WoodsWagon

I got consistent mid 20's with a 4" lifted 29" tired 3,000lb loyale wagon that I drove abusively. That was with an EJ22 and a d/r 5spd. Remember that you have to correct the odometer reading per tankfull to whatever percentage the speedometer is off. The bigger the tires, the lower the speedometer will read in relation to actual road speed and the fewer miles the odometer will indicate in relation to actual miles traveled. If you don't factor that in, you'll think you're getting way worse MPG's with big tires than you actually are.

The so-called "glass" transmissions are stronger than you think. The problem was the car suddenly attracted the kind of customer who liked sidestepping the clutch at 4k rpms to launch a car. Instead of the wheels spinning and releasing the shock load like a 2wd car, the transmission took the hit. There are plenty of "glass" transmissions out there getting worked hard and not blowing up. I know one with 175k on it that's been the neighborhood beater for most of it's life and now has a ej257 shortblock in it. The rear transfer gears and center diff got shredded by the last previous owner doing donuts from dirt to pavement, so the box has lived a hard life. 1-5th are still fine and the synchros aren't even notchy. For a $2300 wrx it was a good deal. The 2.0 lasted a year before it spun 2 rod bearings and we swapped the 2.5 in for $800. The car the OP is looking at is a really bad gamble. It has ricer mods on it that do nothing for the engines performance but are indicators of the type of owner that had it before. Walk away. If the rod bearings aren't already gone, they're about to.

Just use a little caution. If you make a dozen or so of them I'm sure it won't be a problem, but if you go into production and start selling them commercially I wouldn't be surprised if you get hassled. A detroit can't be assembled in place in a one piece carrier like a powertrax can. That's the benifit of lunchbox lockers, you re-use the guts of the diff and just replace the spider gears.

There are no solenoids in a 3AT. It's a purely hydraulic transmission so it depends on governor line pressure and throttle line pressure to make it shift. What RPM does it shift up from first to second and second to third? If the vacuum line has come off the modulator on the transmission the shift points will be high and it will downshift early.

Ratio doesn't matter as there is no carrier split in a r160. You need the carrier itself so you can see the hole the locker needs to be assembled through, and the side gears to see how the axle stubs interact with the gears retention system. You do need to be a bit careful if you go into production with these as there is probably still active patents on the design even though they will never manufacture one for a subaru.

Miata diffs are completely different. It's a rare thing for those guys to use a R160 because swapping it in is custom fab and it's not an upgrade. Put out a request for diff donations in the old gen/off road forums. You're in the Portland Oregon area right? Finding a Powertrax locker to look at would probably help too. Don't get the one with the springs and clutches to smooth engagement, it adds complexity and weakens it. Two dog teeth side gears, two center blocks and the 4 indexing pins and springs is the simple way to go. http://www.offroaders.com/tech/lock-right-locker.htm It also looks like the teeth may be slightly dovetailed so they tend to lock together under load. Straight cut dogs may skip at lighter loads when the crosspin isn't jamming the center blocks into the side gears.

So with the diff stub styles there's bolt in and clip in. EA82's and older used bolt in. EJ's used clip in. 90-94 had clip in stubs that splined cv cups were held on with a roll pin like the EA's. 95+ had clip in stubs that were integrated into the CV cups, probably the strongest arrangement. The 90-94 legacy stubs form an adapter between EA axles and a clip in diff. One other thing to consider is the Datsun 510 guys steal subaru clutch type LSD's out of EA's. They use bolt in stubs with a U-joint flange. Best market coverage would be a bolt in style side gear because the 510 guys could use them. Strongest would be a clip in style side gear because you could use 95+ integrated cv stubs. Maybe best to make both styles of side gear but start with the bolt in style to tap the 510 market? Get an open carrier diff from a EA car another open one from a Legacy and compare side gears. Diff's should be pretty cheap or I bet people local to you would loan you ones to look at and measure.

The problem with a detroit like that is you can't install it in a one piece carrier, it has to be one that clamshells at the crosspin holes. A powertrax or other "lunchbox" locker is designed to be assembled inside a one piece carrier and held in place by the crosspin. This style: Why do they always put cheesy 80's porno music to professional product demonstration videos? Here's an assembly demonstration: One thing to consider is that subaru used two methods of stub axle retention; the older ones have a bolt that holds the stub into the side gear, the newers use an expanding ring clip to hold it in. The expanding ring clip style is stronger and easier to machine for, but it would require people with older cars to swap the inner CV cups. Having broken a bunch of the hollow stub shafts with the through bolt, I think it's worth the upgrade. Just keep that in mind if you design one for the older style of diff. But yes, a ratcheting overrunning dog clutch style automatic locker is what would be a hot item. Oh, and as a complete aside, I saw your adapter plate your other post. How do my plot #'s compare to the ones you came up with? http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=131151

The knock sensor and MAF are completely unrelated, so I think the knock sensor code happening after your cleaning was probably chance. The knock sensors do fail, many of them have cracks in the plastic they're cast in. It's relatively cheap and pretty easy to replace and it's one of the main sensors the computer uses to optimize power and efficiency. Check the connectors under the throttle body that are attached to a bracket coming up off the bellhousing to make sure you didn't disconnect or yank on the wires when you cleaned the throttle body. All 95 legacys are OBDII. It wasn't legally required until 96, but a few manufacturers switched over early.

The electronic speedometers are transplant-able. I put one from a 98 forester into a 93 legacy dash. A little trimming, a little melting plastic with a soldering iron, and a little hot glue and it worked great. I was able to carefully cut the traces on the printed circuit sheet into ribbons so I could re-position them on the electric speedo's contact screws and ran a power jumper wire from another contact screw on the board. It sounds hack, but it came out looking stock and working perfectly. I've also used a pushbutton 4wd shift knob on a honda civic DX that I swapped a HX motor into after the original spun a rod bearing. The pushbutton would switch the vtec-e so it would go from a 12v high swirl head to a 16v high flow head. The guy is still driving the car like that as far as I know. That same pushbutton shift knob had seen time on a CRX Si activating the vtec on a d16z6 head that we had swapped into it. It was fun to have manual control of the vtec, but not entirely practical.

If it has a 2.5l engine and a hydraulic clutch it should have 4.11 gears.

If they blew up the first engine in 60k, I'd be pretty suspect of the abuse or lack of maintenance the rest of the car got.

What was wrong with the touring wagon that you're using it for a donor? They're pretty rare actually. Not that I treated mine any better, but it was a complete rustbucket.

Since you can see the pushrod going into the brake booster in the background of your picture and it's dry, the only other source of oily fluid is the speedometer cable. Take a close sniff of the oil and see if it smells like gear oil. If it does that sucks. Really sucks. I tried everything I could to replace the seal on the speedo driveshaft coming out of the transmission on a legacy and couldn't get it out. I resorted to converting the dash over to an electronic speedo and swapping the cable for a VSS. That car was wicking up so much oil that it was dripping on the drivers legs, so I had to do something.

The 95+ subarus actually had a recall for the springs breaking and ripping the sidewalls out of tires. There was a shield bracket kit that mounted to the struts to prevent that from happening. Free from the dealer.

If you plan on machining up a working version, make a locker. You could make a copy of a detroit locker or a powertrax that replaces just the spider gears but scale it to fit a subaru differential. That would have market appeal, whereas LSD's are already available, lockers are not.

You need to make a special carrier too, there isn't enough space in the open carrier to fit spider gears and clutch plates. The LSD carrier is bulkier to fit all the clutch plates and thrust plates in.

Here's some pics of the LSD guts: http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2240798

If the rear main isn't leaking, leave it alone. The oil separator plate should always be done if it's plastic and replaced with a metal one. Either the older cast aluminum plate will work or the newer stamped steel one. You may need different screws with the stamped steel one.

Did the exact same mpg with a 98 Outback wagon 2.5 auto going across Iowa and Nebraska about 5 years ago. That was with 3 adults in the car and our luggage. The faster we went the better MPG we got. Going across the rustbelt states we got mid 20's, the flatter-higher speedlimit western states we got high 20's.

How broken is your transmission?

Manual non-turbo 90-94 legacys had 4.11 transmissions. So did 93 impreza's.

Neither is the coin to stick in behind the pipe and crank the nut back down on to block off the ASV system. The reed valves in the system are prone to failure and then you get melted plastic blown into the air box. Just disable the system if you aren't required to have it.

When the stock pads came apart and the friction material spat out between the bracket and the disk leaving me with just the backing plate to stop with as I came up to the tollbooths on the interstate in Buffalo NY, I replaced them with whatever $12 in stock pads the nearest parts store had and got back on the road. I had 215/75r15's on the car at that point, and the braking was never that good but I figured the oversized tires were to blame. I found some left over Wagner brake pads still in the box from my dad's subaru. The braking improved dramatically after swapping those in. I could actually lock the tires up at speed if I wanted to. They probably cost $30 new, but they were more than twice the pad the $12 ones were because the car could actually stop. I've never liked ceramics because they often don't bite well when cold. Most of the everyday driving you do is on cold brakes.

Cleaning the idle air control valve with carb cleaner and working it back and forth may help too. 600rpm seems like a little too low of an idle. Does the idle step up when you turn on the A/C?