idosubaru

cool thanks guys.....now i just need to find an EA82 y pipe of any kind.

thanks shady, so the EJ lifts include a front strut extension to the top or bottom? can you post a picture of how this extension attaches to see if it'll fit the XT6 strut and i'll verify if the EJ struts bolt up or require swapping strut tophats. looks like EJ front strut extensions and EA rear strut extensions will work. (i know nothing about lifts). any diff hardware for the EA series should work. what else is there...transmission or engine hardware too?

definitely replace the distributor cap and rotor. start with that. this is a really good thing to check: pull your brake pads and make sure they are wearing evenly. what you want to do is make sure the caliper slide arms are all greased really well. swing the caliper arms up and notice the rubber boots on both ends that the caliper bracket slides on. these boots have the metal rod going through them (don't know the proper names). pull them out and stuff all sort of grease in the boots and all over the slide, then insert it and work it back and forth a bunch of times. wipe away excess grease and don't get it on any rotors or pads. install everything. this makes sure the calipers move in an out very easily and will prevent them from riding against the rotor when you're not braking. most of the 10+ year old subaru brakes i pull are completely bone dry with no grease and dont' operate very smoothly. making it possible for them to constantly drag more than they need to. you probably have rear drum brakes so you'll only have to do this to the fronts. these previous two items are very important, particularly if you're having a serious drop in mileage. after that i'd consider having the fuel injectors professionally cleaned, but that is expensive but most old injectors will be dripping. still having issue - do a compression test and make sure you're not chasing somethign you'll never find. if you have bad compression somewhere then all the tune up and spending in the world won't help unless it's focused in the right place. if you did the plugs yourself you can test compression too. borrow a tester from a friend...autozone has the tool loaner program, they may have those as well. some will say fuel filter and that's not a terrible idea but i've yet to see one affect gas mileage even a little. i'd save the money for an extra tank of gas unless you don't know how old it is. O2 sensor isn't a bad idea, just buy the generic kind and splice it in yourself and save 40 bucks on the OEM plug in kind. never had one of these make a significant difference in mileage either. i've run without them before, disconnected and/or removed with not a ton of effect, though those weren't great running vehicles to begin with in all fairness. look for a 3.7 final drive transmission, they make for better highway gas mileage.

visual is all you can do, unless you can find the shop that worked on it or ask the previous owner for details. even so, i feel much better after doing the job myself and inspecting the bearings. some mechanics could case less what shape the bearings are in, it won't be their responsibility if the car fails in a year.

regular out of the box 1/2" socket wrench on the rear and a regular socket on the front (just like draining your oil). i wouldn't open up the rear diff, usually it's wet from something up front leaking and blowing back....trans, diff, oil...anything. over many years doesn't take much to build up and gunk things up. no need to open up a diff and clean it. drain and refill with synthetic and be on your way. check the level from time to time. kind of tricky to do, but just add more fluid in after a couple months and see if it takes any. how the car sets has a lot to do with how much you get in there since there isn't much clearnace to pour the bottle in. and yes the gasket sealant is out of the tube type.

interference 2.2 liter motors started in 97. anything prior is non-interference, including all 1.8 and 2.7 liter motors as well. there are on-line resources but dont' know that i'd trust them, sometimes they are convoluted. dealer or here is your best bet to find out.

for XT or Xt6 specific info www.xt6.net is a good resource as well. for your motor and trans and most things you'll get all you could ask for here though, much larger membership base.

look under the car - if you have rear axles to the wheels then you have 4WD or AWD. if there's nothing, then you fot FWD. best to clean the underside really good and see where the leak comes from, see what starts getting oily first.

SVXpert may be interested. he is roughly around the philly area, south jersey. he is on the board, look him up and email. he's a good guy, i've bought parts from him and met him once to get parts. don't drive it very long like this, depending on the leak, prolonged driving can damage the heads. (been there, done that). i drove mine for 10,000-20,000 miles and damaged the heads. they may be repairable but at a cost.

someone moved my post? i was trying to get an answer on a question before cluttering up this thread. if there are 10 questions with 2 responses each you just ended up with 20+ replies....

the covers come off very easily, the right and left timing belt covers. only need a 10mm socket to remove them. you can inspect the belt this way. a visual is the only thing you can do....or find the original owner. in the US you can find the previous owners information and call them up if you really wanted to. if there is any doubt or you don't know, this is an interference motor and must be replaced. or you take the risk.

ha ha, throw out and pilot bearings! i already have them, but im' not yanking the motor/trans to do that. i hate clutch work (reason i'm selling all my manual XT6's). the first one (probably original) lasted 140,000 miles, with at least 20,000 of the clutch being hard to press (that's how long i owned it). reminds me, i need to order that spare, driving without a clutch, while fun and challenging, only needs to be done as little as possible! i'll post here if i find anything out on mine down the road.... thanks for the heads up on the spring being a bad idea.

this as much of a social issue as a car issue. who owns it, who pays insurance? who's responsible for all the costs? who's supporting you at the moment? i'm not asking you to answer these, it's none of my business, but in those terms it might be good for you to help him out and let him drive it. maybe ask him to help with maintenance of the car, like you keep the minor things going and he helps with the major stuff....timing belts, water pump, oil pump reseal, cam/crank seals - that will all need to be done at the same time. stop and go driving isn't nearly as good for a car as highway miles, but keep up with regular maintenance and you'll be fine. do oil changes very often, that's what i say. the motor can take it, the EA82 is a beast. if you follow these orders this thing will last longer than you want it to: don't over heat it don't run it low on oil or with bad leaks change the oil ALL THE TIME. soobs don't like old oil, it's not good for the HLA's. (read all the posts about it).

swap in a good MAF sensor. sensors can typically be found for 5-50 bucks, so don't pay dealer prices unless you have too. in my experience the wiring/harnesses fail as much (or more often) than the sensors, so look for bad harnesses or wires. you'll have to systematically trouble shoot each code until you get it sorted out. if you could get them all it would be best to see if they are related in any way...a harness, a fuse, a particular circuit, starting circuit, ignition circuit....etc. Spark - you checked this. at each cylinder? Fuel - are your injectors opening, i'm trying to figure out how to verify this right now. Compression - do you have good compression?

$250 is a good price for a known good transmission in decent shape. do you know the mileage on it? yes, you can find one cheaper than that and you can pick up parts cars for less than that, but $250 isn't bad for a transmission. i would rather know something about it (like how many miles) before i'd get it right away, i'd keep my eyes open. if it had 100,000 i'd take it. 150,000 or they don't know i'd probably talk them down. 200,000 i doubt i'd take it.

mine was really stiff as well for as long as i owned the car and i got it with a new clutch in it. clutch cable broke after 20,000 + miles, so be prepared for that. the additional force you're using will prematurely break the cable. i'd learn how to drive without the clutch pedal (a tricky but possible ordeal) and have a spare cable in the trunk. that's my solution as the clutch works great otherwise. i installed a new cable and it's still just as tight. i may try to install another cable to make sure it's not twisted or compromised in some way since they are cheap and not hard to replace someday if i get bored. but i don't expect much. i think i'm going to rig a spring on the clutch fork as an "assisting" mechanism, maybe take some strain off the cable.

i'm looking to get a carbed y pipe from the marketplace forum from XNRG. with a welded in O2 bung will i be good to go on my MPFI XT? other than the O2 sensor the carbed vs. MPFI y pipes are identical?

stuck or removed thermostat will cause this issue. be observant after replacing the thermostat, take note if one is in there or not. on rare occasions people remove the thermostat as a bandaid for bad head gaskets or coolant leaks somewhere. less heat is less pressure and usually mitigates leaks....for a short time. if it's in there then you're all good, probably just stuck. that being said - different soobs run at different temps. my 97 OBS gauge runs about half way on the scale and that's normal. all my XT6's run around 1/4 of the way. when i first got the OBS i thought something was wrong with it, because the XT6's tend to run so low on the temp gauge. found out it's normal for them, just different scales. so your temp could be normal (never had a car like yours before), but your heater hoses are clogged. that's not that rare for them to be clogged on older vehicles. blow the lines to the heater core out with compressed air or your old garden hose.

i've seen outback fenders for under 50 bucks before new. course they are primered and need paint though. spray paint it with paint from walmart. a friend did that to his whole car and it looks awesome. (sounds crazy i know, i told him not to do it but i posted pictures they are crazy).

frequent oil changes are your friend. this issue is probably one of the most discussed topics on the board...do a search on "ticking" "tapping" and find all you want to know about it. bottom line - it's either the oil pump or the hydraulic valve lash adjusters. if the adjusters are to blame then adding MMO or Seafoam or ATF to your oil can help free them up. if the oil pump is to blame then you need to reseal the oil pump...costs about 10 bucks for the seal/orings and a couple hours. if the tapping is isolated to one particular spot in the engine then it's likely the HLA on that cylinder. if the sound is in one spot one day then one spot the next or multiple cylinders or all of them....then it's likely the oil pump seals. the oil pump gasket does not last forever, it's basically a 100,000 mile maintenance item. i just pulled one last week that had the gasket (really it's like an oring) but it was cracked right in half at the oil port. didn't cause any tapping, but leaked oil. if you see oil leaking at the bottom of the timing belt cover in the cetner of the car (where the oil filter is) then that's also an indication of an oil pump gasket/seal leaking. but they can leak and not tap. and they can also tap but not leak so that's not definitive in terms of the tapping. due to the functioning of the HLA's the valves are not adjustable like most cars. that's good, less work. but they also need frequent oil changes. i have friends that change their oil every 10,000 miles in their honda's/toyota's and while that's terrible they won't get the same terrible noises out of their cars (at first anyway) that you get out of a subaru. the HLA's will get dirty and stick. so change your oil often...if the car is older (which how can it not be) then there is certainly some level of build up in it, keep an eye on the oil and as soon as it starts looking dirty, change it. that will help your noise over the long run if it's HLA related...and will also prevent them from getting dirty. so even if your oil pump is to blame now, oil changes are important for the future of your HLA's.

kevin has been around the XT6 for years, owned a couple and is a big fan....but he also owns an RX. he knows what he's talking about. i'm a huge fan of the XT6, i think it's a much better car personally, but for speed, getting better 1/4 mile times is a headache on them. like everyone is saying, depends exactly what you want. the XT6 auto's do not suck that bad in my oppinion. i'm selling all of my manuals XT6's cause i like the auto's better. i hate dealing with clutches and shifting all the time, gets old to me. i'd rather replace an auto trans once than do a couple clutches, that's super annoying to me. and buy whatever yo'ure looking for. i would never buy one transmission only to convert to another. just find a car with the trans you want in it. converting is annoying as hell, i pulled all the parts for a conversion and it sucked. putting it all back would only have to be worse. but my time is very limited so if you got lots to burn then tear up the conversion.

i don't think that's a good idea either. depending on age/condition replacing head gaskets and having a complete valve job done may give you what you're after. i did an EA82 a couple years ago for a guy...i actually recommended him not even paying for all the work but he wanted it so i did it. i was surprised how much it helped. he had the heads ported and polished and high performance cams installed but i would guess just the new valve job and head gasket and complete tune up probably gave the best results really. the head shop even told me not to port and polish the heads, wouldn't notice much of anything unless we were planning on further upgrades. and like he said depending on your motor, upgrading to higher compression may help or just have an EA82T installed if you're looking for more power.

do the AA EJ lift kits modify the front struts at all? how about the EA82 lift kits, any front strut/suspension work? the XT6 can interchange rear struts with EA82 model soobs, so those attachments should work fine for the XT6. EA82 front struts do not swap with the XT6 though. this might be helpful to a few EA82 owners since some do the 5 lug suspension swap from the XT6. and - EJ series front struts will also swap with the XT6 so any EJ series strut mods should be compatible...depending what they are. that's why i ask.

there are 3. the front oil seal on the shaft. the oil block to pump gasket (o-ring material - called the mickey mouse gasket for obvious reasons when you see it) and an o-ring. with all that stuff out of the way this job should be a walk in the park, nice.

look at old posts.....people are pulling better horsepower and quarter mile times with the RX. that being said, i dig the XT6. but the performance options are limited and lots of custom work/learning involved. noone is pulling good times with the XT6 (sorry KEVIN!!!!!)....well they aren't better than the RX with llight (and easy) mods anyway. that being said....i like the XT6 obviously it would be my preference. if you're not going to upgrade the RX then definitely go with the XT6. the ER27 pulls alot better than an EA82, that is for sure. pulling weight, driving hills, interstate driving, towing...the ER27 does great for me.