taskz Posted October 14, 2018 Share Posted October 14, 2018 (edited) I recently acquired a 2000 Impreza Outback Sport with 230k miles for free from family. I've been thinking about what to do with this car and I've basically decided I want to make it an off-roader but keep it street legal. I have a lot of noob-ish questions. I have a little bit of a mechanical background but I haven't worked on cars in any serious way since the late 90's. A lot of this will be a re-learning/learning experience. The car has a solid trans but the engine needs some help. Lots of valve knock, some engine accessory is making a horrendous noise and it seems like it's lost a fair amount of power. Because I want to take this car on road trips I'm thinking it might be best to rebuild or swap. Either way this more about the learning experience and having something to do more than anything else. The suspension is also very worn. The ride quality is terrible. It also has a small water leak on top where the front window meets the roof. There's a couple rust spots on the body but nothing serious. That's basically it. Everything else about the car is fine. I have a budget of around $2-3k and I'm basically looking at revamping/lifting the suspension, possibly rebuilding the engine, fixing the leak and any other mods that will make it off-road worthy. Paint isn't part of it. I don't care how ugly it is. So far I've seen some interesting things about swapping in Forester suspension components and a DIY switch for locking the center diff. I plan to get skid plates. I'm not sure though about whether to DIY or purchase them. Also, what engine/exhaust mods can I do and still have the car pass emissions? What suggestions might people have for getting the best bang for my buck as far as amount of lift and performance? If you had the car and budget I do, what would you do? Edited October 14, 2018 by taskz edited for grammar Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeneralDisorder Posted October 14, 2018 Share Posted October 14, 2018 That's a real slim budget for all that. You might get the suspension, skid plates and some basic maintenance done for that. Engine rebuilding is not feasible.... regardless of budget it's a waste of time for your purposes. Get a JDM 2.5 for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1 Lucky Texan Posted October 14, 2018 Share Posted October 14, 2018 how much rust under the car will you be dealing with? that could get frustrating quickly. engine is critical so, I'd approach it from getting it road-worthy/reliable first. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taskz Posted October 16, 2018 Author Share Posted October 16, 2018 On 10/13/2018 at 9:10 PM, GeneralDisorder said: That's a real slim budget for all that. You might get the suspension, skid plates and some basic maintenance done for that. Engine rebuilding is not feasible.... regardless of budget it's a waste of time for your purposes. Get a JDM 2.5 for it. Yeah, I'm beginning to realize that. I don't have a lot of money and on the budget I said it would take about 2 years. If it takes longer that's fine but not great. If I get a JDM engine will I also need to swap the ECU and other components? On 10/14/2018 at 4:50 PM, 1 Lucky Texan said: how much rust under the car will you be dealing with? that could get frustrating quickly. engine is critical so, I'd approach it from getting it road-worthy/reliable first. There's some body rust but hardly any rust on the undercarriage. From what little I've been able to find out, that can be an issue with the OBS so I made sure. As far as the engine is concerned, It's sounding like it might be a good idea to get a JDM engine and get that running. Because the suspension is already marginal I'm not sure what to do. Spending money fixing the original suspension only to rip a lot of it out in a year or two seems redundant and I don't know if I can get any real amount of money from the used stock parts. I know these questions are kinda dumb but I'm slowly earning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1 Lucky Texan Posted October 16, 2018 Share Posted October 16, 2018 (edited) driving on or offroad with a dicey engine is a worse plan, IMHO, than driving for a while on sloppy suspension with a decent engine - but yeah, you have to pick your battles with limited funds. If the car has components that make it unsafe to steer or brake - those must be addressed of course. LOTS of cars are on the road with bad shocks and springs and 'iffy' bushings, etc. The cars with bad engines are in the junkyard. It may depend also on what tolerance you have for risk, if you offroad with buddies that could rescue you vs alone ,how far and how crazy the offroad adventures are, you have other transportation, what time-frame you have to get the car up and going, etc. many folks here have plenty of experience to help you with specific questions, and much more experience than I do. good news on the underbody rust issue, still, you will want to spray PB Blaster on a few spots for a few days before tackling some of those suspension and brake and steering connections. Edited October 16, 2018 by 1 Lucky Texan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
comatosellama Posted October 16, 2018 Share Posted October 16, 2018 I’ve gotten an outback strut lift for an Impreza from a junkyard for under $200, worth checking a u pull to see if there’s a car with good struts Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
el_freddo Posted October 17, 2018 Share Posted October 17, 2018 I think you need to identify what the noise from the engine is - if it’s a shot tensioner then replace it! The valve knock is really valve knock? It doesn’t sound like the engine is as dead as others seem to make out. If you’re going to do suspension work replace the struts with forester units as these will provide some lift. Someone will know what springs to run. Lift blocks can be added later. There are a few mobs that do lift over your way to choose from. Otherwise Subi Lift Oz over here can ship internationally All the best with it! Cheers Bennie 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taskz Posted October 22, 2018 Author Share Posted October 22, 2018 (edited) On 10/16/2018 at 10:31 AM, 1 Lucky Texan said: driving on or offroad with a dicey engine is a worse plan, IMHO, than driving for a while on sloppy suspension with a decent engine - but yeah, you have to pick your battles with limited funds. If the car has components that make it unsafe to steer or brake - those must be addressed of course. LOTS of cars are on the road with bad shocks and springs and 'iffy' bushings, etc. The cars with bad engines are in the junkyard. It may depend also on what tolerance you have for risk, if you offroad with buddies that could rescue you vs alone ,how far and how crazy the offroad adventures are, you have other transportation, what time-frame you have to get the car up and going, etc. many folks here have plenty of experience to help you with specific questions, and much more experience than I do. good news on the underbody rust issue, still, you will want to spray PB Blaster on a few spots for a few days before tackling some of those suspension and brake and steering connections. Thanks for the tips. The suspension is pretty worn but safe enough. Worn spring and shocks mostly. The brakes must be addressed and will be. I'll be mostly with a passenger but by myself otherwise. I live in an area with tons of trails within a half hour's reach that have cell coverage. I'm not doing anything really crazy for a good while. I love off-roading but I've usually been in the passenger seat. I know i'll have a learning curve. On 10/17/2018 at 3:15 AM, el_freddo said: I think you need to identify what the noise from the engine is - if it’s a shot tensioner then replace it! The valve knock is really valve knock? It doesn’t sound like the engine is as dead as others seem to make out. If you’re going to do suspension work replace the struts with forester units as these will provide some lift. Someone will know what springs to run. Lift blocks can be added later. There are a few mobs that do lift over your way to choose from. Otherwise Subi Lift Oz over here can ship internationally All the best with it! Cheers Bennie Yep, it's definitely valve knock. My son in law is finishing his course to be a tech and he confirmed it. A few days ago I diagnosed the noise. It's the water pump. Installing Forester struts seems a good cheap way to get a good amount of lift for cheap and I think I'll go that route once I can. I might be running into issues with a JDM engine swap but I'll post that in a separate post. The laws here might not allow for it. If anyone has input on that I'm in Salt Lake County, Utah USA Edited October 22, 2018 by taskz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
el_freddo Posted October 23, 2018 Share Posted October 23, 2018 Hmmm... the water pump shouldn’t make a knocking noise. That to me points at the cost belt tensioner that’s in the same region as the water pump. If you remove the driver’s side cam cover and inspect the tensioner with the engine running you can accurately diagnose the real issue. We carefully used a stethoscope to listen to the tensioner. This pinpointed our knocking sound as the tensioner (new aftermarket unit, replaced with second hand OEM and haven’t looked back). All the best with it! Cheers Bennie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeneralDisorder Posted October 23, 2018 Share Posted October 23, 2018 Timing belt tensioner. Must use an NTN. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nvu Posted October 23, 2018 Share Posted October 23, 2018 Another vote for tensioner Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
comatosellama Posted October 24, 2018 Share Posted October 24, 2018 On 10/23/2018 at 1:23 AM, el_freddo said: Hmmm... the water pump shouldn’t make a knocking noise. That to me points at the cost belt tensioner that’s in the same region as the water pump. If you remove the driver’s side cam cover and inspect the tensioner with the engine running you can accurately diagnose the real issue. We carefully used a stethoscope to listen to the tensioner. This pinpointed our knocking sound as the tensioner (new aftermarket unit, replaced with second hand OEM and haven’t looked back). All the best with it! Cheers Bennie I’ve had great luck using a really long screwdriver as a stethoscope, plastic end pressed hard against your ear, and poke the other end where you wanna listen. Confirmed my piston slap with this Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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