idosubaru

do a search on electric superchargers and you'll find they are bogus. get a d/c adpater to run your hair dryer pointed in your intake and see how it does. oh yeah, you'll need an intercooler if you don't have a temperature setting on your hair dryer (HA HA HA HA!!!!)

how does the guy on the front radiator support attach? is that a bolt on? zip ties?

would you like to hear a much easier solution? get a bolt of the same thread but longer. the threads are deeper than the stock bolts that are used. so if you get a longer bolt you can reach the good threads at the bottom of the hole. it's best to at least run a tap, or if you don't have one, run a longer bolt all the way down and back out a few times to clean the holes out. a tap is nice just in case there is any length of the hole at the bottom that is drilled out but not tapped. but i've never really needed a tap, it will work just fine without one, it's one more level that's all. if you find a bolt that is too long...in other words it reaches the bottom of the hole before actually tightening the tensioner then use any number of lock washers (good idea anyway) to space the bolt out. install pulley, then lock washers on top of it to take up some of the length of the bolt. this will work work almost every time and you'll get it to torque to spec's .... i can almost garuantee it. i helicoil any that are stripped if i pull the motor, but doing it in the car with a right angle drill sucks and takes time. finding a longer bolt takes all of 52 seconds and requires no expensive parts (heli-coil kits). good luck

okay sounds like i'll play with adjustment first. just printed out a long detailed clutch adjustment explanation.

ha ha, see how long your Ford lasts compared to the subaru. the $ required to make a Ford last 250,000 miles will typically far exceed what it costs to keep a soob that long. at 20,000 miles a year that extra 5-7 mpg the soob has over the Ford can save you $1,000 bucks or so in gas. (rough figures, i'm too lazy to go punch it in, go punch buttons if you want exact.) and as for the XT6 - it's a late 80's soob. not sure why it gets good mileage but for a 6 cylinder AWD, it does okay. does a shade better than my OBS. gotta be gentle on the OBS to get that kind of mileage, XT6 doesn't really care. just get on the highway and get on it. the auto's and manual trans both get around 27/28 highway mileage.

the bottom line is that you want a lower profile tire no matter what wheels you use---13" or 17". the tires roll on cornering because they are rubber, wheels do not. larger wheels do nothing for handling performance. if you wanted to get technical about details that don't matter, larger is worse because they increase your overall center of gravity/ground clearance (everything else being equal - like tire profile). but that's negligible so it really doesn't matter. larger tires tyipcally incorporate low profile tires and that's where you have your handling gains. if you're strictly looking for handling performance then lower profile tires are what you're after. be cautious about high performance though, you don't want to go overboard as you probably still want to maintain wet weather traction as well. steering out of the way of something on wet roads with tires that aren't made for them isn't fun either. if you want the wheels for the looks then go with them. the WRX wheels are really nice looking and will look great on your outback. tires will be more expensive if you care about that. another positive for getting larger wheels is that you can try to match the overall diameter of your stock wheel/tire combo so your speedometer is accurate. there are tire size calculators all over the internet, punch in your old wheel/tire size and the new wheel/tire size and it will tell you how close they are and you can figure out what low profile tire will give you the closest overall diameter to your originals so your speedo is correct. it shouldn't vary by more than 3-5% with minor changes anyway so it's not something to loose sleep over. but if you keep the 15" wheels and get lower profile tires you'll loose a little overall diameter than you can make up with the 16".

i guess my question is, are there other signs of a failing clutch other than slipping? it does not slip at all. i'll try adjusting it again.

the XT6 is AWD and i still get better mileage out of them than the newer Outback 2.2 liter motor that only has 67,000 miles as opposed to my XT6's which have from 130,000 to 220,000 on them. i can get up to 28 on them at 80. can't do that with the Outback. and they are all AWD vehicles.

for an AWD XT6 - when it's in gear the clutch will not slip at all. but sometimes it's hard to get it in gear. you press the clutch pedal down and the gear shift just won't go into gear sometimes. it eventually does. seems the clutch doesn't disengage until the pedal is low and the previous owner said "it needs a clutch". how does the clutch fail but it doesn't slip at all? out of my 3 manual trans XT6's i'm driving right now it's probably the toughest to make slip if you're "getting on it".

get the cam tool. it's to hold the cam sprocket while you loosen the cam pulley bolt. it's a single bolt and plenty of people on the board have ruined items trying to keep that sprocket from turning while removing the bolt or not tigthening it enough and coming off for the same reason. i did it without that tool a couple weeks ago on a 2.2, i will never do that again. it was annoying and difficult. the tool would have made things much easier.

practicality isn't there. one factor is that planes fly at altitudes of sustained high wind speeds. that isn't the case for us on the ground. getting something like that to function efficiently and usefully would be a task.

unfortunately i think you need to use the same fluid for the drains. the point of doing the multiple drain method is that you can't get all the fluid out with one drain, so you do it a couple of times to get most of the old fluid out. if you use a different fluid for the last drain you'll have partial concentrations of different fluids, not the best idea in my oppinion. the synthetics are nice, but old school ATF works well too. i'd plan on changing at 30,000-60,000 intervals.

i'd check out the control arm. while offroading in some snow i slammed into a curb and severly bent my control arm. used one for $25 dollars and i was on my way. mine was obvious because it was so bad, but a minor bend in it could easily be overlooked and cause symptoms your'e describing.

my 97 OBS is similar to what you're saying in terms of decreased mileage at higher speeds. though i don't see a 5 mpg difference, but that's the wifes car and on highway trips i don't typically stay around 60. my older XT6 models (i have 4 that i drive, all 6 cylinders) get better mileage at highway speed. i drive 120 miles round trip everyday. at 75/80 mph my XT6's get around 27 mpg (6 cylinder, AWD). if i drive 55-60 i will not see any better mileage, it stays about the same. my first XT (4 cylinder FWD) would see top mileage around 70/75 mph as well and not get significantly better at lower speeds. that thing busted out 40 mpg, which is why i just bought one and am rebuilding the motor. the XT had the lowest drag coefficient of any car at it's time of manufacture so that doesn't hurt it. i'm an aerospace engineer and i'm sitting at NASA right now, so i understand all the principles behind aerodynamics. drag is one piece of the puzzle. if drag were the only principle behind gas mileage then driving in the highest gear at 35 mph would offer the best mileage on those principles, but that is not the case. on the highway my Ford F150 gets 15 mpg and deviates little even when i'm towing a car. the drag of another car must be quite large, but my mileage will be hardly different than non-towing highway miles. there are mileage variances between makes of cars. the newer subaru's, including my 97 OBS experience the "better at lower highway speeds" syndrome.

the "idler belt" is likely just a pulley, not the belt. they wouldn't call a belt that name and timing belts don't cost $135 even at a dealer. pull the covers and have a look. pulling the side covers should only take a couple minutes and you'd be done. if you can't see anything, have a 22mm socket (i think) ready to turn the motor over by hand, that way you can turn the belt until you see the writing on it "SUBARU" for instance to tell how warn or not-so-warn it is. you could just bump the key for a second to turn the motor over to a new position a couple of times if you don't have a socket...just wait for the timing belt to stop in different locations until you see the markings on the belt. this will give you an idea of the age of the belt. post a picture of the belt if you're not sure.

i disagree on one can of SEAFOAM doing any engine damage if left in the car or driven for a regular oil change interval. i've added seafoam and ATF (two bottles seafoam or 2 quarts of ATF) in ER27's back in the day with no problems. 200,000 miles later no problems with the blocks. that was years ago, but no problems on those motors. now i typically reseal the oil pump when i get one and don't have issues anymore. i have an OBS, 4 XT6's and no ticking.

no, that was a general comment about using thicker oil before resorting to any additives. it's not important. what makes you think you need duralube? if you're engine is experiencing a problem duralube is not the solution.

get the $3.00 versions, that's what i got for my 1997 outback. dealers are inherently expensive. if you need dealer parts, order them online from 1stsubaruparts.com or liberty subaru in NJ, they typically offer MUCH better prices than local dealer will. air struts locally are $399 but only $250 through one of the online subaru OEM parts suppliers. that's a HUGE difference. i would guess the $3 and $13 plugs are the same part anyway. ask them for the NGK part number and compare them. if the NGK part numbers match then it's the same plug. for spark plugs not a big deal, but for 1997 Outback specific questions the Newer Generation Forum will get you more responses. (this is the Older Generation Forum).

the real question is why are you wanting to add anything but oil? if it's oil loss, then ask about oil loss. if your engine is noisey then ask about a noisey engine. 230,000 km is nothing so i wouldn't concern yourself with it. that's only 150,000 miles, i'd say most subaru's through the early 90's have that many miles on them and don't need anything but regular oil changes. all of mine have 140,000 - 200,000 miles (which is like 360,000 km) and i never use additives. i wouldn't add duralube or any other additive. no need to put anything in your oil except oil. the only thing i might recommend would be thicker oil (20w50) if you're having excessive oil consumption or something to clean the HLA's if you don't feel like (or can't) tearing into the motor to fix noisey HLA's.

that first XT6 is not a lift kit but an XT6 with suspension goodies from other vehicles. there's a thread right now on the marketplace forum with a liftkit offered for what you're looking for, like the second XT pictured.

i don't know much about motors so my statement about increasing horsepower was wrong. but i think it does help somewhere in performance and that's what i was getting at. if you made a 238 pound crank pulley i think that would slow the car down. i don't know where you reach the point of diminishing returns for a car motor but it seems possible that a lighter crank pulley could help things out a bit.

guy that works at the Subaru dealer in PA that i go to has a mint XT6 AWD auto with 27,000 (last i saw). it is perfect.

if you're having this much trouble phil i think it might be easier to remove the axle to get it done and put it back in. it's only one bolt, the axle nut and it'll come out.

he's got it going on, follow his suggestions. i'm sure he assumed this was being done, but in the process of the valve job he described be sure the valve seals are replaced. i think it's best to cool them prior to inserting to help *shrink* them slightly for a tighter fit without gauling/defacing the metal. if you bought the head set gasket set, i think you only need an extra o-ring to rebuild the block. it's only a couple extra seals/gaskets/orings to complete the block. it sure would suck to assume you need a full rebuild if it's just the valve seal leaking oil. it is also possible to remove the piston without pulling the motor apart - so you have the option of pulling one piston, honing that cylinder and just replacing the rings on that one piston. much easier, cheaper and faster than pulling the entire motor apart.

i have WRX rims on mine and they look much better than the stock rims. but before you guys get bent about me saying that....it might be due to the fact that the WRX rims are new and my XT6 rims are 20 years old and not shiney. or maybe because my XT6 looks the way it does.