el_freddo

What happens when you apply 12v directly to the starter wire pin? A common issue on the EJ vehicles was the starter circuit not being strong/good enough to crank the starter motor properly. The trick was to add a relay that gave the starter the full 12v at the starter wire pin. That said, have you checked the condition of your fusible links? And what is the condition/age of your battery leads/cables? Cheers Bennie

I’ve seen that, forgot about it actually (I’m the next to reply on the next page!). It probably runs the EA82 gearbox too, but we’ll never know now I guess. If it has the stock EJ gearbox it’s probably one of the only ones out there like this, certainly a rarity! It’s Cheers Bennie

Sweet work on that billet hub! Ditch the bearing to help reduce unsprung weight! Seriously, you could make a set of aluminium billet hubs and carry the steel billet hubs as back up if one cracks out bush. Best R&D there is. Cheers Bennie

Because no one does that!! Cheers Bennie

We don’t get vents or scoops on NA models over here so I don’t know if they’re plugged or have air ducting under them. Vents would probably help dispel some heat as they would help with creating a Venturi effect at speed which would help with creating the low pressure zone you want in the engine bay to draw air through the radiator. Plugging the scoop would help too I reckon if it’s not ducted already. Cheers Bennie

Definitely leave the black or colour code it to the body colour for the vents and bonnet scoop! Painting them gold will, as @slammo said, look tacky! Steer clear of that at all cost! I love the fuel tank guard. I can’t see any other mount points other than those two forward bolts. It would also be a good way to help stabilise the rear subframe too. Keep up the good work and the pics Cheers Bennie

As in EJ18? Same heads so I don’t see why not! Id take an EJ18 dizzy and shove it on an EJ22E without thinking twice about it if I were doing something like this setup. Cheers Bennie

They’re good for WOT sounds with a decent exhaust fitted. You spent more time there than you would in an STi Cheers Bennie

Now to work out what’s dead in the factory system and revert back to it for the built in fuel cut safety system in the event of a crash occurring. Glad to hear you’re mobile again though! Cheers Bennie

Hence why I like the old stuff that doesn’t beep or require a button for the park brake or to start the engine! Cheers Bennie

I’d run a 15amp if it were me. You could try a ten amp and see what happens… Cheers Bennie

PT4wd 5spd or EA AWD 5spd, the mods and mounting requirements are the same! There’s more than one way to do the 5spd conversion in regards to mounting - after all, it’s two gearbox mounts that are modified to fit the 5spd. The tailshaft will need to be lengthened or use the two piece with the centre bearing mounted to the floor pan of the MY. I’m not sure if shift linkages need to be modded to fit, memory (from reading) says not, just a mount to the floor pan at the base of the shift lever like the L series had. If you go the AWD box your diff stubs will be 25 spline. Your brat has the smaller 23 spline diff stubs. Cheers Bennie

The OEM plastic end tanks only crack due to age or when in a crash that’s significant enough to do the damage, at which point many radiators would do the same thing anyway. Cool pics! Can’t wait to see the end product. How many hours in machining there already? Cheers Bennie

From memory Phinzina was working on this with an adaptor plate. I can’t find the thread I think I remember him writing about it on offroadingsubarus… I think it’s a case of make a plate that fits between the head and the dizzy that’s oil-tight an allow for timing adjustment. Or do what Silverbullet Sam did and make that electronic timing system that runs the ignition timing. Im looking forward to see what you come up with! Cheers Bennie

You’re a tease Todd! The twin radiator outlets can be sorted with a pipe that adapts two outlets into one to the factory radiator. My mate had his H6 Gen2 converted Liberty setup like this. He only had one puller fan on the RHS that did the job well, even when working hard in summer and sand. I can’t remember if he had the 3L or the 3.6L though as I’m sure that would make a difference somehow… Cheers Bennie

Ok, I have to eat my words here. Last weekend I found a ‘97 auto AWD Impreza sedan with rear drum brakes!! I NEVER knew this was a thing in Australia… Cheers Bennie

That impreza is looking MINT! I don’t think you’d want tyres any larger than those - you’d loose too much drivability on road which is something that Subarus are good at when lifted compared to other four wheel drives. Keep up the good work. I love that hatch shape, lifted is even better!! Cheers Bennie

Geez! You’d think from a tooling perspective they’d make the carb heads the same as the EFI heads, then adapt the carb intake manifold to the heads as it’s a “custom” piece with the carb anyway - then there’s one gasket across many EJ engines! It wouldn’t greatly effect performance, I really don’t understand why they did that! Well spotted. You must be getting excited right about now! Cheers Bennie

G’day Rafa, Do you have a pitch stopper rod installed or shot gearbox mounts? This issue is induced from not having a pitch stopper rod or shot/broken gearbox mounts too. Hopefully it’s as simple as the oil change. I’ve not heard of the diesel oil flush trick, I’d be worried about it not being up to the task. Cheers Bennie

Sounds like the boost control was having issues so they bypassed it. Maybe they ran an aftermarket boost T… who knows. 14 psi I think is about normal for stock. Being the foz version of the boosted EJ20 I believe they were detuned via cams and tune so the turbo foz didn’t upset the WRX owners. What turbo are you running? The stock sf5 GT foz turbo was the TF035. From what I understand this turbo is quite small. I don’t know how different turbos go in the real world yet, but a TD04 could be a good start or even a TD05. I’m sure there are many other good options for track work that others could recommend. It just comes down to what you want and how much coin you want to sink into the engine prep for a screamer. Cheers Bennie

Why the focus on the bullet rear knuckles? Trying to reduce unsprung weight to help compensate for the heavier tyres? If you’re concerned with any of the captive nuts I’d be welding a flat bar of steel over them (with matching holes to the captive nuts of course!) to help distribute any loading further out from around the nuts. It’s worked well on my L series where we added this to the firewall captive nuts and a couple on the rear subframe mounts too. Stitch welding is worth the effort too. An old mate of mine said to just weld the entire section instead of doing the stitch method. His theory was if we’re to crack you’re doing someone very wrong as the whole weld “method” would be stronger than stitch welding. I already did the stitch welding so didn’t bother going back to “fix” it up. I’d love to have done the windscreen seams too but I wasn’t busting that out at that point in time so it remains untouched atm. Cheers Bennie

Tidy work on the lift blocks Sam! If the diff is toast it’s most likely in the pinion shaft bearings. See if you can wiggle the pinion flange up and down at all. If you’ve had the pinion flange off it could be an issue of not being torqued properly, from what I understand of r160’s this could effect the bearing much like not properly torquing the rear axle nuts on the MY/L series does. What ratio are you running, 3.7 I’d imagine but it could also be a 3.9. I’m hoping a 3.7 for your sake as these are much easier to find than a 3.9!! The Gen1 Liberty is 3.7 and the diff will slot straight into the MY I’m hoping a dying rear diff bearing is the issue, easier to fix and will hopefully allow you to return everything back to the way you had it. Get an alignment! Driving a vibration free old school vehicle is awesome!! Cheers Bennie

^ I think @cznyis on the money here! I forgot about that rubber cover on the CV joints. They’re not always there these days! Cheers Bennie

A bit of rubbish that was under your Subi? It’s not looking like a familiar item off the ol’ L series that I can think of… that doesn’t mean I right though! Cheers Bennie

Awesome research Todd! And interesting about the strut tower measurements across the range of models, but not surprising since just about everything on the EJ platforms are interchangeable! I haven’t got email updates turned on, I think this change many years ago with a forum update. I’m not fussed, I know the threads I’m interested in - and the ones I’ve posted in have a star beside them rather than a dot Cheers Bennie