99obw

Delvac may be difficult to find, perhaps a truckstop or a supplier catering to the trucking industry. Rotella is available at Walmart, maybe also at Tractor Supply or similar.

I should have been more clear, I was speaking of Phase I EJ25's only.

Not really that old, but I have an ultra-rare '92 Jetta ECOdiesel.

The head gasket/overheating thing is a chicken or the egg situation. Head gasket failure causes overheating, and overheating causes head gasket failure, but which came first in any particular engine may be difficult to prove conclusively. My guess is that most EJ25's start to leak just a little bit of exhaust gas into the coolant, which eventually causes overheating, which then leads to a much more severe head gasket failure.

The best way to test the MAP sensor is with a vacuum pump and gauge connected directly to it, rather than relying on the vacuum signal from the engine. It does sound as if the MAP is suspect, can you get one from the junkyard?

German Castrol 0w-30 is my winter oil of choice, and it performs repectably for a 30 weight regarding piston slap. I have yet to hear anything quieter than a 10w or 15w-40, in our EJ25 at least.

My understanding of the PSSV is that it allows the MAP sensor to either sample the intake manifold pressure or the atmosphere, allowing it to function both as a MAP and a BAP. You don't list your car, but on our 99 outback the PSSV is on the right strut tower. I went through checking all of these systems when we first got the evaporative emissions code (still have it). It's pretty easy. Haynes or the FSM should describe it pretty well. I can take a look at the manual at a later time and help if needed. Maybe endwrench has something on PSSV diagnosis.

I used the T&SUV 5w-40 and had excellent results last summer, but it's been discontinued. I should be changing the oil soon and I'll be using Rotella T Synthetic 5w-40, I expect that the results should be similar. (my daughters insist )

I think that technically they should be replaced, but I didn't replace the bolts when I did our head gaskets, and that was about 75k miles ago with no troubles, FWIW.

Use sealant on the oil pump, cam caps near the corners where the valve cover gasket will lay, and over the ends of the plastic plugs in the rear of the heads where the valve cover gasket meets the head. Use sparingly.

In my experience the hardest part can be getting the plug wires off. Lubing them up somehow may not be a bad idea when replacing the plugs. I have had pretty good luck getting the plugs in and out using different length extensions and a swivel that has been stiffened with electrical tape.

So the passenger side low beam in the silverstars burnt out yesterday, not even three months of life with modest use. I won't be buying them again. I already purchased a set of xtravisions but I haven't installed them yet. Hopefully they'll be an improvement over OEM.

The only possible way they will know is if they know subarus very well and know the visible differences between the EJ22 and the EJ25, or they know the average fuel trims for the two engines and look at the values in your car's ECM.

Making sure that the engine has EGR should prevent codes. We saw 0 codes on the swap we did until many months later and the codes were unrelated.

I should also add that when putting an AT '95 EJ22 in a MT '99 EJ25 outback, the power steering lines don't fit perfectly and there is an issue with the starter bolts. Both of these are minor IMHO.

Ours has used about that much oil for a long time, probably over 100k miles (192k miles now). It uses significantly less of 5w-40 than 5w-30, and it uses virtually no 10w-40 or 15w-40. I have settled on 5w-40 for the summer and 0w-30 for the winter, and I just deal with the oil consumption. Some is leaking, some is burning. The car is past the point where I am going to worry about it. My Jeep on the other hand recently used 0 quarts of 5w-40 oil over a 12,500 mile oil interval.

I posted cookie's UOA over on BITOG. http://theoildrop.server101.com/cgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=3&t=003195

Thanks for the info. I don't find it surprising. Our piston slap seems to have stabilized, it hasn't really gotten any worse since about 100k miles. I'm curious to see the bearing wear numbers given that relatively thick oil. Can you post the entire UOA? Did you get TBN? What was your driving routine? How long was the oil in service? That is a short run for M1. Here's a link to my run of 12498 miles in my XJ on M1 5w-40. I could have probably gone to 15k. http://theoildrop.server101.com/cgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=3;t=003140#000000 I don't have any UOAs for our EJ25 or we could do some compare and contrast. I'm sure that plenty of EJ25 UOAs can be found on BITOG. Maybe I'll have the current batch of GC that's in the EJ25 analyzed this spring.

Theotherskip has written a great site dedicated to Phase I EJ25 head gasket replacement. It seems to be "locked" though. Here is the link to the google cache... http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:u8zk6XseIKoJ:mysite.verizon.net/vze730qe/Head_gasket_replacement.html+subaru+2.5+head+gasket+myself&hl=en&client=firefox-a When I did my gaskets there was a thread going.... http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=2444&page=1&pp=10 I used a haynes manual and the USMB. I used the torque procedure in the above USMB thread. 75k miles so far.

A good idea it is, but be very careful, if the timing is off, putting a flammable liquid into the intake can be very "exciting".

We ran into the starter bolt issue. We figured we should drill and install a helicoil, but we were in a hurry, so we installed it minus one bolt and used blue loctite. No troubles so far, but certainly not the ideal way to do it.

Do the '97 and '98 have EGR?

These engines use a wasted-spark type ignition, so there will be four sparks per revolution on a 4 cylinder engine, with each spark plug firing once per revolution, somewhere near top dead center on the compression and exhaust strokes. So it may seem that there are twice as many sparks as are necessary, which there are. There really is no setting of the timing on these engines. A properly installed timing belt is all that is required for proper engine timing. The cam and crank position sensors and the ECU do the rest. I agree with the others that yours does sound like a timing problem. I would pull the timing covers and verify the timing of the timing belt. When was the last time it was changed? How many miles and years ago?

I just installed the silverstars and the relay harness, and all I can say is WOW!!! I aimed them low intentionally because I didn't have time to aim them properly and I wanted to take it easy on other drivers. Once I get them aimed properly they should be even better. If they last a year I think it will be money well spent.

I just got a pair of silverstars for the XJ along with a relay harness. Can't wait to install them.