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Yeah, that Dewalt ratchet was a birthday gift to myself and that thing is super handy. Love that you can swap between 3/8 and 1/2 drive on it too.

That radiator looks due for replacement. P.S. The little powerstack battery works really well in that ratchet.

I was just looking at this old rally photo of the Subaru WRC team (I assume in the mid 90s?) and I just noticed that the cars in the back of the photo are Leones/Loyales and not Legacys! I thought it was surprising since all the photos i see from this time are the early Legacys. Does anyone have any or know of any other photos of these 555 Leones. I honestly think it wouldn't look too bad, although I prefer the white blue and gold on the rally Leones.

Hello my friend, I noticed you're looking for the pinout for this module in question. Did you find it by chance? I'm having the same problem. The technical specifications would be Subaru Legacy 2.5cc 1997 EJ20 engine, white ECU connector.

Had a few minutes last night to piddle so I got started removing the radiator and hoses. Didn't get the thermostat out but I hope to sometime this week. Someone used a piece of PVC to merge the busted lower hose together at some point and looked to be slightly kinked. And not in a good kind of kink either.

Hey all, as mentioned in a post on FB in the Old school Subaru group or 4x140 or GTFO group that we are absolutely purging our stage two 1977 through 1979 and gen one Brat parts. Pardon the warning shots. But time has come to admit I’m getting old and narrow down the focus of my classics as well as pare down the hoarded stock. Over the years we’ve had numerous parts cars and also bought New Old Stock from aged dealers around 1999-2012 My suggestion to you all would be to take advantage this situation. So to be clear it’s late summer 2025 and we are looking to sell lots of parts for the stage two 1977-79 model cars and Gen One Brat from 1977 through 1981. Only Subaru parts I’d trade for would be for 1972/3 Coupe and maybe 74-77 stage one Coupe parts or solid body, and also stage one 1977,1976, and 1975 FOUR WHEEL drive wagons. Thanks for looking. Remember the name for eBay - cashingmystuffin Currently have some tasty items up and lots more to come. Enjoy !

The old “how do you eat an elephant?” dilemma. One bite at a time.

Thanks for the check-in and the compliments, all. In addition to the busted leg, the absurd heat of where I live and some other personal life stuff has held me up more than anticipated. Other paying work also got delayed as a result of the bum leg, so this took a backseat for a bit out of necessity. That being said I'm out of the boot now and I am the proud new owner of a higher-clearance jack I got on sale recently - so I'm hoping to get a couple early-morning sessions in on the rear subframe here in the next week or so. Progress will also likely speed up again around October when temperatures generally start to come down a little and I can do driveway fabrication without cooking myself. Anyways, long story short, I'm dipping back into it - updates of more significance soon.

Takes about 3 gallons for a full flush this way.

Drain Pull the trans coolant line and put on temp lines into a drain jug. 1- Fill Trans 2- Start it up and let the trans pump all the old fluid out the line you put on the trans coolant into a gallon jug. 3- When the drain jug is 3/4 full - Turn car off. Repeat 1-3 until the fluid is nice and clean. Put the trans radiator coolant lines back on and start it up. Fill to full COLD. Test drive, check fluid Full to HOT.

Huge thanks to @2brat82 for shipping me a set of rear hatch struts so that I could use the brackets off of them to complete the hatch replacements.

Went to the local dealer. The parts guy said use HP. When I questioned that he went and asked the main mechanic and he said use dex/merc. I guess I will either use Valvoline maxlife or the HP. I use the Amsoil products but their ATF is just so expensive and you need like 12 qts to do a complete change.

Well, it's more complicated than I implied. The current part number, 11044AA610, is steel as far as I can tell. There are 3 older part numbers that were replaced by the 610, I am much less clear what the material of those were, either from my memory or service manuals. So the factory installed ones might have been a different material.

Even on the EJ25D? I thought these were a thick composite gasket which was half the issue with these engines… Curious. Cheers Bennie

Amsoil has a great fluid.

I definitely considered buying a different H6 Outback and swapping the suspension over. Overall this seemed like less work and definitely less cost. Exactly. Yes, my brother bought this one for me in California, and while it's no longer completely rust free it's still pretty solid. Figure at least $3000 including transportation to replace it. Which makes these things a bargain really. And this car is relatively stock aside from the suspension and bumper/skidplate. But it's still cheaper to fix this one. Plus either way we'd wind up refabbing the skidplate and radiator/bumper support or whatever you want to call it. And I've been thinking for years about fabricating a better lower radiator support for these cars from scratch rather than just adding a piece of tubing underneath. On that topic. We started by getting the radiator support back into place so the hood would latch and line up. Then remounted the bumper so it sat level and square with the lights and fenders. 2" square tube going back at least a foot into the stock "frame rail" with a mounting flange for the bumper welded on the end. This is the only part that will be permanently welded on the car. Below you can see the square tube is only tack welded to one side of the frame rail. When we get things more solidly mounted the plan is to hammer at least two more sides of the frame rail flush with that tube and weld them also. Then B cut and fit a piece of 3" square 1/8" wall tube where the stock lower radiator support was. Since this is about 3x as thick as the stock radiator support and significantly larger section, plus an actual piece of tubing rather than a couple of stampings folded/spot welded together, I think it's easily 10x as strong as stock. Not that what it's attached to will be very strong. We will pick up about 1" of ground clearance/approach angle. Also by chance the stock radiator mounts we unbolted should line up great by just welding them to the backside of that tube. Got the main part of the engine skidpan straightened back out, bolted back up, and replaced some tubes. Have tubes almost fit from the big square tube radiator support to the bumper beam. Need to figure out exactly how I'm going to make the tabs and piece of sheet metal there. I know what I want just need to figure out the most efficient order of fitting/assembly. Then we still need to add a few more tubes but it's coming together. Ordered some new hoses and tubes for the oil cooler.

It is here, too. But getting another rust free shell is no small feat in this part of the world. IIRC he travelled to California for this one. Not to mention the modifications already done to this one. That looks pretty nasty, but all ahead of the suspension mounts, so it doesn't need to be mm perfect.

Yep, Subaru shows 879996 as the Transmission serial and 424274 for the engine (IIRC stamped into the engine block next to the starter).

The 4EATs are not picky about what fluid to use. You can buy Dex III, it's usually labeled Dex/Merc (Dexron/Mercon). That's the cheap conventional stuff, works great, meets all the specifications. I buy 2.5g house brand jugs of it at Fleet Farm. All Dexrons are backwards compatible. So you can use those. Most will be synthetic (certainly anything you can find new) Subaru officially superseded to HP. So anything that meets Subaru HP will also work. This will all be synthetic. This is what we carry and use (I work at a Subaru dealership) I honestly think the change to HP was just to use a synthetic so they can extend suggested service intervals and/or in an attempt to reduce resistance for better mileage. I have not found any part or seal that changed part number when they switched to the HP. If I had a newer 4EAT, I'd dump conventional dex/merc in it.

Correction. All SOHC EJ25s list single layer. All DOHC EJ25s have MLS. At least in the US. There are several MLS gasket part numbers, they changed through the years. The most common problem number ends in 633, and can be replaced with number 642.

You mean dexron VI? IV & V apparently don't exist. Most word is the VI is not the same as III and often doesn't work well in older trannys, even though the claims say it is backwards compatible.

Check out dextron IV - the description will no doubt tell you that it’s suitable for vehicles where dextron III is recommended/required. Cheers Bennie

Manual calls for Dexron III, but since that is no more what is best to use? I see so much conflicting and indeterminate information. Subaru HP? Valvoline Maxlife? Dexron VI? Aisin T-IV? Has Subaru issued any kind of definitive recommendation? Thanks.

When squeezing the return line and getting the higher psi reading, how does the engine run? Better or worse? Cheers Bennie