pontoontodd

Excellent question, I don't know. The EA vintage Subarus had bolt in drive stubs, right? We used many of those in our buggy. I'm almost positive those were five bolt so maybe you're right. Can't remember what my Loyale had in it. I think all the EJ Subarus we've had have had the five bolt R160. Since this one bolt R160 is out of one of the oldest EJ Subarus I've ever had and it's clearly smaller and lighter I just assumed it was an older design and the five bolt was an upgrade. FWIW my red Impreza has a five bolt but also has junkyard markings on it so it's definitely not stock. Not sure what kind my 96 Impreza had in it, never had to take it out.

Haven't accomplished a lot in the last couple weeks, been sick and busy with other things. Still need to get the throttle body sorted at a minimum before we put the engine in. Will hopefully have engine mounts this week. Biggest thing we accomplished was swapping in the R180. Left to right, "one bolt" (earlier) R160, "five bolt" (later) R160, R180. Some studs and plugs swapped over. Definitely one good reason Subaru has a Lego reputation. After swapping over those studs the R180 bolts right in. Weights are 37# (1 bolt R160), 47# (5 bolt R160), 57# R180. 5 bolt R160 is definitely a 4.11 open diff, I assume the 1 bolt is open also but probably 3.7 or 3.9. I was shocked how much weight difference there was between the R160s. Had to trim one of the little diff mount brackets so it would sit flush on the R180. While we had this out I cut the tuned mass damper (?) off. Surprisingly only weighs 1#, seems heavier. Thinking by adding 20# of rear diff we've ruined whatever NVH tuning that was supposed to accomplish. STI driveshaft appears it will just bolt in. Looks to be a little on the short side, anyone know if the splined part towards the rear is supposed to telescope? There's definitely splines under the rubber cover but we couldn't get it to budge. Looks like we need to make the rear lateral links a little longer than what we'd mocked up for the R160 but I think then they'd work with either diff. Still need to machine the RR billet knuckle, started programming that the other day. B and I also worked on putting a planetary low range in my other STI 6MT. He swapped over the various reverse lockout parts, etc. Unfortunately the rear output shaft has about .008" (.2mm) endplay so I need to get a thicker shim and swap that out.

OK, I didn't see those lower "gussets" at first but I like the idea. Should be plenty of room there since I'm not running a turbo. I really want to minimize the welding on this body as I think that's going to make it rust faster but will definitely take a look at mine and see what we can do. Also reminds me it might be a good idea to do a strut tower brace that attaches to the pitch stop mount. But maybe that's why the wiper arm on my black Outback keeps scraping the windshield when we beat on it?

That salt picture is definitely a worst case scenario but yeah it's bad. I'm not too surprised they pulled the throttle body off, if you're replacing a blown up engine the one on it could probably be swapped over. More pissed that they cut the wiring rather than unplugging that one connector. I'd like to have as few splices as possible. Know of any throttle bodies in particular that fit and are better in some way? I can get the main car side harness plug here, they just listed it: https://www.corsa-technic.com/item.php?item_id=1783 Headers weren't super expensive. Supposedly +20ft-lbs through most of the RPM range. Engine as expected didn't come with enough exhaust to work with so I was going to have to buy/make something either way. I'm going to hope for the best again on the head gaskets. Yes 90% of the EZ30s we've bought have needed them but those engines are twice as old as this one. Also it's quite a job. It's too bad there's nothing solid under the top of the fender to bolt to, I've seen braces that bolt in there but it seems like that part of the body is super flimsy. B's Forester does not have a U brace, that would probably help a ton. For this car I'm planning on bracing the front crossmember to the trans crossmember like I did on the black Outback.

Made a jig and more sano mockup trailing arm. Just used a piece of conduit we'd bent with B's tubing bender. For the actual trailing arms I plan to use 1.5 x .120" 4130 and also turn the sleeve for the front bushing on the lathe. Incredibly bad picture of it installed. Initially hit the knuckle and lateral link at full droop. Hit the wheel near full bump. Modified the box clevis on the rear end for clearance. So we've got a good plan on those now. Side note for those of you living in foreign countries or states. This is what our roads and parking lots look like in the winter time. That's salt, not frost. Picked up an EZ36 last week. Kinda wished I'd tried harder to find one that's more complete though. Junkyards of course normally sell them without accessories, so I bought those separate. But that means I don't have the brackets for them. Had a bracket that worked for the PS pump but the AC compressor is much different. EZ36 on left, EZ30D on right. Need to find a plug and pins to fit this. I got a resurfaced STI flywheel and Exedy clutch kit and B assembled all that and chased the threads in the block. You can see here where the junkyard cut the wires and coolant hose to the throttle body (I assume). They probably did this when they removed the throttle body, didn't even think about them stealing that, now I need to get one of those. Have heard of people using non Subaru. Plan on drive by wire but open to suggestion if there's something better than Subaru since I have to buy one either way. Got a trans mount, still need to install low range in the 6MT. Got a driveshaft and R180. Have engine mounts on order. Got some shiny headers from Australia, last set they had, hopefully we can make them work.

Finally got back to video editing. Had almost run out of hard drive space and also spare time. Video from our tip to the UP June 2021: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUrIVHmtNPc Since we've been taking less video the last few years, this one's pretty short. Also it's a lot less often we get out and stop to get video of jumps, whoops, hillclimbs, etc. In those cases we usually just enjoy it and keep going these days. But when we're stuck there's usually plenty of people standing around to document the process of getting unstuck. Already have two more from 2021 basically edited down and have started on our last trip of 2021. So I should be posting a lot of videos this winter.

From what little I can find the one bolt design is also known as VA type and was used in early Imprezas. The five bolt design is also known as T type and supposedly uses bigger internals. The rear diff in my red Impreza does have a date of Dec 2021 on it in paint marker, presumably from a junkyard. So someone probably put a later diff and axles in it fairly recently. That semi posterior trailing arm mockup does hit the wheel at full bump. First step was just figuring out how long we want it and how much dogleg (in each direction). Next step will be a closer to production mockup using some conduit bends.

B did some work on the blue Forester. It's been getting water on the passenger floorboards for a while now after (but not immediately during) rain or a trip to the car wash. He cleaned out a couple drains near the blower motor, couldn't find anything obvious. It seems to be leaking behind the rubber/foam on the firewall so it's hard to tell exactly where it's coming from. Probably not the source of the leak but he also noticed the area in front of the passenger door hinges was mostly cracked. He cleaned off the paint around the cracks. I didn't get any pictures since I was working on my rear suspension but he got it all welded up and painted and put the fender back on. He also replaced the tie rod and wheel bearing on that corner, they were both a little sloppy. First issue I ran into trying to mock up the front CV axles in the rear for the billet knuckle was that the rear axles in this thing seem different than any other EJ Subaru rear axles I've run into. This is the rear diff in the green Impreza: All of our other R160s look like this, including the one in my red Impreza which is a year older: Green Impreza axle on left, "normal" EJ rear axle on right. I think the splines are the same, obviously the snapring groove is totally different, also the spiral cut bearing diameter from the green Impreza is smaller. Just made sure I wasn't going crazy and took a look at some of my rear axle collection, they're all like the one on the right in the picture above. Long story short I turned up a dummy stub for mockup instead of using one of the ones we'd made. Ultimately it doesn't matter since I'm not going to use this diff but surprised me a little. Need to swap the R180 in (finally got one) and put those stubs in to see how that works out. Mocked up some new links with the billet knuckle. Surprisingly it doesn't seem like the trailing arm should be much longer, just needs a big dog leg at the rear end to clear the wheel. Need to mock that up better with some round tube bends. This is with the Impreza trailing arm bracket and no spacer. Lateral links need to be a little over an inch longer as expected. Surprisingly the tire doesn't rub the wheel well much worse than it did before. Camber is zero at ride height in the middle of the adjustment as best I can tell. Caliper bolt and strut nut are close to each other but can be removed and installed independently. Hard to tell in this picture but decent clearance even with the "big" front axle installed. Boot needs a strap but there's plenty of room for it.

That would improve our sprung/unsprung weight ratio! Think I'll just stick with steel and not worry about it. Considering a wheel and tire assembly weighs 50#, 5-10# here or there isn't going to make a huge difference. Good to know, B measured the Forester pedal box and seems like it will bolt right into the Impreza. Not too worried about overheating either but I am tempted to unblock the hood vents when it gets hot out to see if it makes any difference.

Billet knuckle vs stock knuckle Stock knuckle with wheel bearing weighs 14#. Billet knuckle with wheel bearing weighs 19#. Bare billet knuckle weighs 13#. We kinda knew this up front but after seeing them in person compared to the stock knuckles, aluminum would almost certainly be strong enough with this boxed design. Would require steel sleeves for the strut bolts and long bolt but the machining would go a lot faster. The brakes will probably be heavier than stock and CV axle will definitely be heavier but I think a ~10# unsprung weight increase per rear corner will be worth it.

It'd look better with the stock plastic bumper. As you know I'm putting it that low to fit light bars and get more air to the radiator.

Finished machining the first billet knuckle. No major problems, went as well as I could have hoped. With caliper, wheel bearing, disc, and ABS sensor bolted on. Edit: Just noticed I first started designing these almost two years ago now. We 3D printed the first prototypes over 20 months ago. Didn't realize they've been in the works that long. Thanks again to slammo for helping with a cleaner more compact design. Some pictures of the bumper, most of the fitting is done now. Ran out of 1" square tubing so we stopped here. Got the tow bar mounts done, barely visible under the main beam. Ran some tubes from the radiator support back to the swaybar mounts, barely visible. Ordered some 1.25" receiver tubing but they sent 2". Even says 1.25" on the shrink wrap but it's definitely not. So we'll still have to add those, planning on having one in the center and one on each side like we did the white Outback. Waiting until we get the EZ36 in to make the engine skid. Might be getting engine, driveshaft, and diff this week. Might order a Haltech today.

That might make sense but I when has that ever guided my decisions? I really want to get started on the 3.6 swap. Should be picking one up next week, figure it makes sense to just swap the whole engine and trans together. Speaking of which, gotta get a flywheel and clutch, any advice on those? Figuring stockish STI would be best. For that matter, anyone happen to know if Forester pedals will work? Figure I'll get STI master, hose, and slave. Will try to remember to get a bumper pic for you, will probably be fabbing on that more tomorrow. The vents and scoop have solid sheet metal bolted under them, I don't think they flow any air stock. Any vent options in particular you'd recommend? I don't expect to have any cooling problems but might experiment with unblocking the vents and/or scoop at some point. Finally took the diff stubs to heat treat. Made some for R160 and some for R180 for using the female front CV axles in the rear. Figure you guys might want to see a little of how the sausage is made. Billet knuckle fixture. Ready for op4. op4 finished Made fixture to fit milling table and fourth axis. Got it all set up on the fourth axis to do the side holes today but didn't quite get to making chips before I had to leave.

Not sure if you saw but the guards are also bolted into the diff mount, so four bolts for each one. I really was planning on getting the vents and scoop painted goldish with the bumper but you guys have convinced me that would look tacky. So I'll eventually paint them green but that's super low on the list. On that topic, does anyone remove the sheet metal under the vents and does it help at all with cooling? Made some more progress on the knuckle, should have that one done next week. Have an engine, headers, and driveshaft on order, have a line on a rear diff, will probably order an ECU soon. Local buddy has a good stock radiator and fans(which I probably can't fit) out of a 2002 H6 Outback I plan on using, at least to get started.

We were able to pry it enough to get it bolted back in. Maybe not the long term solution but seemed to work. Dumb question but might as well throw it out there. Hood vents and scoop are black which I don't like. Seems like most of these have body color (green) scoop and vents. Leaning towards getting bumper professionally painted gold/champagne (whatever the bottom part of the body is). Based on the other parts we've gotten painted by them it should hold up pretty well so I'm not too worried about touch up. Also leaning towards getting vents and scoop and skids all painted that color while they're at it. Figure worst case on the vents and scoop I can get a can of spray paint to match the body and paint them later if I don't like the gold. Thoughts? Billet rear knuckle so far next to blank. Been working on the programs and fixturing, will probably make more progress this week. Think I figured out why the passenger headlight wasn't working in the black Outback. Built some gas tank guards. Jacked up back corners a bit to get them up against the gas tank and mostly welded them in place, didn't really spring back afterwards. Small square tubes going forward just have little sheet metal feet that rest on the floor. That part of the floor is recessed so they probably won't get directly hit, should provide a little ramp for the front of the subframe. I think these are slightly more heavy duty than the other ones we've built. Also did cut down those round tubes at the front subframe mounts. Got the main part of the front bumper tacked up. Need to get some receiver tubing and tie it into the radiator support (tube under that just bolted in with a couple 8mm bolts for now). Bumper sticks a little farther forward than I'd really like but I wanted to make sure to leave plenty of room for pusher fans, even a little room to shift condenser and radiator forward a bit if we have to. Could barely fit fans behind the front bumper of the black Outback when we added them. Bumper should also be low enough to fit some little light bars under the headlights, might just take the ones off the black Outback and put them on this. Smashed the airbox with the press and a propane torch. Looks pretty rough but should still flow air the same. Will almost certainly go when we put the H6 in anyhow. Maybe this week I'll get an engine, diff, driveshaft, radiator, etc etc etc etc.

Agree with Bennie, can't remember us having issues with any of the plastic end tanks on the various 20 year old radiators we've been using. Yeah I guess you're right, forgot about $200 and one month shipping on the Golpher. It's going to be a while until we see the end product on the knuckles. Maybe one hour of actual spindle on milling time into it so far. At least a solid day of set up and test cuts before that. At least a day of various CAM before that. Still think it's a better overall solution than making a bunch of pieces and fabricating them. Assuming it works out.

Not trying to be a tease, just need a longer rougher before I can proceed. A few more pics though, starting with flame cut blank (4.08" thick, ~104mm). Made a Y fitting for my black Outback to use a single inlet radiator. Works fine but kinda trying to avoid that, nice having off the shelf parts and the stock H6 radiator hoses are less at risk of rubbing on a belt or pulley. Thanks, added that to my list. For comparison, those are $520. There is a "Golpher" radiator which I've read a few good things about for $300. But I'm still leaning towards a stock EZ30"D" radiator, $230 from the dealer, 25mm thick core. Haven't had any overheating issues in my white OB with that radiator. Aside from the aftermarket one the tubes ballooned out on.

Yes I considered the hydramat. Not much concern with having an uninterrupted fuel supply since it has a one gallon surge tank. Yes it'd probably take longer to clog up, probably long enough I'd never have to touch it again, but they're expensive, like $200+. Talked to a couple off road racers who say they just don't use a pickup sock and run an external filter, so that's my current plan. I understand all that with the subframes and bushings. Going to stick with the rubber grommets on those added bolts. IIRC the holes for them in the subframe are quite a bit bigger than the bolts so they're not doing much lateral location except maybe from friction. That part of the subframe they clamp isn't super rigid so I don't think it will cause a lot of stress. The subframe bushings are very stiff too. Overall just not worried about it. Gotta do more research on my own but could use some advice on the EZ36 swap. Radiator - Leaning towards an early EZ30 radiator (they're thicker than the EZ30"R" and EZ36 IIRC). Need to check height. Considering some other aftermarket radiators, including for non Subarus, looks like there are a few with ~2" thick cores but they basically all have just one inlet. Worked around that on the black Outback but not really ideal. Also thought about using something shorter so I can raise the radiator support but I don't think I'm willing to go that far right now. Fans - Assuming I'll need to use pusher fans again, will probably just see if I can fit a pair of these, they're noisy but work well: https://www.summitracing.com/parts/spu-ix-30102045/overview ECU - Leaning towards Haltech especially since they say they have a base map for the EZ36. Will have to figure out the best solutions for AC and cruise control to work with that. Assuming the EZ36 being drive by wire normally just has cruise built in to the ECU and just have to wire the switches to it. Would be nice if the AC wasn't just hotwired and frosted up like my black Outback. Exhaust - Assuming the engine won't come with full manifolds/headers I plan on buying Raptor headers, they're the only kind I've found much info on. They supposedly sell "Impreza swap" headers but I didn't see them on their site. Some heavy wall tube to the back and then probably a stock EZ36 muffler if I can fit it. Open to suggestion here but want it as quiet as possible. Might use stock airbox/filter or might put a GM Vortec centrifugal style filter like I have in the black Outback, seems to work well. Need an earlier EZ36 so the power steering pump bolts on right? Assuming I can make the AC, fuel, and coolant lines work. Returnless fuel pump for the EZ36? Aside from that, need to get an STI driveshaft and R180 and put a low range in my other 6MT. Very tempted to maintain the front CV height at the trans but tip the back end of the trans down to get the front of the engine up for better approach angle. Will hopefully start on the billet rear knuckles this week. Need to fab a bumper and skids too.

First, try to answer some questions. Thanks for posting that vid, shows some pretty good crawling although as always it seemed a lot steeper in person. This is how high above the rear fender lip the tire goes at full bump with no bumpstop. Angle of the photo makes it look like more but 1.25" + with very worn tread. I'd figure at least 1.75" with new 215/75/15 to be safe. I still think it will take a lot of structural cutting to make even bigger tires fit when they're pushed out a couple inches. Cutting/bending out the front fenders, sure no problem, but the rears will be a lot of fab work to get the body to seal I think. Possibly a bigger problem will be the front tires rubbing the firewall. As it sits there's maybe an inch of clearance. And I can tell you from experience once bushings wear out and things get a little tweaked the 215/75/15s rub on the firewall (back of the front wheel well). No idea how you'd solve that problem without a LOT of fab work. Whiteline does sell offset bushings for the aluminum rear brackets for the front control arms and I think I have a pair but that won't buy you a lot of clearance. Really not trying to hate, I think these cars would be even better with taller tires now that we have low ranges. Would be cool if you make it work just want to make sure you know what you're up against. I thought about welding the rear strut hole but figured it'd just be a lot of welding and grinding with minimal benefit. Painted those and thought I took pictures but don't have them handy. Yes, planning on removing those trailing arm spacers when we fab the new trailing arms. Less leverage on the mount, more up and back motion for ride quality, etc. Moving on - sleeved and capped the subframe spacers. Painted all the spacers with some brush on tractor enamel. Looks terrible but on the plus side you can put it on a lot thicker than spray paint, no overspray (nice in the winter), and it seems to hold up better. Front subframe spacer with bottom plate installed. Trans and driveshaft spacers installed. Unfortunately I couldn't quite get full droop in the front, the axles were hitting the arms. I'm not sure if the trans is effectively lower on this one than our other cars or if the auto trans outputs are a little lower. Regardless, some cutting, welding, and painting took place. Didn't take much, even this much gives me a decent amount of clearance. Might be able to get away with cutting a slot in that wall and just hammering the top down. Next on the fab and paint agenda was the steering column. Had to add 20mm / 0.8". Turned up a sleeve out of 300M and welded and painted it. Should figure out a better way to do this next time, despite a lot of spraying with WD40 the u joints might have lost some grease. Maybe submerge them in oil or water while welding. Last fab project before the test drive, welded some reservoir mounts on and moved the brake line brackets. Painted those, installed struts etc. Did install a bolt in the middle of the rear subframe mounts. Put rubber grommets above and below for some bushing effect. Interesting that it's rubber mounted (albeit stiffly) and the front is solidly mounted. Regardless, after getting sorta used to the black Outback, I'll be fine. One more long travel Subaru on the loose. White Outback for scale. Only weighs 2995#! 56% front weight now. Tires and suspension and spacers are heavier, wheels are lighter and we removed the front bumper cover, foglights, and swaybars. Will eventually be close to 4000# with the H6, bumpers, skidplates, cargo, and a couple people inside. Then it will sit lower and probably ride better, it's definitely a little stiff right now. For reference, my black Outback weighed 4152# the last time we weighed it (a couple years ago) with no people or cargo but with H6, bumpers, skidplates, etc. B also welded up the hatch latch (body side) in his blue Forester, it was all cracked and sloppy. We checked and tightened a few things on the front end too. Back to the black Outback. Replaced the LF wheel bearing, wasn't real sloppy but was making a ton of noise. Pictured below is our "fix" during our last trip for the fuel pickup getting clogged. See yellow ball valve on left. Open that up and blow into it hard to clear the pickup sock. Took the fill plate off. Gaskets were still in excellent shape, polyurethane I used last time works much better than the supposedly fuel resistant rubbers I'd tried before. Took some foam out and peeked in, nowhere near as bad as I expected. Foam doesn't seem to be disintegrating. Some small debris in the tank but not much considering the cell has been in there for perhaps 100k miles without being cleaned out. Pickup tube and sock was jammed in the corner, which is probably how it's always been, but by the time I got it out it was kinked a bit, not sure if that's how it was before I started removing it. Sock definitely has a lot of crud on it. Pretty sure it started out white. Removed the sock and put the pickup hose back in. Put a clear inline filter before the pump. We'd thought about doing this on the trip and bought the parts to do it but I didn't want to remove the pickup sock then. This is what it looked like after about a half hour of driving around town today. Need to swap it out, maybe backflush it and use again. Will probably do that a few times and then put a coarser screen pickup sock on the pickup tube and leave one of these in place.

Portals would solve all of these problems...

No the billet knuckles will certainly be heavier. Probably been a bit since I posted about those but the advantages should be: bolt on wheel bearings, same as 05-15(?) Legacy/Outback front - hopefully more durable and much easier to replace in the field this will allow us to use front axles in the rear also (almost done making rear diff stub adapters for both R160 and R180 to use female front axles) - stronger, more plunge and angle capacity, and will allow us to carry one spare axle instead of two or three same rotors as front for more rear braking power which should help backing down loose hills and improve steering brake action, also the stock mini drum parking brakes have never impressed me, hopefully these work better captive nuts and stitch welding - that'd be great given unlimited time but honestly we haven't had any problems with the bodies of our rust free Subarus coming apart yet. Guess we'll find out. See above and below but again haven't blown the _tops_ of the strut towers out on any of these cars, even my black Outback which has been through many desert races now. We've hit some things HARD in that car but maybe not as many times as a stage rally car does in years of use. Haven't blown out any strut towers on rust free Subarus. I'm guessing stage rally cars have much stiffer suspension than our cars, that's gotta be a lot harder on the bodies. You can honestly barely feel landing off jumps in these cars when the jump and suspension are set up right. Yeah, front fenders shouldn't be too bad for you to just bend out. Rear will definitely be a project for you. If it was anyone else I'd really try to discourage you from going down that path since it's not just cutting out the fenders, you're really cutting into the structure after the first inch or so and will have big gaps to patch back together so they seal and don't come apart. On both ends if it wasn't for the fender lips just eyeballing I'd say we have another 2"+ of clearance to the wheel wells at least in most areas. Front of the rear wheel wells will probably be another project for you unless you make longer trailing arms. The 215/75/15s already rub badly there near full droop and that's with worn tires. Some hammering will probably solve my problem but again you might have to cut into some structure to make yours fit. On with the Impreza build: Some of this is Subaru lifting 101 but might as well include it. Below are rear subframe brackets (in front of trailing arms). Near is Impreza/Legacy/Forester, far is Outback. Left is Outback, right is standard washer for the top of the rear subframe in the same spot. Those stock spacers are solid steel and kinda heavy (3/4#) and also fairly small diameter. I have bent one of the long bolts that go up through those into the body before. Probably bent the body, hopefully this larger diameter spacer helps with that. Will probably make some kind of better bracket too. Aluminum spacers only weigh 1/2# and are almost twice the diameter at the base. B made up 1.5" tall spacers for the trailing arms and auto trans. Told him to just make them simple since they hopefully won't be in long. Plates in lower right will go under front subframe, I made those many months ago. B measured some options including flipping the hanger bearing and making 1.5" tall spacers for it was the best option to keep the driveshaft sections and trans the most parallel. Next up had to modify the strut towers to fit the later style rear strut tops. Added hole, slotted others, opened up center hole, cleaned out caulk and paint for welding. Made 1/8" 4130 plates to weld on. Should have bought some to try. I think most people cut these back farther so they also weld to the stock strut tower cap but these are at least somewhat burned into that, also seemed redundant since it's mostly in compression.

Will have to look at flipping the carrier bearing, that'd be easy. Haven't removed the heat shield yet. The body is already sleeved for the standard front subframe bolts/studs (I don't think my Outback was stock). The middle one isn't though, yes I plan on sleeving that. I think all the captive nut issues we've ever had have been on my rusty old 99 Outback. That said, the rear trailing arm mounts should probably be reinforced. On a couple other cars we've sleeved the body and added a thicker plate on the top of the floor and run longer bolts through which seems to last. Ideally I'd make a rear roll hoop attached to the strut tops. Tie that down and forward to the top of the trailing arm mounts (and somehow keep the rear seat). Tie it down and rearward to the top of the "frame rails" and mount the spare tire to one side. But that might have to wait a while. Gotta focus on the long travel. Then EZ36 and 6MT/R180. Then front bumper and skidplates. Not to mention billet rear knuckles.

Thanks, I'd buy those but they're not 4130 and don't know if they'd fit a wagon. Thanks for the other links, looks like just torching/scraping the caulk out around the top of the strut tower makes it easy to weld them in, plan on doing that. Front subframe spacer installed. "Frame rail" bends down on either end so this is as long as I could make it flat, should be better than the Subaru spacers. Going to use three bolts, the center hole is already there in the body and the subframe. Can't make the rears quite as long due to the gas tank (and filler on the passenger side). Threaded hole in the middle in the body lines up with the hole in the subframe so plan on using three bolts per side here too. Will cap the ends and sleeve the bolt holes before painting to keep them from crushing and getting full of debris. Rear at full droop now. Full bump. Need to space down the front of the rear subframe and space down the trailing arm brackets or swap them out with Outback brackets. Had the bolts backed out for mockup so the suspension wouldn't bind. Is it customary to also space down the driveshaft hanger bearing and trans crossmember? Planning on it but wasn't sure.

Are you getting notification emails when I post on the thread? Just wondering because slammo and I haven't been all year. Glad you enjoyed the pictures. It was a good trip. Most of the trails themselves weren't exceptional but I agree, probably the most scenic off road trip we've done. You really can't go wrong off roading in Utah. Interesting on the drums/discs. I think all the base model Foresters and Imprezas here had rear drums. And all Subarus have been AWD since 1997 in the US (except the BRZ I guess). Eventually it'll get the billet rear knuckles with big rear discs. Maybe not too eventually, I might get those made before this all goes back together. My black Outback with the EZ30 and 6MT is pretty fun, my white Outback with EZ30 is fun even with the 4EAT. Definitely looking forward to the EZ36 and 6MT in a lighter car. Are you talking about the rear trailing arm brackets? I did rip one of those out of my Outback but it was super rusty. Good point, we have run longer bolts up through the floor and welded a plate to the top on a few of these cars now. I'd really like to tie that into the strut towers and tie those together along with a spare tire mount but I think that will all have to wait. On to the long travel progress. After removing the front suspension, I disconnected the pitch stopper and unbolted the bracket that holds the AC line there. Removed the front subframe nuts and lowered it a few inches. Then I noticed the upper radiator hose seemed to have a lot of tension on it. I don't think it was holding the engine up but I slid both ends about halfway off the necks and retightened the hose clamps. Would a Forester or Outback upper hose be a little longer? Will have to post pictures later but made some 1.5" x 2" subframe spacers and bolted them in. B and I cycled the front suspension, seems like it's going to work. Front bumper cover will have to be removed. I could just trim it but it's coming off eventually anyhow. Tire is worn but really only hits the outer lip of the front fender and that's with the bumpstop removed. Couple inches of space in general between tire and wheel well. This was the main thing I was concerned about since the Impreza had smaller tires stock than the Outback and Forester, but seems to have similar wheel wells. Next step we were trying to figure out if subframe spacers were needed in the rear. We've measured about half a dozen EJ Subaru bodies now and they all seem to be the same from the strut mount to the subframe mount, front and rear. First gen Impreza, second gen Impreza (STI), second gen Legacy (Outback), first and second gen Foresters. Front measures about 15.75" (lip/flange in the picture hangs below where the subframe actually mounts). Outbacks/Foresters have ~1.25" tall cast iron subframe spacers there, Impreza has nothing. Rear of all the cars measures about 18". Only the Outback (second gen Legacy based) has subframe spacers in the rear, also about 1.25" thick. Both here at the crossmember and at either end of the diff mount (front of the rear subframe). Outback also has dogleg brackets for the front of the rear subframe and taller trailing arm brackets. Will try to remember to get side by side pictures to update. A little surprised the Foresters don't have any of those taller parts. Those subframe spacers don't really lift the car at all, they essentially lower the subframe and reduce the angles on the links and CVs. We've been running the long travel on a first and second gen Forester without any rear subframe spacers but it does limit the droop a bit and makes installing the struts more difficult. I plan on adding subframe, trans, driveshaft, etc spacers to the Impreza. The other issue we ran into was the rear top mounts. I had read it's a slightly different bolt pattern so I fixed that. Then I realized our top mounts won't fit through that hole in the Impreza body. Per B's suggestion, I dug out an old one and notched the tabs and ground down a bolt to fit so we could check other things. I think I'll wind up opening up those holes in the body and welding a triangle of 1/8" 4130 over the top to make up for it. Didn't take pictures but similar story with tire clearance in the rear. Hits the lower front corner of the wheel well and the top outer edge of the rear fender but decent clearance to most of the wheel well, so again seems similar to the Outback.