el_freddo

New plug, boot, coil pack etc is worth a shot I’d say. What’s there to lose? If it doesn’t work it sounds like it’s time for a new head minimum, worst case is a replacement engine. It’s up the the owner - how much stuffing around vs how much coil they’re willing to mess around with to fix what’s potentially a simple issue. Cheers Bennie

To fully drain and swap the auto fluid there’s a trick that requires two people - disconnect the fluid in to cooler hose and face this at a bucket. Get another piece of hose on the rad to the vege oil/laundry detergent (I’ll refer to it as vege oil from here on). Have a mate start the engine and let the auto pump out all the auto fluid and hopefully suck up the vege oil. Once you see the auto fluid change to the vege oil colour get old mate to shut off the engine. Alternatively, do this as a two step part - drain fluid first, once it reduces flow shut the engine off. Drain pan, fill with vege oil, start engine and allow auto to suck vege oil with the other end of the hose still in the collection bucket. Once vege oil is present at the out pipe for the bucket shut the engine off. Vege oil in the engine, I doubt it would last long but there’s always one way to find out!! Water in the brake system should work fine for what you want to do - this is something we considered out bush when a rear slave cylinder gave out on one of the vehicles we were with out in remote Western Oz. We ended up clamping a flexible hose for the remainder of the trip home…. After all this work they still might not accept the vehicle with the fluids because they’ll still make a mess when the vehicle is crushed/munched. It’ll be a more environmentally friendly mess but it’ll still be one they won’t want to deal with… Cheers Bennie

What model Subaru are we talking? I don’t know how much that imperial liquid quantity is in metric terms, but it’s normal for some oil to come out when you remove a cam cover. Having the vehicle situated with the cam cover facing up an incline will help reduce this oil loss. Cheers Bennie

Looks like a similar setup as the VT commodores use, most likely common across many GM models since then. To remove this I use a silicone gun nozzle cut down to fit the fuel line size, with a slit cut down one side to get it on the fuel line and up into that joint to release it. That is one very clean top of the fuel pump! Cheers Bennie

Looks awesome, great craftsmanship there! Are those front control arms reinforced stock units or completely custom built from scratch? They look impressive! Cheers Bennie

I agree with that. The Subaru in-tank fuel pumps don’t just die - they will underperform causing issues before they outright die, they usually get swapped out before they completely die. I had one completely stop working on my RS turbo - but I believe this was from sitting around with rubbish fuel in it. That didn’t bother me as I was only moving it off a trailer, not 100s of kms from home. It’ll be ingesting to see what the fuel pressure gauge says once you get it installed. I didn’t know there were units available that has the gauge remote mounted from the sensor! I’ve only ever seen the ones that are plumbed inline and viewed from where it’s fitted. Cheers Bennie

Oddly I’ve not heard about this being an issue in Australia - but then again I’m not a mechanic that sees loads of these vehicles week in, week out. I doubt it has much to do with a dropped valve guide. Cheers Bennie

It could be good once cleaned up and made into a glass-top coffee table Magazines (what are those these days?!) or newspapers could be stored in the cylinders Cheers Bennie

Geez mate fair shake of the sauce bottle pointing the bone at the EJ being the issue. It’s simple - don’t do your maintenance, don’t get a good ride! At that age/number of kms the fuel pump probably needs to be replaced too - I’d be doing it as preventative maintenance. The EJ engines are good engines - they crap all over the EA82 by a long shot and some of them do well in the longevity department to be up there with the EA81 - with more power and good economy to boot. They’re not rocket science and before you go there they don’t scan your brain and report back to the government Stick with the proven formula - NKG spark plugs and leads, leave the gaps unless you’re running on LPG. I bet your fuel RON increase will have little to do with it. As for pinging, the older your engine is the more likely it is to ping from ring wear and increased oil consumption as a result. I’m sure you know about this already. Sorry, crap day while feeling like crap, not meaning to be an arsehole about it if it comes across that way. Bennie

It’s an interesting one to ponder - are you building something that historically had this block or are you looking for all out power that would need that extra cylinder bracing? And that’s the other thing - you can get newer blocks and add bracing to the cylinders to essentially make them a closed deck block. Look at what the fellas with the high horse power turbo engines are doing and take notes from them. Many say the closed deck block isn’t needed, I believe the EJ207 is only semi closed deck and that is a high revving engine and a strong unit to boot. It come down to that old adage - what’s it worth to you? You really need to look at what you’re going to build with it, do you need the closed deck block or is it a bit of wank factor/street cred? I can’t put a price on it. We didn’t get them over here in Oz but I know 20 years ago blokes were importing them from your neck of the woods for high HP builds as the engines typically used now were yet to be released or cost too much as a base to start with. Cheers Bennie

You won’t be able to solder on the tubes from the old heater core - they’re plastic! Both end tanks are plastic. You might be able to solder copper end tanks to the core that’s in there provided that’s not the bit that’s leaking. Bite the bullet, buy the new all copper core, fit it in and never look back! Pull it out before scrapping or selling the vehicle if need be!! Cheers Bennie

TGV - as @1 Lucky Texan said - Tumble generator valve. Its purpose is to better mix the air fuel mixture at idle and maybe low engine revs for better torque (maybe, I’m guessing on this one). If they’re not opening quick enough off the line you’ll have running issues. The reason I mention this is because you’ve got an EJ253 and from what I understand of the later EJ253s they got the TGV setup. Yours could be the market test bed engine to get some real world data before going to full production on all models - who knows. But I reckon it’s worth looking into. PM me your VIN and I’ll see what I can find in the parts diagrams for your engine and get back to you. Cheers Bennie

Any TGV setup on this early 253? It could be worth deleting these and see what happens. I mention this as a mate had his GT series 2 Foz do the same thing to the point sometimes it would almost die completely as you tried to cross an intersection. It turned out the TGV system was doing something stupid but not throwing a code. I believe he deleted the butterflies from the inlet manifold and left it as is. This resolved the issue and allowed him to tow his camper trailer around Oz without any further issues. Same thing with WOT - no issue, but partial throttle nothing but issues. Cheers Bennie

I believe @DaveT did this with the CTS for the SPFI system years ago. Maybe Dave can dig up his post on this info? Cheers Bennie

Are you needing to add coolant to the system at all? Grounds on the engine good and wiring to the sender unit not damaged? You could try wiggling it and watch what the temp gauge is doing, this will show up any wiring issues. Nothing near the sender unit that could ground it to give the false reading? Old mate that did the HGs - did they put the painted head bolts in the centre two holes? The other four are unpainted (on the head of the bolt) and these go in the outside headbolt holes. Asking as this always catches ppl out the first time they do a HG on these engines. Have you done an exhaust gas in coolant check just to be sure this isn’t the issue? Cheers Bennie

^ noice! What gear bag are you running with it? Best bit about the EJs is the parts availability and the extra performance over the (generally old clapped out) EA donk! Cheers Bennie

Hey Todd, this website could help with finding parts to the size you need. A mate got me on to it as we look for alternative parts on our MY Brumby/Brat utes… https://size.name/en That exhaust looks MINT! So shiny, but I bet not for long once offroad! Shame the three pipe done sit horizontally flat beside each other for maximum clearance. If you went that way it would probably be easier to fab up your own headers for that setup! Cheers Bennie

Over here in Oz if it didn’t come factory with that engine size, you generally need to have engineering approval for an engine capacity increase. The exact requirements for this differs from state to state, so it gets complicated. So to have the impreza only come out here in EJ20 as the largest engine size would require some authority to get involved if going down the legit swap route… The EJ251 is a great version of this engine size once it has the HGs replaced for the MLS units - and has the head bolts replaced in the correct location! Those painted head bolts always catch you out the first time you do a HG on one of these! I know I didn’t see them the first time… Cheers Bennie

Things could certainly be getting some sort of power from the ignition switch being worn - but it shouldn’t cause smoke! Is everything in good working order forward of the high/low beam switch? And is the dial switch working properly? There are a few elements here that could be at fault/contributing to the larger issue. Always not fun! Cheers Bennie

I’d go with something less or not flammable such as WD40, but yes, with the engine running spray it around any joints in the manifold, injectors/carb, vacuum lines etc. Cheers Bennie

Talking to a mate over the weekend and he had an issue where it was the wheel nuts not clamping the wheel to the hub properly, effectively the weight of the vehicle was only on the hub centric ring thingy-bit. Weird hub setup with the studs as though. Anyway, it got me thinking, what stud pattern are you running as I remember some mention of redrilled hubs - is this correct? Is it possible these modified hubs are not done well and could be causing the vibration issue? Could be clutching at straws but thought I’d ask. Cheers Bennie

Check for vacuum leaks. Cheers Bennie

Sorry mate, I’m all out of ideas. When I did this I swapped the entire vehicle loom in the process as I wanted to run the MPFI setup in my DL - and that was before I learned about the EJ conversion! All the best with it. Cheers Bennie

How old is the fuel pump? And if replaced what quality is it? Cheers Bennie

Did you ever swap out that rear diff? I can’t remember if you ran without the diff fitted to see what happens… I’m keen to get to the bottom of this one with you! Tyre condition and pressures? Cheers Bennie