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Other side repeated today. Also took the opportunity to fit up the impreza wheel wells and strut towers I've saved. I cut the middle sections of the angle iron frame I tacked on when removing them, then using some more angle as a bridge I clamped them back together. I ended up somehow sacrificing a tape measure doing this, but I'm getting some momentum back in this project so if a cheap tape measure is the cost to get this back on the ground sooner over later I'm glad to pay it. I'll need to do a little more surgery to get them to fit truly properly, especially since the filler neck is on the opposite side of the vehicle, but I suppose if I'm doing this much fabrication that will be somewhat trivial. I'll also likely be cutting a lot of them out to fix some rust in them anyway, but it's a good start. Going to set this aside for a little while and return to the subframe setup. Any permanent install of these towers here is severely premature. Once I have a base I can measure from to get the strut towers to a proper height and location, I can start poking at this in more detail.

Sent out today!

Are you referring to the older 2 piece tensioner bracket? O.

I’ve just heard that the newer style are prone to more failure, besides looking weird. I guess I’m just stuck in my old ways and don’t like change very much unless I’m forced to. moosens you’re amazing and I would never be able to thank you enough! If you don’t find one it’s all good, I’m just going to move over to the newer style. cheers!

A mate of mine here in Oz swapped over to the newer tensioner style with its backing plate recently. Far easier to get replacement tensioners than finding the original style. All the best with your search!

Been away from the project for a little bit - but I got your DM- we can chat about it there. Finally got back to a little bit of progress - Bit another bullet and decided to do a little exploratory deathwheel surgery to get a better perspective for the rear subframe mounting solution. I chopped out the passenger bed wheel well and I think I will likely be widening the rear frame slightly to accomodate a stock subframe and subframe bushings (hooray, buying more parts... 😶) This will end up being a much cleaner solution to my problem and I think the creative use of some welded captive nuts and box tubing will yield pretty great results. I kind of half-assedly leaned the new coilover through the wheel well cut after also chopping off the stock bumpstop - and I think the space will be tight but sufficient, especially since I'm planning on using the old Impreza wheel wells as a base for the new structure. There'll probably be some reinforcement of the stock bed sides too, but I'm gonna approach this as close to one problem at a time as possible. Like i said - tight but doable. Everything is also just loosely stacked in place, and the rear end is jacked up about 8" higher than it probably would be so everything seems short at this perspective. I only need about another 1.5"- 2" of real estate to mount the forward bushings, and I think I have a pretty good idea how I'm going to get those in once I've got a new subframe to play with. If anyone has a '98 or thereabouts Impreza subframe handy with the bushings still intact (I botched the original by being hasty - see previous posts), reach out quick or I'm gonna get impatient and go to ebay for one 🤣 Gonna repeat the procedure on the other side of the bed, then it'll probably sit for a little while again while I locate a suitable subframe replacement.

40+ together. Wow, what an amazing achievement! Here's to another 40+!!

It was the throttle body gasket. After I installed it I pressure tested the coolant system. I also had a leak at the temp sensor but after tightening that I had no pressure loss at 10psi over 3 hours. It started up fine, took about 20 minutes of idling to blow most of the coolant out or burn it off. Idled nice and healthy, though it was noisy due to the HLA's needing to fully prime. I am about half way through the retorque and I have an oil pump leak to deal with. I used a plug where the old sensor was as I added an aftermarket one. But other than that she's ready for the road. Also, I noticed there's no pressure values for the cooling system in the FSM only head pressure. For that 20 minutes mine sat right around 4.2psi. Not sure if this changes with extended driving but I'll post if I notice a pattern. What a learning experience. It was quite disheartening at times. :]

Real estate has been a million an acre for a while; why LeBlancs sold out even with all the toxic chemicals from many decades of activity on the property. LaJoies will not sell exhaust parts claiming that they rot from the inside out. I agree that F and S is the area expert on Subarus, I've driven up to Waterbury for a specialist to install a water pump on a prior vehicle.

It might work, not sure though. The issue is the strut sockets into the steering knuckle, so you'd need a strut that had the right diameter and spring mount location. Here are the 4WD strut parts numbers I had in my notes. There are some used Loyale struts on eBay at the moment (both right and left). Front Right Sachs: W0133-1932779 Front Left Sachs: W0133-2038805 Front Right TRW: JGM4031SR Front Left TRW: JGM4031SL Front struts are very difficult to find. They are available but the parts availability seems to come in waves. There's not really any "upgrade" parts for these cars (there are overload springs out there). Just finding parts designed for these cars is an accomplishment. :]

My 2005 is nonturbo 2.5 and has the non cable electronic accelator pedal.