NorthWet

Freeze plugs plug openings into the water jacket of the head. These ones are under the valve covers, so if they pop out the water flows straight into the valve cover area and drains into the oil pan.

More than likely just popped out a core ("freeze") plug. Pull off the valve covers and take a look. Pretty easy fix.

Do another drain/flush. Part of what the trans-x does is act as a cleaner, and all the gunk that was settled inside the tranny is now floating in the fluid.

Next time, don't bother replacing the "filter"... The governor gear is available from the dealer, and the price seems to vary considerably: I paid $75 at my local dealer, then a couple months later saw a receipt for one for $31.75.

Yes, a change of fluid can do that much. The fluid can become very dark, thick and nasty. (I use the same method as you to drain/replace ATF.) If that inline filter that you tossed was mounted to the left frame rail, I would suggest that you replace it. It was part of a retrofit to catch lockup clutch debris before it gets into the cooler and plugs it. The filter is mostly a screen, and is intended to be permanent.

Yes, you can run cables straight to the starter; I would do both pos and neg cables. Some years ago I also had a bad ground cable to the starter on an EA82T... drove me nuts until I found it.

My 88 FSM (XT6 diagram) shows nothing in the electrical path between the ST terminal on the ignition switch and the starter solenoid. It does show a tap to the ecu, but that seems to me to be just letting the ECU know that the starter circuit is actuated. Otherwise, don't have a clue... Gary, does it matter how quickly you release/turn to the start position?

If you truly think that they are POS, perhaps you should avoid them... As far as controlling the coolant injection, possible using a boost-pressure bleed to the tank might work better than a straight on/off pump. Other possibilities include either a PWM or PCM controller for the washer pump. Or perhaps replacing the regular TB with an SPFI TB and driving its injector.

Possibly hydrolocked due to either leaking intake gaskets or headgaskets - pull sparkplugs to diagnose/relieve. Possible seized timing belt idler - pull covers and remove t-belts to diagnose. Possible rusted cylinders due to water exposure. Possible seized rod bearing and/or thrown rod - thrown rod would be noticed by hole in top of crankcase...

That is pretty normal. It is a short stroke engine with durable cylinder sleeves, and it would run nearly forever at that engine speed.

How did you test for fuel? It is fairly common for the fuel pump to give out, and it can be intermittent. Unless you have seen fuel spraying out of the injectors (even I am not crazy enough to test this way), or at least checked fuel pressure AND injector signal (using a noid or similar indicator), then you might be assuming too much. Being 1 tooth off would probably not prevent the engine from starting; it might throw a cam sensor code, but if you are getting spark it is not serious enough to prevent a start.

3AT turbo/NA both have 23 spline. 4EAT uses 25 spline, as does the turbo 5-speed.

The dealer may not have overcharged as much as some people have thought. If I have read this correctly, the $2100 was for the tranny work AND 4 new tires. A friend of mine just spent close to $2K for a set of tires for her WRX, and these were good, but not high-end, tires.

Are you talking about swapping over the longblock (block and heads) and installing your current intake onto the carb longblock? If so, then any of the non-mpfi EA82s will work. Might be some issue with EGR, but can't remember at the moment.

It is not too hard to take the bellhousing off to take a look at the ring and pinion. Hopefully, someone else will respond and either confirm or correct my statement about the pinion shaft being a major task to remove. (My manuals would have the info, but I am a little incapacitated at the moment.)

My advice is don't bother trying to replace the ring and pinion. IIRC, you have to do a major amount of disassembly to remove the pinion. I might be confusing manual with auto, but I think that the pinion shaft goes all the way back to the rear transfer section. My suggestion is to look for a replacement tranny. Any 3-speed from a turbo EA82 from 85-90 should work. Non-turbo tranny will work, too, but you would need to swap rear diff also. IIRC (not all that likely at the moment ) the axle splines should be the same on the turbo and NA 3AT trannies.

No set place, partially because (IMHO) there is no definitive cause(s). There has been anecdotal reports of broken ring lands, but little investigation has been posted. I have not hunted down all of the anecdotes, and IIRC nobody really supplied much info on my "EA82" thread, so it is unclear to me whether this was just with stock turbo pistons (not to mention if with one or both castings of turbo pistons) or if the NA pistons in high-compression builds also died this way. No mention was made (that I noticed) as to whether the piston rings were also broken or if any were stuck in their grooves. My guess is that the primary cause is prolonged detonation, and this could happen at stock boost if other factors conspire to allow it.

We are here to serve...

I don't thiknk that I have ever used anything other than "regular" in my EA82Ts. Not necessarily something to brag about, just that unless you abuse it you will probably be just fine. The knock sensor (if it is working properly) should be able to deal with the lower octane under most conditions. You may experience a little less power and/or a little poorer gas mileage if you are using boost a lot. What do you consider a "miss"? It is possible that you are having abnormal combustion (detonation or pre-ignition) which would feel like a drop in power... or it could just be that your ignition system is not up to the task of igniting the mixture at higher boost pressures.

Welcome to Subarus! The parking lights are on because of a rocker-switch on top of the steering column... affectionately referred to as the "virgin switch". This allows you to keep the parking lights on when the ignition is off.

Which gaskets are you looking for? The exhaust-side inlet and outlet gaskets, or something else? BTW, where did you see the head cracks? Minor ones inbetween the valve seats are common/"normal"; only a concern of they are VERY deep. The crack to worry about is in the divider in the exhaust port.

Do not underestimate the difficulties and cost of shipping goods from another country.

On USA specification cars, there typically is NOT an engine driven fan there unless it has air conditioning or is a turbo model. The good news is that without that fan there (and probably without A/C) you can do a pretty quick check if the radiator is plugged. These radiators typically plug in horizontal bands across the radiator, so when it is warm (t-stat is open) you can run your palm across the radiator core top to bottom, looking for areas that feel cold when others feel hot.

Interesting post, but 3 observations: 1) It probably belongs in a different thread, as this seems OT from what the OP wishes and is mostly a response to a casual comment about the head not flowing well. (Might have been better in something on its own, or like the thread that I started about the EA82, its problems, and possible inexpensive fixes.) 2) None of the porting issues are truly fixable. They aren't even really improvable without a flowbench and a pile of heads to screw up. Theory is fine, but engine builders have learned over the decades that things aren't always what they seem. 3) All of this still plays into the opinions by GD and others that things can be improved only if you have a wheelbarrow full of money to throw at a 25+ year old design that was not meant to be a high performance engine. Reread what the OP wants, especially after he has been flamed a little and discouraged by our "learned" responses... and try to listen.

Whoa! Just trying to give the possible reasoning behind why someone would say it is poor flowing. I could argue that its contemporaries at Nissan and Toyota used technically better head designs that probably flowed much better, but I don't like to argue, and in the end it is pointless. The EA82 head is what it is: Better than some, not better than others. It is adequate for its purposes. And, as pointed out, without a flowbench all is just speculation.