whitetiger

you cant just pull axles or drive shafts on a subaru and expect it to make it RWD or FWD. RWD would be the best bet, but you would have to get a spool to replace the center diff for the conversion. you could weld it, but there is a right way of doing these things. id leave the thermostat in place, unless you have overheating issues.

you mean manual wagon. we dont know if the parts car OP is looking at is a wagon or not. yes, OP, the 05 was the only year with a black headlight housing.

it can be done in the car. obviously you have to pull the driveshaft and assorted hardware, but you just have to pull off the tail housing of the trans. there may be some shaft end-play checks you want to do that may require trans removal if the backlash is too high, but the service manual should help you there.

only rebound adjustable, not compression adjustable.

its not the head unit, its the Sirius XM radio receiver mounted below the head unit. that unit is specific to 5th gen cars and can be installed in other makes AFAIK, but if you had another 5th gen you could transfer it in to that car's dash. I'd call siriusXM and have them try to transfer the subscription to a different unit for your Matrix.

for the fronts [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXSnNZt3NiI]Official KONI strut inserts or "Cut-A-Strut" installation procedure - YouTube[/ame]

on some of the FB groups for the LGT, I'd swear that some of the cars there have like 5 vin numbers worth of parts. the 4th gen LGT has reached clapped out Honda Accord level ownership.

Koni all the way. Best performance, lifetime warranty.

i'd do a hydrocarbon block test just to confirm a blown HG, but assuming that is the case, you can sell it here with full disclosure on the engine, and you might get $3k-ish. i would certainly part out and sell all aftermarket parts if you can get the car back to full stock. One good angle is to sell it to a suby mechanic who can easily restore the car to sell or use for themselves. If the rest of the car is in good condition, they will be a viable option. Lastly, a full part out of the entire car will get you the most money but its the most labor intensive and time consuming, and i'm not sure what the demand for 5th gen LGT parts are. in the instance of keeping the car, if its a HG issue, get an actual quote for repair from a shop who specializes in Subaru. At least that will help to confirm the state of your engine.

hope you got a compression/leak down test before you bought that, along with t-belt and water pump replacement verified. also keep 5-7K aside for when the motor/turbo goes.

^that would cause a CEL, but not a boost leak/no boost. check the TB to IC charge pipe, and make sure your tune allows this motor to properly work with the factory boost control systems.

so seemingly without any diag, you throw a motor at the car and nothing changes. you mention nothing about ECU changes to adapt the jdm engine, nor any other diag processes you made to try to figure something out. how is anyone gonna help you with the sparse amount of info you have given us.

^yeah, anything past stage 1 and cvt goes "no thanks"

the sti FA24DIT coming out will undoubtedly be the target candidate for anyone's transplant dreams.

the fa20 has less displacement, but essentially the same power output of the FA24 in the XT vehicles. its reasonable to assume the FA20 needs more timing advance to attain that power level, and therefore more knock resistance.

yes, with a rumored 400hp, of course they will require 91+, but since the CVT in the legacy disintegrates past a stage 1 tune as evidenced on the FA20 VCT wrx, subaru has no need for anything beyond 87 on the legacy/outback XT.

direct injection allows for lower octane fuel to be used without having to pull back timing for knock, and subaru used this to aid fuel economy for both range, and the ability to used 87oct. i'm sure more power can be made with a tune made for 93, but subaru didn't push that boundary, so 87 is all that is needed.

if you havent done them already, group.n motor and trans mounts and upgrade the rear diff bushings, the more you can cushion driveline shock while keeping twist to a minimum, the better everything will be with the blast plates.

lessons well learned.

the case problems are what cause the gears to strip. under load, the flex allows the gears move apart and partially un-mesh, and when the gears are like that they are only transmitting tq on the tip of the tooth and not the full face of the tooth. So once a gear breaks, it cause a chain reaction to the rest of the gear. Adding blast plates resolves this issue somewhat, and doing straight cut lower gears will allow more of the tq to be distributed across the tooth, but straight cut gears aren't really necessary below 400wtq. fwiw, the rear R160 vlsd diff is the true weak point of the 5mt cars. i busted more rear diffs than gearboxes launching with r-comps on a stage 2+ car......then the axles went.

ok, well in reality the 5mt can handle that power so long as you aren't doing clutch drops or running r-comps. the real issue with the 5mt is case flex since its a split case design. you can buy blast plates to stiffen up the box to help that issue. Sure, gearsets will help, but without case strengthening, the benefits from the gears will be diminished unless you go straight cut.

centric GCX are cheaper, under $180 for all 4 rotors on rockauto.com, and i have a set on my MX-5 as well, and i liked how they didn't corrode the way other painted/coated edge/hat rotors that i had bought in the past did. there are alot of brands that offer slotted only rotors, such as stoptech, DBA, Racing Brake and probably brembo too. FWIW, you dont need slotted rotors on a daily driver, just pads that suit your driving style.

$3k for parts/labor on a gear box just to get a sticker......seems legit.

Dont forget Ralispec in NJ. curious what kind of power you are making or type of driving you are doin in an outback XT to warrant that level of gearset.

yes, i did. I chose the centric GCX elemental rotors. a good balance between price and corrosion protection. they broke in phenomenally after a quick bed-in with the stoptech sport pads.