88HatchMonster

Sounds good to me!

Thanks for the compliments, guys. The diamond plate is half for looks and half cause the old roll pan was completely rotted out and I needed something there. I'll have to get some video soon, mostly cause it sounds awesome too with the EJ and 2.25" exhaust. I'm in Mineville, zip 12956. It's an hour South of Plattsburgh on I87 and two hours north of Albany. When the last NE offroad meet fizzled, I wasn't yet done with the hatch. Now that I am, I'm up for it if we can get another date going...

Hi everyone... I'm so happy I finally get to post some pics of my project hatch out on the trail! I just got plates on her last wednesday so I could finally get to some better spots to offroad. This is pretty much my first time out with it since I tore it all down to nothing and built it back up with a frame, body work, paint and an EJ22 swap. The hatch is running really good. Tons of power with the EJ22, and it actually hooks up really good with just an LSD in the back. The only problem I'm having is a little bit of rubbing of the tires in the rear end where I put on new wheel arches. No biggie... And no picking on me for not having a skid plate yet! I'm sick of fabbing stuff for a while and I just wanted to get out and have some fun with the thing!

yeah, I think that was me you were thinking of cause I said I had a 4" lift

Sounds like a good judgement call on the silver... It looks beautiful so far! Makes me want to pay someone who knows what they're doing to do my next paint job.

Not too much even with the swampers. The fenders need to be cut back from the trim line down and there's a pinch weld on the inner fender that needs to be beaten flat, and then some. You'll see. But again, not a lot of hassle. About a half-hour of cutting and BFHing. Or maybe an hour if you want to pretty up the fender cutting job. And my tires never rub.

I run the same size and offset on my hatch with 28" Swamper TSLs and a 4" lift. Works great, looks great, go for it!

Mine actually doesn't have strut tower extensions or even strut towers! It does have full camber adjustment though! BFH, sawsall, welder... I guess my roo's a little less precious That's an EA81 hatch engine compartment BTW despite the motor etc.

Depends on how you build you strut extensions. They can be built to compensate for this.

No prob dude I'm all for DIY, too Just filling in folks who don't know I sell 'em.

I sell them. http://www.mroseusa.com I'm currently out of stock, but will have more made by mid-August.

If we wait a few weeks I can bring my lifted hatch. It's soooooooo close to ready now. I'm doing the last bit of paint today. Damn, sayn3ver, that's terrible luck. I feel for ya. Hope everyhting works out in the end...

Rear diffs are all basically the same strength, you just need to make sure your gear ratio is the same as the trans you're swapping in. Look up "suberdave" he has an EA82 wagon with (I believe) a WRX drivetrain swap.

I have used Rust-Bullet extensively in restoring my EA81 hatchback and I also use it as a finish for my EJ-EA adapter plates. I've been meaning to do a write-up on it, so I'm gonna take the oportunity to talk everyone's ear off about it. It is ABSOLUTELY as good as POR15. I use both products, they are equally effective, they simply have different uses and application requirements. Here are some examples: POR15 must be applied to bare or rusty metal, while Rust-Bullet can be applied over old paint that has been adequately scuffed up. POR15 requires you to spray the surface down with a nuetralizing agent and then rinse with water. This is the biggest downfall of POR15 in my opinion, as it is a lot of extra work and then you must wait until the metal is completely bone dry to paint it (not good for car bodies and floors with lots of nooks and crannies for water to stand in and never dry). Finally, once the metal has two good coats of POR15, you must topcoat with two more coats of a special POR15 "topcoat" as the normal POR15 is not UV resistant. After all that, forget about painting over the POR15 as it basically dries to a hard, smooth ceramic-like finish that is almost impossible to scuff sand. So I use POR15 on stuff like frames and suspension components and Rust-Bullet on floors and body-parts as it goes on easy and takes a topcoat of any kind of paint you want (hit it with a topcoat within 24 hrs, or you'll need to scuff sand). Also, I like to use POR15 "POR-Patch" filler which comes in squeeze tubes to seal small holes and fill gaps in tack-welded patch panels, I then paint over the whole surface with Rust-Bullet. Here is an example of the process: So now that that issue is out of the way, on to the specific Rust-Bullet tips: Buy a gallon of acetone and keep it handy. This is the only thing that will remove it before it cures. Always use disposable latex gloves, because washing your hands with acetone is no fun. Buy 3 for a dollar paintbrushes from the dollar store and throw them away after one use (one coat). It's not worth the effort or acetone to clean them. Always put a quantity of Rust-Bullet into a seperate container to dip your brush in. Dipping your brush into the can will contaminate and ruin the product. Use a scoop of some sort to scoop the Paint out of the can so you don't get any paint on the lip of the can. If this is too much of a PITA for you, pour out of the can and clean the lip with paper towels. This is so the can won't seal itself when the paint on the lip dries. When sealing the can, put down a peice of plastic wrap before the lid and put a rubber band around that. then hammer on the lid and put another peice of plastic over that with another rubber band. This stuff is expensive and will dry and be ruined if you don't. Always stir the product for at least 60 seconds, never shake the can. As far as quantities go, I hate to tell ya but you'll need a lot more to do your whole vehicle, at least 3-4 quarts to do what you want to do. I buy it 4 quarts at a time as there is a slight discount and shipping is the same for 1 quart or 4. I think of it as an investment, and it's always been a good one. That's all I can think of for the moment... there's a lot of advice I could give on the rest of the rust-repair process, but I'm a little out of breath for the moment...

Think about it, there are some very obvious differences--When using the STI tranny with the STI motor, you're not going to need an adapter plate or custom flywheel. You will need a custom tranny crossmember and a custom center driveshaft. Don't think hubs, think inner CVs as you will need to make sure your axles spline up to the stubs in the tranny. This is just a start. Search, search, search. There are lots of threads on straight EJ drivetrain swaps into EA vehicles. People will argue about the power handling capacity of the D/R trannies ad infinitum, but the fact is very few ever try 200+ HP EJ turbos with them so no one really knows. We do know they take +/- 150 HP N/A EJs without batting an eyelash. The thing is, there is really little incentive to run a high HP turbo with a, say 5spd D/R. You'll never find traction in FWD and the weak bottom end and on/off power of the turbo is undesirable for off-roading. FT4WD RX trannies are a slightly different story, but I hope you get the idea.

This is exactly what I would be looking into. Ideally you would fab something up that could bolt on and raise the strut straight up on the spindle. I would be making brackets and slotting holes etc. way before trying to weld onto a strut.

This topic is definitely up for debate, as subaru's endwrench article from 2003 says the new tapered bearings are ready to install out of the box, and should not be repacked. In my experience, the rear bearings fail because the inner seal becomes compromised and water, salt and grime are let in. This is usually due to a rusty outer CV cup tearing up that inner seal. This happens a lot in the North East and a good shop that's dealt with the problem before won't install a new bearing without installing a new axle as well.

I've been working on my lifted 88 hatch like crazy every weekend. I might have it done and on the road for the meet... but it will be untested, and I don't know if a seven hour trip is the best way to break in a car I just reassembled from scratch So if I go it might be in my blue "87-STOCK-monster"

Are we talking rear bearings? If so then... Get OEM bearings. They will be tapered as the ball type are obsolete. Aftermarket bearings are likely to be ball type and will not last as long. If the outer CV cup is rusted, then it should be replaced along with the bearing and all THREE seals, as it will compromise the seal and you will likely ruin the new bearing in short order.

There are like 21 or 22 splines on the shaft, something like that, but anyway it's the same number as are on EA82 and Legacy shafts. Meaning you can throw a stock EA82 or Legacy DOJ on a stock EA81 FWD axle. I just did a pair earlier tonight. But anyway, it looks like you're all set now, but I figured I would throw the info out there for the record.

With the back seat out you've got lots of cargo space in a hatch. Lots of people have done it. Search for "Hatchbrat"

I'm not quite sure what you're asking. EA81 FWD's have 23 Spline DOJs, just like EA81 4WDs. BUT, EA81 FWD axles are compatible with EA82/Legacy DOJs so you can make a 25 spline axle out of an EA81 FWD axle using an EA82 or Legacy DOJ.

Yeah EA82 DOJs swap with legacy DOJs, but neither will swap onto an EA81 4WD axle shaft. But they will swap onto an EA81 FWD axle. That's how I'm going to put an 5MT in my hatchback.

Make your own lift: http://subarubrat.com/hasseylift.htm

I posted a bunch of info on hooking up gauges in this thread: http://ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=55389