idosubaru

a good machine shop will repair them. they use "stitch pins" to fix them. it's very common and not a big deal to repair them. the cracks can get too big and cause problems, but that is rare and they should be able to check that for you. the company that makes the stitch pins for repairing these cracks: Lock N Stitch 1800 736 8261 209-632-2345 These are the part numbers and sizes they use for Subaru EA82/ER27 heads: L4A Aluminum Stitch Pins 1/4" Threads. could try to weld and machine them, but i think these are a much better option. i'm generally hope my valve seats are cracked so i can have these pins installed. as typical as it is for them to crack i feel like if they aren't cracked now, they will be sometime after i reassemble the motor. seems to me the stitch pins may be a little stronger, but that's total speculation. i can hook you up with a very good aluminum head specialist probably if you can't find one locally to do this work. they mostly do lots of large volume work but have done stuff for me as well. PM me if interested.

i'm perpetually busy. why do you ask? as luck would have it i may be headed past there tonight and/or tomorrow. actually i will definety be headed towards that direction tonight. i'm guessing you want me to look at it? only problem is i probalby won't have time to look at it on the way up, but possibly on the way home...but that will be later this evening, around 8 or 9 pm, they'll likely be closed then. i'll PM you.

if there is coolant all over the engine, it doesn't seem like it should be that hard to find the leak. and normally a bad head gasket on a subaru won't get coolant "all over the engine". sounds like something ohter than a headgasket to me, but i can't see it obviously. get the car up to operating temperature. then watch the motor and get the engine up to 3,000 rpms and hold it there and keep your eye out for coolant. there are hoses and other minor gaskets that could be shot....or the water pump. check the oil, drain it and see if there is any coolant in the oil. that's a good sign of head gakset failure. open your oil cap - is there milky white foamy stuff up under the cap? another sign of possible head gakset problems.

dude, if that is definetly the problem just install a new rear oil seal for like 7 dollars. with the driveshaft removed the seal will be right there. without the axle in place a good amount of fluid will come out. i've seen a car running without any driveshaft in place and the fluid pressure didn't seem all that high, decent volume though. i think you could easily fabricate some kind of a cap to place over it. i think some heavy duty plastic/rubber wrapped around it with a hose clamp around the extension housing would probably suffice. (but i'd have a couple spares just in case!) i recommend a better set up, but i'd be comfortable getting that to work myself. i replaced a driveshaft a few years ago and the old seal just didn't seat well against the new driveshaft. it leaked, but i drove it for awhile like that. just keep checking and adding ATF. then i put in a new seal and problem was gone. if i lived a little closer i'd say PM me and i'd go replace the seal or look at it for you, but it's about an hour and i'm one busy freak.

i wouldn't be surprised if your lack of heat problem is not related to the thermostat. while you're messing with your cooling system, pull the hoses to your heater core and blow it out. lots of older cars have plugged up heater cores. i've seen all sorts of nasty black stuff come out of those things. remove both hoses and run water through one hose...and watch lots of nasty stuff come out the other hose. parents van needs this right now, has no heat and it was like 0 degrees today. good luck finding running water in these temps. i'm thinking the local car wash.

if it's gear oil and cracked by the differential, it's definetly not pressurized fluid so it shouldn't take much to hold. i would drain all the oil and clean the area up good. wire brush the crap out of it then spray it down with electrical contact cleaner or some other non-residue leaving cleaner to make it perfectly clean. then weld it shut dude. you're done, never worry about it again. soobs last forever, if you fix them right. JB weld will work for a limited time, but i wouldn't consider that a permanent solution, particularly if you plan on any wheelin. and if you're like me you don't necessarily plan for all the wheelin you do. being right on the bottom, who knows what will hit or jar any JB weld loose. that stuff does work very well, but welding is THE solution and very easy to do. if you can't weld or known anyone who does, any muffler shop or machine shop would probably weld a small hole like that for next to nothing...maybe even nothing if they're nice. for that matter if it is the differential, some high quality oil resistant high temperature sealant squished up into the crack or hole would probably work (since it's low pressure) if you clean it really good. i think i could make that work, but i also think it's a terrible idea.

exactly what i needed, thanks dude. i'm looking at a 96 OBW just like you have.

conductive pen, that is cool at shat. good info.

i'm trying to figure out how to determine if a 1996 Legacy is a wagon or a coupe based on the VIN. anyone with a FSM help me out? i've found 98-99 and 80-89 and other years...but can't find info on the 96 models.

a 3.90 LSD is hard to come by. 3.7's are much easier which is why people convert. you can also buy brand new units for around 800.00. hey phil, whats up dude! i didn't know you came *over here*.

i'm trying to view that decoder information but it comes up way to small to see. am i missing a trick to make it bigger? i did get it to work by using "File - save as" and saving it to my computer as a bitmap (BMP) file. then i opened it up and could read it fine. any decoders for newer subarus?

this is the first time i've read the "newer generation subaru" forum. i have an XT6 so im always in the older gen forum. my XT6 AWD Auto has been doing this for a long time. the car will bind going around a turn. it will also shift at a higher RPM. and if i keep driving, it would never go away. if i turned the car off sometimes it goes away and sometimes it does not. i drained and refillled the tranny more than once and swapped in 3 different TCU's and none of that helped. but i did find a permanent way to get rid of this problem that works every single time on my car. as soon as i feel it binding which is generally not long after i start the car around the first turn here's how i get it to quit doing that. i turn the steering wheel all the way to the left or right, feel it binding, and turn the car off with the wheel all the way to the left or right. then start the car back up, straighten it out and that stupid freaking procedure fixes the problem EVERY time. don't ask me why, if i didn't see it and someone told me this i would add that to my list of stories not to believe. i'm a moderator at http://www.xt6.net and have been around many XT's and XT6's the past 10 years and i'm very familiar with this car...but i have no idea why it would do that. this past year it did it much more over the summer than now, it very rarely does it this winter. if it gets more often i'll try the fuse diagnosis and see how it reacts. i've had mismatched tires cause binding before.

are 4 bolts necessary to hold it to the hub? many cars don't have anything holding the rotor to the hub...just the wheel when you install it and the caliper. i'm not sure i've seen this kind of set up, but it seems like you could get away with less screws or none at all. the XT6 rotors have 2 screws in them stock, just retainer screws.i take them out and don't use any screws. either because they are a pain in the rump roast or because i buy rotors that don't have the holes in them, so i don't bother with them. never had any problems in thousands of miles on 3 different XT6's. but i'm not familiar with the loyale, so maybe it's much different.

i think the odometer is unrelated, but i've been wrong before. for the idiot lights i would check or replace your wires that bolt to the alternator. look for corrosion and loose connections. cut the insulation back a few inches and have a look at the wires and/or just replace them. replace the actual connection as well and solder it good, wrap it good, make it nice. bet that solves your problem. now that i've thought about it an extra 14.3 seconds, first check your battery and connections as well. make sure the posts are clean, the battery terminals are clean and the wires are tight and clean where they connect to the battery connectors. look closely for anything that looks dirty or loose.

i recommend avoiding spacers.

filling the oil or changing the oil can shut them up if they aren't too bad, they can be sensitive. change oil often and they will thank you by being quiet. of course other things could cause your tapping but there's books of info on that topic already her.

never touched a turbo but the NA heads on an EA82 are easy. the biggest annoyance with that job is rusty bolts.

drivers side head can easily be done in the car, i just did it yesterday on an XT6. the EA82 4 cylinders are WAY easier than the 6 cylinders. headgaskets are too easy to justify pulling the motor unless you need to address a trans, crank seal, torque converter seal issue at the same time. key on the drivers side is get all the wires, hoses and intake manifold out of the way which doesn't take very long.

im' sure you know this, your taller tires may perform different than the shorter guys. i did this once on my XT6 thinking i wouldn't notice much difference, wrong. big difference. handled terrible with the taller tires. never tried that again.

the ECU is located in the trunk, like where the rear speakers would be mounted on most cars. the ECU has an LED that flashes the code. not sure about your model so i can't give you specifics, it may even be located somewhere else. do you have a carb...that would mean no ECU...do you have fuel injectors...that would mean you do have an ECU.

you can keep pouring stuff in there, but i'd probably think you're lying or the problem was something else if you told me it worked. you can try removing the valve cover and tightening whatever head bolts you can get too if you're really interested in being as simple as possible. or...you can get ambitious and remove the cam and tighten up all the head bolts. you can remove the thermostat, that will keep the water temperature lower and it will use less coolant (but you'll have very little heat). sorry...but best bet is replace the head gaskets.

here's the transmission resistor to unplug (as seen on an XT6). it's circled in yellow.

binding....in 4wd going around a turn on concrete...does it feel like itsbraking when your wheels are turned all the way?

northwet is on it - by front i meant the ones in the tranny, not the rear diff. i used to have pictures of a bad transmission that i had messed with showing those seals, but can't find them anymore. i was told by john from kentucky...and i don't know that i've heard him say something yet about soobs that wasn't dead on....that the large cover you have to remove to pull these seals out also lines up some pinion or something inside the diff so be very careful doing it. the torque is important. i was told if i really wanted to do it to mark the position of the cover before starting to turn it and then count how many turns it takes to remove it...and install the exact same way. but i decided it sounded like too much work and risk for a seal that wasn't leaking anyway. someone else also told me that those seals you see are basically just external *dust* seals and there is another seal behind that to prevent oil from leaking.....but i don't remember who told me that so i would ask before i assume any of that is correct. hopefully i'm talking about the same thing here and not just creating a mess for you. do you have an FSM? i messed with my transmission before i had an FSM so i've never looked it up. good luck and have fun,

mine did this (XT6) and it was a short in a wire about 6 inches away from the connector. i should have stripped the wire to see exactly what it was doing. i spliced in a known good connector with a foot of wire and all has been good for a long time. every time i've had sensor issues it's never the sensor. i've had 5 XT6's and never replaced a sensor...except the O2 sensor.