hankosolder2

I have to say that the noise sounds more like a throwout bearing to me than the pressure plate, but if the fingers on the PP are uneven, that could potentially cause noise as well. The high pedal effort is probably just a symptom of a worn clutch disc. Throwout bearings can fail catastrophically, but (assuming the clutch is adjusted properly) they're under very little load when the clutch isn't depressed. A "cross country trip" is probably less stressful on the TO bearing than a daily short commute with lots of shifting. You might be able to get away with ignoring it for a while, but it'd be a drag to guess wrong! Nathan

The cable clutch on the 2.2 has pretty light effort when it is in good shape. I bet you'll be amazed at the difference when you change it. BTW, the actuating fork does wear...it's not a bad idea to change it anyway. Make sure the machine shop machines the proper step back on the flyweel and you'll have a sweet clutch! Nathan

Nipper, Isn't the weak spot in the Head/HG/Block interface more on the Block/HG side? Nobody refinishes the block sealing surfaces during a regular HG replacement. I just wonder if refinishing a (true) head offers that much benefit. (Of course, if the head's not true, it HAS to be refinished.) I'm just posing a question here, not questioning the validity of your advice. I just wonder why the surface finish on the head would matter more than the surface finish on the block. Nathan

Perhaps the previous mech changed the gaskets but did not change the rubber grommets around the valve cover bolts. These play a major role in determining the clamping force applied to the valve cover gaskets. Even if you're pretty green mechanically, this is an easy DIY job. It's about $30 in parts if memory serves. The hardest part is keeping everything clean as you're squeezing the valve covers back in place (it's a bit tight.) Nathan

I say swap the sprockets. As long as the timing belt indexing mark is in the same relative position to the camshaft rotation, it can cause no harm. Worst case, the ECM gets a bad signal and it won't start or run right. I think I've heard of people swapping sprockets before. I'm sure others know more about this than I do. Nathan

I hadn't really considered the R&D time aspect of RWD versus FWD. I can see how designing a transaxle and FWD packaging from scratch would be more difficult. That's a good point. I would definitely assume that the Toyotabaru coupe has IRS! The Japanese don't really do retro-tech. I don't know what modern premium vehicles you are referring to which don't have IRS...perhaps we have a different definition of a premium vehicle? I'm thinking BMW, MB, Lexus, etc. Even out of the new crop of American muscle cars, I think the Mustang is the only live-axle car. The multilink rear suspensions on premium vehicles are actually quite complicated, lots of cast alloy parts, tons of bushings, etc. You don't see a lot of simple semi-trailing arm IRS setups anymore. Nathan

Nipper, I was a little surprised to hear that RWD cars are less expensive to manufacture than FWD. (Unless you mean solid axle, low tech RWD vehicles, like a Crown Vic or something.) I would guess that AWD is the most expensive drivetrain configuration, RWD (with IRS) in the middle and FWD is the least expensive. Could you explain? Why are all the cheapest cars FWD while RWD tends to be only found in premium vehicles? I would also imagine that a FWD car is cheaper/ easier to assemble as the entire powertrain can be lifted into place on a single subframe assy. Nathan

I suppose it's only natural that there's a lot of AWD enthusiasts on a Subaru board, but I welcome the choice of RWD. It's just a lot more entertaining to drive (at least in the good weather!) and with the increased price of gas, Subaru is going to have no choice but offer FWD or RWD options on at least some of their platforms. (Diesel+ AWD might be a marketable platform though.) Every single Japanese blandwagon offers FWD- an affordable RWD platform would allow Subaru to occupy a unique niche in the market... I'm thinking Japanese bargain BMW. Nathan

To be clear, I was just speculating, based on the high CR, not on any actual experience. I could be dead wrong. On the other hand, you are suggesting upgrading to premium fuels in the event of pinging...if you're getting pinging, the ECU has already pulled the timing back as far as it can- not good. Nathan.

Interesting. I just looked at fueleconomy.gov and compared the EPA figures for a '95 Legacy (FWD, 5MT) 21 City / 29 HWY and '95 Legacy (AWD, 5MT) 19 City/ 26 HWY. The large spread in highway driving can't be accounted for by weight (I agree with grossgary on this point) so it must be due to something else- either additional drivetrain friction or gear ratios (or a flaw in the EPA's procedure!) Any thoughts? Nathan

I don't think a "frankenmotor" can run regular gas. It's something like 10:1 compression ratio or higher. (I suppose you COULD run regular gas, but the knock sensor would pull timing, thus reducing MPG & power.) Nathan

Same thing just happened to my dad's car. The 2-piece pulley /harmonic balancer split, it shredded the acc'y belts. The accessory drive belt system and the timing belt are almost completely unrelated. I suppose that if the INNER part of the harmonic balancer/pulley came off the crank and the T-belt sprocket behind it worked forward, it could skip time and lunch the engine. But if just the outer part separated, you're probably fine. My money's on a flat battery due to the belt slipping & shredding. Here's a pic of what happened to my dad's car:http://www.flickr.com/photos/7385194@N04/2465296883/ Nathan

Why were you replacing the injector in the first place? If you had a miss, perhaps the original problem was a bad valve which dropped or another mechanical issue. My second thought: could the replacement injector be stuck open? If it filled the cylinder with gas, hyrdolock seems possible. Nathan

Some slight weepage might be ok, but a teaspoon is no good. There are gaskets under the valve covers around the spark plug wells which need to be replaced. You'll also want to replace the grommets around the valve cover bolts and the valve cover gasket itself at the same time. Nathan

Well, temporarily, I made a platform out of two 1.5" pieces of marine plywood, stacked the child seat on it and hey, presto. I'm still looking for a more elegant solution, but until then.... Crazyhorse: Thanks for your thoughts. I think the center and side latches might be different. I'll have to look. Nathan

Since it is '98, it is not LATCH compatable. There are no issues with inertial reels not locking, as it's a straight lap belt only. I don't HAVE to use the center position, but it is considered the safest location for a child seat.... There's got to be a shorter lap belt assembly from some other car I can use.... Nathan

Greetings- I'm running into a problem mounting a child safety seat in a '98 Outback Wagon...wondering if any of you have come up with solutions. The issue is that the latch assembly for the center lap belt ends up in precisely the wrong place to mount the seat. (i.e. the belt wraps over the two corners of the seat and the latch assembly wants to wind up right where one corner is.) If the strap portion of the female latch side of the belt were about 3" shorter, it'd work fine. Are there any alternate part numbers or belts from another Subie model which might bolt up OK and solve this? Nathan

Exactly! I would suggest that if you had a 200K mile 2.5 engine and had the option of doing HG (risky on a high mileage engine for the reasons you mentioned) or installing a used, fairly bulletproof 2.2 for similar money, what would you do? I'm not sure that I would agree with you that the only thing wrong with the 2.5 is HG. Piston slap! Nathan

Is it possible for the rings to lose their temper due to overheating? I have heard this but never personally experienced it....if the engine was severely overheated prior to the HG replacement, this could have happened- or piston scuffing/ bore damage. The dealer can only inspect the bores when the heads are off; they can't really inspect the rings w/o pulling pistons, which isn't going to happen during an HG replacement. Nippper- what do you have against the 2.2 swap? It's a valid option for those not willing to install a $2500 engine + labor in a $2500 car, or spend $1200 on HGs with an extremely variable outcome- this poster is a good case-in-point. The performance difference isn't that significant. It's not going to be a fast car with either engine option! Nathan

Nipper, I agree with you; that engineering paper sounds dubious- I think FWD cars are the hardest on tires! FWD cars tend to be nose heavy, all the power and most of the braking done through the two front tires... Nathan

I may be mistaken about this, but I think that a lot of the German auto makers simply pay the CAFE penalty fees and pass the cost on to the consumer. On a higher end vehicle, an extra $1k or so isn't that big a deal. Perhaps manufacturers can work some sort of emissions trading scheme; i.e. rather than Porsche (or Subaru) having to manufacture an economy car themselves to get their CAFE numbers in line, they can simply make a financial contribution to a pool which provides tax credits to purchasers of ANY brand of high mileage vehicle. Anything which encourages the sale of high MPG vehicles can only be a good thing. If the average MPG of all vehicles on the road meets the CAFE standards, it doesn't really matter if a small number of Porsche customers are driving about in 15 MPG vehicles if they've helped get more Honda Fits (for example) on the road. I agree; Subaru needs to explore non AWD vehicles, or aggressively start trimming curb weight with exotic materials and reducing drivetrain friction; all of which will be expensive. Nathan

The second picture is a charcoal canister, and I believe the hose at the bottom is a vent- the hose just tucks away into a grommet passing through the inner fender liner. There are two ways of dealing with this; you can eliminate the charcoal canister (a 2.5 car has a charcoal canister mounted somewhere at the back of the car) or you can mount the 2.2 charcoal canister and have two. My memory is a bit fuzzy, but don't forget the hose which runs to the MAP sensor on the passenger's side firewall. Just follow the vacuum hose diagram on the hood and make the car match it- you will have to trace out a couple of the metal lines to figure out how to do it. If you get jammed up, I may be able to shoot some photos of my swapped car. Nathan

If you use a highly oxygenated fuel, it may help. Why not add a couple of cans of that "guaranteed to pass emmisions" fuel additive to the tank? I think it's mostly alcohol, and will effectively slightly lean the car out. (Unless the 02 sensor compensates.) Also, bear in mind that the same car will often test better and worse with the exact same test procedure; there's a good chance that you might pass anyway. A fresh 02 sensor is not a bad idea. HC is unburned fuel (basically misfiring or gross over richness.) NoX relates to the combustion temperatures and will be WORSE (i.e. increase) with leaner mixture. So, the fact that your HC and NOX levels are within limits doesn't necessarily mean that you're not running fairly rich. Make sure the coolant temp sensor's resistance is within specs at operating temperature. The Haynes manual has a chart and I think someone has also posted values here- search. Good luck- let us know what happens. Nathan

Got the "closed face" style pulley installed. Works great. (Have only driven about 10 miles, but I don't forsee any issues.) I think you're probably safe to swap at will. Nathan

Well, I am AT THIS VERY MOMENT trying an experiment; my Dad's '95 legacy 2.2 shredded its harmonic balancer (same as the "open front" one you picture) and I'm replacing it with a closed front one from the old ej25 engine I have in the garage. It seems to bolt up fine, but I haven't fired the car up yet. Nathan