edrach

The NS version of Redline is specially formulated for gearboxes that have some miles on them (like greater than 75K).

Depends on the age of your transmission. Redline makes both a 75W90 and 75W90NS. Either will work well for you, but the NS version is recommended for older gearboxes since they have an additive that allows old slippery synchros to grab better and reduce that nasty crunch when quickly shifting into 2nd (or other gears). When I bought my '91 Legacy 8 years ago it had 93K on it and a slight crunch going into 2nd. I think the seller thought the transmission was going out so he wanted to unload the car. I changed the transmission oil to the 75W90NS and the crunch went away after about 3 weeks of driving. When I had about 200K on the car I changed the tranny oil again (ooops, a little late don't you think:rolleyes:?) but didn't have any of the Redline at the local autoparts place so I bought the same grade of Lucas gear oil. The evil crunch was back big-time going into 2nd, 3rd and even 4th! After a week of that, I drained out the Lucas gearoil, and replaced it with 75W90NS. Transmission shifted smoothly again in all gears. It made a believer out of me. Car now has 217K+ on it and it's still going strong.

If you want to go online, try www.rallitek.com in Portland, OR. They support the USMB and carry a significant stock of bushings; I'd be surprised if they didn't have Brat bushings. You'll need the swaybar diameter when you order.Or call 1.888.773.1212, ask for Garner or Sean.

$650 was OEM dealer price.

What size tires do you run? My '94 EJ18 sedan ran fastest on 14" rims; like a stone on 16" rims. I never noticed a difference with different amounts of gas in the tank. Maybe the slight forward shift of weight to the front makes a difference.

The MT-90 and the ....NS140 will likely be too heavy for your winters. 75W90 has the widest temperature range of all the ones you list. I'm personally fond of the 75W90NS because it works so well with high mileage transmissions. Works to take the grind out of 2nd gear better than any tranny oil I know.

I think your previous post was in the New Gen forum. Here it is: http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=96275 As to your question, clutch and carb repair won't solve your loss of oil problems. With the mileage and oil consumption you'd likely have to go into replacing the rings on the engine and that's going to be pricey if that's the case. I can't advise you on which way to go, but there are lots of people here that look like they're willing to help you out. Good luck.

Firstly, Smart Service is one of the best independent service shops around. Higher priced than most independents but quality work every time. I would trust them more than any dealer in the area. That said, I don't understand your concern about head gaskets. When they fail they usually give ample notice of imminent failure. I have a close friend in the rallycross group with a '99 Legacy GT where the head gaskets finally gave "notice" last year while in Portland. He had 156K miles on the car at that time. After cooling off and topping up the coolant he drove it north to Olympia without issue and had the work done at his local independent shop. I think your timing belt service is due at 105K so I don't understand why you're concerned with it at 81K. It's possible that timing belt service was due at 60K but I think that was earlier models. As to thinking about cost saving, I think you have reversed logic here. If you need to do the timing belt, doing the head gaskets at the same time involves significant additional labor and cost. On the other hand, if you were doing the headgaskets, timing belts would not add any significant time to the labor cost of the work. I don't know if there is any significant information that was the cause of your feeling that you want to combine costs and do all the work at once, but I think you're being un-necessarily conservative in your approach. If Smart finds that there is leakage around the headgaskets, then I would go for the whole repair. But if the head gaskets are fine, the timing belt service should be sufficient for the time being.

I had an EJ18 powered '94 Impreza sedan I used for a DD and rallycross car. Great gas mileage and fun to drive with the 5MT transmission. With the 16" wheels that came with the car, the car was a "stone." When I installed 14" rims and tires the entire complexion of the car changed; it became a real "runner" and fun to drive. I personally feel that the EJ18 engine was the most reliable engine (except for the EA81) that Fuji ever made. I'll be doing an EJ18 upgrade on my Brat this year.

Just a comment on the Forester that you are looking at. You will likely be paying for the timing belt job on this one (due at 105K) so add that to the price of the car. A windshield will likely run you another $250. Adding those two numbers to the price of the car put it well above a "good" value. I'm very fond of the Forester having just bought one in the last year from richierich. You might check his website for a "quality" Forester or Legacy (www.fixmysuby.com).

Having spent about 5 months searching for the "right" Forester, I think I can add some comments. Forget the '98 model year. It's a DOHC engine and I don't like the added complexity. Fuji only offered that engine in the Forester for one year and switched to the SOHC engine in '99. Unless you really have to have an automatic, go for the 5MT transmission which is hard to find in the Forester model. However, the added pickup and slightly better gas mileage is worth the search. We only drove one automatic during our search and it was a "stone." No pickup at all. Pay attention to the warnings about headgasket problems. If you find one that hasn't had it done recently, you'll be the one paying for it. Generally the first timing belt is due at 105K. If the headgaskets have been done by a reputable shop you shouldn't have any issues with them since the latest version gaskets and specific tightening technique seem to have done away with the problem. We finally bought a '99 from richierich for a decent price with all the onerous work already done. It had 110K on it when we bought it, and we're around 125K now. Only issue has been the viscous coupler started to give us trouble recently. Kind of unusual for the model and I don't regret having bought the car.

I bought all the parts from a dealer at a discount for $525. I figured they would run about $750 if the OP were paying list.

Considering the car has 160K on it, a burnt valve is not unusual. I believe the interval for timing belts on that model is 105K; so the conclusion is he waited too long to have it done recently or it's been 55K since the belt was changed. Long enough to burn a valve; but not likely caused by incorrect timing belt installation. He's dreaming if he thinks a buyer will pay $2500 for a car that MIGHT cost him only $3700 after having the burnt valve repaired. Almost $4K for a '99 with 160K on the clock is a stretch.

Yikes, the cost of a new rack is around $650 if I remember the last time I priced one. Check my other post about rebuilding kits.

A new steering rack is around $650 from the dealer. I had issues with mine on our '97 Impreza. I wound up finding a used one and having it rebuilt. There are two rebuild kits for the steering rack if I remember correctly; one is seals and the other is boots I think. They both list around $35 each from the dealer. I paid the local mechanic to install the kits and then install the rack in our Imp with whiteline bushings. The whole job ran me less than $250 for everything.

There are only two shops in this area that I would trust with that job. Smart Service in Seattle and Pacific Import Auto in Tacoma. I know both are very competant and depending on the age and model of your car, that price might not be unreasonable. I know the list price of just the parts that went into my last timing belt job (on our EJ22) was over $750 (we had a friend do the work). Add to that head gaskets and machine shop work and this could be another $1500, I honestly don't know. And to add to someone else's comment, Superior Import Repair in Portland is another quality shop, but certainly outside our area.

No it was a faded yellow 4 door sedan.

Try this group; might be a bit closer for you. http://www.formularallyx.com/

Three of us! Post some pics.

I saw one EA81 sedan; not sure if it's 4WD or not. Regardless, it's worth the visit. The Smokey Point PAP is the cleanest, nicest yard to work in that I've found.

Walked the yard today looking for stuff. Found about a dozen Legacies from '89 to '96. Lots of EA82s, a few EA81s, and even a Justy and a '93 Impreza.

Another source for factory manuals is www.books4cars.com. Not the cheapest but they have the most complete library I've ever seen.

Funny, that's what I was going to say/:) Good job searching! Actually, I had a similar problem last summer with our Toyota based motorhome. The charcoal canister was plugged with something and caused the same vacuum conditions with the fuel tank. It didn't result in fuel starvation, it actually caused the fuel tank to develop an air-leak to resolve the pressure differential. So add the charcoal cannister to your list of potential suspects.

Actually, what I said is that I popped a bead on a quality snow tire even though I did NOT lower the tire pressure. I was running at 36PSI and all three of us popped a bead on different runs (multiple drivers). My purpose is going with a rally tire with stiffer sidewalls and a stronger bead. I use a 195/70-14 tire for rallycross. Light truck tires will not fit on my Impreza.

AWD transmission requires that both the front and rear tires be almost exactly the same size. Resolve this descrepancy immediately or else you'll ruin the viscous coupler in your transmission. The coupler is a $575 part from Subaru plus the installation cost! Not something you want to mess with. The drag is normal if the tires on both axles are different diameters. You'll find that going around corners (sharp turns) will cause a "thump thump thump" due to the tires rotating at slightly different speeds.