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The time has come to put my Subie out to pasture. It is still running strong like most Subaru's are when they are retired around here but the rust has taken hold. But before it gets crushed I have a final purpose for it. I intend to take it to my boat access only cottage and use it as a utility vehicle for hauling firewood from the back of the lot and pulling a boat trailer up the beach. My model has dual range 4WD, will never travel more than 1/8 of a mile and will likely never go over 10 mph. The ground is rough so bigger tires would be a plus and I'm considering removing the gas tank and plumbing in a boat style day tank located where the passenger seat used to be. This will protect it from rocks, fuel going stale from lack of use (easier to drain), and rust. My questions are; ( 1) Other than the fuel line to the fuel pump and the return line which could be plumbed into the plastic tank are there any other considerations? ( 2) I've read here that larger wheels can be put on a Subie by getting 6 bolt rims and drilling 2 holes to match the 4 bolt pattern. I'm not interested in doing any fender modification. Which model and size of rim would be best for this?

www.crutchfield.com , for ideas even if not purchasing from them

The rings are lapped perfectly cylindrical and smooth in a tool steel tube at the time of manufacture. They virtually do not require any seating. What little "break in" takes place is kept to an absolute minimum by ensuring the rings are smooth and the walls have a finished plateau surface devoid of any raised wear points. The top ring is a steel nitrided ring and virtually requires no "seating". Secondary compression/oil control is cast iron and these will seat easily with no honing at all. Indeed the Subaru rings are so thin that honing the cylinder is likely to overheat the rings and cause them to lose their spring tension resulting in WORSE compression. Also the wear materials and impregnated honing grit will tear up your bearings and shorten engine life as they mix with the oil and end up through the whole engine. Show me a mirror finish in a used Subaru bore and I'll show you a block that needs to be bored oversized due to excessive wear. There are NO cases where a flex hone is a suitable answer. If the bores have so much wear that all the cross hatching (which are the valley's of the plateau finish) is gone, the bore is SHOT and no amount of honing will bring it back. It would require a rebore to the next piston oversize, and the last step in that process is a proper diamond finish plateau hone. I can produce references from the 80's that were already stating not to hone cylinders on a rebuild unless absolutely necessary if you want to achieve quickest seating and highest ultimate compression. Piston ring manufacturing, and engine manufacturing tolerances eliminated the need for honing on rebuilds back in the 1980's. Things have only got better since then. The reality is - if the bore isn't good enough to run - you need to bore it out to the next piston size. And more important than the cylinders BY FAR, is the line hone. After 100k the line hone takes on all the shape and appeal of an elderly bag lady. With the #2/3/4 main's having sometimes three times the allowable oil clearance. And the best reason of all - I build Subaru engines FOR A LIVING. I do this every day and we build everything from stock to engines making well over 600 crank horsepower. I haven't honed a cylinder wall in 15 years and not a single engine uses oil or has failed to properly seat the rings. And they seat FAST. It has been (wisely) said that on the first revolution of the engine the rings are wearing in - on the second they are wearing out. I will typically do a 100 mile break-in and then we go full-throttle. My engines always exhibit perfect, uniform compression, and the oil changes show no wear materials. The first oil change at 500 miles ALWAYS shows ZERO oil consumption. Oh yeah - and it isn't opinion. It's FACT. Once you have done this as many times as I have - it's not an opinion anymore. I speak from VAST experience. GD

There is no merit to doing this and ESPECIALLY not with a flex-hone. If you are going to do it, it needs done on a power hone machine with diamond hones and it needs to be a two-step plateau hone with an extremely fine finish. DO NOT TOUCH the cylinder walls. Got that? Your fears of ring seating issues are unfounded and based on 1970's era ring and cylinder technology. Which these engines are NOT. What is this "glaze" you speak of? What is it composed of and how did it get there? And what are you attempting to accomplish with roughing up the cylinder walls at random with gravel glued to wire spun up in a drill perfectly suited for mixing drywall mud? GD

Glad you're back at it! I've never seen the approx 10" long rubber hose section fail. The metal tube that comes down from the gas cap does rust out. Either way, you will need to pull the filler tube back to get the rubber section out. It's a pain. The clamp at each end of the hose can rust and make it even harder. To get the filler tube to move there are the screws up at the filler and then 2 or 3 10mm bolts in the fender well under the black plastic cover. If it's been on dirt roads expect it to be full of dirt as well.

YES!!!

OP needs to change his Avatar

Here is the pin out http://ae64.com/20-pin-pinout.htmhttp://ae64.com/20-pin-pinout.htm

Beat you to it.....

I have a 95 radio and it is all yours for free if you pay for shipping. You can just add one of those cassette converters or an fm converter for an ipod or player. Nice easy snap in.

I was gonna suggest a bent wheel. I have a 96 legacy wagon that had the same issue

Head gasket. You really need a solid test drive of 30 to 60 minutes. Need the engine at temp for an extended period of time. At that mileage expect and add in HG failure into you price

If it makes it another 105k with a Chinese cogged..... maybe. I know *Dealers* that will replace the belt and the cogged idler only. Because ultimately the primary failure in the system is the cogged idler - the belt is only replaced because the service manual says it's due every 105k. The reality is that the cogged is THE most important item to replace when doing this job. I would pull it back out. GD

Head Gaskets can leak oil or coolant at the split seam. Biggest problem with these. If you don't feel good walk away. There area always more to pick from.

Just able to get back. Last Friday I brought the car into our local military installation, where I am able to use the auto craft garage. They taught me how to use the computer wheel balancer, and I went through each tire. It turns out one of the front tires has a slightly bent wheel, and there was a lot of weight on there to compensate. The tire was out of balance anyway. We took off all the weight and started over, but in the end it still took a lot both inner and outer. Two other tires were balanced okay, and the fourth needed some work. I moved the bent rim to the rear. At the magic 65 to 75mph, the car drove a lot better - with no vibration. I checked everything else, including the ball joints and all is good. Thanks for the input everyone, I appreciate it.

Forgot about that, good idea.

The real first generation