idosubaru

no experience with your car but i would guess 2.25" is too large unless it's a turbo and depending what you're looking for. i've run some larger exhausts on an XT6 and after a point...like 2.5" with no cat i think it looses way too much low end for me.

i'm guesssing orings, compressor leaking or leaky strut. one strut is leaking. try the o-rings at the associated solenoid. best bet is to replace all the o-rings in the entire system. one dollars worth of new orings can solve major problems (leaks). there are two orings at each solenoid. don't bother trying to find a part number or anything. remove an oring and go to an auto parts store and have them match up the right size. apply a little grease to the new orings and install. now that the orings are addressed another possibility is the air compressor. if it's running alot, that's not good as it will wear out. on the air compressor are fittings for receiving the air lines. these fittings can become loose or cracked and basically fall off or just hang there. it will be obvious if this is the case. don't bother repairing them, get a new compressor or just the part you need if you can locate it. air strut and computers are possibilities but if the air struts aren't all rusted and terrible looking i'd check the first things i mentioned. this air suspension is relatively simple to work with and not that bad for those of us that horde extra parts. keep rust off the struts and they'll last a very long time, i never have to replace them. i wire brush the rust off of them and paint them flat black. the rust will rub against the rubber bag and wear the rubber out. i replace my orings, keep the struts rust free and have few problems. bought my XT6 at 105,000 miles and 4 years later at 215,000 with the same struts and no problems. they appear in great shape and i don't see them failing any time soon.

subaru factory service manual is by far the most complete manual. others can't touch it. get it from any dealer. cheaper on the internet...liberty subaru or subaruparts.com

100,000 miles - replace the crank seal and oil pump gaskets/seals. you can use oil on the cams. i like engine rebuilding lubrication...forget what it's called. it's very sticky like substance for applying to parts as i reassemble the cams. clean your HLA's if you're in this deep and they are tapping on one side.

can't picture the problem exactly as i'm not familiar with this head. if you post a picture that would help tons.

honda's are great. elements are great for tall drivers. no third seat belt in the rear and about as dumb looking as they come (personal taste of course). get an AT cooler installed no matter what (even if the car is brand new).

did anything happen prior to this, any work done to the car? if so i would suspect the following: check the fusible links under the hood. should be in a little rectangular black box close to the battery with a lid on it. remove the lid and see if they are all intact. there is one that will blow that will break the starter circuit but retain power everywhere else in the car. when you turn the key you get nothing? no click? sounds like the solenoid in the starter is bad. sourcing parts is tricky with subaru's but you can replace the starter solenoid if you can find it. otherwise you'll have to buy the entire starter assembly which will have a new solenoid attached to it. if you suspect the actual starter (particularly if you hear a click which indicates the solenoid is functioning properly) give the starter case a couple good hits with a hammer (you're not trying to break it), hitting various locations on the case. autozone/advanced auto parts will test your starter for free if you take it to them. before messing with your starter do a quick power supply check. contacts have to be good. check battery terminals, clean and tight. check battery. try to jump the car. i know you have power and lights but i've seen a car with what appears to be good power start right up with a jump. your ignition switch (in the steering column) could be bad or you could have a bad ground wire somewhere but i wouldn't persue these until you rule out the starter and battery/connections.

if you get an automatic, install an aftermarket transmission cooler on it immediately and make sure all the tires match (tread depth and type of tire). whatever you get, have a very complete tune up done to the car. new cars are a waste...unless it's a Ford and you know for certain the warranty will be needed multiple times in the immediate future. if you don't mind spending the money, then who cares. if you'd rather keep the $, then get a used subaru and have all maintenance items addressed immediately unless you have records from previous owner that show it's been done. timing belts replaced timing belt pulleys/tensioner replaced cam seals replaced water pump replaced (mileage depending) coolant flushed transmission fluid flushed plugs, wires, cap and rotor (cap and rotor only on some motors) check brake pads replace battery (if old) older subaru engines and transmissions will generally last a long time. but the older the car, the more likely you'll have a run in with wheel bearings, alternator, fuel pump or some other random failure. not that it's likely to happen or these are common, but after 100,000 miles there's more of a chance one of these will cause issues. but the engine and car in general will last for as long as you'd like. i've driven XT6's for 350,000 + miles and have never had one wheel bearing, starter or brake failure in any subaru i've owned.

starting *under oil pan*, not sure what that means but i wouldn't expect too much. rule out simple things, make sure it's actually a blown motor. if it is, replace the block. i could find an engine block, even an entire motor for 200. buy one and drop it in.

never done a legacy, but on an XT6 (much different of course) there's no need to touch the ball joint. remove strut mounting bolts and you're golden. there are those that completely disassemble the front suspension when all that's needed is to remove 2 lower strut mount bolts and loosen the top 3 bolts of the strut and that gives enough room to pull the axle. the hub articulates enough to pull/install an axle. have a 3/4" socket for the axle nut and it will be easy. try using a 1/2" breaker bar or socket and it'll be a pain in the rump roast (i've broken 3 trying to use 1/2" bars and sockets). if it just started clicking and only clicks around turns it's not anywhere near failure or of any concern except the annoying sound and grease flinging around. if the boot is cracked, sometimes packing a little grease in there by hand will quiet it up if it's really loud. of course that's temporary and it will eventually return....in an hour or month.....i just let them click for a year or two until i need to do some brake work or something else. if they start clicking while i'm driving straight i replace them.

reseal it. i've had a couple soobs with 200,000+ miles with the original oil pumps (i replaced the seals) and mine never tap. i never mic mine, but while it's apart you can mic it like mentioned. if it's in specs, leave it alone.

i got two 6 years ago (phil is right, they are not new). i installed one (and even two at a time) in an XT6. no difference, i haven't had them installed for...well 6 years now.

need to get the code it's flashing and start there.

swap plugs and wires from one side of the motor to the other. if the problem moves with the plugs/wire then you know one is faulty. how many coil packs does it have (i haven't looked at my OBS yet)? if it has two, swap them as well and see if the problem moves to a different cylinder. check for spark at the faulty cylinder. make sure the spark at that cylinder looks as good as the rest of the cylinders. long shot and doubtful - fuel injector issue? leaky, dripping?

subaru OEM FSM (factory service manual) is what you want though they are pricey, but excellent resources. heads should be done with the motor in the car. my time is too valuable to pull the motor. it is nice, easy and fine if you got lots of extra time and want to pull the motor or need to for something else (like clutch). but i routinely pull heads in the 6 cylinder XT6's which have much less room and more parts. the 4 cylinder i did last summer was easy, plenty of room though i've never done a turbo head gasket job. but otherwise the 4 cylinder head gaskets are straight forward and easy to do in the car. only sucky part, which doesn't bother me is that there are two heads, two head gaskets and two timing belts. twice as much as most cars. but they aren't that hard. the trickiest part half the time is dealing with seized or rusted or worse yet, sheared bolts. keep track of everything (bolts and parts) if it's your first time. it's very nice to have extra heads already milled, checked and with valve jobs so you can install them right away as opposed to taking your heads to the shop and waiting to finish the job. take your time, clean up all head bolts, holes and the head/block mating surface and do it right. not something you want to do incorrectly.

check your driveshaft to your rear wheels, i think you'll find a bad ujoint. sometimes it's noticeable by visual inspection depending on the failure and if you know what to look for. best bet is to remove the shaft and manually inspect the joint (or just drop one end of the shaft so you can manually move the ujoints around, though it's easy to remove the entire shaft). a failed joint will be obvious - it will either be seized, coming apart or feel very *lumpy*. i would check that first before anything else.

bad mileage and loss of power going up hills can be caused by many things. people tend to cry "bad converter or fuel pump" when they aren't sure what the problem is. unless you have more reason to believe the converter i'd diagnose this a bit more. i've seen lots of people replace converters and not solve their problems.

are you sure the exhaust manifold gaskets aren't just leaking? they can be really loud if leaking. fix your cooling right now or your car won't last very long. take note to see if you have any coolant loss or any bubbles in your overflow tank. pull the oil filller cap and see if it has any white residue underneath it. if you can rule out the head gaskets, it's a good idea to replace the radiator. being a non-interference engine you can just wait until the timing belt breaks on the side of the road somewhere or replace it now and know that it's good. (replace water pump at the same time). i always replace them right away since who knows how old the one is in there, i assume they're old.

fix the car if you like it. everything you mentioned is minor and typical maintenance items for older cars. buy something for 2,000 and it will likely need work immediately or soon anyway. you may not know when the timing belts were done or how well it was taken care of.

i picked up some brake caliper rebuild kits for like $7.65 for BOTH sides on the internet somewhere for my XT6. great deal, two rebuilt brake calipers for less than 10 dollars. it was super easy to do. much easier than repacking bearings. can't remember where i ordered them from. got them from Viking Imports in NC first time around, but they were much more expensive. found the last ones i bought on the internet. i'd recommend doing that while you're down there. you'll need inner and outer wheel seals for each hub as well. i'd recommend doing the ball joints while you're down there. when i did a front end rebuild like you're doing i rebuilt the hubs, new bearings, new seals, new ball joints, brake caliper rebuild kits, suspension bushings, rotors, brake pads. but i also want to consider my 215,000 mile subaru very reliable.

i have no idea what it's called but i have some spray on solution that someone gave to me. i had it sitting around and didn't expect much from it. i pulled a motor out of my daily driver XT6 just a couple weeks ago that i'm doing some work on and decided to hit the lower radiator support with this stuff since it was rusted. i should have taken before/after pictures. wire brushed it and got all the loose rust flakes off. then sprayed this clear liquid (basically looked like water when applied) all over the lower support. the next day all the rust was *gone*, it was a silver color and this bottle makes claims that it neutralizes rust. looks real nice, i plan on painting it and using this stuff some more on the underbody as well before applying some high quality paint. i'll post pic's and the name of the stuff if i can remember to go look. i often miss lots of posts so PM me or remind me to post back if anyone is interested.

if you can weld, buy a generic muffler and weld it in place of the old one. i bought a brand new muffler off a guy for 35 bucks and welded it in place. (high flow converter on top of that). easy to weld in place on subaru's. i wouldn't waste money on buying a bolt on part for it, way to expensive....unless you can find a good price on one. i bought a muffler and a guy at a muffler shop charged me 35 dollars to weld it in place a long time ago before i did any welding myself. i'd go somewhere else, 650 is crazy.

t stat is typically really easy to remove, like 2 bolts. pull it and find out.

need to get in there and find out what happened. it's not that uncommon for pulley tensioners to fail on any make/model vehicle. though they can last 200,000 miles as well. if the tensioner broke off, taking a piece of the block with it you have a difficult but not impossible to repair item. depends how bad it is as well. how much block material came off. you'll have to get a look and let us know. if it's just sheared off, drill out the old bolt and install a new one and you're done. (probably need a right angle drill). if it's actually broken off with part of the block being gouged out as well (seen this happen a few times) then it's a little more tricky but fixable. first if it's not bad and depending which bolt/pulley it is you could possible switch to a larger or longer bolt. typically the timing pulley bolt holes are longer than the actual bolts used. if you find a slightly longer bolt you can reach brand new unused threads. this would be ideal for a partial loss of block material. using helicoils may work depending how much material is lost. if a significant amount of the block is missing, a machine shop can fabricate a large insert for you. the insert will have a larger outside diameter thread which will need to be drilled out of the block. then inside of this insert will be the original bolt size. can also be welded in place with the block removed and a good aluminium welder to install it. but easier in my oppinion to fabricate and install a screw in insert. find the exact problem and post back.

i'd be worried about a parts supplier or dealer not knowing that particular head gasket very well. someone needs to know that model fairly well to know those kinds of details about the head gaskets. most of the time quick/short answers come from questions that are answered over and over again and can easily be answered by doing a search. i've done it before, so i'll appologize. getting "snapped at" is a small price to pay for free advice though not necessary, so just bare with us we have good and bad days too so don't take it personally. i'm not as active here as xt6.net, so im not speaking specifically of the USMB for myself but the same thing applies here. there are some seriously childish forums out there, this one is one of the best. some forums have no knowledge and sound like 8th grade spats on a daily basis.