tincan

Yes, still. Although less than 1K from the big 90K now. I do however wish I could take back the now-crushed bumper mount. Long story, sparing details! It does get a lot of attention locally. Including people leaning on the horn when I'm leaving a stop light too slowly FOR THEIR IMPATIENT LIKINGS LOL No actually that's my favorite part haha.

Yeah. Don't have time for a full photo scour and spam today, so recents + winter shots of doom. Stupid flashwash. All that snow. Plus the huge dent.

Another long hiatus, more miles to tack onto the car. The good: 88K Whole set of extra 13" wheels skid plate. New valve covers/gaskets, cam gaskets, clutch plate, throwout, A/C fully evac'ed and refreshed. Rebuilt drums. Alternator replaced with a 500 mi unit. The bad: The rust has become a primary concern on the rear wheel wells. Upcoming week will bring something unique that is in the works. Apparently plowed snow can injure the quarter panels nicely. Air deflector is a bust. Removed. RUST?! The ugly: Droplets of water in the oil. Not a lot, but that's a thing. Oil droplets on the radiator cap. Also a thing. Front struts are dead. Doornail dead. Front tires have suffered. Otherwise, things are about to happen. Probably should have changed those head gaskets and all that while the valve covers were being done, but hindsight and all that jazz. The plus is that I connected with someone local who has an excess of parts sitting aside for me which were pulled after 500 miles or just never used. Mentionable: anyone need an A/C delete bracket and belts to use it with? I won't use them. Photos of things to come later. Probably.

Naaaaaaah. It's a greasebox!

Together at last! Due for some repairs on the brakes, and an oil change. Minor stuff really.

Here's some rather rough mock-up sheet metal work I pulled off, in an effort to do some drag reduction along the undercarriage. It needs further testing here and there, as well as overall improvements to appearance, but function > form for the time being. Having folded out the center piece, I test fitted it with some clamps. Looks promising. As well as the side areas, same deal, lining it up and clamping into a suitable position. There was a lot of bending/rebending to get these parts right so they wouldn't catch the tires, but they fit well. Hadn't enough progress shots for this, but after an hour or so of adjusting, they were bolted on. And yesterday, bending out the last two pieces. Considering this is all hand bent, snip cut, minimal measurement, I didn't expect it to come out half as well. Or even fit...

It's a veil of secrecy for a reason. I can tell you certain it's not an engine swap. Past that, time will tell.

Don't let that discourage you. Time is everything, and it will be worth every moment of whatever the car puts you through to have it completed.

Another 500 mile journey for the Ecoboxer... Starting off, I took a wrong turn from I-87, and wound up five miles from the "Mass Pike", nearly 70 miles off course. What happened after that was all merely inconvenient mishaps, for the next several days. Upon backtracking, the exhaust began to get noticiably loud, and the power had dropped quite a bit. I changed my habits, drove under the speed limit (55 > 65), and prayed... Leaving the toll booth, top of I-88... a mile later... As if I'm standing still, a Trooper in an SRT-8 comes hauling rump roast from behind... Right past me. The stare, in awe, being fully impressed. Kept my fingers crossed, and never saw him again. Got in around 3am, very tired, running on the fuel light. Went right inside, laid down, fell asleep. Next morning... Pop. Removed the rear seats, jammed it in there, tied the trunk down with RJ-11 cable, drove into Oneonta, $103 later... Fixed. I'm also missing my shielding now. It's saved, but, I won't put it back on just yet. This is just Thursday at this rate... Filled up the tank Saturday afternoon, and during that, checking the tires... I found my pass. rear tire was low. Inflated to normal. Next morning... Again, low. Get the pressure gauge out; 14psi. *Censored*! Get out a bottle, dump some soap/warm water in... Double *censored*! Grab the spare... Should'a seen this coming. Cool. On a 1992 Spare, 3 hours off schedule, I made my way home, taking a longer route to Liberty... No phone service... GPS' get very confused in the mountains... On some very tempting roads. Despite that, I took my time and avoided abusing the car, being laden with a full tank and several hundred pounds extra of luggage in the car. Well, this has been fun. Gave me a lot of time to think, read, and research, particularly about the car's future. Hours, into a day, into several days. My mind is made up. It's time.

grossgary is pretty much right on the mark. Intake work and exhaust upgrades are useful, but to the EJ22, they will not induce any measurable amount of added horsepower for the price of them individually. Make the exhaust sound different/louder? Probably. Improve the throttle response? Maybe. If you're looking for power? Look through Summit Racing's web site, into oversized pistons, forged connecting rods, larger valves. Go port the cylinder head and block walls. Port and polish the exhaust and intake ports. Even add higher flow rate injectors and larger fuel rails. $1000 in parts, $500 in machine shop work. it'll be more worth the expense. Even more? Get some re-lobed cams, readjust the valve train to them, and just benefit even further. On top of that, the EJ22 is extremely common. Better yet, buy a rear wrecked Legacy or Outback from the same year, and save yours aside for if something goes awry. For all intents and purposes, everything inside the engine bay is easy to disconnect and reconnect without too much hassle or guesswork. Nearly everything can only go in one place, and can't go anywhere else.

Thanks for your help guys, this thread can be closed/removed as I've made decisions.

Just one of few of the non-Subaru "toys" I have lying around. Got this when I was much, much younger, it's been in storage since '05. It hasn't run since, so I decided to revive it, as it simply wouldn't run before Thursday... Aside from replacing the clutch, I changed the oil, plug, fuel lines, relocated the gas tank away from the engine, did a mild carb cleanup, and made adjustments to the steering and pedals to tighten things back up. I have some future plans for it, but not until next year. Obviously my Subaru comes first. From pulling it out of storage: To bringing it back to life, adjusted and reassembled with most of the roll cage. Note the missing seat, since it was easier to adjust without it in the way. And a crappy little vid of me taking it out for its initial test drive. More to come.

Let's see who can guess where I am this week.

It turns out as long as you don't ask them to install said modified exhaust parts, they'll put together anything you like. So, I'm getting a 2" cat back in the form of the one Milesfox mentioned above I have access to welders, but, it's not something I do.

Except the engine being quite underpowered means its frequently losing the economy over things like hills. The point is to stop that. Just because one wishes to increase power somehow, does not automatically mean they expect it to be a race car. That's a common assumption.

That's what I thought, the part about the first cat and header pipe. The Monro I asked to do the custom system refused to remove the second cat, since it is one, not simply a resonator (the rear cat is part of the piping behind the front cat's flange). Instead they gave me some outrageous $1049 quote to replace everything. Yeah, no, I'm not that stupid. Yeah, my car doesn't require an emissions test, but NY inspection stations will fail you for having an engine light.

You mean immediately behind the front cat? My car has two. One off the flange at the rear cat, about 6 inches into the next area of pipe. I'll jack the car up in the am to show you. I was aiming to put 2" pipe in for the entire system regardless, for future support of upgrades to the engine.

Your advice always seems to be sound on EA cars. Straight pipe or glass pack? I suppose either is the same... My "normal" shift point is between 2500-3000 for level or intown driving. Otherwise I try to avoid going past 5000 being more aggressive. So this emission system should just stay put? What's different from the 49-state?

Right, so I'm not really sure this belongs in this section, but here's the deal. Exhaust bit the dust, got informed the car has California based emissions on it. So, the question is... what options do I have in terms of ditching that lousy, power robbing, completely unnecessary system from the car? It has to go. Long and short. Any and all input and information is helpful. Thanks.

I wonder if it's open to the public. Welp, should have read the entire article.

For being original and mostly untouched, this is a really tight looking Legacy. It's going to be the envy of me once you've cleaned it up proper and have it looking new again. Always loved this year's lighting over the '92 and up.

-200,000. Now 77,000 as of Friday. And a few extra. Yeah, the engine seals are a known issue. I intended to do them last year, until I found the garage I had it in for a week was ridden with mold, where it started growing mold on the carpet. I caught it in time that it didn't seep in and continue. Fingers crossed, this winter, along with some professional assistance, it's getting done. No more "Oh I'll put it in this random person's garage". As will the new downpipes and exhaust. Ordering the Ansa muffler that is made for this car, from JCWhitney. Performance based, stock style muffler, $109? Sure. Why not.

It's not perfect, but far better than it's previous state. Some patience, gray paint, and three clear coats later: That's what I like to see. Though a bit darker than I'd have liked. It's what I had on hand and I'm alright with that. Note the spots where the tape got lousy on me. Yeah. Again, tape got lousy on me. No longer looking at crappy, faded, and otherwise ugly paint. For that much, and a completely hand aligned taping job, with spray cans, I'm pretty satisfied.

Another day, more progress. Not related to the actual eco-modding, but was just tired of looking at peeled clearcoat and very worn paint. So without further hesitation, another 2 1/2 hours of work. As it was: Which was just gross. Step one, ridding that ugly paint. Decided to leave a good portion of undercoat, smoothed over some of the minor denting, and then: First coat of primer. To the second coat, which was then sanded with 320 grit, dry washed with microfiber, then sanded again with 1000 grit. Repeat dry wash, taped off... When the clouds rolled in. Thankfully the humidity is still low, so it was moved to the basement: The first coat went on smoothly. Have to sand it again, and then put a second coat on, humidity permitting.

Despite the lack of factual documentation, or the rumors of this car, it's amazing even the way it is. Don't give up. It'll be one of a kind when it's finished.