idosubaru

you could have your driveshaft lengthened or shortened by a driveline shop or a good machine shop to fit the new transmission. get the desired length from a group member. could you also keep your eye out for the newer 4.11 LSD's and swap internals as well into a 3.90? i think i've heard of that being done also. or maybe i'm thinking the 4.11 can be converted to LSD with the 3.70/3.90 internals?

the stock setup (ECU, injectors...etc) should be able to handle a little more than 2-3 psi. best that your motor is in good shape, radiator and cooling in particular.

i've put 50,000 miles on front axles with broken boot(s) multiple times without any problems. and i've never had brake problems. i'm at 205,000 miles on the original calipers and i removed the original rotors at 200,000 because new ones were cheaper than having them turned. i have a broken boot now that's been like that for awhile and i have no immediate plans to replace it eventhough i have a new axle in the shed. not a big deal. if you're installing calipers you may consider rebuilding them first. caliper rebuild kit are about 10 dollars from thepartsbin.com or rockauto.com. the kit will contain parts to rebuild both calipers so you'll have rebuilt calipers for 10 dollars. it's not that bad to do and can be done without any special tools. i've described how to do it before...is the process in the "write up" section maybe? remove brake pads and caliper from rotor (leave brake line attached). place bucket under caliper to catch fluid and wrap towel around piston and caliper to keep it from falling out. top off brake fluid as it will run low as you continue to pump the brakes. now keep pressing the brake pedal until the piston pops out. now you're ready to clean it up, install the new seals and put it back together. quite simple actually. threading the piston back in place is time consuming because it takes forever and some energy to thread them back in place, but just keep turning and they'll eventually get there. take a good look at the seals and boot to see how they are placed before you take it all apart so you know how to reinstall the new ones. there is just one inner seal and the rubber boot, that's all there is to it. quite simple actually. clean everything up really good, install and bleed the crap out of it. i did it this summer for the first time for Kevin (myphalyx) without any problems. you can also blow the piston out with compressed air, but i've never done that. your calipers might be alot cheaper than those for the XT6 so maybe you'd rather just buy them as needed.

... Leave a little something for the next guy! HA HA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! excellent humor for the morning....thanks. the nut thing...while funny...is mean, hopefully a tall tale of sorts.

i've never touched a loyale, but sounds like more work than necessary. on an AWD XT6 all i do is remove the 2 bolts that connect the struts to the hub, loosen the top strut mounting bolts/nuts and the axle will come out. press down on the hub and wiggle the strut and the hub/control arm drop down with the axle. push the axle through and wiggle it out and you just pulled the axle by removing 3 bolts (axle bolt and 2 strut bolts) and looseing the top 3 strut bolts. hardest part of the process is getting the axle out and the new one in through the maze of brake hoses and parts that i didn't disconnect, but it comes out if you find the right path (but that's not very hard). i don't touch control arms, ball joints, brake calipers, rotors, tie rods, nothing. and like he said, i can be done in no time. this is all for an XT6 of though.

find the leak first. get the car up to operating temperature - hold it steady around 3,000 rpm and look for leaks. does your heat and thermostat work fine?

highly unlikely but could the previous owner have done a transmission swap?

not sure if this works on yours, but sometimes helps with sticking XT6 AWD's. have you tried driving straight at a constant speed for a couple hundred feet (i think the owners manual even recommends that)? or putting it in reverse and driving backwards for a little bit? sometimes things like this help to disengage 4WD.

i'd say it's just clogged. i would definetly blow the heater core out with water. i used a very low pressure water hose and it worked great. all sorts of junk came out of my buddies nissan. worked great, no problems. it's really simple....disconnect two hoses and butt a garden hose up to it. and run some low pressure water through there. like the other post mentions, try both ways. is your thermostat okay? is your temp gauge for your engine reading normal? is your coolant full?

sounds like different ratios. when you're in 4WD the center diff is locked, making your front and rear axles turn at the exact same rate. but the differentials will be drive the tires at different rates as indicated by the gear ratior of the diff. so one tire will keep breaking loose to make up the difference. you won't experience binding because your tires are allowed to slip on the slippery surface, but you won't experience traction either because either your fronts or backs will keep braking loose due to the binding caused by the different gear ratios. which ever tire maintains traction will want to push or pull the car in that direction.

white smoke can also mean coolant leakage somewhere. you would experience a gradual coolant loss though. is your coolant level staying constant? sometimes at the onset of minor leaks, coolant can seep into the combustion chamber after you turn the motor off, then when you start it up it will blow the coolant out the exhaust. have someone start the car while you're standing at the exhaust tip and see if any coolant blows out right after start up. then after a few strokes all the coolant is gone out the the motor. remove your oil cap and check for white film underneath. if it only happens right at start up, it shouldn't be grease, oil or ATF since the exhaust isn't hot yet. does it continue to smoke at all after warming up?

if part of the drive shaft was removed, it would just drive like it was a FWD vehicle (so long as the center diff was locked or it was in 4WD or a fuse was inserted in the FWD holster of a 4EAT, or someone tweaked something like the TCU to lock the center diff on an auto tranny). the rear output shaft would spin, but it wouldn't do anything because it's not connected to the rear diff. in that case you could get away with it. depends what transmission you're talking about. the 4EAT TCU would probably flip out, cycling the proportioning of the transfer clutch on and off as you drove. it would feel like the car is braking when you let off the gas but are not hitting the brakes. if you have a manual trans with locking center diff (like on manual trans XT6's), it would definetly experience some binding and hopping, which normally occurs on pavement while turning, but you'd experience it at all times. it would feel like a constant drag, constant braking. while driving straight you might hear your tires chirp as the binding gets too severe and one tire breaks loose to relieve the pressure.

if you're not concerned about retaining the d/r option, install a 5speed XT6 transmission. while we're on this subject, what does the d/r trans offer that makes it so desirable? ive always owned XT6's so never really gave the d/r option much thought.

according to this thread they are interchangeable: http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=22848&highlight=ER27+pistons check out like the 2nd or 3rd post, someone mentions it.

i was looking at port matching for my XT6 heads and intake, didn't seem like much room for improvement. nothing as noticable as i've seen with cast iron V8's. am i missing something? i was thinking i could trim the gasket down to open them and then match the intake/head...or just cut my own gaskets. anyone done this port matching? as little as you drive i'd leave the block as it is unless you have the time and money then who cares. i have zero experience with turbos though, so maybe those blocks tend to experience more wear than NA soobs. clean your HLA's, send them off to be cleaned or clean them yourself. i disassembled mine and cleaned them, it wasn't that bad. slightly time consuming but not hard. (but you'll have 4 less to do than me). have your fuel injectors cleaned professionally by RC engineering or some place similar. get new timing tensioners, they are inexpensive for the EA82 at places like http://www.thepartsbin.com. or buy bearings and press them in yourself to your existing pulleys. i'd buy new tensioners before i'd buy a new oil pump. doubtful you need a new pump. i'm at 205,000 miles and i don't plan on needing a new pump anytime soon.

4wd won't help with accleration. it will help with traction, so if you're on a slippery surface or have loads of power to put to the ground it will help. but normally, no advantage.

very subjective question, all identical motors are similar. all tapping HLA's are not. each person with noisey HLA's could have entirely different issues, different levels of oil pump weakness or dirty/sticky HLA's. each will have different effects on gas mileage and performance and can vary in severity. bottom line is that HLA's can definitely affect gas mileage by a substantial amount. you can experience minimal to no effect on performance or terrible performance. if the tapping never or rarely goes away, i'd expect significant loss. if it goes away above idle, it may not be noticable.

the service provider of xt6.net had a hard drive crash and is moving all the xt6.net files to a new hard drive. they expect a 24 hour turn around time. maintenance started sometime before 5:15pm thursday, so hopefully we'll be back in action tomorrow afternoon....but i wouldn't start sweating and bouncing off walls if it takes longer.

major service maintenance on the providers end at xt6.net, they will be down for approx 24 hours from the time they started...but i don't know when that is except to say it was before 9pm thursday night sometime. there are a few XT turbo owners there, so you should have some good info. some are members here too and it's the same EA82T motor that is in all the other late 80's subaru's so lots of people here will have input. search or look for posts regarding the EA82T, that's your motor. subaru offered that in other models, but the motor is the same as far as youre concerned . it's always a good idea to make sure the car is running as close to 100 percent as possible. ignition is huge - plugs, wires, cap, rotor and coil. have you replaced any of that recently? i'd recommend doing it all at the same time. better performance, gas mileage and peace of mind in my position. but i was in college one time too...... you don't have heavy items in the car do you? extra weight will hinder you some. they don't make spares the size of pie pans for no reason. i believe you can increase the boost very easily....read *cheap*. but i've never done it so i'm not sure how to do that....i recall something about installing a long hose to some other line and the length of the hose will dictate boost...blah blah blah, but i've never sat in or worked on a turbo so i don't know specifics. i heard this from john in ky and he definitely knows his turbo subarus so it can be done even if what i said makes ZERO sense. if you have a welder, do the exhaust work yourself. i took the old exhaust into a shop that has exhaust pipe and had them bend it for me and i welded it in place. that's easy and should help from what i've read about turbo's (thanks kevin). in college i bought a muffler and had a guy install it with larger pipe for 35 dollars. keep your eyes out for an honest guy not trying to rip you off and you can get it done cheap. he used to own an XT6, so i think he was excited to do the work. you could install a larger intercooler from some other car. get a used one cheap and install it yourself and it shouldn't cost too much. if your HLA's (lifters, valve train) are noisey at all, i'd address that. the familiar tapping noise of a subaru can kill power as it prevents the valves from operating properly. and the valves are what allow your motor to *breathe*....ahhhh....

i think some RX owners like to upgrade to 5 lug suspension from an XT6. maybe because the brakes (calipers/rotors) are better?

it's a very trivial issue if you can put up with the grease slinging around. i routinely drive 50,000 miles on broken boots, just stay out of the sand and you'll be fine. they get REAL noisey when sand gets up in there. inner and rear cv joints don't ariculate much, so they last forever. put a new clamp on it or take it out and return it for another. one of your old axles was not leaking when you pulled it. swap that with the new one that is leaking and see what happens. then go return, exchange or install a new boot clamp on the new one.

i know the pistons are different, are you sure the rings are the same?

hti-johnson, i would very surprised if you had any problems. but why not change it? no point in taking a chance, no matter how small it is if it's known, cheap and easily avoidable. moshem74 i don't think the installation of your hoses is causing you any problems or is anything to worry about. if i could remember i'd tell you how they are stock though so you can make sure they are correct. someone will post that info.

if it's anything like the EA82 in the XT (same motor), then way slower. no comparison. much better gas mileage but no comparison for power, pulling, acclerating...etc. did you mean to compare the rx turbo and xt6 or NA rx?

in the 4EAT transmission there's a seal that seperates the diff fluid (gear oil) and transmission fluid. if there's leakage at this seal, the fluids can mix and one...i think the ATF will read higher. you'll notice a corresponding loss of gear oil in the front diff. i could have it backwards...the DIFF oil could read high with a corresponding loss of ATF. your post sounds like you drained ATF, but it still was reading high...higher than it did after you drained it. so either the measurement was off for some reason or you have additional fluid entering the trans?