I'm rebuilding a 2004ish era EJ DOHC.  I'm wondering if a stretch belt for the AC from a newer gen would fit.  Has anyone tried this before?  Was it worth the swap or just more hassle to install/remove?  

I'm sure it would be possible, just a matter of removing the tensioner and finding the right size belt.

Not sure why you'd want to. They're more expensive, and can't be reused. IIRC Subaru only used them for like 2 years.

Waste of time. And the compressor has a much smaller diameter pulley so you couldn't use the size that Subaru used. 

GD