I've been trolling this site for about a year after after I first decided I needed a lifted subaru. As a college student, I only had a part-time job, part of the time I was in school, so modding was usually slow.

After seeing a bunch of wrxs with 1" lifts and grabbers on dirtyimpreza I realized that imps were pretty capable if you can squeeze some tires on there. So I began doing research on forester lifts and started collecting parts in January. I didn't want a subtle lift, I wanted to be able to take it on trails and 7" of ground clearance won't do it.

I bought 04 FXT struts, 1" paranoid fabrications butt spacers all around, and the Outback body lift components and netted 4"ish inches on stock tires. I just put on some 215/65/15 General Grabbers so it's about 5" over stock.

onto some pics

first it looked like this (June 2009)


then it looked like this



then after the lift





got kinda stuck


So I bought new tires



The last picture is what my car looks like today. My buddy just bought that jeep today and I kept up with him pretty good on the trails.

Edited June 30, 201411 yr by wagonryan

Future plans

 

-5spd dual range

-1/4" skid plate

-brush guard

-Tuck exhaust up a bit

-snorkel (to replace the CAI)

-taller springs?

-roof basket w/ full size spare

-truck bed line the interior

-fender cutting and bashing for bigger tires

looks great dude! now we need a better pic of the grabbers.

Really liked the second look!

Still got your old set of wheels? The 17's i put on my GL, they're a bit much for my tastes.

I'm pretty sure this was taken when I had the rear end jacked up to put the tires on. I tried to take the car to les schwab but they said they couldn't touch it because it has a body lift so I had to load up my gf's civic with 2 grabbers and 2 wheels and make two trips

 

 

I also liked the second look, but my tastes have changed as well as plans for the car. The original plan was to build an STI swapped rallyx car... now instead of a 6spd i'm looking at putting in a 20+ year old 5spd dual range

 

not sure if you're talking about the green wheels or not, but those are the same ones i'm using now. just painted. I may keep the current wheel/tire combo as my winter set in which case the snowflakes will see neon paint once again. maybe get some dynapro mts to make keaton happy hahaha

 

I think eventually I will end up getting some UEL headers. As hard as I try to convince myself they're a waste of money, as soon as a subie goes rumbling past me I catch the bug again. just gotta figure out if they will clear a skid plate.

Edited July 3, 201213 yr by wagonryan

A Skid-plate will not clear an UEL header. Unless you space the skidplate down which will be pointless as it'll then get snagged on stumps ect. I have an UEL header on my Outback, its worth it for sound and a bit of added low-end torque.

 

Make your own header, so you can tuck it up the way you want it. Or make a custom skidplate.

 

Get some Maxxis Bighorns or BFG KM2s.

A Skid-plate will not clear an UEL header. Unless you space the skidplate down which will be pointless as it'll then get snagged on stumps ect. I have an UEL header on my Outback, its worth it for sound and a bit of added low-end torque.

 

Make your own header, so you can tuck it up the way you want it. Or make a custom skidplate.

 

Get some Maxxis Bighorns or BFG KM2s.

 

yeah I had a speed limit sign skid plate and when I got stuck my first trip out it bent to hell when I got pulled out.

 

Do you think exhaust shops could mod my stock header and just add some extra length to one side? that would be ideal because I don't know how to weld.. either way i'm gonna have a 1/4" thick skid made.

 

do the bighorns come in anything close to a 27 or 28? i'm not trying to push 30's yet haha

An Exhaust shop would need to have your car in order to make a header or alter yours, to make sure fitment is correct. If you have a header made, you will want to keep the original diameter tubing which is 1-7/8" - if you bump it up to 2" you are going to loose torque and power as there is less backpressure.

 

As for the Bighorns, They make them in a 27x8.5x14" which isn't going to be any good since you can not run 14" wheels on your car due to the larger brakes. But, they might make another size for 15" rims which is around 27-28"

 

I was asking about the six spokes. I've got 17" wrx alloys on my gl wagon right meow and they're a little much for me...

ohhh nope those are lonnnng gone. sold those quickly after I bought it. some jackass at the dealership put them on 235 low pros on a stock suspension car. it rubbed like crazy with any weight in the back seat haha so I upgraded to OEM

They don't look all that low pro in the pictures, bout the same sidewall as the first pic with the snow flakes. Then again, sounds like they were stupid wide.

yeah they werent suber low pro but they weren't what i was looking for. they were high performance all seasons or something of the like( idgaf)))))

 

 

anyways get paid on wednesday, so Im building a snorkel out of pvc

goin to tahuya tomorrow with my offroadin buddy. I'm gonna take it easy I think because I still have a CAI and no skid plate. Heard its a fairly easy trail and good for beginners so we'll see. pics to follow

Here's a little teaser from the Tahuya trip. At mud lake or whatever it's called. I swear it looks bigger in pictures.

 

 

that back tire was like a foot off the ground. I thought I was gonna flip for sure lol

 

I had a really good time out on the trails.It was my first time at a legitamate ORV park and I learned a lot about the strengths and weaknesses of my car, right now it seems to have more weaknesses lol it was a successfull shakedown

 

I noticed that my car has a tipping point where it wants to roll vs. flex due to the unibody. pretty sure it also has to do with my car not being heavy enough to fully compress the forester suspension too. it made for some semi- sketchy moments for me today haha

 

I was once again reminded that I needed a snorkel.. I went into the a pretty deep puddle and I thought my car swallowed some water, because it was running in limp mode till I got home. Still is actually. the idle jumps from like 1k up to 1.5 and then back down over and over.. and when I am driving it cuts out power. I changed the air filter out with an ebay cone because it got destroyed some how but its still running like ************. I couldn't find a drop of water anywhere in the intake. right now Im drying (what i think is) my MAP sensor with a fan. hopefully that works. What else could I check?

 

another thing I noticed on the drive home was shaking at anything above 2500 rpm. get home to find that the driver side bolt for the trans x-member is missing..wtf, going to tacoma screw tomorrow to get a new bolt.

We used to fry plug wire sets that way. Some water under the hood in the right place will get in to the plugs and fry the wires and make the car run like crap... really this can happen to a few places if stuff is getting wet under the hood. a bit of silicone on the wires, ignition coil, fuse box etc. can prevent some of this.

 

Could be your problem. Worth checking out.

hmmm interesting. I took the spark plugs out and tried to launch any water out of the cylinders but nothing came out. no water or oil on the plugs. I'm changing the oil and may just get some new plugs and wires. and dry stuff out again when the sun comes out.

yup. check ur bolt put in. them make sure your crank pulley bolt is tight. they like to cause vibrations like you said. then pull up the carpet on the passenger side floor bored and make sure your ECU didn't get wet.

I have the 28" KM2s on my Loyale mounted on 15" rims.

wow I never thought I'd see that car again. You bought that from a dude in Ellensburg last year? it was my buddys car, i wanted to buy it but didnt have the flow. glad it went to a forum member!

ok just want to keep this updated with everything that's going on. my buddy hooked up his OBD2 scanner to my car and it threw a P1507 and a P1133 which are for the IACV and A/F sensor respectively. I cleaned the IACV and TB with carb cleaner and replaced the sensor. my car still has a surging idle and it usually starts up after the car has warmed up and I give it some revs.

 

I've read about how the neutral safety switch can throw codes and make the car run in limp mode if it's faulty so i'm gonna replace that next.

 

If that doesn't fix it then i'm gonna turn to the ECU as the next culprit. I tore it apart and it didn't seem wet at all, but the outside casing had a little mud splatter on it when my carpet took a bath. Do you guys think a junkyard ECU would be okay to buy? I think thats what i'll end up doing cause money is tight since I've had to miss a few days of work.

 

-Ryan

Haha be glad you didn't buy it. That car has been nothing but issues for me! But regardless I still love it. It is the reason I am on the board. I don't mean to steal the thred...

ITS ALIVE!

 

replaced the A/F sensor and NSS and reset my ECU and bingoooo .. runs like a top.

 

now that I have a reliable car again i'm gonna be workin my rump roast off for the next few weeks so I can afford some new goodies.

 

-1" wheel spacers and studs

-UEL header, and exhaust w/ a cherry bomb most likely

-snorkel

-skid plate

-full size spare

-recovery gear

 

and some random stuff

 

hey so i don''t have to pass emissions... when I redo my exhaust should I ditch the second cat? would that give me a little more power? worth the trouble?

do et. you will just have to weld a 02 sensor bung into the pipe.

Yes do it, its not really needed. You might still throw a code even with the O2 Bung, but if you run a UEL header you may also throw a PO420 code. It doesn't effect how it runs, but the light is annoying.

 

Go for it!