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Ari's POS Lifted Outback Daily

45K views 504 replies 16 participants last post by  jkp 
#1 · (Edited)
I didn't think I would ever feel like a journal for this car would be justifiable or needed, but seeing as it has been taking over my other journal this is probably a good idea.

Actually, this isn't a good idea... Now I kinda miss the way the car was before I messed it up lol


Anyway, I bought this thing back in 2009 or something. It is a 1996 Impreza Outback 2.2l manual, had about 200k miles on it at the time and probably has atleast 60k more now. It was bone stock and unmolested, pretty clean for what it was. I was only 15 yo at the time and wouldn't get my license for two more years, but I got it for cheap since it didn't run to well and the previous owner kinda gave up on it. But after replacing the MAF sensor the car was all good. Tbh, I didn't know anything about Subarus, I even disliked the Imprezas alot because "everybody has them and they all look the same" or something along those lines. Little did I know how much they would grow on me. But after replacing the MAF sensor the car was all good.

This is what it looked like when I got it, excuse the pic quality... I only had a 2mp cellphone camera and some childish photoshop edits




A while after I got the car the headgaskets blew. After fixing them the car started having overheating issues shortly after, me and my dad thought we might have messed up during the gasket install or something and decided that the car wasnt worth putting more work/money into so I drove it like that for a year or two after getting my license. Ended up finally completely ruining the engine by letting it overheat to much/to often, only to realise the issue was a bad radiator... By then I liked the car way to much to let it go, and despite having to add coolant to it regularly all that time it had served me well. So, I bought a cheap ej22 replacement engine and got it running again. Since then it has been doing good.

And now for the visual part. Shortly before I got my license I bought a wrecked 99 Impreza turbo (basicly a wrecked shell with no driveline), orginally intended to use parts from it to make the Outback cooler but then that thing turned into a project car... To get that done I had to buy a parts car for teardown. So, the Outback got facelift headlights, grille and hood. I felt like that helped the look a little.






Very soon I swapped out the crappy oem seats for some really comfy 1st gen Legacy ones, made such a difference to the whole car! After that followed some dumbass teenager mods such as cut springs and diy front spats out of a wrecked bumper. To be fair though, it looked alright. Looking through these pics makes my kinda miss that look... And it was pretty clean at that time too





Then came the matte black hood, I was so happy with the car like that



And here is a random pic with the 17" wheels that were to go on my GC which was done by then



One winter I messed up the pre facelift bumper by parking on a hill of snow, it was 3 wheelin and all lol.





I replaced it with a facelift L bumper of one of my parts cars





Even being lowered, this thing was awesome in snow! Obviously, I did get it stuck every now and then but I always had a shovel in the car and managed to get it loose by myself most of the time







After some times getting into trouble for it being to low I ended up doing the right thing and install un cutted springs again





At this point, the car was way to multicoloured for my opinion so I decided I wanted to change the colour. I guess I could say it wasnt really a good decision but I decided to paint it with a paint roller... Somewhere around this time I put stock springs back in so it would be usable during winter. I also happened to get free trunk wings from a buddy of mine, those really did do some good










Now, this looked good at first but since the paint didn't have a clearcoat, and I didn't put one on obviously since I used paintrollers, this shiny clean look didn't last long. And by now the whole thing is peeling pretty badly and so on.

Having fun in the snow




Next mod was a custom bash bar/light bar. Really enjoyed making this















Then I mounted these xenon fogs my dad had laying around the shop
















I've had so much fun with this thing over the years... Managed to get stuck once (more often actually but you know) and almost slid into a ditch full of knee deep muddy water lol




Aaaand, now we´re catching up. This brings us to this fall. I started wanting to lift the car, took the 15´s off and borrowed some WRX wheels from my blobeye to start with. Also threw on a spare v6 grille I had since a fat goose broke the other one... These two pics show how shitty the paint is, looks good wet, not so much when its dry...






Also here are a few pics from this winter before the lift





As for tires for the car, I had my mind pretty set on the Goodyear Wrangler Duratracs, mostly for the aggresive thread and the fact that they were pretty cheap'ish too. Ahead of me was some fab work and more waiting on parts than I assumed...




I borrowed these old worn out tires to test fit and try to realise what needed to be done to fit them






And then the new ones showed up.














I decided to run them studless to have the option of using them during the summer too. Instead I had them "micro cutted", which are alot of really fine cuts across the thread to give better grip and cooling to the tire, supposedly it also makes them quieter and what not.










Then the fabrication started. I made my own 3" tophat spacers with camber adjustability







































Welded both front tubes shut and threaded the holes. I know the welds arent 10/10 but they definetaly should do. The worse one is the first one...










Grinded to be flat




And then test fitted on the bottom plate in the car to see which way the holes need to face




And tacked together for now





Next up, bolted top and bottom plates together and aligned them properly by measuring at each bolt. Then I drilled the top plate through the tube to have the adjustment holes at the right place
























I realise the welds could be better but I'm pretty sure they'll hold just fine














Test fitting to see wich way the adjustment needs to face




Final steps




And "all" done!















Completely finished at this point




Then came the actual install. Had some near misses with the rears, had to trim the bolts a little bit




Both sway bars are out, didn't bother to do some fabricating to get them to fit so I run the car without them. Doesnt feel half bad at all. I wouldn't even choose to have them in if I could honestly






Looked like shit, rear camber is way off, front is good surprisingly, rear tires are way front in the wheelwell and its quite alot higher in the rear... I couldn't mount the tires at that time cause I only had 25mm spacers which I thougth would do, but the rear needed way more for the tires not to hit the spring perch.

So to sum up the lift, 3" camber adjustable custom tophat spacers ontop of alloy 3/4" spacers without a subframe drop. 3 3/4" in total.











Shortly after I made trailing arm spacers and mounted them, got the wheel about half an inch back in the wheel well














I then remembered I had a tire pressure monitor system that I got for my birthday a few months back. I always kinda wanted to use it with the new setup. There was one sorta "flaw" about it and that is that the sensors mount on the outside and use a nut to secure them. That means I couldn't really add or let out air without having to grab tools and spend some time on it. So, I bought some extra valves that have threads on them. I drilled and tapped for two extra valves in each wheel. One to permanently mount the sensors on and another that is only closed off with a cap to make letting air out easier.














Aaaaaand now finally, actually mounting the tires! I used two 25mm spacers in the rear and two 15mm in the front. Orginally only bought a set of 25mm and thought it would do. When I realised it didn´t I ordered a set of 15mm and planned on running a total of 40mm all around. That didn't work in the rear so I needed all 25mm to be used in the rear...






At this point stuff finally got interesting!






















Some cutting/hammering/welding needed...
































But the outcome was well worth it. As of now, the fenderwork still isnt done yet but the car is driveable and in 90% everyday scenarios rub free










I then swapped in a dual range tranny from a partscar I had. It's got the same 3.90 ratio I had already. Didn't take many pics during the job tho...

Removing from the parts car



New clutch installed



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And then that dual range goodness!






Also, after removing the fender liners I had water issues....



And fixed with the intake piping from the white donor






Making more room in the front



Before



After




And first proper test with the dual range, which happens to bring us up to date










I also have some stuff in the mail. Gonna be mounting two work lights on the roof on each side and one under the top wing for reverse light.






The lateral links are already here and will hopefully be installed soon so I can finish my wheel alignment which currently consists of alot of positive rear camber...

 

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#122 ·
Well, had an annoying monday to start off the week. Rear ended some old lady at a "red" light and crushed my fogs... No other damage as it was a rather slow collision, her car did almost only have a minor scratches after the bull bar and a small cut after the broken glass. Also some plastic thing on the bumper got losened alittle.

So now I'm fog less which is kinda weird, but still doesn't look too bad. Now the square led fogs might look better lol.







BUT, there are possible good news too. My buddy who is a tow truck driver for a big junkyard/partssale in Reykjavík, offered me a 2.5l na engine he owns for 150$ or so. I mentioned that I might go with turboing my ej22 and get a spare one in case it would blow up. He offered me a ej22 too along with the ej25 for cheap too, so that was really cool and I was really starting to plan on possibly dropping in a ej25 for some time and prep an ej22 for turbo in the meantime.

And then, a Tribeca popped up in the port at his work. I asked him if it had the engine still which it did. He checked the price for me and apperantly it can be had with the ecu for 500-600 bucks, which is waay cheaper than what I have seen online. On ebay they are usually listed for 1000$ and then plus shipping and 24% vat. Only thing is that the car doesnt have any collision damage or an obvious reason for being in a scrap yard. The dash was all teared out and nobody knows anything about the car or the engine. I'm gonna check with the previous owner tomorrow and see whats up with it. If the engine is good I'll probably jump on it. It's a 2006 245hp EZ30 as far as I know. Would be so freaking ideal for this car. I'll update you further tomorrow!





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#123 ·
Well, managed to get a hold of the previous owner yesterday. Apperantly the car had been having issues for years and as an attempt to fix the thing she spent about 5000$ or something on getting it fixed at a shop. She said the fixed everything but the engine and that the guys told here the head was either done or on its way out, cant remember. It was to expensive to fix so she decided to use the car until it would give up, did that for a year and then it stopped driving. She could reverse a little but not go forward, the engine would start and run. So I'm guessing it had transmission issues. When I asked her she said it never overheated and it never needed coolant added. At that point I'm not sure how the shop got to the conclusion that the head was done but I'd assume it needs new head gaskets. I've heard they are prone to fail but never heard of broken heads.

Now if its just the gaskets thats fine, cause I intended to change them out anyway. But since the engine isn't im proper condition I can get it for 350$, and if I come by myself I can take out the harness and keep it. Now I just gotta plan how/when I'm gonna get the stuff since its a 4-5 hour drive.


So, I'm buying a EZ30 :)

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#125 ·
It's been done before, I think. I know it would be a pita, but I still don't want to bail on it. I had thoughts about running it off a spare ms2 I have sitting around, but it might not be able to control the VVT/VVL.. Still something that should be possible to get done I'm sure

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#127 ·
Haha, kinda on an island lol. That is true. Thanks for the warning, appreciate it. But yeah I realised it would be a difficult swap with a lot of wiring issues, and I would have prefered an EG33 for that aspect. But this is just a deal that I feel like I have to take, might be more along my budget even tho itll cost some work. Besides, I'm very used to buying stuff from overseas by now so that doesn't bother me

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#130 ·
youll need at least the igniton, the key, wiring from there to ecu, i beleives theres a seperate immobilzer box, and all that wiring. probably want the power steering pump and lines, exhaust naturally, wiring to the o2 sensors. Just a couple things i can think of. Ive never done a swap like that though but im sure theres some documented case around somewhere. Some outbacks used EZ30's pre emobilzer days, maybe an ecu from one of those could help lighten the process but im completely uncertain
 
#131 ·
Yeah thats what I thought... The car still has all that as far as I know, will probably up the price a bit tho. A standalone will make all that stuff a lot easier I assume. But honestly my knowledge on these engines, and basicly newer subarus aswell is really limited. I'm gonna be doing alot of research either way

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#132 ·
Well, I got a new daily the other day, which I barely used cause the Outback is way more fun[emoji23] Its nice tho, a 98 Impreza GL, auto ej20 with 195k kms on it. No quarter or underbody rust. A couple minor things wrong with it, such as it tends to die when driving. Also sometimes it runs very rough for a few minutes after starting it.







I mounted my tow hook finally. Needed some modifcation to clear the exhaust










Flares came in finally. Haven't mounted them yet tho. Did some test fit and they're good up front but a tad small in the rear poke wise




Gave the car a nice wash and headed to Reykjavík to pick up my new engine!






Ripped as much as I could out of this Tribeca and loaded it in the Outback










Gonna be sitting here for some time tho




Aaand had some fun driving around in the rest of the snow at home, until I got stuck[emoji849]









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#134 ·
Oh yeah they did. They're not to popular tho lol. Basicly only good for engine donations lol. And even then, these seem to have headgasket problems.

Still, not to bad for 350 bucks or so, even tho the engine needs work. Engine, engine harness and dash harness, ecu, dbw gas pedal, ignition and probably some other stuff I'm forgetting.

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#142 ·
Well, the Outback is running strong as always. Still has all the annoying problems it has always had, silly exhaust leak and probably a wheelbearing on its way out, even tho I stopped hearing it again lol. (been slowly going bad since before I lifted it) Aaand I just recently started to sometimes hear noises from my drivers side cv joint, no surprise there. Its held up well for probably about to 8-10k kms, which I think is impressive for no subframe drop. Couple random pics






Its been serving me well as a tow car for the wrx, which I have finally been making some decent progress on










And today I got my flares mounted. They're not perfect, I'm gonna have to fix the rear door gaps eventually and I even mounted the front drivers flare a bit further up than the passengers somehow... but its not to shabby, looks good imo













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