Numbchux

Looks sweet! did you use Outback struts? or just regular Legacy ones. The outback ones are almost identicaly to the forester ones....Judging from the space between the top of your tires and the spring perch, I'd bet they're outback ones. Also, I don't think there's any way you'd have gotten almost 4" of lift with just springs.

I drove my blue lifted wagon with the sway bar disconnected but still installed for months with no problems....

+1 for it not being a head gasket. Sounds more like intake manifold to me....and they're much more likely to go out than a head gasket...unless you totally F#$%ed them up on installation, but I'm assuming that's not it.

Oh yea, there was a defender at the first Crawl 4 the Cure, I believe (it may have been a different run....but I don't think so). We watched it play around on the rocks near the Mud Runs.....yea, it was pretty impressive!!

My uncle has a 2" lifted discovery...and man does it look sweet!! Hopefully he can come out with us next summer!

I've been looking for a rust-free 1st gen 4Runner since before Zap ever got his truck.... But don't think for a second that it's a coincidence that at least 3 of us upgraded to Toyota

I think a simple full frame would be best. just tie everything together, and it'll beef the whole system up. how are you going to get front ebrake? are you intending to go solid front and rear axles? or just rear? if you do both, you'll have to get pretty creative to get front calipers with handbrake brackets for the front.

IIRC that rig already has a sammy case.

my lifted EA82 easily got 28 mpg. my EJ-swapped loyale gets the same in the city under my lead foot. made a little road trip with our String Quartet. 4 people, instruments, and stands. usually cruising at about 60. easily saw 32 or more. a V8 will suck more gas than a subaru motor. assuming their both running well. I dont see why you bother arguing it. especially since you obviously don't want to do it for the mileage.

I doubt it could be done and maintain the 4WD system. and if that's the case....what's the point?! actually, what's the point at all? I'll take my all-aluminum 4-cyl with 4WD over anything with a V8 any day.

Just make sure you get the mounting points perfect. If the bellhousings are not perfectly aligned, it'll put lateral pressure on the pilot bearing, and the input shaft of the tranny. Just be sure to get things lined up right.

meh. if you use toyota 8" axles....just get real lockers. the dual ebrake thing is cool, but definately inferior to real lockers. nonetheless, it sounds like an awesome project. if I had had more time, and a welder/decent welding skills. I wanted to do this to my wagon. but, alas....other plans. good luck man!! and keep us posted!

I've got one of his plates. and had no worries about those 2 holes being too close. my worry with the offset bolt like 91loyale did, is getting it tight enough on the engine side. it wasn't that hard to get at the bolts on the engine. especially if you put the plate on the engine before dropping the engine in. and yea, if you go to an EJ trans down the road. just get longer bolts, and slip a nut on the back. there's room.

I'd be VERY worried about the rust. I've not ever seen one that's had cosmetic rust, that didn't have holes in the framerails. How do you know the unibody isn't rusted out? Get on the ground and look, even bring a small hammer and tap everything. scrape a little of it off....you get the idea. I've seen many of them (owned 2, actually) that the framerails fell apart long before there was any serious cosmetic signs. btw, it's NOT AWD, it's 4WD. if the owner is telling you it's AWD, make sure they knew you cannot drive it with it engaged on dry roads. if they did, the clutch pack may be shot. or you could just swap the front diff with the D/R trans that was in your legacy. and make it D/R!!

^^yep. keep in mind I'm running an EJ22 out of a legacy. I wouldn't be nearly as interested on an EA82. but the ECU of the newer car is a little smarter... and I have to replace much of the fuel lines in the car anyway....the #$$^%#@ salt did more damage than anything I could run through the inside of them.... and no. as far as the environment goes. E85 is not the answer. The only thing it does is give a little more work to the farmers. and burn a little cooler and higher octane for us ghetto boosted builders :cool:

So, as I mentioned in my other thread, I'm helping a buddy swap an EJ22t into his N/A gen 1 Legacy. as part of this swap, he's wiring in an aftermarket, standalone ECU. so we've got the entire dash out, and have been tinkering. so I took a few pics of what the car looks like with the dash off, but the wiring still in the car, and labled a few things worth noting. Also, these pics are with the HVAC ductwork still installed. this will all need to be removed to effectively pull all the wiring you'll need. but you can still see many of the connectors that you will later be working with here. I have resized these pics for posting on the general forums, but they will be in higher resolution, aswell as include better descriptions in the full write-up. hopefully to be ready for distribution by the end of the year.... Passenger side: in the center, towards the left, you can see the blower motor. The large grey metal box, with the black relay next to it, are parts of the cruise control unit. it's probably possible to get this to work in a swap. but will add a level of complexity. I would recommend using an EA cruise system, as it has it's own harness, and attaches to the throttle pedal...aswell as plugs right into the dash and steering wheel mounted buttons. Underneath the cruise box are a number of connectors that lead back into the rear of the car. virtually all of these are unneeded. they're for power locks, windows, tail lights, etc. all of these functions will still be controlled by the EA harness. although, I beleive the fuel pump wire does go back through there. but you can cut it off closer to the relay, and splice it into the EA harness under the dash. Drivers side: Here you can see where we've started marking each individual wire that goes to the ECU, since we will be cutting off the ECU plugs and splicing in others. For an EJ swap, you won't be doing this, but marking the wires may make identifying where they go much easier! also, I've circled the blue and white connectors under the steering column. These are the ones that go up into the Dash. you will need more than a few wires from this cluster, although it's easiest to identify them by tracing them from the ECU. (I have not found a good pinout of those connectors...) you may also want to remove the steering column, aswell as it's support bar. this well simplify the removal of the harness aswell. location of main/ignition, and fuel pump relays: This is in the farthest/highest left hand corner of the cabin. above and behind the ECU. The round 4-wire one with the green plug is the fuel pump relay, and the brown, square 6-wire one is the main/ignition relay. also, circled in red, is the large, grey connector, through which all of the wires that go out into the fender go through. you can undo this connector, which simplifies removal, and installation of the harness. I have a good pinout of this connector aswell... Circled in blue, are the green test mode connectors. the black read code connectors, and the select monitor connector should be near these...You'll want to save them (maybe not the select monitor, as there's nothing that a code reader could tell you that the flashing CEL can't...but the other 2 pairs, for sure!) another view of the relays: this is from a lower angle. you can see the ignition relay (circled) better. and the fuel one is just above it. The round relay with the white connector in the foreground is a headlight relay. you won't need to save these off the legacy donor.

I should mention that I had a wheel bearing fail about 8k miles after the lift on my wagon. but the car was 220k miles old, had been cared for pretty badly (I have no reason to think these bearings would be anything other than origional), the car had been under water numerous times, and I had probably swapped an axle in and out of that side 4 or 5 times in that period of time. 2 of which on the trail (I'm sure I got some sand or something in the grease in the process...). and, it's not a big job. if you can change an axle, you can change a bearing...no need for a press or anything, just a big hammer, a big socket extension for pounding out the old one, and a big socket (the 36mm that you used for the axle nut works well) for pounding in the new. just make sure they come out and go in even, and you're set! Bearings are really quite far down on the list of things to be concerned about.

when I had mine apart. I'm fairly certain that the front and rear actuators are mounted at a different angle in relation to the locking mechanism. But I suppose it is worth a try...

The rear door already has an actuator (assuming the car has power locks already...). you need one in the front. the power lock system works by having a sensor in the driver's side front door that tells the rest of the actuators to do the same. if you have an actuator move the one lock, the rest will follow. I like the idea of getting one from a RHD car!

what higher altitude? we were on our way to CO, but noticed it in Iowa. E85 has an octane of 100+, when mixed with regular gas, it raises the octane. So if you added some extra ethanol to regular gas, it would raise the octane rating.... I could sware we saw at at least 2 different stations in Iowa, that the premium gas (92 octane, IIRC) was higher than 10% ethanol, but not nearly 85%. This is just from memory, and was almost 2 years ago. I also don't understand how the premium could be selling for less than regular, if it doesn't contain more ethanol.... I'm no expert, by any means. but I have talked with MANY people who have used E85 first hand. I'm considering running it, so I've been doing some research. I'm just relaying what I've learned, and what's applicable here in MN.

lol....sorry I was so sure that when we went through there on our way to CO, all the gas stations said like 20-25% ethanol for the premium....We talked about it a ton that week, suspecting that that was part of the reason why the octane rating was higher, that it had more ethanol.... I wonder what it was that we saw then....

OK, I'm over here working on it again...I had it backwards. his donor EJ22t is from a '91, and the car it's going into is a '93.... so that makes more sense.

Iowa's 'premium' contains much more than 10% ethanol, that's why it's cheaper (government subsidized). And when I say I've heard, I mean talking, in person, to people I know and trust and I know have actually done it. not just stuff posted on internet forums. including one highschool buddy, who's probably done less work on his own car than I have... Anyway, I don't know the proven facts about how much energy they use. only that a ~90% E85 mix with 89 octane did not yield a 30% decrease in mileage. there may have been other factors involved...but that's how it ended up.

Unfortunately. I don't think there's any pattern to it. as this case proves 2 of those statements wrong. '93 EJ22t donor had 3 square connectors '91 N/A legacy has 2 connectors. I don't have my VSS hooked up. it runs fine. I've got some cold starting problems, but I have no reason to think its related. However, your car should have a VSS (refferred to as a Reed Switch on the diagrams) in the dash. I have the neutral start switch wired so it'll always start. I've had to use the starter to move the car a few times.... and yes, a comprehensive write up is not far away...But there's a ton of information out there, so pulling it all together is taking time....But it will be soon.

E85 is more readily available than race gas.... although most of the guys I know using it, are tuned for premium, and run an E85 mix with 90, or 87 octane. So they're averaging ~95-100 octane, and spending less than premium would cost. and from what I've heard, E85 doesn't hurt your mileage 30%...my buddy was running it on his turbo'd impreza, and was getting ~22 on regular gas, and ~20 on E85...(and he was running pretty close to a pure mixture). it may be different in other parts of the country, but virtually all the gas here in MN has some Ethanol in it....and E85 is insanely subsidized by the state , so it's quite cheap. easily $.50 cheaper per gallon than 87 octane