Twitch de la Brat

Yeah, if you wreck you don't want a blazing hot 100+ pound hunk of metal flying into the cabin with you. It also increases the stiffness of the front end, allowing you to deal more punishment to it. If you incorporate it into your suspension mounts then you'll have a very strong, very durable offroad car. Twitch

You're fine. In my area you made out like a bandit. Those cars usually go for at least 10k. An O2 sensor is no big deal, unless you have to pass smog :-\ If not, just clear the code and see how long it takes to come back. If it comes back immediately then you definitely have a problem that needs fixing. Fairtax has a point that it could be as simple as a pinched wire. And a quick feel around the exhaust where the O2 sensor is located could easily reveal a corroded/broken clip or a pinched wire. Just check around and see what it takes to diagnose a bad O2 sensor on these. Twitch

Ok, wasn't sure how you were approaching this. You'll definitely have to beef up the strut mounts as well as everything suspension related. You'll need a caged engine as well as cabin, blah blah blah, I'm sure you're gonna do just fine. And a Forester would be the best choice as it is based on the Impreza and has a multitude of parts available. Plus the greater clearance, tauter suspension, and lighter weight than the Outback just add icing to the cake. Twitch

Ok, if you're comparing a Subaru to a Jimco Buggy, that's like comparing grapefruit to grapes. To get any Subaru up to that point you're gonna have to do some MAJOR upgrading to the suspension. Dakar requires some awesome suspension travel, and you're not going to get that out of stock Forester struts, even though they are some of the longest travel struts made by Subaru. Ok, Rally cars made to do well over 160 KM/H over jumps and bumps and the like, only do 120-160 KM/H. Foresters were not built to do those kind of speeds. If you push one to that extent without upgrading anything you WILL have a catastrophic failure. Twitch

From what I have read you can put 02-03 WRX struts on first gen Legacies. I'm sure there's more you can do, just search around, there have been many threads about it. Twitch

If it wasn't made to run it, why would Subaru put two fans in? The slim black fan is for cars with ac and is kinda just a helper. If you don't have AC, I believe the black fan will probably never come on. I would just install a cabin switch for the black fan and run it when neccesary. If the car is overheating, the main metal case fan may not be turning on. If this is the case, your thermo-switch may be shot. I would just bypass that as well and install your main fan on the same switch as the auxiliary fan. If you do this, you need to make sure your switch is at least 15 amp, if not 20 amp to handle the 12 amp regular draw plus spikes. Twitch PS: An easy power source that's already switched is your coil

Bumping this back up as it seems EVERYONE has lost interest in the group. C'mon people, its just a couple clicks away on your user cp. Click social groups and click on the one you belong to, and voila! you're there... Twitch PS: DON'T FORGET TO CHECK BACK IN FROM TIME TO TIME!!!

You suck. So what are you putting it into? Wheeler wagon? Drift car? Rally Car? C'mon, C'mon, details!!!! Twitch

I think a silicone setup may work. Hard ABS or similar plastic wrapped in the silicone could be use around the vents and the the edges and then the major stretches would just be silicone. Kinda like a cell phone case, but with a plastic substructure. And a silicone setup would be a lot cheaper to make than an ABS production run. Twitch

100km/h is roughly 60mph so 200km/h will be about 120mph. That is WAY fast on dirt, not even 400k rally cars get going that fast. Average speed of a rally car is 80mph, maxing out at 100mph or so on straight stretches. Your target number should be about 120-160km/h for a top speed. An N/A Subaru should be able to reach that speed fairly easily on 30" tires, but a turbo would get you there quicker. Twitch

Knowing you, its probably some gonna be a hopped up EA81 slammed in a sedan, EA81 or otherwise, and built into a driftmobile. Or the polar opposite, a beefed out EA81 in a new wheeling wagon. One of the two Twitch

Heh, its true. Since I logged in I don't think I've gone more than a week without USMB. And at the end of that week I was getting a little antsy. Thanks for warning the newbies, they really should know what they're getting into Twitch

Wow you're brave. But I agree, the 5sp to auto swap is BY FAR harder than the auto to 5sp. Also its in your best interest to have a parts car sitting by to easily get parts off of, as I had to do this often when doing my swap. Twitch

Well, here is a place that seems to have a lot of info on how to hop up the EA81, but I wasn't able to read through the whole thing, so I'm not sure if its got dual carb stuff. I would start asking the Aussies and Kiwi's. It seems like they got the cool stuff :-p You might pm Jerry (bratsrus1), he has a lot of oddball Subaru things. Otherwise, you already have one of the biggest Subaru junkyards nearby, Aarons. I'll check around here for you Twitch

Gotcha, I'll see if I can dig those out of a wiki article or something... Twitch

You're referring to the paper gaskets? Try NAPA or Oreilly's. I was able to get the proper gasket for my oil pump from Napa, and it was a fel-pro. I'm sure they will have what you're looking for, although it may take a while to get it to you (but probably less time than the dealer would take ) Twitch PS: I have no idea what those part numbers are

YAY!!! Good for her, I'm glad she finally saw the light Hope to see her around the board Oh oh oh, if she's on a budget you should get her into and EA81 wagon Twitch

Good looking site so far I kinda preferred your old one though... :-\ Twitch

Just send me her number and I will convince her that Subaru's are a godsend and anything else is complete garbage And yes, yes she should read this thread. Twitch

When I did my 5sp swap I went with a 1 piece driveline. The shop I went with quoted me about $170 to extend the driveshaft or about the same to build me a whole new one. I highly recommend going the all new route, as it will give you greasable U-joints and brand new parts all around. As for vibration, I don't notice any from the driveshaft, the bad axle and ball joints on the other hand... And the length for a one piece driveshaft is exactly the same as the 2 piece. So just measure your driveshaft from the middle of the front U-joint to the mounting plate on the end and tell the shop doing to how long it is from those two points. I believe mine was 56", or in metric 56*2.54=142.24cm. And yes that was all mental math Twitch PS: it was while ago that I did my swap so my numbers may be off

Agreed ^^^^ If you let it go until it starts making noise while driving straight you'll most likely need to replace the hub assembly as well as the bearing. Twitch

Jeep = Cheap Junk The 4.0 HO I6 is a good engine, but the rest of the car is just about ready to die after 100k. And I'm sorry, but why would your sister want a nose heavy RWD vehicle that is easily rolled, esp in Washington? Is it just me or is that Heep screaming "I WANNA GET STUCK!"? Twitch

I've driven both in a first gen Legacy, same car actually... The auto had great pickup when it came to passing on the freeway/highway. The 4EAT's are very good at picking up when you want to pass, "get on it", etc. Off the line it was a bit slower, but that's only because of the wind up time required to get all the parts moving. When it came to driving in general, they were very close to each other in that aspect. The 5 speed is a lot more fun to drive, personally, but it does sometimes get tiresome in heavy traffic or in stop and go stuff. Now with the five speed you can anticipate the hill, instead of reacting to it as the auto does. So between the two, I think the 4EAT would be the better tranny for towing/offroading, as long as you have a good cooler and maybe a brake controller for the trailer. Now as for swapping 5MT to 4EAT that's a big can o'worms there. Lots of wiring has to be swapped in, the TCU, the ignition interlock, possibly the ECU, you'll have to run a wiring loom for the transmission alone... It would be much easier and most likely cheaper in the long run to just buy a car with the 4EAT and keep your other car your dd. Lifts are easily transferred and you wouldn't need to rewire your dash. Twitch PS: Sorry for the novel...

What dealership was yours from? I could probably do a carfax or something on mine and see where it originated. If they came from the same dealership then they might've been part of a promo for that particular dealership. Also, mine has an aftermarket, maybe dealer, vinyl that just says "SUBARU" on the driver's side, top of the tailgate. Sorry, no pix, but its just a plain black vinyl in a generic font. Twitch

I'm not sure if I'm correct on that, but the easiest way to check is to pop your hood, remove the spare tire, and look down at the driver's side of the transmission. There should be a black cylinder sticking out from the upper edge from the transmission, if its a side mount starter. If its a top mount, as it most likely is, it should be sticking out from the very top of the transmission. Twitch