Rooinater

So my subaru forester was totaled a few weeks ago, and an opportunity to get out of work for the day and go car shopping came up at the last minute this morning. I already have a couple cars on my list to go look at... Anyone know other than awd subaru and eastlake subaru in the woodinville area that inspects subarus in that area. I really didn't want to do this last minute, but no one seems to be open on Saturday for inspections... Which makes it nearly impossible for those of us that work at under staffed government institutions to leave work... Thanks for the help in advance.

Ok, there is no more limping my Forester along and I need to get the head gaskets done. It pressurized the coolant system enough to put a hole in the newer radiator... I now live in an apartment in Seattle, so I don't have a place to work on it, and I start school at the UW in a week, so I don't have the time either. The car is presently up in Marysville, so the least amount of miles that I have to trailer the car the better, but I still would prefer a quality shop as well. Thanks in advance.

Some family stuff came up for early sunday morning, so I'll have to be heading north to the snohomish area for a couple hours at day break. Sorry guys, hopefully again soon.

I know, my poor self has been hiking or hermiting while I do my homework... Only 6 years of school left after this year... well, it still looks like I should be a go for this weekend. I'm trying to get all my homework out of the way before the weekend so that nothing piles up on me, and it looks like I should get paid on friday. I'll just be driving the forester up, I won't have time to work on Lil' Roo.

What do you know, this is why I came on here this morning! I'm planning on trying to make it, but no tree for me.

I vote for it being stickied or added to the FAQ. It was the most clear cut and detailed explanation in one spot that I have found so far on the early model 2.5L. And many more thanks for helping finish connecting the rest of the dots.

More than likely I'll purchase it. It drove really well and overall appeared to be mechanically sound for the most part, except after what I've read online and here I think the initial signs of the head gasket going are starting, but there isn't anything in the major i'm going to strand you on the side of the road category screaming yet. The retail for the model that I'm looking at (S model fully loaded, winter package, compass, heated seats...) is around $7500 here, and we've already talked them down $1500 from that and $1000 dollars from what they initially were asking and got them to the point that they have refused to go any lower. My Dad and I discussed with the dealer about the head gaskets being a concern and no direct paper record of the timing belt, which finally got them to budge on the price. I do plan on getting the head gaskets from Subaru, and I'll do the timing belt, tensioner, cam seals and water pump while I'm in there. That way I know what the hell has been done. Do the timing parts and cam seals need to come from Subaru as well, or are those fine to put some NAPA stuff in? It appears that the water pump has been replaced due to the sealant at the mounting surface, but I'm not 100% sure. Thanks for the heads up on the Auto tranny since I've never owned an automatic, but I've pulled a lot of manual tranny EA82 and EA81 engines... this will be my first interference engine... So I'll be doing as much research as possible over the next month or so as I gather the parts to start the repair. Are the specialty tools needed to lock the pulleys needed or is there an easy homebrew tool to make? Thanks for the information, it has been a great help. I've been reading online for the last several days and it was the details that I just needed linked together. Especially knowing that it's not generally an instant failure but a quiet one to keep an eye on has been a tremendous help in helping my decision of getting it and prepping for the work ahead. Thanks again.

So if it's barely in the start of the problem and it's purchased and I yank the engine and do a head gasket swap within the first month I would be in the clear? I won't pay the dealer to do that job, and it wouldn't be the first head gasket that I've replaced. It had fairly new coolant, the level was near the same before and after if I recall, but I'll double check again when I test drive it friday. I drove it fairly hard, breaking to accelerating hard on a consistent basis for the 30 minute test drive and than had to stop at a few stop lights and I didn't get any over heating. Thanks for the info so far.

What's there to look at on the 1998 Forester to notify of the internal leak? We were looking at one that didn't have any overheating problems. A little high on the oil level and water level, but no oil in the radiator, no white smoke from water out the tail pipe and no warning lights. What are the symptoms and signs for the internal leaking gasket? Is there a copper aftermarket gasket or a better head gasket that you can replace them with?

the forward strut support bar body mount. drivers side under the the drivers floor. there is 3 single lift blocks that hold the bushing mount for the strut support or strut control arm. it's the forward most block.

I have a body mount that appears to be starting to crack under the lift block in my EA82. I know i've seen it happen a few times and it also seems to be fairly common, but I was wondering what you guys were doing to fix them? I always had an EA81 and never had a problem, now I have a lifted EA82 for a daily driver and the forward block of the strut support bar mount is cracking and popping while driving. It's not broken all the way through yet. Is there access to weld it back on from the inside? A way to through bolt it? Thanks.

a little more progress today, finished painting the hubs, then cleaning the overspray... Then I setup the Aussielocker, which was an interesting task in itself, not hard but i used 2 different carriers and was getting the same out of tolerance measurement for the spacers... Called the US dealer and they said to mic the spacers. sure enough it was a difference in the spacers and they said the major thing with that particular clearance is that it's not to tight. So .006 looser than specs won't hurt a thing, it's the cam gear measurement that is critical to be within specs. Then i setup the hubs, put some wheel studs in the new axles, and pressed the hubs onto the shafts. Setup Aussielocker Painted Hubs and stuffed the guts in mocked up on the housing. pressing the shafts in comparing the taper of the stock shafts and chromoly shafts, pictures don't really do justice of the taper difference. still left to do this week, setup the spool and gears for the rear third member, install the rear third, install the new hub seals and bolt up the shafts.

hopefully i'll be able to let you know by winter. Everyone i've chatted with haven't had a problem with them and or really like them. They are supposedly a lot better than the lockrights.

housing prepped for teardown stripped 3rd member out pulling the carrier sand blasted hubs painted hubs getting ready to drive the pin out of the pinion shaft Starting the locker install

your slow??? I'm taking forever... but finally back to work. Looks good on her feet!

other than the winter driving change, what else are they closing or opening? i heard a rumor a while ago about some of the further out trails being closed and creating loops to keep bikes and nonstreet legal rigs off of the gravel roads.

Well, I'm finally getting some wrench time while I'm on spring break. I'm presently rebuilding the rear end. Removed the old shafts, which in the process of maxing out my 20 ton press and having to tap on the shaft to get them off... I bent the heck out of the backing plates, and now will have to go to disc brakes a lot sooner than planned... Since the drum brakes will have to go away now, I stripped the brake parts off and got it down to just the bare hubs, I took them to Alternative Blasters in Marysville and got them blasted. Painted the hubs with 2 coats of hunter green, still need to put on one more coat of paint on wednesday. Then we disassembled the rear differential to prep for the gear and spool install. I took the open carrier from the rear and started prepping it for my front Aussielocker. After finally getting the carrier disassembled and the spider gears out, we measured the carrier pin where the spider gears rode for wear and the center pin was out of spec for using the locker. Luckily we found another open carrier in the garage with an excellent center pin. Not sure where it came from, must of been when I got a bunch of toy axle parts for the subaru, and I just don't remember. Anyways I'll be finishing setting up the locker on wednesday, along with adding the last coat of paint to the hubs, finish removing the the bearing races from the carrier, finish cleaning the carrier and start the spool and gear install. The rest of the week i'll be finishing the axle. I'll try to start posting pics tonight, I left my camera cable on the peninsula... I'm headed over there today to take care of some stuff and will try to grap it. My camera uses an XD card which the computer up here doesn't have a slot for.

looking great! wish i had a tube bender...

worm trail going up, upper 311 and 197 and 198.

as long as it's on the gravel roads up there it's fine. generally referring to wheeling in the Sultan Basin envisions actual trails, all the actual 4x4 trails are shut down in the Sultan Basin area.

the wheeling off of sultan basin has been shut down for several years. anything other than being a logging road should be considered illegal unless you personally contact the land owner.

there's an actual forest service campground, a few pull in spots, you should have plenty of room to be able to pull up a tent trailer in one of the site areas. I'm about 90% sure i won't be able to make it, this august is really busy for me. we'll see what happens though since I'm planning on starting my wonderland hike that weekend. I'll be starting at the Mowich Lake Campground just past EC on hwy 165 so i might be able to bring the red subaru.

looking good. now isn't that line the truth...

looking good! it sits at just about the right height too! a nice low center of gravity.