WoodsWagon

With all the non-outback subarus running around with outback struts in them, and not having allignment or axle problems, I'd say make the spacer the same height as the outback subframe drop blocks. That way, you can run outback struts, with the factory subframe spacers installed, and then add your strut cap spacers in to get the extra clearance you have on a non-subframe spacer-ed car with outback struts.

I'm assuming you have a belt driven clutch fan and an electric fan? The thermo-switch in the radiator end tank can go bad, and the electric fan won't turn on. Make sure the fans are actually running.

Tire size doesn't change turning radius until you get big enough that they rub on the frame at full lock. 205/75r15's fit fine on outbacks, and the turning radius is exactly the same as a legacy with donut spares on it. New gen subarus don't have the extreme lockover angle that older gen ones had, new gen's are pretty average on the turning radius.

I would be much more suspicious of the strut rod bushings where they anchor to the body under the front floor pans. If those big rubber bushings are shot the control arm can move forward and back, which changes the toe and alignment based on acceleration, coasting, and braking. Way bigger alignment changes than a worn ball joint can create.

Wiring is there for cruise control, rear wiper, rear door speakers, and front tweeters. Many options like seat heaters need a harness sectioned in. So do map lights, A brighton without power windows has a way stripped down harness, no power locks, windows, mirrors, rear power outlet, fog lights, ect. My dad has a Brighton that I retrofitted a tach, map lights, heated cloth seats, rear speakers, front tweeters, outback struts and wheels, cruise control, and a factory cd player into. Stuff like power windows and locks would be way too much of a PITA to wire in.

You are aware of the phenomenon called boost lag, right? A low compression engine will be sluggish until the boost pressure kicks in. As for thinking it could do better, it's a 115hp engine, with the turbo. The auto transmission also sucks a lot of power on it's own.

You have to fish one wire through and tap into the dome light power feed. Then cut the appropriate holes in the headliner, and bolt the map lights up. The bracket and holes are there already.

Those mitsubishi trucks that dodge sold as Ram 50's come with perfect offset wheels for subarus, so a mitsubishi Pajero may have the same spec wheels.

Probably a 99 forester, would be 8 bolt bellhousing, oil cooler, and big cyl bore.

If you're making huge power, you can afford to spend the money to get an adequate push type clutch built for you. You may need to play around with the right combo of hydraulic master/slave bores to get one that you can operate without wearing your leg out but that isn't a drawback to this design. Bill, what you're building is great and I don't want you to feel for a minute that anyone is criticizing your design, which I don't believe was Numbchux's intent, but it came across that way.

Checked a 98 outback limited with dual sunroofs in the junkyard, rusted through in the same spot, both sides. Thanks for the pictures! My interim solution for this winter has been bituthane roofing underlayment. It's Grace Ice & Water shield. I clean off as much dirt from the area around the crumble zone, lay in sheets of the ***************athane and use a hot air gun to cozy it up so it's nice and gooey, then squish it down to make sure it's got good adhesion to the body. Seems to be working so far.

The biggest boost in performance would be swapping to a 5spd manual from the 3 speed auto. If it's been sitting a while, sending the injectors out to be cleaned can be a really good preventative measure. A partially clogged injector will run that cylinder lean and cook it in short order. Big emphasis on the cooling system. It needs to be in top shape for the engine to stay together.

I'd pull the intake hose off the turbo and check the endplay of the turbine shaft. There should be a little play, but if you can move it around a lot, it's probably gone. Also check for aluminum shavings in the charge pipe between the turbo and the throttle body. Overrevving these engines doesn't seem to hurt them. I've had mine up over 8k rpms a bunch of times and it hasn't complained, other than the digi-dash beeping at me.

Biggest gain would be to remove the rear axles off of the hub stub shaft. You only have to pull one axle out to see good gains. Most trucks with ADD (automatic differential disconnect) only unhook one axle from the diff. The spider gears in the diff and the remaining axle will still rotate but that's way less power consumption than spinning the ring and pinion and the propeller shaft. Pull one or both rear axles and you will see a decent gain in MPG. The weight loss of dumping the rear drivetrain is negligible compared to the convenience of just tossing a pair of axles in when you want to go camping for a weekend.

The reason for that is the amount of deposits and gum built up inside the transmission by using old fluid for so long. ATF has a lot of detergents in it's additive package, so when you replace the fluid the new fluid does a great job of breaking loose all the gunk inside the tranny. That gunk gets caught by the filter, overwhelms it, and the filter clogs. The pump starts cavitating because it can't pull fluid through the filter and line pressure drops off. Low line pressure leads to low clamping force on the clutches and bands, they start slipping which releases more friction material into the fluid, clogging the filter more, and it's done. Filter changes are crucial once you decide to change the fluid. On a transmission with a paper or felt style filter (like most domestic ones) you need to change the filter multiple times when you switch from neglect to proper care. Honda's have non-replaceable filters, you can change them once you dissasemble the case to rebuild them, but otherwise not. I've seen lots of their transmissions limping along with low line pressure due to a clogged filter. It's really stupid engineering.

The front diff drain plug is also a 21mm head or so, and it goes into an aluminum casting. The transmission drain plug is a 17mm head and it threads into a sheet metal pan. Front diff fill plug/ dipstick is yellow, and mounted down on the transmission on the passenger side of the car. The dipstick is about 10" long and is a solid rod with the end squished flat. The transmission dipstick is on the drivers side, red plastic, and is under the heater hoses by the starter motor. This dipstick is about 18" long and is a flexible flat ribbon blade. Make sure the right fluids go in the right places. Many a subaru automatic has been ruined by people draining the transmission and filling the diff, or draining the diff and filling the transmission. Transmission takes ATF Dextron/Mercon III, front diff takes 80/90 hypoid gear oil.

Just pull from the hitch. Get a receiver plug that has a hole on the end for hooking a ring through and you should be good. The hitch is mounted to both tow hooks and has bolts through the framerails, it's plenty strong. It also is in the same horizontal plane as the framerails, so there isn't much up or down leverage on it to tear it off the car. You should be fine. I have towed ungodly loads with the stock tie down points on my subarus. It also often involved getting a run at whatever I was pulling and bouncing off the end of the strap. Never even tweaked the tie down points, broke a bunch of good straps.

You won't see better flow through a gutted cat vs a complete non-clogged cat. You may actually see worse because the exhaust velocity stalls in the open chamber of the gutted cat. I always put a piece of pipe through the middle of the empty cat body to keep the velocity constant. Even if the car is throwing a p0420 code, it rarely means the cat is clogged. What it does mean is the efficiency of the catalyst materials has dropped below threshold, or it thinks it has due to the computers comparison of the front and rear o2 sensors. Withdrawing the rear o2 sensor from the exhaust stream doesn't change the voltages it creates, but it stabilizes it's readings. It's still in the exhaust atmosphere, but it's sampling rate is dropped way down. That creates the illusion that the catalyst is working in the computers mind. It's looking for steady fluctuations in the front o2 sensor and adjusting the fueling to compensate but wants a smooth signal from the rear sensor around 0.5v.

Instead of all that work you could have just got a 21mm thread flat washer spark plug anti-fouler from your local Help! parts aisle, drilled it out with a 1/2" bit, threaded the rear O2 sensor into it, and then threaded that into the exhaust. It spaces the sensor back out of the exhaust, gets rid of the 420 code, even with no cat. And I believe the pack of 2 antifoulers costs $3, so that's a buck fifty per car you fix.

Not sure if this helps you but here's a bunch of the factory guide to rally prepping an RX: http://www.faberit.com.au/rxrally/Pics/RX_Docs/index.html

I think it would be more practical to put the drivetrain from a synchro van into a VW caddy than it would be swapping the TDI into a brat.

The tires we have on it probably wouldn't fit with forester struts. The outback ones have more clearance to the spring seat in the rear. It's a tight fit, we had to lightly massage the rear of the rocker panel where it meets the rear wheel arch to stop it from rubbing, and that's with outback trailing arm brackets. The tires fill the wheel wells to the max, so there's no going bigger without lots of cutting/bashing, which isn't happening. It only has 3.9:1 gearing anyway so bigger tires might make it harder to use in the woods without stalling. I've recommended a snorkel to him a few times now, maybe after this incident he'll take my suggestion more seriously.

I've helped a friend build up his 2002 WRX. We swapped 98 legacy outback struts, 92 legacy wagon springs, and oversized tires onto it. It's got 11.5" of clearance under it all round. I used my truck to pull it out of a pond today, he highcentered in some knee-deep ruts under water. 5" of water over the floor and the ECU wasn't happy about that and shut down. After bailing water out of the interior, we took the ECU out and apart, rinsed it off in a fresh mountain stream, and dried it off using the defrost on my truck. After using my trucks tailpipe to blow-dry the wrx's air filter, we threw it back together and it fired right up. Not bad for a 173k mile wrx that's been overboosted at 18psi with a piggyback tuner for the last 100k miles and 3 owners. It burns some oil but it's awesome hearing a turbo when ripping through a mudhole.

The 12mm difference in depth between the EA and EJ setups is what allows space for the adapter plate. With no adapter plate sandwiched in, you would have to put a 12mm spacer between the flywheel and crank. But with the adapter plate in there that you need to bolt the 2 together, you will need to put a 24mm thick spacer between the crank and the flywheel. A 1" spacer between the flywheel and crank is getting excessive. Then you have to find long bolts with the fine pitch thread and short heads to fit under the clutch disk. I'd look into swapping whatever EJ guts into the EA case. Or switching to an EJ18 if the displacement is a requirement, EJ22 or 25 if it's not. Just took a look at the gears website. If you're spending $1500 on gears and another $175 on a locking collar, why use an EA82? You need an AWD EJ 5spd to put the pinion shaft and locking collar in, and you could probably pick up an early 90's legacy or impreza for $2-400. That would give you a much better engine and the right transmission for the reverse pinion set to fit into. Spending that much money and effort making it fit for such a small gain (90hp instead of 63) isn't worth it in my opinion.