pickn4him

That's correct. I don't want the T-C to slip, either forward or rotationally, when the motor comes out. I may just try to make something on the spot. I'd just like to have it ready and not have to stop & fab somnething.

Does anyone have a drawing or detailed pic of the torque converter lockdown bracket that mounts to the starter mounting hole and keeps the torque converter in place while pulling the engine? It looks simple to make from the drawing in the shop manual but I'd like a little more info. I have to do the oil separator plate in the coming weeks and I think I could make a reasonable facsimile out of a piece of angled metal trimmed to fit. If anyone also has an equally successful technique or trick for accomplishing this without the special tool would be appreciated as well. Thanks!

Yep, I did the timing belt and supposed it might be a cam or crank seal but the bigger leak was the head gaskets. The heads were pretty clean and the leak hadn't been going on but for a couple months. I didn't do the cam or crank seals, which I may regret later since I was that close. The cam belt cogs seemed in good shape (to my untrained eye) and the used timing belt wasn't all that bad looking for the age. The A/C and P/S belts were a lot worse. Most of my wife's commute is Interstate and only about 25% is city driving. I do have a Diesel Mechanics degree from about 30 years ago but never got into that line of work because of the disaster of Jimmy Carter's "malaise" (another subject), but I have gained a lot of my confidence back through these two jobs on my own car. I guess a deep breath and more research on the shop manual CD will help. I probably wasn't that far away from pulling the motor after taking the fuel lines loose. All that would remain is laying the A/C to the side, the radiator hoses, motor mounts and torque converter bolts. It's still "cheaper to keep her". Thanks again!!!

OUCH! I'll have to do more looking at the car and the manual I suppose. The car has the auto transmission and I think I read here that there's a seating procedure to reattaching the engine to the torque converter? Is the separator plate (if it is plastic) visible behind the oil pan apart from pulling the engine? If I had known that much, I would have pulled it to do the head gaskets. It wasn't impossible but it was a ROYAL PAIN getting the heads in and out without a lot of finessing or doing damage to something (like the new gaskets). So far the heads are not leaking since the fix. I took the plastic under engine pan off last night and drove it in to work today without that on. I thought that might have some residual oil in it but the oil pan told the tale last night. Thanks for the input, past and future. I really like this car and want to keep it a while longer for economic reasons.

Hello everyone! I'm a newbie on the forum and own a '04 Legacy Outback Sedan with an EJ25 SOHC engine and 117K on the odometer. I just finished the head gasket job (the first oil leak source) with much help from a Soob CD-ROM shop manual, but it appears that the oil leak wasn't just coming from there. I still have "that smell" and it appears the oil pan is now the culprit. The back half of the pan and adjacent crossmember has oil on it and some pan bolts show droplets hanging from them also. Does anyone have any preferred recomendations on gasket type (cork vs. rubber) or mfr. (Soob vs. aftermkt brands)? I did the Soob brand gaskets on the heads, plug tubes, rocker covers and exhaust. But the intakes were F-L Pro. Also, I assume the exhaust needs to be dropped out to do this like the shop manual sez to allow the engine to be raised and not wreck the pipes? I'd also like to reuse the exhaust gaskets since they are new. I have ready access to an engine hoist. Also, the shop manual said something about a pan separator? I need some clarification on that. I can see that there is an internal baffle (aka-windage tray) by the illustration, but I get the idea it is to get the pan loose after the bolts are out? Any help is appreciated in advance! Thanks!!!