DaveT

Double check that you found all of the bolts. There are a couple of sneaky ones.

I would not use the overheated water pump. It's been over temperature, and run low on coolant. How well does the seal stand up to that? The last time I bought one, the best quality one at NAPA was around $50.

I use Amsoil. It made a huge difference in my 76 & 78 4 speeds in winter. With regular gear lube, it would barely shift from 1st to 2nd the first few time on cold mornings. With the Amsoil, it shifted the same as summer even in winter. Yes, it is spendy, but you can run it for 100K miles.

With some luck, someone on here may have seen both. There are factory service manuals online, digging through those would take time, but they will have the different versions, so you could compare. The only 1st hand experience I have is with Loyales - I have a CA one, and a few 49 state. On those, there is one extra sensor to measure the EGR temperature. Everything on the EA82 engine is identical except the intake manifold.

I recently sold our 2001 Forester. If the timing belt and all the idlers have not been replaced, it is time. Water pump might as well also. It is also likely to need head gaskets soonish, due to mileage and time passed. If you have access to drive it a few times, you could do this: Check coolant level cold, in the recovery tank. Check that there is little to no air in the system by squeezing the upper hose sharply. If the coolant isn't full, and near the mark in the bottle, correct this. Take a drive. Next day, re check both cold. Take a drive. Once fully up to temp, If there was little to no air in the system, watch for steady small bubbles in the recovery tank. They can be very slow, so watch for a minute. Steady bubbles = head gasket failing. It will get worse, but you can get away with it for a while, depending. If coolant is "disappearing" you have to find the leak. If the engine is run over normal temp while low on coolant, this will damage the head gaskets, and lead to failure, sooner or later, depending on how badly over temp, time, etc. On a car this age, be sure to check the radiator condition carefully.

Yes, if the system was already opened to fix what ever caused the lost refrigerant, there is nothing in it to recover. All you need to do at that point is to draw a vacuum to remove air and moisture, check for leaks, then charge.

I suspect a vacuum would pull oil through the crack. I never had one tested. I have had only 1 head since 1988 fail due to a crack that opened between the coolant and the exhaust port. I don't know if it started from the typical between valve crack.. I do know that it was part of an engine that was run hot with low coolant a few times. (worst case I ever had ) it was the only Subaru engine I've seen where a blown head gasket put coolant into the crankcase. It ran fine for a number of years after I resealed it, before the coolant leak problem developed. It also burned oil like crazy, I suspect the oil rings got ruined. 1 quart per tank of gas , but it passed emissions every time. Since I figured it was toast, I just added used oil, old oil, surplus old atf, every other half quart, mixed with cheap new oil. I only stopped running it when the coolant crack got so bad that abut 16oz of water would drip through while it was parked at work. I ran it with a zero pressure radiator cap, otherwise it wouldn't have kept coolant long enough to get anywhere. So as long as the coolant jacket isn't compromised, and your heads haven't been badly overheated, they should be reliable.

Knock off the loose stuff, apply Waxoyl or similar penetrating /greasy undercoat.

Yes. Not backing off and re checking after some driving is a good idea.

Looks like the normal crack.

Factory Service Manuals have all those details, like torque and more, if you ever come across a set, or find a downloadable one, it's worth it.

Bigger angles, [from the lift] probably makes more stress on the joints. I don't think the inner joint fail would cause any dangerous steering effect. Outer, probably feel more. I had an outer boot fail once, and didn't discover until the joint was already ruined, and clicking. Drove it for a while longer due to not having time, until it got bad enough to cause shimmy in the steering wheel. I have not had one fail completely. As far as I know, I have all OEM axles. I have always rebuilt them, some saved from previous cars, some bought used a scrapyards and rebuilt.

There is a steel spacer between the inner and outer bearing, so over torquing shouldn't cause bearing failure.

Small cracks between the valves is normal. Some of my engines have them, some don't. There was a tsb about it years ago.

Windshield is glued in place. Glue failed a little, and or rust got through.

I have a compressor that I removed from a small old window a/c. I use it to recover refrigerant. It can also pull a pretty hard vacuum. When using it as a vacuum pump, you have to cycle the run time, otherwise it will overheat because the motor is cooled by the refrigerant - which is not there when pulling a vacuum.

It would be a pretty big project, but it should be possible.

Replace all hardware with stainless steel.

Use a cut off disk to cut the bolts.

Ok, 84 & EA81, I never had. I ran a Mallory marine racing coil and breakerless conversion on my 76. That made a difference, most noticeable was easier starting. The EA82 system is already a very hot & high voltage spark, so I never messed with it.

Grinder cut them off. Buy stainless steel hardware at a hardware store to get a similar effect. Use jam nuts to keep them on. My exhaust mod on my Subaru page should have a picture that shows them. 7th picture down on this page: http://www.dynahoedave.co.nf/exhaust.html

If the cam seals and seal holder o rings have not been replaced, they are likely overdue.

What yeare and engine model etc are you running?

My first Subaru was an 76 red 4wd wagon.

Very old thread. A bridge rectifier "after the alternator " would do nothing to improve the stability of power . It would cause other problems, specifically, undercharging of the battery, due to the voltage drop in the diodes. There is also the problem of wiring one correctly, since the f rqme of the alternator is grounded, and a bridge rectifier is not going to function as a bridge rectifier with any 2 of its terminals tied together.