bubbagump

Any pics of engine bay or underside that might give us an idea of where this might land on the rust-free to rust-y scale?

I second this. Just bought an R180 and it does not look like the one pictured.

Yea I trimmed inner just to be safe incase something about my setup with the Moog outers was a little different, like maybe my Moog's weren't tapped quite as deep as other options. After the job was said and done my inner tie rods are pretty far from being bottomed out, much further than the 2 or 3 threads I trimmed off. Reason I trimmed outer rods was just for aesthetics. The place next to my work where I get my alignments done out of convenience gave me crap last time I brought my car in because I work on my own car. They almost refused to work on my car because they didn't want to potentially be held responsible for something stupid I did. After inspecting my work they agreed to work on my car. I did not want them refusing to work on my car after the steering rack swap because it "looked weird".

Thanks! All sorts of excited. Going over driveshaft options now. I guess the AT shaft and yoke swap thing works but looking at going 1 piece custom. Cost might not be a huuuuge difference.

Hmmmmm, what did I do today? Went off the deep end that's what. Arranged to buy a mint 2017 STI drive train. Having it shipped directly to RalliSpec for longer 5th/6th. Also, been talking a lot with friend of mine who has a realllly nicely equipped machine shop in his garage. We are going to do everything within our power to do a hub swap with the aluminum trailing arms. He thinks we can do it and retain ABS, I am not so sure. Will probably be starting a thread soon to document everything. EDIT : Cropped photos, no need to show a stranger's garage anymore than necessary.

Going to be doing this likely next summer. Thanks for the heads up on discontinued brackets. Mannn that's a bit of a bummer. Wish I started in on my car years ago before stuff started getting more expensive/impossible to get. Ah well, now is as good as time as any... Nice tank and subframe!!

If whoever is picking up the TMIC has no need/want for the STI style turbo hose/hardware I am in the market. Thanks! Sent from my SM-G892A using Tapatalk

Sorry to hear, I'd be a bit pissed too. I recently took mine to garage too for pressing. Would have been not the happiest if I found out they took the hack route I could have as easily done. What is this sunroad kit? I searched "sunroad" and just got your post and some other thread about body shops. Is this a press kit that works well for our LCA bushings?

Glad to know there are others. Hah

Bah humbug on the sensor! I live in rust belt and was able to get mine out. That being said, I recently installed a new STI exhaust manifold. Bolts up perfect. BUT! The RH (passenger side) manifold is ever so slightly different where O2 sensor mounts. STI must have different O2 sensor because the LGT one would not fit. The little heat shield on the O2 sensor itself ran into the heat shield for the manifold. Maybe if I used the STI manifold heat shields instead of the LGT one it would have worked? In the end I ended up only using the LH (driver side) manifold and cross-over pipe from the STI. I went back to LGT manifold on passenger side. Should have probably gone back to LGT manifold on driver's side just so I didn't "wear out" my STI one so I still had nice new STI set.

Yea, would have to be rather masochistic to get excited about something like this. Just this summer I've spent almost what my vehicle is worth just doing minor upgrades and refreshes. It's definitely a decision made out love for the car rather than any sort of reasonable monetary calculation. If you love your car enough you can justify all sorts of stupidity. ME - I'm sort of hoping my engine blows so I can go forged bottom end and some stupid 400HP build:icon_twis. Five speed is already starting to make some not good noise. 6speed swap here I come!

Seems like a reasonable estimate... IF - valves didn't crash. If it was really only a couple teeth might be just fine. I've always done my own pump/timing. Can be done for ~$400.

Pics, vin#, etc? Have friend who might be interested but this post needs quite a bit of work... Sent from my SM-G892A using Tapatalk

It's nice to dream. I did tell my fiance this evening that I want a big garage for the following: 1) Lexus SC400 - Currently own 2) Current trunk-having LGT. 3) The long and trunkless variety of LGT. 4) Viper 5) Who knows. Lexus LFA if I win lottery. Lawn mower if I don't? So it's the first on my list that I don't own. Hope he posts pics, might just have me doing crazy things.

I wouldn't let my experience scare you off Bilstein's. They have a pretty good reputation best I can tell. I will count mine as a fluke. I am sure you can do better than the OEM Bilstein's, but I am trying to keep my car as "stock-ish" as possible. Staying in the Subaru family of parts. I am not entirely sure why I'm doing this, I guess I assume I will run into fewer issues? That is proving not to be completely true but so far so good.

Got the swap done today! Replaced all pressure/return lines while I was at it. Power steering pump sounds PISSED! Hopefully that will right itself in due time. - Steering u-joint from STI, posted on NASIOC. (This was not necessary, but there was a brand new one up for sale for less than 50% MSRP, it is rare something I need is for sale on the forums when I actually need it) - Used MOOG outer tie rods. Trimmed 3/4" from threaded end so I didn't have to do the thin jam nut thing. The idea of the thin nut made me nervous. Luckily my good friend has a nice little machine shop. If I were to do it again I would only trim 1/2" off. Everything else : Part Number QTY Part Name 34110VA121 1 Gear Assembly $630.67 34620AC010 1 Pressure Line Bolt 34621AC024 1 Hose & Tube Assembly Gasket 34610AG05A 1 Power Steering Pressure Hose 34611AG22A 1 Suction Hose 34611AG21A 1 Return Hose 010110200 12 Gear Assembly Front Bolt 902380007 2 Front Bracket Nut 901250077 2 Gear Assembly Rear Bolt 901000181 2 Gear Assembly Upper Bolt 901550060 2 Bolt (Used on steering u-joint) 903200005 2 Fuse Box Washer (Used on steering u-joint)

Got STI rack swapped in today. Relatively painless, besides having to pull it back down to adjust steering wheel orientation. It fixed my bad pop near steering lock. Fluttering clunks still remained. Lightbulb went off. Checked nut that holds damper rod in top hat bearing. Sure enough it was loose. Never thought to check it, I purchased struts fully assembled. Glad I caught that before it backed out completely, that would have been BAD, like really bad. I was considering just trying to ignore it for a few weeks before I finally found culprit. To anyone else who orders used Bilsteins : Don't assume strut rod is properly secured to top-hat. EDIT : What I found odd was that the nut and rod had a paint stripe on them noting orientation. With paint stripes aligned nut was only finger tight. Once properly torqued paint marks did not line up anymore. Was this never torqued from the factory?

Wow man, wow. I don't even know what to say...the want is strong over here. Nice wagon!

I have become secretly obsessed with this idea over the past couple weeks. I am pretty set on doing 6Spd swap not too far in the future and I would love to be able to go all the way out to a full STI drivetrain swap, brakes, shafts, bearings and all. I am wondering if 1) my understanding of current state is accurate and 2) I might have an idea. 1) I see that Free Range Racing and Antho both have solutions. From what I can tell the FRR solution does not retain ABS. Does speedo work though? I am ok-ish with giving up ABS but speedo's are cool... Also I am a little disappointed it seems incompatible with aluminum trailing arms. Although boxkita are you saying that FRR did actually figure out a solution for the aluminum arms? That would be one step to completely perfect being that I've also become obsessed with full aluminum arm set even though returns aren't likely all that cost effective. Or would keeping ABS require hub to be mounted without spacer plate thing which would then not work with the length of the STI CV's. 2) I have seen idea of custom hub mentioned (in the post above for exampled) where the bearing of the STI was pressed into housing of LGT hub, and also have seen reference that maybe someone made one at one time? I lost that particular post. It does seem that it can be done but for way too much money? Is there any way that maybe it could happen for a couple hundred bucks per side given a really nice press or something? I did come across this: https://www.flatironstuning.com/driveshaft-shop-axle-hub-kit-06-09-legacy-spec-b-w-r180-sti-differential The 1000HP shafts are unneeded in my use case, but would something like the hub in this kit work? I am hoping most of that $2k is the shafts. I have seen many threads regarding it being difficult or maybe impossible to replace the bearings in the hub housings themselves. But if that's the case how is the hub in this kit used? If this could be a promising path at all I have started a conversation with someone at thedriveshaftshop and he started asking about spline counts and stuff. This idea may have partially been floated already. Either way I am weirdly obsessed with this idea Anyone have any input? I would like to be able to do it with aluminum arms and ABS if possible. If the news is that it's just not ever going to be that perfect then I still might consider anyways. Also it is a shame boxkita that the sub-frame swap couldn't work for any reasonable amount of $! That would have been the perfect solution, ditch this weird trailing arm setup thing we've got going on. Is there a consensus around here, is the trailing arm setup inferior to the setup the newer cars have going on or is it mostly just different? EDIT : I realize that there are other modifications that would make more of a difference for less money. Do I need STI bearings and 114mm bolt pattern? I guess not. But I can't stop thinking about it.

No picture of the belt cover installed but wowwww. Thanks for pointing me in that direction, I had never known how to get to the picture section. That thread is one of the most impressive fab threads I have ever seen.

This has been an amazing thread to read through. That is an excellent wagon you've got going on over there, the attention to detail really shows through. I could tell from my CF hood scoop you were good, but this stuff is thoroughly impressive and makes me want to keep making mine more and more pretty. To that end, is there a list of things that you have a mold for that you could make for me? I am probably most immediately interested in the cubby gauge pod but would take probably whatever non wagon specific parts you could throw at me. Also, really like that McIntosh head unit. The display on my Harmon Kardon unit is half broken. I might try and do that just for asthetics, I imagine the McInsosh is ATLEAST as good sounding as the regular HK?

I'm liking this, any pics of it installed?

hahah. Looks to be well on it's way to being outstanding in it's field. Has a ways to go though.

It's in the sold section, to me [emoji16]. Sent from my SM-G892A using Tapatalk

Well, I recently went down the same path. I went to swap struts for JDM Bilsteins, and brakes but ended up doing wayyy more than planned. -Swapped to used aluminum control arms that I installed new bushings in -New sway bar bushings. -New inner and outer tie rods -New steering knuckles because I sort of damaged one getting caliper bracket off. I did not try hard to be careful, I think I was looking for an excuse to replace my nasty knuckles. -New wheel bearings, because knuckles. -Rotors, calipers. After I did that I only drove for a couple hundred miles but man was it a good couple hundred. So much tighter and more stable, no more getting thrown around by the wind. However, during that couple hundred miles it also became obvious I did in fact damage my rack because of a stupid mistake I made while too tired to continue working on my car. -So now, new STI steering rack! And all the lines that go with it. 15 year old rubber is nasty. I would caution against following my lead though just trying to track down a clunk, I went a little willy nilly on things.