idosubaru

yep - 33% failure rate is atrocious. that much failure from a particular store, food chain, etc - they'd be trashed. that rate increases over time far faster than Subaru axles - how many miles on the one with the least mileage? probably not 100,000 miles? report back when you have 150,000 miles on them - which all Subaru axles make easily if rebooted. you have broken axle boots in the rear axles - just reboot them. i've driven subaru rear axles over 100,000 miles with broken boots before, they are robust and failure is weird. whatever failure rate they have is extremely small and less than every other option. A) FWE sells axles, not parts, though you can call and ask, but price would be high Subaru sells parts and axle$$$$$ C) no D) i wouldn't replace bearings, they don't fail often enough to warrant it. and there's hardly any labor savings given how easily the rear axle slides off the rear splined shafts. same with the rear diff - issues are rare there as well. only replace/repair stuff if you see diff oil leaks or you can hit the rear bearings with a temp gun - if one side is notably hotter than the other, 20 or more degrees, then that might warrant preemptive bearing replacement.

1. where is the oil coming from? fix the oil leak, which i'm guessing is the power steering pump leaking or the oil pressure sender leaking. 2. how many miles? 3. clyinder 1 misfire also after installing new plugs and wires? 4. what brand plugs and wires? is the tapping valve train or piston slap? can you test oil pressure? if it's valve train i'd want to reseal the oil pump and ensure good oil volume to the hydraulic valve lash adjusters. those 96 2.2's can run forever, old or high mileage doesn't bother them.

headgaskets are the main issue and they are significant to repair and happen often. that particular year leaks externally - so you can simply look underneath where the head meets the block and see if it's leaking or not. if those check out - it's a great vehicle and that's a decent price i think for the PNW. at this age/mileage all the timing components need replaced. Gates kits on amazon are $115 for belt, tensioner, and all the pulleys. It's an interference engine so if one of the pulleys fail the engines usually incur bent valves. They are normally devoid of grease by now and ocassionally fail. But it's expensive if they do fail. the timing belt stuff is easy to replace - can be done in an hour, add a little more time for a first timer.

nice, good follow up! did you repair the burnt valve? What ended up happening - did it get worse or...? i wonder if the wreck slightly bent the valve and "caused" the valve to burn? if the wreck was hard enough to bend the pulley then maybe the timing was affected. generally 1996 are non-interference engines, but there have been cases of 1996's seemingly verified to be the original engines - that incurred valve damage. there's one documented well on subaruoutback.org.

on EJ engines Gloyale? you've seen issues? i haven't seen that yet, thanks.

that's what i was advising him on another forum.

here's a more factual way to view this issue, rather than "opinion". 1. reboot the original axles with Subaru boots for a nearly 100% success rate. 2. buy good, used Subaru axles and reboot them. nearly 100% success rate again if you buy smart: i routinely get them for $25-$33 each www.car-part.com 3. buy FWE axles if you want one already done. $100 per axle roughly, shipping can escalate things. high success rate 4. aftermarket axles - low success rates - probably a 20-50% failure rate...escalating over time. I've had aftermarket boots - even Beck Arnleys only last 2 years. Subaru boots last much longer. Replacing axles that don't have any noise or vibrations with aftermarket is quite...what's the word for throwing away good parts and installing subpar ones...silly? Aftermarket Replacement axles are low percentage. Roughly 4 out of 10 have issues....that leaves 6 happy people to share their opinions which they think mean something in light of the negative feedback they've read. But it doesn't. It just means they were in the 60 percent. No one is saying "100% of aftermarket axles fail". But when things have such high failure rates, personally I don't care about good experiences. If people vomit 4 times out of 10 eating somewhere - I'm not going there no matter how happy the other 6 are. If a particular tire blows up 4 out of 10 times, the 6 successes aren't going to sway me to buy them. Same with axles - I don't have time to install new axles that end up needing replaced again - which I've done in the past multiple times. And it's never happened with Subaru or FWE axles. I can avoid aftermarket axle issues entirely It's not expensive. You don't get much simpler than that in my book.

i replied on subaruoutback, what Shawn just said is best option for all but the outliers.

very common, i've done a few. 1. if there's any bolt shank left - weld a nut to the top of it. let it cool down then tigthen/loosen it gradually many many times. keep working it to break the corrossion. the heat cycling from welding/cooling is helpful as is the back and forth slow progression. 2. if that doesn't work/can't do it - drill the bolt out. get decent quality drill bits, keep them cool so they last longer. have some oil/spray for them. *you may need to flatten the surface with a file/grinder to get a smooth area to start drilling on *start with a really small drill bit first - go light on pressure as those bits snap easily. 3. small drill bit and increase the size. 4. even if you go nuts and hog it all up - you can always repair the threads later, either tap it one size up standard sized or helicoil it. they're easily repairable - beats getting another head. those intake manifolds are relatively benign - just need a bolt going through that hole and tightening into the head. not super critical parts/loads/conditions/moving.

Yep, just bash it to pieces until it's all out. Good job!

you're using the EJ205 manifold? which coil are you using - it's good?

it's fairly easy, nothing special and no special tools needed. resurface the heads and use Fel Pro or Subaru headgaskets. Fel Pro says you don't need to retorque their headgaskets like Subarus. the cam carrier oring (the small one in the lower corner) is a metal reinforced oring available only from Subaru (and rare other alternate places). don't replace with a regular oring. use Subaru intake manifold gaskets too the aftermarkets are thin, prone to leak, which isn't good with those shared coolant passages. you don't replace head bolts in Subaru's. the FSM for Subaru XT's (which had EA82 and EA82T's) is available at Subaruxt.com, there's a link in a sticky on there for download.

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call the dealer first and ask - since they go by book rates they can simply tell you over the phone. in the end it should be cheaper somewhere else as long as you can find someone will to do it. this site says $300 - $400 and change. yes, totally worth keeping. that's one of the most inexpensive, reliable, and cheapest to maintain vehicles Subaru ever made. don't overheat or run it low on oil and it'll last as long as you care to maintain it.

you have to check the ***back*** of the cam sprocket, did you? the fronts will look identical, the backs will have different trigger marks, if that's the issue. no spark condition can also be: 1. coil pack 2. igniter

Do you mean wiring harness? ECU's are readily available and cheap, $35 and i''d mail you one. i can not imagine wanting a carb, there are reasons they aren't readily available....nor have been in a quarter century.

Will (WJM) put Phase II heads on an EJ25d block and it assembled fine, but when running the pistons hit the heads. Installed thicker headgaskets and it didn't do it. So I opted for thicker headgaskets when I put Phase II heads on an EJ25D block. Ah - the last time I did this the heads had been milled below Subaru minimums too, so I had less thousandths to work with too. Forgot about that.

what i've done in those cases is to just use a thicker headgasket to avoid swapping pistons. can't recall which gasket off the top of my head but there is one that works, either Subaru 610, Six Star, or Cometic. i'm almost positive it's a Subaru one.

resurface the heads, use a quality headgasket only. if it was overheated, check the timing belt covers, knock sensor, and other plastic parts close to the block for signs of significant overheating. if there's any deformation of plastic you may want to consider another engine as EJ22's are cheap anyway. or if it still has the original oil, have it analyzed for metal particulates so you don't end up resealing a motor with bad lower end bearings due to the overheating. i've seen others do that before.

www.car-part.com

oh right, so heads are toast. get a set of used heads for $100 - $200 and bolt them to the original engine. or bolt them to the "new" engine, you'll have lower compression and lower power using a turbo block in an NA vehicle, but it'll run and work fine.

trade the WRX motor. or swap your heads and intake manifold onto the turbo block. turbo and NA engines are not interchangeable, electronics, piping, lots of differences. a "good deal" on an otherwise high demand/expensive engine (WRX turbo engine) is often suspect, but hopefully you're lucky.

so you have a 97 JDM trans with 91 pan and 97 filter (and therefore pick up). if Subaru was nice - they could get a 91 and 97 transmission oil pan and you could measure the depth difference and see. can your local dealer do that for you? that assumes JDM pans and transmissions are the same, which i would think they would be. by this age/mileage, prior maintenance/history/driving habits become a huge factor and are often largely indeterminate.

plug around on Subaru's website: opposed forces, it delineates different part numbers/years and is from Subaru. it's worth the learning curve, go play with it.

the stubby shaft just pops back into the transmission assuming the circlip is still dangling on one end. like he just said the roll pin only installs one way - look at the peaks and valleys of the grooves - the hole on one side has a peak going through it and the other side has a valley going through it - line up the axle holes accordingly.