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So the rear journal isn't good either. I would describe the front journal as trash where the cam had a definite wobble and the aluminum is creeping up the shaft. The AVLS ports look ok, other than a bit of sediment in the filter screen. The engine was run low on oil at one point and had developed a slight knock at idle so I was leaning toward a JDM replacement anyway, but this clinches it. The oil pump was resealed at the previous head rebuild.

It looks like the cam ran without oil until it seized, from how trashed the rear journal is... If I were you, I'd probably be looking for an engine, not just a head. Would be a shame to put a new head on and then find the bottom end looks the same.

i do not have a lift im honestly not opposed to cutting the subframe and radiator support ither. as far as junk yards not many left. chuck and eddies is prety much the last pick and pull i know of. boyds in norwich will still give a good price on a stripped out car. there wont be much left in this one thats still good. the driveline was the only good part of the car.

Cam is broken The far end of the cam (non sprocket side) isn't seized, or at least it isn't now. Spins free, supported by the end and center journals. Probably seized at some point. Sprocket side journals are 'remodeled.' Will take apart the AVLS assembly and look at the oil ports. top view passenger side head broken cam cam wear cam fractured non sprocket side cam journal cam journal sprocket side center cam journal cam cap sprocket side cam slot

Sometimes if it’s possible I’ll cut away the radiator support. Part car going to tue yard would be a candidate. Hey you’re in CT too, right ? Which yard(s) are you dealing with these days?

I've pulled them attached. Yes the angle is significant. The other way to do it is to drop it out the bottom. The cross member and trans mount will unbolt. Raise the car or lower the cross member/engine-trans.

Yes it can. But the angle can be quite extreme. Better way to do it is separate the gearbox from the engine and pull them out from the top individually. You’ll spend quite a bit of time under the car disconnecting mounts, driveshafts, wiring etc. Remove the gearbox crossmember to give more room if going for the one piece removal.

im pulling the engine trans and diff from a part car and sending the car off to the yard. i dont want to lay under the car and manipulate the transmission down. will it come out the top still bolted to the engine? 2001 legacy sedan

www.car-part.com is a great search engine for used parts.

Agree. Given the wobble at the sprocket side I'm pretty sure there is damage to the head.

Sounds like a broken cam... Probably going to need a new head, since I can't imagine the journals are still good.

Could be given what I found. Got the cam sprocket off. The head of the cam itself has a wobble. The intake ports in the head were half full of fuel, valves are tight apparently and certainly not moving. No cylinder compression from lack of valve movement.

Good luck! I'm more of an lift-and-big-tires wolfy myself, so have never gone to such an event.

Intact factory wire routing keeps it away from the joint, but the clips and such tend to go missing after the first mechanic works on it... Attached is a couple more googled pics, of stock routing on a similar subaru, and of what happens when it's not in the clip. Just zip tie or otherwise secure the wire away from the joint.

Ok thank you so what was it just a poor design choice by Subaru where they put it? 😅 Like im pretty sure the cv ripping out O2 sensors really should not happen to start with..lol

I don't have one of those, but here's some google-fu. The sensor wire is always pretty close to the cv joint, and I've seen more than one get wrapped up and ripped off.

Hi does anyone by chance have or can get some pictures of the location is of the upstream O2 sensor on the exhaust system.. someone at some point before i bought my subie removed the cats and for some unknown reason removed/replace the pipe the O2 sensor screws in and I can't seem to figure where it's supposed to be positioned currently where i have it the wires wants to rub on the CV boot which is probably not really good for it. In thanks in advance for whoever helps.

Have some pictures to include with this post but site isn't taking them at the moment, will probably add later. Wife and I went on vacation for 11 days through AR, OK, and TX. Didn't really plan on doing any off roading but it'd kinda hard to avoid in AR. Met up with slammo for a day in his RAV4 prime. On our way to the beach in TX looking for the camping area he got stuck in soft sand. With the folding recovery ramps and a couple straps I was able to pull him out. Before swapping in a lower temp thermostat, engine seemed to plateau at about 215F CTS / 200F upper radiator temp while driving. If left to idle for a while it would slowly climb up (small fans kick in at 215F) until the large fans kicked in (220F), then they seemed to run indefinitely. Yesterday B came over and test assembled as much as he could of the billet knuckle conversion. Got his pair heat treated and painted. Bore for the long bolt/stud being tight was the biggest issue. I got a couple different ball hones but neither of them seems to remove material very quickly. Calipers with new pads seem to just barely fit his worn front rotors. He already swapped new ones on the front. We also had all of the lateral links painted, he got those anti seized and assembled. My main plans were to figure out the wiring issue on the Impreza and swap in a lower temp thermostat and bleed the coolant. On our recent vacation the delayed accessory power stopped working. Was still getting some voltage from its main battery feed but not enough to actually power anything. At the time I just hotwired it to the stock cig lighter. Turns out it had blown a fuse in the underhood fuse box, not sure if I checked those during my initial diagnosis. Cleaned up the wiring a bit put it back to how we had it and seems to be working now. While I was draining the coolant I had the bright idea to replumb the Ford heater cores we'd added under the hood. It seemed that with both of them in series on the heater core circuit the second one wasn't doing much, the first one seemed to cool it almost to ambient temp, and that circuit is a pretty small portion of the coolant flow. So I decided to plumb one of them into the circuit that goes through the oil cooler, figuring that would also cool the oil better. When I started I didn't realize those fittings are about 1/2”, not 5/8” like the heater hoses and cores we'd added. So I made up a couple of barbed adapters on the lathe. It was a bit of a pain to get the hoses routed but I think it turned out fairly well. Then I drilled a 3/16” hole in the top of the 78C (172F) thermostat and swapped that in. I'd had a stock 82C thermostat in it. Got a bleeder funnel recently too so we used that, no idea how much better that works than the normal method of just filling it up and driving. This all seemed like an improvement. When idling it would still eventually get up to 215F but once the small fans kicked in it would cool back down to 210F (where the fans shut off) and then slowly go back up. The only issue we noticed was the heater core circuit wasn't getting hot or even warm. I pulled various hoses off in that circuit with the engine running and just a trickle of coolant would come out at idle. I pulled both hoses off at the engine and backflushed it with compressed air and it seemed to flow great. Heater had been working great before all this. Eventually I just decided to drive it and hope it fixed itself. Which it pretty much immediately did. Maybe just needed some revs or jostling around to bleed. Regardless, it now blows hot air when you turn the heat on and both heater cores underhood get hot. Also seems like it takes less time for the little fans to bring the temps back down. While driving the temps seem to plateau at about 200F/180F so that also seems like an improvement. Will drive it a bit like this, maybe lower the fan temp at least for the small fans.

Hey all, just started doing rallycross events in Washington/Oregon with my stock 1988R RX. one event under my belt, & put the old girl through the paces! was on track to place 4th of 10 in the stock AWD class till i spun out in a corner transitioning from a field to asphalt, ended the day at 7th. Don't suppose there's anyone in here that goes to the NWRA events? I'm doin my best to keep the RX in the stock class for this year, tired old EA82t starts acting weird when it gets hot (190-205). next race is in Spokane in May, if you're there, stop by and say HI! i'll be camping at the track Fri & Sat nights.

Could be a broken cam between 1 and 3.

yay! :)

It has, still a light grinding sound, definitely from the 230k mile old wheel bearings, but no locking up

236k miles. Both heads rebuilt around 180k after we got it for cheap (tbelt break). Engine was replaced by previous owner, history not known. Sudden onset of running bad. May or may not have been some winter joyriding. Wondering about oil starvation? Runs very rough, engine is shaking, stalling at idle. cylinder misfire codes are not new. Able to limp home. At the end look for the cam wobble Tried a few quick fixes but no major improvement. The timing belt was off one tooth on the pass side cam. Reset the timing and runs better but still shaking, low power and still stalls randomly. Oil puddling on ground underneath on pass side from tbelt cover between oil pump and oil filter. Replaced the crank seal but probably also cam seal leak. CEL flashing intermittently, probably misfires. New Diamond coil (existing diamond coil didn't look bad at all). No improvement. Changed plug wires to new NGK (from existing NGK). New NGK plugs. FR5AP-11. A bit of chunky carbon on one plug (either 1 or 3) and #4 was loose possibly causing low compression and shaking. Now running with naked timing belt so everything is visible. Able to turn the timing belt with a socket on the cam bolt, but it doesn't feel loose at all. Cam sprocket is wobbling while running. Cam oil seal is compromised and oil is puddling below the cam. Oil coating the belt and flinging around the engine bay. Is the cam itself out of round? This seems impossible. Maybe the cam journals are gouged out. Car is knocking. Bottom end problems? Finally got the car on a trailer after sitting in a parking lot up in Michigan for a bit. Back in the garage. Just now checking compression after finding a new ride for the daughter, of course a Subaru. Cylinder compression is good on 1, 2 and 4 (220, 205, 200) but ZERO on cyl 3. Plugs look ok, not oily. Will pull the engine and check out the head. Probably the valves got grenaded on #3 or worse. Car hit a deer in 2024, needing a bunch of sheet metal replaced in the front. Tbelt cover was cracked. Wondering if the cam sprocket took an impact that was missed.

And did it fix the problem?

I Put a feeler gauge in the conical washer, there is an uneven gap. Fixed it. Checked the bolt holding the caliper on the bottom, the bolt was half sheared which kept the caliper at halfway open but not fully loose