idosubaru

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.

no heat can be cured by pulling the hoses to the heater core and flushing it out at the firewall. use a garden hose and blow the heater core out. lots of dirty water and junk will come out and your heat will work just fine. if the gauge reads lower than normal...turn the heater on. if the heat works, then the gauge is not functioning properly for some reason (either the gauge has problems or it's getting bad information). if there is no heat, then the coolant and engine may actually be cold. which would indicate a bad thermostat which you're telling me is new, so that's likely not the case.

put a note on it to start with.

you should post this (a moderator will eventually move it) to Newer Generation of Subaru's section. This is Older Generation of Subaru's. this isn't typical, something is wrong though i can't tell you what. the bearings shouldn't go out at 70,000 miles (unless you have an SVX) and it shouldn't be recurring either. i'd wonder if either place actually replaced them or just repacked them. and did they replace the wheel seals? the same bearing keeps failing, all three times? are you sure it's wheel bearings every time? unfortuantely i'm skeptical of mechanics

how does it drive? why not leave it? unless you're tearing it down for other major maintenance.

outback alternator recall, what is that about?

could easily be a sticky HLA as well. keep changing your oil frequently.

with the car idling, put a little pressure on the injectors. bad sealing orings will show themselves by spurting fuel out. even good functioning ones will squirt fuel with enough pressure. i wouldn't suspect faulty fuel injectors unless it's visibly external to the injector itself and not close to a seal or juncture indicating it's just seaping past a seal or oring.

the short answer, definitely do not bother trying to repair the broken plastic. seen lots of people try (including a moron that i know that should know better named gary gross) and it may work for a short while, but the risks of overheating and being stranded somewhere are not worth the little time and $ needed to fix it properly. and i'd probably think someone were lying if they told me it lasted for any extensive amount of time. if the radiator is decent and you can do the work yourself, get someone with a bad radiator to send you a side tank. if you get the side tank, you can swap it with yours and be good to go. they have dozens of metal tabs that you pry up to get the old tank off. not that difficult, just be careful not to break the new tank when removing. you can probably find a used radiator for like 30 bucks if you look around. keep your other plastic tank for the same reason if you get another radiator just in case. best bet is to get a new radiator, cooling issues are nothing to mess with. piecing together a broken ignition wire is one thing, trying to rig part of your cooling system is not worth the possible damage for such a reliable motor. good luck, you have options, shouldn't be too bad.

i'd go ahead and rewire that coolant temp sensor. don't know gauge, but it's not all that important either. i use heavier than what is on there stock. address this first, if you can solder it's a very easy and one of the best fixes you can do on your XT6. this isn't a chance item, it will eventually cause issues. now that im' done preaching, address your MAF sensor next. these two items i think are very crucial in your situation. after these two are checked out, i'm not sure where i would go next, but let's cross that bridge when we get there. i have some ideas but don't want to overload with random ideas yet because your problems are very indicative of water temp sensor or MAF issues. also - the TPS is very tricky to adjust and the FSM procedures for setting the TPS WILL NOT WORK. they are incorrect. have to set it *by ear* essentially. on a side note. had an XT6 with no check engine codes that had some erratic RPM issues. couldn't figure out the problem through maintenance items and swapping sensors. i finally realized that if i played with the TPS wires about 8 inches from the sensor the car would stutter, shut off, rev up and just go wild. i spliced in some new wires and the thing ran great. so keep your eye on a short like this when you're looking at the TPS, WTS (water termp sensor and MAF sensors. the wires just prior to these sensors can also experience problems. now i generally move wires around systematically for each sensor in order to get shorts to show themselves. i've put 350,000 miles or more on XT6's and i've only ever had to replace one sensor. a MAF sensor last year. (not including O2 sensors). every other sensor issues has been corrosion or short related. good luck and you can email me if you have any questions. my time on this board while generally consistent can vary.

not necessarily, so long as you're getting enough spark for thorough fuel combustion new igntion components may or may not give you any increases depending on mileage and condition of the old ones. you gapped the plugs properly and used NGK plugs or what? are you worried about your gas mileage? how many miles do you have? 02 Sensor is probably a good item to address.

turbo diesel - sure this isn't HLA noise? otherwise - get a mechanics stethoscope ( i picked one up for a few dollars and it works great for locating bad bearings). should be able to remove the belt and locate the pulley without a problem. spin it by hand and look for play. like someone mentioned if it's a timing related pulley it could be hard to get to for testing without removing the belts. remove the two left and right side timing covers (very easy to do - a couple 10mm bolts and the car is still completely driveable, just covers). make sure one of the timing pulleys or tensioners is not frozen or very tight. sometimes you can even see damaged pulleys just by visual inspection. bearings sticking out or wobbling action...etc. best to pull the covers and look. (they are in theory very easy to remove - a couple 10mm screws/bolts like i said). rust can make them tricky - spray them with liquid wrench or equivalent. good luck.