Snowman

Setright, I've had many a conversation with my diesel and automotive professors on this topic here at UAA, and here is what I have gathered from that. According to Cummins, Mobil1 is the best oil available today. That's what they recommend. In the big truck engines, they normally run around 10,000 miles between changes, generally with an oil analysis about halfway through. Odviously I don't have to convince you of the merits of Mobil1. If you are into the idea of extened drain intervals, even though as you said Mobil will not commit to endorsing it, since their oil is likely the "best" out there, it would stand to reason that you could run it for two normal intervals with a filter change and analysis in between, especially since other manufacturers make claims of being able to run much longer. That said, I'm an ablsolute stickler for PM, so I'm going to continue changing every 3000 miles and running subaru factory filters now that I found a cheap source for them. Though likely helpful in my case (ea82 lifters being what they are), I wouldn't advise against extened drain intervals in your case. BTW: You mention Mobil1 0w40 oil. All I have seen is 5w30, 10w30, and 20w-50. Where might I find some of this stuff?

Don't waste your money on a K&N filter. The only time that will start to help anything is if you've already got at least a better exhaust on it. A better and cheaper mod is to just cut out the bottom of the airbox, as the stock intake tract is quite restrictive.

Get those from Subaru. The aftermarket ones are CRAP and prone to leakage, whereas the factory ones hold up well for a long time.

Yeah, if you just need it to last for the winter, I wouldn't go to the trouble of doing too much else. The value of the car depends on too many factors for me to provide a good answer. Up here in AK where rust-free soobs are RARE, cars go for three times what they would down in the WA/OR area. It's recommended that you replace the tensioners with the belts. Whether or not you actually do this depends on their condition. If the car has more than 150k on it, I would replace them regardless. Otherwise, if they spin well and don't have any side-to-side play, I'd put them back on. Also, use only Subaru OEM T-belts. They really do hold up better. The cam seals tend to leak a lot on the ea82, so I would replace those at this time. Same with the oil pump seals. Neither are hard to do, you just have to take all the timing stuff off to get to them. They are also very annoying leaks to have, as the oil mostly goes on the exhaust. As far as pulling the engine, it's a real easy job on these cars. Just make sure you mark any connections that are not extremely odvious. Most of them are pretty self-explainatory though. Be very careful when removing the exhaust headers. The studs are notorious for having problems, so spray on some good penetrating oil at least a day ahead of time and just be careful with it. If some of the threads come out with the stud, have no fear. If that happens, there are a variety of ways to fix it without a lot of work. Even if you don't replace belts, hoses, etc, there is one that you really should do. There is a coolant hose that runs into the turbo that often leaks when it gets old due to the heat radiated from the turbo. I believe it enters the turbo from the bottom, but someone please correct if I'm wrong. This must be replaced with hi-temp silicone hose, not just regular rubber stuff. It's also quite hard to get to with the engine in the car, but not a big deal while doing this job.

Never done a turbo car though I will be in the very near future. After rebuilding 2 n/a ea82s, I can safely say that a HG job really is not a big deal. By far the best thing you can do is pull the engine out to do it. If you screw around with it still in the car, it will take twice as long and be a whole lot less fun. Use only genuine subaru HG's, especially on turbo cars. You can get them for $27 each from 1stsubaruparts.com. They also offer complete gasket sets for very reasonable prices. Make sure the mating surfaces are clean enough to eat off of, and also make absolutely sure that your heads didn't crack when the gasket(s) blew. When putting the cam carriers back on, use Permatex Anaerobic Sealant, not RTV, to seal between them and the heads. Something to consider in addition is converting to head studs while you're at it. I'm certainly going to look into this when I do the HG's on my turbo car, as studs and nuts are far superior to bolts in that they provide a more consistant clamping force and are less likely to pull out of the block or distort anything. I was told that ARP Fasteners can make up custom stud sets for anything. Just give them the thread pitch, length and diameter. Just a reminder: While you've got the car apart this far, why not take care of anything else that's wrong or do any recommended maintenance? It's likely time for things like timing belts and coolant hoses. The oil pan gasket as well as the rear main seal require pulling the engine, so do those now even if they aren't leaking yet. How's the clutch? That's another easy thing to do now rather than later.

Wow, those wheels..... I gotta go clean myself off.

I used to have one of those. Didn't really like it so I peeled it off and threw it away.

In response to sweet82's question, the way I see it is that the old gen forum would cover all maintainance issues and general questions about the cars, and questions could relate to any car with an old gen motor or an old gen chassis, depending on the nature of the question. If it's an old gen part that's failing, that's where you would post about it, regardless of what car its in. Did that make any sense?

I'm kind of torn on this. On the one hand, it probably will remove a lot of the clutter from the regular forums. But on the other hand, some of the forums may get stagnant, and since it's not separated by year or anything, there could be a lot of confusion. Hmmmmm.......

Heck, that engine with 205k on it still had the honing marks visible.

So I got some fuel line de-icer and starting fluid (they didn't have WD40). Poured in a bottle and cranked again, still nothing. So now I decided to pull the aircleaner adapter off to see if fuel was getting in at this point. Lo and behold, the choke plates were FROZEN SHUT! I broke off the ice and it started right up (well, as good as the car ever started with that carb on there).

ditto if you're on pavement, take it out every now and then to relieve the stress that builds up when some wheels can't slip. I've run mine in 4wd as fast as the car will go. Subaru 4wd systems rock!

Alright! For the record, I worked on a car this summer in which the culprit was actually the secondary filter under the hood, so even though it's usually the primary one, just replace them both.

Grrrrrr...... So this morning I go outside, and it's like 12 degrees. Cranked it over and got one fire then nothing. Walked to class. Came back, with the temps around 16 and it still wouldn't start. Checked the plugs (threw in some spares that were in my tool box), no fuel getting to the cylinders. Checked the fuel supply to the carb, getting lots of fuel there. With as much cranking and pedal-pumping as I did, there should be a strong gas smell from the carb and tailpipe, but not even a whiff. I checked spark just to make sure that something wasn't fubared there, and a big blue arc jumped across. So now I'm planning on getting a ride to the gas station to get some fuel line deicer and WD40. De-icer in the tank and spray some WD40 down the carb to melt and disperse what I'm guessing is ice on the jets and stuff from condensation after shutting it off last night. WD40 is also great starting fluid. If it still won't start, I'll get a friend to tow me over to a plug-in and let the block heater do its thing overnight, which will melt any ice in the carb. Any other suggestions as to how to get this stupid thing to start before going to the trouble of towing it? This is just embarrassing. Oh how great it will be after putting SPFI on at Thanksgiving. As long as this stupid carb doesn't kill me before then. Has anybody ever installed a weber on a subie in a cold climate with any sort of success? If so, please let me know how you did it. The old hitachi didn't have quite the acceleration, but it actually started without a block heater during the winter. There, I promise I'm done ranting.

Amanda, do you drive in your sleep or something?! That's a ton of miles. Anyway, there are a few subaru engines that have been problematic, mainly the early 2.5. As to the problems you mention, the 2.5 did have some weak HG issues, but subaru engines seem way less prone to knocking or anything like that than most others. The biggest complaint is lifter tick on the EA82s that were sold from 85-94, but even those engines will run forever. I pulled main and rod bearings out of the 89 EA82 block that I rebuilt (had been sitting for a while so I decided to tear it down anyway) with 205k on it and they looked almost new. Most subaru engines will go past 250k reliably. The EJ22 in your car should go for 3-4 hundred thousand before needing a teardown if you keep up on the maintenance (i.e., oil at 3000, coolant every two years, etc.) WAAAAAY more subarus are killed by rust than mechanical failures.

You might also consider swapping SPFI onto that low mileage ea81 from an ea82 engine. I know somebody on the board has done that with pretty good success, and there are only minimal adaptations that need to be made. It wouldn't have the power of the turbo, but if you got a custom cam made for it, the thing would be no slouch.

So, what exactly is this car? It looks like an ea82 motor in there, but it looks like a quad round headlight setup on the body? Looks nice, whatever it is!

Ditto again on the silicone spray on anything rubber. Don't forget to shoot some sort of water dispersant/lubricant in your locks, as that can be a really annoying thing to have freeze up on you.

Just wondering, what's the sludge problem on the Toyota V6?

Great idea for a forum. Previously, it looked like there was some confusion as to where to post things like this. Keep us updated on your project. I've been considering a similar venture and would like to know how it goes.

Yup, fix the leak. The nasty smell is probably still being created by coolant residue in/on the exhaust pipes.

My personal belief is that you should only use genuine subaru engine parts. This is especially true for HG's, as the factory gasket can be had for $27, which is a dollar less than the NAPA one, and significantly cheaper than $36 for the Beck-Arnley brand that NAPA also sells. Better gasket for less money, how can you go wrong? The only case in which I'd use a different gasket is possibly installing some super heavy duty ones on a turbo motor running high boost.

Subarus in general are right up there with Volvo and Toyota for longevity, even under pretty hard use (my car can attest to that). The specific one that you're looking at is probably not the best if you're looking to run it for a long time. The "phase I" 2.5 liter that was offered in that car is the engine that has had some headgasket problems. It is also an "interference engine", in that if the timing belt breaks, the engine is destroyed. That said, it seems that with proper cooling system and T-belt maintainence, the 2.5 lasts a really long time. The HG issue basically goes away if you change the coolant every 2 years like the manual says, which a lot of people don't. As far as needing rebuilt at 130,000 miles, that's just not the case. I've taken apart two subaru engines personally, both of which saw some rough use, one had 150,000 on it and the other had 205,000 on it, and the main and rod bearings looked almost brand new. The boxer engine is a really low stress design that lasts a long time. The only real disadvantage is that it is more prone to oil leaks, but that tendency has been reduced a great deal over the last decade and a half. So, to answer your question, if you take care of the car, it should serve you faithfully well past 200k.

Dude, you're gonna be pimpin' that thing like no other! Yeah, kinda rough, but who cares? It's a soobie!

SCORE!!!!!!!!