idosubaru

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.

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.