idosubaru

95-99 Legacy, Impreza, Forester take a picture of your ABS mounting position and any knuckle that has that position i think is your money maker. i think on older ones the ABS sensors goes in horizontally pointing away from the car and on newer stuff it mounts nearly vertically "pointing down" so to speak. swap your brake caliper bracket onto the donor knuckle. all 95-99 struts, axles, and ball joints are interchangeable or the same (SVX has 113mm stud spacking though). so the steering knuckles are also interchangeable, just make sure it has ABS - not all do in the late 90's. i think even FWD are the same, but inspect carefully i'm not positive. the ABS set up changes around 2000 or so but varies with model i think - the tone ring goes from being in the knuckle to being on the axle. though you can install newer axles on older subarus if you simply knock the tone ring off the axle, so the knuckles are still very similar, but the ABS mounting changes.

i have the HF kit - it's fine, get it. i use air tools on mine - grease/lubricate the threads like crazy and it's fine. i bought Roosters used that he mentions here:

ignition wires? vacuum leak? spray some carb cleaner around the engine bay and listen for surges? fuel pump or fuel pressure regulator?

you can run very light boost....reddevil and kevin thomas and others have done it and you can read their info, reddevils is out there and very extensive..though now he's into more in depth projects after blowing up some motors, he didn't start there. the NA motors are high compression ratio so have to keep the boost really low, so the gains aren't tremendous for all the work...the temptation is to, after all that hard work and money, crank the boost and get some real power - then you blow the motor and you look into a turbo block...the best starting point for a turbo. kevin was able to keep his under control with a turbo in his EJ22 impreza... if it has stock headgaskets i'd definitely leave it alone...you have an engine that is prone to headgasket failure to begin with i'd keep the additional heat and power away from it.

when i've changed H6 plugs, i've never seen any in bad shape, they've always looked in very good shape, they definitely last whatever they are.

+1 if you have axle problems then you need a set of known good Subaru OEM axles and reboot them. you'll never replace them again, fact. unless of course you're in a lifted rig and really working them hard...in that case you gotta pay to play or get better drop blocks for your lift kit. MWE is a good alternative if you can't source OEM Subaru axles. the older CV *boots* do tear more often than newer ones, probably better material compounds available today and for over 10 years Subaru has been using new style boots with a lot more convolutions, those last really well and routinely exceed 100,000 miles. i'm not atuned to steering but if the wheels turn at a higher angle that may add more wear too. but it's not the joints/axles that are any problem on older generation axles. it's simply the boots that tear more often, but the boots should be replaced, not the axles. a lot of mechanics just replace axles and not boots.

you are now banned from NASIOC, lol. would ditch that hideous thing too. www.car-parts.com if you want to find another or save the original for resale. you can probably sell yours on NASIOC or craigslist, doubt you'll see much traffic for it here though. not sure it matters but some trunks have stiffer springs for popping the trunk due to the extra weight. the way you're going (heavier to lighter) shouldn't matter as it'll still open.

LMAO!!! indeed!!! one way to mitigate that is do the valve cover gaskets at the same time as the spark plugs. most subaru's need valve cover gaskets by 200,000 anyway and the spark plugs are much easier with the valve covers removed. or do them both when you first get a new to you H6. i did that to one of mine and the other hopefully i'll get to this summer.

i put the engine on an engine stand and face the valve stems up to 12 noon. i cut a side slot in a socket, spark plug socket I think. the slot allows you to pull the retainers/keepers out with a magnet. put allthread into the socket to give me a handle with washers and stuff for surface area and simply used the brute force method - pushing them down by hand. it is REALLY hard and probably a lot of folks wouldn't do it that way, but i've done a bunch like that. they sell some nifty contraptions that bolt to the end and press the valve springs too...not sure if they'll work for your EJ25 or not, i forget which engines they're for...but it's some of the really recessed motors.

if you ask around you may have a competent machine shop you can work with locally. i wouldn't where i live now but in MD where i used to live i know i could find a great machine shop that would work with me, do excellent work, and be willing to take into consideration any specific requests I had (based on significant experience personally/via input from the boards like this). have you looked into simply buying new shortblocks from Subaru? newer ones are $2,000 or a little more, if there are still old ones around maybe that's an option, heads are easily rebuilt by any machine shop and also easy to find shops with significant subaru/aluminum head experience.

All EZ30 2001+ Subaru H6 engines are timing chains and no maintenance required. and the ER27 has two belts!

great, so the wiring was straight forward? wanted to know that for more trans options years ago but with everything rusting away out here it's almost unnecessary now and my current XT6 is manual though i'd prefer auto. I see maybe one older generation Subaru a month...if that.

non turbo EJ heads don't really warp or crack. they'll have plenty of high spots and it should be resurfaced, but simply resurface and you're good to go. there's a fantastic thread on here by GD on how to resurface your own thread "post apocalyptic head resurface" or something like that is the title. unbelievably easy and i get better results than my local machine shop (not saying much but hey, it's quick and easy, worth the time to source the glass to do it). use the EJ25 TURBO Subaru gasket for replacement, those don't leak. that engine also requires Subaru's Coolant Conditioner, so be advised of that going into it - it's $2.47 from Subaru.

boot is meaningless, an axle can take all different types, manufactures, styles, clamps, generics, types of boots. it does look like a 2001+ Subaru axle boot with the increased convolutions, but some generic boots are like that too. as Gloyale mentioned it's not likely the issue. i can't quite tell but looks to be the correct axle. it would be nearly impossible to stuff the wrong axle in there. all EA82 non-turbo front axles are interchangeable, there's no trickery with that part.

grind it, it's a nonissue.

you can sell it for parts too. if it's a blown headgasket people will want the entire motor. if the block is blown someone may want the heads as well, i think 96 are HLA and some folks like those for less maintenance/no valve adjustment, so you can get $100+ for the heads.

i agree - the belt should not have jumped time, sounds like something else is wrong. if cars jumped time due to incidents like this we'd see it all the time, i've never seen that happen. do whatever you want, replace valves, swap heads, get another engine - they're all decent options just depends on you. replacing valves leaves you the same known heads, that's nice. but used heads are usually fairly high percentage. since the EJ25 is in good shape an EJ22 swap may be the most economical. buy an EJ22 for $400 (or less) and sell the EJ25 for the same, or more.

great, thanks FT4M. got it...that makes sense intake lasting much longer than exhaust.

don't know what you mean by reboot- after restarting - be nice to get that code though or check if it's got one. if it's flashing 16 times on start up that means there's a code somewhere - i'd get it. that's going to tell you a lot unless you're unlucky.

i replace as many of the orings as you can easily access - but it's really only the a/c orings that are hard and brittle usually. follow the lines and you'll find the easily accessible ones on the passengers side front and by the rear strut tower. but those little tiny ones are also hard to match up size wise, though i've always found one close enough to work in the generic kits and gotten hundreds of thousands of miles out of them with no failures yet.

tires aren't going to hurt the transmission, if they still have tread use them. if they're warn differently then you may need new bushings - might want to post pone replacing them until you post some pic's of the tires and how they're wearing, what might be out of alignment/need replaced. no point in buying new tires, getting an alignment and finding out your new tires are wearing unevenly too. i like the reviews online at tirerack and other online vendors, great to see so many reviews and then you can favor the comments you like - snow, highway, rain, longevity, traction, handling, noise...

a guy on subaruxt.com installed an EJ 4EAT into an older generation XT 4EAT and retained the original TCU. he swapped bellhousings and wired it in.

it went to auction for a reason...but let's hope you're lucky. they are notoriously hard to bleed or "burp" - they get air bubbles in the coolant, so you need to rule that out first by properly bleeding the cooling system. some have a bleeder screw on the passengers side top of the radiator, but many do not. nose up, run the car cold with radiator cap on and keep filling until you can't add any more, install cap. run car, let cool down, add coolant again...search for burping and you'll find more info. start there and let's hope it's not a headgasket. the headgaskets being replaced doesn't mean it was done right and doesn't mean the car wasn't overheated atrociously before hand.,....let's hope something simple gets it.

Aftermarket boots don't last as long as Subaru OEM boots, and an aftermarket axle probably doesn't have OEM Subaru boots. I just checked my daily driver maintenance records and I had one aftermarket boot blow after 30,000 miles. Subaru boots last longer. Use Subaru boots if you want longer CV boot life. Also, higher axle angles don't last as long either. My Outbacks (lifted) break boots fairly often relatively speaking. My FWD legacy that sits really low to the ground has 190,000 and i've never put new boots on it yet, got it with 125,00 miles on it so they have more than 65,000. You have a secondary issue you didn't ask about. You should never replace Subaru axles to begin with. If a boot breaks you should replace the boots, not the axle. Mechanics do it because it's easier not because it's what's best for you. Subaru axles are very robust and simply don't fail before 200,000 miles. Aftermarket axles are awful and fail all the time, they fail so often (see Chux comments above) that they're not worth my time at all. I've seen gobs of issues, you can search any Subaru forum and find issue after issue...vibrating at idle, vibrating on acceleration, exploding the first day of installation, leaking grease, clicking, lasting only a year or two...and on and on, they're awful. Of course that doesn't mean they're all bad - but they are inferior and have lots of issues. %50 failure rate is atrocious and makes me puke, my time is too valuable for that - but that also means %50 are good - so plenty of people squeak by. The best axle replacement procedure is this: 1. Always reboot 2. If the axle is clicking (outer joint failure) or vibrating on acceleration (inner joint failure) replace with MWE or reboot a used Subaru axle. I get Subaru axles for $25-$33 each all the time and reboot them - %100 success rate. Extra effort - but it's a net time and money and effort saved since i've avoided all the failed axles, returns, doing jobs twice like aftermarkets.

not sure what you're asking but the timing marks all need to be in alignment when the belt is installed - so they should be in alignment while installing. there's no reason for them not to be off their marks. remove the passengers side lower idler, install it after the belt is in place. if it's really tight i'll leave the toothed sprocket off and install that last with the belt wrapped around it - just make sure the bolt is absolutely going in straight so you don't strip the threads, but that's the easy way to install a tight belt.