The AUSubaru.com.au Forums

hi to all im new to this
i live in perth and have a 92 l series with a ej22 and allwheel box with 3.9 ratios 2" lift 14" muddys and it great but im after a lower low ratio and lsd diffs like most subi drivers some one told me that foresters have a lower low and some have lsd
any help would be great full

oscars_Lseries wrote:hi to all im new to this
i live in perth and have a 92 l series with a ej22 and allwheel box with 3.9 ratios 2" lift 14" muddys and it great but im after a lower low ratio and lsd diffs like most subi drivers some one told me that foresters have a lower low and some have lsd
any help would be great full

G'day mate, Welcome to the forum!

You can change your 3.9 diff ratios to 4.11 from an SF Forester and the Forester 1.447.1(45% reduction) low range is a direct swap compared to your 1.119.1 (19% reduction). Or you can modify the L-Series low range (1.598.1 or 59% reduction to fit) but this is abit of work.

Taza

see if you can get hold of a stock l series gearbox with a 3.9 diff ratio (be careful, most are 3.7). this will not be as good on the road, but if you are running 14" muddies you are probably not after on road performance. this will give you a far better low range and no need for any center lsd as it will be a direct transfer in 4wd.
with an ej 22, you will then need an adaptor plate, but everything else will be stock l series stuff.

you can go a forrester GB like taza suggested, you will also need the rear diff to match. (i personally think these forrester gearboxes in completely stock form are not as good as the l series off road, but you will keep the better performance on road.) you might find the forrester gearbox a bit more expensive as well.

you can go into gearbox mods, but that then becomes very costly. someone else will no doubt fill you in on them...

6 one way, half a dozen the other. it depends what you want out of it.

MTB92 wrote:see if you can get hold of a stock l series gearbox with a 3.9 diff ratio (be careful, most are 3.7). this will not be as good on the road, but if you are running 14" muddies you are probably not after on road performance. this will give you a far better low range and no need for any center lsd as it will be a direct transfer in 4wd.
with an ej 22, you will then need an adaptor plate, but everything else will be stock l series stuff.

you can go a forrester GB like taza suggested, you will also need the rear diff to match. (i personally think these forrester gearboxes in completely stock form are not as good as the l series off road, but you will keep the better performance on road.) you might find the forrester gearbox a bit more expensive as well.

you can go into gearbox mods, but that then becomes very costly. someone else will no doubt fill you in on them...

6 one way, half a dozen the other. it depends what you want out of it.

Very good point put accross here. Personally with an L-series i would go with a stock box over AWD.

It depends what forester box you get too as they varried greatly throughout the years. They are very expensive too if you want a custom box. Somewhere around $4000-6000 for a decent custom one!

thank for the help
taza when you said the SF Forester low ratio fits did you mean the gear or the gear box
cause what i was going to do was buy a wrecked Forester for the box and diff etc and make it fit
cheers

oscars_Lseries wrote:thank for the help
taza when you said the SF Forester low ratio fits did you mean the gear or the gear box
cause what i was going to do was buy a wrecked Forester for the box and diff etc and make it fit
cheers

Hey mate,

Either. you can swap just the low range over into your current gearbox and add a front LSD or you can get a wrecked on and just swap the whole box. Personally I would swap the whole box and diff, that way you get 4.11 final drive to with the better low range. This would work much better with the EJ22. This would probably be cheaper than pulling apart two boxes and swapping bits around.

Just make sure the wrecked Forester is a 1997-2002 and non turbo manual.

Taza

If you direct swap the forester gearbox you will have to change the rear diff to the same ratio also.

Putting better low range (either custom 60%, expensive or L series 59%, fair bit of work quite difficult, or forester low range 45%) and an LSD in your current box would be much better all around. However it is a lot more expensive.

Getting a forester box is a lot cheaper and potentially easier, however if you want to put an LSD in it becomes nearly no different than just putting it + different no range in your current box cost wise.

EDIT: If you could tell us roughly how much your willing to spend it would be a lot easier to help.

Davidov wrote:Putting better low range (either custom 60%, expensive or L series 59%, fair bit of work quite difficult, or forester low range 45%) and an LSD in your current box would be much better all around. However it is a lot more expensive.

I think you're out side of your experience - your perception is that it's difficult! There are guides on the forum here and others as well that give you many different ways of doing it with a step by step process. While it's certainly not for anyone that's just got their first tool kit it is easily done after you've done your research and have some mechanical skills.

To make statement like this can put someone off from even researching a modification such as this when for all we know they could be quite capable of such a task. I'd do it if I had to...

Also, the custom 60% low range is a reverse engineered L series low range with a couple of mods that I think makes is a 100% drop in modification. Scorpion that made them are not doing any more runs the last time I heard. 1.59 when rounded up = 1.6; this is where they get the 60% reduction figure from.

Davidov wrote:Getting a forester box is a lot cheaper and potentially easier, however if you want to put an LSD in it becomes nearly no different than just putting it + different [low] range in your current box cost wise.

Pretty much on the mark here. The forester box with the 4.11 ratio diff will allow you to move straight up to the stock foz rim size, if you don't your speedo will be out And it won't be reading slower either!

I hope that clarifies a couple of things.

Cheers

Bennie

I've got a 99 forester Gearbox and diff if your interested:)

cheers for everyone's help i think i'll look for a wreaking forester
see you guys out there

guyph_01 wrote:I've got a 99 forester Gearbox and diff if your interested:)

Ha ha you've got everything Guy