idosubaru

totally agree - cleaning dirty bores and rusty pins isn't easy or effective half the time anyway. what I actually meant is i still think he should diagnose this. a pin check is at least free and easy, though still not diagnosis. seems odd to remove shims and take it all apart and not notice any physical symptoms anywhere, so seems a little foggy. a collapsed brake hose or wheel bearing could still be the culprit, although there should be some noise and Subaru hoses rarely do that. doubtful this is an issue now, but the "replaced CV" is a general red flag if it's aftermarket.

It'll swap with any 1999-2001 2.2 Subaru. 1999 will be some lower end Legacy's and all impreza's 2000-2001 will be some impreza's only. Legacy's didn't get the 2.2 in 2000-2001. 2000-2004 EJ25's will also swap but you need a single port 2.2 exhaust manifold as the 2.5's are dual port.

check all the slide pins again - they need to move perfectly freely and be greased properly. i would diagnose the issue first before swapping a caliper. you already said the piston moves fine, so swapping the caliper could easily be pointless waste of time and money.

Also - how many miles have you driven since all the major work? Older HLas could take a few tens of miles to quiet up after having sit apart for weeks/months.

Performance - SVX rides nice - it's basically an EJ vehicle with 230 hp though it weighs a good bit. modern engine management, EJ suspension. In terms of hard to find parts and information and unavailable new parts - it's exactly like the XT!

it would appear your readiness monitor issues are related to the ominous check engine lights you keep getting. if we ignore those issues for a moment, 1996 Subaru's are exempt from the readiness monitors because they will never, ever be ready. so is it possible you have a 1996 ECU, or are there other years close to 1996 that also have issues? just checking since it seems you did some parts swapping.

some peopel have even taken a used one, cut it, and installed it that way you don't have to disassemble the hub to swap the tone ring.

yeah just cobble it together - it just needs a pulse, they're not all that structural or big deal. weld it back on, bolt the pieces back on, etc.

Thanks Gloyale - they're all off symmetrically so that makes sense. I got the front corner headliner pulled down and see a pin point of light next to the one hole under the headliner. So i think i can seal this up easily - from the inside and up top i'll use some RTV as well. It looks like some type of fastener was slathered with some thick/nearly rock hard black goop, it's covering everything under there so i can't tell what kind of fasteners are used.

1998 Legacy wagon I picked up from Adventure Subaru on here. The rack isn't flush with the roof and i think it may be an OBW rack that was added later. The front drivers side drips on the driver when it's raining and I can't tell how it's installed. Do I have to remove all the interior fabric on the ceiling to get to the bolt for it? And then once I do - how are these things sealed from the outside?

If you’re not very familiar with lifter tick it can be much more pronounced than most expect. Old gen Subaru people call it “tick of death” even though it’s basically benign. Also piston slap is a noise not an indication of any issue exactly. You can drive 100,000+ miles with piston slap. It’s key defining symptom is that it lessens ad the car warms up.

Describe the type of sound - consistent, rthymic, changes, varies with throttle, so loud you need mufflers or only the most OCD "OH MY !()$ YOU TOUCHED MY PAINT" type people would hear it? Describe the location - front, rear, left right, top, bottom, center of engine block? Use a mechanics stethoscope (harbor freight $4) or dowel to help. maybe you have piston slap? Sometimes an exhaust noise can take on a 'tick tick' type sound and people can assume it's the engine when it's not. what oil leaks did you fix? you could test oil pressure and see what you get, but many folks don't have the equipment to do that. i've started a Subaru on rare occassions without the valves covers on just to see what's going on - I mean for like 3 seconds. i'm not sure that's warranted here yet but it's an option depending on what you think you see/hear. you might want to pull the drivers side cam and maybe you can tell if they both look the same then you can rule out that's it's something indicative of the "passengers" side only, that might send you down rabbit trails. To some degree the bearing surfaces on the cams are confined and not just saturating the insides of the valve covers with oil everywhere but you should certainly see some oil after running, it's not like they don't have a problem leaking from the valve covers gaskets all the time!

This doesn’t quite add up so let’s get some data: Miles and condition - it drove fine for 10,000 miles before this? Why did you replace the timing belt? What else did you touch while you’re in there? What made you think this is timing belt related? It should have nothing to do with the passengers side cam oil supply. The belt installs around the oil pump but it needs to be installed to run so it’s not like it can be messed up without knowing.

oh right the FSM calls for a retorque. Maybe this suggests the compressing is a nonissue but rather the gasket being compromised by pulling apart/separating as Gloyale described.... Oddly the 6 cylinders don’t call for a retorque eventhogh the block and heads and bolts are all the same, they just Siamesed an extra cylinder onto EA heads/blocks.

Personal preference. If you don’t mind doing it again and have lots of free time then go for it. Has a chance of making it awhile. For my time id just buy another gasket. Hours of my time possibly dealing with it later isn’t worth $30 measiky dollars or whatever it is. But I get that sometimes you want to try it, I do it sometimes too....I usually end up regretting the wasted time when I do. Haha

2 intake manifold gaskets and 2 orings is all the necessary parts I recall. I’ve scrapped a bunch, don’t have any crossover pipes.

Resurface the heads. Don’t think you can touch the block.

Where is Retroroo? Check them out.

Check battery and terminals. Need a good battery, clean posts and clean and tight clamps.

Does the engine turn over? Do the lights inside the car turn on? Is the battery dead? Check fusible links as John said. Blue/red/green links In a small black box by battery. Ideally you test with a meter or voltage tester as they can appear good when they’re bad sometimes. Check fuses in the vehicle. They Can be reliable engines when they’re reasonably maintained but many haven’t been after a quarter century. New timing belts and pulleys, plugs, wires, cap and rotor are good ideas.

what is the issue with the heads/HLA's? the bores they sit in get warn? the circumference of the bore or the bottom? if the ticking wasn't atrocious nor your original motivation for this job i wouldn't worry terribly much about it. i've seen countless stuck in the heads for 20 years and never worried about them. i've just left them in place plenty of times. of course i try to address them if needed or depending on the vehicle condition, etc, but i've ignored plenty too without issue.

That’s normal, or common, timing cover gaskets frequently expand due to exposure (usually to leaking oil).

Ah you said “service manager”. This may be partially miscommunication. The service staff may not articulate technical details well. They’re hearing something from the mechanic and then relaying that to you. The service office staff often misquote the shop/mechanics, may have never touched a camshaft before, may be third party info for them, may reduce things to bite sized chunks for the frequently mechanically uninformed public. Too much data freaks the masses out. It still smells really bad and for that kind of catastrophe you should be given more attention, info, and guidance than ambiguous comments and 4 digit repairs.

I haven’t seen every mechanical scenario in the natural world but this sounds basically impossible and 100% BS. A huge chunk of steel doesn’t magically bend. Quite literally impossible. If you came home and your front door was bent would you think it “randomly failed”? Of course not. This is equally incoherent.

I’m with Gloyale, there’s no way this is believable without compelling info we don’t know about like you ran into a tree. I hesitate to speculate without knowing anything, there’s a lot of poor customers and inaccurate stories floating around but this sounds all wrong. Get the old head back and post pictures. But if they’re this shady they’ll also know to stick that head under their 20 ton press to make sure it’s bent. Or they happen to have a bent cam laying around for “evidence”