idosubaru

great motor. the timing belts will need to be changed or at least checked if you don't know the condition. fortunately these motors pre-97 i believe are non-intereference 2.2 liters so if the belt breaks you shouldn't sustain any engine damage. slap a new belt on and drive along.

go buy an XT6 distributor from NAPA, it will have 4 points. never been back.

www.thepartsbin.com has always been my goto parts place. rockauto.com has great prices too, but the parts listings are somewhat confusing so i never order from them. XT6 water pump for $8.99.

the cam carrier oring part number from Subaru is: 13089AA010 you can also order it from www.thepartsbin.com i've ordered a number of them from these guys before and it's the correct part. they are the only aftermarket source i've seen for these orings. being on the EA82 though, subaru usually has them in stock.

if you're not loosing coolant, it should not be the heater core. heater core leak will smell like antifree, should be recognizable. i'd check the carpet, seats and trunk for moisture leaking into the car. if the floorboards or trunk or some material in the carpet or seats is holding alot of moisture (from window being left open or flooding or something), the moisture will condense on the interior windows. and the bad smell will be mildew and mold.

if it's just leaking tell him to put new seals in it that cost a couple dollars instead of replacing the whole rack. he can still wreck you on labor hours, but seals are much cheaper than racks.

sorry scott, i forgot you were putting this in a brat. the XT6 can sustain 3 inches of lift with only a steering extension. not sure about the brat. nice picture, that is sweet.

wheel bearings can be tricky for a number of reasons. if you want to save money, buy the bearing (subaruparts.com maybe, super cheap) and take the hub to an automotive machine shop. they should pack it and install it for about 50 dollars. then install the hub yourself. removing the hub is easy and straight forward (In my oppinion) compared to wheel bearings. i did this last year and they charged 100 dollars to do both front hubs.

in that picture shown i think he got 3 inches by leaving everything stock except he made a steering extension. i don't think you need to touch the control arms.

the axles do go over the lower control arms in the XT6. 3 inches is possible while retaining the stock air suspension if i heard this guy correctly. only modification needed is a steering extension.

possible? of course it's possible. i've never heard of anyone doing it. i've heard of people talking to air bag companies about options and seen people talk about ideas, but never seen anything attempted. the stock air suspension has two height settings, the canadian models had the height switch standard on all XT6's. change height with the flick of a button.

in porting and polishing material that i've read it suggests to grind metal cast flashing from the coolant ports (though like just mentioned, i don't see why). never seen mention of oil passages being touched while doing head work. if you're talking about the large passages at the bottom of the head then smooth away, that is just drain back into the oil pan anyway i think so grinding something smooth won't matter there. i'm getting ready to start working on some XT6 heads as well. just got two junk heads to practice on. how did it go? one thing i don't like is the intake gaskets seem to be almost smaller than the actual intake openings. i'd like the intake gaskets to be larger so i can open the intake passages up some. any good way to *cut* the intake gasket to make it larger? i'm cautious about doing this, i want the gasket to remain nice and clean when i bolt it on. have you noticed this scott?

drooling and rubbing hands together.....awaiting responses. gravitman - there is a way to splice in a toggle switch to get the car to lift up about another 1.5 inches with the air suspension. you only have to splice into one wire under the drivers seat. i guess technically that's a *body* lift not a suspension lift so that might not be what you're after.

lower intake manifold and head gaskets are all that are necessary. the exhaust manifold gaskets are extremly resilient, so i doubt you'll need those. i replaced head gaskets twice on my XT6 (did it wrong the first time grr....), still using the original 207,000 mile exhaust gaskets and header with no leaks. wise to replace the cam carrier reinforced o-ring as well. 2.45 from the dealer (or thepartsbin.com) and you only need 2, one for each side. just did an EA82 last summer, very easy if you've never done it. wasn't bad at all. i'm used to the 6 cylidner ER27, the 4 cylinders are much faster and more room to work with. could easily do this in less than a day without air tools.

go buy a 3/4 inch drive socket and that axle nut becomes like any other nut, comes right off. the problem is trying to remove that nut with a 1/2 inch regular drive socket. yes people have done, yes it *can* work, but get a 3/4 inch drive and you will not have any problems. get the right tool and this job is super simple. i replace the front XT6 axles by removing ONE BOLT and loosening 4 others, after the wheel is off. loosen the top 3 strut mouting bolts, loosen both bottom strut bolts, remove just the top one and that gives enough room to do the job.

even better to remove the driveshaft entirely. only requires 6 bolts on my subaru XT6, very easy to do. remove it and check all the joints. a bad ujoint will either be seized or feel very lumpy. they will fail and i wouldn't like to see what happens if they fail at 50 or more miles an hour. on my XT6 all you do is remove 4 10mm bolts where it bolts to the rear differential. then remove two bolts holding the center bearing in place. the drive shaft will slide out of the transmission and the entire thing will be setting there for you to look at. very simple.

if it's AWD you need to inspect the ujoints in the driveshaft. did it just come one day, or has it been getting worse for awhile?

matt, you could easily wait until next years tax return to do this. i have driven about 50,000 miles (although mostly highway, so not much turning and grinding, dirty action in there), but stilll they obviously last a long time. off road, dirt and particularly sand will destroy them quickly. i had a completey quiet busted cv start clicking in no time and clicked all the way from south georgia (the sand) to home, maryland. i was driving through lots of sand and it wasted the joint, but i still drove 800 miles home that way, no problem. i packed some grease in it by hand just to quiet it down and it just about went away. then i replaced it. like mentioned, i generally wait until they start clicking while driving straight before i bother with them and i've never had a problem. that's how i got about 50,000 miles out of a busted (outside boot by the way). i currently have two busted boots and i've had a new axle for awhile, just waiting for a good time to install it. pack some grease in there with a gun or with your hand (messy) if you want to quiet it down some and it could go away, i've had that work before. i also had a BRAND NEW axle blow out on me. had probably 100 miles on it and the outer joint just blew up. the auto trans was *confused* and kept messing with the transfer clutches, kept trying to give it power to the rear wheels. which was good, i was able to drive enough to get to the parking lot at work where i installed another axle the next day. if you were driving fast the axle could slam around and break something, like a brake hose up front. but you should be nowhere near that point and you'd know it right away, and your emergency brake will always work. this is really too much information because you don't have to worry about this, just trying to be as comprehensive as possilbe for you. forget about it and have fun.

on XT models there's a wire connector that gets corroded, dirty, burnt, shorted out...etc just above the pedal assembly down by your feet. various interesting electrical problems can happen here. often on XT6's the headlights will be the only thing affected. not familiar with your model, but something to check if the bulbs are good.

kevin, john (from ky) suggested using these as a simple solution to turbo issues so i'd post over there and see if you can get his input. put "turbo" in the thread title and i bet he responds. he is the man.

if it really is a harmonic balancer i wouldn't replace it with another one. the XT6's have them as well and they are stupid annoying. only gets worse over time. i'm getting a solid pulley made for $200 or less, so it can't ever *go bad* like a freaking harmonic balancer. i have 3 or 4 that are no good or out of round due to separation at the inner rubber ring. VERY annoying. if you can buy solid pulleys from aftermarket sources (which i bet you can), i'd definitely go that route myself after all the harmonic pulley problems i've had and know of others that have had as well.

usually grabbing one side with one hand, the other side with the other hand will work for me. gradually just keep wiggling it/rocking it back and forth. at first sometimes it seems like it's not even moving but after a bit it will eventually work loose. be very careful, and don't do this if you don't know what you're doing but i have used a prybar to gently work it off. i'd get as close to the crank as possible without touching the crank or anything else of importance. sometimes the first time taking one off is really tight, after that it's never as hard later. if it's a harmonic balancer do not use a pulley puller, unless you know what you're doing. in generaly i don't think you should need a pulley puller for anything subaru related unless you're inside an automatic transmission. did anything strange happen to the front of the motor before?

with motor out, definitely replace any and every seal you can get too. 10 times easier out of car than in car, rear main and front crank seal in particular. i pulled the motor and trans out together once on my XT6, not sure if you can do that with the turbo's, but it makes splitting the motor and trans, lining the trans up and doing any trans work cake that way. removal and install is quick as well. i have everything ready to do it again very soon.

i do not hear my solenoids clicking on. but i don't have very good hearing either. DIFF LOCK engages and disengages best when driven in a straight line at low speeds. it will in other situations as well, but most consistently as mentioned. and the light should come on when it's engaged. if the light comes on, it should be engaged. i know of XT6's that would actually be engaged but the light IS NOT ON, but i've never heard of an XT6 where the light would come on when the car wasn't actually engaged. so if your light comes on i think you're golden. (you'll know it as soon as you try to turn on dry pavement if you're curious, the binding is unmistakeable).

double post - cracked up computers