AdventureSubaru

100MPH+ especially in an old car is just asking for trouble. (And very often high priced tickets) Keep in mind most tires that we put on our cars are not rated for those sort of speeds. A blowout at that speed would likely be lethal. As would a collision, hit deer etc. As I said, the most important safety factor is your driving habits. The answers here can satisfy your curiosity but if you really do drive like that, you're wasting your time on these little details when safety does not appear to be much concern to you.

This will apply if you ever do a body lift. But as this is suspension only, the brake lines are the only ones that move and they have enough extra that there's no need to extend them.

As I understand it, the struts from an 04-08 Forester will give you a little more ground clearance by themselves but will not fit as large a tire as the 96-99 Outback struts will.

Knock sensors fail pretty commonly. The $10 one from ebay does just fine. Good job rescuing a rare gem. There are not many turbo wagons left.

Wow. Yeah. That thing was a roach. It's looking much better already. Looks like it just needs to be absolutely soaked for a while to loosen up that dirt. Used to have one of those little carpet cleaners that you could rent. A couple gallons of dollar store all purpose cleaner or even a small bucket of dishsoap and hot water soaking for a while and then a few hours with the carpet cleaner would usually do the trick. Doesn't look like it's badly stained. Just really dirty. Looks like the car will pay for it's own cleaning with all the "rebates" (Coins on the floor) I once got a project minivan that had been used for pizza deliveries. I filled two home depot yard waste bags with trash out of it and found over $40. in change in the process of cleaning it.

On a legacy the trailing arm brackets don't do nearly as much as the Impreza. Heartless has one she lifted and it's good to go. The trailing arm brackets would become more useful if you were maxing out tire sizes around 29inches. But with a decent 27 or 28 inch tire you wouldn't really need them.

If you are talking struts only then 90-99 Legacy and 93-01 Impreza will match as well as the front only for 2000-2004 Legacy and Impreza. For the full assemblies 90-94 legacy and 93-01 Impreza I believe share the same tophat design while 95-99 legacy changed. You can drill one hole in your strut tower to accommodate it or swap the original tophats from your car. Ditto to 96-99 Outback and 97-08 Forester which would give you about a 2 inch suspension lift on the car. (Same thing as yours but a little taller)

Impreza - Hands down. Crumple zones, higher standards, air bags etc. However, both are tin cans compared to the behemoths flying down the highway at 80mph. Soccer moms doing their makeup and teens texting while piloting giant full size trucks and SUVs. A Ford Excursion weighs nearly 4 tons. The Impreza is just over 1 ton. No amount of engineering is going to prepare an impreza to do well in a collision with a monster like that. Let alone semis, buses, dump trucks etc. The largest safety factor is safe driving practices and general awareness of your surroundings. Keep the cell phone in the glove box. Make sure you're awake and sober. Safe speeds etc. Just good common sense. Last summer my brother in law and I were the first ones on the scene of a wreck. Back roads of wisconsin a semi towing a tanker flipped his truck avoiding a collision with a small car. The cab of the semi buckled and the man was dead before we got to him. The takeaway from it was if a CDL driver in a semi could die on a sunny day on a back road with a speed limit of about 50mph then any one of us could have our number up anytime we are on the road.

Love the off road jack. If you're replacing struts I'd recommend putting in a full set of new or used outback or forester struts or strut/spring assemblies. It will give you better ground clearance so you aren't breaking and bashing things on the rocks as much. Good write up.

Yeah. I pay more than that for motors out of a junkyard. Usually $250. at pick n pull. Great price if it's a runner.

Have you gotten as far as pulling the timing covers back off to see if the timing marks still align? If it was off to begin with or jumped timing due to a bad tensioner then you are probably looking at valve damage. Not wanting to be harsh but you were asking for this to happen if you knowingly reinstalled a bad tensioner. Hopefully it's something else, but these are interference engines and not worth taking those sort of chances on. See if the timing marks still align. Get yourself a good tensioner. If it's only off by a bit the car may not start but not be off enough to bend the valves. You wont know until you get it done right and give it a try. As for the "Click" noise, I've had those bolts tighten further when using them to turn the engine over. Often with a good bit of noise. I'd suspect that was your noise which is harmless.

2000-2004 Legacy sets will drop you roughly 2 inches. You could order new, or find a good junkyard set and save time and $$$ by swapping the whole assemblies. If 2 inches is too low, ad 1/4 inch or 3/8 HDPE spacers to bring it back up a bit.

The intake manifolds can be swapped between ej18 and ej22. You just want to match OBDI vs OBDII i think is where the difference would be. They are pretty much the same motor. 93-95 EJ18s should be the same as 90-95 Ej22s. Same for 96+ I'm not familiar with the taurus disty modification but I'm guessing if it can be done to an Ej22 it can be done to a Ej18.

XT looks nice and straight. A good scrub and some wax should lift a lot of shine back out of the paint. Always thought these were neat cars.

Nah. misfires are usually quite simple. Start with standard tune up stuff that should be done for every car. New spark plugs and plug wires. Subaru brand or NGK are best is very likely to cure your misfire. Injector cleaner is healthy once in a while but wont fix a misfire. If that doesn't do it, it's possibly the coil. I have a few used ones around that I know are good if it comes to that. Is the gas tank full? Sometimes if the sending unit gets stuck (possible from sitting) it wont real full on the dash. Used to have a ford that did this. I just used the trip odometer to let me know when it was getting lower and carried a gallon can of gas wherever I went just in case. Oh, and welcome to the board! Is this your first Subaru?

More info will be brought by others, but the Impreza driveshaft is shorter than a legacy. otherwise will attach to the trans and rear diff without modification.

http://www.wheelfire.com/scontent/WheelDetails.cfm?IDNumber=MACH-10_MATTEBLACK_Tenzo&SKU=2440 http://www.magnatuning.ro/en/product/12750/Tenzo-R-Mach-10-Black-Wheel Looks like they're still available.

In thinking this through, unless you have need of the spacers, it's probably best to try and get back to stock rims and tires. Those spacers put extra wear and tear on your bearings. Plus a good set of rims and tires on there will eliminate possibilities like tread seperation or bent rims.

15s will fit. I took a stock set of 15 inch steels from an impreza and put them on my wife's 2000 Outback after she had a punctured sidewall on one of her tires.

H6 is fantastic for power and acceleration. Much smoother going up hills without having to downshift. Trade off is that gas mileage is lower - my wife gets about 23mpg in hers and maintenance is more difficult in some places and parts are not as plentiful for them. The 2000-2004 generation has about the lowest ground clearance of any stock outback. However, a couple inches of lift would quickly solve that. Stock struts will clear up to a 28 inch tire and tires as big as 30 have been installed if 1 inch wheel spacers are put on. When I think off road and road trip type vehicles I want cheap and reliable. A great way to get into something like that is to find a 96-99 outback with headgasket issues and swap an EJ22 into it. (Far more reliable motor - needs no modification) By investing some sweat equity you'll save $$$ and end up with something more reliable than a good running original outback with that DOHC motor. The EJ25 SOHC put in the 2000-2004 outbacks is far better than the earlier DOHC motor but still not as reliable as an EJ22. Foresters will give you equal off road capability but they are shorter and have less cargo space than an outback. The amount of gear you can carry and your comfort level if you sleep in the car would be less in the forester. Another thought is that you can swap the suspension of an outback into the legacy base models to achieve the same height as an outback. This is great for the 1990-1998 models since they came with the more reliable motor. In 2000-2004 they shared the same motor as the outbacks but are often found at lower prices. Trucks/SUVs will likely come stock with higher ground clearance and a true 4WD option but you will often sacrifice reliability of a subaru for one and certainly be paying higher fuel costs to drive one. The truck/SUV I consider to be an equal in dependability to the subaru is the Toyota Pickup/4Runner with the 22R or 22RE motor. Those old trucks are near impossible to kill. I used to have an old 87 pickup that took me everywhere and did everything I wanted it to. The downside is that you get V8 gas mileage out of a 2.4 liter 4 cylinder motor. I still got 30 mpg highway on my lifted Impreza. I'd expect just a tad less for a lifted outback in good shape since it's a bigger, heavier car.

California, I'm told, has some asinine law law that prohibits the parts stores from doing their free checks. Auto Zone employee apologetically informed me. As a company the do it free everywhere else. shops here want to charge $40-$100 to do it. I bought a scanner from harbor freight with a 20% off coupon and have happily offered to scan free for friends and family in the area.

Thats a rare car. Especially for the midwest. Love it. What's the backstory on it?

Welcome! I used to live in north Reading just below the highschool and grew up in Wernersville. Was just telling my wife yesterday how much I miss real soft pretzels. What part of town are you from? Great board here. Really knowledgeable folks and less drama and spats than Nasioc (Been on there a little bit over the years - always stayed here) Good looking line up of cars. Demon car sounds worth the effort. If you have a documented build, you should post up in the members rides section. I love seeing projects develop.

You'll do fine with a legacy. If you need new, then buy new, but those of us who have done it can tell you with certainty that you can save a lot of money without sacrificing quality by buying a low miles year or so older model. My recommendation is to do good research and buy private party and avoid dealers. You can buy independentwarranties if desired, but you save more by cutting out the middle man. In buying and repairing cars operate under the assumption that everything a salesman, dealer or mechanic tells you is likely a lie. I have worked in the auto industry at multiple levels and seen firsthand how much the public is taken advantage of through half truth and no truth. Most salesman don't know a lot about the cars they are selling anyway apart from describing it. You are way ahead of the curve by coming here and getting sound advice from those of us who are knowledgeable in these cars and aren't trying to make a buck off of you. Keep coming back with questions and verification/second opinions once you have your car. I'd have little worry about the quality of the 2015s as not a whole lot has changed over the years and subaru is putting out great quality. The body style has changed a little but the mechanics of it should be sound. So shop around and hunt for a good deal. Don't overlook used if you can help it, but there is something about having a new car and knowing it from infancy. If you can find a leftover 2014 model on a lot, you'll have way more negotiating power. And as mentioned - negotiate! if a price is too high and you're not comfortable - walk away. Let them bid against themselves. It sounds like you are not needing the car immediately and that's a good place to be. Take you time and wait for the right car at a good price.

The limiting factor for most light off roading for a subaru is ground clearance. Here are the options I can share that can improve that. 1. Cut 3/8 HDPE spacers for stock suspension. A big 3/8 inch HDPE cutting board from Wal Mart is about $14. Cut it out with a jig saw etc. You don't need to swap bolts on your strut tops if it stays 3/8 or less. 3/8 of an inch of lift for $14. and a little work. 2. Those 1 inch 5x100 wheel spacers on ebay. You can get a full set for $100. and they extend the wheel out allowing you to fit a larger tire without hitting the spring perches. Estimate about a 29-30 inch tire will clear the perch with them. 3. 2 inch strut top lift blocks. I think this should be the same as any 2000-2004 outback or legacy. SJR sells the full set for $300. but if you DIY you'd save most of that cost. Steel isn't that expensive. 4. Bigger tires - USED! I have not bought a new tire in about 10 years and don't plan to for a while. The used market on craigslist and other places will get you some great deals on used (Often barely so) tire sets. Be sure they are matched brand, size and wear so you don't hurt your trans. But shop for tire sets that will give you better ground clearance and a good off roadable tread pattern. I paid $100 a few weeks ago for a set of Goodyear wrangler AT 30 inch tires and a spare. $20. a tire!