So ladies and gentlemen, after 3+ years I've finally come to my senses and returned to the land of Subarus!
I originally purchased my first car, Gen 3 RX Sedan at the end of 2011 and promptly found this forum after finding some sort of leak a few weeks after getting the car. Little did I know that this would be the start of a never ending love hate relationship with my car...
http://www.subyclub....-2000-gen-3-rx/
Whilst the first 6 months were relatively uneventful, I soon found a friend at a local auto parts store who owned a quick Gen 4 GTB and he invited me out to their little 'mountain touge runs' most Friday and Saturday nights, this is where the trouble began. I'm not sure if it was just my car, or all Gen 3's, but driving hard twice a week up through the local hills took a big toll on the car. I was constantly battling leaks, squeaks, knocks, vibrations etc to the point where to car was up on jack stands being repaired just about every weekend. I fell further and further out of love with the understeering, uninspiring little Gen 3 and promptly sold it after receiving a work van in mid/ late 2013.
Fast forward a few months into 2014 and I was looking to scratch an itch in the form of a more 'drivers orientated car'. Now that I had a work van, I could purchase something that was more of a weekend/ Sunday car that didn't need to haul tools around muddy worksites and drive 30,000+Ks/ year. After numerous test drives I ended up finding a rare, one owner, low K, E46 325i BMW complete with the M Sport package and the holy grail, a manual transmission. I still have this car today and it's my absolute pride and joy, I love driving it and plan to keep it for a very, very long time.
Enter circa 2017. Late last year I'd finally finished my electrical apprenticeship (6 months late) and decided to try and head overseas to Canada for 2~ years on a journey of self discovery and to gain some maturity. The quick version is basically my Canadian Visa got screwed up which resulted in me keeping my Motorbike and BMW, changing my plans to head to London after doing a contiki on the West Coast of America and finally meeting Ty (CodeBurner) in Thailand for 9 days. When I came back I had no job, no money and no work car. This is where the Subaru saga began. I had no choice but to start driving the BMW for work, which was fine at the start, but after a few weeks of putting cable, tools and the rest in the back seat, boot and where ever else it would fit, my once immaculate interior and decent condition exterior had really taken a toll. Not to mention the maintenance cost of a Euro doing lots of K's was killing my bank account and the cars resale value.
I still wanted to be back in a Subaru, after making so many friends, who most of are now my closest mates, and participating in the EPIC HVC Cruise last year and again this year, I knew my only choice of daily/ work car, could be a Subaru.
I originally wanted to find a Gen 2 outback to V3 swap, but knew deep down if I went the turbo route, I wouldn't stop modifying and it would end up a loud, uncomfortable race car and not the work horse I needed it to be. So after talking to a couple people, drooling of Sam's White on White H6 sex machine and some googling, I decided on finding a cheap Gen 3 Outback H6 with plans of manual converting it down the track. I searched and searched but nothing came up that suited, until one day Ty sent me a message saying his mate had just bought a cheap H6 Gen 3 and was looking to take the engine out for another project. After a few messages back and forth, I was $750 poorer, and in possession of an engineless, manual converted Gen 3 H6 outback shell.
Now if you're still reading, thanks for the effort. It's been a long time coming to be back here so I figured a quick overview was needed lol. Onto the Gen 3 in question!
I got a mate to come with me to hire a trailer from the local servo and head down to Ty's mates to pick up the shell and take it back to mine. It wasn't without its dramas though.. Firstly, the POS winch on the servo trailer was in struggle town trying to tow the Outboat up onto the trailer, despite the car being on a downhill towards the trailer. Then once she was loaded and almost home, taking a wide trailer line left hand turn onto my street, a P plater decided they were either going to undercut us into the same left turn, or somehow thought they would make it around us on the left before we started the turn. Either way, she ended up smashing straight into the side of the trailer at approx. 40km/h resulting in her getting wedged between the trailer and a gutter. Even using low range on the Pajero tow car, we still couldn't get the trailer unhooked from the front guard of her car. A clutch dump and some tyre smoke and we managed to get untangled... I'd post some photos but insurance hasn't been sorted out yet.
Anyway, the cars home and in my driveway where I'll let all the photos do the talking:
For some reason the fuel lines leaked most of the remaining fuel out of the fuel tank over night along with the auto cooler lines and power steering lines leaving their marks, so that was the first thing to clean up before dad came home and round housed me haha
Got home at decent time on Friday night so jumped straight into getting the H6 up on stands, stripping the wheels and taping everything up under the bonnet including rubber gloves over all the main wiring harness connectors ready for a BIG BIG clean out. The car has an estimated 180,000 - 200,000 Ks, but it looks like it's been a well loved family car.
So much room without an engine haha
Tip for Gen 3 and potentially other model Subarus, pull your guard liners off at the rear every now and then for a clean as dirt builds up behind there!
Before/ After front guard clean:
Once the guards and engine bay had a decent scrub and degrease, I turned to the wheels. I managed to get one wheel a pass over with wheel cleaner before I ran out. Wheels are fairly scratched, but I'm guessing the pads are super dusty and have built up, but not sat on there for too long as the dust came of easily without to much damage to the faces.
Photos are a little dark but the car itself looked like it hadn't been washed in a long long time
This was the wash bucket after 2/3rds of the car was washed!
Got into all the door jams etc with a wet microfibre towel to give them a quick once over. Ran out of citrus cleaner so couldn't get them perfect, but will give me something to do until I can track down an engine.
Door jamb towel ended up filthy
I then turned to the interior to give it a quick vacuum, but since the rear boot/ seats are full of exhaust, radiator, my old Corozon muffler from my Gen 3 and various other spare parts, I only got to do the fronts seats
Found some kids disco biscuits
Not sure if this was a temporary rabbit farm, but theres a serious amount of short hair in the back footwells...
Here's the current parts stockpile
Now for the mechanical and electrial side of things,
Not sure what the clutch pedal is from, but I'll need to replace it with a Gen 3 unit so it's sits further right towards the brake pedal.
The brakes look to have been recently replaced/ machined which should make RWC easier
Took the opportunity with the guard liners removed to delete the old remote auto filter which may be repurposed onto my sisters Gen 3 OBK as a cooler to extend the life of the auto.
This is the automatic selector unit, currently still attached as that was how the previous owner got the car started (park selected) and to drive (gear 1 selected). After a lot of googling, it isn't 100% clear how to get the car wired up so it's happy with the manual gearbox. People are saying I'll loose ABS and cruise control which isn't ideal. Reading through Tim's RS30 sedan thread, he states to bridge two wires in the gearbox selector loom and run some wires for the VSS etc and it should work all fine, so fingers crossed its all hunky dory!
Gearbox wiring to sort through
I think this is the TCU which might end up deleted, but from what I've read, I might need to wire some resistors into it to trick it into thinking the automatic solenoids are still connected?
So now where do we go?
The plan is to find an engine, replace all the seals, spark plugs and tensioners/ idlers and maybe timing chain guides if they're looking sad etc while the engine is out, wire up the auto > manual conversion and get it all running so I can at least get it mobile and out of the driveway. Once that's sorted I have a list of future plans for the car which follows:
- Replace all fluids with full synthetic including any additives such as Nulon G70 for the gearbox/ Diff
- Replace shifter bushes to refresh the shifting feel
- Possible exhaust, although the BMW has a rear muffler delete at the moment with blast pipes and I think I need to keep the H6 quiet for daily duties
- Make some sort of intake for bulk intake noise (not for performance so keep your intake rants in yo pants)
- Install sound system (Have head unit, wiring, subwoofer from old work van)
- Install sound deadening similar to Joel's(?) WRX swapped outback which I believe Sam now owns down here in VIC
- Replace cabin lights with warm white LEDs including footwell lights as per my DIY guide from ages ago http://www.subyclub....-picture-heavy/
- Improve steering feedback (using my E46 as a reference) via 2.7 rack, possible solid mounts, added castor and smaller diameter wheel if I can find something that will bolt into Gen 3 without any issues to airbag deployment etc
- Replace wheels with 8" wide units so tyres are interchangeable between OBK and Subaru if need be
- Possibly install RWD gearbox I purchased of Nick and Joss for keks
- Detail the exterior and interior
- Slowly collect white bumpers and side trims for a White on White conversion
Most importantly, I NEED to keep this car as comfortable as possible. The idea besides a work car, is to be able to road trip around Australia comfortably and reliably including multiple snow trips and of course HVC!
I'm sure I've forgotten a whole heap but I'll try keep this thread updated as best I can!
If you're still here, congrats on making it through that essay and I appreciate you guys reading through all that dribble haha.
IT'S GOOD TO BE BACK YYEEWWW!
Purchased some Bosch Platinum plugs on special for $63 today for replacement, checked/ adjusted their gaps and have them ready to go.
