pontoontodd

We confirmed that it was the driven first gear on the dual range trans that was missing a tooth. B has a replacement on order. He already got a replacement main shaft that looks like it should fit. We did put the original (non dual range 5MT) back in his car for now. Replaced the driveshaft on the 2002 Outback, kind of surprising it was still driving like this, it was certainly making a lot of noise. Got all the new long travel parts galvanized a while back. Grinding shop finally ID ground them all a couple weeks ago. Hopefully we'll get them back from paint this week along with B's bumper. We've continued to do shock assembly as parts come in. We have almost everything now, just waiting on a few reservoirs. B also replaced the driver's side mirror glass on the white Outback, what a giant PITA that is. He also rewired the radiator fans and AC compressor to separate switches on the 99 OB. Neither ECU I have seems to run the fans when the temps get high so for the time being I can just turn them on manually. Rerouted some other cables while we he was at it.

Have done some repairs on the cars since the last trip. Been hotwiring the ignition on the 99 and that seems to be working fine, no more blown fuses. Ordered an ignition key switch from the dealer but that's at least a few weeks out still, if anyone has one they want to sell please message me. ECU still doesn't seem to be turning the fans on. The only other ECU I could find is one digit different in the part number but basically looks the same inside and out. We put it in and the car ran rougher so we swapped the old one back in. I think for now I'll just put the fans and AC compressor on separate switches. Will probably part it out after the Vegas to Reno so it doesn't have to last too long. Speaking of which, if anyone wants to join us at the Vegas to Reno (it's not a very good spectator event) message me about that. Got a few guys going this year I think. Replaced some worn out bushings on the 99 too. B ordered a main shaft for the dual range that we hope will fit. If it does we might replace some other gears too. Plan is to swap a stock trans in his car this weekend for now. At one point we had the (probably original) radiator out of the white Outback and I noticed the plastic water necks had turned white. Got a new aftermarket one (Denso) a few years ago which was fine for a while. A few months ago in Arkansas we went through some deep mud puddles and it's been running hot on and off ever since. Guessing it got hot down there and ballooned the tubes. Got one from the dealer ($220) and just put that in. So far so good. There is an aftermarket one with 2" thick core that bolts in but it's for four cylinder so water necks are different. Also it's Mishimoto and I have had to replace the mishimoto in my black Outback a couple times due to pinhole leaks (lifetime warranty but requires some fabrication to fit). Z and I did an autopsy of the Denso radiator, you can clearly see the ballooned out tubes (they should look like the ones at the bottom): I've always wondered what the ATF to coolant heat exchanger looks like and I was a little disappointed. Maybe the stock one is fancier. A little hard to tell from the pictures but just a hollow brass tube in the bottom tank.

Before the trip the dual range in B's Forester had started making a slight ticking noise in first gear. We weren't sure if it was the transmission or the engine since the frequency was about the same as engine speed. Also the driveshaft bolts in the middle of the (2010 STI) driveshaft in the 99 OB have been making noise under load in first and sometimes second gear for a while now. Seems the hanger bearing is just too flexible. The white Outback started making a similar but much fainter noise. On the way out of town we did a couple drag races between my 2002 white Outback and the 99 black Outback. They accelerate about the same which is kinda sad considering the black one weighs about 1000# more and they have the same engine. On the way north the white Outback was already running hot. We stopped in Escanaba to blast the radiator as best we could without disconnecting the radiator hoses at a car wash. We got to Rapid River and aired down and hit the super whoops. The black Outback didn't seem to take them as well as in previous years. I think I had been able to go 40-50 in the past over the more mild sections, this time 35 is about all I could do. It didn't kick the back end it just seemed overly bouncy. White Outback and Forester seemed better than before. By this point the white Outback needed to cool down. We pulled over in the shade and bypassed the trans cooler I'd installed in front of the radiator. That didn't seem to help much. We drove it with the heat on most of the weekend. At some point I realized I'd turned the heat up and it was at 80 but it wasn't blowing hot. It actually goes up to 85 and then it blows hot. Later on we realized it was at 84 and not blowing hot. Automatic HVAC controls are the bane of my existence. We wound up at the entrance to the big spring so we went there. We hit a stunt area the next morning with fairly steep and tall sandy hills. Z got stuck at the top in the black Outback. M tried pulling him out with the white Outback but it wasn't doing anything. We set up the winch and it pulled the black Outback out with ease. I did let it sit for a minute in the middle of the pull but it never shut off by itself. Then we aired down and Z was able to drive out on his own. We hit the climbs a bunch of other times in all three cars. At that point we headed to the campsite on the bluff along Superior. We walked down and along the beach and back up to a different campsite we've never stayed at. A got back to the cars first and removed the hood from the white Outback. He and I took a test drive to see if it helped coolant temps. It made no difference and while we were driving around with no navigational technology we hoped nothing bad happened since no one else was with us and they didn't know where we went. We set up tents and cooked food so people would know the site was occupied. Then we went back out for a few more hours of trail riding. After maybe ten minutes the black Outback completely shut off and I coasted to the side of the trail. The 100A fuse in the 2002 (H6 donor) fuse block had blown. We put in a fusible link and it fired back up and we kept driving. After maybe another ten minutes that blew. We checked many things and eventually I decided the only thing that could be otherwise unfused was the ignition switch. The start portion of the key switch has been working about half the time for the last couple years but I figured it was probably just old wiring. Also I've been able to take the key out while the car is running for years so it seemed believable that the switch was shorting out. We put the 100A fuse from the white car in the black car and just made a jumper wire for the fuse in the white car figuring the wiring in that seemed OK. I hotwired the ignition switch and it worked fine the rest of the weekend. The next morning we took trails to Grand Marais. At some point we stopped to reinstall the trans cooler in front of the LF tire in which did seem to help engine cooling a little. B and I headed down to the boat ramp to dunk the radiator in the white Outback after removing the fan fuses. He drove it in and out about a dozen times, didn't seem like a lot got washed out. By this point A pulled up in the black Outback and thought we should do the same thing since we'd gotten it stuck in a mud hole earlier that day (and used two cars to pull it out). I agreed it was a good idea so I spotted him as he drove it in and out of the lake. Didn't get a lot of mud out. I must have told him to go a little too far in as he said all of a sudden water was pouring into the wheel wells. When he tried to back the car out it stalled and wouldn't restart. We pulled it out as quick as we could with the white Outback. Started pulling back carpeting and removing the ECU. The ECU did look like it had gotten some water in it but it was fairly clean. Actually looks like it's had water in it a few times. Dried it out with some isopropyl alchohol. Thankfully it started back up and ran fine all weekend. We headed to the bar, this time with me driving the black Outback and M navigating. We took many side trails since we had plenty of time and not a lot of distance to cover. On one of the many side trails we picked up a vibration in the black Outback. A branch had broken one of the radiator fan housings and broke a blade off. We disabled that fan. Also noticed the ECU wasn't turning both fans on when the engine was hot. So we had to run the AC to keep the engine cool. Had to turn on the heat also for a little bit once. M cut off the opposite blade on the radiator fan and we hooked it back up. Went back out trail riding for a couple hours. White Outback still running hot so we had to keep stopping for that to cool. At one point we got back out to the main gravel road that goes east to the bar. Z was navigating, we told the guys we could just take that back to the bar and then hopped on a cool looking side trail in about 100 feet and did a big loop. Took another side trail close to the bar. There were some decent sized downed trees across the trail but we cut and moved those and drove over the rest, eventually looping back out to the trail we came in on. The next morning we mostly took main gravel roads/snowmobile trails to Pictured Rocks. Figured since the white Outback was still running hot and most of the guys hadn't seen them it would be a good idea. Hiked to Chapel Rock again, always amazing. On the way home we decided to hit one more snowmobile trail that was a pretty straight shot. It was fairly soft and washboard gravel so I had to run the black Outback in fifth gear just to maintain 55mph. White Outback was running hot again so we had to wait a while. Also on the way down there the black Outback picked up a pretty violent shaking under braking. The RF OB CV boot was badly torn, that axle had been making noise for a while. We drove down the road another ten miles or so to a shady parking lot and started swapping out the CV axle. Turned out one of the caliper bolts had fallen out and that was probably our main problem but we did replace the axle too. M reported being able to run the AC at 70+mph in the white OB on the way home but had to run the heat under 60mph. Fans both seemed to be working fine every time we checked them. A said the power steering was cutting out on him occasionally. White OB has much worse driveshaft noises now. Forester is definitely making noise in first gear, most of the weekend B tried to start in second gear low if he had to. The code on the trans is 502685 / 4D-TY754XKBAA. If anyone knows of a good source or even part # for a dual range (EJ) main shaft we could use some help. VIN # for a car with similar trans would help too. On Thursday I removed the radiator from the white OB and you can't see through the fins at all, they're basically folded over each other (and doesn't look like from pressure washing). Tubes might be ballooned out which might have buckled them? Ordered a new one from the dealer.

Finally test fitted the 3D printed knuckle. Bottom part broke off the first couple times I tried. Adding these longer wood screws finally did it. Need to make some minor adjustments - a little more clearance in a couple spots, can add gusseting in some other spots. The basic geometry seems good though. Big front CV axle fits and is in roughly the middle of the plunge travel and doesn't use much plunge travel. Looks like we can make the brake line and parking brake cable work. Pushes wheel outboard a bit but should still tuck inside fender at full bump. Planning on a trail riding weekend up north in about a month, message me if you want to join us.

Got all the long travel parts TIG welded and most of them galvanized. Waiting on ID grinding of struts, then need to get everything painted along with B's bumper. Z did some assembly with the parts we've gotten so far, still waiting on Fox for pistons and reservoirs. We went to Arkansas a couple weeks ago for a trail riding/camping/hiking weekend. We got to Hector AR around 2PM Friday. Slammo and J had gotten there a couple hours earlier and done some prerunning in Slammo's Lexus. They led us to an ORV area. I was impressed how fast Slammo could drive the Lexus over somewhat rough trails. We went to a little rock step up/waterfall obstacle and all drove down and back up it. I took the hard line in the black Outback. By this point some guy in a silver Lexus had pulled up behind us. The guy's ~4 year old daughter started yelling at him from the passenger seat to keep moving. When we all got out to a T intersection we went the opposite way he did. We eventually got to a “Jeep” trail Slammo had found on the map. There were a series of increasingly deeper/steeper mud puddles and Slammo nosed into one of them and got stuck. I was behind him in the black Outback so I pulled him out. I think on the next one, one or two of us had already gone through but he nosed in and the engine died. It did restart and then B pulled him out. At this point we'd noticed a slow oil leak from somewhere fairly high on the engine. He also had a low oil pressure light at idle. We turned around and went to a campsite next to a reservoir. Slammo got it stuck at least one more time and the white Outback wasn't able to pull it out without using momentum on the strap. The auto would just hold at stall speed with no tires spinning. By this point it had started raining and a few people were worried about the stream coming up five feet and flooding the campsite. The next morning it was still raining and we started working on Slammo's engine. We couldn't find any oil leaks in the morning but his low oil pressure light still came on at low idle. By this time it was noon and had rained all morning. We started driving and his oil pressure light started coming on even while cruising at 2000+RPM so he stopped at a small gravel turnout. We gave him a key to the white Outback and unloaded a few things out of B's car to leave in the woods next to a cow skeleton. We went trail riding for a couple hours while Slammo and J drove to town. They sent us a message saying they'd made it back with a U haul and trailer. By that point we'd gotten both cars stuck a few times and were in the process of turning around so we told him it might be a while. We got back to them and they headed south, they made it back home OK that night I think. We started wandering north on different trails and kept hitting dead ends/loops. Late in the day we headed on to a gravel road to a ridge/high point in hopes of finding a campsite. A and I found a decent one on a side trail. Earlier that day the black Outback's RF wheel bearing had started getting sloppy so M and A and B worked on replacing that. The next morning I finished the wheel bearing and we headed out for another day of wandering north towards Pedestal Rocks. We had a good day of trail riding UP style with a lot of tight trails. Got a couple flat tires. We did some long rough up and down grades. On one of them they had to give the white Outback full throttle a significant portion of the time and it and the Forester were running hot. We tried cleaning out the radiators with B's bucket in a stream which seemed to help some. We got to some big river crossings. We did one but M and A weren't quite able to convince us to do the second one. I think by this point we'd gone about 100 miles on the odometer and about 5 miles by air from Hector. We drove up to a campground near Pedestal Rocks. It was luxurious staying in a place with a picnic table, steel fire ring, and outhouse within short walking distance. We hiked Pedestal Rocks and then headed north. It was about noon Monday by the time we got to a gas station and we were all almost empty. It was a good thing they'd filled up the white Outback (and towed it with the Uhaul) and B had a gas can in his Forester, we went almost 72 hours without seeing a gas station. We stopped at a parking lot a little farther north as they were running hot again and made PB&Js and let the cars cool down. On the way home they were running the heaters with the windows open. For the last leg they were able to run the AC in the white Outback but B had to run his heater. We got home around 10PM with no major issues aside from a couple flat tires and hopefully just muddy radiators. After getting home B washed his radiator out and the water was brown for quite a while. I took off the front skidplate on the white Outback and blasted it out at the carwash and it's been fine since. Replaced the other front wheel bearing on the 99 Outback when we got home, it was a little sloppy.

I'll PM you. These struts are a lot of work though, I recently raised the price and don't really want to make any more unless I can get ridiculous money for them. And since I'm not really selling any at the current price I don't see that happening. Honestly I'd look into Hotbits or the Bilstein make your own inverted strut kits. KYB AGX are fantastic for the price but can still be easily bent by driving hard. 215/75/15 seems like the biggest that will reasonably fit without silly offsets/spacers or a lower strut lift and is already really too tall for any standard Subaru gearing. Even the 1.6 dual range isn't enough sometimes. If only somebody made a real low range for a Subaru...

Head gaskets in 2002 replaced and seem to work but we won't really know until this summer. Thanks for the tip on the rack and pinion. 99 has been starting consistently with push button. We got all the new long travel parts tack welded. Dropped it all off to get TIG welded a couple weeks ago, they're almost done now. Have to figure out galvanize/plating/painting. Finally heard back from Fox, most of the parts I ordered a few months ago should be here any day. Still have a few parts to finish machining and a few other parts to order. Test assembled the low range for the 6MT and it seems to work on the bench. Might have the parts heat treated and finish ground for assembly this weekend, maybe even get it in the car? Excited about getting that working. Z is almost done printing a rear knuckle for us to test fit. Might really need the front axles in the rear once the low range is working.

B fixed and simplified the wiring on our winch, one of the connections had gone bad. J wired in a towing light module on my black Outback. The 99 has mostly been starting but a few weeks ago I drove it out of the garage to make room. Went to drive it back in a few hours later and it wouldn't start with the key or the push button. The next morning it started right up. So I ran a heavier gauge wire (with an inline fuse) straight from the battery to the pushbutton. Has been working since but who knows. We worked on a few more things including a mockup panel for blocking off the car behind the seats for better AC performance while racing. I finally got a video edited and uploaded from our Southern IL trip in July: https://youtu.be/nGCZUqPPsTA Plan on removing and disassembling the H6 in the 2002 OB today for head gasket replacement.

Yes, photogrammetry takes a number of pictures or a short video and makes a 3D model. Ideally the part is colorful and not shiny. There is a special spray paint(?) that some people use. I have used sidewalk chalk in the past, it works pretty well. You also want the background to be uniform (white). If the part is symmetrical you want to stick a magnet on one side or put various patches/stripes of color on it so the computer can figure out the orientation. Under ideal circumstances it seems very accurate, I would say within .010" even on a part larger than this. Autodesk had free software on their website years ago, no idea if they still do or what its limitations are. I have been using 3DF Zephyr lite, it's not super expensive, there is a free version too, again I don't remember what its limitations were. The real problem with photogrammetry or SLS (structured light scanning, another relatively cheap and accurate method of 3D scanning I've used) is that it's difficult to get a useable 3D model into CAD software. I use Solidworks and maybe that's not the best at handling these types of files. My current workflow is 3DF Zephyr - OBJ - cloud compare (free) - DXF - Rhino (free?) - IGS (point cloud). This point cloud comes in as a 3D sketch in Solidworks. I typically make copies of it in the same file and then you can delete portions of it to have sections of the part using a small portion of the point cloud. There is probably a better way but it works. In the case of the knuckle I probably would have been better off just accurately measuring the hole locations (which I did later) and starting with those to design the knuckle from scratch. I'm pretty sure the current design is way overkill but I'd rather that and carry around a couple extra pounds than have it bend or break on me in the middle of some desert race. Current plan on the knuckles is doing most of it with a 3 axis mill and then do the side holes on the four axis. Five axis would be cool, I'll have to get one of those someday. I think machining will be less time overall and much stronger than cutting/machining a bunch of pieces, building jigs, and fabricating them. Plus once it's figured out you just put in a piece of steel, hit the green button, and do something else for an hour.

Used photogrammetry to get the mockup rear knuckle on a computer. I didn't do a good enough job to get a really clean model out of it but it gave me a decent starting point. Measured all the hole locations later to make them accurate. Designed this in CAD to make it as boxed in / gusseted as possible but not super heavy. Stock rear knuckle bare is nine pounds, this one should be about 14 pounds. I think it will be a lot stronger. The main point though is to get bolt on wheel bearings (same as front). Also with some diff stub adapters we can use the big female front CV axles which are stronger and we won't have to carry as many spares. It's also designed to use the same front rotors we normally use and a caliper with a lever for parking brake. Z is going to 3D print a couple so we can test fit them before making them out of steel.

B and I did some suspension work on my Outbacks. Never noticed how similar the doors are between the 99 and 2002, almost look interchangeable. 99 Outback has been a little wandery even after replacing the front control arm bushing and inner tie rod last weekend. Seemed like there was some play in the RR in both the wheel bearing and the long bolt. Long bolt was worn down a bit but mainly the knuckle was worn out. Reamed the knuckle and bushed it with some 4130 tubing drilled and sanded to fit the bolt. Replaced the wheel bearing, seals, and hub while we were at it. Seemed like mainly slop between the worn down hub and the inner race of the bearing, I've seen that before at least once. Really need to make the fabricated knuckles. B reamed out the LR knuckle on the 2002 OB to fit a 5/8" shock bolt. Bushings were stuck in the bottom of the shock so it took a while to swap those out but we got it all back together. Yes, the threads are longer on the 5/8" bolt than the stock one but the shoulder still goes a ways into the knuckle so the threads aren't really in bending. Regarding pictures, slammo tells me they don't show up on chrome mobile but they seem to show up on other browsers.

Sorry, guess I haven't posted in a month, but we have been doing some Subaru things. B and I went through the rear suspension on the 2002 white Outback. Went through the shocks, changed the valving a bit, and opened up the holes in the body where they go through to make them much easier to remove. The trailing arm bushing on the right rear was pretty cracked so we replaced that. Removed, anti seized, and reinstalled the wheel bearing while that was out. Have bent a couple of the lower shock bolts now so we drilled and reamed that out to fit a grade eight 5/8" bolt (stock is 14mm or .551") and J remade the bushings to fit. Plan on doing that on the left rear sometime. Secured the rockers better with clinch nuts, bolts, and fender washers. Been doing more shock tuning on the 99 OB as well, want to get it at least reasonably optimized before we assemble a bunch more struts. This is one of the best upgrades per dollar and effort I've ever made on my 99 OB. Piece of polyurethane between the valve cover and skid plate to keep from cracking the valve cover, etc. Old one lasted a while, I think over a year, but it's broken into several pieces (some long gone and not pictured). Got a harder/stronger grade of polyurethane from McMaster. Z cut out and glued this strip of steel to the bottom of it so it won't get cut as quickly by the skidplate. I don't think I'll make another skidplate like this again but it is super strong. Kinda has to be for desert racing as it acts as a plow about 1/4 of the time in the Vegas to Reno. Been working on long travel struts for Z, slammo, and travelvw. At the same time we're going to copy some of the upgrades we've made to my 99 OB to B's Forester and my 2002 OB. Z and J have helped with some of the machining. These are a lot of the machined parts. Almost everything is blanked out. Still need to do some milling on some of the parts but most of that is pretty simple, just slots, flats, and holes. Milled the rears but not the fronts yet. So hopefully we'll be wrapping those up in the next month or so. Want to do a big jump fest when they're all done. Finally got the ball rolling on the last few parts for the 6MT low range too. Really want to get that done. Eventually still want to do the rear knuckles to fit front wheel bearings and axles too.

We bent up some hoops to protect B's lights. Made them big enough the lights can still come out without removing the bumper. First we just made a U (left) but then figured angling the one tube to follow the angle of the headlight made it a little more sano. Tacked one up to get the fit we wanted (second from left) then bent a couple from scratch. IMO looks better in person than in pictures. Also depending what color we paint it the hoops will probably not even be very noticeable. Ready for paint we think. Weighs 44# vs the stock fiberglass 17# so not too much heavier. Also the HVAC controls on the 99 Outback stopped working. Haven't been driving it much as it popped out of reverse a few times, but hasn't lately. I have a plan for finishing the low range and bought another 6MT to put it in so hopefully I can get that working in the next month or two.

B recently bought a tubing bender and some dies. He's wanted a round tube bumper for a while. We did a couple test bends with EMT (conduit) last weekend. Got the fit he wanted and figured out the bender. Conduit is much cheaper and easier to bend than 4130. So we bent a couple tubes and B fit the long tubes for mounting to the car. We fit some short tubes and tacked it all together on the floor square. Put it on the car against some mounting plates we'd made, leveled it out, tacked it together. Marked the ends to cut for tire clearance. Took it off the car and mitered the ends. Welded receivers to the mounting plates for better connection and winch and jacking options. He also added some lateral support for the ends. I welded as much as I could with it on the car and then finished welding off the car. Still need to add hoops for the stock lights and more tabs for light bar(s). Then get it coated. We also turned some parts for more long travel struts. Upgrading B's and making new sets for slammo and Z.

Yeah I was a little surprised. We did get a little video I’ll probably post on YouTube eventually. I think they have about 50% more travel than our cars. Our friend who owns the rzr has ridden in my Outback and says it rides about as good as his rzr. The rzr is definitely much easier to roll over though!

We were at our friend's place just outside of town testing the suspension on the black 99 Outback after putting in some different valving. Think it's better, need to review the video. For sure there are two jumps that if you hit going away from the road at the right speed, you can land on the ramp of the second one and bounce off it and get pretty good air. When I did that a month ago it landed really hard. This time it soaked it up much better when landing flat. May not have bounced as high, either way that seems like an improvement. So while we're getting video our friend runs over and comes flying back in his RZR (?2013 XP1000). By this time I'd stopped so we watched him make a few laps. He was hitting the jumps and whoops about as hard as I was. It might take the whoops better than my car but I think my car took the jumps more level. I followed him in the Outback. I was able to hit the jumps and turns about as fast as him but the golf cart definitely accelerates harder. Then he started weaving between the various jump ramps. I was able to almost keep up through there but I his shorter wheelbase and better power to weight allowed him to get through faster. We did some more test fitting of the 6MT low range and came up with a plan to proceed. Did some test bends with B's bender, works pretty nice. Bent up a front bumper template out of some conduit. Will probably fab up a real one out of 4130 next weekend.

Apparently. I was hoping since it was a low mileage jdm engine it would be good. Also it’s quite a job to replace head gaskets on these engines.

Yes, two speed. Maybe I could plug in a spare temp sensor and heat it up or just short the wiring to see if the fans run on high. Or unplug the fans and check voltage once it gets hot, make sure both sets of windings on both fans are getting power. Before we replaced the engine the last time (a year or two ago?) it was just running uncontrollably hot on the highway on one trip though, so I don't think that was fan related.

Put in a new Denso radiator last summer. When we had it out it looked pretty clean, I think one of my friends blasted it out with the garden hose but I don't think it even looked like it needed that. Put in a new thermostat and radiator cap from Subaru when we put the JDM engine in. Both fans run when it's hot.

Well predictably I guess the JDM EZ30 we put in my 2002 OB seems to have a slightly head gasket leak. It runs a little above the middle of the temp gauge when it's under load for a little while. It does drop back down to the middle without turning the AC off or anything but it's only been in the 80s(F) and this is just driving around town. Seems fine on the highway but off pavement is usually a higher duty cycle with lower airspeed. So I'm considering replacing the head gaskets on it. On the plus side it should be low mileage so maybe then it would last many years??? Open to any suggestions on what else I could check. The check engine light was on for a few days but isn't on any more. It's been running fine. It NEVER ran above the middle for the last three or four years, so it's definitely not normal. We did some work on B's Forester. It definitely had a slight head gasket leak on our trip out west. We took out the engine and he'd prepped a cleaner intake manifold with some new gaskets. The heads and block seemed flat and everything looked good so we just cleaned the surfaces and replaced the head and valve cover gaskets. We adjusted the valves too while it was out. One of the CV axles had started to click so we replaced that. Also put in a new clutch while it was out, the old one seemed fine but hopefully the engine and trans will stay in the car for a few years now. We got done early so we replaced all his brake pads and he cleaned up the ridges on the front rotors and we rotated the tires. 99 OB has popped out of reverse a few times now. Trying to mock up and finish the low range for the 6MT so I can just swap in a different trans and not have it out of the car multiple times or for a long period of time.

One of the tires on the 99 OB after our last trip. Back to our regularly scheduled head gasket issues. This is a Subaru forum after all. The 2002 has been running hot occasionally and bubbling like crazy in the overflow reservoir, blew out a little coolant hose behind the PS pump a while back, so head gaskets are almost definitely bad. Also often hesitates/stumbles/misfires for the first half second you stomp on the gas, which is especially annoying with an engine without much low end torque to begin with. After considering various options I decided to replace the engine in my 2002 Outback with a low mileage Japanese engine. I know they power wash them but this might be the cleanest EZ30 I've ever seen, on par with the one in my 2001. Maybe they blasted it with solvent but the oil fill neck is probably the cleanest one (only clean one?) I've ever seen. Before we put it in, we replaced some coolant hoses, oil cooler gasket, the spark plugs, and valve cover gaskets. Glad I replaced the spark plugs. This one appears to have corroded in half. One mistake we made last year when putting the engine and trans in together from the parts car was not loosening, anti seizing, and retightening the bellhousing bolts. Took a long time to get those all out since we were just pulling the engine this time. Fortunately the torque converter bolts were pretty easy. Fortunately the JDM and USDM EZ30 are nearly identical. The AC compressor is different but I left that connected to the car. The vacuum fitting for the brake booster is on the wrong side of the intake manifold. There is a plug on the driver's side. I couldn't get it loose with tools so I welded a steel bar to it and then snapped the end of the plug off. So we just ran a longer vacuum hose to the booster. 2/3 of the EZ30s I own. 3/4 of these have head gasket leaks, well hopefully just 3/4. Fired right up and seems to run well, no obvious leaks. Hesitation/stumble mostly gone. Hopefully this one lasts more than a year.

Last weekend B and I did a little shock tuning, changed the oil and filter, installed a different TPMS, and replaced a tie rod on the 99. Also test assembled the low range for the 6MT. So far so good but still a ways to go. That will really make my 99 a lot more usable.

A, B, and Z met at my house and we headed west a few weeks ago with my 99 Outback and B's Forester. Drove past grasslands in South Dakota but didn't check them out, should on another trip. Tried some short side roads/trails near Badlands NP. Z wanted to camp along this ridge with 100 other RVs. We didn't go in Badlands as it's fairly expensive so we went to the black hills in SW South Dakota. Z found a campground on the ultimate campground app and used the google directions which sent us down a rough, rocky, narrow trail. Sections of it were high exposure along a narrow ledge. As we got closer to the campground the trail became steep downhill. We considered turning around but we were getting close to a major (gravel) road. The trail was quite rough, rocky, and washed out and it was dark. We got to a large tree blocking the trail and decided to camp there for the night. We cooked food, setup camp, and joked (?) about how we'd have all week to get out one way or another. The next morning we took a closer look at the large fallen tree. We probably could have cut more branches off of it and gotten underneath with some digging. There were a couple more fallen trees we would have had to deal with but they weren't as bad. We walked up the hill and decided that would be the way to try to get out. We sent B first figuring he could pull me up the more difficult obstacles. We had to stack some rocks for him in a couple spots. I then drove the Outback up the whole way nonstop, poking a small hole in a sidewall in the process. I plugged it but it kept leaking slowly so we just swapped it out later. We drove around the black hills. Then we headed to the Bighorn mountains in WY. Spent a couple days camping and driving around there – awesome scenery, decent trails with some small jumps, not a lot of dead ends. This was a good few days of trail riding with varied scenery from wooded mountains to Utah like deserts. Drove through western WY almost to Yellowstone and then north into Montana. This part of Montana basically had a bunch of dead end roads heading south off 90 into the mountains north of Yellowstone. We took one of them and camped at a small campground along a river. We headed farther south the next morning. Stopped at natural bridge falls which was awesome, would be good to see in the spring. From there the road turns to gravel and gets gradually rougher/rockier and passes a bunch of ranches. Eventually it turns into a consistently rocky road with some climbs. Saw some old mining cabins. At Independence Z walked ahead while we were stacking rocks and saw a no motorized vehicles sign so we turned around. Would be interesting sometime to take the trail to Independence/Blue Lake. This was the roughest ~5-10 miles of trail we've probably ever driven. On the way back out one of B's castle nuts fell off a ball joint, the threads on the stud were wiped out. We swapped it out and continued. Drove back up to 90 and decided to head back east. Considered heading farther west into Montana and Idaho but would have had 2-3 days of solid highway driving at the end if we'd done that. We headed back down towards the Bighorns. We stayed at a campground along a little stream with no one else in it. The next morning we drove to the ice cave which is ~32F year round despite recent weather in the 90s. There are apparently ice stalagmites and stalactites at times but none of any significant size when we were there. The parking lot has a picnic area with great views. We trail rode through this northern part of the Bighorns and eventually got to the Pryor mountain area which had one of the best views of the trip. Then we drove through a BLM wild horse area and saw at least a half dozen groups of them. At one point we stopped to tighten some suspension bolts and make sandwiches and at least two groups of wild horses walked by within 30' of us. We eventually got to a sign which said “4x4 high clearance short wheelbase vehicles only” pointing in the direction of the trail we'd just come out. Drove some more trails in Wyoming and went to Black Mountain. Views from the top were awesome despite the smoke. Drove back down and found a campsite along a gravel road to stay the night. In the morning a mother and fawn mule deer walked through our site and some medium sized black and white birds were almost eating out of B's hand. At this point we only had about 1.5 days to get back to my house so Z and A could get home at a reasonable hour so we mostly drove on the highway but we did cut through the Black Hills again. We went to Mount Roosevelt which is an easy walk with a lookout tower you can walk to the top of with a decent view. On the way there we'd seen some side trails. One of them went to Deadwood on my GPS so we decided to see if that would go through. It did but the last half mile or so was quite steep downhill with loose rocks. From there we drove home on the highway, stopped to camp at a big campground in MN which was fortunately pretty quiet. Overall a good trip, the heat and smoke put a bit of a damper on things but we had no major mechanical problems, good scenery, saw some wildlife, and drove a lot of trails. For some reason we didn't have the problems with low speed climbing in the 99 we were having in southern IL. I think it must have just been getting heat soaked there with the constant stopping and idling. Also had to use the start button quite often on the last trip, I'm guessing the ignition switch or the wiring to it is failing.

I already have an EZ30 in the 99. Not sure if the EZ36 would be better on gas but probably more reliable because it would be newer and should be more power and low end torque. We've got the 90s five spoke 15" Legacy/Outback alloy wheels on most of our cars. They seem to last a long time as long as you're not running them on flat tires. The six spoke "bottle cap" wheels are supposedly stronger. B has been using thick (~0.2" thick) steel wheels on his Forester. They're about as strong but much heavier. One of the big advantage of the aftermarket 15" wheels is that you can fit bigger brakes, like the ones on the turbo cars and 2000+ Outback.

Not all that sano but it works. Had to use the starter button and the ignition key simultaneously to start it once today. Would really like to fix that problem but don't know what else to try. I can't see using the electric jacks on another car. They are very convenient but as you say they're pretty heavy. Also you basically have to have some kind of cage to mount them to and definitely makes the car a two seater.