jboymechanic

You've been a busy boy Thomas, nice work man.

It's been a while Tom, where you been?

Can't wait to see it back together, looking good Tom.

Holy balls.

You been busy, more rust in the Loyale than I would have ever guessed. I think I have some FatMat left over from the Imperial, I'll check and if so you can have it if you haven't already purchased a bunch.

Do yourself a favor and skip brake parts from the junk yard, saving a few bucks isn't worth the potential hazard. Always do brake parts in pairs, so if you replace one caliper you better replace both. Otherwise you will find your car pulling one way or the other when you apply the brakes.

I would have just drilled out the old bolt, did it on both sides of 3 old Lego wagons I've owned, common problem. Also, if the shop broke the bolt they should have finished the job.

So you swapped the 2.2 heads onto a 2001 SOHC 2.5? Why? I put 2.2 heads on a DOHC 2.5 to get away from the "troublesome" DOHC heads and head gaskets and for more power in my Legacy that originally had a 2.2. Are you doing this purely to gain compression?

So is this car making the trip to CA?

Man, I need to see this thing before summer is over.

That's why he's the Fox.

Check that damn resistor on the coil bracket. I'll never forget when mine went bad, what a pain to find. Sounds like your crank or cam sensor might have gone bad or got unplugged.

New struts, Baja springs and Subtle Solutions 1" aluminum spacers on all four corners of my 2003 Outback. Also added new tires and a set of White Line camber bushings so the rear tires could be kept within factory alignment specs. New front axles and a four wheel alignment. Gained about 2.5 inches of ride height all around and still have perfect alignment. Rides and handles great too, really happy with the setup.

I'm dissappointed that you can't get the fun motor (Turbo) with the fun transmission (6 speed manual). Pretty soon all Subarus will just have CVTs, seems to be the route they're going. Getting to the point where you have to buy a base model/stripped car if you want to keep stick shift.

I thought all the SOHC engines had steel cam pulleys.

I would say somebody owes you a refund. I don't know how many "experts" on youtube I've watched replace wheel bears and pinion bears and NONE of them torque the axle or pinion nuts down to the proper torque. Just hit it with the impact gun and call it good, that is why I will not take my car to anybody.

Sounds like you might have a major vacuum leak, check all of your hoses to make sure you got them all hooked up after the swap. A lot of people miss the one on the bottom passenger side of the main intake duct from the air filter box to the throttle body (I did it once after a swap myself).

Pulling the motor would be more of a mess since you have to remove the radiator hoses. With a manual trans there are no fluid lines that need to be removed to drop the trans so I would go that route.

Another common issue over time is cam seals leaking which would allow oil to leak down onto your exhaust.

Nope, didn't do anything to the engine. As for the gaskets, many people recommended the procedure to me as they didn't have any problems. I haven't had any problems either.

You don't need to drill the heads, just the head gaskets. I don't have any pictures to offer. I would buy a set of 2.2 head gaskets and use them as a template, you will see immediately where additional water passages will be needed. It sounds crude, but have confidence, it will work. I have 12,500 miles on mine so far and the short block had 175,000 and the heads had 201,000 miles on them when I mated them together.

You have to use the intake that matches the heads, so 2.2 heads and intake. A stock 2.2 timing belt kit will work, but you have to cut a small timing cover mount boss off the 2.5 block for it to fit. Very easy, it will be obvious when you're ready to install the timing kit. You must use the 2.5 head gaskets, get them from a Subaru dealer or get the updated Felpro three layer metal gaskets. You will have to drill additional water passages, helpful if you can lay a set of 2.2 head gaskets over them so you can match up the water passage openings. You have to pay attention to what heads you get. You'll need 1995 2.2 heads for the exhaust ports to match up, but depending on which transmission you have you may or may not have EGR. The donor will have to match.

I sold the 1996 Brighton, but now I have a 1996 Legacy L. I have built and swapped in a 2.5 frankenmotor, runs strong and has been for 12,000 miles. So I never bought an Outback but I do have my frankenmotor.

Has the car actually changed hands? That was out of the blue and really fast. Matt's new wife must be pretty cool.