pontoontodd

Any thoughts on my 96 Impreza? The trans is really getting bad, my friend said it was making some loud whining noises for a little while, won't stay in fourth gear, and sticks in second and third gear sometimes. The body is beat up, probably every panel except the hatch is badly dented, but not rusty (originally from CO), it's got about 250k miles, the 2.2 has been overheated but head gaskets don't seem to leak, timing belt and clutch replaced about 10k miles ago. The only thing that doesn't really work is the AC, that's been converted to an air compressor. It's probably the most reliable car I've ever owned, I can't think of a time I've hopped in after letting it sit for weeks and it hasn't just fired up and ran great. Should I get a junkyard trans for a few hundred bucks and swap it in? I figure we could do it in a weekend if it goes OK, wasn't too bad in the Outback, which is much rustier. I could just see needing to replace some unexpected part and having it sit for a week or two, or breaking off some bolt and getting the trans halfway out. Should I sell it for parts or as a beater? I doubt I could get even $500 for it. Should I part it out and sell it for scrap? Suspension and the rest of the drivetrain seems good, just not sure what I'd use aside from the CV axles and possibly diff/driveshaft. Maybe the rear suspension.

You're probably right that another 1" clearance at the oil pan wouldn't make a lot of difference. The guard we've had under the oil pan for a couple years now is pretty stout, the Outback's oil pan hasn't dented in a while, and with the new skidplate the exhaust should survive. I like the idea of tilting the whole engine/trans. I'll get under there with a tape measure this weekend and take a look. I'm guessing the trans mount is at least twice as far behind the axles as the engine mounts are in front of the axles, so we'd have to tip the back of the trans down about 2" to shift the engine up 1". I doubt we'd have hood clearance issues, but I suppose the accessories do come close to it, and if the whole thing is tilted they're going to be raised even more than the engine mounts.

In case you haven't noticed I'm not a big fan of going slower. But a low range would definitely let us do that in some places where we have to use momentum now. I am working on getting one right now, just not sure if/when I'll use it. I've driven various cars with locked diffs, so I know what you mean. It seems that our Subarus are generally power limited rather than traction limited when climbing hills and going through soft sand, so we haven't really even thought about limited slip differentials, lockers, welding diffs, etc. It seemed like the Loyale I had with the center diff locked all the time was pretty noisy when parking, but my Outback was hardly noticeable when the center diff locked up.

After a little searching, it looks like my 2002 OB 4EAT has a 4.11 FD. So the 4.44 wouldn't be a big drop. And first gear is pretty tall, 2.8 compared to the five speed 3.5. Although the converter, especially a high stall, would make up for that to some degree. I will do some trail riding with it before swapping in a manual trans. My thought right now, especially for the 99, after the H6 swap, is to put in a 6 speed. The one from the JDM Forester had the largest ratio spread. If we made a 1.2:1 drop gear set to replace the center diff, it would have about 20% more reduction in first but 8% more overdrive in top gear compared to the current five speed. Still considering making a taller sixth so we could make a lower ratio drop gear set. I thought about a wider/shallower pan for the EJ, not sure it would be worth the effort. Thanks for the tip on the Spectra pan, if my friend still has problems with his Forester pan I'll suggest that.

5/16" 2000 series aluminum is probably quite strong! Keep in mind we're hitting big rocks at 40mph though. There were a few things hidden in the silt we hit during that Vegas to Reno that popped the whole front end of the car off the ground a foot or two while going 30-40mph. How do you like the low range? I might finally be getting one.

Can you get a high stall converter for a 4EAT? Can you get 4.44 gearing for them? I'm super impressed it has an auto trans oil temp idiot light (which never came on while driving). I prefer stick shift, especially over this thing's uncontrollable downshifting, if for no other reason you can push start the car and do other things not possible with an auto. So it will probably eventually get a six speed, but I can see driving it with the auto for a year or so to see how it works. Ya, what a waste of time getting that other gauge cluster and messing with the odometer when super glue was the solution. I wouldn't worry about raising the CG by raising the engine. It's what, 10% of the car's weight? So you lift it an inch or two, the CG of the car goes up 0.1" or 0.2". You make a very good point about the CVs though, they are nearly pulling out at full droop as it is with the long travel. Thanks, for some reason I hadn't thought about that. The oil pan guard we made for the car a year or two ago is two pieces of 1" x 2" rectangle tubing welded side by side with an 1/8" thick 4130 plate underneath them. Pretty sure that's not flexing much. The engine definitely moves around on the mounts, I think that's the main issue. I did put in group N engine mounts a year or two ago which seemed to help, but it still seems like we need about 1" of clearance so the engine doesn't bounce off that guard. We've thought about making a heavier duty oil pan and/or exhaust but I'd be worried about cracking the heads or block.

I put the gauge cluster with the adjusted odometer reading in and the speedo, odometer, and gauge lights didn't work. Not sure if that's something I did or it was bad to start with. I super glued the arm that had busted off the trip odometer reset lever and put the original gauge cluster back together and in the car. Everything seems to work, so hopefully that will last a while. I had another thought after talking to one of my friends about the V2R. One of the lowest, most critical parts of the car is the oil pan, and it's right in front and centered, perfect for bashing into a big rock when you're driving ruts. We have an adequate guard on my car now but it seems like we need about 1" clearance between the guard and the oil pan or the engine moves enough to dent the pan. So now you have 1" less ground clearance than the pan hangs down, plus the thickness of the guard. I was thinking if we just raised the engine we could also raise the guard/skidplate and pick up some easy ground clearance and approach angle where it really counts. Not sure how high we could go and still have the stock exhaust clear the crossmember, that would probably be the first limitation, easy fix there would be some spacers on the heads. When we had my friend's engine all hooked up in his Forester except the engine mounts we were able to get it up at least 1". With the exhaust off and the mount on the top of the bellhousing off it was easy to go up 2". Thoughts?

Any progress with this? I like the idea of a few inches of body lift and moving the rad forward to fit the LS V8. Another option would be an H6 swap, there is at least one company that makes a supercharger kit to make 400 easy hp, I'm sure it can be cranked up from there if you really need it. Haven't watched it all, but Might Car Mods did an H6 swap into a Legacy/Outback and got into the 11s. I would recommend buying a rust free car and putting everything into that, especially if you're going to spend 10-15k building this thing up.

The 2002 isn't as bad as I probably made it sound. It never overheats if the radiator stays full, and with a clamp on the overflow hose the radiator seems to be staying full. Haven't checked for bubbles in the overflow but the head gaskets don't seem to be a problem yet. The trans shifting hard is not very noticeable when not towing. It definitely pulls harder than an EJ25, even though it's geared taller. I'm also thinking a six speed eventually, one reason I'm not worried too much about the auto. I think with similar gearing to the five speed cars, the H6 will be great off road. It will get long travel when it goes off road. I would also do a front bumper / rad support / oil pan skid and gas tank protection at a minimum before I push it hard. At this point I'm looking for an H6 engine donor and a low mileage (150k or less) H6 car in good condition for my wife. Appreciate the leads and offers to check out some of these cars. Definitely let me know if you check out the one in Helena. There are a bunch on CL and copart, and I've started to make a list of Subaru shops/car lots I've found. Might have to wait a bit to buy another one though.

Check engine light came on in the 2002 a couple days after I got home. Code was for second gear ratio incorrect (they have a code for that???), so I assume something to do with the trans shifting abnormally. Cleared it and hasn't come back on in the last few days. I should try a TPS, do these things normally downshift at half throttle? Seems like most autos require more throttle to downshift than this one. Small hose clamp on the overflow hose seems to be keeping the radiator full but we haven't put thousands of miles on it since then either. I really need to get some kind of repair manual for this car. The paper full FSM goes for $100+, digital is kind of inconvenient, and the reviews on the Haynes and Chilton manuals say they don't cover the H6. Is there some other option?

I was assuming the head gasket(s) are leaking. Going to check again sometime for the bubbling and see how the coolant consumption goes. It wasn't overheating in 90F stop and go traffic in California, or towing the VW in 80F heat, so not something I have to worry about right away. If I have to replace the head gaskets it was still a good deal. Thanks for the heads up on the TPS. The shifting isn't very rough when not towing. If I keep this one for my own use we'll probably swap in a manual trans. The check engine light did come on after I got it home, it still runs fine, but I need to see what the code is. Just tried to get a donor/parts car on copart but it went up to $1050.

I shipped the tow bar, hitch, lights, safety chains, and camping gear to my brother in CA a couple weeks ago. He bought a rust free 2002 H6 Outback with 226k miles on it a few weeks ago for $1600. He had to clean out the IAC valve and the front bumper cover is broken up but other than that it seemed to run and drive well. Last Thursday morning my wife dropped me off at the bus stop and I went to Ohare and flew to LAX. Brother picked me up at the airport in the Outback. We stopped for lunch at a Mexican restaurant and then went to the grocery store to stock up on food for the trip. I had him pop the hood with the engine running when we parked and the coolant was bubbling in the overflow bottle. He said it never leaked a drop of anything though, and I never saw anything leak on the entire trip home. Got back to his house. He and our friend bought a yellow 1973 super beetle that is of course also rust free and in pretty good shape. He insisted we go around the block in it for old times sake (I used to own a 1972 super beetle about 20 years ago). After a few hundred feet I wanted to get out of that death trap. We hooked the cars together and did a test drive around the block and he watched me do some U turns and stops to make sure nothing was rubbing, etc. I left his house around 5PM PST and headed towards our friends' place near Phoenix. It took a while to get out of town but once I got on 10 I could cruise easily and steadily at 80mph most of the time. The trans downshifts violently, and at only about half throttle, so I was trying to keep it from doing that but it still downshifted often. The engine would be at about 3000RPM, then jump to 5 or even 6000RPM before the trans pulled it back down to about 4000RPM. One of the tires would occasionally chirp this was so hard. The engine would sometimes jump up in temp when idling at a stop but immediately drop back down as soon as the car started moving. I eventually figured out it was just slowly losing coolant, so every 200-300 miles I'd let it cool off and have to add about a quart. Got to Phoenix about 12:30 AZ time and went to sleep. In the morning they fed me a big breakfast of eggs, bacon, fruit, and banana bread. Then we cruised around town a bit, he showed me a few restaurants and hotels, and then stopped at a parts store to get coolant. I left their place maybe around 1PM. The drive up to 40 was fairly steep and I got about 12mpg on that tank, a lot of it going 40-50mph at half throttle to keep it from downshifting and trying not to push it too hard. Once I got on 40 it was easier going and I got about 18mpg the rest of the way home. I drove to Santa Rosa Lake State Park and set up the tent. The forecast I'd looked at showed lows in the 40s the whole time and route I'd be taking home, and it wasn't super cold when I went to sleep. Apparently it dropped below freezing because even with long johns, heavy socks, and a hooded sweatshirt I eventually got too cold to sleep. This was about 4AM so I figured it was time to hit the road. A few times that day I took little naps and would then add some coolant. Got past St. Louis late that night and stayed at a Super 8 in Staunton. The next morning I got up about 6AM, showered, had breakfast. Got on the road about 7AM and after a couple of hours of easy cruising I noticed some black things flying off the VW. Put on the flashers and pulled over. The LR tire lost about half its tread. Put on the spare and somehow lost the VW door key in the process. Fortunately the ignition key also works for the doors. Drove through Bloomington and stopped in El Paso to double check the lug nuts and everything else. Got home about 11AM. Unhooked the Subaru and VW and unbolted the towbar mounts from the VW. Took me a couple tries to start the VW to move it. Drove the Subaru to the car wash and Farm and Fleet. It's pretty fast, especially once it revs up and considering it's geared taller than the five speed cars I'm used to. Squats a lot under low speed acceleration. Some guy in a 70s Corvette pulled out in front of me and got on it. I pinned the Subaru and was almost keeping up with him until I realized we were going 80mph (downhill) and slowed back down. Here's a few pix of my three Subarus and my friend's Forester after we rebuilt the engine. For now my wife is driving the 2002 OB since her old car needs some work and is getting pretty rusty. My plan is to get a nicer 01-04 H6 OB for her, then I will drive this white one or use it as an engine donor. Trying to find an engine donor for the 99 or a slightly better driver for me also. So I'm on the hunt for some 01-04 H6 Outbacks. They seem the cheapest and most common six cylinder Subarus and they're pre CAN bus, so I figure it makes sense to switch the fleet over to that. I put a small hose clamp on the overflow hose out of the radiator and that may have solved the coolant loss problem, but we haven't driven it enough to be sure. The 96 Impreza's trans is really getting bad. One thought is to take it to the off road park one more time and then pull some parts off it and scrap it out. Another thought is to replace the trans and keep/sell it. I'm also considering just putting it on CL as is and see if someone will give me good money for it. The rest of the drivetrain seems good, it always starts and runs well, but I doubt it's worth much. Thoughts? What would be the best repair manual to get for the 01-04 H6 Outbacks?

Rolled forward the odometer I'd picked up with the good trip odometer this morning. First you take the clear and black plastic cover off. Then you unscrew the five silver screws holding the speedo in from the back (white/printed circuit side). You don't have to remove the face of the gauge. I pulled out the part that slides in the side with the blue gear on it, but I'm not sure you have to do that. I took out the two screws in the back too but that's unnecessary. I popped the circuit board off the back, again you might not have to, but it's easy to take off and put on. MiniTransAm gave me a little advice, mainly you have to pop the shaft out of the little tabs. So here is the shaft popped out of the slots: Turn the numbers to whatever you want, then snap the shaft back in. When you do this it's a little tricky since you want to get the gears lined up axially (left to right in the picture) and turn them so they fully engage. Hard to explain and the first time I put it back together the numbers didn't really stay put and I had to do it a couple times, but it's not too bad. Maybe it would have been easier to swap this odometer reset mechanism onto mine instead.

Had one of the mods change the name of this thread since I'm going to be building an H6 Outback in the next year or so, and a lot of that will overlap with this build (same front suspension, etc). Sometime this winter I'll probably rewrite the first post with links to the long travel build, trip reports, etc. I mentioned a few weeks ago my friend drove his Forester over and we started on head gasket replacement when we realized the bearings also needed replacement. He drove my Impreza home in the meantime. It's about a two hour drive and the trans was acting up a bit. Lately it's been sticking in gear, especially second and third. You have to mess with it and pump the clutch to get it out of gear sometimes. It hasn't stayed in fourth for about a year and occasionally pops out of fifth now. He had some King bearings drop shipped to my house. The rod bearings seemed good but the mains had .003" clearance, about double the max the manual specs. They also had no endplay. My Dad and I tried the next set of main bearings he had ordered from Rock Auto and they had about .002” clearance, so we oiled up, sealed and torqued together the bottom end. Over the next few days I intalled the piston pins and some other things on the bottom end. There is a steel coolant pipe that runs from the heater hose in the back of the engine on the drivers side down to the water pump. The small pipe coming out of it going to the throttle body looked pretty rusty so I suggested that he order one. He didn't, partially because it can take a week and a half to get parts from the dealer, also if you replaced every part of the engine as you go the repair would be ridiculously expensive. My friend showed up Saturday morning. He said the Impreza was pretty good until he got to town and then the trans started making a loud whining noise for about ten minutes and then went away. We put the engine on the stand and finished assembling it. It went in the car and on the trans fairly smoothly, we spent the evening hooking everything up. We had some difficulty installing the clutch dust shield until we had the engine jacked back up about 2”. Once we had that installed and most everything hooked up it was about 10PM so we called it a night. I got up around 6AM Sunday and we got back to work. We hooked up the exhaust and spliced a new piece of tubing in the oil pan guard, welded that, filled up the engine with oil and coolant, and fired it up. It took some cranking before the engine had fuel and oil pressure and then it started. Seemed to run smoothly and we didn't see any leaks. Drove it around the neighborhood a bit and when he pulled back in, there was smoke coming out of the hood. There was a small puddle of coolant by the rusty coolant pipe on the engine. We didn't think it was too bad so he headed out of town. By the time he drove through town the smoking was getting worse and the temperature was starting to rise and the check engine light came on. He topped the coolant back off and drove back to my house. After a little looking we decided the leak seemed to be out the rusty pipe opposite the little welded on tab, so we couldn't just slide a piece of hose over it. We decided to just replace/bypass the rusty pipe. We used a piece of 5/8” heater hose and a tee we made out of some barbed fittings. Took an hour or two but seemed to eliminate the leaks, he headed back home around noon. He said the coolant on the block eventually all evaporated off. Halfway home he cleared the codes and the check engine light didn't come back on.

Those are similar to some of the shocks Fox offers. The basic problem is that you can't replace struts with shocks. You could try to mount the shock body to the spindle and mount the rod to the car body, but you'll probably end up bending the shock rod. Also with the springs inline with the shock you'll have a lot of binding and friction. There are various aftermarket struts for these cars, some of them offer more travel than stock, some are pretty cheap. I honestly don't know enough about any of them to recommend a brand. We've thought about trying them but decided to make our own. Did you look back on this thread or look up inverted struts to see how they work? Not trying to be rude, but I think if you look back at this thread you should able to figure out what we did. The spring rates we're using now are fairly close to stock, but I'd like to go stiffer, mainly for a little more ride height. I've gotten some decent quotes on custom wound coil springs. I'd like to buy something off the shelf but the only spring chart I can find is MOOG. The travel/lift we're running doesn't seem to be wearing out CV axles too quickly. It probably only sits 2" higher than stock. We're running more droop than stock but that doesn't happen often, and when it does there's little to no load on the tire, so it doesn't seem to cause problems.

They're inverted struts. We made housings that bolt to the spindles. Those have bushings in them for the shock bodies to ride in. We made upper mounts to adapt the shock top mount to the car body and provide a spring perch. It's not a bolt on, order it from a catalog situation. Look at post 333 and 334 (page 14) to get an idea of what I'm talking about, or look up inverted struts.

We did make longer front control arms, but you wouldn't have to. Rear links are all stock. The struts involved a lot of fabrication and machining. They are inverted struts. I know this is a long thread, but you can either look back through it or look up inverted struts to get the idea. We did start with 2" smooth bodied Fox reservoir shocks but we had to machine the shafts and do some other things. You can buy long travel inverted struts from a few companies who sell them for rally racing. We are planning on making a few sets fairly soon. I've been getting quotes on custom springs. I want to make new housings with a better bushing setup for this car, and we'll probably make a set for my friend's Forester and at least an extra set of fronts for a second gen Outback once I start on that. So we could make you a set, I'd have them professionally welded and painted, but even making enough parts for four or five cars they'd be $4000-$5000 for a set of four struts.

I've always wanted to try a set of the Heri axles but can't seem to find someone who actually sells them. Do they seem weaker than OEM? Curious if/how/where you broke them. Mainly we just leave the stock axles in the cars. We've replaced quite a few boots now, usually when they just start to leak or tear. I have been replacing my front axles as they go bad with the FWD early 90's Legacy axles, but they're hard to find now. They had bigger CVs and center bars. But I think the only CV we've actually broken has been an outboard cage in one of those FWD axles. Seems like the travel is more limited by inner CV plunge than the angles.

That Delphi MAF sensor that lasted a few months was new from Rock Auto. I didn't realize it has a 12 month warranty, thanks for mentioning that, I'll see if I can get a replacement. More on the H6 cars soon, I'm going for the 01-04, they're cheaper, seem to be more common, and sometime between 2005 and 2008 they switched to CAN bus which probably makes engine and trans swaps much more difficult.

Also, any thoughts on the MAF sensor? The one that just failed was a Delphi that I put in just before the Vegas to Reno, so it has seen some dust but has only been on the car about three months.

Wife and I went camping over the weekend with the Outback. We were on a lot of gravel roads but nothing challenging this time. Before we headed back the engine started running really rough and the car was bucking violently. I unplugged the MAF sensor and it ran OK the rest of the weekend. A little rough and stalled occasionally but we made it home fine. So thanks again to Uberoo for that tip! I didn't have the spare with me and the only parts store we stopped at wanted $200 and had to wait a few days to get it. I replaced it with a used one when I got home and it ran fine today. I had good luck today at the pick & pull. Got a mass air flow sensor, wiper fluid bottle with pumps and hoses, gauge cluster, three wheels, and some little pieces. Anyone know how to roll forward an odometer easily? I found this post: http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/topic/38259-speedometerodometer-quit-cruise-still-works-vss-or-speedo-head/?do=findComment&comment=308126 but it really doesn't explain what to do.

That would be a long drive for a 100 mile race. I'll check out their schedule next year, whether we go there, CO, or TX, it's a long drive. Thanks for the heads up on that series, it's good to have options. There are some 100 mile woods enduros much closer to home that we might be able to run, but they usually don't allow cars with glass. And it's really not the same as a desert race.

Sounds like the course near Columbus is 8.5 miles and 6-8 laps depending on class? Not sure that would be worth the trip for us. I was thinking the 200 miler, but it sounds that course is smoother. Our thought is to hit one or two that are as long and rough as possible early next year to really put the car to the test. One of the courses in Texas is supposedly really rough and they usually do a 200 or 250 mile race there. I'm just thinking if it's cold we wouldn't get a decent test of the cooling system. I definitely appreciate the offer to help at V2R. I don't think there's any way we could put together a group of volunteers to do what Baja Pits does. They have mechanics at every pit with fuel, tools, food, water, welders, etc. Also, there are no chase trucks allowed on the course. It would actually be a decent race to watch if you picked out a couple spots to hang out at for a couple hours each.

Thanks, it's sort of based on what ferp did. I just looked it up, are you talking about the YORR series? Do you know what the courses are like? Sounds like the longest one is 34 miles. Looked like 100-200 mile races on their website. From the few videos I looked at the courses looked fun but smooth. But it always looks smoother on video than in person. Depending on where in Montana it's at, it might be closer than west Texas. Isn't it usually cold in early May in Montana? There are some races in Colorado we're looking into. Some of the guys at the V2R also suggested running a desert race where they run the slower classes in the morning and the trophy trucks and class 1 buggies in the afternoon. That way you don't get run over and the course isn't as torn up. Plan is to do at least one next year before the V2R to put some hard, fast miles on the car.

We made a big skidplate for the front of my car a couple weeks ago. Started with a piece of 1/16" 4130 normalized, I think it was 36" x 42". Cardboard template my friend made up for one side: Trimmed the edges and made some cuts: Bent and tack welded: Bent the rear edge up so it would be less likely to catch on things when going backwards and add some rigidity. Check to make sure the bends look good: Spacers for both sides of the crossmember just outside the exhaust and mounting tabs: One of the mounting tabs welded in place to the tube that runs from the front to the swaybar mount: Drilled mounting holes for the above tabs and spacers and fully welded the seams on both sides. Trimmed the overlap from those seams and welds. It is extremely rigid with all the bends even though it's just 1/16" steel. A little spacer that bolts onto the rear of the crossmember to keep the skidplate off the exhaust: Welded and painted: Installed: Skidplate painted: Here you can see the aluminum spacer holding the skidpan just below the exhaust: side shot: Fully installed, tucked behind the smaller steel panel that goes under the bumper: