idosubaru

i'm an EJ18 fan, i swapped one in one of my old legacy's and put 230,000 miles on it, a friend is driving it now. the knocking is central i guess - no suspicion of being "left" or "right"? have someone stand on each side of the car while you (or they) drive by? see which side is louder?

if it mixed oil and coolant then it was probably overheated REALLY REALLY bad. these engines dont' mix oil and coolant when the headgasket blows unless it was severely overheated or a botched prior replacement. sounds like it's probably rod knock but you'll want to verify. pull timing covers and check for the tensioner slapping . flexplate can crack too. i have a good block if you need one 135,000 miles

hmm, good to know, there's a relay for everything but the OBD port? could that relay create a draw? i'll verify first if i even have an issue - there's some suggestion that i wasn't waiting long enough for computers to set.

nice hit, great! Subaru ball joints are awful nasty. get a truck running through northeast brine daily for many years, parking over grass for years and it'll have lots of headaches too. maybe trucks have a slight advantage of more parts further away from the ground/chemicals? but they can be a bear too. okay, i won't loose all hope.

Find one from down south or out west and go pick it up or fly and drive it back. pretty easy to find a cheap 20+ year old subaru (well you might have to avoid the west for the cheap part)

verify all 5 timing marks - all 4 cams and the crank mark. the flywheel should also have a crankshaft timing mark on it, no need to remove the front timing cover to see the front timing marks. google "how to check for a burnt exhaust valve" EJ22 swap, you don't need to ask any questions - just read through this. if you still have questions you didn't read it carefully enough or are making up questions that don't matter: http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/topic/153118-ej22-or-ej18-swap-into-ej25d-dohc-vehicle/ EJ25D is the worst engine Subaru has ever made for reliability and maintenance. not a bad engine, just Subaru's worst in those terms. in my opinion no way i'm putting money into a 20 year old platform that's not known for reliability and ease of maintenance when there's a really simple, cheaper, more reliable, and easier to maintain option. but they're also rusted and aged quicker here than most areas so that sways me.

an impact that light wouldn't typically cause an issue so I would diagnose this as a simple mechanical issue. if the impact caused it - it likely just compromised an already weak situation.

Is the check engine light on? Check the codes. This will narrow down a lot in a few minutes: Fuel: takes 3 minutes - pull fuel hose and crank car - does it pour out nice and even like a hose? fuel check. Spark: check for spark at all 4 cylinders. - takes less than 5 minutes. remove 3 timing belt cover 10mm bolts on each side to verify timing marks. maybe 10 minutes 18 minutes and you've gone a long way in choosing the next move, if not finding your issue.

rust varies wildly. there's quite a few levels of rust. some definitely will not come out without something failing - a bushing or bolt shearing.

yep swap the bracket and tensioner both. the older style is more reliable but obviously 20+ years old and not new.

yeah that sounds like a terrible project IMO but i can appreciate the desire and possibility. these generation vehicles are easy enough to find cheap it might be easier to just find what you want with a couple minor issues you can fix and do that. another option would be to swap every body panel - bumpers, hood, doors, rear hatch and then paint the roof, pillars, and rear quarters. i've done that with hail damaged cars before. the doors and fenders have holes/squares to accomodate the cladding rivets or plsatic grommets or whateve they're called. something like this: http://s1311.photobucket.com/user/JarHarms/media/ForesterS/image_zpshilc5ywv.jpg.html

copy, so they're more common. they all rusted away here before that became obvious i guess. lol doesn't seem like a common topic on the boards, but neither are first gen EJ's in general.

i've probably posted 10 times not to ever touch the ball joint and don't use extractors for situations like this. should have read one of my prior posts. drill it all out and use a bolt/nut. it's done all the time around here, i've seen lots of subarus with it. 1. never touch a ball joint in the rust belt unless the boot is broken. pulling a rusty ball joint for a axle or strut job is masochism. 2. throw away bolt extractors - or never use them on rusty subarus. if it comes out with a bolt extractor there's another easier, simpler, and less risky method. bolt extractors suck except in pristine, controlled machine shop style environments or working on easy stuff. 3. i've never seen cheap left handed bits able to drill through the hardened fasteners that Subarus use - the cheap set i have has never even put a divot in a bolt. were you able to get any penetration on a Subaru hardened fastener - one of the 8.8 or whatever grade they are bolts?

EZ bolts right up to the EJ transmission and into the EJ engine crossmember. yes it'll fit. do the plugs and VCG's before you install it due to the really tight fit between the frame rails. heck that applies even when doing an EZ in an EZ vehicle. front clearance is tight - pushes tight against the radiator. people have moved the fans for additional clearance, but i'm unsure i that applies to those early 90-94 legacies.

you should describe or post pictures of the damage so we have some idea area, side, possible related issues. 1. are you absolutely positive this car has ran perfectly, got super high gas mileage, no maintenance, no issues, and show room perfect for the past 5 years? (it's often the case that an impact or seeming "cause" isn't the actual cause or simply exaggerated an existing issue...) every light front impact or deer collision i've had/seen you just start the car and drive it once you contain/verify coolant or ATF leaks. 2. i'd say check fuses but you're saying it will actually turn over and run by itself? 3. read the check engine codes immediately. 4. timing belts are the most likely culprit - they get bumped and then they're out of time. should get a cam/crank angle error if it's belt related.

It's not the rear O2 sensor. Still searching for circuits powered by SBF #5. Might have to wait til I get home, I'll just leave it unplugged overnight.

this is an impreza but it looks very similar to this layout, with SBF5 in the outback looking similar in location/layout: https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://i345.photobucket.com/albums/p367/asoka05/742dcb2e.jpg&imgrefurl=http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t%3D2233831&h=764&w=1024&tbnid=dDpr-IOI071O9M:&docid=DHFYe2SlS8J6bM&ei=4iCkVurrO-yujgT436O4BA&tbm=isch&ved=0ahUKEwjq5L22nsHKAhVsl4MKHfjvCEcQMwhOKCowKg see how the SBF fuses aren't labelled in your diagram? it only lists the blade type fuses.

No, it's SBF #5 - which is one of the blank/unlisted boxes between Fuse 4 and 5 in your diagram.

*edit* rear O2 sensor most likely...

Rear O2 sensor looks most likely - I'm out of town and in the dark can't seem to find the connector - accessible through engine bay or underneath only?

cracksmoker - i don't have any FSM's on my new laptop. 2002 OBW H6 SBF #5 circuits anyone?

thanks fairtax it was the SBF #5 - i completely forgot to pull those. (they are not bolt down - just the main fuse is) now i gotta track down what's on SBF#5

No it doesn't include the main fuse or a few (4 or 5) of the big box slow-blow fuses fairtax talked about, they are bolted down into the fuse box.

I'll go test those slow blow fuses shortly. While we're talking about testing - why can't you test the draw by pulling a fuse - and then insert your multimeter in place of the fuse terminals to test the draw on that one circuit? Everything I read says to go between the battery post and cable.

THanks, i wont' short the battery. Meter is in-line between the negative battery post and the removed negative cable. I rest the negative cable on the terminal with the mutlimeter probe attached then lift it off - probably 30 seconds, it seems to settle down - does that sound long enough? Ah - crack - yeah the slow blow fuses are the "bolt" down fuses in the main fuse box? I didn't remove those yet - I guess it's one of those circuits - what are those typically for - if there's a simple way to delineate that?