Snowman

If it was done right, you shouldn't see any more problems. Like has been mentioned, if the newer design HGs were used, and any warpage or other head damage was taken care of, they should be fine.

Wow, finally I disagree with General Disorder on something! Anaerobic sealant works great for cam towers. I've done it many times and haven't had any leaks yet. I've also seen countless soobs with RTV in there that leaked. Often badly. Yes, anaerobic sealant cures in the absence of air. There's no air in there when you tighten the bolts down and clamp the mating surfaces together. I've taken apart a couple of engines in which anaerobic sealant was used, and yes, it does harden all the way through. The main benefit of anaerobic sealant is that the extra stuff that gets squeezed out never hardens. Extra RTV hardens into little globules that break off and get into oil passages and try to clog the pickup screen (a common problem on certain Ford engines, according to one of my auto professors). Now, the factory can get away with RTV because they have special machines that apply only the exact right amount. You or I can't do that, so there's always going to be some extra in there, and I'd rather not take that chance. There's my schpeel. Use what you want.

First off, very good writeup on how to take control of your 4EAT's AWD clutch packs. I did the modification on my 1992 Legacy today, and I would like to add to the article that the pin location was in fact the same on my car, which is older than Andyjo's, and it was indicated to be the same in the 1991 FSM I was using as a reference. Further, I thought it would be an improvement to tap into the wiring harness on the body side rather than the trans side, as this eliminates having to clip the wires when you drop the tranny. If you want to do yours this way, you're looking for a black and white wire going to pin #11 in the body side connector. Of course, the location of this pin in the body side connector corresponds with the pin location in the tranny side connector, which is already explained in the article. The color may have been changed at some point, but that's what it was on my 92, and that's what the 91 FSM indicated.

Yup. Never had an EJ engine that far apart, but I know that the EA82 valve seals are different heights for intake and exhaust. I can't remember if they're different colors or not. If your seals appear to be otherwise identical, it's probably a different rubber compound better suited to each application (the intake has to seal against vacuum, while the exhaust has to deal with more heat).

Leaking intake manifold gaskets perhaps. Did you use OEM ones with no sealant? And yeah, it often takes a while to burn off all the water that made it into the exhaust and stuff.

Very good manual GD. Basically what I was hoping to do if I had the time and patience to do it:D . The actual install pictures are probably the best thing, as you can only do so much with wiring diagrams. Keep up the good work:headbang: .

My 2002 Impreza has a movable stop that controls how far the window goes up. It attahces to one of the tracks (I believe the rear one) with a 10mm nut and you can move it up and down about an inch. Maybe your car has something similar.

D***! Way to go Noah! I can usually have 'em out in under an hour, but I'm still kinda slow at the install just because I like to be careful and triple-check all the little bits, so that takes about two to three hours.

Good to know. Yeah, if your engine temp was over 500, I would imagine that you'd be having some other issues, considering, like, the flash point of motor oil, among other things.

The only caveat I would add to the bolt-reusing bit is that if you know the engine they came out of got totally fried from overheating, I would be scared to use them for fear of the heat changing the properties of the metal. I'm not a metallurgist so I don't have a clue if that's actually possible, but I'd rather not take a chance.

Very nice pic of the SPFI harness, GD. I'm gonna save that one. Not to steal any of GD's credit, as he has done a lot more work on the SPFI swap than I have, I would mention that I figured it out from scratch two years ago by looking at the FSM and my Haynes manual. I did the option GD recommened, leaving the stock harness intact and just adding the stuff to make the SPFI work. It was not that hard, and it took me about two days to do the electrical portion of the swap (I was converting a carbed car to SPFI, retaining the engine itself. Changing over all the "hardware" took another day or so). One thing I found incredibly helpful when sorting out the wiring was to completely ignore the FSM's schematics, which are hard to read, and just look at all the individual system wiring diagrams, which are superb. It was a lot easier to figure out which wire was which that way than trying to look at the whole thing at once. Another thing to mention is that once you actually strip off all the insulation and junk, and find the major power supplies and stuff, the SPFI wiring harness if pretty self-explainatory. Having pulled the entire dash harness and everything from the donor car, I can say that it would probably be a lot more work to do a complete harness swap than leaving the existing harness in place and "piggybacking" the SPFI harness on top of it. Edit: I just remembered that I know a guy who did an EA82T to SPFI swap by changing the whole harness. It took him like a month to figure it out and he swears he'll never do it again.

Gotta love that 4EAT!:cool: (90 mph is ~3500 rpm ,as opposed to ~4300 with a 5MT).

Cobb Tuning makes a bunch of stuff for the EJ engines. Haven't tried any of it myself, but I've heard good things. I know some people on here have found improved Y-pipes, but I don't know where.

The Honda's drivetrain is more efficient, and the engine probably revs out better than an EJ22. It's the price you pay for having a versatile car. That said, I still cannot believe how well Subarus do at sustained high speed driving on the highway through rough and/or slick conditions. Try taking ice-covered corners with frost heaves in them at 80 mph in that civic...

Ditto. Haven't tried the Fel-Pro's, but I'll take his word for it, and besides the HG's, OEM is the only way to go.

You don't even need a slide hammer. Just make your "grabber tool" out of a long bolt with a nut and a big washer on it that are positioned so you can pry it out, pushing against the block.

Depends on where ya get 'em. You could probably find a parts car for $500, take the struts, sell the drivetrain, and break even. If you can find struts at a PAP yard, they probably would be less than $100 each. Being in AK, I get hosed on parts costs...I think I paid around $125 each for mine, plus shipping of around $50 for the four of them.

A problem with the temp sensor could still cause it to not get the enrichment it needs when starting. I think that's what 91loyale was getting at.

I forgot to mention a couple of things about oil pump replacement. The 1st rule of any engine work is to make sure that no crap gets down in there that you can't get out! I don't even want to think about what might happen if a grain of sand was pumped into the main oil galley. The other main thing is to make sure you get the mating surface really clean, and use either Permatex Ultra Grey sealant (preferred by lots of people on here) or Permatex Anaerobic sealant (I personally think it's better, and so do companies like Detroit Diesel, Cummins, and Caterpillar) where the pump meets the engine block. If you don't have a torque wrench for the bolts , just snug them down (not too tight) with a 1/4" ratchet, making sure that you're putting even force on all of them.

One thing I've found that probably isn't related but you never know, is that the main power wires going from the alternator to the power distribution box degrade over time on these cars, often resulting in a voltage drop of .5v or more. Like I said, I doubt that's the issue in this case, but I'd check just to make sure.

Not to jump to alarming conclusions, but you should check your overflow tank for nasty residue that might indicate a blown headgasket. The 98 Forester has the infamous phase I EJ25, which is known to develop HG problems. Usually, it will blow combustion gasses into the coolant, causing overheating, without leaking coolant back the other way, so it's hard to tell with a cooling system pressure test.

I'd go with just replacing it. I've found similar prices for new ones from Subaru. Especially at that mileage, you should be asking yourself "why not?" On EA82 cars, which have pumps that wear out faster, I'll generally put on a new pump at the 120k timing belt change just as insurance. $100 for an oil pump is a lot better than $1000 for a rebuild.

Check out that oil pan! It must hold at least 6 quarts. Those rocker covers are pretty schweeet too! The transition from the supercharger to the intake manifold looks pretty lame though. Unless it's shaped differently inside, they could have gotten a lot better flow.

I can experiment with that, as my mom has a 97 OBW that I can try the wheels and tires off of. I'll let you know how it goes. Hehe, only a couple more weeks till the lift madness begins:brow: . It's on, Matt! I wanna see what this thing will do in the snow!

What's with the starter relay code you speak of? I know when I did my swap, the ECM needed a start signal, which causes it to richen the mixture while cranking, sort of like a choke on a carburetor. It may also cause the IAC to open farther during cranking, but I'm not sure about that.