idosubaru

headgaskets aren't terribly horrible to replace so if they do leak again it's not the end of the world. if you're not milling, i would pay particular attention to the bolt threads, be sure they are clean and the bolt holes in the block are clean. some people recommend a little oil on the threads to alleviate friction and get a good tight torque on them. but not so much oil that it's dripping and running down over the gasket. be sure to retorque them if required. make sure all mating surfaces on the head and block are squeaky clean. i wouldn't cut any corners on these points if the head isn't milled.

in my oppinion you will not find a better wire than magnecor. check out their website, they are very straight forward, no gimmicks and are very popular with people running high performance motors. they do not carry all the hype, glitz and showmanship of other companies, but their performance is excellent. if you want more color choices and fancy gizmo's and stickers, these wires are not for you. http://www.magnecor.com/ might want to take a look at this subaru while you're there: http://www.magnecor.com/magnecor1/main.htm sometimes new spark plug wires may alleviate poor running not because those wires are so great, but because the old ones were that bad. some commentary about Nology spark plug wires: The most notable of exaggerated claims for ignition wires are made by Nology, a recent manufacturer of ignition wires promoted as "the only spark plug wires with built-in capacitor." Nology's "HotWires" (called "Plasma Leads" in the UK) consist of unsuppressed solid metal or spiral conductor ignition wires over which braided metal sleeves are partially fitted. The braided metal sleeves are grounded via straps formed from part of the braiding. Insulating covers are fitted over the braided metal sleeves. These wires are well constructed. For whatever reason, Nology specifies that non-resistor spark plugs need to be used with their "HotWires." In a demonstration, the use of resistor plugs nullifies the visual effect of the brighter spark. Ignition wires with grounded braided metal sleeves over the cable have come and gone all over the world for (at least) the last 30 years, and similar wires were used over 20 years ago by a few car makers to solve cross-firing problems on early fuel injected engines and RFI problems on fiberglass bodied cars — only to find other problems were created. The recent Circle Track Magazine (USA, May, 1996 issue) testshowed Nology "HotWires" produced no additional horsepower (the test actually showed a 10 horsepower decrease when compared to stock carbon conductor wires). The perceived effect a brighter spark, conducted by an ignition wire, encased or partially encased in a braided metal sleeve (shield) grounded to the engine, jumping across a huge free-air gap (which bears no relationship to the spark needed to fire the variable air/fuel mixture under pressure in a combustion chamber) is continually being re-discovered and cleverly demonstrated by marketers who convince themselves there's monetary value in such a bright spark, and all sorts of wild, completely un-provable claims are made for this phenomena. Like many in the past, Nology cleverly demonstrates a brighter free-air spark containing useless flash-over created by the crude "capacitor" (effect) of this style of wire. In reality, the bright spark has no more useful energy to fire a variable compressed air/fuel mixture than the clean spark you would see in a similar demonstration using any good carbon conductor wire. What is happening in such a demonstration is the coil output is being unnecessarily boosted to additionally supply spark energy that is induced (and wasted) into the grounded braided metal sleeve around the ignition wire's jacket. To test the validity of this statement, ask the demonstrator to disconnect the ground strap and observe just how much energy is sparking to ground. Claims by Nology of their "HotWires" creating sparks that are "300 times more powerful," reaching temperatures of "100,000 to 150,000 degrees F" (more than enough to melt spark plug electrodes), spark durations of "4 billionths of a second" (spark duration is controlled by the ignition system itself) and currents of "1,000 amperes" magically evolving in "capacitors" allegedly "built-in" to the ignition wires are as ridiculous as the data and the depiction of sparks in photographs used in advertising material and the price asked for these wires! Most stock ignition primaries are regulated to 6 amperes and the most powerful race ignition to no more than 40 amperes at 12,000 RPM.

sounds like drive shaft/u joint issues to me. is it 4WD? i would look nowhere else until you carefully inspect all of your ujoints.

55 dollars, that's monkey nuts! if you haven't cut them all up, return them and buy magnecor wires. magnecor are probably the same price, much better wires, no assembly and they'll last forever. excellent customer service, i've run them for years. my friends go through other wires in 30,000 miles on their jeeps and they run these and never replace them. check them out here: http://www.magnecor.com/

oh and these motors need to be retorqued as well right? maybe that's why the headgasket isn't lasting long? was it retorqued after the first install?

i developed a horrible rod knock in my XT6 because i was adding water due to a blown headgasket this summer. i never knew this was an issue so i just put it off cause i was too busy. i would highly recommend not putting this job off, tom is correct, i wish i hadn't!

if your headgasket is blown, why are you worried about it being warped or not? no way to check that with the head on the car. if you're replacing the head gasket then you should have the head checked and milled. it will most likely be out of tolerance, but well within the limits of milling. i find it unlikely your head is trashed, but it won't be perfect. ideally you should have it milled and have the cracks between the valves repaired (all EA82 and ER27 heads i've pulled had them). you can skip repairing the cracks and you can skip milling the head, each is added risk to the life of the engine and not milling is added risk that your new head gasket won't hold. driving around on a bad headgasket is not good for your block. i had a leaking head gasket in one of my cylinders and just kept adding water/coolant all summer because like you said "it ran good". didn't take long to develop a massive knock in the engine. more than one knowledable person informed me that water in the oil will do a number on engine bearings.

what kind of valve train do these things have? if the valves are susceptilbe to being noisey maybe an oil change or change in oil weight would help. the older soobs had hydraulic valve adjusters in them which were prone to be very noisey, particularly with dirty oil. what exactly is piston slap and why does it happen and why does it go away when warm?

first time i did brakes i thought "oh my nuts i can't believe i've paid people exhorbitant amount of money to do this". suffer the learning curve now and thank yourself for the rest of your life. this board will be a great resource. i second the haynes manual or a factory service manual if you're looking to learn more and do other maintenance yourself.

a tool to gap spark plugs costs like 2 dollars. buy one that measures the gap as well. all auto parts stores carry them, very simple. i'd return the accel wires and buy magnecor wires. great wires and you'll never need to replace them. excellent customer service as well.

what makes you think you need such an exhaustive fuel system treatment? fuel delivery should be fine on your car. send the injectors off to RC engineering to be professionally cleaned, rebuilt and flow tested if you have legitimate reasons for concern. i've used lots of different fuel additives, with no result. i've also never experienced any fuel related issues with 3 motors at 200,000+ miles, so it really didn't matter.

thermostat

have you checked the fluid level? 1-800-946-5787 these guys have 2 auto trans for the 2.2 liter for 575.00. in ny.

could the compression tester be dirty, clogged, or broke? i'd try it on another motor and see what you get. then i'd check your timing belts alignment.

is this All Wheel Drive? also curious how many miles it has. i'd double check the fluid before assuming there's thousands of dollars worth of damage. make sure there is fluid in there and it's not all jacked up. personally, i'd find a used unit and install it WITH a transmission cooler. your transmission should last much longer with a cooler installed. well worth the tiny 30 dollars investment in a cooler. personally i'd rather buy 2 used units really cheap (actually i just get them from my parts cars or trade for them) than spend 3-4 thousand on a new one. i traded for a used 4EAT and have put 50,000 miles on it so far, runs great. free is much better than 3/4,000 dollars. when i installed my trans i was still doing physical therapy for separating my shoulder so i asked a transmission shop how much it would cost to install a transmission if i supplied the trans. they said 150-200 to install my transmission with a new filter. i ended up just doing it myself. no way i'd ever spend that much loot. much cooler things i can do with 3,000 dollars than spend it on something i can just get done for a few hundred. last time i looked for an older model 4EAT i found one for 250.00. seen them for less than that before. this is for the XT6 older model 4EAT's though so it's not a bolt up version for your car.

COMPRESSION TEST i think you'll find something.

someone definitely tried to remove that filter with a wrench, just a matter of who. there really is no way to determine if it was the last oil change guy, or the one before him though. i'd check your trans fluid level before turning the car on again. this would not cause you to need a trans fluid flush, just replace the filter.

there have been multiple requests for XT6 flywheel or flexplate stoppers, can you post those prices? i will call if i remember when i'm not at work.

if you can manage to get enough gap to put a blade in there, you can cut it out. obviously be very careful, but i've done it before. seriously annoying. not sure what it is about these intake bolts but every XT6 (and one XT) that i work on has this problem on at least one bolt. i've done 4 or 5 head gasket jobs and this can be the worst part of the whole process on some jobs. dump lots of liquid wrench down the hole as well if you want to try to work it loose. how about a punch or a long metal rod stuffed down the hole and then start pounding? nothing is connected, so eventually it would seem it would have to come out. i'm thinking a properly set up press would push it out in no time with no risk to the parts.

first - how are your tires? a wheel weight could have fallen off, have them checked. look on the outside, if it's recent sometimes you can see where the wheel weight used to be. or rotate your tires and see if the vibration *moves* or changes. this would indicate a bad tire or wheel (severly dirty or damaged). wheels bolted down tight? otherwise - driveshaft. the ujoints go bad. sometimes you can tell by looking at it if the ujoint is bad. otherwise pull it off (not hard to do at all) and it will be obvious which ujoint is bad. they feel lumpy and sometimes are even seized completey and not movable at all but yours doesnt sound this bad. they can degrade quickly, i wouldn't plan on waiting a terribly long time to fix this. doubtful it needs rebalanced, that is unlikely to be your problem. the ujoints are most likely to be your problem. get a used driveshaft. cheapest solution. on the older subaru's they can be rebuilt by a machine shop and they can install all new regreaseable u-joints. i got tired of replacing bad drive shafts with old driveshafts over and over again (but my XT6 is old) and finally got one rebuilt. st. augustine drive line shop (look them up on the internet) lists which ujoints fit your model (if there is one available for your car). or go to Rockford's website and see what they list for your application. rebuilding cost me about 190.00 for everything to have both halves of my driveshaft rebuilt with replaceable and greaseable ujoints. but if you just replace the bad ujoint you can probably get it done for 50-75 dollars. i'd recommend replacing them all if you plan on keeping the vehicle.

that's pretty sweet with the copper pipe. there's no way to jam the flexplate with a socket extension like you can on older soobs?

a good machine shop can repair the end of your crank instead of buying an entire motor. my friend had the same thing happen. any shop will tell you "new engine". but get it towed to a machine shop and they'll fix it, probably with the motor in the car. in my experience they are generally much more honest and are great resources for mechnics. a mechanic at a shop doesn't want to waste time with that though, they just want your money even if there's a cheaper way. i'm not sure if your crank pulley wasn't tight enough or if it actually failed. if you're concerned about reliability as i am because i drive way too many miles, i'd consider the following. they can be very expensive new, as they will be a dealer only part. and then you're paying alot of money for something that still has that stupid ring in it. probably won't fail if you get a new one, but it definitely won't fail if it didn't have that rubber ring in it. if it is truely a harmonic balancer and not just a crank pulley, then the option i would choose is to have a shop make you a pulley. that's what i'm doing for my XT6 (150 - 200 dollars). crank pulleys are just solid metal pulleys. harmonic balancers have a thin ring of rubber inset between two (an inner and outer with the rubber ring separating them) metal parts to make up the harmonic balancer. this rubber ring can fail and the balancer can either wobble, eat up your belt or it can even slip. slip is really fun, the inner ring turns with the crank as it's rigidly bolted to it. but the outer ring will slip on the rubber ring and cause charging and overheating problems because the belt isn't turning the pump and alternator fast enough. if you suspect this, mark the blancer with chalk and drive around some. the mark will no longer line up across the rubber ring. or a balancer can completely fail where the outer ring completely separates from the inner. for around 200...maybe less, a shop can make a solid metal pulley in place of your harmonic balancer. have them make it of aluminum and it will greatly reduce the weight and add some gas mileage and horsepower to your motor.

i've driven with expired tags a zillion times. just drove 1,500 miles from MD to GA and back a week or so ago to buy another XT6. 2004 tags on the truck. in my experience being honest has always worked. start lying and trying to pull one over and you insult their power trip mentality. i've been pulled over 4 times with expired tags, never been arrested. they could, but they aren't going to arrest some dork like me who's lazy, honest and doesn't have a record. one out of the 4 times i was pulled over they did tow the car. when i go to court (i would never pay a lawyer) i just tell the truth. i was in college, didn't have the money and was putting it off, but now i got tags. and the judge drops the charges and sends you on your way. it is annoying, i don't recommend it but it's not that big of a deal either. of course if you're in the city i bet it's much worse and more annoying. i'm in a small town, these guys aren't out to pound you, they do have that whole power/attitude thing going on that the profession attracts, but otherwise in my small town i've found them tolerable in their actions...maybe not their attitude though. but hey, i had expired tags, expired license, no insurance. that was the college days of no $$, don't do that no more. the truck was an exception. was inpsected, but no time to register before i left for the trip. don't be nervous, don't lie. they've heard it all before. don't think your excuse is particularly witty, they are used to hearing some things and used to hearing attempts to be different.

AH HAH!!!! that's what i'm looking for.

air bag light goes on and stays on, it never turns off. since many cars don't have air bags and some people disconnect them for small children or even very small people i'm hoping they don't check that. guy i use seems reasonable enough.