3eyedwagon

John, You need to have someone with a bit more experience take a look at this thing, and figure out what your problem is. I've seen the 2" blocks installed wrong create massive camber issues. It's not real complicated, but, crap happens. Get some good pics of STRAIGHT DOWN on top of your struts with the hood up. Maybe we can spot it here. If that isn't your problem, I'd recomend more degrees in the block (no two of these cheaply built unibodys are identical, 15* blocks on my old white wagon were dead on the nuts, others have been off one way or the other), or checking your other components. Something could be bent.

No, If you lay them side by each you'll notice the ea82 axle is a fair amount longer than the ea81s. That's because the car is wider. You can however steal the doj cups from the ea82 axle, and put them on the ea81 axle. You'll gain about 1.5" of axle stretch length. Do a search. General Disorder has a good right up about it.

You're right Bob. That above post is wrong. Early 80s stuff is referred to as 2nd gen by most everyone I've ever known. As in 1980-1984, and of course there are ALOT of runovers, but, in general that roundier cooler body style. The later 80s (like 85 & later) stuff is 3rd gen. The square body ones all the way up to the Loyales. RX's. etc. That's all 3rd gen.

^ exactly. A cam plate would be kinda silly at this point since you have to drop below the stock mounting anyways. Plus I wouldn't want to modify that solid unibody mounting point on a car with the stress of a lift on it. You just need to be sure that the new upper mounting point of the strut is directly inboard from the stock mounting point at a 15* angle. If the strut towers supplied are incorrect in their angles, that is your problem. I've seen a few cars that required different angles, so 15* is just kinda the average "magic number". You may need to go a hair more, depending on your car. EDIT: You may also want to check if you have the adjustable front struts. If you do, and they are adjusted all the way up; you can probably get your camber back to acceptable by adjusting the strut lift nuts back down. Or set something really heavy on the hood.

So, since these are a money making deal of yours; this thread should probably be in the "for sale" or better yet "vendor" forum instead of here in the offroad section.

^ For the Horde? WtF traitor! Yeah. The 390s are pretty silly. I've heard stories of guys jamming 16s on 16.5" rims as an early redneck form of beadlocks :-\. I've only seen one set in person though, and they were used on a trailered trail rig. I didn't want to stare at how well the bead seated for too long, as they were kinda making me nervous being near them. Either way, seems kinda sketchy to me. Anyways, that's all totally irrelevant to the 390s because that bead design on them is incredibly worthless. I'd be nervous enough putting a proper 390 on there, let alone trying to cobblejam somthing else together. Get rid of em. Or tig weld 3 of them together for a pretty shop stool with a storage compartment.

If what someone has works for them; there really is no arguement. I think there is an obvious natural progression of how much you modify your Subaru, and it's all dependant on what you want/need, and how far you intend to take it. I've wheeled my wagon in a wide variety of configurations, and I look at each step as the next natural progression. 1: In stock configuration it was good. It did things that I never would have expected it to do. It was like a little Jeep that maneuvered great, went down the road great, handled alot of things well, and naturally had it's limitations. 2: The next natural progression was better tires, and as we all know; it resulted in better performance. 3: The next natural progression after that was a welded differential. This was a NIGHT and DAY difference. Even though the car was still stock, it was amazing how much better it performed off road. Obviously the on-road manners were already beginning to suffer with the bigger tires, and now a welded diff. However, for my wants, and needs; it was a good compromise. 4: The next natural progression to me was to build a lift for it. The first Subaru I had ridden in was a 4" lifted Hatch, and it was phenomenal. So, apart my car came, and on went a home made lift. With 4" of lift, the car still performed great. Other than the mechanical failures caused by stressing 26 year old parts; it performed better than I could have ever dreamed. Once I got used to it; I liked it more than I ever had before. It drove great on the highway, it wheeled way better than it ever could have stock, and it looks pretty cool. My favorite part is that I can take it to places that before I would have been concerned about scraping the door, or banging up the underbody, and it clears all those places without concern. Is it perfect? Hell no! But I'd like to think it's alot better suited for my wants. The end result for me was that that car was a little too nice to really be thrown to the wolves like I want to do, and it just isn't enough to make me happy. So, I'm on to the next natural progression. Build something better, bigger, and that I won't be worried about caving a door in on. If the next natural progression isn't your style; I can totally understand, and if what you have meets your wants/needs don't change it to keep up with the status quo. If people don't like what you're up to; they can go _____ themselves! From the airborn pics I've seen you definitely do your own style of Subaru driving, and you don't have crap to prove to anyone. But, I think some of what your confusing for people's defensiveness towards your comments may actually be misdirected or misrepresented passion. Once you've gone through the natural progression of lifting a dual range car, it really seems kinda silly to wheel one stock. I had a killer little dual range hatch that was phenomenal in alot of situations, but, every time I looked at it all I could think of doing to it was lifting it, and beating it to death. So down the road it went. It just couldn't compare to my lifted wagon. So, anyways. If you don't like the lifted ones, that's great. I admire you for wheeling yours stock. That's a hell of alot better than the bolt on kit pavement pounders I see alot of, at least in my eyes. But, I think you need to see both sides of the picture before totally discounting lifts. They aren't necessary, but, they are undeniably better if offroading is really what you want to do.

It is very possible that the hydo locking did any number of things that could cause the engine to not turn. A bent rod (most likely your probelm) will cause the piston to dig into the cylinder wall. If a piston fractured, it could also dig into the cylinder wall with the same results. If the rod broke, it could dig in somewhere with the same results. A bent crank (alot let likely in my experience, none with Subaru engines, but, with 90 degree V engines instead) can also seize an engine completely. My best suggestion would be to peak into the hole the pop created. You may be able to see the offending rod, and knock it loose with a little persuasion. Hydro locks suck man, and they happen so easily. I've seen temp switches whipe out a few engines by overloading them with fuel.

WTF?!? You gotta stop drinking and posting man!

Maybe stating your reason for no lift would help to clarify a little bit. But, one thing I know for certain is that I'd be embarassed if I'd ever spent a dime on purchasing a lift kit, maybe that's why people get defensive. People who have that much money into something tend to get a little defensive, whereas the people who build their own are probably a little more likely to not give two $***$ about anyone elses opinions. Especially people who bought theirs... From what I've seen, it gos like that with pretty much any form of vehicle modding. The guys that bought a full out fiberglass 32 Ford Highboy, and had it built at a shop are usually a little more touchy than the guy who actually spent the wrench time building their own. Same deal with the Jeep guys who pretty much built their Jeeps straight outta JC Whitney. Compare them to a guy that knows every nut, and bolt on his Jeep because he spent the time to source a bunch of Junkyard parts in order to save a buck. Another thing is that maybe lifts aren't really that necessary in your climate, and geography???? I'm just totally stabbing in the dark here, but, from most of the pics of yours I've seen; your area looks pretty dry, and fairly desert like. Sort of comparable to our Southwest. I've wheeled a non lifted Subaru here, and I know the biggest set back for a non lifted Subaru is that our ground is just so damn wet. Mud is pretty hard to avoid, even in late summer. If you can get that body up out of the mud, your are miles ahead of a non lifted car, so as far as that goes; it could just be a thing of necessity as well. Just a guess.

Clean everything really well, and YES. Shouldn't be a problem at all. Just crank her up!

We all must have magical clutches! Just drop it, and go, and you shouldn't have that much of a problem. As for this thread: Good idea! I can't wait to see how it turns out.

John, It looks to me like you have both a caster, and camber issue. Make sure that the blocks you cut are at 15*, and that the top of your strut is position DIRECTLY inboard (towards the engine) from stock. Any positioning towards the front or back will create problems. I've seen a few people install the rear out-board block of the front lift backwards, and it creates MASSIVE caster/camber problems. If the top of the strut is positioned any other way than directly inboard from stock; something in your lift is incorrect. If you can get some detailed pictures it would help diagnosing your problems. Other than that; the 15* degree 2" lift has worked well on all of the vehicles that I have seen with them. You don't really need ANY crossmember blocks with this design of lift, that is kinda the whole point of it. It's not the perfect lift, but, it is great for it's simplicity. Especially on a wheeler.

This = 235/75/15 on a 2 inch lift http://ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=97397&highlight=2+inch+lift I'll let you do the math.

I'm still trying to figure out what GM you could be racing that weighs 4500 pounds. A fully loaded stock 60s Impala weighs under 4000, so is this engine in a truck? Either way, if he's back halved or has any good rearend geometry; you're probably in trouble. You both have around 520hp, but what are the torque numbers?

Bingo. I don't get out the leathers until I'm running over 30 volts Dual Shield. The smaller 110v machines will only put out 19-21 volts maximum. I don't use leathers at all for most kinds of stick welding, because it just doesn't spatter that much. Just wanted to point this out because I'd hate to see you invest the money in a nice set of leathers, and have them spend most of their time rolled up collecting dust like mine do.

Leathers aren't really necessary for the kind of voltage that machine will put out. I'm not saying it isn't going to throw any sparks, but, they aren't going to be the big gobbing balls of molten steel that you may be expecting. Especially if you are going to be using primarily hard wire. A good dense, high thread count loung sleave shirt will handle most anything that baby will throw off, and will cost you a fraction of the price. In fact once the weather warms up a bit, I usually weld in short sleaves. It helps me tan for summer! It also increases your UV intake, so I wouldn't really reccomend it.

It's a big step backwards from the previous Impreza in nearly every category. Even "Top Gear" said it felt horrible compared to previous models! Did I win anything???

3 inch is going to put a bit more stress on your front axles. Most people with this 2 inch lift have stuck with only going 2 inches for a reason. Even with just the 2 inches; the axles are already stressed a bit, and at full suspension droop, they will rub a bit. I'd be a bit surprised if you can fit the 3 inch blocks in there, as we've had a bit of trouble on a few cars just getting the 2 inch blocks in. For the style of lift in this thread you only need to drop the front struts, and rear struts. That is all that is required. If you want to go any bigger; you will need to do a complete lift. It requires alot more blocks, and quite a bit more work. But, with this lift; you'll need 6 blocks to lift the front struts (there's a diagram floating around here somewhere), and flatbar bent to drop the rear struts at the top, from their original mounting position (or another way of dropping the struts).

Most of them being related to people not reading their owners manual, and mixing it with non-extended life. We had a little science expiriment, and mixed the two. That's definitely the source of most of the clogs. People "top up" with a little of whatever they have, and it makes a nice pudding.

Check out Summit. They have a 100 amper on sale right now for about 67 dollars + shipping. It's a part number 7157 large body, available in any color you want, as long as it's black!!!! I only point it out because it's a pretty smoking deal, and it ends in late April.

The trans cooler lines should run into the side of the radiator. They do leak, but that would be fairly obvious. You can tighten both the hard cooling lines into the radiator bungs, and the bung into the radiator. The bung does leak from time to time, and can be tightened with a large crescent wrench. Do so slowly, and carefully. Overtightening can crack the radiator tank. That would make for a much larger, more noticeable leak. :-\

Most of the intake gasket problems were pretty well wrapped up by 1998, but I wouldn't rule that out. Is it all lost in the radiator, or is the overflow tank draining as well? If the radiator is just a bit low; that is completely normal. Most all of these I've ever had would "shed" coolant if you filled the radiator to completely brimming full. I'd recomend filling the overflow tank to "full cold" while the motor is cold, and then fill the radiator to near the top, but not full. If you can stick your little finger in, and touch the coolant; that is full enough. Another place to check for small leaks is under the passenger side carpet. If the heater core is starting to go (common on these) it can leak very slightly, be absorbed by the carpet, and then evaporate without you ever noticing. Also be sure to check the wheep hole on the water pump. It is common for those to leak so slightly it isn't noticeable, and the coolant evaporates from the heat of the motor. You have to get underneath, and specifically check for marks right around the wheep hole. GOOD LUCK!

That's the life of a wheeled Subaru. You know you are getting the body "broke in" when the rear hatch light comes on intermently in the off camber sections of your driveway. Or just at a stop light.

Subaru already made an axle disconnect. They called it "roll pins".