Speed Kills

If you're competent enough to put the clutch in it, it sounds like a decent deal to me. I've got $400 in my car after the coilover conversion, and it's honestly no more than a beater. If this thing is in halfway nice shape, I would go for it.

Honestly? Probably not. As all this thing has to do is last me through the winter. And the lifters make a little noise now anyways, probably from the lack of oil. Again. $400 car. Oh well!

Thanks Gary! My cam seal kit (o-ring and seal) will be ready for me tomorrow morning, and I'll get a T-belt while I'm at it. Looks like I kinda dodged the bullet here, and I can get my beater back on the road!

Negative. Found my oil leak. Finally went and got enough oil to start it back up, driver's side front cam seal is TOAST. Lost about 1/4 qt. of oil in a little less than 45 seconds of running. Now to have AAA tow it home. Anyone have any tips on that? Grossgary?

In the sense that if it needs any more major repair than this, it's going to scrap.

I found a service receipt in the car dated w/mileage after I bought it. So no, I didn't do the timing belts myself. I've looked at the causes of TOD pretty extensively, done alot of reading on here, and I just kind of figured if it was allowing air into the pump, it could be allowing oil out. But I'll replace both just to be sure. I mean, I'm sure I can figure it out once I get in there (I'm not exactly a newb when it comes to cars, just to this Subaru), but some pointers beforehand would be nice to cut down the amount of time put into the job. And a torque spec for the oil pump/timing belt tension would be nice....

I guess I'll just do the crank seal and oil pump gaskets at the same time. I was told the TOD was caused by the mickey mouse seal, and the leak is most definitely coming out of the oil pump itself where it meets the block. I pinpointed that much at least. I'm sitting at work right now, probably going to have AAA come get the car so I don't have to risk driving it home. The WP/timing belts are decently fresh (+/-30K), and honestly, if they break, they break. It's a $400, 182K mile car. And no, I don't own the repair manual. I was hoping maybe someone had a DIY somewhere, as this will probably be the only major repair I ever do to the car, and hopefully can save me the $15 cost of a manual, IF I can find one. Snow is coming next week. I'm hoping I can get this thing sorted out before it hits.....

Well, My '88 XT6 has had a pretty good sized oil leak from the oil pump since I bought it (roughly a quart every 200 miles), as well as the tick of death. Oh well, I have $400 in the whole car right now, and it's intended to be a winter car/beater. A little oil leak doesn't bother me. Just buy a gallon of oil to keep in the car and go on 'bout my business. Well, this morning, that relatively small oil leak turned into my Suby doing it's best Exxon-Valdez impression, and lost about 2-3 quarts within 20 miles, as I noticed it ticking, and the oil pressure about 10lbs. lower than it should be at highway crusing speed. Luckily I pulled over and got oil in it in time to avoid and damage to the top end. Happy f'in new year, right? Oh well, knew this day was coming. Is there a good DIY on how to change the mickey mouse gasket? Or is it really that straight forward? I'd assume there's some torque specs needed for the pump bolts and what not. And where is generally the best place to get that goofy looking gasket? Is it a Subaru only type thing? Thanks in advance fellas. -Ian

Got my coilover conversion on my winterbeater XT6. Legacy turbo front struts and 2WD XT6 rears. Took me a little over 2 hours, including spreading the flanges for the front struts, and changing out the top hats. Just need to fix my mysterious oil leak, and sloppy shifter, and I'll really be in business! PS, that pic was before I had driven the car at all. The crazy pos. camber has since settles. Drives a heckuva lot nicer than the non-op air struts!

Outstanding. seems as the parts to fix this thing are even up for sale in the classifieds on here. Excellent! Thanks for all the insight. Hopefully I can line up these struts and put this thing in my driveway, then on the road!

Wow, that was fast! Thanks for the responses fellas. I'm slightly confused by using the EJ struts. Do the EJ fronts work on all four corners? Or just work on the front of the XT? I'm sure I could hit the junkyard and leave with some EJ struts, so this might be the easiest route for me, unless my parts connection can get me some loaded XT FWD struts/springs. I'd imagine those XT FWD Struts are hard to find? As far as the shifter goes, it's just mega sloppy. Stick in a bucket of mud sloppy. If the car is in third, the shifter itself can move all the way against the trim piece in either direction. I'd live with it, but it seemed to be a problem finding a gear sometime when I drove the car.

First time poster here, be gentle. Haha. I'm looking at buying an '88 XT6 5 speed. The car needs a little work, but the price is right, so I'm trudging forward. On to the bad..... First and foremost, the air suspension. Does not work. At all. So, what would my options be to replace this with a conventional strut/spring in the cheapest/quickest/easiest fashion possible. Also, the car has A LOT of movement in the shifter while in gear. Do these cars have an internal rail, linkage style, or cable-shifted trans? Guessing there's some kind of bad bushing/loose whatever somewhere? If someone could shed some light on these issues for me, i'd greatly appreciate it. Thanks for helping the n00b everyone.