Heironymous Josch

Well, the turbo lag sucks, especially with an AT. I'm working with a subaru-specific tuning shop here in Denver to get a little more oomph on take off. I'm not into street tuning a car to ridiculous boost levels but the AT's hesitate like 5 seconds on take off. I'm not looking at this from a "my car's faster than his off the line" mentality but rather that I do a lot of around town driving and the turbo lag in first doesn't allow the car the advantage to maneuver like it should with 227hp. Of course, I'm coming from a car with under 100hp, so I shouldn't complain. Overall impression - so far, great. My "bug eye" is awefully quirky and doesn't have window frames, so the die-hards probably dig it. The ride is distinctly Subaru. The look and feel of the interior is Subaru refined. The auto-off headlights and parking lights on the steering wheel are definitely Subaru. It ticks like a Subaru and it's utilitarian like a subaru. I had the car not six hours and I picked up 5 8'x2"x2" framing studs and two sheets of 4'x8' drywall! God bless the factory roof rails! Bingo.

I could be mistaken but do I sense that you already have thoughts about the '02? If so, you don't have to worry about offending me and I'd rather know about all the potential bad in advance. Thanks for the welcome. It feels good in the 21st century driving seat. The heater works, the windows roll up and down, the car goes when I push the gas. Simply amazing.

Pics are coming soon. One of the reasons I got the car so darn cheap is the minor cosmetic damage it has. It seems the gal that owned it before me used her bumpers as feeler gauges when parking. Nothing major but its in the auto body shop right now having some work done. The shop's going to detail it for me when they're done, then - pictures!!! BTW, I love the new 08 imps. I've heard a bunch of whiny pants sissy la las around here giving them grief, "They're too mainstream." Boo! Subaru has been selling in the mainstream for a long time and the newest gen cars are beautiful. Some of these guys are like music snobs that don't like a band after they make it big. Besides, 90% of the nay-saying is really just pure jealousy. Thanks for the comments! I'm jealous of your car too but I'm not going to put it down! Josh

Thanks for the good words. There is absolutely nothing more stressful than doing major work to keep your daily driver on the road. Not to mention, it takes all the fun out of the project when you must have to have it done to punch the clock Monday AM. My vintage Honda motorcycle has always been my side project and for a while it was a daily driver which, for the first time ever, made working on it a drag. That's okay. The GL served its purpose. And I negotiated the car price before I mentioned a trade. :cool: I also got new tires out of the deal. I did get a good warranty. Some may call me a sucker, but I bought a 2 year, 24k extended warranty. I got the car for a song and peace of mind goes a long way for me. Congrats my friend! Yeah, these old gens will go 60 and 80 but they don't seem to like it all that much! +20 Besides, if you polish a turd too much, it'll melt.

Hello, all. Some here with old gen subies may have read my posts in the other forum. Up until Saturday, I was the (not so) proud owner of an 83 GL sedan. Now I am the (emphatically) proud new owner of an '02 WRX Wagon. I've still got my '77 wagon, so I'm not nu-school exclusive. I look forward to meeting more of you and learning more about my car! Josh

Yesterday, after a month's research and flip-flopping, I took the plunge and am now the proud owner of an '02 WRX Wagon. I only had my 83 GL sedan for a month but that month saw a new CV joint, water pump, thermostat, head gaskets (with machined heads to boot) and two radiators (don't ask). Staring at the brakes, additional CV joint, steering rack, tires, heater blower and power window relay that all needed done ASAP, I threw in the towel. I fought a valiant fight with this car and lost. The car went to the dealership with only 110k miles and fetched me a trade of $700. I don't normally like dealerships but I got the WRX for a song and am only the second owner. Car has factory service records and decent mileage. It has a few cosmetic blemishes but nothing I can't fix. The good - heat, working windows, AWD, more power & a slice of sex appeal. Thanks to all of you (GD especially) that helped me through the head job on my GL. You'll still see me around, my '77 wagon's goin' nowhere and I've always wanted a car project that wasn't my daily driver! Josh

Excellent! Will do.

Come on! This car has loads of sex appeal!

Thanks for the info. Yeah, I've read plenty about the 2.5 to know that I'd prefer to steer clear of it unless I know the HG's have been replaced. I didn't know that the problem was remedied in '03, so thanks for that. I just did a head job on my 83 EA81 and I certainly don't want to do it on a relatively new car! I believe I read elsewhere on this forum that the the 2.2's, post '96, went to an interference design. Is this correct? I am all about preventative maintenance but a non-interference design makes things much more simple. I don't have to verify that the timing belt has been done or plan to have it done immediately after a purchase. If I bought a pre-97 EJ22 I know that I can drive it off the lot and, in a worst case scenario, drive it until the belt goes out without fear of major damage.

I'm having a real tough time finding info on the H6 on this forum. Thanks for your input. What's that motor called? EJ30? A search for H6 turned up zero. "3.0" turned up zero. EJ30 pulled up 2 threads. The only complaint I've heard is that they went with a timing chain on the H6. So the head gasket issues the EJ25 had are non-existent on the H6? How many miles could I expect that timing chain to operate without fail?

I'm shopping for a newer subaru to replace my old EA81 sedan. Ideally, I'm looking for a 91-96 wagon to avoid both head and timing belt woes but I'm open to low mileage EJ25's as well. There's a local subie specialist that has both an 02 H6 LL Bean and an 02 Outback 2.5 H4. I went over today to chat with him and both cars had a hell of a time starting in the cold. Granted it's 24 degrees out but my carburetted EA81 started this morning with minimal coaxing. I couldn't even get the 3.0 to start and the 2.5 took like 5 minutes. Is this normal? I can't imagine cranking a 5 year old car for 5 minutes every morning. Also, I know quite a bit about the 2.5 but what should I look out for in the 3.0 H6?

I'm curious if a reputable gasket manufacturer has the material available in sheets for DIY and custom applications. I'm not sure what, if any, effect coolant would have on the interior gasket material it would pass thru on its way from the manifold to the head. Besides, I prefer the DIY approach!

I certainly meant nothing derogatory by it. I made the mistake of hoping I could get by with a radiator repair, new t-stat, water pump & rad cap only to blow another radiator seam in a geyser of coolant 12 feet in front of the car! Apparently the breach in at least one of my HG's was so bad that a tremendous amount of the cylinder compression was finding its way into the cooling system. All good now. Here's to stayin' cool. :cool:

I used to own an '03 VW GTI 1.8t and I bought a product that tickled me to death. It was a thicker, thermally insulated intake gasket that decreased heat transfer from the head to the intake manifold. I noticed a several degrees drop in operating temperature after long idles and a slight increase in power in around town driving. With these opposed 4's, there's quite a bit less contact between the intake manifold and the heads but it may be a worthwhile upgrade. The product for VW's was called PowerGasket. It was pretty neat. I could drive the car all day long and put my hand right on the intake manifold and it stayed nice and cool.

Also, If it were my car, I'd change the oil just in case. I've heard of guys here driving their cars 10k miles with blown HG's but mine was so bad, compression from the motor burst the seam at one of my radiator tanks. I don't know if an EJ swap is the best alternative unless you have been considering it for a long time. The head job, with milling, cost me $162 and a half a day wrenching (that's with VC & Intake gaskets & valve seals). The EJ swap may take a couple of days and cost several hundred for the implant. Just my 2 cents.

If you want a definitive answer, you could have a shop test the coolant for hydrocarbons. If they're present in the green stuff you've got an HG leak somewhere. The test isn't too pricey. When I looked into it, it was $65 US. Josh

All excellent info guys! :banana: I don't know why it didn't occur to me before but the car had a factory radiator with a 25" core and I replaced it with a slightly smaller one - 23". Perhaps that's why it's running a bit hot. I'm going to drop a 10 degree cooler t-stat in there and see if that helps. On the electrical responses, thanks much. I'll start by checking the door switch, then the relay, then the grounds and I'll try to dig up the electrical section of the FSM to track down the blower problem. Thanks again!

The prior owner of my 83 GL ditched the factory ignition switch, went with a 3 position keyed switch and a push button start. I think it makes it kind of fancy. Some people pay a lot of money for cars with push button start, I paid $200.

I tried searching to no avail. I'm having a few problems with my 83 GL Sedan which is to be expected for a 25 yr old car. If you have any input, great. If not, I'll just keep tinkering. 1. My power windows work intermittently. 1 out of the 10 times I start the car, the switches roll the windows up and down. The other 9 times none of the switches work. I've tried the rear switches and they either work or don't work concurrently with the master. Do the rest of the switches operate independently from the master or do they jump off the master in some way? If they're in some way linked to the master, I'm going to assume the master switch is going out. I've checked the plug under the console - clean, no kinks, looks good. It's not a fuse, checked that. Anyone willing to send a center console master switch to Denver? I'll give you money. The windows stuck down and I'm cold. 2. My cabin fan is not working and hasn't since I got the car. The heat works, I can feel a bit of warmth on my toesies but I need to push some of that heat into the cabin. I can't keep coming into work looking like I'm smuggling raisins in my shirt. 3. I recently installed new head gaskets, a water pump, radiator & thermostat to conquer an overheating problem and my car tends to run just slightly above the second mark on the temp gauge (just less than half way up). Should I be at or below that mark? It seems to me that the mark is indicating normal operating temp. The needle stays glued just above the second line which is a vast improvement over before (popped seam in radiator, 8 foot horizontal fountain of coolant all over the blue rhino stand at the local conoco, chuckling onlookers, warped heads, hair-pulling frustration, etc.) but am I still running a tad hot? That's it guys. My nipples thank you. Oscar the Grouch (my car) thanks you. Josh

I totally disagree. I saw one of these new impreza hatches on the road yesterday, the lines are great - a massive improvement over the last generation and especially that mid year design with the snout. The got rid of the "snout" and fixed the tribecas also. Below is the taurus wagon. Absolutely no shared lines with the new imp.

Well, I spoke with Terry & Rick at CCR today and they don't see the Indian Head having any adverse affects on the perma-torque gaskets. So, we'll see. I'm going to stick with it for now and see how it goes. Thanks for all your input guys. I'll be sure to give you a 10k update! Josh

I may have answered my own question. My push rods have no knurlings, so I'm assuming that means I have hydro lifters.

GD, How do I know if my car has hydro valve lifters? Do all the EA-81's? Because I did find a section on valve clearance. See below.

I don't have the time nor the money. I'm going to have to hope they seal. It's unfortunate but that's the way it is. I should have gone with my gut instinct. I never would have thought to use anything on them if the effing FSM didn't mention it.

Well the heads went in last night and I'm having trouble finding valve tappet clearance specs in the FSM. There's a section on hydraulic lifter adjustment but calls for a special tool and says nothing about the gap between the tappet and the valve. The heads were machined .01, so there's going to need to be some adjustment here or none of my valves will close. Any input would be great. Josh