wagonist

There was one done in Adelaide, South Australia many moons ago. They fitted the radiator to the roll bar up behind the cab. Looks weird when following, but there isn't really a way to fit in in the engine bay with the extra length of the motor (which is all forwards of the EA motors)

Actually, something I'm curious about is where the PS lines are routed on the LHD vehicles. I see they still go over to the right side of the car off the pump, but where do they go from there? Our RHD models just run down the right side of the engine & then simply down to the rack.

Doesn't make it the easiest job, but it's going to make it a lot easier when you lift the engine. Remove the stay rod between the engine & firewall & if it has the mechanical fan, remove the radiator shroud. Shouldn't need to disconnect anything else.

Don't know about gallons, but they list cars here as having 60L tank. I've fit 65L in one time, but I wouldn't recommend doing that with an EFI car. If you're fitting a lift kit, and dropping the rear diff down, you can cut the fuel tank through the middle & weld in an extra 2" of metal. Was done here a couple of times, but you need to be really careful & need to get it sealed again. You also need to extend down the fuel sender. Adds about an extra 15L I think (it's been a while).

I don't know about LHD cars or the XT6, but for RHD cars, there's a small bracket between the 2 lines right down near where the lines go into the rack. I always remove that first so that I can get each line started first, then I reattach it. Also, undo the engine mounts from the crossmember & lift it up (you might need to unbolt the exhaust from the engine) to give yourself some extra room to work with. Put a block of wood in between the engine & crossmember when you do for safety. Nothing like a fallen engine & crushed fingers to ruin your day...

Is the radiator still the one from when it's been sitting 10 years? Have you had the radiator flow tested?

Is the other CV joint on that shaft a "floating" joint? Every inner front CV I've ever seen is more square to allow the shaft to move in & out slightly to allow for the suspension movement. If it doesn't have this on at least one of the joints, it'll pull out (like what's happened to you) over bumps or turning.

Personally, I wouldn't be carrying most of the spares listed above. Just change those parts now if you're going to be away, that's a pretty good list of what wears out. But not at the last minute, you want to bed them in & make sure they're reliable before you get too far away. Check out any oil leaks on the engine for seals that are about to go. Then I'd just be doing tools, V belts, timing belts, oil, coolant. How far from civilisation are you going?

I think Jaycar have (or had) a knock sensor readout kit. I never really took any notice on my S1 about this circuit. Does the wiring for knock sensor come across the engine & out the left side, or go around and across the dash? I've got some stuffed S2 turbo ECUs if you want to try getting the 2nd board out I've got a knock sensor error showing up, but it doesn't matter which ECU (working or not) and the error still shows, making me think my problem is the sensor or the wiring.

You can keep the dash skin, just might need to swap the wiring behind it (I don't know if your cars came prewired for AC or not, ours didn't). You need to pull the dash out to swap in the A/C unit anyway. Can be done without it (Subaru Oz did dealer fit A/C this way for RHD), but it's heaps easier with the dash out of the way.

driveshafts or differential? The only differences are the ratios inside the diff. Unusual to have a 3.9 ratio in an 89. Most are 3.7 take off the rear cover to count the teeth on the crown wheel. They can be swapped.

I'm. Not sure anyone has ever said fitting a lift kit is an easy job. it might seem that way, but when you think about all the places the suspension is connected to the body, its a lot of work. My first kit was an "approved" one that came with 20 odd pieces, lots of bolts and very detailed instructions. You need to be realistic and logical about it.

The Loyale, the new arch piece you welded in. Was that a new from Subaru, or new aftermarket piece?

Search for "nico". I know its his user name on another forum, can't remember for this one

But did you try hammer a screwdriver in there to open the gap slightly? I know someone earlier said never to pry open, but if you put the screwdriver in directly, it'll only go in a small way otherwise it'll interfere with the ball joint going in. This isn't far enough to break anything. Like others said also, try some sandpaper on the inside of the knuckle to clear any rust.

I'm with Jono. I've always just used a short, flat bladed screwdriver and wedged it in to open the gap slightly. Can also put something under the lower control arm to hold it up and then lower the car onto it. To ask a silly question, you've got the pinch bolt completely removed?

The air suspension can only be bought from Subaru. The bags perish over time. Suggest you work out whether you can get replacements before you commit to keeping those. Often 4 conventional struts and springs is cheaper that 1 air strut. Seems like a good base to modify, the running gear is the worst combination available as a 4wd xt. No power and no full time 4wd. Do as others have suggested, get an ej turbo motor with matching tranmission and rear diff. Engine is almost bolt in, but you'll need some fabrication work to make a trans crossmember and shorten the shifter linkages and tailshaft. Do some searching on 5 stud conversion so you can use the ej style brakes. For a monster build, find nico's sedan ri give you ideas. He went a bit overboard for some things I think, but the basics are there. To make some money back, you could sell off the mpfi engine, wiring and ecu

A few EJ25 swaps have been done over here, but mostly they include the installation of a matching dual range ej trans (which we were fortunate to receive plenty of) and are mostly done to 85 & newer models where the rails are wider. Mostly however here though, because of the availability of the ej dual range, the older models are ignored and mods are done on legacys, imprezas and foresters

Btw, it wasn't until recently that subie engines got timing chains. Most from 85 have timing belts. Which are you referring to?

Is it 4wd? All of the na 1.8s in this country were fwd only. If you want additional power you want 4wd. They can be converted. A lot of your questions are pretty standard and been covered a lot in this forum. Do a search for "air suspension" and "ej swap"

And they still never got that right I'd like to play this game, but I'm 8000km from them currently. Very interested to know the answer

US kept getting turbo models into the series 2 though, so might get that ecu still. Aus only got turbo until 87 except for the vortex. I'd say nz is your beat option. Just make sure you get some kind of warranty. I recently had 2 bad ecus for my 90 Japanese turbo wagon. The original Japanese version and a US version. As an aside, any reason why the engine fan is still fitted? Facing the wrong way even if the radiator is at the back

When they do the emissions test, how do they have the car running? Ie do they sit in the car with their foot on the clutch, or will they have the clutch out with the car in neutral, or do they shift through the gears? If its the 2nd option, installing a clutch switch will be useless. Does the neutral switch give current when in neutral or does it stop giving current? Cars will cruise control already have a clutch switch that breaks the circuit when the clutch is pressed, otherwise you can use a brake switch. Another option is to put a switch on the shifter somehow. If you decide to drill the trans, fill the oil up passed the hole level so that when you break through (after drilling very slowly, its only alloy) the oil coming out your new hole will try to drag the filings with it (will get messy though, so be warned)

Plenty of smaller magnets out there than 8mm. I've got one on a telescopic arm I bought from auto parts shop

Get a piece of wood and put it across the strut towers, then from this to the radiator support. Or put the spare tyre back in. If you're below these then you should be good. Why not put the hood back on? It's not that hard