1WD FOZ's FOZ

[1WD-FOZ]

Hi Guys and Girls,

Im New to this forum and thought Id start a Build thread as my first post.

So the story goes......
I was looking for a cheap run around a few years back when I saw a 1998 Forester on Gumtree for $700, only issues was the clutch was on its way out.
Once I got the Foz on the road I purchased a clutch kit and had it sit there waiting for the old clutch to die... fast forward about a month and I got bogged out the front of my house (big wet block lol), I tried so hard to get it out but I had no chance, ended up having to pay a random neighbour a slab to pull me out with his truck.

I took the Foz to my local mechanic and had him install the clutch, machine the flywheel and they found the RMS was leaky so that was replaced.
My wife and I started going bush a lot, and i quickly realised how capable my little soob really was.

Fast forward about 3 months and my rear left shock died a horrible death (knew it was coming) lol, so I replaced the rear shocks and springs with standard height KYB shocks and Kings springs.

Next upgrade was 4 x Yokohama Geolander G015 AT in 205/70/R15's which I find to be really really good and still have them on now.

Then the speedo died and subaru wanted $350 to fix, I went to the wreckers and $10 later I had a speedo again lol.

Then I installed some Led strips on the inside of the boot for camp lighting, a small roof basket from aldi along with a 23inch cheap ebay led bar on the front bumper and a 20inch Black Oak led bar on the roof basket.

I then installed a new stereo and new front speakers, 1 x 4 channel amp and 1 x mono block amp to power the 2 x 12 inch subs in the boot.
I purchased a 4wdsupercenter 12v air compressor and deflators, and a dildo shifter

I then picked up a second hand exhaust from a random gumtree dude, 2.5inch with UEL headers and installed it.

Next was a SUBIELIFTOZ lift kit from NachaLuva (cheers bud) which to this day is the 2nd best mod I've done.
I went with 2inch lift in the front and 2.5inch in the rear and installed it myself.

The next 5-6 months where full of exploring the same tracks I couldn't make it down with my old standard height, I was taking it places i probably shouldn't lol everything was great.......Until that morning when I was driving home after work and the car just suddenly died, I towed it home and tried to figure out what the issue was (along with many members of Offroadsubaru forums), then I took the timing belt cover off and found there was no timing belt left lol, it was in 1000 pieces....... so i freaked out (as you do) and honestly wasnt really sure if id ever drive her again...... BUT then came El_Freddo with his plethora of information and he convinced me to do a EJ22 swap.
I looked around for ages for the right engine, with the lowest k's, at the best price and found a '92' EJ22 liberty with 128xxx on the clock..... problem was it was 1200ks away in Newcastle..... so i found a cheap flight...... flew up.... and drove it all the way back to VIC on a permit.

The next 3 weeks was full of asking millions of questions and researching other peoples EJ22 swaps.

After a long process which I ended up slipping 2 of my disks in my lower back, I managed to do my 2nd engine swap (first subaru), I got the EJ22 in my Foz and It worked......honestly tho I wouldn't have been able to do the swap without El_Freddo's constant advice, cheers heaps man, your a legend!!

and thats what im up to so far

Ill add pics soon i promise.

1WD

[El_Freddo]

Welcome to the forum 1WD, glad you found it!

Thanks for your appreciation of advice etc, I’m not the only one that helped out and only knew it was possible because NachaLuva did the same first.

We need to T up an outing!!

Cheers

Bennie

[El_Freddo]

Ill add pics soon i promise.

When??

We need to T up an outing!!

And we did...



Hopefully more to come soon.

And GET A BASH PLATE!!

Cheers

Bennie

[1WD-FOZ]

What can I say.... it’s been a long while, but I’ve been active lol.

This is kinda what it looked like when I left off



You can see the sag in the front.

Then up on stands for the big update...












So now it’s got new kings springs and KYB shocks and the 5.5” Subieliftoz Monster lift kit in it with 4” trailing arm spacers and 2” subframe drop and the new R160 Torq locker but looks ridiculous with the old rims and tyres so I looked around and went with Dynamic D 15” rims in -2 offset and BFG KO2’s in 235/75/15 which needed some massaging and cutting to make fit.











Couple poser shots lol



















Then we went overseas for a holiday pre Covid and organised a good mate to help swap my gearbox out for a second hand one as the old box was very noisy with suspected bearing failure.









And a couple more shots and comparisons of the old 2” Lift and new 5.5” lift plus bigger tyres.











New Rhino pioneer rack with tyre mount, LED bar and kings 2x3 Awning.




Cheers

1WD

[El_Freddo]

Looking good mate! Can’t wait for Covid to be over so we can head bush again! I bet our natural environments will cop a flogging once restrictions are dropped again

Now to build a 4.44 gearbag and a torque monster up front

Cheers

Bennie

[moonbuggy]

What... A... Beast!

And from such humble beginnings. Must be fun pulling up at the lights next to a Foz of the same vintage and seeing the driver looking up in confused wonder, but of course way more fun to be had off the bitumen.

[Suby Spanner]

That thing is epic!

[Shark0074]

Just found this post as was thinking of doing something similar to an sg9. How did you go with approvals for the 4 inch lift. Trying to figure out if an ls9 approval is appropriate or required?

Even though it's a100mm lift it does not lift the body off the chassis and does not change the strut or spring travel if staying with the standard strut and spring combo.

[El_Freddo]

Engineering would be required, I doubt many get it done due to cost, and the fact that many engineers don’t want to even hear about a Subaru let alone look at one!

No chassis on Subarus. They’re a monocoque design so the body is the strength, the front and rear suspension frames bolt to the body.

This lift puts lift blocks/frames between the body, suspension frames and on top of the struts. It doesn’t give you more suspension movement, just more height for larger tyres, which in turn gives you more lifts overall, but negatively effects gearing. A custom gearbox could overcome the gearing easily, but it’s expensive.

Cheers

Bennie

[Shark0074]

Thanks, I searched Qld transport and found the LS9 50mm to 125mm hi lift approvals document. As I said previously it talks about spacng the body and chassis with blocks and changing the spring and shock travel and rebound all of which are not relevant to the Subarus.
Most Qld transport inspectors actually don't know much about cars mostly taught truck stuff so my biggest worry is the popo. I reckon if I bamboozle them with the LS9 info they will move onto something easier for their ticket.

Love what you've done to yours. I probably wouldn't go to such large tyres but yours l car ooks great. As I have 16" runs I was thinking of just going to 215/70r16 which gives 46mm larger I think. What vehicle was the snorkel for.

[El_Freddo]

I think 1WD got the snorkel from a late 90’s Pajero. Can’t use the one for flares or something.

Sand and some gentle heat gun work was done to change the elbow angle and the head angle to fit the foz profile. Looks full legit too!

Cheers

Bennie