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The tale of two OBP OBXTs | low vs lifted


KevinEdgar

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I should have started a build thread long ago but I am really lazy with things like that. The most I have done was posting random pics here n there across different threads. But I don't see myself parting with either of these cars any time soon so a thread to track progress and invite constructive criticism would be nice.

 

Now that I have two outback xts I want to make a joined thread, hopefully it won't be too confusing.

 

I bought my first outback feb 8 2016 after wanting one for yeaaaaars, weird car to desire but it had a huge appeal to me. AWD, 5 speed, black leather interior, black paint, sunroof, frameless window, large storage capacity and tow capable, checks all my requirements plus some.

 

Bought it for $8,200 @108,XXXmi from a small lot in San Jose California. Originally I bought this car as a daily driver but I simply cannot leave a car in stock form, I have a maintenance book in the car with dates and mileage but I am starting this thread while away so the timeline might be a little skewed.

 

This is how it looked when I brought it home, immediately in love with the car.

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Slapped on some older outback wheels with studded tires for snow trips.

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Although this car doesn't have a perfect exterior it looks good from a few feet away. Red tail light overlays added for a cleaner look.

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The old weekend car vs the daily

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The place this cars spends most of its time, due to me being overseas constantly

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Nice little coastal camping trip with my dad and friends.

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Enjoying some Lake Tahoe National Forest backroads.

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Took the car on a solo trip to Vancouver Canada, beautiful place!

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First pic is in Portland

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Then Washington

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Then finally Vancouver, you can see the 2" hitch peeking out the bumper that I got from etrailer.com

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I bought some parts from a local importer in Sacramento CA

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Installed everything except the mirrors then I deployed for 6 months.

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In this photo you can kind of see the wrx nameless exhaust that I put on, did not fit at all but sounded good haha. I had to cut and reclock the oem midpipe to match the wrx axleback. Total hackjob.

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Got some 2008 sti wheels

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Returned from overseas feb 2017 and put the sti wheels on with some federal RSR

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Bought another set of STi wheels then took a snowboarding trip to Utah and Colorado. Ended up stopping by Rally Sport Direct in SLC and bought a Cobb AP v3 and intake.

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I only removed the plastidip on one side cause I wasn't sure what side I liked most.

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Some Tahoe snow pics

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Ended up totally glazing my clutch while racing my friends mustang... Lol, took advantage of a sale rallysportdirect was having and bought this ACT combo with lightened flywheel and 6 puck clutch. Was my first time changing the clutch on a subaru and only took me a little over a day which wasn't bad for working 100% alone.

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I had also bought a magnaflow catback and invidia catless dp, oh and a GFB bov at some point.

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I had a track day coming up in April 2017 so I HAD to change the wobbly front wheel bearings

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Then took the car out to Thunderhill Raceway in Willow Springs CA. The car did great and caught people by surprise but the brakes faded pretty bad mid day.

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I bought zeal coilovers and some TE37SL then put 255/35 Federal RSRR on, also got custom plates.

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I literally do everything with this car. I dont have photos of towing my motorcycle but heres some boating ones.

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I jacked up the transmission after having a lot of fun using launch control, instead of going 6 speed I got the original trans rebuilt. I regret doing that because it cost more than 6 speed swapping but oh well. Live and learn.

 

Since I bought the car I would occasionally get a misfire cylinder 4 code but it happened not too often so I didn't worry about it. But it finally got bad enough to were I would get the code every day and the car started to run very poorly. I took it to M45 automotive for a compression test and showed cylinder 4 at 75psi when the rest were at 130psi. Then I pulled the engine for inspection and found an exhaust valve on cylinder 4 to be cracked. Still thinking I should put all new piston rings while I've got everything apart but for now the heads are getting fully built with oversized valves and porting etc.

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I got the call that the heads are ready for pickup and I should get them soon as I return from training in texas july 18 2019

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I had been looking for a beater obxt in the same color to use for offroad trips and I ended up finding this one in portland. Now for the price I knew it was going to be trashed but I got it anyways, kind of a bad idea but oh well.

 

Another 2005 obxt but auto with 117,xxx mi for $4,000. Rusty undercarriage, no powersteering and disgusting interior with evidence of being abandoned. Regardless I'm going to bite the bullet and restore this thing to be my offroad buggy. I got the ADF 2" front 2 1/2" multilink rear kit along with 225/65/17 KO2s on some bbs STi wheels w/25mm spacer.

 

So far I have the fronts installed and will do the rear and get it aligned when I get back home. I bought all new hardware for the suspension so I don't have to fight the rusted stuff. With this car first thing I did was get the JDM tails to match my other outback, I also ordered custom plates that just say "OBXT"

 

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Can't wait to see how it looks when it's done!

Edited by KevinEdgar
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  • 2 weeks later...

I finally got around to finishing the lift install and it was pretty tough since I was fighting rust. The worst part is that I ended up breaking both rear brake hardlines because they were so brittle from rust. I called my local subaru dealer and they wouldn't get them in until 3 days later. Then I called local subaru wreck yards and picked up both sides for $40. Installed those and was able to finish the lift and got the car aligned the next day.

 

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Took it out for some rub testing as I had already cut the bumper a little bit, more cutting will necessary before taking it back out.

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Both cars look great! On the lowered car, the second set of STI wheels - are these 17 or 18 and what size are the tires. Love that look and have an eye on a similar set for my '08 OBXT.

 

 

Thanks! Those were 18x8.5 2012 STi wheels with falken ze950 245/40

They looked great, just a bit heavy.

 

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  • 1 month later...

Finally have some time to update this. I picked up my beautifully machined heads from M45 Automotive and just got the pistons out to inspect for broken ringlands but none were found. This is my first time breaking down an engine so I am trying to take my time.

 

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  • 2 months later...

So, the good news is that I have received my shortblock back from the shop. I initially sent it in for inspection and measurements so I could return it to OEM form. But after bumping numbers it made more sense to have them bore out the cylinders, polish the crank and install king bearings along with manley rods and weisco pistons. I painted the block with engine enamel and today I got the ARP head studs and put the heads on with a six star head gasket.

 

The valve covers are at the machine shop getting cleaned up so they can be nicely painted.

 

Slow progress better than no progress! I'm also deploying in a couple weeks so there won't be any progress for 6ish months.

 

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The magical moment, the heads finally meet the block for the first time since May!

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Edited by KevinEdgar
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Funny update for the lifted OBXT, I took it off roading and got the radiator fins clogged up with mud, I took the car camping and almost overheated. Ordered a new radiator, hoses, and thermostat, good to go. Also scored a 2" receiver from a wrecked outback to replace my rusted 1 1/4" one.

 

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After I went fishing the other day I smelt burning oil and I noticed the passenger side valve cover gasket is leaking. I got some coming in tomorrow, maybe I'll get to it this weekend.

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nice ! I enjoyed the write up. I completely rebuilt my 05 OBXT limited . love the car . I think I would like to lower it an inch to maybe get the rear suspension out of the ghost walking toe out zone. it already has new kybs and some suspension bushings. any tips for some 1 in lower springs?
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I also have what I believe is the hot tip replacement for that tiny stock oil filter. it is a wixs 51287 out of a 944 Porsche. it is only slightly larger diameter but its much longer and has a 29 psi bypass. might not be suitable for your lowered car .it works beautiful on my stock height car
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I also have what I believe is the hot tip replacement for that tiny stock oil filter. it is a wixs 51287 out of a 944 Porsche. it is only slightly larger diameter but its much longer and has a 29 psi bypass. might not be suitable for your lowered car .it works beautiful on my stock height car
That should be moved to the oil filter debate thread.....good info.

 

Sent from my moto z3 using Tapatalk

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  • 2 weeks later...
nice ! I enjoyed the write up. I completely rebuilt my 05 OBXT limited . love the car . I think I would like to lower it an inch to maybe get the rear suspension out of the ghost walking toe out zone. it already has new kybs and some suspension bushings. any tips for some 1 in lower springs?

Glad you enjoyed the post!

 

I honestly don't know what springs are good for a 1" drop as I never bother using lowering springs.

 

 

I also have what I believe is the hot tip replacement for that tiny stock oil filter. it is a wixs 51287 out of a 944 Porsche. it is only slightly larger diameter but its much longer and has a 29 psi bypass. might not be suitable for your lowered car .it works beautiful on my stock height car

 

That's good to know

Edited by KevinEdgar
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So, the lifted outback was leaking oil from the passenger side valve cover gasket and burning on the exhaust manifold. Easy fix yet annoying due to engine design, ordered new gaskets, painted the valve covers while they were out and put everything back together as per FSM. After burning off all the residual oil everything is nice and clean.

 

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I've been slowly chipping away with the full rebuild. I have a bunch of gaskets, hardware and spark plugs coming in over the weekend. I painted the heads and valve covers the same color as the short block to achieve a uniform look.

 

Recently I installed the cam caps and made sure to get the sealant just right. I love the way it came out, I enjoy seeing a thin bead of sealant peeking out.

 

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You may have used too much rtv on the cam caps. There are channels on the inside of the caps where oil must flow to your avcs gears. If this is impeded the avcs will not function correctly and you'll have to pull it all off and do it again.

 

I would take a flashlight and place it in the front of your heads and see if it shines through clearly. If not, you may want to remove the caps and reassemble with less rtv. I used a toothpick when assembling to stick in the channels and keep rtv clear.

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You may have used too much rtv on the cam caps. There are channels on the inside of the caps where oil must flow to your avcs gears. If this is impeded the avcs will not function correctly and you'll have to pull it all off and do it again.

 

I would take a flashlight and place it in the front of your heads and see if it shines through clearly. If not, you may want to remove the caps and reassemble with less rtv. I used a toothpick when assembling to stick in the channels and keep rtv clear.

 

I greatly appreciate your tip, I’ll take a look and potentially reseal! I wouldn’t want any oil issues. Happy thanksgiving to you

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Went out for a failed snowboarding trip today in the lifted outback. After driving up 4 hours and making it to the resort in blizzard conditions, the resort shut down due to avalanche warning. On my way back down I watched a new ram slide into a snow embankment, so I hooked up the recovery strap and got him out. Then a sequoia did the same thing and I helped out with that too. There were too many stuck cars for me to help them all. Sucks to see the guys with fully decked out trucks not stopping to help.

 

Anyways, here's a couple pics I took while waiting for traffic to flow.

 

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Edited by KevinEdgar
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Thanks to rhino6303's comment, I took off the front cam covers to check if I put too much sealant and I did. I also got the proper sealant equivalent for what the fsm calls for.

 

This time I also waited a hour before following the torque sequence, looks a lot better now.

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New gaskets for the oil control valves

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I ordered a bunch of various gaskets and hardware from subaru, I tried to focus on one region of the engine but I got slightly carried away.

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I ordered sparkplugs because I wanted to be able to put the coil packs on after securing the valve covers.

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I gap checked all of them to 0.030"

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Coolant crosspipe with new o rings and cleaned up hardware.

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Valve covers finally on, hardware cleaned up, baby steps here...

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Then I didn't realize two of the coilpacks have cracked off clips, which explains why they were rtv'd on previously. I guess I'll order 4 new ones, slightly annoying to spend ~$360 on them though..

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