Fairtax4me

Either the battery is dead or you have a loose connection at the battery.

In most ignition locks there is a little switch that's activated by the key as soon as it's pushed into the lock cylinder. Sometimes those switches can get stuck due to dirt/dust/ crud getting in the lock. Get yourself a bottle of lock-ease. Most hardware stores have it. Its a special oil with graphite in it. Squirt a bit of that in the lock, and put a drop on the end of the key. Put the key in and out of the lock about a dozen times and see if that fixes it.

Disconnect the Sway bar links. Makes it 100x easier to get the new struts in. If you don't disconnect them you're fighting the sway bar trying to push the knuckle down. After the lift, install the sway bar mount brackets from a Forester. They move the sway bar down an inch or so which allows you to reconnect the rear sway bar. Its also easiest to get the bolts through the links and into the sway bar with the wheels on the ground. Plenty of room under the back once the lift is on, just crawl under and re-attach.

Pre-04 cars you have to read TCU codes manually. A cheapo code reader will not read them because they are not PO style codes stored in the Ecu. A snap-on or other high end scanner is programmed to interface with the TCU directly to read codes stored in the TCU. A normal code reader will not do that. Newer cars store codes in a different way, and those codes are read in a different way because of the CAN-bus communication network used in modern cars. All of the control modules share information now, which eliminates the need to interface with each individual module in order to read codes. Most codes are stored in the body control module or body integration module as PO style codes, and the code reader interfaces with that.

I would also guess timing is off a tooth. Ej18 I don't think had a knock sensor. If it did its in the same place as every other EJ block under the manifold. Look straight down between the throttle cable levers on the side of the throttle body. Search for my knock sensor 101 thread for pics.

Thermostats go bad every now and then. They don't usually "look bad", they just decide they're either not gonna open, or not gonna close. Glad you got it fixed!

Could be moisture in one of the spark plug holes causing it to arc for a while until the head warms up and the moisture evaporates. Pull the plug wires out when its cold and see if there's water in one or several of them. If there is, dry it off, reconnect them, then start the engine and run it to operating temp. Turn it off and pull the plug wires out again and leave it for an hour or so to let any leftover moisture evaporate out. Apply a good heavy coating of dielectric grease around the lips at the top of the plug boots and stick them back in.

He may have been talking about the strut tower, which is the structural area of the chassis where the strut attaches to the car. Those are known to rust, especially so in arears where rust is common. But there are plenty of other more important things to worry about than the strut towers rusting out. Even in the heavy salt areas these cars still run 250-300k miles before the rest of the car is so rusty it's not worth fixing anymore, and the strut towers are still just fine structurally. I have seen some pictures of rusted out strut towers that did break, but by looking at the rest of the car you could tell it was a rust bucket anyway.

Here's the old type tensioner. Same idea on the new style though. The peice in the center goes through the large hole in the pulley (or on the end of the arm of the one piece tensioners). The flat goes toward the block and spaces the pulley away from the block. The bolt goes through the center. When the bolt is tightened it only tightens against the sleeve, it should not touch the tensioner pulley at all. On the cheaper timing kits sometimes the sleeve is too short in length, so the bolt tightens against the pulley and locks it in place. Grease should be applied to the outside of the sleeve and the inner surface of the hole in the tensioner so the tensioner can move easily.

What year and model? On the earlier EJs, the CA belt had a 105k mile change interval, vs 60k for the non.

Did you install the tensioner sleeve that came with the kit? There was a problem wih the cheaper kits a few years ago where the sleeve wasn't long enough, when the bolt was tightened it would lock the tensioner pulley in place. The pulley is meant to float because the tensioner piston keeps constant pressure on it. If the pulley is locked in place you'll have the same problem again. Install the sleeve that was on the original pulley.

I've used a few aftermarket clutches, but haven't ever had one slip right out of the box. I would think that somewhere in that year range there was a change in the design and the parts listing was assuming that the older design was still used. Glad the new one works!

I've had new radiators come in the box with black plastic plugs in the hose outlets. Make sure the outlets are clear. Thermostat would be my next guess, especially since you have good heat.

So the pressure plate was only worn on one finger? Did you check to see if that finger was sticking up higher than the others before removing the pressure plate? Does the release bearing move easily on the release fork? I've seen some have rough spots or edges that bind with the release fork and cause it to engage the pressure plate unevenly. The shiny spots are where the pressure plate is engaging the clutch disc first, and its overheating and glazing the disc in those places. That's due to uneven engagement of the pressure plate to the clutch disc and flywheel. Usually you can also see hot spots or glazing on the flywheel and pressure plate. That's where the plate is making contact first. Unfortunately, you're going to need a whole new clutch set.

Hard to say of the valves will be Ok. Likely since the valve timing is advanced (if the crank is 90° off as above) the valves would be OK. If the valves were behind timing I think they would be more likely to be bent.

The brick scanner! My old boss had one. All it will do is read codes. It will not display live data on a Subaru, even with the cartridge. You can do the same thing with two wires that are already in the car. If you would like to be able to read live data, look into Free-SSM.

They go pretty easily when they're the right way. But when they're wrong... He wailed on it for sure.

Hash mark is on the rear of the sprocket on one of the notches. When the hash mark is up, the sprocket key way will be straight down. Kinda sounds like the crank is 90° off. Clear pic of the crank timing notch in this post: http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/topic/139111-timing/

Pump the clutch pedal a few times then release it, on the slave cylinder, crack the hydraulic line loose and see if a lot of fluid pushes out under pressure. Did a clutch on a Hyundai a few years ago and had a similar issue, but the clutch didn't totally smoke itself. Found out the master cylinder vent port was plugged and holding pressure on the release fork. Replaced MC and SC and flushed the hydraulic line.

For 5 gs, You'll be looking for a mid 90's to about 2004 Impreza or Legacy. 95-99 Legacy is only 4" longer than an Impreza. If you really want the small car feel. Find a 2 door Impreza. Check out Cars101.com for model and trim level specifics. Scroll about halfway down the list on the left side to the archive section.

Worst case the AT temp light will turn on and set a code. Restart the car and the light will turn off. Flip to your hearts content. Rolling or stopped, front and rear output shafts from the trans will be moving the same speed regardless, unless you're spinning the front tires. If the tires are spinning hit the brake and let them stop before flipping the switch.

Probably what happened is the hole wasn't lined up correctly when it was installed previously. Have to look through and make sure. If the axle is 180 off the spline is like 1/2 tooth off on the stub and it will crush the pin and can break it like that. If you don't have the special axle pin punch for Subaru axles, its easier if you stick the pin into a socket that is just small enough for the pin to be just a little loose. Put a 6" or 10" extension on the socket and use that to get the pin started.

Never heard of it. My 95 is still riding on original front strut mounts at 256,000 miles. Rears were replaced with the struts about 30k ago. The mounts weren't bad, just wasn't sure they'd last another 100k due to rust.

It does seem a bit odd that the noise doesn't seem to speed up as the vehicle speed increases. Really just too difficult to say from listening over the internet. Probably going to have to take that to a mechanic, or have a friend who knows cars ride along and help you narrow it down.

You only had the flywheel machined once, correct? It was not re-machined before the second install? When you took the clutch off to do the engine swap, did you mark the alignment of the pressure plate and flywheel relative to each other?