c4pt1n54n0

I inherited it from my dad who passed away back in February. We both fell in love with it the second we drove off the used car lot (bought it back in 2010) We suspected it had been hit from the rear drivers side corner before, and that was confirmed when it happened again, bondo was everywhere! the rocker panel/pinch weld has completely rotted out on the drivers side, and its burning/mixing a little oil and coolant, but I'm not going to do the gaskets. I want to do an H6 swap, but that will be once I'm out of school in June at the very soonest, so I'm going to try some Subaru (Holts) Coolant Conditioner to string it along till then through the winter. It's no longer my daily car, reg expired, still in my dads name, he didn't have a will, my sister who is in charge of the estate is dragging her feet, its a screwy situation. anyway, its sitting up behind my grandparents house where it wont bother anyone for now. here are some pics from earlier in the year when I was driving it regularly (in no particular order at all) My driveway apparently is very popular with the birds \ He just panted over the removed bondo, and never had a chance to put clearcoat on the new light assembly cheapo oil change in the driveway ( next change I'm switching to 10w30, maybe it'll help the leaking from the valve covers for a bit) I was actually really impressed, even with my knowledge of Subaru AWD, with how well it handled this 3 to 7 inches of half melted snow. After some VERY light offroading, not looking to break the frame in half or anything...my buddy Mike is topping off the air, I've got a slow leak, and a bit of an oval shaped wheel. I know, I know..... I let the brakes go a bit too long... After building a kind of poorly designed desk. (Hey, it gets the job done) Here are my plans for it, in chronological order 1. Get someone to weld a new chunk onto the frame. I have next to no experience welding, and this project is not the time for me to learn, it needs to be perfect. I go to a tech school, and a friend of mine said he'll do it for $500 plus materials. a local welding shop that I know does outstanding work said they'll do it for $1200, guaranteeing their work for ten years. 2. Take care of leaks; head gaskets, valve covers/spark plug seals. 3. Look into a new engine if the sealer stuff starts failing. which is inevitable. i got a quote for the head gaskets for $2k, and I can find a close year H6 outback for a bit more than that around here. 4. Body work: new rear bumper cover, fix the flip down lic plate that doesn't flip down, STI hood maybe, repaint the tailgate inside. 5. Electrical stuff: new radio, my dad put an old pioneer in a couple years ago, but its failing. also, fog lights need rewiring and I want top mount offroad lights. 6. Bull bar and skidplate, the plastic thing that's usually covering most of the underside of the engine bay ripped off a few thousand miles ago. 7. Maybe a 2in lift kit, I don't want to have to replace half the suspension, and that will bring it up to being as tall as some of the newer ones. 8. Sometime in the future, not a big deal, I want to get vanity plates as a tribute to my dad. That's all I can think of for now. All I wan to do is the rocker panel this year, I want it back on the road for the winter at least. I have a backup car which is my daily driver now, a '98 Maxima 3L V6. though it IS fwd, the tires are pretty wide and I would always prefer Subaru AWD, plus the Baja has practically brand new all terrain tires, they never failed me last winter. It's all dependant in when I have free time, when I can get a bay at school or someone's garage to work on it, and when I have a bit of extra cash. I'm a highschool senior working maybe 25 hours a week, so that is seldom, after insurance and gas and other little things (i drive at least 70 miles a day to school then work then home) but I went over and started it up and drove it around a bit for the first time in a couple months a few days ago, and I really wish I hadn't, I am SO itching to get it back on the road again now. Hopefully all of the above mentioned work will be documented and uploaded here, depending on where I end up doing it and if I want to take the time to do that, which I most likely will. I'm always scrolling through the forum, not posting much but I do want to get more involved with the community. Sorry, I tend to get a little ramble-y when I'm talking about things I'm passionate about... Any other suggestions/things to avoid/general tips? Warmest regards, ~c4pt1n54n0

I really wanted the T/C because obviously I cant lock my differential, and I plan on going through some pretty 'slippery' terrain once I do the lift and get bigger wheels/tires/brakes. If there is something else I can do to get the same effect, that would be cool, but I looked at a demo of the Subaru T/C and it looks like it actually would help, I would obviously not want it enabled all the time, but it seems like it would be nice to have. Here's a link to what I saw... Edit: after some more research, I found a '03 Baja Sport (same as mine besides the color) for sale in Oklahoma City that says it has traction control, and both limited slip and locking diff. I am REALLY confused, I want to go to a dealer and see if they can tell me exactly what I have. If I can get a locking rear diff that will be even better.

Huh, alright, cool. What do you think about my sitiation caused by the gaskets? should i worry about any sort of oil buildup in the coolant paths in the engine? I was told i should get a new water pump and ratiator, but from that I got thinking, well if it's everywhere else why wouldn't it be in the engine? Also, I just thought of this, I'm not sure if it was an option for 03 but I know it was for later yr baja's, can I install a factory type traction control system? like with the awd torque distribution and everything? there have been a few times that i've had two wheels spinning in snow here in Connecticut...

Now that I've thought about it for a little while, the cams/exhaust/intake option is seeming more doable, if I go that route, I think I'll do piston rings as well ,and somehow flush out all the coolant lines within the block, since the head gaskets have been letting that and the oil mix for a while now, I've got a nice coating of oil on my overflow resevoir, maybe do a new radiator as well. I think I'll put whatever I would have put into a new engine/turbo setup into PM stuff like all new hoses, pumps,belts, etc. so I wont have to worry about it for a good while. I think I'll stick with the H4 N/A, but i want it running and looking, inside and out, brand new, plus the cams, exhaust, and intake. If i can do that for below $2k, I'll be very happy. I may be having an 02 Outback become available soon for eveything besides the engine, my buddies dad has it and the engine is on its last leg. It's a 5spd, and maybe when the engine finally craps out I can get it from him for cheap. I was looking into a top rack from BAJARACKS, and also a ram bar type thing. When my dad bought it he was having issues with braking because the tires were larger than stock, and not by much, maybe a half inch. If i were to lift it and put big old wheels on it I would want to get bigger brakes too, so I think I'll save that for a year or two down the road, since less than two weeks ago I got new pads, rotors and calipers.

Huh, yeah that makes sense, i guess I sort of got it stuck in my head that bigger engine=more $$ no matter what. I really am considering that as an option, as long as I can do everything after the frame repair for under $3k-ish I will be extremely happy. I have never driven anything awd with a 3l h6, would you think its comparable to a 3l v6 fwd? obviously more effective acceleration because of the awd, just trying to compare directly to my current daily driver; 98 Maxima I got for cheap. As far as the stereo, my dad put a new system in it about 2yrs ago, but he used this 20+yr old pioneer head unit, so thats really the only thing needing replacement there, other than if I have a bit of extra cash at the end of all this, I may look into a woofer for under the passenger seat. So the h6 is otherwise a drop-in?(besides what you mentioned) WOuld you think I would need the trans from the h6 as well? Thanks for the help / clarification!

Huh, I was always told that the only bad way to tow one would be to only have two wheels on the ground, having all would be fine. but, come to think of it, even in neutral in an auto, the tranny still spins when coasting, and without lube being pumped through....yea, i was warned once while putting an old beater into neutral going 80ish that its terrible for the transmission, fine if it's a manual. I guess that would be doing basically the same thing if being towed.....

Hey everyone! I am brand new to this forum and actually joined in order to get some advice from more experienced owners of Bajas and Outbacks. That being said, I am no newbie to working on cars and love learning more about them, anyway, on with the questons... I inherited my '03 Baja from my dad who passed away in February, right now it is in need of heaad gaskets, well basically most of the engine seals are leaking a little, and new metal needs to be attached in the area of the drivers' side rocker panel/pinch weld below. There are other minor things; paint touch ups, some bondo from when it was rear-ended etc. BUT, I was looking into installing a turbo. I don't really know much about this specific engine, but i have heard that the oil and coolant feeds for a turbo are already there. I haven't looked into it at all and am wondering if that is true, and if not, maybe I would be better off getting a new pre-turbo'd engine. Also, is it easy enough to do a 5 speed swap? Or, maybe an H6 5 speed swap {{evil grin}}? I realize this is a big old money pit at this point, but I want to have it for at least another 10-15 yrs, I want a Subaru, and I'd rather my dad's than any other, so it's worth it to me. I'm just sort of trying to get a better picture of what is feasible, and what wouldn't really be worth it. I've got a local welding shop estimating $1200 to fix all frame issues and guarantee the whole thing for 10yrs, and I'm thinking the head gaskets will be another $1000ish, which leaves me with around $1500-$2000 to do some upgrades etc. Obviously some of the above mentioned mods wont get done for a while, but what do you think would be the best use, as far as upgrades, of my extra $2k-ish once all repairs are done? I was thinking about some high mount offroad lights, a turbo, and maybe a new audio system, the current one works intermittently. Basically getting rid of it is out of the question, and I'm going to be having some extra money to dump into it soon. Let me know what you think, any opinions are greatly appreciated. ~c4pt1n54n0