briankk

My '96 Legacy Brighton started blowing smoke, guess it's time for the piston/ring thing. I see in the End Wrench 2.2 overhaul, that the '97 and up had pistons with higher C/R and moly coating, slightly different pin offset. Can these later piston be used a bolt-in replacements for my old pistons? (Given appropriate sizing, etc.). Every little bit of CR improvement helps... Local j/y has what seems to be a '99 SOHC 2.5 engine. These things any good? Would swap in?

Get the whole FelPro top end kit, quality stuff a fair price. I've done two so far, still holding up, admittedly only 6 months in..

Thanks Tex, that's about as much useful SVX info as I've ever seen in one post. I do wonder about the SVX weight. The car I m' fooling with now, I bought in 4 pieces, the rolling chassis, the engine, and 2 trans, one allegedly good, actually not. When the PO had removed the front axles, he'd broken the anti-lock tone ring on the RF corner, had to replace the entire front upright, have the old one in a box on the porch. It continues to amaze me every time I walk by, the thing is just the perfect size for duty in the front end of a 3/4 ton Chevy pick-up... Why, I wonder...

Well, I guess this trans is done. I'm not going to pay $3500 for an overhaul of the dodgy auto box, but might spend a few thou on a 5-speed replacement. Is there anywhere a comprehensive list of what needs to be done for this? I can get a 4.44 5 speed and rear end reasonably enough hereabouts, having something to use as a chekoff list would be helpful.. Were there every any mount points for the hard parts on the SVX? Master cyl, pedal shaft and whatnot? Will a '99 trans bolt to a '94 SVX, given installation of flywheel, clutch and what not? The '94 is OBD 1, the '99 is OBDD 2, will these reject each other? etc,ect, any help welcome...

I did as you reccomended, trans failed disconnected, but slightly different. With the TCU hooked up, is goes clunk and quits, w/o the TCU, it drives along gradually slipping 'till thewre's no more drive, and coasts to a stop. Damn...

Called Aamco. They speculate weirdness in the range sensor/neutral safety switch. Have appointment with local shop to replace that sucker, tomorrow PM. BTW, local is not aamco, their neaest is abt 70 miles from here, which would take a long time, 2 miles at a time...

MY '94 SVX transmission works fine, but for one little thing... I'll be driving along and lift my throttle foot, a gentle clunk from underneath, and the trans seems to uncouple from the engine. Engine works fine, car coasts to a stop. Trans shifter no longer has any effect on the trans, row it around as you please, there are no gears there at all. THEN, turn off the engine, wait a moment, restart, gears all present and accounted for, drive away.. Near as I can tell, only happens on throttle lift or overrun, repeats every 2 miles or so.. Nearest Soob specialist declairs problem impossible. Nearest dealer is baffeled. No joy anywhere. All ideas entertained. FYI, recent fluid & filter change, new fluid looks as good as old, fluid level OK. Car went about 150 miles on new Dexron 3 before problem cropped up. No warning lights, sounds or codes thrown. Is puzzelment. BTW, I reckon it's standard 4ATE but for 3.54 ratio, no chips or other fiddles involved

My parts car, a '94 SVS lsi, came in 4 parts, the rolling chassis, the engine, and 2 transmissions, one said to be dead, the other said to work, PO bought it from ebay or craigslist of somewhere. It turned out that the parts car was likely in better condition the the one I was working on, I had a local shop put it back togather with the "good" transmission, which actually turned out to be a good transmission. The exterior of the car is Subaru paint number 372, Barcelona Red, and has a lot of paint chipping on the front bumper and nose, and three large primer spots, both front fenders and the quarter panel behind the drivers door. I bought some Barcelona Red touch up paint, painted a piece of cardboard, took my paint sample to 3 or 4 different paint stores, and came up with Krylon Dual Superbond, 8805 Gloss Cherry Red, as an acceptable temporay fix for primer spots, just paint 'em over with the Krylon. Krylon is cheap and nasty, and up close you can tell somethings going on, but it sure does a job of hiding primer spots. It's not an exact match, but it's close enough... I'll be using the touch up paint on the bumper and front end.

Yes. Depending on which interpretation of "3.54" Subaru went with, the ring gear will have to have either 39 or 46 teeth. Good to hear that it's visible thru the drain hole, and thanks for the tip..

Got a bad tranny in my '94 SVX. Got another, said to be good. How do I find the final drive ratio of a 4EAT sitting in the bed of a pickup truck? Also, I need to move the torque convertor from the old tranny to the new, am told there is a bit of a trick to seating the thing. Anybody know the trick?

Months of fiddle have finally got electricity to the fuel tank pump in my '95 SVX, still doesn't go. Removed cover, hoses, electrical bits and whatnot, tank is big mess inside. I found an old post that says to "remove the gold clip in the middle, remove pump, etc, through passenger side door" Fair enough, but this car sat outside for years, and water seems to have gotten in there, everything covered with brown slime and rust, nothing that looks like a clip, or is gold colored, is evident Anybody have a picture, or diagram of how to do this? While we are here, how do you clean out the tank on one of these things?

Some background here... I bought the car cheap with known heating and electrical issues. Took it to a local shop for the head gasket, etc. repair, all went smoothly, they gave me the car back, it went 'bout 30 miles and just died. Back to the shop on a truck. Turned out to have a shorted battery, stuck a new one in, but car would not run continuously, just died at random times, driven or just sitting and idling. Posed the question here, why it does that? Fairtax4me suggested (above) CPU grounding problem, adding new ground from intake to battery cured the problem. So, having cured the problem, the shop tech took it for a spin to be sure, and hit a deer, goodbye hood, grill and right headlights.. (sigh) I'm sticking with my original diagnosis, the car is cursed...

210k.

My '98 Legacy Outback was in the shop for headgaskets and belt drive. When done, I took it downtown for some groceries (20 miles), started back up the hill, 'bout halfway back, car sputtered and died. AAA took it back to the shop, who installed new battery, which didn't help. Sometimes cranks slowly, won't start, sometimes cranks fast and won't start, sometimes starts right up and runs for some random time, then dies. Sometimes turning on key pins the temp gage, starts both fans, though engine not hot. Shop has no clue, I think the car's cursed. Anybody have any idea?

Thanks. Toonga! Returning the Soob gaskets, going with the Fel Pro kit, professionally installed, and then will sell this car. I'm done with the EJ25.

Went to Soob an bought new head gaskets for my '98 EJ25D, then to NAPA for the rest of the top end kit, but they can't provide it. Seems their Fel Pro catolog provides various cam cover (and other) gaskets, depending on the "engine serial number", a 6 diget number beginning 99xxxx through 01xxxx. Now it seems Soob doesn't provide engine serial numbers, I called the store where I bought the head gaskets and asked about this, they said they had no clue what Fel Pro was on about. I called Fel Pro, they were closed for the weekend. Got up the Victor Reinz catolog on line, same deal but they wanted engine numbers beginning 32xxxx, and their phone number is in Germany, so I let it slide. WTF? Somebody please explain to me how to buy Fel Pro gaskets for Subaru engines? TIA...

Anybody know how to remove the bit of the dash panel just above the drivers knees? I need to gain access there, and would rather be able to put it back when I'm done. I'm talking about the panel that has the windshield wiper variable parking switch on it.. The screws and such for getting this thing off arn't really obvious to me. TIA

My '98 outback Ltd is going in for head gaskets shortly, I'm buying parts in advance. RockAuto lists a couple of timing belt kits for this application, Part # GTWP277A, and 277B, which seem pretty much the same but for what I think in the belt tensioner, 277A has an "integrated assembly", the 277B has a regular hydraulic damper. I guess I need one or the other, but how to tell which without taking the front of the car apart? Any opinions on the Gates water pump? Should I skip the kit with the pump and buy an Asin pump (for instance) seperatly? Already have the Soob headgaskets, from distant dealer. TIA...

OK, did as sugguested, no pressure for abt. 3 min, then slight buildup with slight warming.All this at idle speed 1-1100k rpm.

I bought my old '96 Brighton from a fellow who'd given up on and bought a new car. He insisted the engine had a blown head gasket, and he didn't want to fool with it. We argued some about that, finally I bought it and drove it home. The car would sputter and miss until about 2-3k rpm, and by the time got it home, it had turned on the "check engine" light. The engine had new plug wires and air filter, but some strange old Autolite plugs, and the one nearest the passenger side firewall wasn't screwed all the way in. I replaced these with NGK BKR5EGP (7090), the engine was instantly smooth as silk, I disconnected the battery and went to lunch. After lunch, re-connected the battery, went for a drive, no more "check engine" light. Later that week, got it smogged, no problem, but the thing had wierd overheating episodes, would go along just fine for days, suddenly overheat. When hot, top of rad hot and top hose hot, bottom not hot, hose cool. Began to understand why car had come with 5 different thermostats, was currently running an Autozone part. Replaced the rad with one from JY, put back Subaru t-stat and rad cap, overheating solved, but it keeps dissapearing water, and has bubbles in th coolant tank on shutdown. Plugs perfect, no steam/smoke in exhaust, but water keeps going away. Decided to try a can of K&W block seal, which doesn't like coolant, drained an re-filled with water a couple of times, water keeps dissapearing until a couple of days ago when it quit dissapearing the water, but the temp gusge is erratic, back and forth between halfway going uphill, and dead cold coming down. Suspect a bubble, but it doesn't respond to normal bubble cures, i.e. filling block from top rad hose, air bleed from screw in top of rad, etc. Will do the K&W treatment this weekend, but meantime, anybody have any ideas as to whats going on here? Think I may be in over my head..

I've seen all the bother some Brighton owners have gone through to add a tach to the Brighton panel, so I went to the JY and got a '95 Legacy panel complete, propose to just remove the Brighton guage cluster and replace with the Legacy cluster. Seems pretty straightforward to me. Any reason this wouldn't work? FWIW, Legacy panel redlined at 6500, anybody know red line for EJ22?

Ah.. So from the other thread: "Have to swap the whole knuckle. You cannot get the backing plate for the brakes off without removing the hub, which means tearing out the wheel bearing. Swap the entire knuckle assembly and brake cables and it'll work." Since the :"knuckle" and the axle are press fit togather, does this mean that the whole axle, etc, needs to be switched? bk

Finally got my old '96 Brighton up and going. I can pretty much put up with the "Brighton" stuff, or lack therof, but this thing has rear drum brakes. Down at the local JY is a '95 legacy wagon with rear disks. Is the changeover a bolt up job, or does it involve hub removal? Which e-brake cable would I use? TIA...

Exellent! Just the info I was looking for. Thank you. Not much to do now but wait for my Haynes to show up. Guess I'll go start pulling stuff.

Head gasket, passenger side rear, and buggered threads in the plug hole for that cylinder. Symptom at first was leakage from the head/block junction when hot, and occasional low rpm misfire. Autolite 3923 fitted, replaced with NGK 7090. When I removed the plug from the rr cylinder, it felt funny coming out, was blowbye all over the plug and insulator, gap was bridged. Not able to screw new plug in the hole, I think it needs helicoiling..