Since I didn't want to clutter up the ExPo Subaru Forester project thread too much with what I'm doing on my own Forester, I figured I'd start this one to chronicle what's going on with it. Be warned: this is going to be a long post since I want to provide some context for why I'm doing a buildup on this particular vehicle. So, to kick it off:
Why a Forester?
My daily driver for the past six years has been a 2000 Jeep Cherokee (XJ). It's running 4.5" of lift on 31" tyres, adjustable UCAs/LCAs, has had the D35 in the back long since swapped out for an XJ D44, has ECTEDs and 4:10 gears at each end, an NP242 with SYE and slip rear driveshaft, and factory skids with double-tube rocker guards. It was built to be a civilised daily driver that could reasonably cope with Southern California wheeling conditions in the mountains and desert, and it has been exceptional in hitting that goal.
However, I'm going to be doing about six thousand miles of driving in the space of a few weeks starting in June. As much as I love the XJ, it's not the vehicle I want to use for that drive - so I began looking for vehicles that were close in size, and had enough 4WD/AWD that they could achieve 30%-40% of the XJ's off-road ability with 50% better fuel average fuel economy. After a few test drives of different vehicles, the Forester won out. Ownership of three Brats probably influenced me a bit
About the vehicle:
$800 later, I wound up with this:
It's a '99 Forester S, fully-loaded apart from a sunroof, with the 4EAT automatic transmission. If $800 sounds cheap for that vehicle, there's a reason for that: one cylinder has virtually no compression. While this may sound bad, it actually works out to my advantage: Subarus of this era with the EJ25 engine (which means just about every Forester sold in the US from 1998 up until 2011) were notorious for head gasket failures and owners not replacing timing belts. Replace the head gaskets with the later revised ones and you're good to go, and the timing belt can be done at the same time. Since both have to be attacked as part of dealing with the compression issue, it takes care of those potential pitfalls up front.
The build plan (beyond the obvious engine issues):
- 215/65R16 General Grabber AT2s. This is the largest tyre size you can run on this generation of Forester without them interfering with the lower spring mounts, and the Grabbers are close enough to a BFG T/A KO in construction that on- and off-road performance should be pretty decent.
- 2" of lift, which should be enough to get the rockers at or slightly above the axle centreline. This is usually accomplished on these vehicles by combining 1" taller springs with 1" suspension spacers, but I'm currently awaiting news from Subtle Solutions on the release of their 2" kit that does this entirely with spacers. The advantage of that approach is that you should be able to retain stock suspension, keeping costs down.
- 3/16" skidplates for the sump and rear diff. These will probably come from Subtle as well since they'll be supplying the suspension bits, though Primitive Racing also makes a set.
- Recovery points. This is the big unknown right now because there really isn't anything off-the-shelf for these vehicles. The rear will probably be a Quality S 2" receiver towbar allowing reuse of my existing receiver shackle, but for the fronts I'm probably going to have to come up with custom plates capable of accepting D-rings. Reinforcing the body is going to be interesting.
- The 4EAT lockup mod. This is actually built but not yet installed. Automatic Foresters normally split torque 90:10 front/rear; this will allow overriding that to provide a full-time 50:50 split not dissimilar to locking a centre differential.
And that's about it for the meat of the build. Other stuff in the pipeline is pretty generic - better headlamp bulbs, a bluetooth-capable headunit, and other small livability items. More info to come as things progress; at least the compression issues (believed to be due to bad valve seals) should be known and being tackled in the next day or two.
Why a Forester?
My daily driver for the past six years has been a 2000 Jeep Cherokee (XJ). It's running 4.5" of lift on 31" tyres, adjustable UCAs/LCAs, has had the D35 in the back long since swapped out for an XJ D44, has ECTEDs and 4:10 gears at each end, an NP242 with SYE and slip rear driveshaft, and factory skids with double-tube rocker guards. It was built to be a civilised daily driver that could reasonably cope with Southern California wheeling conditions in the mountains and desert, and it has been exceptional in hitting that goal.
However, I'm going to be doing about six thousand miles of driving in the space of a few weeks starting in June. As much as I love the XJ, it's not the vehicle I want to use for that drive - so I began looking for vehicles that were close in size, and had enough 4WD/AWD that they could achieve 30%-40% of the XJ's off-road ability with 50% better fuel average fuel economy. After a few test drives of different vehicles, the Forester won out. Ownership of three Brats probably influenced me a bit
About the vehicle:
$800 later, I wound up with this:
It's a '99 Forester S, fully-loaded apart from a sunroof, with the 4EAT automatic transmission. If $800 sounds cheap for that vehicle, there's a reason for that: one cylinder has virtually no compression. While this may sound bad, it actually works out to my advantage: Subarus of this era with the EJ25 engine (which means just about every Forester sold in the US from 1998 up until 2011) were notorious for head gasket failures and owners not replacing timing belts. Replace the head gaskets with the later revised ones and you're good to go, and the timing belt can be done at the same time. Since both have to be attacked as part of dealing with the compression issue, it takes care of those potential pitfalls up front.
The build plan (beyond the obvious engine issues):
- 215/65R16 General Grabber AT2s. This is the largest tyre size you can run on this generation of Forester without them interfering with the lower spring mounts, and the Grabbers are close enough to a BFG T/A KO in construction that on- and off-road performance should be pretty decent.
- 2" of lift, which should be enough to get the rockers at or slightly above the axle centreline. This is usually accomplished on these vehicles by combining 1" taller springs with 1" suspension spacers, but I'm currently awaiting news from Subtle Solutions on the release of their 2" kit that does this entirely with spacers. The advantage of that approach is that you should be able to retain stock suspension, keeping costs down.
- 3/16" skidplates for the sump and rear diff. These will probably come from Subtle as well since they'll be supplying the suspension bits, though Primitive Racing also makes a set.
- Recovery points. This is the big unknown right now because there really isn't anything off-the-shelf for these vehicles. The rear will probably be a Quality S 2" receiver towbar allowing reuse of my existing receiver shackle, but for the fronts I'm probably going to have to come up with custom plates capable of accepting D-rings. Reinforcing the body is going to be interesting.
- The 4EAT lockup mod. This is actually built but not yet installed. Automatic Foresters normally split torque 90:10 front/rear; this will allow overriding that to provide a full-time 50:50 split not dissimilar to locking a centre differential.
And that's about it for the meat of the build. Other stuff in the pipeline is pretty generic - better headlamp bulbs, a bluetooth-capable headunit, and other small livability items. More info to come as things progress; at least the compression issues (believed to be due to bad valve seals) should be known and being tackled in the next day or two.