mountaingoatgruff

i did it about that way and all seems well. i've gotten it to temp a few times and it's having no issues with cooling, the fan comes on for a minute and kicks back off. it pulled a bit in from the expansion tank overnight - not much - and i topped it off this morning. i'll be watching it like a hawk for a while but i really just need to drive it to see how it acts...which brings us back to the other issue, atf. i pulled the car onto my ramps and drained the tranny pan, got a lot more then i expected out (of course) and then pushed it off the ramps. i didn't bother measuring how much came out since i knew it was an inaccurate representation of the proper amount. so i started filling it back up but i must be totally retarded or something. call me stupid but i figured if there's a dry spot on the stick the level of the fluid must be at or below that dry spot. well, i've got fluid all over the stick but consistent dry spots below the "cold L" mark. so i kept dumping it in there.... well now when i rev the engine there's atf squirting out what looks like an overflow hose (its a little black rubber hose that goes straight up then bends 180deg straight down) at the top behind the bellhousing. i've never had this much trouble with atf before, can somebody please tell me what i'm doing wrong? stuff like this is why i like to work on my hatch instead!!!!

after reading some old threads i think i'm going to pull the hoses off, remove the t-stat and open the air bleed while i flush the rad and the block really well. then i'll reinstall the t-stat & lower hose then fill the block through the upper hose. after reinstalling the upper hose i'll fill the rad then the expansion tank then put the rad cap in the first detent position. after than i'll run it till the t-stat opens then in theory coolant should be gushing from the air bleed and rad cap then i can quickly colse them off and wait for the coolant in the expansion tank to be pulled in as things cool off then i should be able to top off the expansion tank as needed from there. i'm totally new to this bottom t-stat configuration so i'm used to just pulling the vehicle onto ramps under the front wheels, filling the rad with the heater on full blast and checking it the next day. somebody please tell me if you see anything i should do differently from what i've outlined above and why.

just checked and its cool - right on the line and clear as fresh oil should be. is there a seal right there that the pump shaft would have potentially comprimised?

i used the prestone stuff in the little yellow bottle shaped just like the gallon antifreeze jugs, its a clear watery liquid. i've left the stuff in older systems and drove on short trips over the course of a couple days (for various reasons) and never had any issues. i'm waiting for the car to cool off right now, i ran it to temp so i could take advantage of another opportunity to rinse the snot out. it took in everything from the expansion tank overnight (which was well above the full line) and i waited quite a while for it to warm up. fan kicked on fine and temp lowered till it kicked off, hoses were both hot and things seemed normal. in a bit i'm going to drain/flush and start over by filling through the upper hose first just to be sure - another few quarts of antifreeze are too cheap not to. i don't have the bottle, garbage man came yesterday morning. what are everyone's thoughts on tap water versus distilled?

yeah they're plugged in (but my short-term memory loss thanks you for asking). after reading some about burping and proper filling techniques i'm pretty sure its got a ridiculous amount of air in there. i'll be headed out to try to redo it as soon as i get my email taken care of.

i changed the front diff oil after reinstalling the engine and it was okay, toasted but no atf that is. about pulling the engine w/ the tc attatched... i'm pretty much self taught and i didn't know any better. i've done every at motor i've pulled that way (including 3 other ej22's and an ej25 and whole gang of mopars, my other more longstanding automotive infatuation) and never had a problem until this one hung up like that. i've usually slid the tc into the bellhousing before installing the engines then bolted the tc to the flywheel/flexplate after. i don't really know why i developed such a counterintuitive method but i'll be sure to start unbolting the tc as part of pulling an engine from now on. that was the tranny oil pump shaft, huh? would it have hurt anything when i did that? there's no leaks or tranny codes and the thing still shifts fine.

that's reassuring. i'll be on it in two minutes! this one scares me... i've added 4 qts where only 2 at the most came out, could it have been that low and we didn't notice while driving? i'm asking because i'm not sure how these cars act when there low on fluid or just how low problems begin.

magnecor 8.5mm plug wires and ngk plugs helped smooth the idle of my wife's 97 legacy. i plan on removing and cleaning the intake (mostly cuz i want to powdercoat it and i can get it done for the cost of powder), iacv, and egr and replacing the pcv this weekend, too. please be sure to post what fixes it when you find what works for your car!

97 legacy l wagon, 187k just replaced in the last two days: t-belt (oem) t-belt tensioner (ram is oem, pulley is gmb) all t-belt idlers (gmb) water pump (new cardone) t-stat & gasket (oem) cam seals/o-rings (oem) crank seals (oem) valve cover gaskets (beck-arnley) oil pan gasket (spectra) rad hoses & bypass hose (goodyear) rad cap (oem) differential oil (valvoline semi-synthetic) i also adjusted the valves cleaned/resealed the oil separator and left some prestone coolant system cleaner in there overnight after running it up to temp. i still have intake manifold, tb, iacv, egr gaskets and a new pcv (all oem parts) to install after i bead blast the intake, still need to get injector seals, etc but that's beside the point. i just tried this morning to flush the coolant cleaner and refill the system with water/coolant. i noticed when i ran it up to temp yesterday it was getting hotter than normal (it always runs with the needle just in the middle of the water in the icon on the gauge face - around 1/3 of the way up), it was well past half but still below the danger zone. i figured there was still a bunch of air in there and didn't think much of it. then as i was filling it today i had the engine idling with the heater on full blast topping off as i could. i totally forgot about the air bleed on the top pass side of the rad untill it was already warm and so some steam came out quickly but not shooting then coolant gushed out. resealed the air bleed, topped off and then went to shut it off to wait for it to cool off and damn near dropped my colon on the driveway when i saw the temp needle at the bottom of the danger zone. another possibly relevant bit, i lost maybe a quart, certainly less than 2 qts of atf while pulling the engine and popping the tq converter off. i wanted to get some in there before doing much else this morning and after FOUR QUARTS i'm still not reading full to the cold marks! i can't say for sure that it wasn't that low before but i would think that if it was i'd have noticed on some of those 6 hour trips up to and through the mountains... never had any tranny trouble with this car though. can there really be that much air left in there? i'm kinda hesitant to do much with it until i figure this out, or until one of you figures it out and graces me with your wisdom.

it took all of twenty minutes to see this was most likely a false alarm, but why would that sleeve come out like that - i've never seen that before.

97 legacy L wagon 2.2 auto pulling motor for service and i've got it lifted in the air hung up on the input shaft of the tranny for some reason. that's all that's left - the engine is free everywhere else: and a close up from the other side: the shaft slides in and out freely but doesn't want to come off of the tc. the engine doesn't have enough room to go further forward: i haven't been able to get that shaft dislodged from the torque converter but i haven't beat on it much. i've pulled tons of engines including four ej's and this is the first time i've had this issue. the tranny is leaking like mad and i'm beginning to think something is wrong here... i'm going to go unbolt the tc from the flexplate to get this thing done but seriously, wtf is up here?

well, thanks to the "california budget crisis" i can't so much as make an appointment to have my car checked by a ref. the ca bar is shut down until a budget is passed, and the ca dca is also shut down. if you think that's bad, imagine how many court cases are getting tossed out right now throughout the state for lack of system capacity - i hear about them all day long!! i'm on the brink of organizing some peaceful rallies for gov't accountability!!

maremont 29568 ($254 @ partsamerica.com) beside factory ea81 y-pipe: i know it doesn't look like it but the od's of the pipes are all the same (1.75"). the cat has bigger inlets/outlet and the bends are smoother. the outlet of the cat is 2" with a dumb stepdown to 1.75" - wouldn't be hard to make it 2" all the way. i think eventually i'll put 2" pipe from this cat to my second cat, then since that cat has 2.25" in/out, i'll run 2.25" to a low restriction muffler and just put a turndown on that keeping it all short and straight ending just before the rear axle.

i originally bought a maremont semi-universal replacement cat to weld into my existing y-pipe but the angles are a bit off on the inlets and since the aftermarket cat uses 2 1/8" inlets and the factory y-pipe is about 1 3/4" i was going to have to put a couple adapters in there and it just looked like a mess, the whole thing was quickly exceeding my welding skills & time constraints. also, i figure that if the cat uses 2 1/8" then the whole y-pipe from the same company would likely be bigger pipes than my factory one. i looked at the pictures at the parts store and i'd estimate the pipes on the maremont part are 2" after what looks like a stepdown from the 2 1/8" at the cat. it'll be here on tuesday so i'll know for sure then. i need a muffler too and i know the bolts back there are rust siezed, maybe this will be the first step in a series of exhaust upgrades!

so you removed the spacers and bolted the pipe flanges directly to the heads so that the pipe would have proper clearances further back? i wouldn't have thought to do that since my only experience with ea82's is limited to stripping parts off the tops, but it makes perfect sense. the y-pipe i'm going to use is a maremont aftermarket so i'll probably encounter other issues but i don't mind jacking with it if i know its doable. i was mainly after whether it would bolt up to the ea81 heads and tailpipe flange without having to bend the pipes in or anything, aren't ea82 heads taller or is that extra meat outside of the ports?

will a 92 loyales' y-pipe (ea82) bolt up to an 84 gl's ea81? i'd like to use maremont part number 29568 from partsamerica.com since there's one local and it's cheaper than the actual part for an 84 gl. also, the hanger bracket by the rear flange should be in the right place for my 5 speed with this y-pipe, right?

i think its an "as required" item. the endwrench article on timing belts says: mine's got about 190k and it appears to be the original part so i'm paying the price to replace it now instead of my interference engine later.

i called import experts at the number above and ordered a set of pulleys with the three idlers and the tensioner pulley for $93 after shipping, GMB brand parts. i'll be ordering the tensioner adjuster from 1stsubaruparts.com as soon as i get around to it. 1stsub wants $90+shipping while import experts wanted $130+shipping. thanks for the hookup man!!

i hadn't heard of either of those tricks. i was dreading having to spray my beatifully bead-blasted and painted intake with carb cleaner but maybe now i can avoid potentially wasting all that work. i was going to let the hatch sit while i wait for parts and work on the wife's legacy but i think i'm going to try the propane torch idea in the morning just for @%$?s & giggles.

thanks for answering the question and sparing the sarcasm, you must have caught that i already spent days on the phone.

97 Legacy L wagon i'm looking for a new timing belt tensioner (or adjuster in oem vernacular) and the pulley (tensioner in oem). i just called a few places and nobody really knew what they were talking about. i called the dealership but the parts counter girl is on vacation and her fill-in is about incompetent... oem part # 13033AA042 looks to be the right part for my tensioner adjuster (the piston part that has to be compressed) oem part # 13069AA037 looks to be the right part for my tensioner pulley assembly with the eccentric hub the thing is, i looked to order them from 1stsubaruparts.com or subaruparts.com and they're listed as parts for ej25's - are they just the same part between both engines? i'm having trouble understanding their crappy parts listings/diagrams. also, i called autozone and kragen's and their thoroughly incompetent employees seem to be insisting they don't sell the tensioner adjuster, only the tensioner pulley assembly. that doesn't seem likely to me. can someone verify these part numbers are correct for my car and maybe provide part numbers to get them cheaper at a parts house store?

i've had a few folks insist there must be a vac leak somewhere causing these symptoms... i need to spend some time in there with a can of b-12.

that's along the lines of how my car runs now, the o2 monitor light is on most of the time and it smells rich/misfires when its cold. thing is, high nox would be more likely to indicate lean conditions, wouldn't it? maybe that ecu is confused as i am.... every inch of rubber vac, pcv, iacv, fuel, & coolant line is new. i replaced the heads and cleaned my crankcase out by just wiping around and using some compressed air, bead blasted and powdercoated the valve covers & oilpan, resealed all around, replaced almost all service item parts.... this thing should be running beautifully but there's a glich somewhere i've yet to pinpoint. i'm thinking i need to replace the o2 sensor and front cat to be damn sure i pass - i really needed this car this weekend (took the wife's legacy on a much harder trail than i was comfortable with up to relief reservior by way of 5N01D. i was impressed beyond belief by what that legacy just did in the last three days!!!!! should have seen the looks all those lifted jeep guys gave us!! and now the wagon has light battle scars). but yeah, i'm gonna throw another couple hundred at this pit in the o2 sensor/cat direction and see if that doesn't give me a foothold to climb out by.

sure is.

i've been doing a bit of research and i'm thinking my problem seems to be o2 sensor related. i put a new bosch universal in the bung on the front cat and i remember it was hell not only getting the old one out but getting the new one in. i hate to say so but i think i should probably replace both the cat ($92 maremont 38682 from autozone) and the o2 sensor with an oem unit ($99.02 oem 22690AA120 from subaruparts.com, anyone got a cheaper source?). has anyone ever noticed a difference between running a universal aftermarket (mine is a bosch) and an oem or even a denso unit?