porcupine73

hehe well thanks, pics are very good for elaboration, those are just copied from endwrench.com articles and have been posted before.

hehe I heard toluene! I need to make up another special batch of my fuel additive.... toluene xylene acetone it's all good

Yes I think I have seen where soob says the timing chain is good for the lifetime of the engine. It is really not practicable to inspect like the timing belts. However yes, if it does break bent valves/dinged pistons are likely. I think soob went with a timing chain (vs belt) on the EZ30 to save a little space whilst shoehorning the engine into the chassis.

Hi. I did this on '00obw a couple years back. I can't remember exactly what I used for the bolt that is sort of blocked by the suspension crossmember. I think it was a 10mm flex head ratchet wrench, or it might've been a 1/4" 10mm flex socket.

hehe that's a good one nipper!

I'm not sure if this is the gasket you need but I found this 44022AA020 EXHAUST GASKET FOR FRONT PIPE FOR 1993-1997 IMPREZA 1.8 ONLY sold individually One gasket material I saw listed for high temps is fiberglass/silica. i.e. from mcmaster.com: Square Braided— Made of 98.8% silica. The square design fits many oven and furnace door grooves and provides more sealing surface than round braided. Temperature range is -40° to +2300° F. Color is tan.

Especially if they haven't been changed before I would definitely replace those fluids. Ideally on a new vehicle you change the diff oil relatively early in its life to get the break in wear metals out.

hehe, or go up to Canada, I don't think they require ethanol in the gasoline! Maybe some people are running E20 or higher in their PZEV's and that's what soob is talking about?

Right on, if the area requires ethanol in the gasoline it will be hard to find gasoline without it....except maybe race fuel?

Yes, that's true. Everyone selling a product has to sell the sizzle. To check the coolant level for a soob, the radiator cap must be removed.

I just spotted this note on cars101.com tech tips page: "PZEV idle fluctuation (“hunting”) during cold starts which generally last about 20 to 30 seconds the cause is a combination of factors including 1. Fuel blends. 2. Percentage of Ethanol content of the fuel being used. 3. Outside Temperature. 4. Narrow operating range of the Air Fuel Ratio Sensor. The main cause of this fluctuation is fuel related and not the vehicle. PZEV engines are designed to run on fuel blended for distribution within certain areas of the U.S. (such as the state of California). Fuels in other markets that may have adopted California emission standards, may be a slightly different blend. If you live in any other state than California, your vehicle will operate on gasoline meeting Federal specifications. However, PZEV vehicles may experience this issue especially during the summer months when summer blend fuels are distributed. There is no effect on vehicle emissions, and no short or long term damage will occur due to this issue. The condition may be reduced or eliminated by changing to a fuel that contains a lesser percentage or no Ethanol. Also, a light throttle application while the vehicle is exhibiting this condition will stabilize the idle. As we move towards cooler weather many areas of the country will be changing to a winter blend of fuel which may also alleviate the condition."

Hm the H6 crank pulley looks interesting. Other soobs don't have that aluminum looking metal cap on the pulley. Nice pic too, I like that montage/picture-on-picture look!

hehe Skip pulling out all the stops on the pics!

There are also a number of good articles on http://www.endwrench.com about soob cooling systems and coolants etc.

I don't think the SUBARU coolant SOA868V9210 is pre-mixed. I asked subarupartsforyou about this last year and they said "it is not pre-diluted". Right on with the distilled water. Dilute only with distilled or deionized. Tap water especially well water can have various minerals in there that some believe leads to additive precipitation and certain corrosion modes. Since distilled water is less than $1/gallon why not.

The potassium hydroxide is not a corrosion inhibitor in itself, but it does help keep the pH slightly basic which is best to slow the corrosion of aluminum. If you do choose to go with something other than SUBARU coolant, at least do not get an OAT coolant. Subaru specifically says NOT to use OAT coolants in soobs, and if your vehicle is under warranty it would probably be best to follow that advice. OAT coolants are Dexcool, prestone all makes/all models, and many others, and will typically list an ingredient such as sebacate or 2-ethylhexanoic acid.

That doesn't sound good. Even if the thermostat is stuck closed you would still get heat from the heater (unless you've got a big air pocket trapped in the system). Soobs refilled quickly with coolant through the rad filler neck with the vehicle level on the ground are likely to trap air). These symptoms sound like the phase I 2.5L dohc head gasket exhaust blowing into coolant breech possibly.

It has been proposed that a blocked or restricted heater core could cause these kinds of issues. The longer Subaru OEM thermostat places the element nicely in the flow coming back to the water pump suction from the heater core and throttle coolant bypass circuits.

Right on. The main thing you won't see in other similar coolants is potassium hydroxide, which I believe Subaru adds because aluminum prefers a slightly basic pH for minimum corrosion rate. Potassium hydroxide is the ingredient in many drain cleaners. Subaru says to use a 'phosphate, non-amine' coolant. However their own coolant contains no phosphate, but rather uses 'a trick of chemistry' they say (the sodium benzoate). I'm not sure about the amine part but I think it was an alcohol based coolant using amine salts such as corrosion inhibiters.

That is true. That is not necessarily true.

hehe nice image! If your napa rebuild kit doesn't seem to have the right parts, it might be for later model soobs which have different guide/lock pin styles.

haha ditto that! Who is it now that is turning this car for a quick profit? It looks pretty good, calipers don't look new though some rebuild calipers maybe they don't bead blast and paint etc. Tires look good.

OAT coolants work great....provided you have no coolant leaks/air in the system. When a leak/air happens, the aluminum corrodes and then the coolant picks up the corrosion dust, thus resulting in glopping and clogging. Something I didn't think of before is there have been posts in the summer about overheating, etc., which turned out to be the radiator clogging.....not sure what coolant was in use?

Subaru coolant is the safe way to go. If it was a warranty repair at a dealer, genuine SUBARU coolant is required for dealer warranty repairs.