Jimmyowensfan20

Yea I liquid glassed a Ford Thunderbird one time. Lasted about 6 months. First time it gets hot again thats all she wrote! Also! Make sure you pull the breather cap off the passenger side of Radiator top 12 millimeter square plastic head or you will get air in the coolant system. with cap off fill with 50/50 i recomend water wetter it gives you about 20 degrees cooler engine temps and don't start the engine untill it is full. JOF

Goodyear gatorbacks are hard to beat!

Cam seals,front main oil pump seal, head gaskets,valve cover gaskets, water pump,Gator Back timing and drive belts. I did kind of strike a deal with the guy at Auto zone when I bought all my stuff. I gave him a couple pizza's from my second job at Papa John's and he price matched everything to the lowest in town and then gave me an employee discount so for everything including hoses,coolant,oil, oil and air filter,pcv valve and said about gaskets and seals...It was $312.58. Took me about 12-14 hrs do the labor with hand tools. So I figure a shop woth air tolls can knock it out in 6 then charge you 10 or 12. I'll do it myself and then if I screw something up I'll pay someone to fix it. Besides I buy lifetime warranty parts and if they break I get free new ones.

I can't believe what you guys pay for a head gasket job. Everyone I've seen has paid around a $1000. I changed every seal and belt and water pump for less than $300. Is there really that much labor difference between 2.5L and 2.2L? Is labor really that expensive?

Dear sir, If you only want to drive it 50,000 miles on the high end... Take out washer fluid reservoir,battery,air filter box,electric fans, coolant overflow tank, take out the rear support bar on top back of engine, unbolt exhaust,take off the 2 engine mount nuts and with a block of wood under oil pan jack the engine up, you may have to the rad hoses loose to get enough room. now with heads off takes some sand paper, clean the gasket surface on block and heads and put new head gaskets on....i would change the timing belt and if nothing is leaking go back together with it. less than $100 bucks and you are back on the road in a couple days without paying out the wazoo for machine work and if you didn't get it HOT then the heads prbably aint warped any way. Like you said Money and time are not a luxury you have and I don't care what anyone says about OH you gotta do this or that. I would fully expect the previously stated fix to run 50,000 miles. OR more.

A tip that will save you tons of frustration! If you do decide to change it with block in car...when removing and re-installing heads.. only put the bottom 3 head bolts through and use them to hold gasket while inserting in engine compartment. You'll never get the head back in if you try to start them all. and you'll never get the bottom ones started if you put the head in without them already through.

I just kept my eyes on the classifieds and got a wrecked legacy with a 2.2L and did away with that 2.5L moron motor! everything plugs right up!

I wouldn't take my daughter for a ride with those springs on my car.

I can feel the binding in my drive line getting a little tighter. I also fear i may have a bad mount somewhere. I'll check that tommorrow.. But I can definately feel resistance to engine in driveline. Not sure if it could possibly be breaks but I'm almost possitive it is not...but it does seem to be holding my engine back...I haven't yet checked but this assusradly is effecting my gas mileage. How hard is it to change this "clutch pack" I've read so much about? I have tons of tools a pit and a flat bay engine and tranny lifts, any tool imaginable so i would prefer to do it myself. Input please?

I agree with Nipper. very easy to check. just look for any "free motion" in the universal joints. Also....A tell tell for drive shafts is it will vibrate worse when the vehicle is free wheeling instead of accelerating. while driving put in nuetral and just free wheel..no restistance in drive line and a universal joint will shake your teeth out.

http://www.cosmoracing.com/productinfo.asp?cid=150&pid=1196

Also look to see if the 12 point 14 mm head bolt heads are rounded at all. If a socket has been on them surely the heads have been off.

Mine came with 2.5L but now has 2.2L...anyway...I draind and filled it with 4 qrts. It looks so clean i can't get a good read on the stick. It looks full but it Duff Subaru said 5 qrts plus GM limited slip additive. which i purchased and used. "first"...why the descrepancy with dealer quote and stick reading? Once again...fluid hard to see on stick VERY light pink color. 96 Legacy Outback AWD Auto Trans 15 inch wheels..if it matters.

All of this is very discouraging since. I put my 96 Legacy outback AWD auto trans on a 2 wheel dolly with front wheels off ground, fwd fuse in and trans in neutral and towed it home when i bought it running at speeds around 45-50 mph. I must have got lucky or something since i don't seem to be having any problems with trans except a little tightness when i'm backing out of a pariking spot with the wheels cut sharp. However this does make me a little nervous. the guy at Earl Duff Subaru told me to do it that way though. i called and asked before doing it.

Hey all, This is my second Subaru. The first was a 1986 GL-10 tubo wagon that i bought for $200 and tried and tried to get it right and finally found a 1988 dl 2wheel drive with a single port motor bad trans for $100 and man o man what a job I got into. Changed wiring harnesses, dashes,had to rewire entire chassis, but I put that single port motor in place of that turbo piece of junk. All in all I ended up with a little over $800 bucks in it and drove it over 200,000 niles before the axle broke and drove it home in 3 wheel drive LOL. Gave it to my friend and it is still running today. I went from that to a 1974 Super beetle. Big Mistake! Now I am back to Subaru. It's like I have some kind of obsession for cars that don't run."my says that anyway". Last week i purchased a 1996 Legacy outback Wagon that I had seen sitting in the same place for months. i stopped and talked to the guy and he said" It gets hot no matter what i do. It's got a new water pump,radiator,thermostat and I am tired of fooling with it. I put water in it...started it without the rad cap on and sure enough...compression in the coolant system. I knew imediatly what it was. "head gasket" I kind of feel bad for not telling the guy this but he had 2 really nice cars in the drive way. So I offered him a grand for it and he said no and I left him my number.... A week later sure enough he called and told me to come get it out of his way. So here it gets interesting. I happened to see a 1993 legacy wrecked in the paper so I had called and got that car for $200 bucks 112,000 miles smashed in side. Took the 2.5 liter with blown head gasket out of Outback, played with 2.2 a little before putting it in, Head gaskets,timing belt,water pump,thermostat,cam seals,front main oil pump seal kit,new "U" hose from water pump to pipe, valve cover gaskets, timing belts cover gaskets, tuned it up, I also now have lucas 80w90 in both diffs, I put the GM limited slip additive in auto trans"recomended by local subaru dealer" when changing fluid, New brakes all the way around, blead out all old break fluid, cleaned the intake while it was off,new rad hoses, heater hoses, gatorback drive belts, 10 dirty finger nails, 4 busted knuckles, and a 14 millimeter across the bridge of the nose that sliped off engine mount nut. And I have driven 1000 miles so far tickled to death. 1996 Legacy Outback AWD Auto, Cold air, all these new parts, $1500.. It does have 264,000 on chassis but I really like the 2.2L I put in it much more than the 2.5L. Did I really get that good of a deal? Or am i just dreaming? Either way I love this car it drives awesome compared to the BUG I'm coming out of. Anybody interested in 74 super beetle? All Stock. Anyway... The Site rules. The info is abundant. The people from what I've read are pretty cool. Nipper seems to be the smartest Subaru guy I've ever come in contact with. Come meat me at a dirt track, golf course, or lake in TN. jimmyowensfan20