slammo

You'll have to bleed the system after plumbing in the aux cooler, that's as good of a time as ever

Won't adding that additional cooler in line with the heater core cause cooler water to flow to the thermostat, therefore keeping the thermostat closed and keeping your engine warmer? Speaking of which, it might be worth seeing how it does with no thermostat at all (with or without the aux cooler), just to remove that variable from the equation.

I agree, water temp sensors will tell you if it's an airflow problem. You could try removing the hood scoop and vent inserts in the hood, give all that air from the fans somewhere to go

What's the reason for a reversible flow fuel pump?

Yeah the light wiring harness/plug seems 100% worth it, better to do that all in your own garage rather than having to wing it on the road. Plus, magnetic trailer lights would be one less thing to carry. Turns out taking a stock-height Subaru off road can be pretty hard on the skid plate. Glad I wasn't trying to keep up with the long travel cars all weekend haha. Looking forward to getting mine put together soon-ish.

Rear bumper looks sturdy, is that the same color as the front bumper? Would be really nice to have a way to use the towed vehicle's brakes when flat towing, but any solution I can come up with gets too complicated too quickly. Skid plate on my stock-height car definitely took a beating, will have to post pics later.

Weekend was a blast, glad we could make it happen! My daily definitely has a few more dents and scratches than it used to, but well worth it! It's been too long since I've taken a Subaru off road.

True on plating; might be able to save some weight by doing a flanged bolted connection rather than the tube connectors

Luckily the tin foil spare tire wells are pretty malleable. I believe stock fuel pumps have a check valve. 56 lb empty sure gives me pause about using that donut tank but I am interested to see how it works out for you. We'll have to keep looking for something lighter weight that fits there. Forester bracing looks functional; look forward to seeing how much of a difference that makes both with strut tower longevity and chassis twist. Might be worth putting the removable cross-brace lower; directly between the strut towers rather than above the tophats, so that the seat backs can go in the original positions. Love how you fit the front diagonals around the seats.

Save those ABS sensors for me lol

Ceramic coating the headers would have the biggest benefit of reducing heat in the engine compartment No comment on the color choice I picked up an aftermarket rear plate light for my impreza, will let you know how that goes

Good video, that was a fun trip.

Love seeing this come along, as K said everything looks improved compared to the previous cars. The trans crossmember and front skid plate integration in particular looks great and should really add some beef to the front end. Can't wait to get mine together and go wheeling again!

One of the subtle changes Subaru made from the first through third gen Imprezas was tying in the strut towers to the cowl/firewall. First gen Impreza: 2nd gen Impreza: Couldn't find a good pic of a 3rd gen Impreza engine bay, so here's a bad pic instead: It may be worth welding in some sheet metal as a brace there so you add support to both sides of the strut towers. Would be worth doing while the engine is out; just have to avoid the fuel and brake lines that run through there.

Wonder if the R160 difference correlates to the one-bolt versus five-bolt design? (photos from Torq Locker's website) Knuckle mockup looks great, super excited for that! Hopefully the trailing arm dog leg doesn't cause any issues, that's not a lot of clearance to the wheel lol.

Making the knuckles out of aluminum would be justifiable especially given that so many modern production cars have aluminum knuckles, but better safe than sorry for now. These are overbuilt for the application and that's fine with me. FWIW keyboard experts have argued about unblocking hood vents for years. I think you'll be fine to remove them since a little rain coming in through the hood won't be out of the ordinary for what you'll be doing with this car.

Billet knuckle looks great. It's come a long way!

I understand why it is where it is, but that would look a lot better with the whole horizontal beam moved up so it only sits a quarter inch below the fenders, lights, and grille. Attach the beam to the top of the frame inserts, rather than the front? 😉

Just my opinion, I think you should do the 6MT/R180 swap first and drive the car with the 2.2 and low range for a while before tearing it apart for the 3.6. Can you share a pic of the new bumper with the hood down and the grille in place?

Hood scoop and vents - IMO gold would look tacky; I'd stick to the OEM green for sure. On the bumper I think black would look better than gold for the style of bumper you're building where it doesn't really blend into the stock lines or imitate the OEM shape. /$.02 Fuel tank skid looking mighty fine! Might be worth your time to slap some POR-15 on those rusty brake cable and heat shield brackets.

Did you do anything with the pitch stop mount for the subframe drop?

🅱️illet knuckles looking great 👌 My understanding FWIW, some of the appeal of the all-aluminum radiators is that the plastic end tanks on oem-type radiators can be prone to cracking. Where'd you find the Golpher for $300? I saw it on Aliexpress but with $150 shipping, and it looked out of stock on eBay but maybe I just didn't find the same listing.

Sounds like these guys have developed and maybe produced some; kinda pricey though. https://www.kobemotorsport.shop/post/r-d-subaru-liberty-outback-gen-iv-h6-3-0l-ez30-aluminium-radiator https://www.kobemotorsport.shop/product-page/pre-order-subaru-liberty-outback-gen-4-03-09-h6-ez30-alloy-performance-radiator

Looking great man, can't wait to see this thing yeet. Have you considered something like the holley hydramat for the fuel pickup? Would drastically increase the filter surface area and is supposed to help get every last drop out of the tank when it's close to empty. I understand they are kinda pricey though. Front subframe makes sense to be solid mounted because it has to carry the engine and provide strength between the frame rails in the engine compartment, since there's a big hole where the engine goes. Soft mounting the whole front subframe would mean those bushings would react loads from the steering rack, engine, and control arms all at once - not great for steering compliance, chassis feel, drivetrain alignment, etc. Solid mounting the front subframe lets the steering rack, control arms, and engine each be mounted with their own bushings that can be tuned for each component. Rear, the chassis is more whole above the rear subframe so there's less need for added strength/stiffness. The engineers would want some cushion/compliance for lateral loads for ride comfort, but they would want to prevent toe compliance so your rear wheels don't steer all over the place. If they had solid mounted the rear subframe and used softer bushings for the lateral links, then compliance in the lateral link bushings would cause the rear toe to vary with lateral load. Using stiffer bushings for the lateral links and (relatively) softer bushings for the subframe lets the system be comfortable but still keep toe in check since the subframe bushings can react moments across a wider distance. Rear subframe mount, my concern is that the bolts without bushings will induce more stress in the chassis at those points. If you have two solid mounts and four rubber mounts, the solid mounts will be doing almost all of the work. The rubber grommets sandwiching the subframe might help but probably won't do much for the lateral loads which would be the most impactful. IMO your best move would be to add an OEM-style rubber bushing to those middle bolts, but if you don't want to go through that trouble I'd say get rid of the rest of the rubber subframe bushings and hard mount the whole thing. That way lateral force can be shared by all six bolts instead of just two. I don't think any decrease in ride quality is much of a concern in this context haha, and it might make it easier to mount the gas tank skid plate.

I'm just going to hack away with the angry grinder until it all fits 😉 Although I'm going to do a better job at re-sealing the body than I did last time. Ditto on loving the aluminum spacers; I guess you're making those separate from the trailing arm spacers since you plan to remove the trailing arm spacers when you lengthen the trailing arms?