idosubaru

yellowish does have an a/c ring to it.

are you sure it's oil? could it just be grease from some moving part back there? what color was it? could it be coolant?

they are hard to come by in general and not really needed at all. you said flywheel so that means a manual trans...just put the car in gear to keep it from turning over. if it's the first time it's been done in awhile it might be really tight. try 1st and 5th and reverse....forget which one will work best. also put the emergency brake on and block the tires (the car may want to move or rock some as you turn the engine with the trans engaged). a super quick method for crank bolt removal is to attach the 22mm socket to the crank pulley and bump the starter (but don't start the car, pull the ignition coil wire). socket will spin around, hit the lower engine mount and knock the bolt loose. it's like the cavemans' impact wrench.

have you checked the gear oil in it? check quantity and see what it looks like? just changing it/filling it up may help some. might want to do a search, i've read other threads about people smoothing out shifting with different gear oils/additives.

don't see how the diffs could slip in a manual trans. either the gears are working or they are not. start loosing teeth on your gears and they won't slip, it'll be really noisey. i have an LSD and use full synthetic in that as well. are you concerned about something in particular because this is a very basic question. if you drain oil, replace it. brand new synthetic can't be wose than the decades old 100's of thousands of mile stuff in there now. if you're really concerned about it, use regular fluids they won't cause any problems either.

get new/matching tires on it. might take a little bit of driving straight for the FWD to engage. have you tried driving it or just installing the fuse and turning the car on? if you can get new tires on it, i wouldn't be surprised if everything works fine afterwards. wouldn't be surprised if something is wrong either, but i wouldn't assume the worst just yet. the AWD's just don't drive well with mismatched tires.

i use full synthetic in my rear diffs, manual trans, front diffs. others here do as well. i asked a dealer, Subaru dealer in atlanta uses Pennzoil full synthetic, they even sold it there when i stopped in a few years ago. or at least they were going to sell me a bottle (it was very expensive, so i got it elsewhere). i use valvoline just because. Synpower i believe it's called. no problems here.

check the wiring and/or connector. pull it off (i know it's a pain to get at/see) and see if you see any corrosion on the contacts. that's the starting point for many sensor issues on soobs.

160,000 miles? you can get away with just replacing the head gaskets without issue. it would be nice to do it perfect and have a complete valve job, cracks repaired, valve seals replaced and all that but you would be fine to do it if the motor ran fine prior like boostednuts said. i'd be more concerned about cleaning the head bolts and head bolt holes out really good so the head gasket lasts. don't forget to retorque the head gaskets if the manufacturers calls for it. Subaru OEM EA82 head gaskets require a retorque. in which case, don't seal your cam carriers when you install them. leave them clean...run the motor up to operating temperature like the retorque procedure calls for. then open it up, retorque and install the cam carriers with sealant after retorquing it. no point in cleaning up and installing with sealant twice...that's an annoying task to do once even. i ordered valve stem seals for an XT6 from the dealer before, surprised they couldn't hook you up. not enough time maybe? mabye someone on the group has some to send you? i'm kind of far, but i have some XT6 valve stem seals at home that would work on an EA82...guess the carbed ones are the same. all these members in washington i'd guess someone has some lying around like i do, post in the marketplace forum maybe?

as much as i think it good that you don't tow, i'm not excited you're making a decision that you didn't want to make. but if you do, the fact that you did the right thing is certainly nothing to be ashamed of. why not keep the soob? my old roomate had 3 old BMW's and they were solidly unreliable to say the least. edit - i'm sorry...he had 3 porshe's and 1 BMW...but they were still all unreliable!

that's an average deal....the engine work doesn't matter...who did it and how good of a job they did makes all the difference. since you can't garauntee that, then that is an added risk...maybe a small one, but an added risk. if you can get the paper work for the engine work showing exactly what was replaced and who did it....i'd lean more towards buying the car personally. timing belts break sometimes, i wouldn't consider that neglect....it may be, but not all the time. the belt can break, the pulley bearings can go bad and break the belt as well. i'd look around and compare deals. look up some subaru's on craigslist and autotrader and compare. i picked up a 60,000 mile 97 OBS for $3,600 this year. the kicker is some hail damage, dimples in the body. i'll trade that for an excellent vehicle anyday. i recommend 100,000 or less miles. subarus are good to 200,000+ sure, but wheel bearings, alternators, starters, u-joints, brake calipers, trans...all of these things have much higher failure rates at 200,000 than 100,000. i'd rather be closer to the 100,000 mile end if i were recommending something for complete reliability. i drive 200,000+ mile subarus' but i know how to fix them and rebuild my bearings, ujoints, replace alts and starters, i know what i'm doing. for strict out of the box reliability i like to recommend to friends something 100,000 or less. that's why i picked up the 60,000 mile OBS for my wife. but again...if the engine rebuild was indeed done and it has all new components that is a very good thing. were the pulleys/tensioners replaced? paper work on the rebuild would be nice, verifying what and who did the work in case there are any questions.

mr.radon on www.xt6.net converted his FWD XT6 to AWD. not easy, but not impossible. he did have to do some cutting/welding for something but i can't recall what it was. i think the center bearing support mounting bolts for the driveshaft.....but that's from memory. personally i'd rather take my driveshaft to a driveshaft shop and have them build me a single piece driveshaft anyway. then that wouldn't be an issue. actually...maybe those holes were there but the front differential mounting flange was not present so that had to be installed and required some cutting, welding. yours could differ from the XT6. look for 2 mounting locations for the center bearing support and also the rear differential mounting locations. if you have those it would simplify things.

there are 8 on my property and i just sold two. i don't really have blocks since i'm surrounded by farms, but there's a 2.5 RS right down from me.

75w90 in all of mine.

call any dealer...might need to be one in the states, i don't know how the canada/us dealer databases interact. give them the VIN. if the original salesman entered the key code in the computer from the original paper work (which they were supposed to do at the time) then the key code will be available. i've done it on more than one occassion without issue. if they didn't enter it then pull the 4 digit code from the passenger lock cylinder. all you have to do is remove the door panel, very easy to do. i believe if you know exactly where it is located you can actually get the code without pulling the cylinder out. but...if you have to pull the cylinder out it's only held in place by a clip or something, barely takes any tools to get it out.

valve covers are typically very easy. just a couple tiny bolts, although one or two can sometimes be tricky to get too...but big deal, so it takes a couple minutes. $400.....sure that didn't include anything else? if not, i'd never go back there or ask for an explanation. they were not being honest and if someone/some place isn't honest once, they'll do it again.

wow, this is a crazy one. never heard/seen of this before on any seals. does it leak from the perimeter or the inside next to the crank? is it getting pushed out at all? could the crank be out of round or "wobbling", causing the seal to fail? in that case i don't know that a sleeve would help. are you absoultely certain the rear main is to blame?

while doing the plugs doesn't take long to get a compression reading in the process. gives you good information.

i recall hearing that while working on an XT6 automatic last week. don't think it's anything to worry about. probably just a solenoid that allows the ignition to turn when you're in park or something like that......never heard it before though so maybe it is cold weather related sometimes or i just never noticed until i was working on it last week.

you can cut coils to adjust the height right?

so removing my parts window - just unbolt it without ungluing or damaging those clips and it'll slide right in? i've never done it, so i'm not even sure what the look like, but sounds fair enough. recall pulling a regulator before and that was a PITA. hope the window is easier this time. thanks!

perfect timing, thanks!

are regular struts interchangable on these?

my window is just loose, falls down a few inches when i drive. pull it back up by hand, push it down. this is on an XT6. never worked on a window before. what do i need? new clips or attachments of some sort? i have a parts car, can i swap anything? i pulled the interior panel off the door to push a dent out, had to have knocked it loose then.

good point - a very bad HLA/lifter noise has been mistaken many times for internal engine issues. these engines are quite durable and don't have issues without neglect usually.