notliving

Its time for my engine to be rebuilt in my 98 2.5RS and I was wondering if anyone knows of a good reputable Subaru rebuilder in the SW WA area. I live in Vancouver and know of Apple Automotive but was lookiing for other options.

My guess is drums are cheaper.

This 100%. Exactly what I did during my HG replacement. Cork gaskets are garbage. Drill holes in the crossmember to make it easier to get to the bolts.

I have had this same issue with my 88GL Coupe since I've owned it. Runs great and gets great mileage but has a bog while accelerating. If I were to accelerate from a dead stop without feathering the throttle the car will bog down. Have not looked into the PCV valve yet and I do have a new fuel filter on the shelf. It has never really bothered me too much but it would be nice to be able to enter traffic without having to worry about being rear ended due to slow acceleration.

Isn't this the last year you'll have to go through emissions anyways? Maybe its one more year?

My old car. Wish I still had it. And my current ride.

You won't really know until you try it. Do they do a visual in Marysville? In Vancouver they don't check anything, as long as you have some sort of exhaust that they can get the sniffer in you're good to go.

My '05 was FUN FUN FUN!!!. But when you are doing 155mph down I205 and many other places its time to move on. If I didn't sell that car I would be dead and probably would have taken some people with me. He has no idea how fun that car is until he drives one.

I bought an '05 STI in early '06. It was basically new with 3200 miles on it. At the time I was making about 35k a year and was 25 yrs old. I paid 27,900 for it. It was an awesome car, pretty much the nicest car I've ever owned. I was approved for my loan with no co-signer. That being said by the time you get an STI, 20 or so like you posted an 06-07 should be pretty damn cheap in comparison. So you're basically looking at prices on a used car 4 years from now. You could probably afford one working at Taco Bell if you start saving now. Edit: As for mods it was fast enough for me. I just threw a COBB suspension under it. Springs and sway bars. I Ended up selling it because I was too stupid with my driving habits but smart enough to know it.

Yes there is a bommerang shape stamped on the HG. Luckily this is a very easy engine to pull and work on so if I need to pull it back out it won't be a big deal.

After further inspection it is the original. I thought it had NSK on it but it was NOK. Anyway I went over to the local Suby dealer today and got the separator plate and the rear main seal. I also took one of the head gaskets I bought (not made by Subaru) to compare it to the real deal and the parts monkey said he couldn't help me without my VIN? So here is a pic of one of the head gaskets I bought. They are Beck Arnley brand and the package they came in said made in Japan. They are all metal with a few thin layers and a main thick layer in the middle. Is there a way to tell just by looking at them if they are the corrected gaskets?

I'm gonna revive this thread a little bit since i don't want to clutter up the board with new threads. I just pulled my engine and when I removed the flywheel this is what it looks like. So I'm definitely going to get the updated seperator plate but what say the USMB about the rear main seal. It has seepage but with all the don't touch it posts out there I'm kinda leary about replacing it. I think it may have been replaced before since its a NSK seal but maybe those were used by Subaru? Should i leave it alone or go ahead and replace it and hope for the best?

You could probably find one on any old suby in a wrecking yard and have it welded on.

If you live in ANYWHERE in WA then your car will be exempt after it hits 25 yrs. There are many counties that don't even have emissions testing. If you had your car tested in 2011 you will never have to go through emissions again. Odd years are tested on odd years, even years are tested on even years.

I think you're over thinking this. I mean just think about engine temps. Timing belts are built to hold up in some pretty extreme conditions. Steam cleaning or pressure washing your engine is pretty common. Ever been to a car dealership and wondered how they got the engine so clean?

Oil, water and what have you is not going to make a difference unless your belts are old stretched and worn. Anyway the covers won't stop fluids from getting on the belts. I took mine off when I pulled the engine and have no plans on putting them back on. (think I threw them away) Plus you can paint the cam gears a bling color and be all Fast and Furious.

I had the exact problem with my '88 GL. The car basically ran okay. No overheating but I would smell coolant after driving it and the radiator level would always drop. It turned out to be a blown driver side head gasket. I crawled under the car and saw coolant on the underside of the head.

I've had a few Subarus over the years. First one was an '85 GL wagon FWD. Bought it for $150 in pretty dang good shape and proceeded to beat the dogsh*t out of it. Then used it for a ramp. After that I picked up a 2000 2.5 RS. wish I would have kept that one. After the RS I wanted to go big so I picked up an '05 STI. Only had 3200 miles on it when I got it. Figured I'd get myself into trouble if I kept it any longer so I sold it. After that I found a nice little brat to drive for a while. Quite a change of pace. Got the Impreza bug again and Picked up this '98 2.5RS (been my DD for the last 4 years) And last but not least. I got this '88 GL coupe last year on a whim. In pretty good shape. Runnin great after the recent HG replacement. Geez I've had too many cars. Those are only the Subarus. Toyotas are a different story.

Yeah I know about re-torquing after x amount of miles. Since the car was never driven just ran in the driveway after the head gasket install, I figured you were talking about the gasket install torque procedure.

Ended up just re-doing the head gasket today. Stuck the engine back in, had 150psi compression. Fired it up and adjusted the timing. All systems go. I'm really not sure what went wrong the first time. The gasket looked fine? Anyway its running better then ever. Now its time to sell it.

I used the rock auto gaskets. By retorque procedure I'm assuming you mean the start with a lower torque setting, torque all bolts in the correct patter then move to a higher torque setting and repeat as per the manual. Already had the valve cover off after I pulled the engine and the valves move in and out fine and the rockers are in the right spot. No test prior to the repair. Car ran fine other then coolant coming out of the head gasket. The gasket kit had 2 head gaskets so maybe I'll just re-do the whole thing and hope for the best.

That was one of the first things I thought but everything seems to move fine. Valve goes in, valve goes out.

So the I had to replace the driver side head gasket last weekend due it leaking coolant. It was a pretty straight forward procedure, yank engine replace gasket put back in. When I started it up it ran like crap. I thought I might have had the timing wrong but after researching it and re doing it a couple times I can pretty much do it with my eyes closed. So finally I started checking compression: 1-3-4 all were at 130 ish and 2 had 0, wouldn't even move the needle on the gauge. So now the engine is back out of the car and I'm somewhat frustrated. This was done on an '88 GL coupe with a SPFI EA82.

What are some of the things you've done to achieve 36mpg? I'm getting about 25mpg right now and would love to be in the 30's.

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