idosubaru

check oil level change your oil what viscosity are you using?

does he have an EA82T? the first post just says EA82. that being the case he may not want his power band quite as high as a very large exhaust with no cat converter will put him.

here's a picture of an LSD rear end. Foil sticker on the end shows LSD. If the sticker is moving you can turn the stub axles (or wheels or rotors...you get the point). When you turn one side the other side turns the OPPOSITE way then it's an open diff. If when you turn one side the other side turns the SAME way then it's an LSD. If the sticker is missing you'd have to count the turn ratio to determine if it's a 3.7 or 3.9.

i have an old broken belt i use to hold the cam in place while i turn the bolt (if i can't loosen the bolts before removing the belt, that's the easy way. a little tricky but i did it yesterday with the motor in the car, so out of the car should be easy. actually if you torque it really fast and turn the cam with the socket, many times the bolts will break loose when teh cam tightens as it's pushing the valves in just by turning the cam. also can use a wrench and socket. probably risk stripping one, but i've done it before and never had a problem. do it to all three (yes the last one will break loose as you're tightening another to hold it in place, but one they have all been broken they'll come off).

what is this MAF Mod - is there information elsewhere on this? pardon HJ, just point me elsewhere or start another thread.

have they addressed this issue at all? what prevents the *new* gasket from blowing? did they make changes to it or the torquing procedures? i haven't heard anyone mention that. on dodge neons they introduced an improved gasket to prevent future failures. has subaru done the same?

BOV maybe? (ha you like that...after yesterday i had to try to take a stab at answering a turbo question!) that's not stupid, that's an excellent question. a stupid question is....well i'm not going to say because i asked it but so did someone else so i don't want them to think i'm poking fun, lest i get called potty mouth names. but i've asked much dumber questions. side note - mudrat asked me in PM about torque converter mods (he saw "converter" in my sig, ha ha!) on the 4EAT, i told him to talk to you about yours and your valve body. back to up-pipe question........

removing the snorkel is a minor gain, you may or may not notice. probably sounds better than anything else. can hear the intake a little more.

this is an EA82 right? are you saying that particular motor isn't doing it for you or are you saying it's running worse than it has in the past. seems like a good running EA82 should be functional. i don't recall my XT (my frist soob, it was like 3 years old) having any problems with speed or hills. it wasn't for racing, but had plenty of power for daily driving. a quality tune up can do wonders. new spark plugs, ignition wires (i highly recommend magnecor ignition wires), distributor cap, rotor, ignition coil, PCV valve. remove any dead weight in the car....lots of tools, random things. if you do alot of highspeed driving (highway driving, driving up and down mountains in high gear) then open up your exhaust a bit with a better muffler (i've had excellent results with dynomax mufflers) and slightly larger pipe. if you don't do much high speed driving i would still open the exhaust up some, but not quite as much because you'll loose some low end. if you get the right set up you can probably gain some high end power with little or no loss. definetly pull the snorkel off the intake and get a drop in K&N or a cone style filter. how much do you want to spend.....should i keep going? you could pull the heads and have a valve job done and have them ported and polished. about 500 dollars total for that kind of head work (that's for both heads). and another 150 for some aftermarket cams while you have the cams removed for the head work. these prices go through the roof if you're not pulling the heads yourself. you could swap your EA82 for an EA82T (that's the tubo motor)

dynomax muffler sounds fantastic on an XT6. not very loud, but it sound good.

the cheap tool is a small box that fits multiple styles, one will fit the subaru piston. but....there was talk recently at xt6.net about a tool that is much easier to use than this small square socket attachment. it sounded like a better tool but i can't recall the details for it.

if it's clicking then a new boot or grease won't matter. actually sometimes adding grease will mitigate clicking...but yours is still sealed. is grease leaking out the side of the clamp? normally i'd say keep driving, as i've gone 50,000 + miles on busted boots and clicking joints. but the fact that you had a minor accident on that side and the boot is still good and it's clicking while going straight....sounds strange. i had a brand new axle (week or two old maybe) blow up on me a year and a half ago so anything is possible i guess. i'd say safest bet is to fix it. but i'll also be honest and say in my college days i wouldn't have done anything about it myself. like i said, i've driven 50,000 miles at least on axles more than once with no problems. i have two busted boots right now (one rear one left) and i have no plans to address them anytime soon. probably by summer, 20,000 miles from now i might look at the front. should be able to pick up a used one for next to nothing, couple dollars or even free. heck, i'd take a non-clicking axle with a broken boot over one with all that clicking.

if it's clicking then a new boot or grease won't matter. actually sometimes adding grease will mitigate clicking...but yours is still sealed. is grease leaking out the side of the clamp? normally i'd say keep driving, as i've gone 50,000 + miles on busted boots and clicking joints. but the fact that you had a minor accident on that side and the boot is still good and it's clicking while going straight....sounds strange. i had a brand new axle (week or two old maybe) blow up on me a year and a half ago so anything is possible i guess. i'd say safest bet is to fix it. but i'll also be honest and say in my college days i wouldn't have done anything about it myself. like i said, i've driven 50,000 miles at least on axles more than once with no problems. i have two busted boots right now (one rear one left) and i have no plans to address them anytime soon. probably by summer, 20,000 miles from now i might look at the front.

on the XT6 (slightly larger calipers?) it can take a long time to get extended pistons back in place. i've turned and turned forever before and it just seems like it's never going to go back in. i wouldn't open the bleeder screw, i'd just remove the master cylinder cap to allow fluid to back up into the rservoir without building pressure and blowing seals. that's how i always do it. i've done this on all my XT6's and i've never replaced any brake parts but pads and rotors (only once on 3 different XT6's). as the piston retracts you'll see the fluid level rise. use an oversized eye dropper to suck some fluid out of the reservoir before continuing to press the piston in and the reservoir overflows. while everything is off, if you feel comfortable you could rebuild the calipers. it's super easy. you can pick up rebuild kits for like 10 bucks or less on the internet and that's good for both sides. blow the piston out, clean the piston and bore out really good and replace the seal and boot and you're done. you've got completely rebuilt calipers for 10 bucks. i did it for the first time this summer, very straight forward. time consuming turning the pistons back in and out, but straight forward and you have to move the piston anyway.

on older soobs, definitely reseal the oil pump unless there is some sort of oil pump specific failure (which i have never seen or heard of). i saw that thread too and was curious. 206,000 miles on the original and i don't plan on replacing it any time soon...but it's an XT6 and not a newer soob. your t-belt link didn't work, whoever posted that.

by yourself with an engine lift - easy. you wouldn't have any problems at all. just pull motor and trans at the same time, lay them on the floor and go to town. by yourself from underneath - dropping the tranny is easy as cake. i can have one out in like an hour. getting it back in is the trick. fun lining it up. all in all not terribly challenging, just bulky and awkward.

did you actually pull the wheel off? i'd check the caliper, pads, shims and rotors and make sure everything looks good. maybe a brake pad is falling a part or something? best to have a look at it all. did you already go that far? before touching the caliper/pads, try rotating the rotor by hand. if it's warped you *might* be able to feel it grabbing as you spin it. turns fine, turns fine, gets just a little tighter. my brakes were vibrating terribly (brand new rotors???) and i jacked up the front of the car and tried this. i could *barely* tell which side it was eventhough the vibration was horrible. the passenger side felt like "i think it's sticking right there...or maybe it's there...keep turning...i don't know is it really sticking???" you get the point, eventhough it was obviously bad, it was very difficult to tell. dang this is like my 4th edit......have someone apply the brake while you turn the rotor by hand and see if you can duplicate the grinding while you're sitting right there.

i've *heard*/*read*, though not from what i'd consider excellent resources as i really don't remember, that running without the thermostat can increase internal engine wear because the engine isn't maintaining as consistent of an operating temperature and is less frequently in the operating temperature for which the motor was designed or at which the engine was likely run for a fair number of miles previously. that being said, you'll be fine. i've done it on more than one occassion and was just doing it up until i replaced my head gasket last week. after much abuse and not having the thermostat for a few thousand miles (and i've done this before as well) the 206,000 mile XT6 is running today as good as it ever has. and i was getting a rediculous amount of water in my oil as well, probably not good for bearings and such. the leak was slower with the thermostat removed (though it was still leaking way too much).

if it doesn't snow much and you don't have to drive much when it does snow or money is an issue then maybe they aren't for you. if you have to drive to work no matter what and 300 dollars for a set of tires isn't going to put you in the poor house then the safety aspect might be worth the aggravation of wearing out a set every winter or two. i'm in a weird part of maryland where it can be a couple weeks without much snow, but we can also get 24+ inches in one day. i'm putting blizzacs on right after the new year but i can also swap a set of tires with ease so i could take them off until storms threaten. the way i see it is that it only takes one situation to be very grateful to have gotten them or to eternally regret not.

2,700 sounds insanely expensive but i know nothing about outbacks. they better be doing a complete job for that price. i'd want to know with the problems these 2.5's have with headgaskets...what do they do different to keep this from happening againg? have they made any changes to the head gasket design to improve longetivity? i wouldn't want a repeat of this 3 years from now. how many miles? if over 100,000 i'd think about getting a valve job and new valve stem seals. other items to replace - crank seal, cam seals, reseal the oil pump, valve cover gaskets, water pump, timing belt. it's all apart anyway, be done with it. maybe they even include some of that with the price? if they charge per job (head gasket + timing belt + water pump all separately) then you're screwed. if they charged a little extra for parts and labor you're golden cause it's already apart. i know someone just had their XT6 completely resealed (except oil pan gasket) at a dealer for 1,600 last week. different car, but two heads, two timing belts. 2,700 sounds crazy to me. i just did my head gaskets last week, definetly not 2,700 worth of expense there.

answered this in your other thread on fusible links.

yes they are dealer only items. or pull them from soobs in a junk yard somewhere if you don't like the 7 - 10 dollar price tag. i have bought fusible link wire and made my own before. i mailed some of that wire and electrical connections to an XT6 owner once to do the same thing. solder them to the old connections of a bad link or use female electrical connectors that will slide over the terminals in the fuse box. i guess you have to be careful what kind of wire to use, it's rated. the rating are listed on the fuse box lid in amps i believe.

thanks, i'm headed your way...akron this weekend. tow dolly it is.

thanks for the heads up. tow bar isn't an option anymore based on what i'm hearing. i'll probaby be towing multiple XT6's and other cars (soobs hopefully), so a tow dolly will be best. i'm not looking to tow one XT6 multiple times, so custom work isn't really worth it. a friend left a message and said she knows someone that has one i can borrow, so hopefully that will work out. if anyone sees any good tow dolly deals...think grossgary (Gary Gross) and send me a PM. not really seeing much of anything under 500.00. thanks hotdogs!

okay the grand canyon, while a national monument, has to go. you could ask a machine shop, but i'd get another head. the other cracks look like every other valve crack i've ever seen and had repaired so that head will be fine. get another head to replace the crackhead. if the bolt is in your good head, no worries that won't be a problem to get out. use some nuts to crank it out or vise grips. if that does work, just drill it out yourself with a screw extractor or a reverse threaded drill. a machine shop will definitely get it out, they see that stuff all the time. those intake bolts drive me absolutely nuts. happens all the time. it's too late now, but i'll usually spray them down good with liquid wrench (better than wd40). back the bolt out just a tad, hopefully it will come loose just enough so that you can spray some liquid wrench just beneath the head of the bolt and it will run down the bolt, along the bolt as it passes through the intake and maybe to the threads eventually. do this and work the bolt back and forth just a little bit. then let them (probably need to do it to more than one) set over night. do it again later....twist the bolt back and forth before making the final attempt to remove it. another helpful trick is to get a pry bar under the head of the bolt and press UP as you simultaneously unthread the bolt. i've had stuck bolts come out this way. that is an excellent way to get a bolt out that just keeps spinning or won't back out. also working the bolt back and forth helps. unscrew it just a little bit - then screw it back tight, unscrew it, then screw it back, tight...you get the point. sorry to be so long winded, these things are annoying...see it all the time on subarus (not that i work on anything else).