carfreak85

I've had luck reaching out to U.S.-based coilover manufacturers providing dimensions after I've told them what I'm trying to accomplish.

OK, ohm'd the plug wires, and the Densos (that were a few years old, but by no means ancient) were coming out at 7-9 kohms, while the new NGKs I installed were in the 3.5 kohm range. The throttle related hesitation has all but disappeared during normal driving. Spark plugs have not been change yet (NGK iridium 11s), but the spark plugs were dry of oil or water. There is still a slight sag in power after the 1-2 shift on cold mornings, which was the original symptom, so I guess we're back to square one.

No TGVs on this engine or fun camshaft toys like some of the later EJ253s. Never engine swapped either. I will look into that today.

Fuel pump is original to the chassis during our ownership (200k miles +/-). ODO shows 257k, but ODO was replaced under warranty prior to our ownership. We hooked up an SSM2 and were able to trace the TPS plot. Shows 0, shows 100, no wacky movement otherwise. Ran the FSM diagnostic procedure and it passed as well. MAF has been cleaned a couple times, haven't banged on it yet though. @GeneralDisorder has mentioned dropped valve guides not being an issue on '99 EJ253s, but I could be misremembering that...

Hooked up the SSM2 and monitored the Misfire channel during the stumble. Nothing registered while it was happening. Stumbles pretty badly at times at low throttle/low load pulling away from stops. Car will accelerate through the stumble with WOT, but you can still feel periodic hesitation in the acceleration, but not the 'bring-you-to-a-crawl' low-speed stumble. Coil checks out, IAC checks out.

There are apparently Honda Civic coilovers that are somewhat compatible with out front knuckle design. That's all the information I have, unfortunately. Rears can be easily adapted to 00+ Legacy/08+ Impreza rear coilovers.

Well hello there! I still want a brush guard!

I would do the factory procedure regardless of what gasket is used. It's not as if Fel-Pro knows something about the EA81 that FHI engineers didn't.

Interested in one spare for myself.

The car seems to know when it's hooked up to the SSM and behaves as it should. Stumble persists, but the car seems to need a few extra revolutions to fire off after sitting.

Sprayed down the intake piping while the engine was running to no effect. Did notice the oil pressure sender was wet and was emitting bubbles after I shut it off and was inspecting the intake manifold... Will do some laps this weekend with the SSM2 hooked up.

I sold a non-op, stock RX 3-door with no title and some rust under the battery for $2,200 exactly two years ago. And the buyer paid to have it hauled from Seattle to Coeur d'Alene.

At this point in the vehicle's life, whatever 13-in. tire you can find close to ~22-23-in. diameter is the right size tire. There's only a handful of decent handling, safe options out there (I'm looking at you, re-treaded tires...)

Yes, VINs match. Vehicle has been in our family since ~2004 (or two sets of HGs ). Plain old fixed steel cam gears on this mill, no tumble generator valves. I'm going to try some starter fluid on the intake system today.

It's a USDM 1999 with a non-AVCS EJ253 SOHC engine (build plate on strut tower confirms -253 engine). IACV may be my next target.