aircraft engineer

look for the MONTH made on the driver door plate. The "later" 2.2 engines started in March (for the Impreza, anyway). End of Feb was apparently the swap date for the 2.2 with the 2 piece tensioner and the beginning of the 1 piece tensioner (which appears to be the only difference). There is an article in the repair manual section about resetting the 1 piece tensioner, too - use a press and not a vise. They say max pressure on the pin is 66 pounds and it takes 3 minutes or so to push it back in without damaging it. IF you break it, it costs about $170. It LOOKS like the bearing should be replaceable, but nobody is importing JUST the bearing yet. The kits others have referred to on ebay seem OK, but I asked for the "better" timing belt (conditec was the name I think - I don't have it easily available to go look at it) from a seller in Yakima and didn't take the tensioner pulley (it was for the "older" 2-piece unit and won't fit the 1-piece). "theimportexperts" $189 plus shipping for the kit The kit included the cam seals, crank seal, cogged idler, 2 smooth idlers, valve cover gaskets, bolt seals, timing belt and water pump. The kit itself was from PCI. (BTW - I was talking to an auto parts store locally and they said that they didn't deal with PCI any more because PCI apparently has this attitude that "there are no 'bad' new parts" and thus refuse warranty claims. It's a 30-30 warranty - 30 feet or 30 seconds whichever comes first. ) Funny that I actually live a couple of miles from PCI but can't buy "direct" no reason to replace the cam sprockets or crank sprocket unless they are damaged. Rubber doesn't wear steel unless it slips and the cogged belt doesn't slip

what permatex number? Just curious - thanks. I got a tube of the permatex anaerobic sealant to use on the oil pump - now if I can just undo the pulley without the special tool... I think it gets solid, though Most of the RTVs out there right now either say "sensor safe" or not. You don't want one of the "not" because the acetic acid made during the curing process will take out the sensor

working on 97 Impreza WGN - drum brakes - OK - I bought a wheel housing at a yard - 98 Forester, Good bearing, (pax side) pressed out hub, pressed off outside race, disassembled Impreza, swapped backing plates. When I put the hub in, it seems "tight" right now. It didn't seem to press in any farther than the forester was. What's the worst that can happen - burn up the bearing? It was well greased How much interference was designed into these? Anybody know? Up on the jack stands - Separate manual turning pax rear turns driver side, but turning driver side doesn't turn pax wheel. I bought a new bearing if I need it so I have it Still don't know if the bearing noise will still be there (might be worse with it this tight).

you don't have the bumper mounted fogs? If you do then you can put brighter bulbs in them and set for hi-beam operation (just use as driving lights that go off when on "low")

well, now... in "normal" hoses designed to carry vacuum (in automobiles) the wall thickness is enough to actually prevent collapsing unless the hose itself is actually kinked and blocks the vacuum beyond the bend. As to actual vacuum, engine vacuum typically gets to around 22 inches hg or so so the vacuum is a lot less than 29.97 "normal atmospheric". I've worked with vacs close to "zero" in the semiconductor industry. The problems occur when the HOSE is NOT for vacuum - just gets put on because it's the right diameter (like a vinyl hose) Busa - sounds like the OEM vinyl rigid "hoses" - Chrysler used to put on the rigid hoses (pipes) with rubber ends to make the connections because the pipe was cheaper than the hose. Vinyl does get pretty brittle, though and finding a "crack" is not an easy task either. From what I saw on the 97 Impreza I'm working on, the hoses are pretty rigid as well but not brittle. I just wonder if they are "metric" or not.

I just know that with most of the pick-em ups out there and their 60 watt bulbs aimed HIGH they are near BLINDING me when oncoming or directly behind me.

ho-hum - pulled out all the old plugs - would you believe gapped at .080 and still running? Cleared code and didn't come back on again The more I fix, the more I believe that the blond who owned it before was an utter DINGBAT (and I'm not even sure about the timing belt 80,000 ago claim either with cam seals leaking - that gets done this week-end along with the pax rear bearing)

out here we are the "land of WET" - it's a whole lot easier to shovel

porc - rubber gets hard over time. Vac hoses are soft (flexible) but thick walled to prevent collapse. In reality even IF the vac hose collapses, it doesn't "matter" since it was vac that collapsed it and vac is what you want. It will pop back out once the vac is removed, anyway vacuum hoses don't carry anything except "vacuum" (which is a lack of air)

just name it "snowcone-soob"

Like I said - the fluid contacts 3 things - hoses (oil is oil), seals (hydraulic oil behaves the same from manufacturer to manufacturer) and the pump (the pump doesn't care and the pump seals work in oil). ATF of any type IS NOT AGGRESSIVE (now if we were talking the kind of aircraft hydraulic fluid I'm used to - SKYDROL - it's an entirely different story. the stuff is a cousin to BRAKE FLUID) Mix in the PS system? If it's red, use it. ATF has a good "preservative" in it anyway. It won't matter. Don't try MIXING in TRANSMISSIONS, though (except manufacturer CAN be mixed in trans fluids - the SPEC is what matters - that's WHY SAE does the specs for the fluids)

That's NOT pitting - the surfaces look like physical damage to me (impact damage) from something small - like a spark plug electrode? Some of the surface ares in the valve areas look like small pits (I can blow up the drawing to 5X on my machine) but the semi-circular ones look like a tossed object (I do some failure analysis). If you can use "image zoom" (Firefox add-on) look closely at the major "pit" 4-o'clock position at the combustion chamber to head interface - the mottled pattern is characteristic of "pitting". There are a few others as well. It had a blown head gasket? Run for how long with the head gasket blown? Aluminum (depending on the alloy but this is likely A357) can do an exfoliation pitting pretty quickly under the pressures and humidity of engine operation. it's kind of difficult to do both a failure "estimation" and "probable metallurgy" from a picture without specific data. There's NO damage apparent on what is visible on the next cylinder. IF you polish the damage to a smooth surface by removing as little metal as possible (least expensive but does change the exact cyl-to-cyl compression balance by a small amount) or have it welded (more expensive and might cost as much as buying a head off a wreck), you can salvage it but it isn't something you want to do if you're going to go racing.

24 inches water column vacuum at the top? (assuming a 2' height difference between the tank and the outlet. Remember, you're looking at a .020 inch dia hole or so and it's not a direct air path across the hole. Those pipsqueak washer pumps don't put out a lot of pressure so it's better not have too much height to lift anyway.

oh, yes, Boeing, 28 years (PE license - state license "Prof Engineer" as well - so I are really a engineer)

So thanking the folks who responded - it was apparently the seal around the light bucket to the body. (poor design, by the way - in my estimation, anyway to seal it like that) The blonde (no, not joking) who she got it from had tried to remove the tail light assembly by taking out the nuts?? (4) and then sticking in a screwdriver and trying to pry the light bucket away from the body. ?? knows nothing about cars, I guess I guess she couldn't figure out that to change bad bulbs all you need to do is pop the access panel, reach in, turn the bulb socket and then take out the bulb. <- but I'm not exactly smiling since I had to pull the interior plastic trim panel to get access to all 4 of the nuts She had left the nuts so loose I turned them out with my fingers - nice and tight huh? HOWEVER - What she had managed to do was to break the seal between the plastic and the body rear and poke holes into the sealant ON THE TOP RIGHT WHERE THE WATER DRAINS DOWN THE HATCH SIDES. NO WONDER IT LEAKED!! ("Oh, I don't know about any leaks" - yeah... RIGHT - that's why the rubber plug was OUT in the spare tire well ) Soooo - went to a windshield place and they GAVE me a bit of butyl sealant (about 2.5 feet of 1/4 inch dia "round" - they said they don't use it any more so it was effectively junk to them and they would have to pay haz-mat to get rid of it anyway). I pulled the light assembly out and washed it out (evidently the water ran down the inside and into either the turn or backup light socket and filled the unit from the inside (which rusted the BULB BASE into the socket (which of course broke when I tried to pull it - wear leather gloves ) greased the new bulb for replacement and tightened the bulb socket a bit. Butyl is easy to work with at about 48 F. Doesn't stick to everything like it would "warmer". Put the sealant on (doubled the top layer for good measure to make it about 1/2 inch wide, not "deep"), bolted the unit back in - 5/16 inch deep socket - 1/4 drive with a screwdriver handle. Sucked up the water in the jack well and spare tire well with I/O shop vac and dried out the jack well with a towel. Then did the "downpour test" - turned the hose on it to see if it stays dry (it did) Now to wait and see if it STILL leaks (beats me why it would, though) The comment about "tighten the nuts" might have worked but I decided to overkill it. (I hope) Anyway - thanks for the help.

OK - what's the likely suspect? Plugs, wires or coil" one or multiple? No apparent hesitation or vibration (suspecting plugs first - changing to new NGKs tomorrow but the question is whether this code will show for "other strange things") Suppose I should run a compression check too...

OK - what search bar? sheesh - I'm losing it - it's up on the top line... right next to "new posts"...sorry, I'll go away now... I must be and I guess I was - sorry... sheesh, I HAVE TO LEARN TO READ!!

well, there are 2 ways for oil to get into the intake - 1) hole in a piston (and you'll know that when you pull the head) 2) really bad valve seal (but "poured out" - not likely a seal) You must have had it upside down to get oil out the intake port. You can get a "cylinder leakdown" tester and check not so much the compression, but how much "blow-by" there is. (advantage is that you don't to turn the engine, just set it to TDC and hold it there, apply the air pressure and read the result) I'd suspect a bad piston

A few pieces of "one bite" put in locations under the hood in plastic cottage cheese containers will eliminate the problem (terminate with extreme prejudice) one bite is a product available at most hardwares for warfin resistant rats. small pieces are better to "entice" the mice. Put a low flat pan of water close - they eat the stuff and go for water because it makes them thirsty, they eat a little bit, drink lots of water and literally bleed to death internally (yeah, I'm not a friend to vermin) Keep it out of the reach of chewing dogs (particularly LABS or greyhounds). The dose isn't usually enough to hurt a cat if it decides to chow down on a dead mouse, though. kill them all ... wipe them out!

Virtually all of the ATFs are identical in the base stock. What differs is the additive package. As an example, ATF+3 (Chrysler) is DEXRON II plus a particular Chrysler additive that modifies the fluid to make it a little "less sticky" for the clutch packs in the 604 (FWD, electronic shift pack) transmission. From a PRACTICAL standpoint, even the old ATF A would WORK for POWER STEERING (assuming it isn't used elsewhere) because it's a petroleum based oil product and the SEALS are designed to handle it, and the PUMP doesn't CARE. At least in the "old" power steering systems, the fluid was a "mineral oil" with about 5 weight non-detergent characteristics. IF you had access to some ex-military "red oil" for the power steering system that would work, too. I have NO IDEA of max operating temperatures , though (and that might be the sticking point - breakdown at high temps)

factory Forester - 8X1.25 - I got it off - now to just pop the hub out of the housing... (press time, I have a 12 ton - just have to contend with the hub dia on the back inside of the housing - looks like a 1-1/16 socket will make it thru - it has to fit thru the bearing inner dia but contact the hub dia.) Dang, this is a lot of work (need icon for "wiping sweat from brow") just to save $50

1900?? With a bad motor? Gee - he must work for the Defense Department and buy $500 TOILET SEATS

no access for 3 jaw on a ROTOR. use the 2 bolts - lots easier than doing the 3 jaw 8X1.25 use about 40mm long or so (fully threaded) anybody need some 98 Forester stuff - rotor, backing plate, e-brake, ABS pulse ring... it's junk to me (Impreza is DRUM)

OK - I'll buy "8" but what's the THREAD?

97 Impreza (drum) 98 Forester (disc) I'm just going to have to drag the Forester hub down to the hardware and play "test the bolt" and then hope the Impreza has the same bolt hole (doing hub swap to avoid changing bearings) caliper measurement was 6.8 - guessed 7 but might be 8 after all (since 7 is rare, but you never know if they put proprietary things on some vehicles to make it difficult to do "ordinary" work) - depends on thread depth since the caliper measured the "minor" of the bolt, but I hoped someone would "know". Once I find out, I'll post it... somewhere