pontoontodd

Going to the UP in a few days but I don't anticipate using the low range much. Thought I replied here but don't see it now so I'll try again. Got the low range rebuilt with some of the upgraded parts. For instance, added needles to this surface on the input shaft that rides in the high range output shaft. These are locked together in high range but are always discolored and worn after use. Trans went back together fairly easily. B checked the gap on the crank trigger sensor (only .024", would be fairly difficult to reduce) and replaced the clutch disc. We put the trans back in and reassembled the rest of the car. Seems to be back to normal. At first the clutch action was strange, the first half of the pedal travel just got the slave pushrod in contact with the fork so you had to push the pedal all the way to the floor. Tried pumping it up and bleeding it, no improvement. After maybe an hour of city driving it's suddenly back to normal, only have to push the pedal about 1/4 of the way down to disengage. Low fuel light no longer works, it was working during last year's trip out west but I ran out of gas with the gauge a little above empty and no light on the dash. Fortunately was able to coast into a gas station to a pump, did have a jerry can with me. One of the seals on one of B's struts was out of place so we took the strut off and went through it. Got the seal retainer welded back into place, replaced that seal, cleaned up the threads on the shaft, and replaced the bumpstop.

Coincidentally when I typed up that post I was using our checklists for notes. There's always plenty to do on all of our cars, some issues more pressing <cough> than others. Don't hold your breath on the 5MT low range, the odds of me making those are extremely low. No way any of these modifications ever "pays for itself" but yes the rear knuckles with bolt on wheel bearings and big front axles and bigger rear brakes are a welcome improvement. B and I were discussing upgrading his drivetrain to 6MT low range/R180/billet rear knuckles over the winter. We have most of the parts and his rear diff has been making noise for over a year now. Spent some time this week on the trans removal. No major obstacles. Trans crossmember was nicely packed with dirt, took a few minutes to clean that out. Just got it out this morning. Missing one of the brass thrust washers in between the planet gears. Didn’t find any chunks of brass so maybe I just didn’t have it in there on assembly? The brass washers that are still there are worn about 1/3 of the way through from the needles. Going to see if I can find some steel washers that size but not before this goes back together. You can see it was breaking the needles inside the gears that were missing the dividing washer. Found a few partial needles in the trans. The parts of the noisy one in the black Outback that were worn/discolored are similar in this one but not as bad. Finally made parts to replace those with a different material/heat treatment, more oil holes, and an added bearing. Makes me wonder if the low range in the black Outback was missing some needles and that was what was really causing the noise. Still haven't removed and fully inspected it. I should have tried locking the center diff to see if that made the noise go away. Pretty sure we tried that in the black Outback and it didn't quiet down though.

Drove white Outback around town a bit, seemed to be slipping at times. Hadn't realized the auto trans fluid was low, didn't realized it had lost much. Wound up adding three quarts but it is now slightly over full. Back to its normal amount of auto slushiness now I think. Washed it and put the front piece of sheet metal B made and license plate on. I've driven it over 200 miles and about five hours of driving, seems basically back to normal, alignment seems great. Haven't noticed any leaks. Hasn't been starting without using a jump pack so we cleaned up all the battery cable/starter connections. Didn't really help but the lead clamp on the ground post was due for a replacement, cut back those cables and cleaned them up. Eventually got a new AGM battery which seems to be working. Replaced the rear washer pump, old one was leaking. Replaced the RF headlight, one of the bolts had pulled through in the hit. Got a driver's side radiator fan and installed that. Exhaust was rubbing on driveshaft a bit, B had rigged something up that was almost preventing that, I tweaked it a bit and it seems good now but the middle section of the exhaust could definitely use some improvement there plus the cone gasket has been leaking for years because the flange bottoms out. B helped me replace the pitch stopper. The stock plastic one broke in the crash, which I didn't realize until fairly recently. Took some jacking up of the trans and prying to get the new pitch stopper to bolt up. On the plus side that straightened out the trans mount and probably gave us a bit more exhaust to driveshaft clearance. Pulled a vacuum on the AC system, seemed to be leaking a bit. Put a little charge in it and the o ring on the low side of the compressor seemed to be leaking. Replaced that, didn't seem to leak, put the rest of a can in it. Enough to actually run the AC, high side 50, low side slight vacuum, doesn't blow cold. Figure I'll check it in a week or so and see if it's leaked. We're basically past AC season here but it is handy for defrosting the windshield at times. Radiator fan runs with the AC on. We tried pulling the swaybar mounting bracket forward by using a come a long (hand winch) to the Impreza but I don't think it moved. Doesn't seem to hit the tie rod so I guess it's good where it's at. Rear portion of the driveshaft is bent, I'd say 1/8-1/4" (3-6mm). Buckled in the crash maybe? There's a high frequency vibration that's worst at about 50mph, I assume from the driveshaft. Got one on order from a junkyard. We went over some things on the Impreza. The rear wheel bearings had a little bit of play. Slight on the RR, about the amount we start to consider bad on the LR so I replaced that. Much easier with the bolt in wheel bearings. Replaced that CV axle too, inner boot was starting to cut/tear. Old wheel bearing spun freely and sounded bone dry, good thing I replaced it. B tightened down the aluminum bracket for the LF control arm, those bolts were quite loose for some reason. He adjusted the driver's door, hadn't been staying closed firmly again, catch probably just shifted out a bit. He found a leak in the RF tire, seems to be a decent sized stick or something. So I have a few tires to take to Discount sometime for their road hazard warranty. Unfortunately the trans started making a lot of noise Sunday on the way home from a day trip. Made it home fine. Most likely similar low range failure the black Outback had. Going to start transmission removal today. Have some new low range parts made up - different material/heat treat, more oil holes, additional bearing - hopefully will last longer.

Got the spare tire well tank for the Impreza back from the fab shop. Before sending out for paint I capped and sleeved this tube so it doesn't just fill up with a pint of mud. Welded and painted passenger side bumper mount. That square tube goes a good foot back into the body. Replaced the engine mounts, that was more difficult than expected. Split engine mounts in middle, they didn't have the retaining plates like the ones off the other engine I installed. Lowered the exhaust to do it, the gaskets were definitely blown out. Unfortunately even after replacing with new the one still seems to leak a bit. Removed the oil pan and hammered it back out, bit more capacity than stock now. If nothing else it will take longer to get smashed up against the pickup now. Put foam strips around the radiator to seal up the gaps. Who knows if it will help, if nothing else helps keep the top tank from rubbing on the radiator support. Had to put in new threaded inserts for the skidplate. Those tack welds are just so they can be tightened down initially, they expand and clamp on the inside of the crossmember. Bracket for skidplate support, dipped that one in the enamel paint and looks good for now. Replaced trans cooler, condenser, and radiator. Bumper and skidplate etc back on. Maybe should have tried harder to find a paint shop that could match the body side color better but this place at least seems to use some very durable paint. Plus I think they're the only place in town that sandblasts prior to paint which was necessary with some of the old rusty pieces. Thought about going with white instead but I'm not sure that would be any better. I know, travelvw and slammo think I should have gone with black. Still need to replace the driver's side radiator fan and install the front sheet metal panel and license plate. Drove around the block and seems to be back to normal. No leaks I've found. Plan on driving it quite a bit tomorrow.

Made a tube to brace the radiator support longitudinally and to protect the exhaust. Bracket bolts to the body right in front of the subframe where the bumper brace was bolted in stock. Added a tube to brace that and protect the oil filter and cooler. Tubes welded back in to connect the radiator support to the bumper and to mount a piece of sheetmetal. B cut a piece of 1/8" 4130 plate for the front of the skid and I welded that in. Old airbox guard was mostly destroyed so I made a new one. Welded as much as I could on the car, then we unbolted it. B cut a piece of 4130 sheetmetal to protect the condenser and radiator. Radiator and condenser mounts welded on new radiator support. Basically ready for paint. I would like to get this thing back on the road ASAP but I'm going to see if the paint shop can get this all painted up fairly soon. Have new lines/hoses for the oil cooler, new radiator, etc. B took a pair of good engine mounts off my spare EZ30. So we have to swap some of that out.

I definitely considered buying a different H6 Outback and swapping the suspension over. Overall this seemed like less work and definitely less cost. Exactly. Yes, my brother bought this one for me in California, and while it's no longer completely rust free it's still pretty solid. Figure at least $3000 including transportation to replace it. Which makes these things a bargain really. And this car is relatively stock aside from the suspension and bumper/skidplate. But it's still cheaper to fix this one. Plus either way we'd wind up refabbing the skidplate and radiator/bumper support or whatever you want to call it. And I've been thinking for years about fabricating a better lower radiator support for these cars from scratch rather than just adding a piece of tubing underneath. On that topic. We started by getting the radiator support back into place so the hood would latch and line up. Then remounted the bumper so it sat level and square with the lights and fenders. 2" square tube going back at least a foot into the stock "frame rail" with a mounting flange for the bumper welded on the end. This is the only part that will be permanently welded on the car. Below you can see the square tube is only tack welded to one side of the frame rail. When we get things more solidly mounted the plan is to hammer at least two more sides of the frame rail flush with that tube and weld them also. Then B cut and fit a piece of 3" square 1/8" wall tube where the stock lower radiator support was. Since this is about 3x as thick as the stock radiator support and significantly larger section, plus an actual piece of tubing rather than a couple of stampings folded/spot welded together, I think it's easily 10x as strong as stock. Not that what it's attached to will be very strong. We will pick up about 1" of ground clearance/approach angle. Also by chance the stock radiator mounts we unbolted should line up great by just welding them to the backside of that tube. Got the main part of the engine skidpan straightened back out, bolted back up, and replaced some tubes. Have tubes almost fit from the big square tube radiator support to the bumper beam. Need to figure out exactly how I'm going to make the tabs and piece of sheet metal there. I know what I want just need to figure out the most efficient order of fitting/assembly. Then we still need to add a few more tubes but it's coming together. Ordered some new hoses and tubes for the oil cooler.

B straightened out the upper radiator support on the Outback. We cut out the lower radiator support. Hung a straight radiator and the condenser from upper support, hood closed, and started mocking up a new lower support. Got a piece of 3" square tubing to use for that. Put the main bumper beam back into place, squared it up, and cut a new mount for the passenger side. Will post pictures of all that later, planning on doing some fab tomorrow. The main damage to the engine seemed to be where the oil cooler/filter threads on to the block. I tapped it deeper and used one of the longer pipes we'd made when I did the same thing to the black Outback. Also like that time though the block has a hairline crack which was spraying oil everywhere. I cleaned this one out and then poured some super glue in the crack from the inside and outside. Then applied three layers of JB weld. Not real pretty but I ran the engine for a bit and I didn't see it leak a drop. So fingers crossed that will be a semi permanent fix.

I have to look at it closer but yes my current plan is to cut out and refab the lower radiator support from scratch, probably 2x4x1/8" wall rectangular tubing or similar. Might increase approach angle a bit and probably be stronger. Then finagle the hood latch/upper rad support back into place. Right after it happened I thought about just buying another rust free car and swapping things over but I think it will be easier and cheaper to repair this one. There don't seem to be many laws regarding flat towing, certainly not much enforcement if there are. I can't say I recommend towing something as heavy as your tow vehicle without brakes but we've done it a number of times now. It has become increasingly common over the last 5-10 years to see two or three cars hooked together driving down the interstate, likely all purchased at an auto auction. There are stories that people operate trains of up to six of these cars with more than one powering the assembly. Trying to rent a tow dolly from Uhaul on the other hand took some finagling. The van I used is a 3/4 ton, we've towed a 20' enclosed trailer with it. Eventually talked to one guy who helped me figure out which options to tell them I had so their system would let me rent a tow dolly to tow a FWD wagon, I definitely wasn't going to tell them I was going to be towing a Subaru. And the tow dolly has surge brakes, so definitely safer than flat towing from a braking perspective. That day trip was great, every time I take it off pavement I'm reminded that the first gen Impreza with EZ36 is like a cheat code as our friend A said. Didn't bother airing down, never had to use the low range or even lock the center diff, never got stuck. Also reminded me how many trails there are in the UP. My GPS log is up to 5400 miles of unpaved trails up there. There are definitely some repeats/overlapping trails so let's say we've been on 3-4000 miles of unpaved UP roads but I would guess that is about 1/4 of the unpaved roads/trails there. The one loop I did I probably would have turned around where (or before) that picture was taken it was getting so overgrown but I was still following a trail on the GPS. The other area I wound up in there were no roads anywhere on my map for miles yet quite a few roads/trails I was exploring, some of them quite wide and smooth. "Connected the dots" too as we like to say - go off the end of one road on the map and wind up on a different road on the map miles later.

B and I worked on all three of my Subarus and his blue Forester a few weeks ago. Bunch of relatively minor stuff but I went through the front struts on the white Outback. They've been making some clunking/spring shifting noises when turning tight at low speeds so I suspected the steering bearings needed a cleanup. I replaced one and regreased the other, haven't noticed those noises since. While I had them apart I noticed the bump stops were split. Haven't seen this on our other cars but this is the only set where we made the bottom of the body bigger to allow the bumpstop to expand to give it more travel. Perhaps now they can expand too much. Regardless, I replaced them. We got the Ford van heater core and electric fan installed on the Impreza. Tried to figure out which front wheel bearing (I assume) on my 2001 H6 OB is making noise but even using B's multi microphone noise identifying system we still can't tell. Neither side is loose or seems to get hot but at least one of them is making a lot of noise. Definitely louder or quieter when cornering so I assume wheel bearing. We replaced one of the rotors we thought was pulsating figuring it'd be an easy try and it maybe pulsates less but did nothing for the noise. The next weekend we went to the UP with some in laws/friends and went trail riding one day in the Impreza and Outback. Stopped at a gas station after some trail riding and I noticed the temps on the Impreza were creeping up so we pulled over, fuse and relay seemed good but driver's side fans were not running. Without the AC on temps didn't creep up too much even in the sand. I made the mistake of letting a novice drive the white Outback without me in it. Then I noticed the Outback was pulled over with steam coming out of the front end. Driver claims the brakes weren't working. It has some serious lower front end damage after going off the trail a bit and hitting a log. Lower radiator support and skid plate and bottom of engine very smashed. I think the front fenders, lights, crossmember, and possibly hood are still all in the right spots. In the long run probably the biggest downside is I’ll have to replace the head gaskets on my spare ez30. As we were pulling the car back on to the trail, I realized that we’d lost the rear bumper cover somewhere. Hooked the tow bar, lights, and safety chains up and started towing it north on the trail. Not too far down the trail we got to a big steep drop but it didn't look terrible so we went down that. Kept it under 20mph, looked it up later and that's apparently the safe flat towing threshhold for the 4EAT for a max of 30 miles. Still curious what exactly fails if you flat tow it too fast for too long. The rest of the trails weren't much of a problem and we eventually got back to pavement and aired back up the tires on the Impreza to 40psi. Flat towed white Outback to the closest town and asked the guy at the grocery store if it'd be OK to park it there overnight. He said one night would be fine. I couldn't convince others to retrace our steps and retrieve the rear bumper cover mainly since it was going to be dark soon. Most of the rental, almost all Uhaul, places were only open a few hours on Saturday so I either had to wait for them to open or by the time they were open I wouldn't have been able to get to them before they closed, had to talk to one guy for a bit to figure out how to get them to rent me a tow dolly. I did a test drive of my dad’s 1987 full size 3/4 ton Dodge van, seemed to be running rough but not terrible. None of my primitive engine tuning skills seemed to help. After a lot of calling around I drove the van an hour to U haul to pick up a tow dolly. On the way there the engine starting making noise and I looked at the oil pressure gauge (blocked by my hand in a normal 10-2 driving position) and it was reading nothing. Pulled over, after a bit of looking around figured out one of the oil pressure sensors had started leaking badly. We've had this happen on a different full size Dodge van probably 20 years ago. Fortunately there are two sensors on this one going into a tee so I was able to take that apart and just put in one sensor. Dumped some engine oil in and proceeded. At the rental place the lights on the tow dolly didn't work. Wasn't getting power at the four pin connector but had power at the six pin connector (both on van). They of course had just run out of adapters. So I drove to the local Ace and picked one up, drove back, plugged it in, right side light on tow dolly not working. Hooked up to another tow dolly with functional lights. Drove about two hours back up to where we'd left the Outback. During this driving I'd realized I didn't have the keys to the white Outback. But I did have a coat hanger and a screwdriver so I was able to get in. Fortunately for whatever reason in that car you can shift it into neutral without turning the ignition on. Lined the tow dolly up with the car and backed the van up to it. Pulled the car onto the tow dolly with a come along (hand winch). Strapped it down, looped safety chains around the control arms. Then I realized I should have unbolted the rear driveshaft sooner but I was able to just get all four bolts. Was able to strap the driveshaft away from the rear diff so it didn't rub (I assume). Towed it about 1.5 hours back to the cabin. Chocked the rear wheels with some chunks of 4x4 and set the parking brake and drove the tow dolly out from under the car. Sunday morning I drove the tow dolly back and left it at the rental place, a two hour round trip. We drove the van back in addition to the two other cars we drove up there that still ran. Impreza temp gauge was right in the middle even with AC on in 95F weather on the highway. After returning home and tracing the fan wires from the fuse box to the fan I found that one of the pins for the main driver's side fan had pulled out and the connector looked melted. It would still occasionally run when I was pushing or pulling on the wires so I think it was just loose in the connector. Replaced the stock connector with spade terminals and heat shrunk/taped/zip tied everything back up, they all seem to run now. Drove Impreza to the cabin the following Friday morning. Strapped RF of bumper to engine. Removed front CV axles and replaced with loose OB Cvs I found in the basement. Unloaded flat towing equipment and put in Outback. Saturday morning I drove to the end point of our trail riding, filled up with gas, and retraced our steps backwards in search of the rear bumper cover. I figured I now had most of the rest of the day to kill so I'd do some mild trail riding/exploration on the way back. Impreza seems to spin the tires with less forward traction with the tires at 45psi as I had them that day than the 25psi I'd normally drop them to if I'd known I'd be trail riding as long as I did that day. I tried to do a big loop south of where I found the bumper cover. At the start it seemed a bit narrow/overgrown but there was a Forest Service trail open sign so I decided to go for it. Parts of it were very overgrown. Eventually there was a large tree that had fallen blocking it. I drove around the other half of the loop and got back to the fallen tree. There was no way I was going to do anything about it without a chainsaw, which I did not have. Checked out a stunt area I'd found on the satellite that had one big hillclimb and drove a side trail near the top of it. No intention of trying something like that solo so I moved on. Went to the end of a road on the map, figuring I might as well see where it went, turned out it kept going for miles with various side trails, none of them on my map at all. Went by a few old cabins along a river that looked like they hadn't been used in years but in decent shape. Drove down some roads that definitely seemed like they were just for logging, some of the steeper ones were even pretty nicely graveled. Eventually I was heading south on a nice wide dirt/gravel road and getting closer to a paved road we've been on many times. There were a couple of large boulders in the road but they could easily be driven around. Didn't see any signs on either side but decided not to drive past them. Also I think where this road comes out to pavement there might be a large berm. There was also a wide smooth road heading north from the “blocked” road but it had tall grass growing in it so I decided to skip that for the day and head back the way I came. On the way back north as I was heading by the old cabins I caught up to some locals driving UTVs. Each one had a guy in his 70s and one in his 20s. The younger guys were pretty entertained by the Subaru and they all kept asking how it did. I told them the trails around there were no problem for it. I asked about the cabins and they said the one we just passed by used to be theirs, they had a year by year lease with the forest service. Then it was declared a scenic river and hundreds of people lost the use of their cabins. Where we stopped was another one with a similar story. I asked about the logging roads and the big rocks and they said the logging company that has the contract for that section of forest tries to keep people out from tearing up their gravel(!) logging roads. They pulled over to let me by and I kept driving north until I eventually found a different way out. I got back on the highway and found a waterfall I'd seen on a 40 year old Michigan county map. The “trailhead” is a gravel spot big enough for one car along a gravel road with a rope tied around a few trees heading into the woods. No sign or anything. Hiked into the woods, trail was easy to follow, found the waterfall, pretty cool. Near there I went down a dead end forest road and encountered this turtle. When I got back to the cabin I set up the flat towing hardware and did a test drive. Seemed to do OK but tire was still rubbing on the tape I'd put on the end of the front bumper so I cut that off with the recip saw. Had some dinner and went to bed. Got up Sunday morning, packed up the car, checked fluids, aired up the tires in the Outback, and headed south. Flat towing went as smoothly as possible. Impreza has good power and bigger brakes than stock which helps. Temp gauge was right in the middle all weekend, even when towing, climbing sandy hills, AC on, etc. Left tow bar connected, drove Impreza in garage, disconnected tow bar, slid rear of Impreza sideways with a floor jack, drove Impreza out, pushed Outback in garage with Impreza.

Best picture I have of the condenser fins (well OK this is one of the worst areas). Replaced the condenser, slightly different (a little shorter) but it fit alright. Made some brackets and put the worst paint job I've ever applied on them for a puller fan on the driver's side of the radiator, wired that in with the driver's side pusher fan. Also turned up some bungs for temp sensors and had someone weld them on top and bottom of radiator. Hard to see in these pictures but the puller fan has some clearance to the engine. I glued a couple pieces of sheet metal on the fins where the center of the fans had been rubbing a bit. Have had that problem in the past and this seems to solve it. Sealed the sides between the radiator and condenser so hopefully less air can go around the radiator. B did most of the fab work/fitting for a fan/heater core bracket to fit a 1980's Ford Econoline heater core (slightly bigger than the Dodge one that started leaking). Set this up so we can add a second one underneath after we remove the ABS unit. So far though, even without the extra heater core, temps seem stable even driving in stop and go traffic in 90+F weather with the AC on. And the AC works well. Cruise has not worked a few times I've driven the car in the last month or so, but then will work the next time I drive it, and usually works. One time I drove the car the clutch engagement was near the end/bottom of the travel, it's normally (before and since then) closer to the middle or top/start of the pedal travel. All other times the clutch has felt normal. After the last off road trip and I washed the car the rack had leaked some power steering fluid out of the slightly torn driver's side rack boot. Power steering was not always self centering with poor assist at low speeds for a while and the reseroir was very low but seems to be back to normal now and hasn't noticeably leaked in a while. Epoxied a couple of the studs on the hood scoop. Used a screw in the one broken off clip and clearanced the steel baffle plate so I can get at another one of the hood scoop nuts with the steel plate installed. Car has pulled to the right slightly for a long time, we've checked the alignment a few times and it always seems good. The right rear brake seems to drag more than the others. I was going to replace the caliper and then discovered one of the bolts was starting to rub on the strut housing due to brake pad wear. I unbolted both the calipers and ground clearance on the strut housings where those bolts were hitting (or going to hit). So far this doesn't seem to have solved the problem but I might drive it a bit more first.

A friend of ours from Houston drove up to my house a couple weeks ago and we headed up to the UP. Once we got there we stopped for pasties and ate them at a park along Lake Michigan on the edge of town. A younger guy stopped on his motorcycle and asked about the Impreza, we talked Subarus for a bit. He had just imported a 99 STI from Japan. It's funny to me, ever since I got this Impreza I've gotten a lot more questions and had a lot more people taking pictures of the car than with the other Subarus. Not sure how much of that is people's love of first gen Imprezas and how much is the fact that you don't see many turn of the century Subarus driving around anymore. We drove up to the campground along the reservoir in the southern UP. M and B showed up later. Friday we went to the rapids and then hit the mini banked oval. There was a snapping turtle at the edge of the oval. Then we wandered up to the Baraga pipeline grade. We were all entertained as usual. Hit some of the sandy stunt areas nearby and a few of the side trails. Before we got to Houghton we were on a trail in the woods where we decided to turn around. I could not get the Forester out of the ruts so we eventually put a bunch of branches and sticks in the ruts and I was eventually able to get out. Then going back down the trail I was crabbing the Forester sideways for hundreds of feet before I finally got straightened out. Headed north to Houghton and then to Gay beach. M declared it the mother of all stunt areas. Drove much farther south than we had before after crossing a narrow spit of tailings along the lake. Did some side by side uphill jumps and then decided maybe we should leave while we still could. Checked out the mine building ruins, some good post apocalyptic flavor there. Temps were solid while driving on Gay beach which is a good test of high duty cycle and low speeds. Then they crept up in the woods and we discovered one of the fan fuses was blown. The passenger side fan would turn most of the way pretty easily but there was one spot in the rotation it would get stuck. We eventually figured out there was a tiny pebble(?) stuck to the outer ring of the fan blades. We were eventually able to get it off and replaced the fuse. Later we noticed it had a slight coolant leak. We tracked this down to the small welds on the underhood heater core that attach the mounting flange to the end tanks. Rerouted the heater hoses to the stock configuration. Got up to the top of the cliff along Cliff drive. I had parked a few hundred feet back from the first overlook and when I was walking back to my car a UTV was coming up. I heard the driver blurt out “what the f--k?” when he saw the Impreza. He told me he knows people who won't take their Jeeps up the rocky climb we took to get to the top. I then walked back to the overlook and he said the same thing to the other guys. We drove to the next overlook and hard parked on the edge for some pictures. The yoopers showed up again and we talked to them for a while. “This isn't what most people from Illinois do when they come up here” one of them says while holding out his pinky finger. They had both seen different UFOs and had some story about a cave nearby that no one could find with a wall of silver and a bag of gold coins. I believed the UFO stories more. We camped at the overlook. Saturday morning we headed up to Brockway Mountain. As we pulled on to the long road going there we were proceeded by three extremely slow drivers. We pulled off on a side trail rather than test our patience following them the whole way there. This trail eventually led to a very sketchy bridge but we managed to cross it. I think it was in this area I checked one muddy stretch on foot and it didn't seem too bad so I drove through it, but I was barely able to do so and then the ruts were deeper and softer. So I told B he shouldn't come through and I didn't want to go back through so worst case we come back to that spot in a half hour. Fortunately we were able to maintain radio contact and I was able to drive around the block so to speak and meet back up with them. We eventually found a different way out of the area. At one point the temps had started to creep up in the Impreza again and a fan fuse was blown. This one was probably from the fans running while driving in deep water, we replaced it and never had the problem again. We eventually got up to Brockway Mountain from the other side. After we'd been on trails for quite a while and got back to pavement B said the Forester was shaking quite a bit. Turned out all the LR lugnuts on his Forester were loose and one was missing. We tightened down the ones we could and continued. From there we did a little more trail riding and buzzed up to the beach to camp for the night. At camp B swapped out his wheel studs on the LR hub as most of them were somewhat damaged or packed full of aluminum. Sunday we started heading back on various trails. One of them eventually became deeply rutted and I didn't think I could get through without taking off a mirror so we turned around. We came to a fairly long and deep water crossing where beavers had flooded a road. There was a muskrat swimming in it when we pulled up. I walked it and it was just below knee deep for a couple hundred feet. I drove through it in the Impreza after we removed the fan fuses. There was water over the front of the hood for a good portion of the crossing and we realized we should have stuck the gopro on. B crossed it in the Forester and then we put the gopro on the Impreza and I crossed it back the way we came and then back again to proceed. At the top of the hill right next to the stream was a cool old furnace of some kind. Later we found the beaver dam that was flooding that road. The highlight of the day was probably discovering and climbing Mt Houghton. Probably the most intimidating rocky climb we accomplished that weekend (ever in the UP?) and one of the best views in the UP once we made it to the top. Got gas and water at the Lac La Belle resort. Cashier was using binoculars to read the mechanical gas pumps. Found a silly hillclimb along the border of a wildlife sanctuary that M almost convinced me to try but ultimately we decided it should wait for a different weekend. Buzzed down to Lake Linden to camp that night so J could take a shower and we'd be closer to the portage. Monday morning we took the Bill Nichols trail basically all the way from South Range to Adventure Mountain with a few detours and stops for some stunt areas and mines along the way. M and J enjoyed the Firesteel trestles and the lookout near the top of Adventure mountain and we headed back from there. The trail west out from the Adventure mountain climb was rough and narrow but we made it through with some extra dents in the rockers and floorboards. Stopped near the end of that trail to air up and eat PB&Js. We drove down to Watersmeet together and the Impreza seemed to have some high frequency vibration that didn't go away when I put the clutch in. Cleaned some dirt out of the wheels when we stopped for gas but that didn't help. Stopped again and discovered two of the driveshaft bolts were missing from the pinion flange. I had looked before but those two must have been up. Installed some bolts and tightened them all down and had a smooth ride home. Could only run the AC intermittently on the way home or the coolant temp would creep up. Overall a good weekend, cooling issues with the Impreza are still frustrating but we all had a good time. J and M were impressed with the Impreza, especially the EZ36. J definitely enjoyed the UP and quickly got in the groove of following overgrown trails (with a surprisingly high success rate of connecting to other trails this weekend). M said it was probably his favorite off road trip we've taken, no major malfunctions, lots of stunt areas, lots of overgrown trails (which he likes). Removed the radiator after we got home and it seemed clean. I had sprayed it off at the car wash but that's usually not too effective. So I'm still a bit surprised the car was running hot on the highway. We did check the overflow at least once when it was hot and still have never seen air bubbles. After spraying the condenser out from the back with a hose wand it did become clear that a lot of the fins on it are bent over. We did go through a lot of brush so it's probably from the fan blades spinning leaves and twigs against the condenser. Should be getting a replacement today, hopefully that brings the temps back under control. Also got a pair of 80s Ford Econoline heater cores I plan on putting where the extra heater core is now for more cooling capacity.

B and I worked on our white rust free California Subarus my brother bought for us. I replaced all the auto trans hoses on my Outback and replaced all the stock clamps with worm style hose clamps. One of them had sprung a pinhole leak earlier and enough leaked out on my way to work that the car stopped driving. Some of them are 23 years old. Rear axle has been staying put, not that I've driven the car a lot. B replaced the timing belt, tensioner, idlers, some of the plastic, and a cam seal on his Forester. Unfortunately the new cam seal seems to be leaking more than the old one if anything. Painted the brackets and installed the extra cooler and fan in the Impreza. Spliced a couple spades into the wiring for the passenger side fan (which kicks on second) for the small fan. Here you can see it lines up with the hood vent fairly well. Stepped up to a 12" tablet for navigation. Fit in the old mount after cutting down the springs. So far so good, glad I did it. It's summer here so we've been doing some kayaking. Have seen a lot of wildlife. This past weekend we went to the UP and did more off pavement driving than I expected. Mostly just gravel roads but some dirt trails too. One was rutted but seemed dry until I got off to the wrong side and sunk in on the passenger side. Some high lift jacking and shoveling and putting some chunks of found wood under the tires allowed me to drive out. At that time I noticed all the fans were running and I could indeed feel hot air blowing out the hood vent. At no time did the temps ever go above the middle on the gauge. It wasn't extremely hot and we weren't pushing the car too hard but definitely an improvement. We drove up some long steep grades with the AC on (also seems to be working great now) and drove a fair amount off pavement in 70-80F temps. Have a couple temp sensors that have calibration for the Haltech and the tap I need to make bungs for them, still plan on installing those in the top and bottom of the cooling system. Still waiting on fab guy to make my extra fuel tank. Even with a new carbon canister the Impreza still fills with fuel slowly/incompletely. Taking the vent hose to the carbon canister off seems to solve the problem. Might tee a long vent hose into that one or something. I drive the car enough I'm not worried about losing a lot of fuel to evaporation.

I suppose maybe it would close the thermostat but in practice, running the heat always seems to drop the coolant temps and this setup worked in the 99 Outback. When it's running hot I assume the thermostat is all the way open no matter what. Have considered no thermostat, if it didn't require draining all the coolant I probably would have tried that by now.

Definitely not too much data, I love it. We've discussed sending high and low pressures to the Haltech. And again, in AZ, seems fully justified. For sure. In the short run (tomorrow?) I plan on just plumbing the added cooler inline with the heater core with no valves.

Yeah, I think it's good now, been working well and not cycling on and off. It was probably in the 70s when I finished charging it. And not overcharged, I know as you say that can be hard on AC components. Your AC definitely has to be top notch to be comfortable in AZ. I like your technique of monitoring the AC line temp and stop filling when it stops dropping. How do you measure that temp? Dang $5/can is a killer deal.