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it was one of those rare cases where id say: easier done than said even with the window stuck on up. all done in 20 minutes. in the name of science, opened the old motor, all damage was due to water ingression, god knows how it got there

And here we are as it sits tonight. Wiring harness, AC Lines, Cables, Coolant overflow lines, everything has been evacuated from the front drivers side corner. Hope to start cutting tomorrow!

With the spark plugs out, crank the engine until you see oil pressure. It'll crank pretty fast and build pressure after a couple tries. Also don't prefill the oil filter, if the oil pump wasn't preprimed it'll take very long for the air to overcome the oil stuck in the filer. If you're not sure, just crank it with no oil filter until you see it spit out oil, then the pump is primed. Put back the filter and crank for pressure. I'd crank until the oil light goes out, let it rest while I button up the some things, come back and test crank again to confirm the oil light instantly goes out. Then you're sure everything ready to fire up.

Find another tech.

Working on getting cruise control set up. Swapped over the stalk from my red Impreza to the green one. Not too bad but I wasn't getting continuity/switching at the base of the steering column. Turns out the rotary coupling for the steering wheel on the green car was broken. We took it apart since it was already broken. Not a design we were expecting to see. Guessing someone put it together a turn or two off center. I swapped in the one from the red Impreza which was a bit of a project. Hopefully it's on center. The wire plugs for the airbag are different (red Impreza is a 96, green is a 98) but most of that has been removed already. Hooked it back up and the horn works and we seem to have continuity at the base of the column now. B replaced the washer pump on the green Impreza, it was leaking at the bottom of the body. The best replacement I had was the one in the black Outback. B swapped some city boy tires on the black Outback. Then he swapped the less worn mud tires that had been on it on my green Impreza. We rolled the rear fenders for a little more tire clearance at full bump. B also hammered a few flanges behind the tire for clearance. Articulation picture below, probably not as far as it can stretch. Three wheels still on the ground. Trigger warning slammo, rear ABS cables laying on the floor never to be reinstalled. It was a good thing we did that because we learned a couple of things. One, the parking brake cables were pulling tight on suspension compression. Rerouted them and we seem to have enough slack now. Two, the wheel weights were hitting the strut brackets. We don't normally run them at max negative camber and the old wheels apparently didn't have weights on the inner beads. Ground those down and repainted them. We also did a little PID tuning on the cams and looked over cruise control wiring. Some updates in the EZ36 swap thread.

I’ve rebuilt a ton of totaled cars which many people claim is hard, terrible, and fraught with danger and potential rejection or unknown problems and the state is out to get you. I’m an untrained DIY guy, never had shop classes or been in auto business. Never had a problem rebuilding a totaled car and getting a real title for it. It’s not a big deal. I haven’t done a title-less car but after the rebuilding process I wouldn’t be deterred if the right situation presented itself. I’ve seen the process listed looking at potential buys and other car protocols. The state tells you what to do - go do what they say. In my experience the inspectors and people involved aren’t as bad to deal with as many claim. They just want to see the I’s crossed and T’s dotted and nothing sketchy and you’re good.

I'm swapping an STi 6mt into my XT6 and have the center crossmember piece, but can't find the XT6 front and back pieces (my car is an automatic). Does anyone know where I can get those parts, and until then would it be a problem if I just used those from a regular EA82 chassis car and drilled holes to mount the EJ center piece?

It's unlikely the high pressure, that's a pipe from the steering hose that only turns into a hose somewhere behind the engine. If that one even leaks a little you'll lose all power steering within an hour, it's like 200psi. There's two low pressure hoses, one comes back from the steering rack and into the reservoir, unlikely leak. The other one goes from the reservoir back into the pump and is all rubber, that's probably the culprit. I don't know what the name is... it's the "really squiggly one".

Is that the one with the plastic reservoir on the side? Those rarely leak. It's more likely the rubber hoses have gone brittle and are leaking at the clamps. Check the hoses first, likely need to change those out only.

Going on the real cheap for a nickel sized hole, there are furnace repair/sealing silicone caulks available at Home Depot good for 1000 degrees. Cost around $15 for 10 oz caulking tube. I have made some lasting repairs where welds at y junctions failed. Other areas have begun to leak but original repair is still solid 4 years later. https://www.homedepot.com/p/3M-10-1-fl-oz-Red-Fire-Barrier-CP-25WB-Plus-Sealant-CP25WB-10/100166701 "3M™ Fire Barrier Sealant CP 25WB+ shall be a one component, ready-to-use, gun-grade, latex-based, intumescent firestop sealant capable of expanding a minimum of three times its dried volume when exposed to temperatures above 1000°F (538°C)." Beyond 1000 degrees, ya got other problems.

Thanks, glad you're enjoying it. For the first eight(ish) years of this thread they're all just saved on my personal website. The last couple years USMB hasn't been conveniently linking to them so I just upload them to the general gallery. As long as they're under 240kb it seems like you can upload as many as you want.

@pontoontodd If I may ask, your posts are always loaded with great pictures. How and where do you host them and get them to show as pictures in your threads instead of links to an off site picture on Google Drive or similar. Did you purchase more storage space at USMB? Thank you for all of your content - I enjoy following your threads.

No, it doesn't. The car it came from didn't have a middle piece, I think the transmission had 2 mounts (one on the front, one on the back). The rear part isn't a big problem, the crossmember I have was flat so I just drilled holes in it; the problem is the front piece because the spot where one of the holes would go is on a slope (while writing this comment I realized I may have been an idiot and had it backwards, will check later.) I know the front piece from an EJ car won't fit, but don't remember checking the width of a rear piece so I'll also check that later to see if I can use something from another car.

Makes things easier if you turn the engine over by hand until all 3 timing marks are straight up before removing the tensioner and belt. Put a axle nut on the crank pulley bolt to space it out. This was a 2004 OB and those are Aisin tensioner and water pump in this pic.

hi, i have a pairs of used ones, $50. pair delivered to you priority mail. OOPS! sorry i didn't realize you are in Finland, i have them but $40. + ? shipping to you.

Z and I did some more wiring on the Impreza, will update the EZ36 swap page shortly. Non-engine swap related wiring, modified the fog light wiring a bit so they only come on with high beams rather than just with low beams. Makes it easier to switch the light bars on and off. Spliced in an extra wire to the red wire (pin 1 of connector shown below) that's grounded with high beams on over to the fog light switch. Spliced that in to the yellow blue wire (pin 5 connector shown below) that normally is grounded with low beams on. Power locks hadn't been working because the lock timer module (or whatever it's called) was still bolted to the dash. Unbolted that and plugged it into the harness and now the power locks work. RF power window doesn't seem to work at all but other than that they mostly work. The switch on the driver's door doesn't hit a couple directions so that should eventually be replaced. B fixed the broken rear washer fluid hose and modified the air box a bit more. Got the parking brake working. Z and I machined up a couple barrels for the ends of the stock parking brake cables. B welded and painted some pieces of tubing on the strut brackets. Not much clearance there to the wheel and tire but there's already less clearance elsewhere. Easier than expected really. We took the car for a test drive and tried to do a little more low RPM high load tuning. Maybe improved things a bit in that region of the map but probably not much left to be gained. Can slightly accelerate up a fairly steep paved hill from 400RPM in third gear. Parking brake works fantastic. Put maybe half effort on the handle and it locked up at least one of the bald mud tires on dry pavement. Should actually work decent as a handbrake but definitely as a parking brake. Other than that the test drive went pretty well. Still losing synch on one of the exhaust cams occasionally, doesn't really affect how it runs and resynchs when you restart it. At one point I was going too slow and stalled the engine shifting into sixth gear. When I restarted it the engine was running rough like it did a week ago. Shut it off and restarted it and then ran smooth. Sent that log to Haltech too. After dinner we worked on the white Subarus. B replaced the front pads on his Forester. We cranked in as much negative camber as possible in the front of my white Outback, which isn't a lot. I keep wearing out the outside of my tires first on all my Subarus running them at zero camber so I finally wised up and adjusted the alignment. Then we reset the toe. After that we finally fixed the exhaust. First I made a replacement pipe for the section that was smashed. Welded and painted with some high temp paint. Here is the smashed and leaky section we cut out. It probably looks worse in person but might be down to half the original cross section. B cut the hanger off the stock section of pipe and I welded that on the replacement pipe, got the replacement in place and welded it on both ends. Quieter than before. Probably added 100hp too.

So recently I did the maxima alternator upgrade. super simple. just had to redneck machine the spacer under the pulley and attach a few wires. while I was at it I unclusterfked the wiring from the guy I sold it to, the bought it back from I then replaced the redline weber adapter with the transdapt 2107. A few months ago I took it on a road rally. was a blast. And today I discovered the engine I put together which is a combination of an spfi block and the carb engine heads and cams, is high enough compression that it needs premium..

Good advice @scoobydube, but this is an eight year thread update request from 88glonthadl. Long shot to get a reply but sometimes worth asking. Cheers Bennie

I bought a set of the LED headlight bulbs that was deemed directly compatible with my OEM headlight bulbs. Big mistake. My digital dash went haywire and the engine began cutting out and otherwise ran poorly. Then the below dash relay switches were overheating and burning out. Finally, I realized that those LED's were screwing up my car big time, but only after I changed out my distributor, coil, cap and fusible links in a rain storm. Now I am back to the the OEM bulbs, have installed all new relay switches, and keep a handful of spare relay switches to pop in if I have any further problems. 524,000 miles on my 86 gl10 turbo.

To help out crazyeights with getting them one! Yes they’re different and not interchangeable without mods. ‘84 is the crossover year of Oz where I am, not sure about the US. The EA81 gearbox crossmember has two bolt holes at either end for the mounts. The EA82 has a big hole at each end of its gearbox crossmember for a rubber bush and bolt arrangement. ^ that’s the easiest way to differentiate between the two gearbox crossmembers Cheers Bennie

Different dashboard due to the cluster being shorter. This was from the dashboard swap to get the better looking instrument cluster into my brumby: The smaller cluster does not have oil pressure or voltage. You might be able to make out the unit of measurement on the oil pressure gauge of the long dash too. I’d much prefer one in psi! About those tyres on the 5.5 inch wide rim - ask the tyre fitters. They’ll know if it’s even safe to run those tyres on that rim and may possibly know how much they’ll overhang. Or ask if they can fit one tyre to a rim and do a test fit on the front and rear of the brat to check for clearances. Cheers Bennie

The calmasters I actually had gotten from a member on here and I got them for a STEAL of a price because the gentleman quoted me a price including shipping that turned out to be way less than the actual cost to ship them (I think they came from Alaska but I could be wrong) but the person was a man of their word and wouldn't accept any more money or just give up the transaction all together either. They sold them to me for what I'm sure was quite a loss and I definitely appreciated that. I originally got them for my GL/Loyale (Leone) cars, but they wound up getting parked and I didn't want these to rust so I pulled them and put them in the basement. My understanding is they were a limited run of 4x140 wheels made by an aftermarket company out of California. Come to find the BRAT is a California model as well so they kinda seem fitting on there. I don't know. We'll see. Thanks for all the kind words

By VIN, your car uses the 040. 100 is for the 3.0 and 07-09 253 (I work in parts at a Subaru dealership). Destination code U5 is for California, even though it's a 253.

Drove the car around the block this morning, ran smooth and pulled hard. Took a log of that and sent it to Haltech, hopefully they can tell some difference between the two. Recently finished these taller castle nuts, don't think I'd posted a picture yet. We had one strip out on one of B's ball joints a while back and it could have been a lot worse had we been going over a walking pace. About twice the thread engagement if you don't count the castellated part. 4340 steel, need to check hardness vs the stock ones when I get my hardness tester back, might get them heat treated. Since we normally have to use a washer or two under the stock castle nuts with our fabricated control arms these fit instead without washers. Put one on the Impreza when we reassembled it.

Thought at first maybe a cam skipped timing or something but at least according to the Haltech they were still all good. Compression test isn't easy on these as you probably know. Haven't heard back from Haltech yet, will probably call them tomorrow. Will fire it up first, wouldn't be surprised if it runs OK after sitting.

We got the Impreza back together. While it was apart I tried to do some wiring with mixed results. We did get the reverse lights working. Spliced a connector on the wires that normally go to the auto trans to a connector that plugs into the 6MT harness. Both bulbs were a little corroded. Then it seemed like we had to shift it in and out of reverse a few times before they'd consistently light up, maybe the switch on the trans was a little sticky or dirty. Was going to splice the VSS in but the Impreza speedo appears to take a reluctor (2 wire) signal, VSS on the 6MT is 3 wire so I assume Hall effect. Will probably run the VSS signal to the Haltech and then hopefully a signal out from that to the speedo. I did swap the coolant temp sensor from the EZ30 in. It's 3 pin vs the EZ36 2 pin. Was hoping this would make the ECU read the temp more accurately since that's the actual sensor it's set up for but it still reads 200-210F while running which I think is higher than actual. Then I ran a wire from the other pin on the sensor to the temp gauge but unfortunately the temp gauge just reads high all the time now when the ignition is on. So much for Subarus being Legos. At least it's not a cable speedo I guess. Will post more details and pictures on the wiring when I figure out a little more. Still other wiring to figure out, fuel gauge still isn't working even though I don't think we did anything to that wiring. Need to get cruise working before any road trips. Also would be nice to have AC but still not sure if we can just give the solenoid on this compressor 12VDC indefinitely. I did clean up the wiring more, it's almost all in loom now, getting closer to being able to put the dash back in. The biggest improvement was in the shifting. The reverse lockout finally works consistently. Even better than that, with no slop it's a lot easier to find the gear you want. I think before there was more slop than actual shifter travel at least side to side. Engine was running great for about a half hour while we were doing some street tuning.We were lugging it up some hills (third gear full throttle 500RPM) to tune for low RPM high load. Stalled it a few times and after one rough stall I restarted the engine and it ran rough. No alarms/codes, air fuel seemed decent, cam timing looked decent. Cruised around town a bit, restarted it a few times, kept running rough. Not terrible but noticeably rougher idle and down on power. Probably unrelated since it was doing this before it started running rough but the ignition timing only matches the map at 2-3000RPM+. Anything below that it was around 3 or 5 degrees even though that part of the map is 10 to 20 degrees. Wondering if there some correction factor I'm missing or if this all some kind of idle region where the timing isn't following the base map. We tried it with and without the long term knock correction, no difference there in timing or whether it ran rough. Sent a log to Haltech, hopefully they see something. I did try reloading the older map and it still ran rough. Other than that everything seemed to work well, still doesn't leak a drop except from the one control arm bushing. We adjusted all the struts for maximum negative camber (didn't actually measure, probably not much less than zero since it sits so high) and the toe seems perfect at both ends. I hadn't really hit any obstacles since the gauge cluster is just sitting on the dash bar but I hit a small speed bump without thinking and the front end completely soaked it up. Rear end kicked a bit but more sound than feel (pile of plastic interior bits in the back). That will be better with a few hundred pounds of cargo in the back. So then of course I started hitting every speed bump and pothole I could find, it soaked them up nicely. It is a little bouncy on relatively smooth pavement, I think due to the relatively stiff springs for the weight. Will see how it sits loaded but might go with softer springs in the rear eventually. This set of struts has the valving a shock tuning expert suggested to us. Should be interesting to trail ride now with this Impreza, B's Forester, and Z's Forester all with significantly different shock valving but the same springs, wheel and tire sizes, wheelbase, and weight.

Check the hood emissions hose chart. It may have it. Looks like there is enough material there that you could go to ACE Hardware and get a brass fitting that is a barb on one side and and pipe thread on the other. Get the correct tap and thread it.

A few STI 6MT assembly tips and questions. So it seems the reverse lockout arm should be spring loaded towards the front of the car as shown in the picture above. Then the cable at its normal length will hold that arm so the hole is lined up with the case and it will be locked out of reverse. Pull on the cable and the arm will swing out of the lockout position. Had a heck of a time getting these lugs lined up to put the bolts in them through the side of the case. Finally I propped the lower one up with this little scrap of sheet metal. Got the bolts started and then opened the case just enough to pull it out with a tweezers. Main shift shaft has this large ball spring loaded against it but no notches. Is this just to add friction? There is a mark on the shaft where it looks like the ball was rubbing before, I don't think I've assembled it incorrectly. There's a notch in it towards the top that is for the neutral(?) sensor. Shift yoke roll pin hole is very oversized. Seems round, not worn, probably for a different trans? Welded the holes on both sides and ground them out to about the same size as the selector shaft on the trans. Hammered the roll pins in, no slop now.

Good time to paint your rims if getting new tyres - do it with the old tyres fitted so you don’t need to stress about overspray on the tyre itself. You should know glamour shots are ALWAYS welcome/appreciated! Cheers Bennie

Sounds right in line with any east coast find Subaru of the 70’s or 80’s. Pretty much the items that make it stand and stop. And maybe add in occasional fuel delivery if a true rust bucket or longtime sitter. Those black round things I think tofu won’t have as hard of a time if you go with the 165’s Good luck, and enjoy! Similar situation here with my 79. So if the stars align, where do me meet up? Barrens? Carlisle? Most of the northeast vintage Subaru people keep real low profiles. There’s a good amount but getting folks gathered is like herding cats. So I’ve heard.

I don't HAVE to be happy with the extra cats and O2s, but my neighbor does. It was his choice to buy this boat(a hole in the water into which you pour your money). He didn't have anyone to advise him against it. He bought it from a couple who moved from Calif to Montana. I think they were trying to unload the the boat. They knew it had high mileage problems. I told him that if he didn't change the oil & filter at 3000 miles I would never touch it again. That would be at 250K miles. Oh, yeah. He misstated the mileage on the odometer. He said 140K where it actually was 246K miles. Didn't find that out until battery was connected again. It does run well now with good power and mileage appears to be good, which was his major concern(?!?)

I don't know about newer axles, but for 2007 and earlier were all made by NTN. Look for the NTN stamped on the cup. If the axle doesn't have a name stamping or serial number, it's an el cheapo.

Moving forward with the reupholster of my 81 GL wagon front seats (only) going to try the Karo Madras 5710 brown plaid from Relicate. Here are some pictures of the fabrics side by side. Fyi if your drivers side seat leans to the passenger side as mine did, caused by pushing on the seat back as you wiggle in, you might have a broken frame near the adjustment mechanism it was a wonder the seat gave any support at all. Oh one more thing to remove the GL headrests you need to take the seat cover off then reach thru the front foam in two places and pull a pin, the head rest will then slide out. There are three rods for hog ring placement, the bottom one is the longest then the middle front has extra curly ends and the back top rod is the shortest one. Construction of the seat is as follows from outside in: Woven plaid material/vinyl sides A cotton or some sort of backing where your rear end sits Plastic but only on the shoulders and back of the seat. Foam molded into the seat springs Steel frame Duplicate pictures are with and without flash

And everything worked fine, thanks to God:

So, I did a Double challenge, long term experiment with these Coverless Timing Belts, One challenge was mileage lifespan (to reach certain Mileage) and the other challenge was time lifespan (Endurance in time); and the Coverless Belts definitely Surpassed both challenges by far, with flying colors, way better than the covered ones, due to multiple reasons; but someting to consider is that here, in Central America / Honduras, climate tend to be very Stable and Never Snows; however, the belts were exposed to mud, dust, small gravel, small branches and different fluid spills, even an accidental screwdriver dropage during this more than a decade long test / experiment, everything was Repelled by the spinning belts, even they cleansed by themselves, due to their centrifugal action. You can read Further, see photos and discuss the subject, Here: ~► https://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/topic/123470-timin-belt-covers/page/3/#elControls_1408538 Kind Regards.

and some more project Pictures

@Uberoo - going on from protontodd’s thread: you asked me about strengthening the L chassis after I made some comments about this. Below is what was shared with me. That’s all I’ve got and it’s not great quality in terms of sharp detail. Hopefully that gives you an idea of what was done for the rally vehicle setup Apologies for the delay in digging this up. It’s been in the back of my mind for a long time! Cheers Bennie

CTS is Bosch style 2 pin connector. No pigtail, harness clips straight to it. "natural" color. In front of turbo area, in the crossover pipe portion of intake. test if the idle issue is AAV related. Pinch the hose. If idle drops, then you're AAV is stuck open or leaking. I've just capped of a few of them. Then set the idle with the screw in the back of the throttle body. Might mean needing a tad bit of foot throttle on very cold days to warm up, but otherwise works fine and is less annoying than a constant high idle.

No they don`t. Both turbo engines use the same AAV(auxilary air valve) for high idle on a cold engine. No CTS involved.

Thought I'd just add an update to this post. Here is a newer pic of our ol' battlewagon, and a little video I put together on the car! Thanks again for the help here. Video: Looking back it's pretty dumb that we were going to have a shop do the install since it was so easy! They did a fine job on a bunch of other work they did but apparently don't know anything about lifting Subarus

Gaskets need to match the bore AND the coolant passages in the head. No stock gasket correctly does this. What you need are these. Cometic Part number: H1631spk051s

Looks like an awesome project. I have to say i'm in the "why mess up a clean, low miles, 2 owner brat?" You are kinda ruining the long term collector value. Don't get me wrong, your making it a cooler car to drive and own and enjoy for a while so I get it. It's just personally I would keep this one original.

Closed course, professional driver, I'm sure:rolleyes: You actually contributed 5th gear and the case, I thought. The STI gearset and fancy diffs actually makes it feel a lot more controlled than it did before. Your 5th gear is a little odd. I thought it would be more of a cruising/fuel economy gear, but it actually has enough power behind it. I have yet to have to downshift from 5th for a hill or anything. I just wish more people knew how gutless a stock Brat is, that way more people would flip a lid when I go by:lol: Jacob

The front drivers side is like a 2.5"x3.5" - there's no direct replacement availible. The passenger side front is like a 3"x4.5" or some stupid thing - nothing for that either. Also - you can't use the factory wireing because it's common ground, so you'll have to rewire anyway. Might as well replace those crappy speaks with something else while your at it. I got some speakers that were close in size, and just MADE them fit - lots of work with a dremel - they are in, but it was a pain in the rump roast (talking about my Brat here). On my wagon, I just disconnected them, and put the tweeters on the A pillar, and the mids in the forward section of the door. Problem with the door speakers is they are really shallow, and anything you get that will fit in there is going to be deeper, so you'll have to space them out. The factory location is REALLY bad as it projects the sound right into the seats :-\ I built custom boxes and mounted them further forward after removing the map pockets. It's a pain to wire in decent stereos into these cars, but it can be done. Had my car ripped up for days doing this.... GD