Vehicle in question is a MY07 30R specB 6MT in black (not my first colour choice but meh).
I decided I wanted a H6 manual wagon so the hunt led me to take a day trip to Canberra for a look. While I was there, I visited the workshop that maintained the car and discovered the center diff had been replaced and it had been tuned. I did the deal, drove home and flew back a few weeks later to pick it up. In that time the owner was having the gearbox rebuilt due to a faulty 4th gear synchro, so I organised for a new clutch to be fitted while the box was out.
So this is what I have been doing with it since 2013.....
Looked like this when I got it home and I had already removed the roof racks as they look like poo. The factory rims look dark as some type of stripper was used to clean them and it cooked the paint.
Quickly got sick of the floor mats sliding around so I knocked up some brackets.
Replaced the damaged factory rims with...... factory rims! Also chucked on some OEM mudflaps.
Quads were needed, so found some Hi Tech (I think?) mufflers
Then some CS9 rims
Added a strut brace to prove to myself they make no difference on a road going GenIV.....they don't.
Not totally happy with the exhaust, some headers were added.
I had to expand the inner pipe to the outer pipe so I could weld it to the header flange. PITA job...
Left the 3rd cat out as well (I'm not a cat person)
The paint was a bit down when I bought it so I have had the bonnet and front bar resprayed. Too hard to strip the bar cover so I fitted a new one and sold off the old one.
Tailgate and rear spoiler were also recently resprayed.
Threw in an Exedy clutch. Supposed to be OEM replacement for 30RB & Sti but it's a little heavier than the one in it when I first drove the car, but a lot lighter than the Canberra fitted clutch.
Sandblasted then linished the calipers smooth before a prime coat and black paint. Added some 'Subaru' stickers and new seals after the paint was baked.
Also threw on some slotted rotors for extra bling (I doubt they make much of a difference to a road car)
After an annoying timing case oil leak and a tiny coolant sweat at one head gasket I decided to spend a Christmas holiday pulling the engine apart.
While it was out and apart I fitted new head gaskets (copper coated for extra leak protection), replaced stem seals (precaution only as it wasn't blowing smoke) and fitted new timing chains, tensioners and guides.
Threw it all back in with a new MAF (to cure an annoying flat spot) and one VVT solenoid (leaking) and it was back to 7k rpm shifts!
Diff bushes were buggered so threw in a Febst set. I will never use Febst again....
18 months later I fitted a OEM set, but after the first time I made a tool to make life easier.
Upped the tyres with some AD08Rs in a 225/45-18, but after fitting one up I soon realised they were a little too wide for the 18x7 CS9's.
You can see the difference with the 215/45-18
A set of STi 7.5x18 rims quickly fixed the tyre fitment issue!
Like most GenIV's the saggy butt happened. I machined a new groove in the rear Bilstens to raise the lower spring mount.
End result was a 40mm lift. Might drop it 10mm with another groove.
Last week I treated myself to a new MY08 honeycomb grill.
Looks better than the MY07 grill IMO. (I knocked up a number plate lifting bracket at some point too) I have some honeycomb mesh to fill in the gaping hole under the grill.
Not being a huge fan of turbo Libertys and often dragging this around was the reason I decided on the H6.
So that's about it to date, I have done other little bits an bobs like replacing the subwoofer, steering wheel switches and some bits of interior trim as well as regular maintenance. At this point I'll think I'll keep it for a while, It's been quite reliable and there is really nothing newer to replace it with.
But I have been looking fondly at RS4 V8 manual wagons......
) combined with a manual trans.
