idosubaru

definitely pull the motor and trans together, that is a rocking way to do it. makes the job SUPER EASY!! Engine Gear Box....does that include the engine or are you really just swapping the trans and gear box? it's really nice working on the motor and trans out of the car. although the transmission can come out very quickly, i've had them out in like and hour before. motor takes longer to remove for me (unless you're doing a hack job and cutting all the wires, hoses and cables).

for AWD, just be sure the tires match and you are swapping all 4, not just 2.

there's not trick, never seen that happen before. check the end of the cam shaft, right where the cam sprocket attaches. check for rust or some damage on the end that it could be hanging up on. remove the old cam seal then try to pull it off, sometimes it *kind of* hangs up on the old seal, but not really.

you're going to need an estimated price. something like this is entirely dependent on price, there is interest out there but the cost is so high that turn around would be very slow on parts like this. for 50 dollars i think people would be beating your door down and you could sell dozens of them. for 500 dollars i think you'd be hard pressed to sell more than 1. i'm interested but it's entirely a function of cost whether or not i would buy one, and most likely i won't justify the high expense.

check your timing - make sure your tensioners, pulleys and sprockets all look good and solid and appear to be working properly. doesn't sound like it's a tooth off, it would run terrible that way. i would also suspect the HLA's, this thing has them right? i've had seized HLA's that gave low compression...but DID NOT actually tick or tap or make any noise. i would suspect this before the head gasket. i had two cylinders on one side of my XT6 (3 cylinders per side) that had a bad HLA and bad compression associated with that HLA. i went back in and cleaned all of my HLA's, dissassembled and cleaned them all up. the two that were problematic would not come apart i tried a bunch of things and they were completely stuck, would not move or budge with treatments, heat, etc. i replaced them and compression was fine. now the easy way to tell, was that once the cam tower was off i noticed that two of the HLA's out of the 6 of them were not the same height. in other words i put a ruler across the top of them all and two fell short of the heigth of the rest of them, that was my first clue that it was HLA related. so maybe you can pull your cam tower on that side and see if you observe the same thing.

they fixed a known issue, they didn't just install the same engine as it came with new with the same head gasket problems. so your chances of another head gasket failure after 30,000 miles is really really small. you'd have to be very unlucky for that to happen. like others said, i'd consider this a good thing that you've finally gotten it taken care of. my guess is the previous owner probably had some *hint* of the head gasket problem or was suspicious about something and got rid of it, so you just happened to get someone elses problem. but....any 2.5 liter could have give you this problem, they have issues. but yours is taken care of, so i wouldn't worry about it. change that oil often and don't let it overheat.

check your oil frequently after using MMO or ATF in your oil. they tend to dirty oil quicker than normal and an oil change could be called for before your normal oil change interval. can you go 3,000 miles without loosing any oil? if your pressure/tapping is due to loss in oil pressure then the MMO won't fix the problem. has your oil pump ever been resealed? MMO is great for dirty or stuck HLA's, but won't do anything for your oil pump seals.

dude you have the 4 cylinder motor, these things are super easy to work on. this won't take that long at all, i could finish that in an hour. i could do it in 20 minutes on my car. your are in luck - it's on the passengers side so you're money you don't have to remove the drivers side timing belt. the passengers side belt IS SUPER EASY. once you get to it it takes loosening TWO BOLTS to get off, you don't even have to remove them. remove cam sprocket and replace seal. get the cam seal KIT, not just the seal as there is also an oring behind the cam seal holder, remove the 3 10mm bolts around it to get it off and replace the oring as well while yo'ure in there. DO NOT DRIVE IT LIKE THIS or you will surely ruin your engine bearings. you think this itty bitty cam seal is annoying, try replacing your block.

you can definitely find this seal, just not sure how. an idea would be to pull it out or have someone with a diff lying on the ground read the numbers off for you and see if you can locate it by part number. seems like subaru should have this seal.

if it doesnt work just have them redone like mentioned earlier or buy new ones.

kevin was up to 2.5" and is now wanting to downsize....and this is on an XT6...the 6 cylinder. i'd check kevin's dyno plots and what he has to say, he has alot of experience on this. he's tried a couple set ups as have i and on the XT6 i don't think wide open 2.5" is best for my rides. 2.0" seemed best on mine but it wasn't running perfect. running in top shape i think 2.25" is best. i also ran without a converter and now have a high flow converter in place. when i had no converter and big pipe mine lost alot of low end, but maybe it was a combination of something else. i think kevin has similar experience though. and again this is all on the 6 cylinder which is pushing alot more air.

depends what you want. SVX are way cool...but WAY freaking expensive and difficult to find parts for. biggest mistake you can make on an SVX is to use all your expendable cash or maxing yourself out when purchasing one without anything left for maintenance. SVX maintenance and parts can be through the roof and only gets worse if you can't do the maintenance yourself. i'd rather get an ER27 (or even an EA82T) and modify the monkey nuts out of it than get an SVX....though i really dig the looks of those cars. i don't want to ride in one for the fear i'll go buy one. alot depends on personal preference. there are website and plenty have converted the SVX to manual transmission. i know a guy who would probably sell his already converted manual trans SVX for about 5,000.

"barely close your hood". i guess you took precautions to make sure it doesn't ground out against the hood?

in general no, i don't see a reason for such a large gap in price for front/rear. but i don't know the OBS very well. just got one, but haven't looked at the brakes yet. do you really NEED 4 disk rotors brand new? if taken care of properly i've had rotors last a REALLY long time. i don't even have them turned, i just make sure to replace the pads early. at 200,000 miles i decided to replace my rotors for good measure, though there was nothing wrong with them. one of the news ones was warped!! had to return it.

if it's really clogged it'll get noticeably hot, turn red or glow. i've always disconnnected the converter and let it hang there, go for a nice loud spin and see how the car drives. if it noticeably improves then your converter or exhaust upstream of the converter is the problem. if not, bolt it back up and move on to something else. buy an after market converter and weld it on, that's the cheapest route (i think it is, unless OEM converters are really cheap for your car). i bought a highflow converter brand new from a guy for 25 bucks and welded it right up. taking it to a shop and having a bolt in converter put in would have a been a few hundred dollar affair.

i don't recommend messing with the Duty Solenoid C, or other transmission control devices until you're very comfortable with how the system works, how it feels when something isn't working right and have a solid foundation for the transmission and components. if you understand how it works, know how to test it, know what it feels like and what it does if something isn't hooked up right, it's actually very simple. i can lock my transfer clutch and experience excellent 4WD capability. the transmission will bind, buck and hop just like a true 4WD with locked differential. of course you don't want to do that, but it's nice knowing that traction capability is there with the flick of a switch and i control it, not the computer. and even still, i don't think the computer ever goes to full lock-up but i could be wrong. i didn't know much about it and it didn't take long at all to pick it up and roll with it. for instance - if you have a manual trans with DIFF lock you can remove the rear drive shaft and press the DIFF lock button and you'll be in FWD mode because the rear end isn't powering anything, just the front. the rear output shaft is spinning, but it's not connected. BUT - safety concern, if you accidentally press that DIFF lock button and turn it OFF while driving this way, all power goes to the rear output shaft and you won't have any power to the front wheels. that's a serious safety concern that you want to be very careful of as you will basically just start drifting....through and intersection or right in the middle of a turn and you can't get out of the way of oncoming traffic...etc.

jason, yes you can run an automatic in FWD. you would want to disconnect the driveshaft under the car (on older soobs it's only eight 10 mm bolts, very easy to do). they generally have two pieces, you leave the half of the driveshaft that's connected to the transmission because pulling that will allow transfluid to come out. so you pull the rear half of the driveshaft out (asssuming there is one) so as to disconnect the rear drivetrain. then you can install the FWD switch, or even better yet install a switch (like i have) to control the Duty Solenoid C (there are other posts on this subject elsewhere and pictures at www.xt6.net). This Duty cycle controls the lock up of the transfer clutch for your AWD. with the switch you can essentially control it manually, whether it is locked or not. In your case you would probably just cut the wire i think, as that would fully engage Duty Solenoid C. This would lock your transfer clutch, which would give power to your rear wheels at all times, but it wouldn't matter because your driveline is disconnected. in your car probably easier to just install the FWD fuse if you're not familiar with all of that, the FWD fuse won't compromise your transmission if you remove the rear drive shaft because the rear wheels won't be driving it all. if you do remove the rear drive shaft i would put the car in drive WITHOUT the FWD switch in a parking lot, just to see how the car reacts in case the FWD fuse ever blew or got corroded. i would want to know what the car feels like so i can identify it later on if anything like that happened. and yes you can make the car rear wheel drive too, people have done. just pull the front axles and again lock the transfer clutch. i wouldn't recommend it, because i'm not sure how much those rear transfer clutches can take if the car is completely driven through them, but i really have no idea. i don't think you'd notice the gas mileage as you're still driving all the intenals inside the transmission. the rear wheel bearing and diff drag is still present, you'd only be reducing the drag by small amounts, doubt it's noticable. probably save more gas by buying light shoes or cleaning your car out, or removing some needless bolts to save weight.

so now i think i just need to install my own manual electronic controls for this thing. anyone done that? i'll dig into the FSM tonight.

DEFINITELY replace all those items. fuel filter, air filter, PCV valve, and O2 sensor as well. sounds like a long list, but do it all at once and it won't take that long, very simple items to replace. i'd be very surprised if you did all of this and didn't notice any difference. check the timing to.

the rims should be cleaned before installing new tires. were the valve stems replaced with the tires? they can leak as well. bead or valve stem, that's where you loose air. did it just happen once or more often? if they filled it with warm air and you drove the car outside where it's 15 degrees, the air will become more dense and less pressure. remember that PV=nRT jazz. it Temperature goes down, the pressure must go down for constant volume. if it happened more than once, then you have a leak.

if a timing belt snapped due to something getting in the teeth, how would you know after the fact?

done from the top. 475 sounds about right for seals, water pump and timing belts. could be found cheaper, but that's not terrible. make sure he reseals the oil pump properly. there's one gasket and one seal on the oil pump shaft. a nonsubaru specialist could easily miss doing that right. same goes for the cam shaft, behind the seal holder of the cam shaft is an oring that also should be replaced. it comes in a camshaft seal *kit* which includes the seal and oring.

AWD XT6 (this one is not crazyhorses old car, different one) that a guy installed a new clutch in just before i got it. he said the DIFF lock worked but not after he installed the clutch. all the vacuum lines appear connected. i push the button and nothing happens. if i give those little solenoids 12 volts should they click? haven't tried it yet, wasn't sure if that was a good idea. any ideas?

someone just posted a newer soob with 400,000+ on it in the new generations forum. like a day or two ago.

also seen mismatched tires cause problems with AWD or 4WD.