AdventureSubaru

yup! go for it.

Gonna be really close with those. I had 215 75 15 on a forester lifted impreza and not a lot of spare space. Add a set of 1 inch 5x100 spacers from ebay and you'll probably clear just fine. That combo has cleared the similarly sized 235/75/15s

Tribeca is about 800 pounds lighter than the towed vehicle. Plus the weight of a dolly and you'd be working it pretty hard. Can the tribeca do it? Physically, yes. However, that truck will be trying to shove the subaru around on any curves and downhill grades unless you get a trailer with brakes - which equals more weight. Safety and the potential for wear/damage to the tow vehicle say it would be a bad idea. On a short trip with flat ground I'd say take it slow and go for it. For 300 miles and mountains, best to rent or borrow something big that's more apt to tow that sort of load. No sense risking life, limb and subaru to save a few $$$. Hertz, Penske and a few other rental chains will rent vans and trucks with tow packages by the day.

One of many reasons to love this site! get the simple solution from those who have already done this sort of work and figuring. Glad it went smoothly! I know that sinking feeling when you find something like that and it seems to make the job get that much more difficult.

That key slot on there is commonly screwed up on these motors and lets the crank pulley come loose if it's not tight enough. pull it off and see if it's still there. If so, line it up and tighten it down hard. If not, make sure metal chips and such are gone and the pulley can seat flatly. Use a breaker bar and a cheater pipe and tighten the crap out of it. If you get it really tight, it will run fine. Buddy of mine has been running over a year now on one that i did that is held only by the tightness of that bolt. If you have repeated issue, or just for peace of mind, there's another workaround if the keyway is destroyed that involves drillng/tapping or welding. My experience though - just get limbered up and tighten that sucker down.

You'll have to trim just a little plastic but outback struts/springs from a junkyard should be all you need to clear those tires. Body lift wont help clear bigger tires You can put 3/8 inch HDPE spacers on the strut tops with the stock bolts. Any higher and you need longer bolts.

Any 1990-1999 Legacy outback or 97- 04 or 08 or something forester will be a direct fit. You can ignore the rear tophat swap or hole to drill mentioned for the impreza lift. Yours is an exact match. Also, the trailing arm brackets from the outback are rather necessary for impreza lifts but more optional for legacy. With that setup you can clear a 27-28 inch tire. I used 215-75-15 tires on my forester lifted impreza.

That's funny. Limited slips are preferred for the rally/offroad applications and are worth pretty good $$$ since datsun guys put them in their cars. They are getting harder to find so if you come across one in a junkyard or something, try and save it and you'll have an easy sale/profit here or ebay.

Guys more versed on engines will be able to better answer the motor stuff. I can field the suspension/lift though. For an 02 lift you can use the front struts from 96-04 and maybe higher Outback struts or forester. Rear struts should be from 2000-2004 outback only as they were a different design. Forester rear wont fit your car. Adding strut spacers beyond this suspension lift will ad stress to the axles. Up to an inch should be tolerable. 2 inches and you may be sacrificing reliability for height. Outbacks had crossmembers with an added inch of clearance. You could swap those over or do a body lift. SJR and a couple others make them for this generation now. With outback struts/springs you can clear about a 28 inch tire. We had 27 1/2 on my wifes outback and had a little room to spare. For anything bigger, you'd either need custom fabricated struts that removes the issue of the spring perch mount. Or get some 1 inch 5x100 spacers off ebay to distance the tire from the perch. 29 is probably about the max before a good deal more fab work is needed. Subframe spacers lift the body but you're still maxed out by those spring perches at a 28inch tire thereabouts. The snag to actually gain ground clearance beyond that tire height is that you are now looking at very custom suspension work. It was done on a few out there. The monsterwagon was one. And there's a crazy Impreza in the works in the off road section that has fabbed control arms etc and can run about any size tire. Where there's a will there's a way. Easy start though is to throw some outback suspension under there and 27-28 inch tires and build from that starting point.

Possible that you don't have good circulation due to the rubber hoses or something maybe got missed. I am thinking that the trans fluid smell and your light are unrelated. You usually don't smell trans fluid unless it drips on engine or exhaust. If you pull the dipstick and that stuff is burnt, then there's something going wrong. If you smell it inside or outside the car, it's probably just excess drips burning off and will go away. Find that TCU code and go from there. Could be as simple as a loose wire connection to one of the sensors. It will give you a better idea of where to start looking.

I did an EZ30 swap a few months ago on my wife's car. It's an identical process to any other subaru motor swap. Just a bigger motor and slightly tighter fit. If you've done one subaru you've probably done them all.

If it doesn't weigh much, would bring them. I keep a tote of good used parts in the spare tire well of my car which includes sensors and coil in ziploc bags. Injectors aren't a bad idea. I've not needed them yet. Most roadside repairs have been the zip tie, duct tape and wire bypass variety. I keep an interior lightswitch and a roll of speaker wire in case i need to bypass anything or hardwire anything. Over the years I've used that to hardwire a starter, radiator fans, blower motor and probably more that I'm forgetting.

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/pts/4904235567.html One with a bent valve going cheap in the bay area. I have a good set of heads if you don't want to mess with it. I've pulled a few pick n pull motors over the years. Only ever got burned on one. Usually do some investigation on why it ended up there. My last one was an 88,000 mile EJ22 that was t-boned in the backside with a geico sticker that reads "runs" That was too easy! But accident damage etc. is usually a good sign.

I've heard through a few grapevines that keeping up with a mini requires a good bit of $$$. higher maintenance than most. Add off roading to that and I imagine the repairs would be more frequent.

might just be this generation. 2000-2004. This seems pretty normal for them and ground clearance is a consistent complaint for them. I'll be doing about a 4 inch body lift and 5 inches at the struts to clear 30 inch tires. Should put me at 11 1/2 to 12 inches at least. Good enough for romping on some trails and some more remote hunting, fishing and backpacking trips.

Your skill is admirable. The thread topic now feels a little misleading. You started here asking advice and you're now breaking new ground and doing it quite well. Many of us are learning a lot just watching this project grow and develop. Good work. It's looking great!

parts car for someone. A good motor or trans from that car can cost as much as he's asking.

To pay someone to fab something like that? I bet you'd spend $200. easy. Probably more. Most welders charge at least $75. an hour and there were probably several hours spent in making that piece. Looks very sturdy!

I nearly had to do similarly on my 97 Impreza. I managed to get it in and attached using the wire brush. If all else fails, just grind the threads down on the sensor and used some JB weld on the sides and pop it in. Let it set and drive. You likely would have to break and drill out the sensor to ever replace it again, but they are not an extremely common failure.

You'll benefit from an 8mm wrench and maybe a deep socket. There are a couple that are easy to miss and hard to reach. The last one I got from a junkyard, I used a pair of tin snips to bend some sheet metal back and have a larger access to get them. And patience in pulling it out. especially in the cold it will be firmly stuck to the car.

Imprezas are great for mountain use. Put 1998-2006 forester struts and springs under them with some 215 75 15 tires and you can take them almost anywhere. Here's mine from a few years ago. Took it so many places. [/uR

Spacers not necessary. This is pretty well covered in the off road section. In the "How to lift your Impreza" sticky at the top, all the same things will hold true to lifting a legacy except that you wont need to drill a hole for the rear strut tops. They will fit right in. Forester struts gives slightly more lift but fits a slightly smaller diameter tire than an outback. I installed 99 forester struts and springs on my old 97 Impreza and cleared 28 inch tires. Spacers are optional. stock bolts can take a 3/8 spacer for a little extra height. anything bigger requires longer bolts.

I don't have a video but did this a number of times on my former 97 Impreza Outback. Door panels - There's a screw holding a plastic piece inside the interior door handle. Another in the small tray that you grab to close the door. Often there's one on the back end as well. Once you've removed the screws, it's just held on by plastic clips that pop into place. Just pry the whole panel up from bottom to top and they will pop out. You want to avoid bending them too much because you'll want them to pop back in too. Wiggle the door handle through the panel and disconnect any wiring harnesses by the switches and you can set it to the side to swap speakers. The radio - Start at the back of the console and work your way forward. Just phillips screws. You remove the trim piece around the e-brake and shifter and then the faceplate around the radio. two screws at the bottom and two behind the cupholders and the whole thing pulls out. Ebay has some adapter pieces pretty cheap that will allow you to put in any aftermarket CD/MP3 player in there.

Exhaust leak probably accounts for your p0420. CAn you post a pic of the leakage you're seeing?

Nice looking car. Good to see someone on here local to the area. I'm just outside Santa Cruz. I drove a 97 OBS for years and loved it.