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Thank you all you great guys out here on USMB - I couldn't have done it right with out you - probably would have messed it up. I wasn't ticking too bad, but now ZERO - and super quite overall! Also did water pump, hoses and seal on metal pipe that goes into pump. Sealed up some cracks in my air intake snorkel with RTV, fixed anything I found along the way and now it's super quite and smooth. No "bubbles and water fall" sounds coming out of coolant system. No scary stuff with the temperature almost going into danger before thermostat opens. Im pretty sure the last couple of days before the belt broke it had lost at least a tooth and jumped a tooth cause it was feeling out of balance when idling - that's the main reason I kind of why I thought it might be a waste doing this job - and I REALLY didn't want to tear it all the way down, I would have sold it or junked it. It really feels like I have a brand new rebuilt motor! To me it's amazing there is such a difference. AND NO OIL DRIPPING (yet) all over the bottom of the timing belts, which would spread into the exhaust pipe and start burning & smoking if on the freeway very long! It's almost like a dream... Thanks again

The 25D has head gasket issues for one reason only - the bore diameter caused a reduction in the thickness of the cylinder liner support walls where the HG fire ring seats on the block. Due to the thickness of the composition graphite gaskets they started with in 1996 (because of piston height above the deck at TDC) there is insufficient rigidity provided by the cylinder head to prevent the cylinders from moving around due to thermal expansion and contraction and combustion chamber pressure.This movement abrades the fire ring against the block and head leading to pitting, which ultimately leads to failure. Number of heat cycles is the primary indicator of lifespan coupled with any overheating events that add further thermal stress loading. It is easy to see this because Subaru solved the problem - you only need to look at what they did to effect a solution. They changed the piston to allow a thinner head gasket, and they beefed up the block around the liners to make them more rigid. For turbocharged applications they incorporated liner gussets to help stop them from moving under high cylinder pressure and temperature. Also the open deck 1.8 and 2.2 engines do not have this problem despite having the same thickness HG as the earl 25D. Why? Because the cylinder liner support walls are WAY thicker due to smaller bore size. The engineers that designed the EJ never envisioned a 2.5 liter displacement when they modeled in on early computer systems in the mid 1980's. When new engineers were asked to increase the displacement they inadvertently caused a HG issue by the bore size change without considering what that would do to the rigidity of the cylinder. It was an engineering design mistake. Nothing more. Nothing you do or do not do as regards the thermostat location will have ANY effect on the HG "problem" associated with this engine. Want to solve it permanently? Resurface the block and the heads, Install 251 pistons, and use the 642 turbo head gasket. They will never blow again. GD

Hi all; Picked up an 01 limited 5 speed to flip this week. The seller claimed new head gaskets, new oe timing set , new factory thermostat. heads sent off to machine shop. All done in Jan 18. I was shown the bill. Car ran good until may then started overheating. Would run apx 25 miles before heating up. Putting pressure into the radiator just like a 25 D engine... having never come across a cyl. leaking head gasket on a 2.5 1 I went under the assumption that I would find a cracked head. Inspection of the spark plugs after bringing it home showed #1 plug water stained. While pulling the motor I saw that indeed a new timing set was on the car, not OE but not junk. The "new" thermostat had 1/4" holes drilled into it ,no doubt by the seller hoping to fix his heating up problem. My thought at that point was a low rent machine shop swapping out heads instead of rebuilding what was brought to them. Seller claimed he had the head gaskets done because they were oil dripping & he wanted to get another 100,00 out of his car... When removing the first head I could see that factory gaskets were not used ... after head was off, the problem was glaringly apparent, total crap quality head gasket !!! I have never seen a gasket deteriorate like this one had! In only 5 months ! No name left on the gasket if it ever had one. I pulled the other head and it would have been leaking any day! No proof but I have no doubt they were china gaskets.... The seller paid almost $1800 for this work, $200 alone for head gaskets and bolts! Moral of the story... Factory original parts ! If you can not do the work yourself... find a real Subaru shop. You usually get what you pay for... sometimes you get even less. He sold me the car for $800... costly little fix by a non subaru shop for him... nice clean car for me.

Hey guys, I got my car back. Nothing but a bent up steering column and broken plastic cover. Radio is gone and some other little items. Glad to have it back in one piece.

When you are at home it's easy to use a bottle jack to remove the pressure on the lower through bolt on the Rear Shocks/Struts on a 2000+ Legacy Outback. However, when you are in one of of the UPAP self-serve yards that does not allow jacks in the door, how can you remove the pressure? A couple of weeks ago I pulled a set off a 2007 for another USMB member. I took the following along with my normal tool bag: 10" 4x4 2) 6 " long 2x4 Using those and a few tools from my bag (socket and prybar) I was able to unload the lower bolt enough to slide it out. Basically, just build a little tower under the lower strut to unload the pressure on the through bolt. When the bolt turns with ease, you know you've got it. Pull the nut and drive the bolt out. Then go inside and remove the two 14mm nuts. You can fit a wrench or 1/4" dirve socket in by just pushing the side panel back in a bit.

Yes, the whole point of a K&N is to let little rocks in so they swirl in the vortex and clean the intake walls. Cleaning it just removes some of those helpful little rocks.

Gasoline and a match works really well for cleaning oiled air filters. Step two is to buy a proper synthetic paper element panel filter. GD

Clean the MAF using CRC Airflow Meter Cleaner. Be sure to clean the temp sensor AND the MAF sensor, they are both in the air flow meter.

They aren't targeting customers like you. Neither am I. You have a 15 year old car that you maintain yourself and a lifestyle that is willing to be interrupted by failures. "Don't fix it unless it breaks" is one philosophy - one that is *sometimes* successful in saving a tiny little bit of money. But over here in the real world where people rely on their cars to arrive at their place of work where they get paid far in excess (amortized) of the savings from attempting their own repairs, missing work, and paying tow bills, etc.... it doesn't pencil out to be profitable. Not to mention - no military, aviation, government, or other important organization has ever concluded that preventative maintenance is a bad idea long term. And generally speaking we are a specialized society. I fix cars. Someone else bakes my bread, and some other guy cobbles my shoes. Just how it's done friend. If you do it for funsies that's fine - but don't be mistaken that you are saving money. You are trading time - and time is often more valuable, and is directly proportional to money at some rate. We do a lot of preventative maintenance and we pride ourselves on keeping our customers fleets at a full state of readiness at all times. GD

Necro-bump of a 13 year old thread!

80% cogged idler 15% water pump 5% broken belt GD

Yep. Drive it all the time. It gets the garage, my SUV gets parked on the street.

It was just the thermostat seal leaking a little. A new one solved that mystery. quack quack quack.

Yes that is the correct pump for the EA81. Congratulations on finding one. GD

So you installed a new pump into the existing pump assembly? The pump assembly has a metal cap over a pressure chamber - this cap is a known failure point. The ears that hold it to the plastic housing will tear off and the pump pressure blows the o-ring out. There is later model that has a filter in that position on the assembly and you can buy the filter which comes with a new (larger, but it doesn't matter) cap with stronger ears. You use that cap and a new o-ring to fix this failure. Or you buy a new assembly. GD

I already have the multi-port heads. I grabbed everything I would need from an '87 XT in the pick-n-pull yard.

My EA82 lasted for 257,000 miles with little or no maintenance before it finally blew a head gasket. I bought the car for the going rate of scrap at the time (about 5 years ago). I took the engine out and completely rebuilt it, pistons & rings, bearings, all new timing components, water pump, lapped the valves, etc. I have been driving it for 5 years now. It's clean and quiet and runs great. It gets good gas mileage too. It has enough power for what it is and it still has the original oil pump, hah. The SPFI is soon to be replaced with a multi-port Spyder setup. Congrats to you! Good work

The 45 prevents it from suctioning to the bottom of the overflow tank.

Well done. Now just wait for the EA82 naysayers to pipe up They are just an engine that gives and gives, then just once in a while deserves a freshen up which many have no time,patience or money for -so never find out Seen this time and again, done right gives owner joy once the cost pain is forgotten Once had a tight wad fighter pilot finally surrender to insistence his EA82 got new lifters along with his reseal and belt kit, water pump and hoses. Was ever so thankful for the result

Don't be sorry, and yeah, sometimes the guys tend to be a little blunt.. us long timers are used to it, but we sometimes forget new folks are not, lol in all seriousness, the mod you are considering is not something even remotely needed on a daily driver. The correct thermostat, installed properly, will do more for you than putting all kinds of time & effort into something that is completely unnecessary. a little tip when filling your cooling system... Fill the block first, thru the upper rad hose.. take your time, and make sure you get the block completely full before putting the hose on the radiator, and then filling the radiator. If you have the correct thermostat installed, it will seep coolant through the jiggle pin hole, into the lower rad hose, pushing air out thru the radiator. having the nose in the air does help, but filling the block thru that upper hose works beautifully nearly every single time. I have owned several Subarus over the last 18 yrs - from an 89 GL wagon with the EA82, a couple of early-mid 90s Legacies with the EJ22, and currently a 2002 Forester with the EJ251. I have never had a problem with trapped air using the rad hose method of filling the cooling system.

Bypass the heater core. Restricted heater cores can reduce coolant flow to the back side of the t-stat not allowing it to open.

man, i would not haul around motor oil for weight. a sand tube or two. no mess if the leak, and sand for traction if needed.

Great. Not surprising it was easy, those bolts dont see enough moisture/road chemicals normally to get that rusty or propagate deeply. Nothing like the Intake manifold bolts are capable of on that engine. The heat from drilling was enough to loosen the minor corrosion. EZ outs are worthless for DIY auto work. If a fastener can come out with an EZ out, it will come out with some other less risky and more advantageous method. EZ outs are excellent tools in highly controlled, precise, and curated machine shop type settings, but they’re trash in a shop that sees real live, on the road, significant corrosion in the middle of a job. EZ outs simply don’t work at all in rust prone areas / you need LH bits and heat.

OEM Subaru clutch and throttle cables.

As long as the tubing is black, it will soak up the heat. If you build a thin box around it with a white or reflective bottom and lexan cover, you can substantially increase output, especially in cooler weather. I do recall seeing an example where a guy mounted a truck radiator in his attic with an electric fan which worked quite well. But that’s air to water, not direct solar.