mr.radon

General Disorder - yep... Full block on the way. However, this morning I decided not to go skiing, dropped by and bought some plastigage - my old stuff was old. I cleaned up the oil on the head and bolted the cam back into it. Journal Clearance on the CAM. The spec is: STD: 0.055 - 0.090mm, Limit 0.100mm I got: FRONT .075/.070, MIDDLE .085/.090, AFT .110/.115. I figure if I hit them with scotch brite they may go more out of spec. I'm going to talk to him, I can rebuild these heads and give them back to him. Maybe he can get some $$$. When I saw this I told him if it were my engine, I'd slap them back on and watch them. On one of the heads it looks like an intake valve seal was bad, that side had a lot of crap on the valves. Its a story of two halves. One side looks okay, the other rather junked up. He also had some leaky spark plug valve cover seals. They were pretty much full of oil.

Nope the upper connection to the piston. Feels like the connection to the piston is very loose. Lower connection is not the issue on this one. He ordered a full engine today, should be here Wednsday the latest. Going to put new head gaskets in that one and seals.

Well a coworker has a 2004 Subaru Baja. He said the engine started to knock a crap ton, so he turned it off. I pulled the motor last night and took off the heads, sure enouhg Piston #3's wrist pin is slapping around like crazy. Popped off the oil pan found crap tons of Al filings, felt like 80 grit sandpaper. Pulled off one head's cam, the bearing surface nearest the cam sproket looks shinny like all the cam's I've serviced, but as you go back they get more and more dull and scratched. I'll see if I can post pictures. Looking at the cam itself, same. The rear most one looks very dull and ruff. Should I tell him to find a complete engine? If it were me I'd by the lower and buff out the cams, put it back together and watch it. But this poor guy has NO car experiance nor tools. Doing this as a favor for him. Anyone? Ones in the rear... One near the cam...

Alright I figured I'd post up about this second tranny that blew. I took the first one apart, the bearings in the center diff were BAD. I took the second one apart, same bad bearing! CRAP! Both limited slips were in good shape. Also, I confirmed that the 5th gear popping out was due to a bad end nut lock. The two sides of the nut were hit but instead of the metal engaging the notches on the drive shaft, they cracked and fell out. The nut was 4 turns from falling off, crappy tranny I tell ya.... To solve the issue if the rear and front diff were the same I lifted the driver side of the car and turned the front tire 20, then 40, then 60 times while checking how the rear matched. Seemed, pretty close. About 15 degrees off after 40 turns. Since I got a Leaf and its getting 95% of all my miles now, don't see the Forester getting a good workout till ski season is in full swing!

Can't say what the history was on either tranny. i know when i got the Forester the tranny fluid was black, smelled and had clips on the magnet (not good). I replaced the fluid, the tranny lasted like 3K. The first replacement well no idea, didn't have fluid when I got it. It lasted 12K. Second replacement, the fluid looked old but no chips on the magnet.

Cool, slaved a 5SP tranny home, got a 125,000 mile 2000 Outback's 5SP 4.111, as is my rear diff. $400 + tax... So I threw the Forester on my lift and did the swap real quick. This is the reason I was asking about the 4.111..... I checked, I didn't mismatch the finals....I thought that might have been the reason for the second failure as that replacement tranny was out of an Outback and I had a cheap Outback tranny available again.... Freaking A - 8 months ago I ripped the original tranny out, took it apart and found it had a (2) bad bearings in the center diff. The bearing races failed, spiting out the bearings which ate the gears. I just took apart the second tranny and it ALSO had the same freaking center diff bearing failed. The bearing race was torn apart, bearings AGAIN got into the gears and busted a bunch of teeth.... What the freak! I have never had a SUBARU manual transmission go bad ONCE let alone twice. Is the 5SP AWD tranny just a POS? Hell my XT6 AWD manual has over 350K miles on the original tranny and I beat the hell out of that car....ARGHHHHHHH

Ouback model year 2000 work too??

My 5-speed manual went out on my 1999 Forester. I think the Forester has the same 5-speed as the Outback of that year, or did they put a different final ratio? I know my old Outback was a 4.111. I'm hoping my forester is the same, there is a salvage yard with a 2000 Outback tranny... Can someone post the model & years I can search for a replacement tranny? Anyone have a tranny for sale? Seattle, WA

Look for cracked hose, sounds like possible air leak.

I had a EJ25 motor in a '99 OBW throw the P0303/P0304 codes every 5-10 miles driving the car after I rebuilt the motor. Checked compression: 174-178 PSI on all cylinders Checked Timing: perfect timing Checked wiring, cleaned all the grounds on the engine and chassis. When I did the engine i put in new injectors. I figured it was the $$$$ NGK Iridium plugs I put in. After 2 weeks of throwing codes I replaced with the cheap V-tip OEM NGK's, still got the codes. Swapped the coil with a coil from a junk yard, no codes. What really puzzled me was the engine had no stumble, no hesitation, great power, even pulling up a pass there was no physical indication that the cylinders actually misfired. The light would blink a few seconds then go out, reader would show the codes, I clear on the fly and 5 miles later boom, codes again, clear drive. I guess in some cases it is a bad coil, at least in my case it was. What are the electrical tests you can do on these coil packs? I recall there were tests for the old style coils.

I had something similar happen. If I had to do it again, I'd just start off with replacing the darn part. Ended up I spent crap tons of time getting the bolt free, easy outs are not easy. I had to repair the threads with a Helicoil. Next time I was in there it backed out and I ended up having to replace the part anyhow. (rear diff mount) I think in a corrosion area the different metals between the Helicoil and the part and bolt causes corrosion. I've used them under the hood but on brake or suspension part, I don't know... Hope you get the stud out and don't need to put in Helicoil.

Good time to replace the seals.

Used Ultra grey on the pan. I've come around, will do that from now on; used to EA82/ER27's - no more oil pan gasket for me. However, the last guy to seal this pan used WAY too much. Motor started right up, first try. Sounds great. Will bring it back at 1K for valve adjustment if needed. I was surprised how quiet the motor. Used OEM valves, rings, bearings. Was surprised the stock piston ring gap measurements were right in the middle of the spec on all cylinders. Engine went together in just a few hours.

nope, that pan was not a factory seal, easily 3x too much sealant.

Ah, my friend came over last night to help put his engine back together. I found a new shop for the heads, guy did such a good job I tipped him! Anyhow, the parts all came in. Would have finished quicker but the guy wanted to help... Had to keep my eye open to make sure he didn't mess up. He thought pipe sealant was engine lube. He told me the head was clean and I found a rag in a coolant passage. Ikes... Measured the piston ring gaps, right in the middle of the Subaru specs. Can't wait to start the motor. However, one package of parts has yet to arrive.