pontoontodd

My brother thinks an EZ30 with the front cover off and the timing chain up with a glass top on it would make a cool coffee table. After getting the engine more assembled I realized that upper weep hole might be because that whole section of the engine can collect water and that probably acts as a drain. The chain tensioners are clever. That weird spiral part threads in the piston with the little spring and pin pushing it out. The big spring goes between the piston and the body. Spring (and probably oil) pressure cause it to extend, and the screw can unthread that way, but the way it's cut when you push on it straight it doesn't compress. You have to twist it and push in to compress it. When installed that means it only adds tension to the chain as everything wears. The service manual recommends pushing and threading it together and then inserting a tiny pin in that tiny hole. Maybe that would have been easier but I was able to just hold them compressed and get the bolts started. Each chain has a few colored links which come in handy for making sure you have everything lined up properly. This gold link lines up with the divot on this cam sprocket. This gold link lines up with the divot on the crank sprocket. Also in this picture you can see the oil pump bolts I replaced. I had to use a vice grips to remove almost all of these oil pump bolts, and most of them were damaged. Only had a problem with one other bolt out of the 100+. This gray link lines up with this divot on another cam sprocket. These gray links line up with each other on the idler. The last guide you install is supposed to be a certain width from another guide. I put a .024" feeler gauge between the chain and the guide to get the right width, helped keep them parallel and tightened down the bolts. The water hose fitting near the thermostat that comes from the oil cooler had come loose a year or so ago. I had JB welded it and seemed to stop the slow leak. After we took the engine out I was able to pull it out of the block by hand with some wiggling. I tapped it 1/4" NPT at a slight angle. I threaded in this pipe fitting, need to get a hose barb to finish that. Back in July when the engine mounts came apart the lower radiator hose was rubbing on this part of the timing chain cover. I had just cut the bolts and bosses at an angle for the time being. While it was apart I cut them square and put in shorter bolts. This is about what it looked like ready for the intake to go on. I think the only thing I changed was to take off that little hose left of center and put it on the solenoid under the intake. This is the vacuum actuated flapper that either divides the intake manifold halves or lets them cross over. Replaced the gasket for that. This is the solenoid under the intake I broke the little neck off while trying to remove the hose. This is it installed with the hose I mentioned. A friend stopped by and we got the intake on and hooked up, installed the engine, and hooked up most things. Need to connect and install a few more things and get the new radiator back from the welding shop and put that in.

Got the heads, cams, and valve covers on, nothing too unusual there. I think you could remove the heads without removing the cams but it sounds like they always have to be milled, so the cams and caps should be removed. Torque procedure is pretty complicated as usual. One thing I can't figure out is why there is a top and bottom weep hole for the water pump. I'm not sure how much of this crap came in the top, but I sealed that hole with silicone before putting this cover back on the engine. All that mud made it difficult to remove the water pump. I did get a new water pump while it's all apart, but at $105 from the dealer it's probably not necessary to replace, they seem to last forever. There are two big orings for the water pump though and I would definitely recommend replacing those. The big one was rock hard as you can see. Engine ready for the inner/rear cover to go on. Inner/rear cover installed. One thing they did that is fantastic is casting the torque pattern in the cover next to the bolts. I already see why most people recommend just buying a $700 low mileage Japanese engine. I've spent that much in parts and machining on this one. I am replacing a lot of hoses and gaskets to be safe that might need replacement on a 15 year old engine regardless of mileage though.

While the engine is out I did some welding on the body. The seam at the base of the front strut towers spread open on both sides. I don't remember how many years it's been like this, can't hurt to weld it up. I also welded the inner sides of those tubes I used to replace the subframe spacers. Painted it all too.

If your ports are restrictive you might actually want more duration. Have you contacted anyone with experience grinding cams for EA engines? I think Delta cams specializes in grinding Subaru cams, they might have a good idea what you want. Also, if you can drive it so you can at least keep the RPMs over 3000 (preferably 4000) while climbing, it doesn't matter much what it does at low RPM.

I have a couple unlisted videos on youtube. I will send you the links in a message. Trying to get feedback on what people like or don't like about the videos.

I have videos from both UP trips this summer edited down to about 16 minutes each. If you want to check them out and let me know what you think please send me a message. One of the reasons I've been editing them is to post them on this forum for your entertainment so I'd like some feedback.

Normally I would agree 100% but this is a race car, right? Are you planning on running it hard or just cruising around the track? If the transmission is geared properly you should be able to keep the RPM up in even the slowest corner. Are there any experts on this engine you can consult for what these two different cam profiles would do for your engine? It seems like a big change, I would think 240-250 might be best. Do you have adjustable cam gears? Unfortunately you can't adjust intake relative to exhaust, it looks like your lobe separation angle (intake to exhaust) is similar on both cams, you might want to change that too (less for lower RPM use I think). Also I don't know if it affects the grinding cost but on most pushrod engines I'm aware of you want about ten degrees more exhaust than intake duration (so maybe 240 intake / 250 exhaust). Are you planning on running it on an engine or wheel dyno to tune it? I can tell you cam timing will make a huge difference on how much power you make and at what RPM it peaks, easily +/- 10% with say 20 degrees change. How do the cast pistons limit your RPM? I'm familiar with rod and bearing failure with excessive RPM, are the forged pistons just that much lighter that it's easier on the rods? Just hoping you get the most out of this build, I think it will be awesome when finished. Take this all with a huge grain of salt, I don't know anything about EA engines and this is all very engine dependent. For instance if your ports flow very well I think you can get away with less duration.

Took the radiator out of the 99 Outback to replace it. Have to get some fittings welded on the new one. While that's out and we're down for the winter I decided to replace the head gaskets. I read a lot of horror stories doing these so I've been hesitant but it's really not bad. Take the timing cover off and you find this piece of machinery: Probably the biggest problem we had were the oil pump bolts, I had to grind flats on a few of them and use vise grips to get them loose. For future reference for someone else doing this job, you only have to remove the five socket head bolts that stick out around the oil pump, you don't have to remove the flat heads. For that matter you don't have to remove the water pump but I'm going to replace that and the gasket. Also a couple of the hoses near the front of the intake were rock hard and broke. This is what the heads and gaskets look like, can anyone tell if they were bad? Steering slop in the 99 Outback turned out to be the u joints in the steering shaft, that will be easy to replace with the engine out. I'm also going to weld up some cracks and the inner sides of the subframe spacers while the engine is out.

Yes, the Forester jumps about as well. Doesn't ride quite as well, not sure how much of that is shock tuning and how much is just the weight difference. The jump at the top of the hill it was not able to do, it could climb the hill but didn't have enough power to go fast enough to get much air. Same with the 2002 Outback. Talked to one of my friends who drove both and he also thought if anything the Forester with EJ25 and 5MT was better at hillclimbing than the Outback with EZ30 and 4EAT. The front end noise in the 2002 Outback turned out to be a ripped inner front CV boot, that CV was completely dry. The Forester was doing some scary wandering around at certain speeds after our Badlands trip. We tightened a few suspension bolts, replaced the inner tie rods and a control arm bushing. None of those things seemed too bad but it fixed the problem. I have thought about some kind of active lifting system like you're describing. I don't think I would use it enough to be worth the trouble but would like to see what you come up with.

Haven't found any really good jumps this year, and I think our shocks still need some tuning. I have many hours of video to edit down this winter, I'll post them as I get them done. Here are some video stills for you though. From New Mexico: From Badlands off road park: From our friend's place outside of town yesterday. Jumps are shaped more for dirt bikes and ATVs than full size but my brother was in town so we wanted to see what he thought of our shock tuning. Yes, we jumped the white 2002 Outback a little too but it just doesn't have enough travel in the rear yet.

Why don't you marry it?

We drove down to Badlands off road park yesterday. I had the Outbacks hooked up to tow but we disconnected them since it was snowing and decided to drive separate. B and Z met us there in the Forester. Set up the flags, aired down, and secured cargo. We drove in and immediately found a figure eight we'd never seen before. Larger than the one we usually go to, we were easily able to run three cars in it at the same time with relative safety. C was driving the black Outback, he told me later he wasn't pushing it 100% but running a steady fast pace. I was driving the white Outback as fast as I was comfortable with and he was slowly pulling away. Then I shifted from D to 1 and was able to slowly catch up to him, so we used 1 the rest of the day. When driving through some big whoops in the white Outback near the lower parking lot I realized the ABS was keeping the brakes from doing their job. We hit the whoops faster than I wanted and the back end was kicking up bad. Guys behind me said they saw the rear tires completely off the ground a few times. Definitely need to get more travel in the rear. Stopped and pulled out the airbag and ABS fuses. Then we drove to the small figure eight. Checked out the tubes on the way, water was fairly low with not too much of a drop off the south tube. Took turns in the small figure eight. Drove up to the end of the stream and dropped in. First half is pretty rocky but not bad with the long travel. Water level was fairly low. Went through the tubes and drove the rest of the stream. It smooths out a little ways after the tubes and we were going fast. There was so much water spraying off the tires that if you were steering at all you could hardly see where you were going from the solid pillars of water thrown up by the tires. We got to the end of the stream in a very short time and went up a big hillclimb with a couple large rocks embedded in it. I didn't think we were going to clear in the black Outback but we made it up without hitting them. The white Outback scraped a little. We stopped at the top because someone decided it was a decent spot to make sandwiches. While we were eating C and I walked down to look at the climb and he noticed the rock was covered in undercoating, there were even a few chunks that had been scraped off the car(s). We made a little plan to mess with the guys driving it so he went back up first and tried to convince them I was pissed that they had scraped some undercoating off but they didn't buy it at all. The trail down from there back to the tailings had a nice little downhill jump on it I thought but it was not straight and slippery with mud so it was hard enough to stay on the trail, there was no way to get any speed to get air. Drove back up and we hopped in different cars and went down. We went back to the spot where we were doing the uphill jump last year and hit one of the ones next to it. Doesn't have a nice lip at the top for big air but has a much larger and smoother landing area so we could hit it faster. At about 45mph I was able to get decent air. Forester got a little air, couldn't really get it or the white Outback going fast enough by the top to get good air. From there we dropped down to the railroad grade and followed that back to the parking lot. J likes the dragon tail so we went through that. We tried a bunch of hillclimbs. There was one that Z tried twice in the white Outback and just couldn't make it up. Seemed like a combination of the engine getting bogged down and then some wheelspin and then it would just dig in. I thought he had enough momentum and throttle to make it up too. Then we decided to head to the north end of the park. On the way we decided to try a long rocky trail we've wanted to test out for years. C only got about 30' in with the black Outback and got two wheels light and couldn't go anywhere, even with some tipping and pushing. We pulled him back out of it and headed north on an easier trail. Did a few hillclimbs and some were pretty easy. C tried one that was a little steeper and made it to the top fine but there were big trees on both sides so he slowed cresting the top and got high centered. The trail was so narrow he couldn't open the driver's door. R drove around in the black Outback and easily pulled him forward. We dropped back down to the main trail. Went to the end of that at the north end of the park where it's closed off for the concrete plant. Went down a little rough concrete grade we'd never seen before but then the only options seemed to be a 2' shelf we'd have to drive up or a giant swamp. So we drove back up the rough concrete grade, which went smoother than expected. B cut through the woods and we went back in the bowl near the parking lot. Drove around there some, there were a lot of other people at that time so we decided to leave that area. Visibility cresting hills in the Subarus is terrible so it's unsafe to drive around a bunch of other people in a spot like that with lots of hill climbs. Cut down through the woods to the concrete hillclimb near the entrance. This time we were able to get up fairly easily. Last up was the white Outback, I told Z to try to just slush it up from a dead stop at the bottom. Made it about halfway and it just stalled. Engine running, no tires spinning, just not going uphill. Backed down, got a run at it, and drove to the top fairly easy. Then we dropped down a rocky trail with some concrete steps. It was probably a little rougher than the last time we did it, but we made it through fine, should have gotten video. Drove along the little stream bed, went up a big hillclimb we've done before, then dropped back down and followed the stream back out to the bowl. At this point the white Outback was making a high pitched scraping noise, at first we thought it was just gravel in the dust shields but then C figured out it was the exhaust rubbing on the driveshaft. Jacked it up a bit and bent the exhaust down. Exhaust is cracked a bit so it's not super quiet anymore but not horrible. Black Outback with the Dynomax super turbo and cats sounds much better than white Outback with stock exhaust (both have EZ30). We decided to wander around a little more and try to find some decent jumps. Most of the really good ones there have been leveled out or messed up. Hit some banked turns along one of the main trails and followed a narrow trail until we got back to where we'd jumped the cars at the start of the day. Where that narrow trail drops into the bowl we were jumping out of before is a nice berm I thought would make a good jump. It was decent, couldn't get a real clean run at it since it's not a perfectly straight shot, so I could only hit it at about 35mph, but maybe the best jump of the day we found. After that we wandered a bit more and J decided to try the dragon's tail again. He was driving the white Outback and dropped into one of the banked turns from the outside (it's a bit smoother to go around the whoops on the main line) and got it stuck in the soft tailings. I was right behind in the black Outback and did something similar, got stuck since I had to stop for him. Fortunately the Forester was not stuck, R was eventually able to pull him out. I was able to drive the black Outback back and forth a little bit but then just had R pull me out. By this time J had driven into the next turn and stopped, getting the white Outback stuck again. I figured I'd just pull him back out since I was kind of lined up and had more power and weight than the Forester. Z was worried we'd back into the hole we'd just created when we were stuck but I thought we would be fine. I was able to pull J out but then almost got stuck in the hole Z was worried about. I was just able to drive out of it though. At this point the park was about to close so we left. The right front wheel bearing in the white Outback had the seals pushed out of it when I put the long travel on. I pushed them back in and the grease looked good but it did seem to be making noise. I wasn't sure though since I had also just put a set of old mud tires on it. Didn't seem sloppy before we left but on the way home it was sloppy and making various clicking and popping noises, especially when changing speed. At a steady 80mph on the highway it was silent. I do have a knuckle for that corner with a bolt on wheel bearing. Since I'm not planning on using the ABS anymore I'm just going to put that on. We all had a good time, got stuck about half a dozen times, no real mechanical failures, and hit some decent jumps. I was kind of disappointed with the automatic, I would say it's comparable to the four cylinder five speed off road, you really need momentum and to keep the RPMs up for any kind of hillclimb. The current setup for the multilink rear definitely needs more travel. It was the worst riding of the three (not surprisingly) but still better than stock. The new Forester really runs well, I drove it for a while and was impressed with the hills we could climb at quarter or half throttle. The black Outback was definitely the best, steering brake, manual trans, and six cylinder definitely make it more entertaining and it definitely rode the best of the three.

Figured the stock shocks were coilover, pretty easy to fit real coilover shocks. 500#/in, I had them laying around and it's close. In the long run I will probably wind up with longer shocks with the top mount and reservoir inside the car.

Are you talking front or rear CV axles now? We've been using these on the front and they seem to hold up well, definitely have more plunge travel than most Subaru CV axles: https://autoshafts.com/i-23374251-cv-axle-shaft.html I have a connection and bought ten for about half that price. The CV joints are much larger than most Subaru axles too, probably why they seem to last a while even with torn boots. What I am looking for is something like that for the rear. Did you use SVX rear axles on your Forester?

I have heard from others the Heri axles don't hold up well. I am very tempted to buy one and try it. Rockauto has "Surtrack/Trakmotive" axles, I don't know if it's just a different name, but they look the same and sell for $90. Oreilly has the same thing as Rock auto just called Import Direct for $115. They say 50% more linear travel than standard but don't say how much. How did you make SVX axles work on your Forester? Got the 2002 Outback back together with long travel front struts, arms, tie rods, and axles. I've got a set of worn mud tires on 15" alloy wheels on it and it sits a few inches higher than stock. Rear only has about 8" of travel but it seems to ride pretty well. Anxious to see how the auto works off road.

Mainly since the CV axles bottom out in the diff, I had to limit the shock travel for the multilink rear even more than expected. So in the end I only have a little more travel than stock, but the car sits higher and should have more damping. In the future I may have to buy longer bodies and shafts for these shocks but should be able to reuse 90% of the parts. Wound up using the springs from the old front a-arm setup. They're a little stiffer than I want but the new ones I bought are too long for now. Put shock covers on them too, not shown. Has about 2.5" of droop travel and 5.5" of bump travel, sits 2-3" higher than stock. Have the 15" alloys with 215/75/15 mud tires on the car now. Just turned it around in the shop and will start installing long travel front struts, arms, and tie rods next. Any leads on longer rear CV axles and/or CVs with more plunge would be appreciated. I think over the winter I will make longer links for the rear and try to get 12-14" of travel. Will also probably have to move the top shock mounts and reservoirs above the floor.

One of our friends who works on rally teams says even with stronger tubular control arms he's never seen the mounts rip out of the frame. So I'm going to hope that continues to be the case. That part of the frame does seem very strong. I'd be more worried about the front mount ripping out of the crossmember. Those mounts from Febest are fairly cheap, I should probably order one and take a look, try to measure and compare it to a stock mount. Interesting they're listed as hydro. I don't think any of the mounts we've messed with in the past were, but I remember on my 2001 when I was changing all the fluids and various gaskets that one of the arm mounts seemed to be leaking fluid. Thanks for the tip.

No heat shield, that probably would help. Definitely worth it to fit the 23 gallon fuel cell though. I have a piece of insulation on top of that part of the floor now and it's not causing any problems. This is what the broken control arm mount looks like. Thinking about different ways to make these or reinforce them. Hard to tell in this picture but the center was also bent towards the back of the car. I've had that happen before but this is the first one we've broken. Also judging by the fracture surfaces it failed suddenly and hadn't been cracked for a long time. Another issue we had on the trip I forgot to mention is that the inner lateral link bolts (next to the diff) for the rear suspension of the Forester kept coming loose. We didn't have a long box end wrench like I have at home to really torque them down so we had to tighten them almost every day of trail riding. Wasn't noticeable off pavement but on pavement it was wandering all over the place with those bolts loose. Also we're used to the brown loctite on the midwestern cars keeping bolts from coming loose whether you like it or not. We got that control arm back in the 99 Outback, welded some cracks on the crossmember, and set the alignment. Also think I figured out what's going to work for now on the 2002 Outback. Not as much travel as I want in the rear, maybe 8" for now. I know what the limitations are though and I can see how our starting point of damping works and how the stock links hold up. I think over the winter I can get 12"+ out of it but will have to make longer links. Anyone know of longer rear CV axles and/or rear CVs with more plunge?

Also the temp sticker I put on the floor above the muffler maxed out at 390F.

Yes, the front struts and arms are ready to bolt on. Just ordered the last few parts I need for the rear shocks, those are partially assembled already. Mounts and spacers for the rear are almost done too. Might get that all on the car this weekend, plan on taking three long travel cars to an offroad park in a few weeks.

Saturday morning I had wanted to head out early but we felt we should replace the control arm to be safe. Took the old one off and ate breakfast and headed to the junkyard. Got to a pick and pull with three Outbacks and took an arm off one. Also grabbed a few interior pieces. B has been looking for a rust free hatch for his Eclipse for a few years, he found one that was silver instead of gray but rust free so we removed that and the radiator. Strapped the hatch to the roof of the Forester. Went back to the house and strapped/pried/hammered the arm into place, it was a struggle since the crossmember was bent back. With the proper amount of cussing we got it bolted in. Ate lunch and headed north. Stayed in a hotel for about 3.5 hours to get some real sleep and finished driving home Sunday. We saw a lot of amazing scenery and a great variety of trails. Radiator leaked about a quart of coolant a day, bent a wheel, got a flat tire, and broke a control arm bushing, not bad considering we were trail riding for six days. Drove about 4300 miles total, we figure about 1000 of that was off pavement. B had a GMRS base radio in the Forester and we had a handheld in the Outback and they seemed to work better than the CBs. Also the units and antennas are much smaller than CBs. Noticed while driving on rough roads the cage moves about 1/4” relative to the body, so it's probably not adding as much stiffness as I thought.

Friday morning we drove more Massey trails heading towards Phoenix. Central 32 was just a dirt road but the many side trails we were on were very similar to the Ozark NF in Arkansas. Central 33 was just a dirt road without many side trails. Central 34 was mostly paved but we did see a tarantula and stopped to take pictures. We stopped in Globe for gas. On the way into town we saw many dirt roads / trails going up the hills south of town. After some wandering through a neighborhood we got out of town on the trails and followed one up to a small picnic area. C 39 trail went up a wash to Montana mountain in a big U and came back down another wash. We're pretty sure we ran it in the difficult direction, many of the climbs we did were steep and rocky but it was relatively smooth coming back down. Also most of the traffic we saw on the trail (and there was much more than any other trail we were on) was going the other direction. The view from the top was awesome and there were some side trails. We hadn't seen any mines and wanted to go to C 42 that went to an old mine before we went to Phoenix for the night. We first tried from the west end of C 40 where C 41 starts but the signs said a permit was required. We drove east to C 40 and headed south. The first obstacle was a wash that crossed the trail creating some rocky ditches and hills to get through. We walked it and didn't think it would be too bad. I made it through and as I was getting down in the wash the left front corner of the car hit a big rock, bouncing off the bumper and breaking the aluminum control arm mount. The rock was fairly large but I was going pretty slow at the time, most of the weight of the car was on that corner and I must have hit it just right. We winched the car forwards into the wash so we'd be on level ground. We jacked up the side of the car and strapped/pried/jacked the bushing sort of back in place and put a bunch of hose clamps and safety wire around it. I was then able to gently drive out of the wash and took it easy on the highway to Phoenix. We stayed with friends, they fed us dinner, we chatted and showed them pictures, and the guys took showers.

Thursday morning I aired up the tire and it held for a while. We wanted to head south and check out some trails in the Massey book. NE 31 was just a dirt road but had many good side trails. NE 32 and NE 34 were easy dirt roads through meadows. Trail NE 33 was about ten miles of softball sized (but not round) rocks. Stopped at a few little lakes along the way. Then we got to the Mogollon rim, I've wanted to check it out for years. It's basically a 30 mile long 2000' high cliff that runs east/west. There is a main dirt road at the top with many dirt trails going along the edge and out to overlooks. Could easily spend a few days there checking it out and camping but we wanted to camp at lower elevation that night. We did hike down to the old railroad tunnel. It was difficult to find, I read later there have been rockslides in recent years which have covered the old trail. The tunnel was only blasted 100' in out of the 3100' they planned. The stone building at the entrance where they stored the explosives still stands. With all the wandering and steep grades the hike really wasn't worth it. We drove down 260 to a campground with bathrooms and water.

Campground was decent with a bunch of cars and trucks that had rooftop tents. Wednesday morning we drove to the White House ruin hiking trail, the only trail you can do without a guide, and hiked that first thing in the morning. Headed down towards Cinder Hills ORV. On the way there we saw a dirt road going to the top of a mesa so we drove up there and made sandwiches. Saw a bunch of forest service roads around Cinder Hills, including one that followed a big powerline straight to the park. We pulled off the highway where the powerline crossed and started generally following that. The trails in that area were probably the best all week. We did some big climbs along the powerline. B's new Forester runs much better than his old one. Drove to some of the hills and washes near the park and then headed in. There are somewhat more trails in the park and you can drive anywhere, but many of the trails are badly whooped out which gets old. I got a flat going around a turn following B in the dust, there was a tree root sticking out of the inside rut on the trail. We put on the spare and continued. After we left there we were driving down another dirt road and came across another RV stuck when they'd tried to turn around and backed too far into a ditch. This was an easy recovery with the strap, just gently pulled them up out of the ditch with the Outback. Campgrounds in the area were mostly closed as it had snowed a couple weeks before, we camped at lakeview campground which was dispersed and primitive. At camp that night I tried patching it with a total of 12 plugs and let it sit overnight.

We hiked some of the biggest ruins Tuesday morning. Saw the RV coming in the park. Forecast was rain in central AZ and northwest NM so we headed west to another ruin and tried to get out of the park heading west. The gate I had gone through last year to get out was closed and we couldn't find any other ways out but went down some cool trails and saw some interesting sights, like an eagle's nest at the top of a bluff we hiked to, wild horses, hit a decent jump, found petrified wood and other fossils, iron balls, and drove along a river. Near the jump B went up a big soft bank to turn around and bent one of his Forester steel wheels, so we swapped that out and made sandwiches. By the time we left Chaco it was about the same time the previous day we did the RV recovery, so we spent 24 hours making no progress but had one of our most interesting days. We drove to Canyon de Chelley to camp, it was one of the few campgrounds we could find in the area we wanted to go. On the way we drove Massey NE 41 (Black Creek) which turned out to just be a dirt road. Normally would have been kind of boring but with the rain it was a mud bog most of the way.