1 Lucky Texan

they make the OEM struts for most Subarus on the road. My experience with most 'consumables' for autos is that the 'econo' choice will poor quality. Short-lived or poor performance. Though, I don't have much experience with struts - that has been the case for belts, wipers, brake pads, radiator caps, hoses, etc. Economy stuff seems to be made for folks selling or flipping cars.

GD - do you guys ever install JDM engines? would that be good choice for Imprezafan if he as problems again?

Aisin will be all Japanese bearings and probably a Mtisuboshi belt - worth the money there are some dealers on ebay that will put together the kit you want if you want to delete water pump or something. One is mizumo auto, and I think the other is auto anything. Probably only a few dollars different from each other or Rock Auto though so, go with w'ever makes you comfortable.

when was the last time it ran? what changed since then? does it smell like fuel when cranking? Have you tried using starting fluid to see if it fires?

when I had to do something similar, I used a hydraulic jack to lift the wheel/hub/w'ever, to take 99% of the weight off that jack stand. be careful regardless of how you do it!

yeah, I have read of people cutting 1/3 off the bump stops - good point.

you probably already know about Heri axles - they supposedly have longer extension.

I probably am misunderstanding something. I thought you needed to have a buyer dedicated for the engine part of the shipment.

maybe valve seals are leaking?

many soobs will seep some fuel as they age - and it doesn't take much to smell strongly. tighten any fuel clamps you can find under the hood. there have been people with rusted filler pipes and cracked pump assemblies, etc. , but, start by looking around under the hood for drips or wetness on fuel system parts.

is this something you could do with ebay or kickstarter? Then you'd have assured funding before OK-ing the shipment.

should be able the scan codes from key ON . if it fires with starter fluid, next check is probably fuel supply; https://www.subaruoutback.org/forums/110-gen-2-2000-2004/41182-symptoms-fuel-pump-o-ring-problem.html

^^^ yeah scan for pending codes, note them, get freezefraome data if possible, clear them, try to start, scan again to see what comes back immediately. some things on that year model that 'might' cause no/rough start issues; IACV hose at the intake tubing end loose, cap/o-ring problem on fuel pump, moisture (or oil form leaky VC gaskets) on old plug wires/boots, flooding from several no-start tries (or possibly bad engine temp sensor) , mist-timed crank/cam timing. double check cam/crank timing belt timing. Check IACV hose. Try starting with gas pedal HELD all the way down while cranking (that signals the ECU to shut off injectors. it's the 'clear flood' procedure) - or, pull plugs to look for fuel wetness. I know you said you're missing spark but, you could try starting with starter fluid. it does seem like you 'could' have some ground or other electrical issues.

the thing with cam timing is, it 'could' act like floating valves. so I'd think 1 or maybe 2 teeth off somewhere might get you a car that sorta runs up to a point, then flops. low fuel supply might do it too but????? I'd even check voltage at higher rpms if the above didn't find an issue. start with the easy basic stuff.

maybe a new PCV valve would help?

due to waste spark scheme, certain pairs of misfire codes could indicate a bad coil pack.

do the axles still have tone rings? maybe you could create the proper signal from one of the old abs wheel sensors? once you discover if it needs some kind of scaling.... - it would be speed (though, not rpm) proportional too.

if you can remove the strut assemblies, you can take them and new parts (KYB is the MUCH preferred brand of strut) to a shop and pay them to move the parts over for you if you don't want to mess with spring compressors but still want to save a little money.

^^^^ what they said, just chiming in to discourage you from trusting the overflow bottle to accurately represent coolant volume. as said above, check the RADIATOR level vigilantly while this problem is on-going.

cam/crank timing OK?

maybe crutchfield.com offers an adapter cable?

I recall the same as jonathan, I THINK the replacement struts had a nut requiring a different size socket.

if they are an odd-size as mentioned, that could be tough. you might dig around at www.crutchfield.com for something. sometimes, original speakers can be repaired. there's even some youtube videos for 're-foaming' .

chain takes up way less room than belt timing system. I may be wrong - just repeating something I read long ago. some of the guys doing swaps would probably know best - even into vanagons or exp. aircraft or sandrail builds.....? . For some reason, it's hard to find actual dimensions with a simple search.

you can use an impact to 'loosen' the nut - if it accidentally comes off - put it back on. (assumes weight of car holding things together - I suppose there is some minute risk the strut shaft could drop ????) better to take the assembly out and get the compressors on it as said above. You're gonna do that anyway. for reassembly, I had to rig a deep socket with large vice grips and a cut-off 6mm allen wrench and a 6mm socket with adapters. it was crazy but it worked. pay attention to top perch orientation - there's an arrow or center hols or something that must face the fender side. Also, put the top spacer/washer with the narrow side UP to contact inner race of mount bearing.