bosango

Thanks Dr. Disorder, all great advice! As for the #3 bearings... When I first got the car it had terrible lifter noise on the right side (being a VW type, I know all about lifter noise). I took out the VLAs, cleaned them, pumped them back up, and put them back in. They went flat again in about 10 minutes. Thanks to advise from this forum, I replaced that little O-ring behind the oil pump (it was in bad shape), as well as cleaned out the rocker arm shaft and all the arm holes. That fixed the lifter problem just fine, but it made it possible to hear the knock. The knock gets much quieter if I disconnect the #3 injector. So, I figure maybe it wasn't getting enough oil back there on account of the wanked out O-ring and that may have led to the bearing problem. One of the guys from the local Subaru repair specialist shop took a listen, throttled it up a bit, and said it sure sounded like a rod bearing to him. Now what's this about never being stranded somewhere? That's something I'm going to have to get used to. Along with heat, speed, power, not having to scream above the engine noise, not getting pulled over driving through Utah in a hippiemobile...

Greetings all! I come here from a long history of driving VWs and, of course, rebuilding their engines. It's nice to see that there's a good support community among the Suby crowd. Maybe it's a mid-life crisis, but I'm selling my last VW and just picked up a very nice '93 Legacy with a well-running leakless engine and a knock on the #3 cylinder. I'm planning on taking it to bits soon and replacing, at the very least, the crank and rod bearings, and rings, as long as I'm there. Of course, I'll check all the clearances and wear limits and all that nonsense to make sure everything is reasonably reusable. This being my first Suby rebuild, I have some questions: 1) On the diagrams in the factory manual, there appear to be a few O-rings between the block halves. Are these available separately and, if so, from where? 2) I've read all the warnings about replacing the rear seal. Does this still hold true if the case is opened? I mean, it's going to fall out anyway so why not replace it? 3) Is it really necessary to replace the head gaskets? I know the purists will say this must be done, but it sort of goes against my VW ways where it's almost a badge of honor to reuse parts until they completely fall apart (a little copper spray = good as new?). The rocker and head assemblies seem to be in fine shape so I was just planning on leaving them be. 4) I'll follow the proper procedure to remove the pistons, but I'm wondering why the halves can't be pulled apart with the pistons still connected. Is there just too much friction there, or too much of a risk of gouging the case? 5) Why did I wait so long to get a Subaru?