Catchya's Dak..Dak XT Forester

Hey everyone.

In my search for a decent off roader, I stumbled on this little Forester that needed some urgent attention. After a quick discussion with the board of director (my wife), approval was given to pursue on the provision that I would not sell for quick profit.:lol:

Deal was done and later that day my new daily sat in the driveway.

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Previous owners had modded the car with an unknown larger intercooler, GFB blow off valve, aftermarket cold intake and 3" full exhaust system including dump pipe. Owner also gave us the tow bar and bike rack attachment :)

Leather interior, carpets and matts are still in excellent condition, everything works as it should although I have a temperamental drivers electrical window switch. Paint work is ok. No clear coat peeling but there are lower side skirts scratching, the odd small dent and paint chips.

Ok that's the good now the bad.

The EJ255 no 4 cylinder has a broken ringland, compression 50psi. Front CV boots completely stuffed and front brake pads almost down to bare metal.

So to get my daily on the road in the shortest amount of time, a new 08 EJ255 was sourced and installed by Fats at Japanese Wholesale, 2 new front CV boots/joints replaced as well as the front brake pads. Sourced and installed the stock airbox from Japline making the after market cold air intake redundant.

Booked a date with Sean at ASG who uploaded new software and retuned my little baby to now making a healthy 208rwhp (155kilowasps).

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The difference in the way she drives now is night and day compared to the stock tune. The above graph shows the interlay between the new tune and stock. ( the intermitted lines is stock).

Now, a mate of mine came over with his mate to show off his new ride, a 2007 LowLux 4wd d4d and also to inspect the Forester. The customary look at the engine, car walk around and quick squirt displaying the new found kilowasps took place. Truth be told as I pulled up to my driveway, my mates mate made a stand up offer to purchase the car.

The offer meant that I made good profit on this car but I declined remembering the last incident watching my normally subdue wife grow into a raging tyrant with the last vehicle purchased :lol: and sold.

Anyways, to take my family to the beach, have fun down some tracks, to meet new people with similar cars is now what it is all about. Sure we will outgrow the forester pretty quickly but it is such a welcome change I don't think I can easily get rid of it.

Future plans and modifications for my dak dak will be purely body and suspension components. this will involve

Suspension lift
Bigger tyres
bash plates including diff
custom front bulbar
custom rear bar with wheel swing away.

Please chime in, happy to share thoughts and ideas.
 
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Gidday CY



Mate, have a long hard look at the 2008-2010 SH. It is the "family sized" version of my SG. One of my wife's lecturers who is 6'7" can comfortably sit in the rear of her SH, and can get in and out without having any parts of his feet amputated! Wouldn't be the case in my car ...

It also has the EJ-253 donk (the later SH models use the FB engine, and I am yet to be favourably impressed by that engine ... ) and also uses the 4EAT Sportshift auto (ProDrive TCU, with better centre clutch system - watch out for the difference between the standard 4EAT and the Sportshift version), rather than the Lineartronic which I am also not impressed by ... Not sure if it still had a 5MT/DR, as SWMBO very definitely wanted the auto ...

I far prefer my SG, but my SWMBO prefers her SH. I have to admit that the SH is a far better family car than my SG.

Just a few thoughts FWIW ... ;)

All SH's with the EJ253 definitely had DR, just 1.19:1 though. I'm not sure about those with FB series engines though.
 
Could not hold off on tires any longer.

Falken Wild Peak all terrains ...215/70r/16's

Speedo now seems to read true and correct. Checked against two different GPS phone apps whilst also lowering the rpm. 100kpr is around 2500rpm's.

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Also many Thanks again for Taza's electrical expertise in wiring the 20" lightbar. Very happy with the light output. Genuine 5w crees at 6000 lumens with 5year warranty.

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Left and right full lock, the tyre tred just touch the wheel arch plastic closest to the fire wall, otherwise all good.

I'm quite surprised just how quiet they are on the road. Love the new fuel economy I'm now seeing on the hyway. The car cruises effortlessly and still has the poke when needed.

So far, very pleased:ebiggrin:
 
Just scored a sti-ra 2way plated r160 rear diff rebuilt 15000 k's ago.

Yeah baby:discomonkey:

Just learned that the original RA diff centre was replaced with a Cusco RS 2 way.
 
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STI muffler installed today. 3" all the way, no more drone anymore, just the sound of whoosh... Happy days. Thanks Lefty:cool:
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Still to come

2" strut lift kit with trailing arm blocks from Nachaluva
install rear Sachs shocks with raised Kings springs
install front Sachs with standard height Kings springs
install rear RA lsd with the Cusco RS 2 way plated diff
install DCCD centre diff with PBMS controller
 
No it wasn't unfortunately. Cut and paste job. Left side of the hanger needed a little bit of a bend but that was due to the towbar frame.
 
Rear RA lsd with the Cusco RS 2 way plated diff arrived today. Got to take off the rear back plate and do a quick inspection before install.

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And what did you see inside ?

Basically a brand new Cusco RS LSD. Checked for signs of pinion wear, pinion bearings and seal & inner cv spline wear. Took it to the local Cusco dealer who did a full inspection and could not fault it....Bonus ;)


I sourced some rear cv axles from the local wreckers and had them fully reconditioned. The original cv boots were retained as they were in very good condition :)


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On a darker note, my 20,000km engine maybe pretty sick. I have a burnt oil smell and smoke through the exhaust on idle and sometimes on acceleration. The confusing part is sometimes the exhaust smoke is white and sometimes blue.

Other symptoms are slight engine rocking at idle, loss of rpm @ idle, hard to start. It appears that the car is also consuming a little coolant.

Performed a compression test last night on a cold motor, starting on the infamous no 4 cylinder which returned a consistant result of 90psi. Cylinder 2 was consistant @ 120psi with 1 and 3 steady at 142psi.

Looks like I have dropped 2 cylinders and possible a head gasket :redface:

Not happy Jan......:cry:



I am getting a second opinion as the car is currently with ASG but am not expecting good news.....
 
^ That's a real bugger to hear, CY.

Has your engine only done 20K Kms, or is that 200K Kms?

Whichever, it's still a real bugger.

Those compression readings are certainly disastrously wrong ... :puke:.
 
Hey Ratbag.

My second engine has only done 20,000k's. Total km's on the car is now 220,000k's. What I am hoping is that the compression tool kit we used last night is faulty and the symptoms I am having is a combination of a dying battery, busted turbo and my sensitivity / perdantic-ness when it comes to the engine rocking.

Ill guess I will find out tomorrow morning when I pick up the car.....
 
Not cool about the engine…

I didn't know about the Cusco needing those special axles.
 
Fingers crossed for an inexpensive outcome!
 
Not cool about the engine…

I didn't know about the Cusco needing those special axles.


Yeah it certainly was a surprise given that the Cusco dealer said that my rear inner cv axles should fit!! The rear double spline axle and the other short spline axles both with the non tapered end are getting rare to find over here in the West. I tried 4 of the main Subaru wreckers before getting a matching pair :iconwink:

Fingers crossed for an inexpensive outcome!

Looks like Kevin your fingers crossed method has given me some luck :ebiggrin:.
Good news, compression is spot on. 142psi on each of the 3 cylinders and cylinder 1 being 150psi :monkeydance:

I will now throw that cheap compression gauge kit we used in the bin. Bad news is that the tiny TD04L is cactus!! It was suggested by ASG to whack a set of aftermarket headers to help with detonation of cylinder 4 whilst replacing the turbo. This should help with keeping temps down in that area.

Tomorrow, I will install the rear diff and new suspension and source another turbo.

Cheers
 
I'll bet that's one hell of a relief, CY! :biggrin:.

Shame about your snail dying, but that's considerably better than having to get a new snail as well as a new engine!
 
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