Nachaluva's Foz

Two years ago I got a heartbreaking call my brother in law had suddenly died from Sudden Arrhythmic Death Syndrome (SADS). He was a strong, healthy, fit man. They found him slumped over the table at work...apparently he was dead before he even hit the table, so at least he didn’t suffer at all.

My sister offered me his car, so I bought it. It was their 3rd Subie but my 1st.

I soon got tired of the poor lights so set out on my 1st mod...a headlight wiring upgrade & upgraded H4 bulbs. I soon ran into problems which is how I came upon AuSubaru while researching the wiring.

After much work & lots of help, esp from Gannon, my 1st mod was finished:
Headlights Wiring Upgrade - ORS

My 1st trip offroad was soon after to picturesque & historic Walhalla:
thompsonrcrossing01.jpg



I discovered my suspension was completely shot, springs sagging & strut bouncing. With help from the forum I decided on raised King springs & new KYB struts. Very happy with the much improved handling & increased clearance, but I wish so much I had got the gen2 rear struts (SG)


I added Whiteline KCA414 Camber bolts which gave me neg camber on the rear but the best I could get the front was neutral.

A SubaXtreme sumpguard was next. I guess it did its job of protecting the sump but I found it very brittle & was soon falling apart
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A Crossbred guard soon replaced it!
 
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Thanks guys

Some great trips followed such as Mt.Cole
xd8q.jpg


Bunyip:
img1996p.jpg


Wombat:
img2687ul.jpg


Iridium plugs soon found their way into the engine. The next mod was hard wiring the rear accessories socket & an extra twin socket in the front:
Accessory plug consant 12V power - incl a walkthru

I was sick of the heavy & ugly steelies & hated how the mud built up on them making them very unbalanced. I found a set of alloys off an Outback at a wrecker, a little scratched but not bad. Steelie front, alloy rear:
0p1y.jpg


Soon after I started on my 2" body lift kit. I wanted to strengthen it as well as sealing the ends to prevent rust, also tie the front control arm blocks together & also the rear trailing arm/moustache bar blocks. This would make it more stable & stop metal fatigue. Thread here:
NachaLuva's Body Lift



Front control arm blocks tied together for strength


Rear Trailing Arm blocks & Moustache Bar blocks also tied together: There have been a few members who have had damage to the captive nuts using individual blocks. Doing it this way the stress is spread over 4 bolts, there's also no "rocking" of the blocks under load:


Before:
liftkitbefore11.jpg


After:
liftkitafter21.jpg


It took a while but was well worth it!
 
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The rear wheels were now sitting too far forward, so I modified the rear trailing arms:
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Before:
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After:
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They are now sitting where they're meant to be :biggrin:

Thread here:
Rear Trailing Arms

Next was the exhaust, it was sitting way too low after the lift, plus needed to be replaced anyway.

Old:
oldexhaust1.jpg


New:
exhaust2x.jpg

exhaust6.jpg


I made up a slider for it so it wouldnt catch on rocks & twist like it had done previously, also protect it from dents:
My exhaust slider

Then I had the muffler lifted:
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The middle section still hangs low but I cant do anything about it as the resonator hits on the driveshaft centre bearing :(
 
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Nachaluva, very much enjoying your Foz's story. Looks like some great mods that get you places without any grief so you can Luv The Nacha ;-)
 
Nice work NachaLuva

We both have the exact same car but start modifying it in different directions, we'll catch up soon though !
 
Hey NachaLuva!

Looks like your Foz has grown since I last saw it. Looking great. I'm looking at a body lift myself, but I'd be interested in having a chat about the mods you did to the trailing arms and the exhaust slider. My Foz is in much better condition than you last saw it but is in need of some beefing up!
 
FozzyMatt said:
Looks like your Foz has grown since I last saw it. Looking great.
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It has grown a lil lol :lildevil:

I'm looking at a body lift myself, but I'd be interested in having a chat about the mods you did to the trailing arms and the exhaust slider. My Foz is in much better condition than you last saw it but is in need of some beefing up!
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Be happy to talk to you bout it, PM me :iconwink:
 
Next on the list was the woeful open rear diff :shake:

I found a JDM WRX STi V2 2-way plated diff centre & brought it to Rick (who did Venom’s & El Freddo’s gearboxes) & got him to check it out & assemble it. He said the plates were like new! :monkeydance:

kqqe.jpg

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Assembled:
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Then I had to source some matching axles for it. The LSD centre uses different stubs than the open centre, so I brought the whole diff to Brian at SubaBits who identified ’97 WRX axles as the correct ones & even test fitted them for me. They fit! :biggrin:

SF Foz axle stubs:
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WRX LSD axle stubs:
gqmm.jpg

NOTE: the short spline has a circlip, the double spline has the circlip inside the diff.

He regreased the inner CVs & put on new boots & gave me a nice deal.
 
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Then came time to install it. Not looking forward to this as I’d heard horror stories of how difficult it was to remove the 32mm castellated nuts & even worse removing the axles from the hubs. Thanks to a 5’ pipe extension, the nuts came off easily. By using a hammer on a block of wood against the axle stubs, they came out easily too...relief! :monkeydance:

Putting the pLSD diff in with the breather hose was a little more difficult as the plug kept coming out, but we got it done. Then the axles went in nice & easy & everything was bolted back together.

z6zi.jpg


The breather tube was routed through the top then along the diff carrier & over the fuel filler pipe, through a very handy hole in the chassis rail, up behind the plastic guard in the wheel arch & through an also very handy grommet in the top of the Strut tower. A small fuel filter will be added here to hopefully prevent diff fumes from entering the cabin.

Breather hose coming out of the top of the diff carrier:
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Through the chassis rail next to the fuel filler breather hose:
xzi9.jpg


Up through the top of the strut tower:
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Into the cabin, high away from any possible water no matter how deep I go!
kzij.jpg


Filter to keep out the fumes:
uu5u.jpg
 
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Nice. Good pictures too - great to get a good understanding of exactly what you did.
 
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