Hello and my sub story

[lstevens76]

Well, I'm new here and on to the second Subaru I've owned, although I joined due to the first.

 

I'm not new to Subaru's although I'm new to owning them.  I grew up in a small ski resort town and it seemed like Subaru's were about the most popular car around so I saw tons of them.

 

Then my mom picked up an 80's era little 2 door hatchback (don't remember the model but FWD only).  She took that thing that people with 4x4's trucks didn't want to go and it did it.  I learned to drive stick in that car (couldn't use the old ford pickup w/ an auto until I could drive the stick).  Don't remember why she got rid of it.

 

Why I haven't owned one until now, I don't know.  But my story began in looking for a gas saver because I realized my Durango wasn't going to cut it with the running I have to do for my son.  13mpg just eats way to much gas when your putting on 50 miles a day.

 

About 1 1/2 years ago my grandfather picked up this 1990 Subaru Legacy for my uncle without a title, title was out of state, and beat up for $200.  My uncle went rounds, with my help, and got the title transferred to him (still out of state but now in his name).  Just before he received the title it started making one hell of a noise in the engine.  To me and others it sounded like bearings in a pulley somewhere, but it definitely wasn't in the accessory belts.  I decided it was a timing belt tensioner (not knowing how the Subaru ones worked thinking of the ones w/ idlers on them) and that was it.  He wasn't sure so I ended up buying it for the $200.

 

A friend helped out and we got the timing belt, water pump, idlers, spark plugs, and wires all done.  It fired right up no problem and when we were working the problem became obvious when there were no bearings left in the cogged idler and it was rubbing on the center directly.  

 

So I've been working out issues with this gave saver and having major issues with my right shoulder (standard 5 speed), but the shoulder issues aren't due to the car it's just escalating it.  I don't really care for the body style and it needs quite a bit for a car I'm not going to be happy with in the end.  I put it up for sale (hasn't sold yet, but lowering the price) and started looking.  I decided I wanted an outback w/ blown head gaskets to Blue Devil as a temp fix and then do the head gaskets later (i.e. cheap fixer upper but a newer body style and a car I would be happy with in the end).  After looking around and seeing them around $1,000 that is where i priced the '90 (which does run really good).

 

Then an Impreza popped up for $675.  I looked up what this '96 Impreza "could" look like and saw all the potential.  The scooped hood, nice rims/tires, etc...  Just a nice clean fun ride, which is what I wanted. 

 

Went and looked at it, and the rest is on here.  Bought it for $450 and now the project begins.

 

Oh, and as for me I'm 38 and have a 7 year old son.  I plan to do a lot of camping this summer and this or my Durango will be the ones taking us.

[lstevens76]

I realized I didn't give any of my personal mechanic history on here (to note I'm not a mechanic yet).   I grew up around it to begin with, but in my Adult life I seem to do most of it myself anymore.

 

I've done engine swaps, intake manifolds, exhaust gaskets, etc... with my father when he was still alive.  He wasn't much into an engine tear down later in life, but he rebuild at least 4 engines when I was a kid and worked as a mechanic when I was really young (70's era) before going back to longhaul truck driving.

 

As for me, most of my own personal large work started about 5 years ago.  I already had the knowledge just never really applied it to my own cars.  Now I seem to end up doing 70% of the work for my family and friends.  Prior to this the biggest things I had done for myself was things like tuneups, blower motors, etc....  

 

I picked up a '93 Acura Legend w/ a blown head gasket.  Tore it all the way down to the heads then life interfered and a "supposed mechanic" from a friend was supposed to finish pulling the heads and replacing the gaskets.  Instead the ******* ended up putting it back together w/out replacing the head gaskets or even cleaning off the heads  (to note it had sit w/ the hood down and valve covers off w/ heads exposed for 3 weeks).  

 

His "repair" lasted about 3 weeks until I realized there was no thermostat in it and, after replacing it, the head gaskets were blown and he was wrong.  I already had thought this, but we tend to defer to the mechanic.  

 

After previous experiences with mechanics I had just had enough.  I pulled the heads off myself and took them down to have milled.  Well that debris had damaged a cam journal and cam to the point it wasn't salvagable and being a Type II motor I was having a hard time finding heads/cams.  I ended up swapping in a 3.5L RL motor to this car.  

 

That was pretty much the start of it and it has just gone forward from there.  I've done work on my Aunt's van, my Grandfather's Vans (yes plural), pickup, Buick Station Wagon, etc...  

 

My Durango I picked up for $750, replaced the computer.  Ended up putting an '03 rear end in an '01 Durango and converting to disc brakes.  I've replaced all 4 shocks along with the front outer tie rod ends and all 4 ball joints.

 

Right now I'm in the middle of reassembling the saginaw steering column in a '92 Buick Roadmaster Estate wagon (I could live with never seeing one of these again).  I'm also working on tracing down issues w/ my grandfather's ford ranger (and swapping seats to buckets).  

 

I'm also probably going to start working on my Grandfather's WWII Jeep once other projects are cleared to get it running.

 

Sadly I seem to be better at diagnosing stuff than most mechanics in this area as well, which is frustrating.