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.

I could do them, I work on soob's all the time (my own fleet). PM me. I live between Lynnwood, and Mill Creek.

I took the advice and found a few on-line dealer web sites with good discounts. But, while I was at it I stripped the engine down. The pistons looked good (other then the two marks from the exhaust valves) The cylinders all looked good. The crank was very nice, all the journals and bearings looked good, but had a little wear. have the crank sent out for a polish and check. The rods all were straight as were the valve springs. Cam had a small nick near the seal, not sure... All the spark plugs were shot to hell, one had nearly no electrode anymore. That piston had deposits as did the head. The block halves and heads are getting hot tanked as we speak. Heads were straight as can be, am paying to get a little shaved off to allow a good head gasket contact. I'm pissed. :banghead:Whoever worked on this motor was an rump roast. They put in a new clutch recently, did they replace the pilot bearing or release bearing? Oh, no they both grind.... They used no oil pan gasket, ultra grey sealant was used liberally to make sure the next person could not remove it nor clean it. Pressure washer (industrial) took care of the cleaning of the pan. Timing belt. Almost new, did they replace any pulleys? Oh, no... Would this person replace the leaking plastic POS oil separator cover? Oh no, lets keep that cracked cover but stop the leak by spreading a bunch of the Ultra grey on the inside and outside... I bought from the dealer: exhaust valves (8) Oil Separator Cover (metal) (11831AA210) Pilot Bearing Overhaul Gasket Set (10105AA860) Piston ring set Main bearing set Connecting Rob bearing set Coolant bypass hose Crank shaft sensor Inlet Radiator hose Outlet Radiator hose PCV valve Spark plug wire set Spark plugs Valve cover gasket kit Thermostat Hope my friend will be on the road again this weekend.

Friend's 1999 Forester's idler pulley seized. He had a shop do his timing belt about 5K ago, the engine only has 95K. We towed the car over to my house and pulled the motor. Well we found the shop that replaced his timing belt "said" they replaced the pulleys, but they didn't. Anyhow, the exhaust valves hit the top of each piston. So I'm helping him rebuild the motor in my garage. I've yet to ever buy exhaust valves. I did some searching, which should I buy? Does it really matter? DNJ EV710 $10/each or W0133-1631074 $20/each On the side I got the head gaskets from the dealer. Had a timing belt kit with new water pump laying around.

1990 XT6 AWD 5spd. 356,XXX Still going strong...once again my daily driver.

Well, from $100 to $0 is still a lot of wiggle room The junk yard is willing to give me $50 for it. So I'm not asking for much. I figure someone out there might need the parts off it. Really it needs a new motor and its fine (well tire/rims after I pull the snow tires). Hey there starving college student...wanta winter project car???? Anyhow, about the fallen valve seat. I've had that happen on a Ford once, this did not sound like that. I'm sure this was a rod (80%), just the way it sounded and rattled around. I'm wondering, the snow tires were a bit smaller in size 205-65R15. So when I had the cruise at 85 the speedo read 90. (GPS verified) It was at this speed pretty much the entire trip up to this point minus gassing up. So I'm wondering if I was just pulling too many RPM's for too long? I think it was right up at 4XXX... Anyhow, valve seat, rod, what ever, it made a crap load of noise and blew my vacation plans all to hell.

It was not low on oil. Pretty anal about checking. I had recently resealed the motor (when the timing belt pulley blew) It didn't leak at all, and about 110 miles previous I had checked the level. I would love to rip the motor apart to see what actually failed. The motor had about 240K on it. I'm renting a car to get back. I'm just going to wash my hands of it. I'm at mile marker 111 on I-25 in WY. There is a little gas station there, the lady there had me park it in a field. I just want the shoes off of it. Even if I could get it to my sister's house I couldn't get the motor swapped, none of my tools are here. I checked how much it would cost to rent a U-Haul with a auto dolly, too much $$$. I'm going to post on the "for sale" forum this hulk. Maybe someone can use the shell. I have HID headlights installed and a set of PIAA fog lamps. The rest of the car is in pretty good shape. Pissed, but I'll get over it. Plus this gives me a chance to look for a new project car. I'm staying away from those Gen II EJ25's.

Well, heading to CO for Christmas and at mile marker 111 heading south on I-25 in WY going 85mph, BANG! ************ my pants, pushed in the clutch and the engine dies. Noise goes away and I know I'm fracked... I roll to a stop in the middle of know where. I lifted the hood and a bunch of smoke comes up. Smells bad too. I closed the hood and got the engine to start. Made one hell of a racket. Got it into second gear and managed to get to the top of a hill a few hundred yards away. Engine died again and I was able to coast to the only exit within MILES. Rolled into the parking lot of a gas/shop. Pushed it the last 100 yards out of the way. Called for my sister to pick me up, I was traveling with both of my dogs and all my ski/climbing gear. Zipped up into my sleeping bag and stayed warm while helped arrived. Darn cold night out there too. So anyone want my car in WY? I just want the snow tires off it. Brand new Michelin Xi2 snow tires. Looks like I will be renting a car and driving the rental back. Will need to fit in the tires and dogs.

I'm assuming the ECU is too sensitive. It sees a short (millisecond) over voltage on the Fuel Tank Sensor and reports it as a fault. I checked there is not time limit for the 4.5V setting off the fault code. Maybe I should have soldered a 7805 voltage regulator to feed this sensor independent of the ECU. But what the dealer did was way half assed. Best of all is reviewing the dealer print out and it says right there, main wire harness replaced, but yet the main wire harness in the vehicle has never been replaced. I would love to know if anyone knows if the ECU is programed to look for variation in output. If so I can get a bread board out and make a circuit to fake a slowly changing voltage. But I doubt it. Better yet would be reflashing the ECU so it doesn't trip the fault code on at 4.5V.

Update. My friend got back from NY. Needs to get emmissions testing here, P0453 is setting again. Measured the Voltage, 4.63V on Vsensor for the Fuel Tank Pressure Sensor. Out of spec high. Doesn't make sense...so I told him to bring it by. Got my friends car on my lift. Looked at the Fuel Tank Pressure sensor. I could NOT BELIEVE what the dealer did! The dealer cut off the Vref (red) and Vsensor (orange) wires to the sensor and crimped on two wires. They left the Vcommon wire (black) alone. The two wires are 16AWG(Vref) and 18AWG(Vsensor), the 16AWG wire showed signs of having a thermal event. They ran these two wires from the sensor connector with zip ties to the grommet in the right rear fenderwell into the inside of the truck area, from there they wrapped the two wires in electric tape until they reached the engine ECU. At the ECU they used a power taps to connect to the OEM Vref and Vsensor wires. WTF???:mad::mad: The old wires under the car were not even capped off. I'll post pictures when I get them downloaded. I measured the resistance across the Vref and V common in the Fuel Tank Pressure sensor. (5K ohms) Then I tested the sensor, there is nothing wrong with it, ran the pressure up and down. Since the sensor has 5Kohms across it, so I got two 2.5Kohm resistors and soldered them together then soldered them to the three wires going to the sensor. Now the ECU will always see 2.5V on the sensor from the Fuel Tank Pressure sensor line. So far no fault codes. I can't believe it. He took this car to the dealer nine times under warranty to get this fixed, the dealer wrote that he replaced the main wire harness, BS...that wire assembly still has the factory markings on it. According to his warranty report, the sensor has been replaced 4 times. That sensor cost $150 either at the dealer or Rockauto. He got a lemon. I used to have a high opinion of Subaru, this has left me shaking my head. This has also validated a principal I have, NEVER GO TO A DEAL FOR ELECTRICAL SERVICE.