Hotshot

Curious, what year is the engine? I'm trying to get an EJ20R swap completed here myself, and that solenoid box has me a bit confused.

Beautiful car, I'm working on trying to piece one together here in the US myself, and not having a whole lot of luck with it at the moment. Have fun with it!

I've heard nothing but good stuff about the guys at Agile, who are located in MD. Might be worth checking them out. http://www.agileauto.com/

Yup, thats what I thought when I was reading that issue of consumer reports. Subaru was ranked in second place, behind honda, and ahead of toyota.

It really would be a shame to have to bring the impreza when you have a brat at home. Whats the game plan after everyone gets there? I'm showing up there some time tonight with not much more of a plan than "listen for soob exhausts and walk in that general direction".

I'll see if i can dig up my car washing bucket and supplies. It sure has been a while since I used them.

Well, looks like at the last minute I decided to try and make it up there this weekend. Hopefully I will still be able to get in, I'm really just planning on showing up and playing it by ear. Should get there late friday night or early saturday morning, and I will hopefully run into every somewhere. I will probably bring a tent but I may just put down the rear seats and sleep in the wagon... *goes off to see if he fits in the wagon* Anyways, I can't wait to get there and finally put faces to the names!

The 3.0 Legacys really are amazing cars, and you would be doing yourself a real favor by dumping the VW for one. I do like the newer Lexus's also, but I've gotten to the point where I don't think I could not have the AWD for daily driving, and my faith in Toyota's reliability has wavered somewhat lately. I'll try an answer your questions as best as I can. Others here can probably give more input.

Sorry I haven't checked here in the last few days, things have been pretty insane with exams and all. bob, as far as the issue with the transmission crossmember goes, I was planning on just having the exhaust shop cut and remade the driver's side downpipe when I have the rest of the exhaust made instead of trying to find the crossmember. I do have both downpipes thank goodness. For the "black box of doom" I think the previous owner of the car who started the swap took care of it, and it seems to all be in place. All I have to do is hook up all the vacuum lines. I had thought of converting the engine to single turbo for more power and the ability to tune it also, but then I had to ask myself: "why am I doing this anyways?" I feel that if I was going to run a single turbo car, I would have just stuck with a LHD car and a USDM turbo engine, of which there are a dime a dozen. I want something unique, even if it isnt the most convenient or the most powerful option available.

For an update on the crossmember issue: Talked it over with a few friends/mechanics, asked around on a few different forums on a few different continents, and came to the consensus that the bast way to get around this issue is to just have the downpipe cut and remade when the exhaust is put on the car. This is the one way to solve the problem I could come up with without modifying anything structural, or paying for rare, expensive overseas parts. Any thoughts, feel free to post them.

I got mine off of ebay, where they show up all the time. They bolt in as a direct fit, but the wiring is slightly different. I made a pair of adapters that would plug into the stock H4 wiring harness to fit the projectors so I would have the option of going back to standard headlights if I ever needed to. The only other thing about them is since they were Japanese market only, the cutoff shield on the projectors should be flipped in order to change the lighting pattern for driving on the right side of the road.

My '97 Outback had a single din headunit from the factory, with the other space being taken up by a plastic storage compartment. I swapped out the stock unit for a Sony so I could play CD's, and I find the extra compartment very useful for either keeping my MP3 player or CD case in. I'm sure you will be able to find one of these on ebay or in a junkyard fairly easily for a couple of dollars if thats the route you want to go. Personally, cost aside, I would like to go with a gauge set up similar to nippers, whose I really envy.

Mine got to the point where they had spiderweb cracks running through them, and were almost completely opaque. I replaced them with a pair of the projectors, which were a huge upgrade, and cheaper than buying new headlights. I'm not sure if you can just get the plastic lenses for them though.

Any time one of mine starts to rattle, I just throw a steel hose clamp around it and tighten it down. Has worked for me for over a year, and I don't see them coming off anytime soon. To me, this seems like the best approach because it doesn't pose the danger of nails puncturing tires, and I would have to imagine it lasts longer and is more effective than stuffing the heat shield full of aluminum foil or steel wool. Isn't steel wool flammable anyways?

Looks like it to me too. I can't imagine it would be comfortable to drive like that. I wonder what other "minor modifications" he has had to make to get it to work?