idosubaru

i never pull the engine for head gaskets, i just finished a head gasket job today on a 6 cylinder soob with the motor in the car. much more difficult than the 4 cylinders, but still better than pulling the motor. unbolt the intake and flip it back/up out of the way. leave just about everything connected to it, just move it all up and out of the way and the heads are easy. there is plenty of room to do them in the car. even enough room to hit all the head bolts with an air wrench to zip them out quickly. the valve covers are annoying, tight getting a couple bottom bolts out. spray everything down really good a couple times with PB blaster or liquid wrench (don't use WD40) a day or so before you start. rust will be annoying, spray down radiator fan bolts, water pump pulley bolts, timing cover bolts/screws to keep them from shearing off. if you've been driving awhile with a bad headgasket that's using coolant, your heads may be badly damaged. i had an internal coolant leak on mine and kept driving it for a few months just adding coolant and it destroyed the head. gotta split. i can just about have one head off by the time you pull the engine out....leave it in there i say. it is super nice having the motor on the ground, but no problems doing it in the car either. have fun,

what are slip joints?

if the car ran fine, then the timing belts were replaced and it doesn't run fine any more then it seems to point to the belts or anything else that may have been touched/removed. verify spark at each cylinder, not just one? hopefully someone else will pipe up, i gotta split.

AH!! dang it, most of the older gen cars are like i described sorry about that. in this case it sounds like you lined it up correctly, line up the marks and install the belt as you mentioned. did you pull the covers and verify the cams are dead on after turning the motor over some and trying to start it? when you say the teeth were shreaded off you're speaking about the timing belt teeth of the old belt right? what caused the teeth to be sheared off? sounds like something seized for that to happen? did you make sure all the pulleys spun freely and the crank and cams turned over just fine? car ran fine before this? can you do a compression test?

swap pulleys maybe? looks like mounting is different, might need the alternator bracket from whatever that alternator came off of...looks like an XT6 aternator. i have a bracket i could send but not sure if the holes are in the block to accept it.

did you line all the marks up at the same time? you should line up the crank mark and the drivers side cam, then install the drivers side belt. then rotate the engine 360 degrees (cam will only go 180) and then line up the passengers side cam and install the belt with the crank lined up again. the passengers and drivers side cam pulleys have to be 180 degrees off. when one is up, the other is down. most common mistake is to line them up the same way (both up, both down). if you lined them up right, then usually one of the belts is a tooth off. take the intake off to make sure yo'ure getting a straight line of sight on the marks if you start questioning your alignment. make sure the belts are both dead on. let me know the answers to these questions and i'll post more possibilities. im' working all night so i should be here a few more hours....

75 shipped is crazy good price.

i meant tips in terms of suggestions, i can do the welding part. need advice on lining everything up like flanges, pipe and keeping it all straight and such. i figured there might be exhaust tricks i know nothing about since i really don't know much about exhaust welding. spot weld in place front to back and finish up off the car sounds like the way i'm going. right on miles, the first flange on the header is in place, so i can start there. thanks

i'm not familiar with alternator bearings, though i have one in the rear seat of one of my cars since i disassembled one for kicks...thinking about rebuilding as well. anyhow, bearings can often times be repacked. on a bearing of this type you'd need a very fine finishing nail or some other pointed metal object that is really strong. where the inner bearing face starts, delicately pry the bearing face/shield up. get it up enough to insert one of those grease gun needle attachments in there and pump it full of new grease. air pockets will start popping and sometimes old nasty grease comes out. on the XT6 alternator that i tore apart the bearing was accessible enough to do this on without pressing it off, so you'd avoid needing a press. i've done this plenty of times...even today to some bearings, but none ever that small so i can't promise it would work on something that small. i know a guy around here that is good at working on his subaru (XT6) and he pulled apart his alternator and said there's a solder joint in there that gets bad. so he resoldered that connection and it fixed his problem. i dont know enough about alt's to recall what connection it was though. i'd just buy one as well. subaru alternators are so easy to replace that another option is to just keep a used one in trunk, an XT6 alternator takes literally like 8 minutes to replace. i did buy a new one though, it's a good way to go. but...i kept it in the trunk until my old one went out. probably not a great idea for the battery though but i wanted a new one anyway so i replaced it after the alternator.

oh my scat, i was thinking there was a simple painters trick or something. looks great though! and black is wonderful since those valve cover grommets like to seep all the time anyway even after replacement...stains won't show on black! are the cam sprockets painted or powder coated? what kind of paint? i used blue on mine, but it's not very durable i don't believe.

i just updated my last post if you care to bore yourself to death and read it again. 450 is good...they quoted my cousin $699 here for a timing belt job and the quote didn't specify anything but the belt. i did it for her of course for cost of parts. the belt and pump alone cost 150-200 for parts, i'm really surprised they're actually quoting you that. i'd hope they don't try to rip you and once it's apart say "oh you now need the tensioner and sprocket pulley"...that's another $300 dollars. AND oil pump, crank and cam.....$450 sounds really low. i don't think i'd do it for less than $450 (unless relative or something)...i'd have to check parts prices.

matt, there are probably better options than JB weld for trying to seal it up. i woudln't waste your time, JB weld does not make much of a sealant. depends where it's leaking...if it's leaking at the gasket then the water pump isn't failing and you could try to reduce the leakage. if the pump is on it's way out and coolant is coming out of the weep hole or through the front seal then no amount of anything will even help. if you suspect the gasket is leaking (never seen one do this from the factory though, so i don't know how likely that is)...but if it is then here's the best quick fix i can think of.... i'd let it sit for a few hours so the pump housing has a chance to drain that way it's as dry as possible while you're trying to seal it. then go down the autoparts store and look for your sealant options. i can't remember how much access you have to the water pump mating surface but here's what i'd try to do.....i think i'd get a tube of the sure-tack gasket adhesive and sealant. smear it all over the bottom and sides of the water pump where it's leaking. then i'd slap a strip of gasket material over the top of the sealant and hold it on there. auto parts stores sell gasket material, sheets of it to cut your own gaskets from. i don't recommend this, but if yo'ure not going to fix it right it could possibly help a bad gasket scenario. again, you would be lucky if the gasket were the cause of the leak and not the actual pump itself. typically a water pump won't necessarily leak terribly...though it can get that way in a hurry. so keep plenty of coolant/water mix in the trunk for now. that's a terrible idea, but if you can't fix it. make SURE the thermostat housing isn't leaking. rare and unlikely, but possible and easy to fix. you're about 3 hours away, that's pretty far otherwise i'd offer to do it for you much cheaper than a shop would.

you push a button and it'll disconnect just like a regular belt. so you can leave it "up" and just manually disconnect everytime like a normal belt if you don't like the automatic function of it. you just have two movements instead of one since the lap belt is seperate. all XT6's have them, i've never had any issues with them not working. they do occassionally do the strangle thing. release it and put it back or open the door again.

cool, that looks simple enough. if that lifts the body up, then doesn't that technically pull the wheels in a little or something? the axles have to follow the body up right, so that means it would pull the wheels in some or something? i've never done anything with lifts as you can tell. why do people build spacers for the rear diff? that would just reduce the axle angle if you lift the struts and then lift above the diff too?

run the fram for a little bit, i always change the oil quickly after having the motor open for anything anyway. how did you get the subaru letters colored differently on the valve covers? probably really simple but i know nothing about paint. looks cool though, probably gives it about 8hp wouldn't you say? and the cracks between the valve seats are very common on EA82 and ER27 motors. you'd be hard pressed to pull one of these motors apart and not find at least one crack there on any of these motors on the road today. nearly everyone i pull the heads on has this, and they're all NA motors.

***same thread from xt6.net*** last night someone was kind enough to throw some firewood my way. too bad it was in the middle of the freeway and i hit it at 65 mph. dented my transmission pan (still driveable though) and ripped my exhaust completely off. still made it to work like a dog on three legs though. now i have to weld new exhaust. first time i welded my exhaust was my only exhaust experience, and i welded some new exhaust for my friend. lining up the new flanges, welding them on perpendicular and the right angle, then welding the pipe on correctly...getting it all to line up was a bit tricky and time consuming. any hints on doing this more effeciently this time?

pull the a/c without unbolting or discharging it and lay it to the side, use bungee cords to hold it out of the way. do not unbolt anything from the intake...i remove the throttle cables (takes a couple seconds) and unbolt the intake manifold. lift it up and out of the way. it'll come up enough to pull the motor. might have to unbolt the intake hose from somewhere of your choice and remove the pcv hoses that may go to the valve covers. do this for head gasket replacement with the motor in the car or for pulling the block if you like. saves disconnecting alot of hoses, wires, vacuum lines and such. it's really a great move.

replace the thermostat, very easy and good insurance. do not let it get anywhere near the red anymore if you can help it. heat kills motors. the gaskets and seals and other items will not treat you kindly in years to come if the motor is run hot. failure of items later in life can be attributed to scenarios like this. have you had any coolant loss? how many miles? water pump could be going south as well. they often will leak prior to complete failure. looks for drops/wetness under the water pump area - close to the lower radiator hose and the thermostat.

maybe the cruise on/off button saves the cruise control system? either the solenoid, computer, cruise mechanism...something will last longer if it's not constantly powered or engaged? on the older soobs (like my XT6) if you push the cruise control button on, it always stays on. but the button is still there to turn off if you want to. but i can hear the cruise control on one of my XT6's when it's on, not sure what i'm hearing but i hear something. subaru moved away from this on the newer models. my OBS is like you said, always off when you start the car.

agree with replacement. it's not that expensive or hard to replace a fender. keep your eye out for one of the same color. post in the market place forum on this website that you need a fender, you might get lucky. i shipped one via Greyhound once and it was like 30 bucks. ebay maybe as well, but there are usually primered or new fenders on there so you'd have to paint it. how about just leave it? that's what i'd probably do. wire brush and paint/primer the metal so it doesn't rust and be done with it. but i don't care what mine look like so i'm a bit of a freak. i do like the Great Stuff (find it at home depot or lowes) idea, that's great!

you want to check this out and not just assume it'll go away. overheating will turn a great and reliable car/motor into junk. running hot is terrible on your motor, particularly the seals in it. also - you need to make sure you have a good concentration of coolant in there, not just water. winter is here as well as freezing temperatures for you and i both. water will freeze and crack your block/heads, make sure you have enough coolant if you added water by itself. disclaimer over.....i would replace the radiator cap but i wouldn't be too confident that will fix such a serious issue. i would inspect the water pump and radiator. the water pump....i think you can see it by removing the drivers side timing belt cover. if this sounds difficult, it is not. my mom or wife could do it. it doesn't require removing anything else, just a couple 10mm bolts i believe. you can leave the cover off for awhile and keep your eye on the water pump...you might immediately see some seepage from it. leave the car idle for 15 minutes or so in one spot once it's warmed up...but don't leave it sit by itself, make sure it doesn't over heat. in other words, don't start it and plan on coming back 15 minutes later only to find the Temp gauge through the roof. you should be fine, but stay close and keep an eye on it....after letting it idle for 15 or 20 minutes, look under the car for a couple minutes and look for drops. another check - remove the radiator fans (not difficult either) and check out the condition of the radiator. green corrosion and missing/busted out fins are not a good sign. post pictures of underside of car, radiator, wet spots, etc and we can help more.

nice job, looks great. so you just installed some spacers in the rear, to what? and just lengthened the struts with a spacer up front?

RAM performance has good information on extracting power from the EA81, read their website. i agree with morganm about top secret meaning dung from animals and inaccurate hp guesstimates. NOS would be another option.

i have the track 272 grind set on my XT6 subyrally. when i get the exhaust welded back up that got ripped off tonight from some nice person leaving their firewood all over the highway i can give you a ride in it. but i suppose that may not tell you very much anyway since you don't know how the XT6 drives stock? i drive it on the street but it sure does idle like crazy and wants to cut out at idle and also the vacuum is affected as the braking is worse as well. so yeah, what they said, not ideal for street use.

agree with the battery. driving with a bad alternator is terrible for the battery. the damage done to the battery likely started awhile ago, before just the actual last time the car quit on you. i can't tell you how many friends i've replaced alternators for and they had the battery go out shortly after. if reliability is a concern i'd have it replaced, it has likely sustained serious degredation. yes it'll test fine, yes it will work just fine with the new alternator, but not for nearly as long as it could have before. if reliability isn't a big deal, then drive it tills it drops.