idosubaru

found lots of thoughts in searches that's why i was trying to find something definitive.

different length runners like you said. from what i've read on polishing you don't necessarily touch the intake side as the induced turbulence through the fuel injection manifold helps mix the fuel. i don't know much, i've only done it once myself.

need more info for a good answer. how far are you towing it? you didn't say if it's FWD or AWD. if it's FWD then there shouldn't be any issues. if it's AWD then just remove the rear driveshaft (easy) and you can tow with a dolly.

what are the stock specs for compression? a good way to test compression is to remove all the spark plugs, remove the intake, prop the throttle body open and no fuel pressure and a good cranking starter/battery and all this on a warm motor. if you don't, your compression readings will read a little lower than stock. i find propping the throttle open, testing when warm and removing all the spark plugs will make a noticeable difference in compression readings. but i'm not familiar with the 2.5. also - verify the compression tester is accurate before toasting the motor.

hard to say. typical issue with timing belt install is that it's not done properly. the cams have to be lined up perfectly. which isn't hard, but tyipcally it's done wrong the first time you do it...the cams are one notch off or more. or if the distributor was removed at all that thing is EASY to get lined up incorrectly. but it shouldn't be making a sound like the car doesn when trying to start after it's already running. important question: it never made this noise before the timing belt broke?

1stsubaruparts.com. funny thing is it lists different parts....or at least different pricing for the XT and XT Turbo. but it doesn't show actual part numbers. BUT - this is where it gets funny, all EA82's (turbo, non-turbo) have the same cam EXCEPT the XT NON TURBO? this is assuming that the pricing indicates the same cam, which makes sense. the XT Non Turbo has a different priced cam than all the rest???? according to the pricing: A $143 cam for all EA82T's, all EA82 coupes, SPFI's, sedans, and wagons. BUT - the XT nonturbo has a different cam for $276. All EA82 cams are indentical with the exception of the nonturbo XT? figure that one out?

anyone know for sure? or how to find out?

been working the past couple days, today is my last. i have the next 4 days off i'll look at it.

i find it unlikely that will make a difference. if it's that easy then it's worth a try. go do it and post back here what you find out. there are lots of posts (wishing it was higher) on here about MPG, so i think that's a typical thing people wonder about. you could use the search button and search for MPG or gas mileage or something and find out alot from other posts about the same topic. the consensus i see on these posts is to drive conservatively, light on the gas pedal and not over 65 for best gas mileage. having the car in top shape helps as well - ignition components and tire pressure particularly. i picked up a 97 OBS this year and it doesn't get as good as i suspected either. like i've mentioned over and over in my other posts, my 15 year old subaru XT6 with 6 cylinders, AWD and 200,000 miles (as well as my other 5 XT6's) gets better mileage than my OBS and is much less picky about highway speed.

i agree with previous post - likely an electrical problem, but if you have others that makes it harder to diagnose. first place i would look is your alternator and battery connections. a bad connection can cause your car to intermittently die just as you explained here. connections must be good, clean, and tight. don't know that this applies to you at all, but 90's honda's have a common issue with the fuel pump relay that does the same thing. car is typically hard to start though, that's the main sign, but it can also cut out while driving due to a bad relay causing the pump to shut off.

another possibility is that some crank pulleys are really two piece pulleys. there is a metal inner and outer parts seperated by a very very thing piece of rubber (these are called harmonic balancers). this piece of rubber can seperate over time and the pulley can become off balance as you said, particularly if someone at some point in time used something to pry the crank off. that could also cause the apparent wobble. if you look really close you should be able to tell if the pulley isn't seated rigth (the situations explained above) or the pulley inner and outer parts are out of alignment as i just described. pretty sure 2.2 motors have this same kind of pulley. really annoying to me. i like reliability and swapping in a solid pulley is the solution in my book as there is no noticeable vibration with a solid pulley. i have heard of people inserting self tapping screws into the rubber and also welding the pulley together to prevent it from failing (coming apart at that rubber ring), i wouldn't do either of those i think it should be replaced. but welding it would certainly be a permanent fix if done properly.

yeah those timing tensioner bolts are a dime a dozen in terms of matching threads. i'd even look around the rest of the car looking for something close if you don't have one. it's even worth it to go to Lowes or Home Depot or any hardware store to get the exact length/size/thread you need. stick something down the hole to "measure" the depth, don't forget to include the depth of the tensioner and maybe one lock washer. take this length (a straw perhaps would work, cut to length) to the store and get the exact size bolt you need. if you have a long bolt you can cut it to length as well with a hacksaw, electric saw, whatever. but you'll likely need a die to cut the end back in shape. you shouldn't have a problem, like i said i bet i've done this 10 times on soobs and it's almost always worked. i think the only time i didn't get it to work was when a chunk of the block (a very large chunk) came out with the pulley bolt.

well i just thought that i can't swap back to the EA82 TB because i would have to machine the spyder intake to work with the XT6 so it'd be too big of an opening for the original. dang it.

okay, who's ready to disable the search function now?? i'm putting together an EA82 that i want for good gas mileage...yeah that's right, that's how lame i am. would installing an XT6 throttle body on my EA82 offer any highway, long distance gas mileage increases? i have a few extra XT6 motors so i figured why not ask? i guess it wouldn't be that hard to test and if it didn't help gas mileage i can swap back to the EA82. maybe i'll be the test mule for this.

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.