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hb_kim

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Posts posted by hb_kim

  1. Few days ago, while driving home from work, I saw the engine temperature climbed above half mark. By the time I parked in front of my house, the coolant was overflowing from the reservoir. After a quick search on the board, I am certain that my EJ25 engine is now history. Car is still drivable when the engine is cold but it starts burping after 4-5 miles.

     

    With 99k miles on the odometer, I am torn between fixing the car and getting rid of it. It is 14 year old car but it has been fairly reliable otherwise and been serving me and my family well.

     

    Fixing it would mean finding an used EJ22 engine and doing the engine transplant. I heard that 95 EJ22 from automatic is the easiest for transplanting into 97 with automatic. Obviously I cannot do it so I need to find someone who can do it.

     

    I live in south bay area, California.

     

    If any member around the area knows a mechanic who is capable of such job & is willing, I would appreciate a referral.

     

    On the other hand, if you think the cost of engine transplant is prohibitively high for such an old car, I would appreciate such advice too. In such case, I will post another thread to sell my OBW. What would be a good price for 97 OBW limited, automatic with 99k miles, with broken engine?

  2. Hi,

     

    I am thinking about replacing the alloy wheels on my 97 Outback Limited, mainly to save some weight.

     

    I think 97 OB limited wagon has 15&7, 5X100 bolt pattern with 50mm offset. I am thinking about buying a set of used wheels from Scion Tc with following spec.

     

    (PCD/Size: 5x100 / 17x7 +45)

     

    With only 5mm difference in offset, it seems that they would work. I would like to hear what more knowledgible members have to say.

     

    Thanks in advance,

    Hackbin

  3. I would flush the entire system. When you pull the plug you are not getting all of the fluid out especially the import fluid in the torque converter.

    You can have a shop do it or

    Pull one of the return lines off the radiator and put it in a bucket.

    Run the car till 2 quarts are in the bucket.

    Refill 2 quarts to the tranny.

    Repeat until fluid comes out clean.

    Then change the filter and refill.

    Is it possible to do this without a lot of mess? ie) Hot ATF pouring on your clothes when you reconnect the return line.
  4. My thanks to you guys.I was afraid of that,I have noticed oil leaking.And to make matters worst I had head gaskets replaced last year due to same kind of problem.I just did'nt think they would fail again.What can be done to prolong the life of these gaskets?

    Collins

    I heard that air pocket in cooling system does bad things to heat transfer, causing the engine to partially overheat. Partial overheat will make the head *temporarily* warp, gives head gasket a chance to blow. There is a tool that purges air while coolant gets into the cooling system. Here is one example.

     

    http://www.sjdiscounttools.com/mit4700.html

     

    I will either get my car serviced at a shop that has such tool or buy the tool and do it myself. Or even install air purge kit in my car, if someone tells me how to do it. (Search the forum with 'aircraft' for this information) But that's just me. A lot of people believe that there's something wrong with the water path/head gasket design in subaru engine.

     

    Question:

    Where did you get your last cooling system service (or any service that requires cooling system bleed/refill) done? If it was a dealer, shouldn't this failure get covered under warranty?

  5. In fact, the most effective preventive maintenance would be bleeding air properly from cooling system. This may not be as easy as it sounds. Very small amount of air in cooling system can cause the cooling system malfunction.

     

    So I was hoping for someone to develop a permanent cure for this and I think this is it.

     

    http://www.maddyhome.com/canardpages/pages/alwick/engine.html

     

    At the last part of the article, there is a mention about air purge valve or something like that to solve this problem.

     

    I asked the author of the site about detailed pictures and how-tos. Right now, he has some trouble updating his web site but he will give me an update when he is able to upload the information.

     

    I will never touch my cooling system (which was serviced by dealer recently) thus introducing air, until I get this modification done to my car.

     

    Or, could someone more mechanically intelligent figure this out and post how-to for dummy? I'd be much obliged.

  6. Originally posted by drquasievil

    Why don't you clear the code and drive the car. If the engine light does not come on, then you are fine. Why do people jump into conclusion so fast?

     

    Because we've been there so many times.

     

    And I think I know why. They don't care about our cars as much as we do.

     

    How many times did you let quicky lube guys change oil/ATF/gear lube and later find the all levels are correct? Or do they ever bleed & replace old brake fluid while they change your pads like you would do if you did it yourself?

     

    I am totally dumb at car stuffs. But I try to DIY as much as possible because of that reason .They simply don't care as much as we do.

     

    On the other hand, I think we care too much about our cars. ;)

    But that's another subject.

  7. Thought this is interesting and couldn't find in archive.

     

    http://www.maddyhome.com/canardpages/pages/alwick/engine.html

     

     

    One thing I noticed is that the author did many 'injected cooling system overheating' tests on EJ25 by getting small amount of air trapped in the cooling system. And succeeded to warp the head after few tries.

     

    And addition of a small air vent on top of block pretty much fixed everything and made the engine bulletproof to overheating (and head gasket failure, warped head, etc.).

     

    I was wondering whether most head gasket failures in EJ25 engines were due to similar reason. ie. Small amount of air got trapped after coolant change, caused bad heat transfer under heavy load, engine got overheat and head gasket blew...

     

    OK. I was daydreaming but I hope someone more knowledgible can comment on this thought.

  8. After spending(or should I say wasting) some time under the hood, I realized that I could not find where the IAT is in my 97 OBW engine. :banghead:

     

    So...

    Looking through some manuals and schematics for earlier model, I found that there is no pin for IAT sensor in ECM connector.

     

    At this point, my guess is that MAF sensor does not need to air temperature information (thus no IAT sensor) while both MAP sensor and flap type AFM need air temperature calibration. Those 2 hot wires in MAF are temperature sensors themselves anyway.

     

    By the way, thanks for answering my rather personal question!

     

    I had done DSP and microcontroller programming for a decade, but it was for small consumer electronics products and not something anywhere big as a car engine. For the past 4-5 years, I've been writing device drivers for a living.

  9. You need a set of chains for decoration purpose.

     

    Road will be blocked long before your Subaru AWD needs chain. And in small amount of snow, AWD cars do not need chain.

     

    At least that is what I experienced while driving around lake Tahoe in winter. YMMV.

     

    If I had to put a set of chain, I'd put them in front. AT AWD transfer 90% of torque to front wheels until computer notices slipping tire.

  10. Originally posted by tracedog67

    What is the easiest way to add tranny fluid back in on a 5 speed munual? I believe there are 2 plugs on this one, I assume the top plug to fill it back up? What is the best fluid to use on a manual tranny?

     

    thanks

     

    Tdog

     

    Tdog,

    You are talking about rear differential, where there is a drain plug & a fill plug.

     

    Front differential & transaxle share the same lubricant, filled using dipstick tube.

     

    You need 1/2" drive breaker bar for rear differential. Both plugs are 1/2" square socket. Make sure loosen the fill plug first, then drain plug.

     

    You need 21mm socket for front differential/transaxle drain plug.

     

    Unless those were recently serviced, you would need to use big breaker bar to loosen those plugs.

     

    As for the lube, I heard Swepco & Redline are good. I just used Mobil 1.

     

    Good luck!

  11. I searched forum to find the answer but now I am somewhat confused because of some descrepancies.

     

    Looking at my car, it doesn't seem to have external ATF cooler nor external ATF filter. I thought there should be an external ATF cooler in 97 OBW. Where should I search to find this?

     

    Also, I know there is a ATF drain plug. Does that mean that AFT can be drained without removing the ATF pan (and cleaning internal filter)? This is whay Haynes manual suggests.

     

    Would there be anyway to replace ATF in torque tube, like the one described here?

     

    http://www.volvospeed.com/Repair/Transflush.htm

     

    Thanks in advance!

    HB

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