1 Lucky Texan

I probably am misunderstanding something. I thought you needed to have a buyer dedicated for the engine part of the shipment.

maybe valve seals are leaking?

many soobs will seep some fuel as they age - and it doesn't take much to smell strongly. tighten any fuel clamps you can find under the hood. there have been people with rusted filler pipes and cracked pump assemblies, etc. , but, start by looking around under the hood for drips or wetness on fuel system parts.

is this something you could do with ebay or kickstarter? Then you'd have assured funding before OK-ing the shipment.

should be able the scan codes from key ON . if it fires with starter fluid, next check is probably fuel supply; https://www.subaruoutback.org/forums/110-gen-2-2000-2004/41182-symptoms-fuel-pump-o-ring-problem.html

^^^ yeah scan for pending codes, note them, get freezefraome data if possible, clear them, try to start, scan again to see what comes back immediately. some things on that year model that 'might' cause no/rough start issues; IACV hose at the intake tubing end loose, cap/o-ring problem on fuel pump, moisture (or oil form leaky VC gaskets) on old plug wires/boots, flooding from several no-start tries (or possibly bad engine temp sensor) , mist-timed crank/cam timing. double check cam/crank timing belt timing. Check IACV hose. Try starting with gas pedal HELD all the way down while cranking (that signals the ECU to shut off injectors. it's the 'clear flood' procedure) - or, pull plugs to look for fuel wetness. I know you said you're missing spark but, you could try starting with starter fluid. it does seem like you 'could' have some ground or other electrical issues.

the thing with cam timing is, it 'could' act like floating valves. so I'd think 1 or maybe 2 teeth off somewhere might get you a car that sorta runs up to a point, then flops. low fuel supply might do it too but????? I'd even check voltage at higher rpms if the above didn't find an issue. start with the easy basic stuff.

maybe a new PCV valve would help?

due to waste spark scheme, certain pairs of misfire codes could indicate a bad coil pack.

do the axles still have tone rings? maybe you could create the proper signal from one of the old abs wheel sensors? once you discover if it needs some kind of scaling.... - it would be speed (though, not rpm) proportional too.

if you can remove the strut assemblies, you can take them and new parts (KYB is the MUCH preferred brand of strut) to a shop and pay them to move the parts over for you if you don't want to mess with spring compressors but still want to save a little money.

^^^^ what they said, just chiming in to discourage you from trusting the overflow bottle to accurately represent coolant volume. as said above, check the RADIATOR level vigilantly while this problem is on-going.

cam/crank timing OK?

maybe crutchfield.com offers an adapter cable?

I recall the same as jonathan, I THINK the replacement struts had a nut requiring a different size socket.

if they are an odd-size as mentioned, that could be tough. you might dig around at www.crutchfield.com for something. sometimes, original speakers can be repaired. there's even some youtube videos for 're-foaming' .

chain takes up way less room than belt timing system. I may be wrong - just repeating something I read long ago. some of the guys doing swaps would probably know best - even into vanagons or exp. aircraft or sandrail builds.....? . For some reason, it's hard to find actual dimensions with a simple search.

you can use an impact to 'loosen' the nut - if it accidentally comes off - put it back on. (assumes weight of car holding things together - I suppose there is some minute risk the strut shaft could drop ????) better to take the assembly out and get the compressors on it as said above. You're gonna do that anyway. for reassembly, I had to rig a deep socket with large vice grips and a cut-off 6mm allen wrench and a 6mm socket with adapters. it was crazy but it worked. pay attention to top perch orientation - there's an arrow or center hols or something that must face the fender side. Also, put the top spacer/washer with the narrow side UP to contact inner race of mount bearing.

the ez30 is only about an inch longer than an ej

what has he been driving? How long did he keep it? How many miles does he drive annually? Does he have a history of keeping cars maintained? Does he have a favorite independent mechanic? personally, I think he may be a good candidate to lease a car - possibly even a lease on a CPO - regardless of what make he gets.

get the Forry's rear diff too and you definitely would have a final drive match at least.

naturally we were curious as to how it happened. was it some kind of appliance - , propane or starting a fireplace with gasoline, etc..... The house is all-electric so, it took fire investigators some time to get a handle on what happened. They found a piece of plastic from the gas 'container'/can. The firemen found him in the burning house so, he never seemed to have a chance to escape before they were called and arrived. The victim was never able to communicate with anyone. coworkers were discussing this, I admit there have been times that cutting thru the house with lawn equipment was 'handy' - but I can't recall a single instance of doing that with any fuel-powered device or a gas can. Other coworkers admitted they had, one guy even rolled his mower thru his house. Since folks are nowadays accustomed to stopping w'ever they're doing (even, annoyingly, face-to-face conversations) to answer a cellphone call, I could see someone just setting a gas can down to have a cell conversation.... sad thing for his family - huge shock of course. He was in his 40s I think, wife, one kid in college, the other just graduated high school. guys, if you have folks depending on you, try to stay safe.

as to how many are left in the country - I highly doubt (but, not certain) those are uniquely 'Subaru' and I'd be tempted to look for aftermarket or perhaps some other car-maker's part that will work. certainly the business end of the port must conform to some standard so, maybe the fuse's rating is different or there's some slight mounting difference?

cig lighter/power ports have a 'local' fuse/fusistor built on the back of them .

I moved bumpers and boots over on mine. Mounts were dry/crunchy on my WRX so, I replaced the mounts. Wish I had done that on the Outback but I didn't check them so, not sure what condition they were in.