xrturbo

Headgaskets mainly, other than that it wouldn't hurt to take a pocket scanner along to check for codes, and check moniters in the computer to make sure they haven't just cleared them to dump the car. Some codes such as 420 can get costly.

I only created the post because of the amount of emails I had been receiving on my personal email wanting to know more about this because it was a response in someone elses post. You can delete it if you like. It is illegal yes, but so is hanging a loud muffler in most areas or changing the ride height. Code 420 is catalyst insufficiency not O2

Actually I meant to say rich condition, sorry. I actually did throw a vacuum gauge on last night.... 6 in lbs I probably won't be able to touch it again untill mid next week due to my Forester project I just picked up. I planned on pulling the O/B off the road to drive the Forester..... it must have gotten jealous:lol:

And it was a brand new Suby CTS when I did the motor. We are actually going out now to look at it a little more.

It just got new plugs when I did the motor and they were the OE's. The wires I gotta check into what I have to use, I beleive they only ran that wire for a few months in early 97

For some reason the trannys in 99 Outbacks whether manual or auto have the worst fail rates I have ever seen in Subes next to the SVX.

That is another thing I am going to check, haven't had a chance yet.

Ok guys I need help on this one!!! I will start with the car and what is done to it: 96 O/B 5MT, 212,xxx miles, originally 2.2, swapped to 2.5 DOHC..... don't even say it, I should have left the 2.2 alone:lol: , Borla header, running front car, gutted the rear cat running back to a Magnaflow, Perrin pulley. The motor is a 2.5 SOHC phase 2 bottom end with phase 1 DOHC heads. Engine harness was used from the original motor. Removed and blocked off all of the EGR stuff. Other than that everything is original. Yesterday I drove the car to work and it was all fine. I went to fire the thing up for lunch and it was running really lopey. I ran it up the road hoping it would clear out and then it really fell on its face and I barely got it back to the shop. CEL is flashing and got a cyl 2 missfire code out of it. I only had enough lunch break left to start looking at things. The cat was glowing orange so I figured it was a lean condition. I started pulling injector plugs to see if it would change the idle and each one seemed to change the idle equally. That was all the time I had for lunch. After work while I was waiting for the wife to pick me up I fired it up and it ran perfect for 30 seconds and then went back to crap. I pulled it into the shop and started just swapping stuff to see what happened, I through a mass air meter, coil pack, ignitor, ECU at it and ohm checked the wires(I work at an all Suby parts shop so it didn't cost anything). Nothing changed. I parked it again. This morning I came in let it idle, revved it up a bunch of times it was good again. Tried it again at lunch and just let it idle while I did some stuff and it went back to crap again. This thing has always run great for me. It did have a slight miss like wires were bad but it never gave me a problem. I swapped it as soon as I got it and have driven it for about 4000 miles. I would just like to get some feedback and ideas. The only other thing I want to check at this point is I want to drop the exhaust and run it, the cat setup I used is a one peice setup from a 420 code 02 impreza. Thanks in advance!!

It is kind of unusual to have one of these pumps go. How long has it been since the car got a timing belt? That is normally the only item that will commonly leave them completely dead in the water.

It is soooooo much easier if you pull them off when you go to reinstall either item. The first one I tried to leave on and I didn't notice that it bent upward and went into the ring gear on the flywheel..... man did that make a nice noise:grin:

The oil is not normally contained in the bell. There is a cover plate on the underside of the torque converter that is almost always removed and discarded if the engine or trans has ever been removed. Whenever the inner axle boot on the passenger side tears it throws the grease onto the front cat conv. Granted it is unlikely that it will travel into the Y, but it is possible

I have been trying this on quite a few subes with the P0420 catalyst insuffiniency code and it has worked great. It is a simple fix that can be done in minutes. Go to your local auto parts store and get a long 18mm spark plug non fouler, drill the end with the small hole out with a 1/2 in drill bit to allow the thimble of the o2 to fit through. Simply use the non fouler as a spacer between the o2 sensor and the o2 bung on the down stream location. On my next one I will work on getting some pics. I have been running this setup on my 96 5MT Outback that has been 2.5 swapped and I am running NO CATS with no CEL. I have done this to about 10-15 cars now and the only one that came back on was a 99 Lego 2.2 phase 2. Even if just to get through emmision monitors it is much cheaper than 4-600 bucks worth of cats!!

I second that. At least it is a 00 where they moved the tone ring for the ABS to the axle, early ones had them mounted to the hub and if you try to knock it out with the ring left on you break the ring:dead:

You will normally have some time to run around on the external leak of the SOHC 2.5. Even some of the worst ones I have seen never caused any driveability issues as long as the coolant was topped off.

You will prob. find one of three things: pass side inner axle boot, sep plate or cam support o ring on pass head.

Larry, Just for the heck of it I ran it on the vin decoder and everything looks normal there, it didn't come back with any faults in the number. It came up as 93 Impreza L sed, 1.8 5 spd. By the way, hows the OBS doing. I am missing it.

Did you pull the codes? Chances are it will be evap. The evap system on these are fairly simple. Chances are it might be the fuel filler tube. Pull back the sheild for the fuel filler tube....actually take it off and throw it away, and check the filler tube for major rust. The sheild just catches a ton of mud and road dirt and holds it against the tube acting like a sponge. It just rotts the neck away, especially at the bottom turn in toward the tank.

I would deff do it. Just about anyone you pull apart will have a leaking tensioner. The geared idler mentioned above should deff be replaced also, I have timing covers off with only 20k miles and the thing sounded horrible.

You are lucky. We have had a few (actually two in one day) at the shop that refused to come out. Even after oxy-ecetelyne, BFH's, pullers and hours of soaking in penetrant. For some reason I have seen this most in 00 on up legacy and foresters. Do yourself a favor and slap some anti seize on the splines before sliding it back into the hub.

This car won't have a cabin filter. I would start checking the area where the lines go into the filter neat the drivers strut tower and fuel lines on the engine and injectors. If it is only when you have the heat on it should be under hood.

Is this a trick question?......There is no 97 Forester.

I was contemplating the same setup for my 96 OB

I didn't read through everyones responses so forgive me if this has been covered......but why waste your time on a TT swap. The twin turbo setups are a waste for the output and good luck modding it. I wouldn't use the setup if it was free.

I have had quite a few instances of it being the EGR transducer which is that plastic disc with the green label right in front of the EGR valve. Unfortunately the easiest way I have found to trouble shoot this is to have test parts hanging around, all of the parts interchange for all of the ealy style (95-99) cars.

Have you considered swappping in a 2.2? This could be your cheapest, easiest, most reliable to go. You wouldn't beleive how straight forward and easy this is to do.