KZJonny

There *is* a Legacy up the road being parted, and I've got a set of doors in the correct colour in my basement, if it comes to that. I pay for comprehensive/collision on the GT tho, so as long as the insurance company rules I was not at fault, it's going to be the others guys insurance footing the bill. Part of me wants to DIY this and save someone money, but I have practically zero free time right now, and getting a free rental car while mine gets worked on by a professional sounds pretty good to me. If it doesn't go that way, and I need to pay out my $1000 deductible, then things may change, and I'll have to start thinking about how to better spend that money. A full-car respray will be like $4-5K in my area. If I'm not fully covered, I think the money might be better spent being put towards that.... No idea what it will take to refinish the wheel, I expect that could also be fairly expensive. EDIT: Seems that I was deemed to be "Not at fault" in any way for the collision. So, no change to my insurance ratings or premiums. Insurance will take care of all the repairs at a professional repair shop, at no charge to me at all, and provide a rental while that happens. It's going to cost someone more money than a DIY fix, but there is no option to collect a cheque rather than have repairs done. The only sensible thing to do is to let someone else take care of now. It could've been much worse, nobody was hurt and someone else will spend their time doing the repair. (I've learned my lesson there, nobody else works on my junk but me any longer... except for bodywork and paint.)

Might be marginally off topic, but it applies…. I have a JMP Custom VF40 installed in my wagon. (ELH, UP, GS catted downpipe and Borla Catback) Currently on a COBB OTS stage 2, 91 Octane tune, but fuelling with 93 as long as I can get it. The car is an entirely different beast with this setup, and the turbo responds ridiculously quick, and earlier enough in the RPM range to notice. (Took a buddy for a ride who has a stock car, and he noted how much faster mine comes on boost…) I’m very much looking forward to when I can do a pro tune with a 3 port to really let the turbo do it’s thing. Currently at 15psi target boost, which I am pretty sure is holding it back. I’ve got nothing but praise for the equipment and the customer service I had with John. In the unlikely event I ever tire of my current setup, I would absolutely be finding a VF52 core (or used BNR 16g??) to have him work his magic on. So, not a JMP VF52 review, but hopefully topical.

Yeah. I have some questions to ask about how that works. This is my first collision where there is damage that is probably worth more than my deductible. (Second ever, and the first was sliding a bit on a frosted bridge and kissing bumpers…) I don’t know if insurance here will just cut a check for less than a write-off. Ideally, because this was totally not my fault, it has nothing to do with *my* insurance and won’t effect my deductibles or insurance rating. I’ll need to weight some things, but I also have to consider that I found a set of pristine stock rims, which are hard to get now, and the potential of damage to steering components. I just installed *all* new suspension parts and a rack. If there is any damage to the rest of that, and I don’t have a shop asses that, I’m SOL. That said, I had planned to remedy all the bodywork and get a full paint job when I’ve saved enough for it, so the blue fender I have in my parts stash may be a candidate at this point. Just a little disheartening after spending $$$ to get her to where she is, and only enjoying the ‘stage 2+’ goodness before being hit by someone….

What someone else did to my GT today. Le Sigh. Not the end of the world, but still. Kid pulled into traffic on a main road intersection as I was going through at ~55km/h. Good having all new brakes at 4 corners…. I wasn’t moving fast when he hit me, but still. Fingers crossed the adjuster rules I was not at fault. It’s not so bad, but it won’t be a cheap fix either. I mean, the car needs paint and bodywork anyhow, but this makes me sad.

Made some changes to the framing plans, hopefully making putting up the building a little easier. Had to have the gable end truss design adjusted to suit. Hoping the city building inspector is fine with the changes, ha! Bonus is that the price on the trusses is down 10% from when I got the first quote last year. Didn’t see that coming!

Good new for you then. That'll be about the finishing touch? I meet with my friend and former employer who is a contractor tonight to have a quick chat about getting this things rolling. With any luck, I should have forms set up for the pad within a week or two, and pending inspection have that poured before the month, we'll see. I doubt somewhat that mine will be faster than anybody else's, since I'll be trying to shoehorn in time to build and finish on top of everything else going on. But, at least I should be able to get the frame up and sheathed before winter, even if it's just finished with polywood and air barrier It'll be a clean and dry place to store the project cars for the salt season.

You're not wrong... But at the same time I am building the garage specifically to house the lift, as in; I had to get a By-Law variance for the building ($1600 CAD), which required a survery and grade plan to be submitted (~$2500 CAD) just so it would be tall enough to hold a 10k lb BendPak. This garage is essentially a shell to hold the lift I bought, which is fully paid and waiting for delivery. I already have a set of QuickJacks, and they will live in whichever bay does not house the lift. In a nutshell, moving isn't an option. I'm single, and while I do okay for myself, I bought a "needs some love" starter home ~4+ years ago when the market was just starting to getting a little bullish by spending all of my savings. As it stands now, even selling my place with all the work I've done to it, and with interest rates climbing, I'd be moving to something smaller, probably on a smaller lot if I tried (=smaller permitted garage, and another 18 months of argueing with the city. (+ a repeat of the above expenses). The "value" of my house has doubled in the past 4 years, but so has literally everything else. I'm pretty much gonna die in this place, and it's already a little big (850 sqft) for one person and a couple of cats.... Haha! I'm still leaning towards the left bay, so the lift won't "split up" the rest of the space in the garage if in use. Should leave enough space to do work on the "side" of the cars, like brakes and suspension. I figure it can't be worse than how I work right now anyway, where I'm squeezed into a 2' space between the car and my house in the sun and rain when I need to do that kind of thing. I also can only work on one side at a time, having to turn the car around to do the other side.... The bigger reason for needing to decide soon, is that I should be pouring a pad in the coming weeks, and I am going to put footings where the lift will stand. Technically it only needs 5" of the required grade of concrete over aggregate, but I talked with my cement guy, (the only person aside from me doing any work on this particular project), and he said it's not a big deal to rebar and pour a couple of footings right onto the compacted earth. Tied into the rest of the pad with a pile of rebar, it's a little overkill but when it comes to lift I'm okay to go a little overboard. It is however, much easier and cheaper to only pour the two footings I need, rather than 3 a choose where I want the life later.... hah! I'll probably diary the process here as it goes (been through your build thread MaxCapacity, thank you!) in case anyone is doing the same thing, in a very DIY kind of way. I have some previous experience doing framing and carpentry, so that part is within reach, but the concrete is something I can't afford to get wrong. Pretty much everything else I think I'll be doing myself. No insulation or interior in the foreseeable future, so it's a pretty bare-bones shed... Might even be able to use it this Autumn if I hustle.

I can take a quick look. Installing the new RSB mounts got shoved waaay down the priority list while other stuff was going on, so they're still in that box. My first guess would be "no", just based on size and mount location, but I bet the mounting holes could be massaged a little to fit. I'll take a picture of how they look mocked up when I have a chance.... So, that is certainly not a hard no. Cheers!

Google Helmholtz Resonator. Pretty cool stuff…

Fwiw, I picked up the autoline pro tester, and it has been handy. https://www.amazon.ca/AutoLine-Pro-Automotive-Detector-Diagnostic/dp/B07JVT1NG2/ref=asc_df_B07JVT1NG2/?tag=googlemobshop-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=337141350629&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=895112415206176707&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9000774&hvtargid=pla-571637951948&psc=1 The other methods all around work, but rather than spraying soapy water all over the engine bay, I liked that this would give me a clue where to look for leaks…. I’ve loaned it out to another GT owner who was tracking down some issues as well. Worked a treat finding tiny leaks at his TGV actuators… It’s more than a paint can lid for cost, to be sure, but was about the same price as having a smoke test performed at a shop, so I called it a wash, and now have one for keepsies.

Hm. first bit got chopped. I'll edit later.

Reaching out to others who have had the very great luxury of a 2 car garage in the past, specifically one with a 2 post lift in it, but general opinions are welcome. In a nutshell, after over a year of arguing with the city, being told what I can and cannot do, and spending thousands on permitting to be able to build garage that is a useful size (I was going to be limited to 380 sq/ft! Ha!) I am pretty close to pouring a pad. Just need some final approvals. It's nowhere near as big as I would like at ~575 sqft, but I wasn't going to get anywhere with city if I asked for more, so I figure it will be fine. It has to be! For general reference, this is where it will sit in my property: (It is the proposed accessory building, note how the driveway is on the left of my house, meaning the straight shot into the garage will be the left bay.) Couple other views: And the floor plan: So, there will be more follow up questions, but the principal ones are this: I am leaning towards putting the 2-post lift on the left hand side of the garage for a few reasons: -straightest shot from down the driveway -farthest from the work area at the far right of the building, behind the man door = furthest from weld spatter, grinding sparks etc... This is balanced by the downside of not having maximal 360* access to the car on the lift. But, there should be at least 3ft or so even on the wall side of the leftmost bay.... Lift in the middle bay has the reverse ups and downs, clearly. Closer to potential damage from the work area, but better all around access. More difficut to get in and out of as well. (Much of the rest of the backyard will be a garden and social area, so ideally I won't be driving through it all the time. My general idea around it has been this: -the garage will be used for working on cars or other projects or winter storage of cars (Legacy and Datsun on an under the lift, probably, leaving some room for work in the winter) - so ready, daily access is much less important. Final question: My plans call for 8' wide garage doors, which are already expensive enough, but there is *just* enough room to squeeze in 9' doors. I personally kinda don't think they'll be necassary, as the Datto is tiny and the GT is under 7' with with the wing mirrors pulled in, but I'd be curious to hear of anyone else's experienced in that regard. I kinda think for the cost, staying with 8' should be enough... Thanks in advance!

You should very pretty safe at those lifts. I'm too lazy to get out a calculator and figure out how much of a driveline angle change that would be over the distance between the differential and the hub, or between the CV centres centres, but not much. Without having one in front of me, I'm going to guess that the rear CV axles are say, 20" from joint to joint. So, for the sake of argument make the numbers round, and say you lift the rear 1.5". That is slope of 0.075"/inch, over (again a guess) 20 inches. My mental trigonometry is weak, but I don't think that would exceed the limitations of a CV joint. Since I assume all of these lift kits your talking about adjust the strut and spring spacing, and don't change the location of the subframe or diff, you won't be altering the prop shaft angle at all, which I would think would be more important than potentially going through CV's slightly faster than normal. I doubt with a 1" front and 1 3/8" rear lift you'll notice any difference. My car has 1/2" saggy butt spacers in it, and I didn't even know until I put new struts in! I was thinking about getting some to raise the rear height just a little. Glad I didn't I suppose, those would have to be loooong studs to fit a stack of spacers like that.

That’s a nice round number. Just have to see if you can double it. I’m getting close to 100k miles…. Got some catching up to do. Spring roadtrip perhaps…

You are very welcome. The MCM boys are a riot. I lived in Aus very briefly, and have a few friends down there, one of whom had a very quick 2001 Liberty. I had the very good fortune to live in New Zealand for a while and got turned on to the MCM thing there. If you have the time to watch a longer series look up their Supergramps series. Way back in the day, they put a 3.6L from a Tribeca into a 4th gen Liberty/Legacy and turbocharged it. If you’re still looking for a very small lift idea, then google ‘saggy butt spacers’. They’re commercially available, but something you could make up on your own easily enough, to whatever height you wanted. (Within reason for CV angles…) Just a matter of finding studs long enough to press into your struts to match the lift adjustment. You could probably do an inch or so easily enough?? I was going to make some from an old HDPE cutting board, then found some used ones for cheap, so didn’t bother. Much less work to do in your garage, only need to pull the struts and make a pattern to fit between the strut and body, rather than drop the subframes….

Ah snap!! NOW you send a link to that. After I did rusty ball joints on both my wagons, and they’re bathed in so much anti-seize they’ll come out just fine. When I was looking there was the Company 23 tool, and the ‘weld up your own’ version. So, I opted for neither and used the impact sockets…. Which are still good for getting the ball joint bolt out of the knuckle if it is seized, so you can use that tool to pull the joint out of the control are btw….

I can’t find the thread at the moment, but if the ball joint bolt through the knuckle gives you a hard time, there is a DIY method somewhere on LGT.com (or maybe Outback.org??) that involves jacking up the assembly enough to get an impact grade socket in the space between the knuckle and control arm. You then let the arm drop and the socket acts as a fulcrum to drive the two assemblies apart. Basically lets the strut spring do all the work for you…. As the gap opens, you repeat using increasingly larger sockets, until it breaks free…. That is only a basic description, but I’ve used the method a couple times, and it works really well. Of course, heat and penetrant help, but if you don’t remove the CV, the boot is right there, and a torch is dicey. Even an inductive heater can get the area uncomfortably hot… I forget who posted it, but it was pretty ingenious, or so I thought, and it works without having to beat the living daylights out of the knuckle…

Disclaimer: I do not make any money from promoting them. Ha! But I'll always put in a good word for a product that is well made, and does what it claims to do. I'm very happy with the how much smoother my engine is after the install, and since I really only finished my power and driveline related work a few weeks ago, it's really sinking in in how big of a difference it is. I don't imagine you'll regret it. I would be very interesting to hear your commentary if it is possible to do a drive before install and immediately after, without changing all sorts of other parts. (I replaced mine when I did my timing belt, so even that would've helped smooth out idle in theory, as the belt was real old, and had probably stretched a bit.) I've spent money in a couple other places that it may not have been *entirely* necessary, but don't regret that either. I wanted to do a header as part of my turbo/exhaust upgrade and decided to spend the extra money on the Holy Header. Needed? Nah, not really, but I did want an EL header, and it seemed to be regarded as the best available. When I got to hold it in my hands, and I saw the absolute work of art the casting and welding was (not to mention the sweet sound of non-rumbly efficiency...) I would tell anyone with money burning a hole in their pocket to get one. Fitment was perfect, install took minutes. My car needs paint, will always be on stock rims, and doesn't have silicon rad hoses, or any engine dress up (as examples). But it does have a lot of money put into reliability enhancement and "safe" power. You get to spend your money where you like!

I did a little of that when I pulled my tank for R&R. Worked a treat. Just used carb line since it's far cheaper and more than enough to handle the EVAP system pressures.

Fluidampr is silicon filled, so it is using a variably viscous fluid damper as the name implies. It's a little like the VLSD in your rear differential, the harder you push on it, the thicker the silicon gets as it resists shear. It's much closer to the idea of the "added weight" flywheels like GADT offers: https://shop.getadomtune.com/light-enough-crank-pulley/ This could be a very long and technical answer, but I suppose it can be summarized like this: -light cranks can help a little with hitting target RPMs faster because you are accelerating less rotational mass. So, quicker into boost, etc... They are typically incompatible with a lightened flywheel if you are going that route... So, one or the other. Too little rotational mass causes problems, balance and vibrations issues. -because they are typically just a hunk of aluminium with no type of dampener in them, they can be quite cheap -they have disadvantage as well, like RPM drops off more rapidly between shifts, again, because you have less momentum keep the engine spinning when you disengage the clutch, and many report chattery clutch engagement and "juddering/jumping" getting going from a stop....ymmv Heavier crank pulleys do kind of the opposite. -slightly slow down RPM rise, and hold RPM a little better between shifts -compatible, or perhaps even complimentary to a lighter flywheel, if playing with those variables is a thing you want to do. -in the case of the Fluidampr, cost is a factor, since it a multi part design, etc... however, the fluid dampening is (in my experience so far) actually noticeable, and I find idle a little smoother, and I can definitely take my time a little more between shifts, which I like. Hard for me to pin down how much the thing did just on it's own, since I made quite a few changes at the same time (shifter bushings, Group N trans mount, etc...) But I do kinda have to say it is at least doing some of what is claims to. I use my car more as a Grand Tourer, with some hard pulls down highway on ramps and jaunts down twisty roads at mid-speeds, so the setup suits me well. I suppose if I was looking for all out fast shifting and getting into boost as fast as possible, then a lightweight system would be better? Dunno. The JMP Custom VF40 I've got installed spools plenty fast enough that I have no problem getting into the meat of my peak torque range in a hurry. Maybe that helps? It is some words anyway.

Obviously they do a much bigger lift on this thing than you are talking about, but in the first couple minutes of the video, you see the little spacers they steal from an Outback chassis to put into a Legacy. My OB has them, the GT does not. Only mention it since 3rd gen outbacks are a dime a dozen at u-pull yards. I don’t imagine it would upset your driveline angles too much…. Just thinking out loud. I also raised my car a bit from how it was when I got it. Changed from Sti pinks to Spec B stock springs. Not real loss of handling with a more aggressive alignment, but a much more sensible ride height.

Thanks. My first reaction to it breaking off had been to replicate the original mounting point out of SS sheet metal and tig the the whole thing, the mount it via nutserts..... But, I really wanted to go for a drive. So I opened a beer, stared at the problem for a little bit, and saw that this might work. Little bit of bar steel and a flap wheel did the trick. So, I'm becoming more of a redneck I suppose? Dunno. The beer was good, the fix worked, and I go to go for a nice evening cruise. I guess I am.

Totally an out of left field idea, but I am reasonably sure that Outbacks from the same generation have frame spacers as part of their taller ride height. I should know better, but my GT is slightly lower than stock, and I’ve never pulled a subframe out of my OB. The guys on Might Car Mods did something like this at one point. (OB subframe spacers into a (H6?) Legacy/Liberty. Don’t think USDM cars. Are significantly different than AUDM…. Might be worth the quick google? Not sure at all if it changes ground clearance or just ride height, but that would depend on what you’re looking for.

Just because you’ve already opened your wallet…. I’ll mention it’s worth looking at fuel tank seams as well. I’ve seen quite a few 05-06 vintage cars now, and most seem to have had the tank replaced, or are rusty to the point of near failure. (This is the time to replace all evap hoses while you’re in there….) maybe you are lucky and it’s all good. Most of the rest seems to have been covered… I’ll note that I took someones advice and replaced the crank pulley with a Fluidampr unit. Spendy yes, but it does seem to tamp down vibration and add a some extra smoothness to deacelleration in particular and low RPM shifting.

I imagine OP will chime in before too long, but it didn’t go well. Rod knock. I spent some time on the net trying to help him source a shortblock/longblock, whatever is around. He’s in the same city as me. Not much in our area, unfortunately.