pontoontodd

I'm sure the way we drive these cars has nothing to do with the strut towers coming apart, definitely just the rust and previous crash damage. You're welcome Mr T VW!

Video from our trip to Minnesota (a little bit in northern WI on the way) August 2022. Decent trail riding but overall not as good as the UP, even more mosquito infested, and farther from home. Plenty of beaver dam breaking opportunities though. Next one will be our trip out west October 2022. Probably the most scenic trip we've ever taken. Might take a while to edit that one, got a good amount of video that week.

Video from our trip to the UP June 2022. Plan to catch up on these over the winter.

We do have people riding in our back seats from time to time but boxy fuel cells in the rear wheel wells would be pretty simple, cheap, and low center of gravity. My green Impreza is a little front heavy though, plus putting the fuel tank in the tire well will be easier to slap a piece of sheet metal over for more fire/leak protection. Excellent point about the bracing. Certainly a valid concern, guess we'll see what happens. On the blue Forester in particular the LR strut tower appears to have been replaced in a crash and we've already had to weld it several times.

Yeah the tank is certainly heavier than I'd like. On the plus side it's not going to leak in a crash. The downside of that is it won't crumple in a crash either. Good point about the cross brace, would at least have to plate that part of the strut tower to make the cross brace functional.

Got a 54L, 56# (empty) propane tank from Belgium. 650mm diameter, 200mm tall. That fitting welded to the side has six tapped holes so I plan on making a cap to bolt to that with a couple of o rings for sealing and a couple of fittings. Fits nicely in Forester spare tire well, could probably go an inch bigger on diameter. Sits well below the stock foam under the rear floor. Not so much in the Impreza. Had to hammer quite a bit to get it to mostly fit. Sticks about 2" above the rear floor. Should still be able to stand the spare tire up next to it on the floor, so not a big deal. Next step is to see if a stock fuel pump is reversible. We finished rear strut tower bracing for B's Forester. He did the majority of the work on this. Diagonal tubes go down to the rear bumper bolts. Cross bar is removable. If we left the rear seat latches in place, we'd have to put the crossbar far enough back that it would block the strut nuts. So we spaced the seat latches forward 3/4". This also helps hold the top of the strut tower down. The front diagonals require us to move the seat belt retractors. We have that all figured out and welded up, basically moving them up about 3". Mostly welded with gussets. Here you can see where the front diagonals go down to the top of the trailing arm mounts. Seat backs are a little more vertical now but still reclined some. The back seats rarely get used but they're good to have when we really need them. Finished welding them outside the car. This will be a good car to test them on since the one rear strut tower has been repaired a few times now, the first time due to crash damage under previous ownership. So if it stops this car from coming apart we'll know they work. Might make a set for the Impreza over the winter too. Would be a very convenient thing to weld a spare tire mount on.

Yes, the heater blows hot so I assume there's good flow through the heater core. And when I run the heater when the engine is running hot it cools off pretty quickly.

Yeah I really need to get a good read on the actual engine temp. I'm using an EZ30 temp sensor since it has three pins. One I ran to the gauge. Another I ran to the ECU. The Haltech says the coolant temp is about 190F in the normal position (slightly below middle where it usually sits). When the gauge is reading 3/4 the Haltech says it's about 217F I think. So it hasn't been getting super hot, probably not hot enough to worry about. But on my other EZ powered cars (with stock radiators) the temp is always rock solid in the middle if everything's working right. If anything they drop a bit with the AC on since the fans are running. I've been thinking about adding two temp sensors with a Haltech calibration. One on the intake, one on the outlet. Another variable I've been thinking about is the thermostat is at the engine inlet but the temp sensor is at the engine outlet. So assuming the radiator can do a good job of cooling, it's possible it just runs hotter at higher duty cycles of the engine since the thermostat is controlling coolant flow based on engine inlet temperature. The fact that it runs hotter with the AC on doesn't back up that hypothesis though.

No I didn't bother trying to take the temperature. Since the temp was slowly rising, it's hard to tell if it was a time difference or temperature difference. Assuming the water was at a fairly constant temperature while boiling (should be, right?) I think it was more a time difference. The old one took a minute or two longer than the new one to open to about the same gap. I find it odd that they then seem to gradually close the same amount at the same time/temperature as they cool. Only data point I have to compare is that the second electric fan still cycles on and off at idle which is disappointing. It's been only getting up to about 60F ambient here but I haven't seen the temp gauge move above the middle at all, even with the AC on, so that's promising but far from conclusive.

Rear bumper fabrication conclusion. Added some slider tubes to protect charcoal canister, hang muffler, and provide some kind of ramp when backing over obstacles. Added tabs for license plate and license plate lights. Added lateral receivers for jacking and winching. Ready for paint. Might get the old rusty front bumper on the white Outback painted at the same time. Should protect the body from trees and make recoveries easier. Slammo had suggested the thermostat in the EZ36 in the Impreza might be bad. I drained the coolant, cleaned the radiator (seemed pretty clean inside and out, don't think that was contributing to the problem), and removed the old thermostat. It looked fairly clean but is most likely 11+ years old and sat for a year or two dry. Tested it side by side with a new one from the dealer by bringing a pot of water up to boiling. New one (bottom) definitely opened sooner than the old one. But after a few minutes they both opened the same amount. While slowly cooling down they looked the same. Did that twice, same results. So hopefully the new one will help stabilize engine coolant temps. Still might add inlet and outlet temp sensors that have a calibration for the Haltech.

Wife's 2001 H6 Outback has been leaking oil from the front of the driver's side valve cover for a year or so now. I replaced the valve cover gasket a while back which didn't seem to help. Have also been getting spray marks on the engine cover behind the radiator cap for a while, tried a different radiator cap, hasn't been using much coolant. A few weeks ago it became clear the top radiator tank was leaking where it joins the aluminum core. Long story short I got a new one and had new hoses on hand that have been getting oil dripped on them so I replaced all that. My "fix" for the oil dripping on the radiator hose was this flap of sheet metal. Made some progress on the rear bumper. Tubes in the middle are spacers under the main mounts. Will probably weld the two together for added strength. Main beam in place with cuts sketched out. Metal origami as B says. Sticks out about an inch wider than the body on each side. 2" clearance vertically to the hatch and lights, 2" back from the rear sheet metal, should be plenty of room to wrap a strap around and provide good protection for the lights. Still a bunch of things to add but the main beam and mounts are ready to weld.

Always too many trails and not enough time. Certainly in the UP. One forum thread I read implied that Toyota wouldn't even have a clutch switch for the starter if it wasn't required by law. Most common explanation/use was for creeping the truck forward in low range while standing outside it.

Drove to a large old gold mine called gold hill, supposedly mined in the 1850s. We saw a few stacked stone walls a few feet tall sloping up to the mine. Took a trail that wound up going along one of them, it was there to hold the road up, still holding 170 years later. At first B was hesitant to drive up but when he saw me going up it without any issues and taking pictures he decided to follow. We made it to a little flat spot at the top and checked out the main mine pit on foot. Found some quarts crystals. Did some five point turn arounds in the little flat spot, hanging the bumpers over the edge of the cliff, but got down without incident and went to the pony express trail. Again, mainly gravel roads, but all kinds of roads/trails off of it and good scenery. We camped just off the route in Overland canyon. One of the most beautiful sights any human has ever witnessed reflecting a nice sunrise. By this point it was clear the electric fridge slammo gave me wasn't working. You could hear it running but the sound was different and it wasn't getting cold. Also had noticed a weird smell when I opened that door of the car so I'm guessing the refrigerant leaked out. Important ingredient for staying out of civilization for extended periods of time so I'm probably going to buy a better one. Saturday morning we finished the pony express trail. Over the last couple days B had mentioned some vibration in his car, at first he thought it was washboard on the road but mine was riding smooth. We swapped a few of his tires around, never made it better, the last one we switched seemed to make it worse. Then he said it got a lot worse. Driveshaft was missing three bolts on the diff flange and the remaining one was loose. We put in some spare bolts and continued on smoothly. Pony express route generally follows the southern edge of the salt lake basin. As we went farther east there was actually traffic on the road, which was unusual for the week. Not sure if it was because we were getting closer to the Salt Lake City metro area and pavement or because it was Saturday or both. Also I think this is where we saw the first UTVs on the trail all week. We'd become accustomed to seeing a few pickup trucks a day or maybe a Jeep if we stayed off pavement. When we got to the first vault toilets (at a campground entrance) there was almost steady traffic on and off the road for people using them. Continued east, not long after we got on pavement we saw a stunt area not too far off the highway so we started driving towards it. As we got closer there was a truck and trailer parked in the main trail, something we saw in Gold Hill the day before. In this case though the guy on the flatbed trailer was setting up to do some target practice. His buddy waved us by and we found the little hills and trails we'd seen from the pavement. Made some PB&Js and found a different way back to the highway. Along the way we saw a few other fairly large stunt areas with all kinds of trailers and dirt bikes, might have to check those out sometime, maybe during the week. Stopped at the closest gas station, filled up with gas, swapped out air filters, and aired up tires. B mentioned as we drove into SLC metro that we could probably see more cars at one time than we'd seen in the entire previous week. Drove back home without any other issues. Cruise is working pretty well in Impreza. AC works great but if I used it on long mountain grades the coolant temp gauge would start to climb. B said he did about 3900 miles, I'd guess around 1000 of that was off pavement. Need to figure out the cooling issues with the Impreza, after discussing it with slammo I'm thinking maybe thermostat. It's most often a problem at low speeds while climbing or driving on sand but will start to go up sometimes going up long grades at high speeds with the AC on. Impreza takes some cranking before it starts sometimes, usually after sitting overnight. Wondering if it takes a bit to build fuel pressure. A few times, sometimes after some hillclimb, we'd hear the fuel system make a gurgling noise after the car had been shutoff for a minute. We used our jerry cans twice and I rolled into gas stations on empty four times. And that was after cutting our trail riding short so we didn't run out. It would be great to have more fuel capacity so we can wander better. I discussed the propane spare tire well tanks with slammo and he found one for about $300US shipped with 10 gallon capacity that should easily fit. https://shop.vanmeenen.com/en/lpg_cng-tanks-&-valves-1/lpg-toroidal-tanks-42 I'm thinking a vent/overflow hose to the main tank and another line with reversible pump. Then it can just be filled by the stock fuel filler and when the stock tank runs low it can refill that. Definitely need to finish the rear bumper for the Impreza, would have made the recoveries easier. Super happy with the performance and reliability of the Impreza overall. Forester holds up well too but definitely needed the low range to do some hill climbs the Impreza could do in high range. Still a great way to explore the back country and hit some fun trails. It also seems like on our last few trips a lot more people than usual have been complimenting us or commenting on the cars. These turn of the century Subarus are getting more rare in general, and who doesn't love a first gen Impreza, but it's still a fun surprise. Over the winter I want to make the straight cut planetary low ranges and get caught up on editing youtube videos, we got some good footage this past week.

Friday morning we went to Ely, got gas, and started calling and visiting tire shops. We couldn't find a 215/75/15 of any kind but they did replace one of B's valve stems that was leaking. We'd found Devil's Gate slot canyon online that was roughly on our way so we started heading that direction. Going up the mountain pass we came upon a full size pickup truck with ~20ft enclosed trailer. Truck had a Green Bay Packers sticker in the back window. Fortunately he was pulled over just enough for us to squeeze past him. We stopped at the pass/saddle to enjoy the view and then B saw the truck and trailer coming. We ran back to our cars and made sure we stayed ahead of him. Going down was a narrow, rocky, dirt switchback mountain road. I have no idea how he was navigating it but we looked back when we were near the bottom and could see him slowly working his way down. Continued east through the desert down some washes/canyons. The last one was quite fun, we could go there quickly since it didn't have 2' deep ruts like the Vegas to Reno course. Took it to Devil's Gate. We hiked through it and up to the top and drove out of the wash and while there was a large flat gravel area that could be called a parking lot, there were no signs of any kind this awesome slot canyon is here. It's limestone which is unusual, most slot canyons are sandstone. So the rocks here are polished. From here we headed back into Utah towards Massey northern #13, a portion of the old pony express route. On the way we took a side trail up a wooded valley along a stream with an amazing alcove in one cliff. Cut across Massey 13 and headed north through some hills on some fun trails.

We wanted to check out some areas we saw on our way home from the last Vegas to Reno so we headed south on 93 (alt) and then bailed off on a dirt road to the west. Went up through some old mining ruins in the hills. I tried this hillclimb but didn't make it to the left turn. Saw some wild horses and went through some pine forests. Continued southwest and wound up along a big flat wash. Drove up another one which was a long narrow trail up a wooded valley with quite a few cattle but most of the trees were burned. There was a big hillclimb we drove to the top of. Well, it looked like the top at first but just turned out to be a flatish spot maybe 1/3 of the way to the top. In the picture below you can see the part of the hillclimb we didn't reach. I drove up somewhat farther but was running out of power and traction and came back down. We camped along the trail that night. The main trail seemed to end at a high point overlooking the burned out valley. We drove up another valley but the trail kept getting steeper and looser so we turned around. Also by this time the Impreza's temp gauge would start rising with any sustained climbing or driving on soft ground, I'd have to run the heater to keep that under control. Drove through the town of Cherry Creek, B wondered whether they'd ever seen a Subaru. Went west through a cool canyon, some mine ruins, and through an area with various side trails and some pine forest. Continued south on some mountain trails, hit a few side trails and hillclimbs with some great views. Yes we did the hillclimb pictured below. View from the top. Near the bottom the canyon narrowed up with some fairly steep cliffs alongside us. Continued south to Ely to buy gas. Next we went to a nearby section of National Forest we'd seen on the way home from the last Vegas to Reno and drove into the mountains off the highway. Trail didn't seem too bad and then came to a big grade which looked fine from the side. When I made the turn to get on the grade I could see there was a big rut full of rocks on the downhill side of the off camber trail. I was able to stay out of the rut for a while but dropped in it a few times. The last time I dropped in it blew out my LR tire. I was able to back down to the corner but unfortunately I was stuck in the rut and it pulled me against the bank on the inside of the turn. After some trial and error and head scratching and with some tension on the winch cable we were able to jack the LR up and sideways out of the rut and away from the bank. While we were in the middle of this 2+ hour recovery operation I noticed oil dripping out one of the exhaust welds near the back of the car and something dripping off the LF control arm into the wheel. We replaced the tire in this position which was scary but seemed like our best option. Don't worry though we had a towel on the winch cable. Before I started the engine I turned it a few revolutions by hand to make sure some cylinders weren't full of oil. With four good tires and three of them on (over) the road I was fairly easily able to back across the road to the semi flat spot outside the switchback. The oil leak was probably past the rings down into the exhaust. The other leak was power steering fluid, maybe from turning the wheel without the engine running? Neither leak continued after this incident but it did take a while to burn all the oil out of the exhaust. \ Body damage wasn't as bad as I expected. After that excitement we decided to find a campsite.