pontoontodd

A quick look on car-part.com shows you can get an engine for about $1000 in decent running condition, should probably do at least timing belt and idlers while it's out, maybe the clutch too. A mechanic that works on Subarus often should be able to swap the engine in an afternoon.

Here is the b pillar electric jack: It's hard to get good pictures of it inside the car. It lifts the rear tire off the ground in about a minute, takes another thirty seconds to get the front tire off the ground, another thirty seconds to go all the way up (another 6" or so). Takes about a minute to go all the way back down. I'd tilt it more upright but then it would be even farther back and might not even lift the front tire off the ground, especially after we put in the H6. I'd move it forward but there's really not room alongside the seat. It does seem pretty stable when up, I shook the car as hard as I could with the roof rack and it didn't move much. Definitely plan on making a bigger pad for the bottom. This is the jack we used: https://www.amazon.com/Barker-32455-Black-Power-Jack/dp/B00B2AUWC8/

99 OB is back to running rough when warmed up. I plugged the O2 sensor back in and drove around some with the scan tool. It seems to be running rich when it's warmed up and rough, the front O2 sensor stays around .8V. When it's cold and occasionally when warmed up and running well, it fluctuates between .1 and .8V. So that seems directly related to how well it's running. The short term fuel trim reads -30% often, seemed like it was always close to 0 before, maybe it's trying to lean out since the O2 sensor is reading rich. But it can sometimes read 0 and run rough. The mass air flow and throttle position seem smooth and solid at all times. I always have a code for fuel temp sensor circuit A high, but have for years, so I don't think that's the problem. It keeps giving me codes for #2 and #3 misfire, and occasionally #1, when it runs rough. Often a pending code for cam position sensor voltage range. The coil pack in the car at the moment is one I bought about a year ago but hasn't been on the car the whole time. I have tried two different coil packs with the same results. It would make sense if it's not getting ignition on all four that the exhaust would be rich. For a while I suspected a fuel pump but it definitely doesn't drive like it's starving for fuel, it's just as likely to run rough at low speeds and RPM as at high speed. I also suspect the cam sensor, but again I've tried two of those with the same results. Should I try another coil pack or cam sensor?

Asked the junkyard if the shifter bushing/u joint on the trans was any good, they thought it was. Bushing was non existent. Pin in the original one was sloppy. Made up a bushing to fix the one from the newer trans and put it back together. Wish I would have known so I could have just gotten one from the dealer for $30. We got the trans back in and did a little test drive. I'm sure this sounds stupid but it's like a whole new car with the tighter shifter, five functional forward gears, and minimal exhaust leaks. Also I forgot how good snow tires are on hard packed snow. Significantly better than the mud tires. The parking brake in the Impreza is definitely not as good as the steering brake in the OB though. Then we decided to do some troubleshooting on the 99 OB. First thing we did was unplug the O2 sensor. I would have tried this earlier but it's a real pain. Often I just can't do it and have to get my friend to unplug it, which was the case today. With the O2 sensor unplugged it ran smoothly even after it warmed up, so I guess I'll replace that again. The ECU was reading .31V on the front O2 sensor the whole time, the rear fluctuated (still plugged in). We started on the brackets and wiring for the electric jack, I'll post up some pictures of that when it's done.

My wife got the 2002 OB stuck in the snow, someone pulled out in front of her and she couldn't stop, so fortunately she swerved into someones yard and no one was hurt. I pulled her out with the 99 OB and on the way home pulled out two other people who were stuck. By that time the car had warmed up and started running rough again. When I got home I put the other coil on, it looks much better than the one that was on there, but it still runs rough. Planning on putting the junkyard trans in the Impreza this afternoon. So far the only thing I ran into was the 96 Impreza has a mechanical speedo but that trans is from a 96 Legacy. The cable from the Impreza trans seemed to fit right in place of the sensor, so hopefully that works. The plastic nut on the speedo cable is very soft, had to pull the rubber boot off and slide a box end wrench over it to remove it. If we have time we'll hook up the OBDII to the 99 OB and see if we can figure out the problem.

I have a couple. I do have one that has a USB cable for laptop, but my laptop battery keeps dying so I have to have it plugged in, so can't drive the car with that. I have a bluetooth OBD2 that I can use with the tablet. That seems to work about half the time. I'll try that again, anything in particular to look for? I guess I could try to see what the TPS, MAF, O2 sensor say when it's cold and then see if any of them changes drastically when it's warm. Is it possible both cam sensors or MAF sensors read bad when the engine warms up??

I tried a different cam position sensor and the car still started running rough when it warmed up. I tried unplugging the TPS this time after it had warmed up which made basically no difference. Aside from trying to unplug the O2 sensor, which seemed to be reading pretty normally, I don't know what to try at this point. This is basically what the car used to do when I first bought it, but back then it would usually go away if I turned the ignition off and restarted it. Hasn't done this in a year or so until just recently. Any ideas would be appreciated.

Got the trans for the Impreza. Plan on putting that in over the weekend. The 99 Outback has been acting up recently. Last week it started running rough. Pulled over and unplugged the MAF sensor, which didn't help much, so I just limped it home. I replaced the MAF sensor and drove it later and it seemed fine. Drove it again a couple days ago and once it warmed up it started running rough again. This morning I drove it around a little and it was running fine. I tested it with all three MAF sensors I have, two of them seem good, the Delphi one is definitely bad. I drove it quite a bit around town this morning and it seems to run fine until it warms up, then it sometimes stalls and runs rough. The only trouble codes were for: fuel temp sensor circuit A (this has been coming up for years) cam sensor range misfire #2 and #3 So this afternoon I'll probably dig out my other cam sensor and try that. Also talked to some people about the Hotbits struts and they said they only usually last through a couple of rally weekends before they're shot, so back to planning on making more of our own. I did find a spring company that appears to have springs off the shelf that should work for the rear at least, maybe the front.

The short term plan is to replace the Impreza trans so I have something else reliable to drive. Just ordered one, 158k miles, $300 shipped. 96 Legacy and Impreza were both 3.90 final drive, right? Then get an H6 donor car (01-04 OB EZ30) and start paring down the wiring. Install that in the 99 Outback. Bunch of other things we want to do to the 99 Outback. The only other major thing is a six speed trans and possibly R180. Depending on how that drives, perhaps some kind of gear reduction. Also electric jacks, rear view camera, tire pressure monitoring system, quick release tire and recovery ramp mounting. We are also planning on making a few sets of the long travel struts for our cars. Need to get started on that soon, at least getting the custom springs and some of the machined parts on order. I'm trying to find out more about the Hot Bits long travel struts first, if those are cheaper and strong enough, might just get those. Next project is doing bumpers, skidplates, and long travel on a 01-04 H6 Outback for trail riding/expedition, not racing. Might be the one I just bought, I will probably try to find a nicer one for the wife. At that point I might sell the Impreza.

After looking at it again, the engine/trans tilting doesn't seem like it would be worth the hassle. The trans mount probably isn't twice as far behind the axles as the engine mounts are in front though. My friend's Forester seems to be running well with the rebuilt engine, still no check engine light. Just in time for our first snow yesterday. The 2002 H6 OB doesn't seem to be consuming much coolant with the little hose clamp on the overflow hose. Gets about 18 or 19mpg city and 23 or 24 highway. We decided to pull the trans out of the Impreza yesterday. Basically figured I'll need a car to drive while doing the H6 swap in the Outback, and this was the cheapest and easiest way to accomplish that. Only took two or three hours. Half of that time was spent cutting rusty exhaust bolts and that sort of thing. Refabbed one exhaust flange that was rotted to nothing, tapped a couple of holes that were tight, and replaced a CV boot, so hopefully the replacement goes smoothly. I found a couple within a few hundred miles that have under 150k miles on them for $200-300 bucks, so I'll probably get one of those coming today. The pin in the shifter u joint type coupler is super sloppy, so I might order one of those from the dealer. We could probably rebuild the trans, but at least one chunk of a bearing race fell out when we drained it, so I'm guessing it would need a couple hundred bucks worth of parts anyhow, and if we put it back together wrong it'd be a big waste of time.

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.