creep_nu

from what i understand, unless you're pushing big power, or doing something where you'd have a lot of heat soak(drag racing etc), or need it for packaging(like stock superchargered V8s, crammed tiny engine bays etc), water intercoolers really aren't worth the extra effort

always sad to see someone's baby go to a new home, but i'm glad you found a good one for her. This is such an odd, small dedicated community that both the pain and happiness are felt by everyone. GL with the beamer, that's gonna be another fun ride for you

yeah, that's a prime parts car, who cares what color it is...someone with patience could part that car out after taking the engine out and make all of their money back plus some.

yep, totally makes sense. too bad to see another one going down the hole, but GL with sale and whatever else you get in to

buddy has a '14 outback, and we got 2 different gates belts, one that was too tight, and one that was just so barely too loose that it squeaked. got an OEM belt and all was fine...granted this was for an N/A engine, but...honestly from now on with subaru belts i'm just going OEM. same thing with thermostats, just haven't had good luck aftermarket

just need to get yourself some blacked out headlights to complete that murdered out look. looks great as is though

sad to hear buddy, any particular reason you're getting out of it?

gave the exterior some loving--debadged everything except for the subaru emblem and the 2.5gt on the trunk. polished out the trunk so there's no shadows...looks so much better without having the entire trunk lid covered in badging. I also washed, clay bar and used turtle wax's hybrid ceramic spray. Second time i've used that stuff, and if you guys haven't yet I can definitely recommend. Goes on easy, looks great, lasts 3-4 months, and beads like crazy...plus it's super cheap, can easily get 5-6 applications on cars our size out of 1 bottle. also finally got a foam cannon for my pressure washer, and holy crap does that thing make washing your car *so* much faster and easier.

yeah i had another company's tool from years ago, may have even been the company23 one that i paid the better part of $100 for that i lost in my most recent move. i was delighted to find that one was only $30...hell of a deal.

for the price of one OEM control arm you can get both sides from mevotech--i just did mine a few months ago and went mevotech versus the OEM ones. they fit perfectly, no problems getting em in. ball joints have been fine, even though i've heard they're an issue. when you do go to change them make sure you pick yourself up one of these bad boys, makes life a whole lot easier, and unless it's stupid stuck, a breaker bar with a deep socket takes em right out. just make sure you get yourself a 24mm deep socket as well if you don't have one.

i haven't had coilovers on this chassis, but i've had previous cars that were on coils and i gotta say, for a daily it's punishment. like you said scuba you have to be extra careful, and unless you live with perfect roads the trade offs aren't worth it. a good set of lowering springs and properly dampened shocks will get you 3/4 of the way there on handling, with only 10% of the downsides of coilovers. at least in my experience...i haven't had KWs or other super expensive coils, but...meh.

saw this is a little bit ago. that's an actual flamethrower attached to this beat to crap corvette. i disgruntled looking man was walking towards it in a black duster holding large metal tools coming from harbor freight. i decided to uh...not talk to him.

you'll be looking for 16x6.5 inch wheels if you want to stay at that size. if you're finding wheels with different widths or diameters you're going to need different size tires, but we can't tell you what you need without wheel specs for what you're finding. there should be plenty of options for subaru wheels in 16x6.5 though, that was a standard size for many years and models of subarus

so i've heard...i've got some extended family up in NEPA and they have, on more than one occasion, come down to visit my parents and buy a new (used) car since ours might as well be rust free in Virginia. kinda makes me want to start a business shipping rust free cars up to new england to turn some quick profits

if the ones that are currently on there aren't deteriorated, you should be just fine to reuse. the bellows i would change since they end up falling apart, but the bump stops...meh.

luckily i live down south so i don't have to deal with the salt and corrosion and all that good stuff, i didn't support the engine enough i guess, and when taking the last bolt out a couple of the threads stripped, so purely on me. but yeah i've worked on some rusty cars, and man oh man am i not jealous of the salt belt guys.

going all in from the start, i like it

in case any of you care...after a week i finally got the motor mount changed. one of the bolt holes stripped out, so had to take the radiator out and get the condenser out of the way to drill it out and put a heli-coil in...ended up being way more of a pain in the ass than it should have been the original mount is decidedly *not* bad. there's a tiiiiiny bit of play in it, but it was certainly not bad to "cause the motor to rock violently on start up"....bastards.

sema only is stupid as...like...what guys? ugh. the only upside is at this point getting a JDM front end really isn't *terribly* expensive, so if someone really wanted to go ham and do everything to get that OEM+ style they could, but that's still $1500, plus dent removal from shipping, painting, and then trying to find all of those parts, the massive import fees and shipping on those large, assumedly hard to find parts is just...disappointingly expensive. at least we've got some lip options? ....

thanks for all the hard work humble--it's cool seeing all this stuff we didn't get in the states...also makes me sad.

you have weathertechs or decent floormats down? they help tremendously and are like...a trillion times easier to clean than carpet...

g70 is quite a different car than the ilx. they just dropped the manual from them because it didn't sell. but plenty of people still buy manual SIs, which the ILX is basically just a nicer SI. give it some more power and a manual and there'd be some take. all of this said, acura hasn't had a manual since the 3rd gen TL, and there wasn't much of a take on that when more manuals were being sold in general, and less restrictive emissions standards and etc, i would severly doubt they bring the manual back. but i still want it... edit: i'm stupid and the ILX had a manual until recently

mid 50s to 60 has a lot of compelling choices, m340i, cla45, stinger, lexus es f sport, audi s4, not to mention the ct5-v on the american side, and the amazing plethora of SUVs in that price range....it's going to be a tough sell, and I don't think it's going to be particularly popular since it's likely going to be somewhat underpowered, as honda tends to do. Acura also doesn't have the same cachet as the other brands(save maybe lexus) since their sedans have been soooo boring for the past decade plus. it'll be interesting, and they'll pull some people back that are tired of german maintenance costs, or want something with a bit more room and maybe the driving experience will pull some people in too, but...i'm not seeing a whole bunch move. the ILX though, if they did a 265 hp 6 speed type-s for mid to upper 30s, i think they'd be able to pull in some potential wrx buyers, maybe some of the older crowd that loves the idea of the type-r but doesn't want the shouty boy racer look(meeeee!), and some of the people looking at 3 year off lease 3 series and a4s. acura just let their brand go to SUVs and boring sedans for too long, i'm hoping this can turn it around and bring some people back to the brand(for sedans), and keep them innovating and playing with the germans a bit. i don't feel great about the prospects, but you never know, they may have a darling on their hands--only time will tell.

skimp where you can, spend where you need to

yup, subarus can be finicky with coolant, so going OEM is the safest bett...it's a little more expensive than the generic stuff, but at $50 for 2 gallons...it's not exorbitantly high