoes. We had decided to go up to Craig Lake as B and Z hadn't been there before. Drove up to a campground and stayed the night. One of the random assortments of decorations we've seen in the UP over the years. This is miles from pavement. This weekend was a good demonstration that you never know what you'll find in the UP. Came across several beaver dams that were flooding old roads we were trying to follow. Got to a wetlands reserve and hiked in there a mile or so. Unfortunately we got up near Craig Lake to find that it's closed for the summer for maintenance. Hit some trails and did a little hiking and then camped in that area. Saw a ruffed grouse alongside the trail. It was jumping around and fanning its tailfeathers etc. It was on the passenger side and I looked out the drivers side while Z was taking pictures and saw what looked like a mouse on the ground. I went to take a picture of it and realized it was a chick so we continued on. Monday morning we went down a snowmobile trail to start wandering back home, it was eventually flooded so we found a different trail and headed south. Hit a stunt area we found last year and did a few hillclimbs. Impreza had a lot of wheelspin and rev limiter in first gear climbing a fairly steep one. Saw a turtle wandering around. Went through an area we'd been years ago that looks significantly different now, some berms gone, other berms added, trees growing up in areas that had been clearcut, etc. Found one stretch that would be good for suspension testing/tuning. A mile or so with decent sized dips and bumps and another section that's quite rough with holes in between small logs. Wound up taking a few narrow trails that went on for miles and surprised me by connecting to main trails. We took a tour of an old iron mine that was interesting. Drove through part of the southern UP we hadn't explored before with some decent camping areas. Saw a lot of turtles and some muskrats. Aired up and drove home on pavement. Lots of rain on the way home. I'm a little surprised the Impreza doesn't seem to have any leaks or electrical problems even driving through heavy rain for hours, I've done it a few times now. Overall a good weekend. No major issues, never even got stuck or got a flat tire. Impreza is great on the trails. Not used to having good rear visibility, way easier to back out of trails and the shorter wheelbase and rear overhang make it easier to turn around in the woods. The 60% rear bias and light rear end and open center diff make it handle almost like a rear wheel drive car. It was never close to actually spinning out but it has power oversteer in second or third or even fifth gear sometimes off pavement. Surprised me once in first gear on wet pavement. Steering seems to be a little quicker than the Outbacks which helps in those situations. There was one time on Saturday when B was driving it and he got stuck in a soft muddy trail. I could see just the rear tires spinning. He locked the center diff, all four tires started spinning, and he was able to drive out. It's easiest to lock and unlock when moving, never makes any grinding noises, helps to pump the clutch. So if we were in a really rough or muddy or sandy section I'd just lock the center diff for a while until we got back to some easier trails and then unlock it. Never used the low range all weekend. There was at least one hill I climbed in first gear high range that B had to use low range in the Forester to climb. Some things I like about it aren't from our doing but just because it isn't as beat and rusty as the black Outback. You can drive around with the windows down without choking on exhaust fumes, drive through all kinds of water and rain without getting any in the car. Found myself keeping it under 2000RPM most of the time and it had plenty of torque for normal trail riding. Fans ran more than I expected, when we'd start going really slow or stopping and starting the temps would creep up and at least one would kick in and then basically stay on until we shut off the car for a while but temps never got much above normal. As soon as we were moving the temps would drop back to the normal spot. Wondering if this is partially caused by our current tune being lean at part throttle at 2-3000RPM in an attempt to save fuel. Seemed like it would run a little cooler at 1500RPM where it's probably running richer. Probably a couple times a day after nearly stalling the engine it would start running rough. I just shut it off and restart it and then it would run smooth. Impreza might get a little better fuel economy than Forester on the road but worse on the trails. Might be something wrong with the fuel filler on the Impreza, on the last couple fillups it didn't seem to actually fill the tank. I've noticed recently you can feel crosswinds push you around. Not dangerously like an air cooled VW but something I never notice driving Legacy Outbacks.

Update - I let the car cool down for a couple of hours and burped it again. Just when I was about to lose hope... the fans kicked in. Just to be safe, I hung around until they kicked in a second time. All seems good now. Thank you everyone for your advice. I really appreciate it.

I finally got a chance to really look at it, and it turned out to be the driveshaft (prop shaft). It was odd though, because, when the car was sitting, it would somehow cause the center bearing to lock so it didn't feel loose at all. I only figured it out by getting under it, with the left rear on jack stands, and having someone spin the left rear wheel while I watched the driveshaft rotate. It got to a specific spot, then it came loose. Got another shaft at a u-pull yard for $23 on sale, and the vibration is gone.

Car is done! Kept it two tone for the win. Purchased new sheet metal including radiator support, center hood stay, and right/left hand radiator panels for about $160. These come painted (black) from Subaru. Or just cut them out of a donor. I counted just over 20 spot welds for the total weld job. Didn't have to completely remove the fenders to access the weld points for the radiator support, just moved them aside. Removing the bent metal wasn't hard using a 3/8" spot welder hole saw removal tool and a drill motor to punch through the spot welds. For the rebuild, these welds are beyond the harbor freight 240V "pinch" spot welder in my opinion due to the lower section essentially welding to a tube. My neighbor has a HF MIG welder that did an excellent job welding the new metal in place. Just cover the whole engine first with fiberglass cloth to avoid hot slag melting the harness. Before removing any metal I marked the outline of the pieces to help line things up. Having the headlights in place helped line up the two radiator panels (actually they should be called condenser panels) prior to welding. The hood latch was aligned with the hood and clamped prior to welding. After welding, put the condenser/radiator/headlights/bumper/bumper cover back on.

Got em all out without breaking any - I don't think Ive stripped the holes either but haven't cleaned it up yet. For this really tough bolt I decided to use a "paint stripper" heat gun on high for about 15 minutes and it still wouldn't budge so drilled a 2nd hole down closer to the threads, earlier had drilled a hole about in the middle of the column to get the penetrating oil down into the crud in the bottom inch of the column also. After drilling this second hole and then using a lot of penetrating oil, then heat, I had progress had to heat up down by the head for at least 10 minutes with paint stripper heat gun, that's why my aluminum shield has turned golden brown .. I tried a M.A.P. torch but it was to scary and causing way to much smoke for my comfort.. and wiggled back and forth tell I could get about 1/4 turn, came back next day tried it cold no t so much movement so heated it up again and kept working it back and forth - but not going as far in as out.. then add more sauce.. do it again and eventually.. Here's the bolt right after I got it out - I used a lot of B'laster penetration oil, and couldn't get it moving with the 3/8" impact gun - had to really push and pull on this ratchet - really hoping the bolt wouldn't break,, kind of amazed it didn't

Been a really long time since this thread was updated. Had my share of local trouble with attempted theft and damages. https://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/topic/186359-beware-of-mevotech-parts/ Decided to go with KYB 2wd struts(new old stock) and Lesjofors '94 Kia Sephia front springs(4044208 on RA), new KYB strut mounts(SM5364, IF you can find 'em). New KYB 4wd rear shocks with better looking, less rusty springs. Rear cross member with gaps in mounts filled with urethane. Superpro front strut rod bushings(SPF2534K). Superpro new moustache bar bushings(same as rear diff mount bushing). Rides much better without all the bounciness on highways. Combination of Sachs 4wd struts with those Lesjofors springs, they're about .040" thicker than stock, will get you another inch of lift in front. Combination of those and 2wd rear KYB shocks + stock rear springs OR 4wd rear shocks with Honda Accord front springs, Lesjofors 4135713, may ride even front to rear. Just a suggestion. KYB 2wd strut, Lesjofors spring, KYB mount, SJR 4" lift. For $86 shipped this McPherson spring compressor was worth it. MUCH safer to work around than those hook compressors that tend to slip and always at the wrong time. spring compressor Be sure to lube the threads and round part with gear oil.

Car has been fully stripped and is now at the sandblaster, can't wait to get it back and get a plan in place for all the repairs

Rain has finally stopped in Minnesota, time to get the Brat out.

Friday morning we went to Ely, got gas, and started calling and visiting tire shops. We couldn't find a 215/75/15 of any kind but they did replace one of B's valve stems that was leaking. We'd found Devil's Gate slot canyon online that was roughly on our way so we started heading that direction. Going up the mountain pass we came upon a full size pickup truck with ~20ft enclosed trailer. Truck had a Green Bay Packers sticker in the back window. Fortunately he was pulled over just enough for us to squeeze past him. We stopped at the pass/saddle to enjoy the view and then B saw the truck and trailer coming. We ran back to our cars and made sure we stayed ahead of him. Going down was a narrow, rocky, dirt switchback mountain road. I have no idea how he was navigating it but we looked back when we were near the bottom and could see him slowly working his way down. Continued east through the desert down some washes/canyons. The last one was quite fun, we could go there quickly since it didn't have 2' deep ruts like the Vegas to Reno course. Took it to Devil's Gate. We hiked through it and up to the top and drove out of the wash and while there was a large flat gravel area that could be called a parking lot, there were no signs of any kind this awesome slot canyon is here. It's limestone which is unusual, most slot canyons are sandstone. So the rocks here are polished. From here we headed back into Utah towards Massey northern #13, a portion of the old pony express route. On the way we took a side trail up a wooded valley along a stream with an amazing alcove in one cliff. Cut across Massey 13 and headed north through some hills on some fun trails.

I think it's clear what you're working on. But for future reference. DOHC subarus (I think all of them, certainly EJs) require removing the cams to access the head bolts. SOHC engines do not.

When I went to take out this upper left bolt it was feeling really tight, then "rubbery", then the head broke off ... I tried "liquid Wrench" with a nut on the end taping it a bunch with a hammer to "induce vibration" gripping it real tight with needle nose vice grips, etc. and letting it baste for a couple of days.. SO I thought maybe I could use it as a stud with a sleeve nut and it torqued down good. https://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/gallery/album/897-ea82-water-pump-broken-bolt-fix/

I mean, it's a truck; 8.5" Chevy 10 bolt rear, two FWD ea 5 speeds, one D/R ea 5 speed, 2 axles (think they're ej rears) an ej25 intake manifold, and a 97 Impreza L rear differential = Carolina squat BRAT. What's that, maybe 700lbs? 500? I don't know but it's definitely the most I've put back there yet. I need to look at the rear brakes. Noises. I'm going to have to come up with some type of quick disconnect to mount the seats in the back. They're a little annoying when you're trying to load stuff, would be way more ideal if they were easily removable. I would also like to fit some type of bench seat setup in the cab, maybe from an old Nissan hard body or a Mazda or something. Would be nice to be able to squeeze 3 people in the cab on occasion if the need is there. #dreams Put a good 400 miles on it over the course of 2 days last weekend. Averages 29 mpg on the highway super consistently. It'll do 90 which is about where it is here (via GPS) noticed the speedo gets inaccurate about at about 75 maybe they never thought it would be there 🤣🤣 It's way happier cruising in the 70-75 mph range, that seems to be a good happy spot for it. Anything over 3500 rpm is a bit excessive. There's been a heat wave here in the northeast and I gotta say cruising on the highway with the sliding window open, the t tops out, and the windows down with the music cranked is pretty awesome.

I haven't worked on one of those, but the most common cause of such problems is bad wiring between the body and the door where it flexes, followed by burnt out speakers. Does opening and closing the door, or wiggling the bundle of wires to the door, make it go on and off? Does thwapping the door over the speaker make it go on and off? Does poking something through the grille and pushing on the speaker cone make it go on and off? If it's not the door flex wiring or the speaker, then look into the radio itself and the rest of the harness wiring.

2.2 swap. Runs for ever.

OK, Mr. McBRAT, you owe us an update on the life this beast has been living

Totally shooting from the hip here, these are all ideas and I've never done any of these methods. 1. Maybe you could fill the piston from the bottom (use it as a bowl) and fill it with dry ice or liquid nitrogen. Maybe you could get the piston cold enough to get it to shrink and you could use your timber+hammer method to remove it then. You may have a temperature transfer to the cylinder walls so this may not work. But the sleeves and piston should contract at different rates. 2. Pour water into the cylinder all the way to the top. Reinstall the head (maybe add some cheap RTV or the like) and stick the block half with the head on into the freezer. Maybe the hydraulic pressure from the water freezing could remove the piston. Or you'll end up cracking the block or head so best use a head that is already too far gone.

B and I pulled the dash out of the Impreza and worked on some wiring. The neutral and clutch switches (for canceling the cruise control) haven't been registering on the Haltech in a while. I had them wired 12VDC to one side, signal wire to Haltech on the other side. B suggested trying to ground them and that made them turn on and off at the Haltech. Still don't understand that, had them wired to power and they worked for a while. I think they stopped working when I replaced the expansion module or updated the firmware. Regardless, they work now. B installed the cabin air filter kit. Slammo turned me on to this. Very simple install/upgrade. B also cleaned out the HVAC box and blower motor. B wired in a retained accessory power module from timers.shop. Set that up to keep the power to the family band radio and two cigarette lighter outlets after the ignition is turned off. Will set that to 99 minutes I think. Been meaning to do that for years. He also made a little panel and added a switch so we can turn on one fuel pump or the other once the extra fuel tank is done. He replaced the backlight bulb in the gauge cluster so the clock shows up now. I wired all four EGR solenoid grounds to one of the outputs of the Haltech so we can see if that does anything. Wanted to get it working before we tune the car on a dyno. I got the horn working. Since the cruise inputs for the Haltech need a 5VDC power supply I had to separate that out (they're normally powered by the 12VDC horn circuit) and run the horn power through one of the airbag wires. The main reason for pulling the dash was to try to get the speedo working. After some trial and error and back and forth with Dakota Digital, I seem to have it working now. Will update the EZ36 swap thread with details. On that topic, I plan on just putting a swap guide and base map on my website soon too. Not sure how to share files on here.

My ‘81 dropping by to get parts for my ‘23

B's Forester continues to run well, isn't consuming much oil. We started work on some rear strut tower braces for my Impreza. Didn't have couplers or enough tubing for a crossbar but we probably have over half the work done. Still have to space the seat latches and relocate the seat belts and add a spare tire mount too. I've been fixated on carrying more fuel since our last trip out west. Would have allowed us to get even farther off the beaten path before having to return to civilization for fuel. I looked into rectangular off the shelf gas tanks but none of them seem to fit well in the spare tire well. My latest idea is to just make one. Two pieces of aluminum, fairly simply cut and bent. Can keep the floor flat this way, should hold 10-12 gallons. Thinking I'll just make the flat flaps wide enough to bolt in under the strut tower braces. Fairly easy/simple mounting and might stiffen the chassis a bit without adding a lot of weight. Thinking 1/8" thick aluminum, two ports in the front, one high, one low. Already have some of the parts. Took the Impreza down to southern IL over the weekend. Drove on a lot of icy/snowy back roads on our way to various hiking trails. A few that were dirt but nothing real crazy. One time we stopped on an icy uphill grade because there was another car parked off to the side and I decided to ask them if they needed anything. They didn't but at first I was getting just some rear wheel spin trying to drive back up the hill. Locked the center diff and drove up without any drama, after about ten or twenty seconds of that I unlocked it, never had to use it the rest of the weekend.

I had a similar issue on my 35th anniversary car (2004). Critters had gotten into the left rear quarter panel and chewed the wiring harness. Shorting the turn signal circuit to the LR light, and damaging the wiring to the antenna (I think your 2000 will have a conventional antenna on the roof over the driver's door). Every time I used the Left turn signal, the gauge cluster would go dead. As long as I remembered not to use that signal, things were cool. If you can't think of a more specific correlation between using a function like that and the failure, I'd buy a breaker for that fuse so it could be reset and continue on. Hope that helps!

Sure thing! Brief run-down: My parents bought this car new in 1981, been in the family ever since. It was handed down to my brother and then me, both our first cars. I drove it for a couple years then took it off the road more than 10 years ago for a full bare shell restoration with upgrades. Been back on the road close to 4 years. It's now got a 2" lift kit + 27" tires, touring wagon dash/center console, power steer/air con/power windows, entirely new wiring loom designed and made by me, L series 5 spd, air adjustable rear shocks, 5ch sound system with sat-nav. The list could go on...I'm constantly working at improving and upgrading things. The front suspension will be next as its way too stiff. New gearbox coming soon etc. Here's from a recent camping/fishing trip with the 4WD club It's my daily driver and gets pushed into service for vaious jobs... Right after I got the new 15" wheels

Hope all is well with you, family and the Subaru's. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year Larry

I wasn't the only one doing last minute prep on my car, slammo put his old skidplate on his daily driver and met up with us. Friday I picked up the bumpers from the paint shop but didn't have time to install before I left since I was packing the car. B and I drove down through Joplin MO and we found a campground south of there that had tent sites. Slammo and travelvw camped at this site. Saturday morning we headed south and met slammo and travelvw in Talihina OK. We drove east on highway 1 into AR. Did some trail riding there with travelvw mostly leading the way. Slammo and I both got to drive travelvw's bug. It rode quite rough as he has much too large torsion bars in the rear. He said the limited slip makes a big difference and it definitely looked like it on loose climbs, much less wheelspin than I would have expected. Travelvw's windshield washing technology: Near the end of the day we drove to the top of Eagle mountain. There was a rocky obstacle near the top that slammo left his car at the bottom of. B and travelvw were getting video so I took the most difficult line and put a hole in my RF tire sidewall. We swapped on the spare and drove to the top. A little off to the side of the building at the top there's a nice rocky outcrop with a good view. We camped at a site travelvw had been to before where two streams came together with some little rapids. We left slammo's car there for the day. Sunday morning I found this weirdly rotted out trunk near the campsite. We headed east. Hiked to a couple different old lookout towers, one a much longer hike and also more intact than the other. From the intact one you could see the hills/mountains generally run east/west. Views were good but it was overcast most of the weekend, on a sunny day they would have been great. Eventually travelvw had to head back north and we headed back west on some different trails. We went to the two footed oak tree which is bizarre. Went back to the campsite. We all planned to be back home Monday night so we figured we only had a few hours for trail riding Monday morning. We'd crossed a powerline grade near the campsite so we went to check that out first. It turned out to be a dead end but a decent hill climb. Headed north into Mena to get gas. Saw some plane junkyards at the airport. Decided to check out Top Walker Mountain road on the way north. Quite a few side trails on the way there. Drove to the end of the side trail/ridge on the map. There were a couple of narrower trails so we tried one of those, it dead ended at Round Mountain. Again, pretty good views but would be really cool in clearer weather. Before we got back on the tarmac for good we aired up and ate some sandwiches. We hadn't made it very far north when the Forester's engine suddenly stopped running going up a long grade and he pulled over on the (fortunately wide) shoulder. Engine cranked over fine, too well really, sounded like it had no compression so we assumed timing belt failure of some kind. Hooked up the tow bar to my Impreza. Had never towed with it before, has no wiring set up for towing. Towed Forester to the nearest off ramp. Slammo convinced us to do some wiring so we got some scotch locks and a four pin wiring pigtail from a parts store and wired up running lights and brake lights to the magnetic mount lights. Continued north, seemed a little squirrely when braking but not terrible. Slammo split off at Joplin to the north and we headed east. When I pulled into the next gas station in the dark it felt worse and I could see the Forester was clearly off center. Fortunately it has no problem driving over curbs. At this point only one leg of the tow bar was attached to the Forester. We straightened out the tabs and cranked all the bolts down and added a ratchet strap to keep the legs of the tow bar from spreading. After that it was much more stable the entire ride home. B took part of the timing cover off at one stop and confirmed the timing belt was loose. Didn't see this until after we got home. It's been a while since I've worked on EJ engines but I don't think you're supposed to see the timing belt through the cover and that looks like the wrong side of the belt. We both think the Impreza can hold grades better while towing the Forester than the Forester can while powering itself. I don't think we burned significantly more gas on the way home either but my speedo/odo still isn't working so I'm not sure. Overall a decent trip. Weather was pretty good. We never got stuck but I did get a flat tire and B's engine clearly needs some work. It probably needs new heads or at least valves. He does have two pairs of probably good heads in his basement. Impreza ran well all weekend. Did take three tries to start once but generally started pretty quickly so I'd say the rewiring was a success. I'm going to try a different crank position sensor and eventually probably shimming/shaving it up or down to get more cranking voltage.

B and I moved most of the rest of my business inventory to my machine shop across town. We took one trip with his Forester and my white Outback loaded with parts. Then while he was working on his car I loaded the white Outback up with another literal ton of parts. Almost as soon as we started driving the transmission acted like it was slipping. Got to the shop and unloaded everything, still slipping on the way back and has been ever since. I tried adding some brake fluid since my brother knows some people who've had temporary success with it but it didn't really seem to help. Plan to get a lower mileage replacement trans from a junkyard and hopefully a tan leather driver's seat while I'm at it. The Impreza has been taking a while to start fairly often since the swap after it sits overnight or longer. Sometimes it takes two or three tries before it starts. A while back I discovered this was because the crank position sensor wasn't generating enough voltage while cranking. Voltage signal on the Haltech oscilloscope looked decent but it wasn't enough. I lowered the threshold voltage and also added a column for 0RPM which seemed to help but still wasn't a complete fix. Then it just wouldn't start, was giving crank position and throttle body codes. I took apart the engine harness connector as that's been the source of most of my problems and the wire pulled out of the pin for the crank position sensor. I repinned that and checked the throttle body connections and it started and no longer had those errors but it was running rough, probably on five cylinders. I decided I'd had enough and ordered some closed barrel pin connectors and a tool from JR Ready. I'm not a huge fan as they're made in China and I don't like how closed barrel pins don't crimp on the insulation but M says they're the best thing they've found for wiring airplanes so I figure it might be good enough for trail riding in a Subaru. The week before we left I rewired the engine harness plug on the Impreza with some help from B. Shortened up the wires with a couple feet of excess length in the process. Directly wired the throttle body and MAP sensors to the ECU as they're pretty easy to unplug and then I'd have one less connection in line and fewer things to run through the connectors I added. Added four Deutsch connectors with closed barrel pins. I did zip tie them away from that bracket after I took that picture. Labeled and checked wires, pinned out the connectors, double checked wire color matches and tried to start the car Thursday. Only cranked but didn't fire. I checked various things, sensors seemed to be reading except the cam and crank position sensors. Then I realized I hadn't plugged that connector in. Then it fired up. Overall pretty happy with how that turned out, should be much easier to repin those connectors and the reduced wiring under the dash makes it cleaner and allows the glovebox to fit better. Bit of a last minute fix finishing that the day before we left but I'm glad I did it.

Yep, lots of good information That page is included in this whole "Subaru of the 80s" page. https://www.indysworld.com/subaru/index.html Check the "Original Ultimate Subaru Repair Manual" on there. Lots of good writeups there. I think this stuff is basically all 15-20 years old, but great place to start

Brat winter

From there we took pavement to the golden spike. Asked a few questions at the visitor center and filled up our water jugs. Followed the original transcontinental railroad route/Massey trail as best we could but there are quite a few bypasses now. For instance the road in the picture below is closed to motorized traffic. It follows the northern edge of the salt lake basin and crosses roughly the western third of Utah. There are a lot of mountains/rock formations along the way. We drove up to the top of Crocodile Mountain and Loco(?) mountain and camped near that peak. Wednesday morning we finished the railroad route. For the most part it's an easy gravel road. All of the former trestles are blocked though, they were all fairly small so the trail just makes little jogs down and across and back up out of little washes. Most of these are smooth, many of them are fun, but a few are washed out badly enough to cause a challenge for something with lower clearance. We then headed south on Massey northern #10. The start of this has some fun sections and a lot of cross ditches and some good scenery. We drove around and through Silver and Crater islands. Both fun and scenic. The northern end of Silver island was part of the ill fated Donner party's route. The southern end of Silver island has a lot of campsites and side trails and some traffic. This was a consistent sign we were getting close to pavement. We got food and gas in Wendover. Introduced myself to a French man at the grocery store who'd shipped their RV to the eastern US/Canada and had driven across to UT, heading to the west coast, then back across the southern US and Mexico on a yearlong trip with his wife and daughter.

Passenger side cooling fan on the Impreza wasn't working because a stick was jammed in the wiring and had pulled the connector. Temps still creep up when idling (or driving slow in the sand) with the AC on. Seemed like a lot of air was blowing around the fans and not just getting sucked into them. I got some adhesive foam strips and took the fans off and stuck those to the perimeter of the fans so they'd seal better against the condenser. The flow feels a little more organized but it made no noticeable improvement in cooling. I did get the cruise control working consistently, see the EZ36 engine swap thread for details on that. I use cruise control a lot so that's been nice. Went back up to the UP with some in laws last weekend. We did some trail riding one day. Pipeline grade was everyone's favorite. The girls in the back were screaming with excitement when I hit the jumps. I had tweaked the front shock valving since the last trip and I never noticed it bottoming out but it didn't feel harsher so that seems like an improvement. Rear tires were rubbing when hitting some of the dips hard so I'm hammering the wheel wells out more. One of my relatives peed their pants riding in the white Outback on the pipeline grade (out of fear I think), fortunately it has leather seats. Didn't have as much time that day for trail riding as the last trip but we all had some fun and didn't get stuck or break anything.

Just like @idosubaru says; Turn the bolt a little bit, spray the bolt head with PB Blaster or other penetrant fluid. Then torch the area of the head where the bolt is stuck with a map gas torch (handheld) Turn the bolt back and forth just a couple degrees again. Torch the area, spray with PB Blaster or dab on some candle wax while it's still hot. It will make the lubricant soak down to where it's needed. Keep repeating the process until the bolt frees up

Finally, after LOADS of work then tidy up and packing we’re off to Subinats in Sydney on Saturday. Left earlier to do some other stuff while up here but left almost two days later than planned. If you ever come to Australia and want to experience a wild time, come in October and do the Deni Ute Muster! It’s a loose weekend that’s for sure. This is one of the landmarks of the host town of Deniliquin - the ute on a pole (because why not?): Redback Brumby is loving the cruise so far. I’m sure she’ll keep the same attitude all the way home too. Cheers Bennie

Hello from Northern Cal. I was given two Subarus & each came with free car problems, so the inner-web led me here. One is a ‘99 Outback & the other an ‘02 Forester. So far, I’ve been impressed with how easy they are to work on as well as how capable they are off road. Cheers

Hey, it's nice to see some old friends. Life ot in the way and I haven't been around for a long time but I'm glad to see some old names . Life got in the way and we lost track, tge sites so different and my wife's finding our way around ( she;s better at it than I am) and we'll try to get back more often. Thanks for keeping this site up.

Same here. Past owner got the length wrong, Rock Auto got the length wrong, vendors don't care to pay attention and then I got smart and realized it was the same pump body and shaft length involved. All I had to do was pull or press the mounting face to the correct distance. I hope the spacer works out.

More than a couple times I’d run into a young DMV employee or such and they’d just be amazed and say things like “this isn’t right” or “I think you’re missing some numbers” , silly kids.

It has IGNITION CONTROL SYSTEM troubleshooting flow chart. Step one is check for spark with a timing light, if no light then check body side of crank angle sensor ( 4 wires off the distributor) for 12v and 2 4v wires and a ground. If you dont have that voltage its bad ECU or bad wiring, you have to pull up the ECU pin read out at that point. After that you plug the crank angle sensor and you check for a 4-5 volt Square wave coming from the crank angle sensor. What I would recommend at this point is to disconnect all injectors and fuel pump so you can just run the distributor buy hand or with a drill. Next you need to check for voltage at the 2 - pole power transistor. One side needs to have a constant 12v, the other wire is a 12v square wave coming from the ECU. This is where the service manual left me. And it didn't have specific voltages for the square waves. It didn't even tell you that there was square waves. The part they left out is that the power transistor can go bad( believe it or not). it should read out like any NPN transistor, you are going to have to look up how to test that. But you can with a multi meter with diode check. You can replace the hitachi HF83118D1 transistor with any NPN transistor that is rated for the voltage and amperage. It will take some retrofitting and testing but it will work. This has to be one of the most intense trouble shooting I have ever done. Check fuses first 😂

I don't think I have every seen a white one I have had 2 reds,light blue,world rally blue,tan,black,gray,silver and brown with full stripes. I have had 10 at once Unfortunately down to a black,brown,gray and silver . May never sell these or buy another but it's been fun 30 + years. Have piles of parts Pictures sizes exceed limit

Did more truck stuff. Found some first Gen stuff: Carpet (washing it here) Seats (little man helped me clean these up, they didn't need much!) Hacked the seats into the car, first. I say hacked because unbeknownst to me the rails mount over an inch closer together on the 1st Gen seats than the are in the 2nd gens. Also because the person I got the seats from had two sets of these and both of the drivers seats were torn but the passenger seats were equally immaculate. So I bought both passenger seats and dealt with the issue of mounting a passenger seat on the driver's side when the time came. 🤷‍♂️ Don't think they look too shabby The old carpet was pretty much toast so naturally I did everything rump roast backwards and hacked in the 1st Gen carpet AFTER I already hacked in the seats, which meant I had to take the seats out again. 🤫 I say hack in because absolutely nothing about the 1st Gen and 2nd Gen carpet is the same. But I got that sh** in there and, again, if I do say so myself, it ain't looking so bad methinks I gotta point something out here That seat right there 👆🏿? That's the absolute most comfortable (bucket) seat I have ever sat in. It's incredible. Couldn't be happier and a hell of an improvement over the blown out OG seats that came with it or the equally blown out (but less duck-taped) legacy seats the previous owner had put in it. Also got a set of Jackmans but I gotta clean them up. Do they fit on 2nd gens? Hope so! Nothing else has lol In other news the vacuum advance line keeps on falling off and the gas tank has started leaking when I fill it up 💪🏿 Thank you all for checking out my thread. Until next time!

While you are in there tighten the oil pump back plate screws and replace the o-ring.

I bought a set of the LED headlight bulbs that was deemed directly compatible with my OEM headlight bulbs. Big mistake. My digital dash went haywire and the engine began cutting out and otherwise ran poorly. Then the below dash relay switches were overheating and burning out. Finally, I realized that those LED's were screwing up my car big time, but only after I changed out my distributor, coil, cap and fusible links in a rain storm. Now I am back to the the OEM bulbs, have installed all new relay switches, and keep a handful of spare relay switches to pop in if I have any further problems. 524,000 miles on my 86 gl10 turbo.

First thing we did yesterday was swap out the long travel struts in the black Outback for some stock Outback/Legacy struts. We plan on revalving these shocks so we have a set ready to swap in the other cars for easier/faster shock tuning. It looks like a lowrider in person now. I'm pretty sure those are stock Legacy/Outback struts and springs but it does weigh significantly more than stock and the stock springs are pretty soft. White Outback has been shaking under moderate braking for months now. Light or heavy braking it's not too bad. Noticed a while back that the control arm bushings were shot so I replaced those. Have had this pair of Whiteline increased caster bushings for a while. Maybe easier to install than their normal bushings since they're not flanged. Only shifts the wheel about 1/4" which works out to about 1/2 a degree of caster. Also replaced the front rotors. Not sure if they were causing the shaking but we're going to need some used ones to turn down for rear use eventually anyhow. Replaced the air filter, it'd been 30k miles and it was super dusty. Still seemed to have good power though. Also replaced fuel filter and front diff fluid. B replaced the taillights on his blue Forester, they've been cracked and leaking for a while. He tried replacing the AC condenser since it had rubbed through on the radiator but apparently the 2001 Forester condenser is different than the good 2000 Forester condenser he had. Also replaced his trans fluid and some other things. Got the STI shift yoke from the dealer. In retrospect I should have just modified the one I'd welded and ground the holes on to clock it but this was easy. Replaced the bushings. Centered up, way less slop, can now fit the shift boot and trim on.

One of these things is not like the others 🤣 Not much time lately but haven't forgotten about the thread. Just been driving her. Nearly 2k miles into my ownership. Put 2 new axles in up front. Riding in the back is terrifying. More updates when I can. Cheers and thank you for looking.

I don't think it was the injector being clogged but probably a loose wire connection. The engine harness connector just doesn't seem right. There's 54 pins in five rows and the three small rows are difficult to insert the wires into without kinking. I'm thinking about replacing it, maybe with a few 20ish pin connectors (open to suggestion there). When you flex it around it will cause the engine to run well or poorly. I got it to run decent and taped that connector up and it ran well for a few days. We've been planning on going to the Badlands off road park today for a month or so now. This weekend they allowed 2WD buggies which they normally don't. One of our buddies we used to race with was planning on bringing his buggy so we wanted to meet him there. Yesterday B's blue Forester was running rough again and he eventually noticed the fuel coming out of the fuel filter looked like coffee but the fuel going in to the filter looked clear. So somehow the fuel filter had started pushing dirt into the engine. He replaced that and the complete intake with injectors. Then it ran fine. C and I headed down in the green Impreza. Aside from the lack of cruise control, AC, a speedometer, etc. our drive went fine. We're pretty sure the rasp in the exhaust is one or both collector gaskets, I want to replace them with V bands. At light load there's no rasp and the exhaust is actually fairly quiet. We got a message on the way down that B's Forester started running like crap or not at all after they filled up with gas. C told him he'd had the same problem with his Subaru Baja and he just had to run it at full throttle when it was full of gas. We're guessing it's getting fuel in the vent/evap system and flooding the engine. B was able to get it going again. Meanwhile C and I checked in and started wandering the off road park looking for J. The green Impreza has no problem cruising around the tailing piles (similar to pea gravel). I was mostly cruising around in second. Only a few times all day did I need to use first on some fairly steep hills. B had to use low range on at least one of those. I had the center diff unlocked all day and it got quite a bit of rear wheelspin. It will slide the rear end out a bit but nowhere near enough to spin. I didn't think about it until we got back but I should have tried locking the center diff and seeing how it did. We eventually found J and followed him around a bit in his buggy until B showed up. We mostly drove around on the tailing piles as J's buggy is too wide for some of the trails but we did hit some of those too. J's buggy can easily eat up the rolling whoops at high speeds. We swapped back and forth to the different cars during the day. After we'd been riding for a while Z was driving the Impreza and said it started running rough. I was able to push the wire harness into the connector and get it to run smooth and taped it in that position and it ran fine the rest of the day. With the heat in the engine compartment that connection had gotten significantly softer than when at room temperature, something I should keep in mind. The light weight and high horsepower/torque of the Impreza was great for just getting around and climbing hills. I exceeded the limits of the approach angle a few times but just in the tailings. We'd noticed a looseness in the RF corner of the Impreza and eventually C noticed it was leaking shock oil. Went back to the campground and took the shock off and the hose was kinked and caused it to start leaking. We were running out of time so we headed into town for dinner. Drove back home fine. We were disappointed that only a few buggies showed up to the park that we saw but glad we got to ride in J's. Probably drove over 500 miles and burned about 25 gallons of gas, overall a solid first run for the Impreza. Also the first real test of the billet rear knuckles / front CV axles in rear setup. Even at about 10 degrees at ride height and some occasional wheel hop in the tailing piles they survived the day. I will probably put slightly softer springs on the rear to cut that down a bit.

Is that the one with the plastic reservoir on the side? Those rarely leak. It's more likely the rubber hoses have gone brittle and are leaking at the clamps. Check the hoses first, likely need to change those out only.

And here we are as it sits tonight. Wiring harness, AC Lines, Cables, Coolant overflow lines, everything has been evacuated from the front drivers side corner. Hope to start cutting tomorrow!

With the spark plugs out, crank the engine until you see oil pressure. It'll crank pretty fast and build pressure after a couple tries. Also don't prefill the oil filter, if the oil pump wasn't preprimed it'll take very long for the air to overcome the oil stuck in the filer. If you're not sure, just crank it with no oil filter until you see it spit out oil, then the pump is primed. Put back the filter and crank for pressure. I'd crank until the oil light goes out, let it rest while I button up the some things, come back and test crank again to confirm the oil light instantly goes out. Then you're sure everything ready to fire up.

and some more project Pictures