idosubaru

Buy a wrecked rust-free BAJA, or outback if appropriate to the parts you need (front only) and swap panels or do some chopping and have at it if that's the route you want to take. i'd suggest finding a parts car you can buy the entire thing and have all the guts you need to replace...i mean rebuild it. Do a quality assessment and get feedback from someone very familiar with rust. Make sure it's worth it, reasonably repairable, not too invasive - rust is easily penny wise dollar dumb. I'm near the point of saying rust is always penny wise and dollar dumb. I've gone years now avoiding rusty Subaru's which are the norm here, I'm so done with that debacle of ownership. you're next door to rust free subaru glory land - i'd just ditch it and get one that's rust free. i'm 3,000 miles away and i've bought subaru from just around the corner from you. It's rarely done but there are some crazy's out there - search until you find them. someone on subaruxt.com is rebuilding a cancerous XT6. It's usually a loosing battle - and is likely to come back sooner than you think even after repair.

You (or Chilton's) are over complicating this - focus entirely on the timing marks available to you that makes this *really really easy* and ignore everything else. Throw away the Chilton's manual (the time spent getting it, turning the pages is life wasted and they're a liability as you can see here), forget the phrase "TDC" for this job, put the camera/cell phone away and use the marks on the crank sprocket and cam sprockets: This is so, so, so, so easy - from where you are right now: 1. Line up crank mark 2. Remove belt 3. Line up cam marks 4. Install belt Done *If you're uncertain which marks to use - just google it and do an image search. I've never done it but I can guarantee there's about 10 zillion hits. Steps 1-4 I can do from start to finish including all the serpentine belt, timing cover removal in 45 minutes. Add a little for a first timer and it still probably doesn't take much longer than you've spent looking at Chilton's and taking pictures. Focus entirely on the marks and just get them to line up before you install the belt. For that matter instructions on doing the belt are everywhere as well. Once you install the belt - if the marks don't line up - wash-rinse-repeat and try again. I don't install the lower passengers side timing pulley until the belt is installed, it can be installed after the belt is on.

that is weird. seen it plenty of times on other manufacturers with transmission issues - they fail a lot, demand is high, and prices are high on something that has a good chance of failing again and is old. Isuzu, Ford exploders... i guess i could see it being partly because "surprising failure rate" doesn't necessarily have to outstrip supply....??

best bet is to pay a trans/4WD or other shop that knows how to do backlash and bearing preloads. or get all the equipment to do that yourself. this isn't something you want to guess on or "get close"....and i'm pretty forgiving when it comes to doing things "by the book". another issue is you will quite literally find no one well versed in this. i don't know that anyone will tell you "yeah you can get it real close - i've done it a bunch of times...do this", or "yeah I do the proper dial gauges for subaru's all the time and can tell you this...". you'll be sifting anecdotal comments mostly with very little experience...not very good teachers or stats behind that. there is a special tool - it's not readily available and expensive. most people make one - there's like a generic GM one that can easily be made to work or make one out of a large socket and some welding/cutting. when i did this, i was in the same boat, it started making noise but it did take about 20,000 miles before it finally got really bad and locked up.

Completely hosed. Reread what GD said about the fuel system - fuel systems in Subarus never need cleaned. There are some great dealers and some bad ones, for every manufacturer. You got a bad one...or at least a very expensive, upselling, one if they are honest and high quality. The ATF doesn't ever need changed - Subaru says for the transmission fluid: "Replace only under severe driving or towing conditions. " I'm not saying I wouldn't change it - but certainly not for a long time. There's gobs of people going 200,000 miles on ATF, they're not on these forums but it's common and I know many people like that, just average light use commuters and that's what they've always done, they don't pay attention to ATF and they've never had a reason too. Anyway - that's typically on vehicles that *are* supposed to have the fluid changed. Yours isn't even required by Subaru engineers to be changed at all.

170-190hp: the only easy way to do this is to build a frankemotor. then you have no wiring work, just mechanical which is simpler and cheaper and shorter time frame. 220-230 hp: H6 conversion. require mechanical fitment issues - might have to move radiator fans and do without A/C or do some fabricating to work around it. you can pay someone to do the wiring an not have very much of it to do, making this a reasonable "almost no-wiring" job and not terribly expensive or overtly complicated. somewhere between the last two options - install forced induction on your existing engine and just bump it to 5 psi. put your time and money into finding cheap blocks to swap out when you blow them up. big number turbo: $$$$$$ lots of wiring work, full conversion. if you have to ask many questions about it you're not doing it.

if you can find one, EJ22 swap it, that engine in the car sucks. *technically* speaking you should verify there's no leaks, radiator level is full, it's properly burped/no air in the system, and the thermostat/rad cap properly operate. but practically speaking it's going to be the headgaskets.

i don't have data in this area but my thoughts are if it made it 180k after an overheat then the bearings weren't likely compromised a significant degree. this is the game to be played with used cars/engines, it's always a gamble. just pick the gamble that's the best fit for you. unfortunately splitting subaru blocks changes the game because it's not economical nor wise without compelling skillsets doing the work. Depends which engine and the circumstances. For my personal daily driver use I wouldn't even think about it as long as it's not an EJ25D, but i would never buy a JDM EJ25D to begin with. If I install 5 JDM engines for personal use in my life, 5 headgasket repairs will not be less work or cost than not doing them for no reason. The way 2000+ EJ's fail they're easily driven when the headgaskets do start to fail there's very little risk of stranding/reliability. If the car is rusty just keep adding oil/coolant until you buy your next 15 year old cheap subaru. maybe i'd think differently if vehicles out here had a reasonable chance to beat rust. Very few 2000 Subaru's here are destined to be on the road much longer.

alternator fried the link in my XT6 last year as well. it also fried some fuses, the TCU, and like 2 other items.

Good question -but if it hasn't been overheated or run with crap oil changes the rod bearings will be fine another 100k. if it has been compromised then you're stuck between trying to recover a poor engine which isn't ideal. in this case the order of magnitude experience/cost required to split the block to try and circumvent that risk in't really justified. if you suspect the block and time your time is highly valued, get another engine, it's not worth pissing away the cash and time. years ago i'd repair it and hope for the best. now i'll just dump a suspect block even if it runs perfectly fine and go with a new one. my time is too valuable to dork around with overheated or poorly maintained engines. i have a few engines that technically only need headgaskets, but they're not worth my time/gamble. one of them i know overheated before i ever owned the car so i yanked and bought a JDM.

The FSMs are free online, go find one Any 90-94 loyaje will be basically the same That EA82 will run 300,000 mikes easy if it hasn’t been overheated or run low on oil. New timing kit - belts and pulleys (cheap and easy). Plugs wires cap and rotor. Ideally you replace cam seals cam cap oring crank seal and reseal the oil pump (shaft seal, oring and gasket) when you do the timing belt. That stuff is all right in front of you and only an extra hour or two labor with the belts off. Those older seals weren’t as high quality as newer materials so they’re prone to lean with age. its an archaic FI engine and gutless but use it for practical fun reliability and they’re great.

Change the fluid. If you're doing a drain and refill - usually it takes like 3 of them. It's very common for this to alleviate initial signs of torque bind. If it's just recently gotten worse I think you have a good chance of getting out of this with a few drain/refills. Mismatched diff ratio might be worth checking but usually cause very notable issues and are just consistently bad until the issue is alleviate - i wouldn't expect it to be drivable for 3 years and only now getting worse. I would run FWD indefinitely without concern. I've done it and it's been done plenty of times and there's almost no real world feedback it causes issues - i've never seen or heard of it. What there are issues from is driving with torque bind - that definitely causes failure modes including sheared off drums inside the rear extension housing.

once you get some spare links one way or another, and preferably once you determine which circuits that black link handles: A. pull all the cabin fuses and retry - see if it still does it. B. disconnect the alternator and starter and see if it still burns up links. look up the FSM or owners manual and see what that fusible link powers. It sounds like the 93 has only one fusible link? Just in case - If it has more than one - how certain are you that this black fusible link is in it's OEM location? (you wouldn't want someone telling you what the black fusible link circuit drives if it's not actually the black fusible link circuit - i've seen the switched before on older cars. NAPA sells (or used to) fusible link wire - or get it from amazon or something - its enough to make quite a few fusible links. Buy spade terminals that will fit your fusible link box or creatively clamp/solder/wrap a set of spades from one of the burnt fusible links (this is ideal as they're perfectly fitted - some aftermarkets will be "close" but not quite right). this way you'll have an easy and large supply of sacrificial fusible links.

95 legacy's - if it's never been overheated and reasonable oil changes those will run 300,000 miles rather easily, realiably, and inexpensively. new timing belt and timing pulleys, plugs, wires, cheap $8 ebay knock sensor (most common engine sensor failure - it has either already failed or will), subaru has "new" alternators for $75 if you're into long term/distance reliability. good luck!

If the valves are bent get used heads and what GD just said. Most folks wouldn't split the block. If it was consuming oil before this then the value of new rings increases. Don't split the block.