idosubaru

indeed, there are more options than you mentioned. swap the engine, body side harness, and ECU as well.....or swap EJ25 head onto other block, including that phase I EJ22 block....or bolt his intake manifold onto 99+ EJ22's. when he says things like "direct swap"...."can't be done easily"....and "can't have codes".....i assume he wants a plug and play swap, no CEL, and "easy" (with all the ambiguity carried in that)....so OP should indicate what kind of job/swap he's looking for (or not looking for). i assume those are all more than he's looking for except the last option which i mentioned in one of his threads and is around the same price range and easy. note: for 96 EJ22 (and 99+ EJ22) you will also need the exhaust manifold as they are single port and EJ25's are dual port. they bolt right up though, very simple swap, just get the exhaust manifold with it.

The answers are clear - you are misreading...or probably wishful thinking and hoping you're reading wrong so you can still do this swap, I understand that though. Yes: you can swap EJ22's IF it's the proper year/phase. No: you can't swap across phases like you're asking about. I replied in your other thread about another option that should be easy enough and not much more expensive.

Like Shawn said that's only the case for 1996-1999 Legacy/Outback EJ25's. (Doesn't work for 99 Impreza/Forester either). You can swap a 1999-2001 EJ22 (from either a legacy or impreza): www.car-parts.com I was looking for one yesterday and found them for $400 - $600. That being said 2000 EJ25's typically don't die due to headgaskets, unless they're ignored overheated, or run low on oil. If it's just the headgasket - replace the headgasket and use a Subaru EJ25 Turbo headgasket.

Yes - all AWD XT6's have air suspension. But they often get converted to coil over due to parts costs and difficultly troubleshooting/maintaining the air system. The air lines/solenoids/compressor/receiver/drier/computer are often left in place though so you can find those bits if they're left in place or you dig.

Can you start a dedicated thread for engine flushes, I'd start another thread about flushes and PM him for a reply to it. That gives two specific topics that can both stay more specific and focused.

I think crapshoot, though ambiguous to start with, is overstating it mathematically speaking. There are many documented successes replacing the oil pump. It's not %100, although for me it's been 100% out of quite a few TOD's in the past 20 years of owning like 50 Subaru's and working on many more. But I've never worked on 85/86 models with inferior orings and mine are always "low" mileage, 100k-175k, i've only worked on like one 200k engine. Stuff rusts too quickly to see many 200,000+ mile vehicles here. I rarely see or work on them any more. What year is that vehicle (is it the early 85/86 variants that get the standard oring only in the cam carrier passage?)? How many TOD vehicles have you replaced an oil pump on? In any event, a 300,000 mile EA82...particularly one with the known substandard orings may not be much more than an outlier statistically speaking. Meaning, I don't know how comparative a 300k motor is to a 150k motor.

sweet - soldering iron it is, i can do it in my warm house! it's already off the car so that makes that part easy. torch does seem like it would be messy. i've got a soldering iron, hopefully i have some source plastic pieces at home for "welding" rod.

Can I use my propane or Oxy torch to simply weld some plastic across the broken tabs? Cut some old bumper pieces off another car and melt it on like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCf1U8UaGpA

My bumper got ripped off in an accident and most of the mounting points between the headlights were ripped. It is otherwise in good shape and that odd Taupe color so finding one to match isn't likely. Is there a way to easily repair or otherwise attach it? I tried some washers under the heads of the grommets to widen the contact patch and hopefully help it hold but it didn't, they gradually came out. But i didn't have the ends of the bumper attach, it probably would have lasted a lot longer if i had attached thsoe end points around the fenders. I'd prefer to not use self tapping screws....

he has a good point, with the wheels, rotors...and it even appears to sit low...that thing has had some work done and parts swapped.

i haven't heard of parts. Shawn would know the answer since he's familiar with marshall who rebuilds them. regrease and boot them, not a big deal. they last the life of the car. 200,000 miles (320,000 km) axles are no big deal if they're OEM subaru axles.

yep, i hear you ivan, can totally see your experience and thankful you share it. i don't do nearly as much as you and i can name most bolts/sizes as well. can't imagine how well you know/have this organized. i know some steps i'd take to make it quicker if i were doing it a lot. what do you do with the timing cover and radiator fan bolts that are so rusty that the socket just spins on them by hand? sometimes i can jam a 9mm in place of the 10, but not always. i've often cracked the covers or fan shrouds on purpose but there's probably a better way?

your wording makes it confusing...i can read it two ways - you're trying to pull the OB engine into the WRX or the WRX engine into the OB?

i just did two like last week, have 3 more to do. very easy. i don't even remove the outert tie rods because of the rust belt - we don't have the luxury of pins and nuts and joints coming out like the rest of the country. break the jam nut loose turn the inner tie rod remove jam nut install boot it's only one nut once the wheel is off so it can be done in 30 minutes....but the first one might take you awhile if you have problems removing stuck parts. the drivers side is the hardest to get up and over the rack. that's the second time sucker - getting the boot over the rack. slide one side (like the top-ish side) up and over the lip of the rack as much as you can and hold it there with one hand - then grab the lip of the other side of the boot with a pair of pliers and stretch it up and over the other side. that's the quick method. i haven't found any other way to get them on quickly and consistently other than that. i almost always reuse the stock OEM rack hardware - the clamps are usually in good shape and i like them better than zipties which a lot of boots come with. www.rockauto.com has great prices. always 5% off coupons somewhere. advance auto you can always get 20% off online discount codes and free shipping sometimes or local pick up.

once you've diagnosed it, start another topic more specific..."How to replace the Duty C solenoid" or something instead of the ambiguous "FWD Fuse"...many people probably ignored this thread thinking it would say "will i get better gas mileage with it?" get some feedback from folks that have done it - it is intimidating and you want to get it right but with enough help you'll get it. i think there's some good threads about replacing it - i forwarded them to a friend that needed to do it but it was a year or two ago so i dont' recall specifics. this would be a good topic for a write up.

most people should pull the engine unless there's a compelling reason not too. easiest - pull the engine quickest - pull the trans least painful - pull the engine the transmission has fewer items to remove. it is the "quickest possible way"...but it is so annoying, inconvenient, and a pain working from under the car with dirt and rust falling in your eyes... it's advantageous that you can do the trans without needing an engine lift or any special tools, so it's a good fit for someone that doesn't want to lift the engine. if you have a lift you can run chain through the engine by and grab the front of the trans with an engine lift to maneuver it into position. his numbers above - in under a half an hour are going to be nowhere near average. i'm glad he can do that but the average person who doesn't do this every day and has tools/experience with rounded off bolts, rusty bolts, hard to access flex plate bolts, separating engines/trans (people will spend an hour trying to separate an engine/trans).....they are not going to do this in 28 minutes. if you don't have any rust to deal with that's a huge plus. in rust prone areas hose clamps, exhaust studs, cross member nuts, exhaust bolts, radiator fan bolts, radiator botls....probably a few more, are all prone to rust, shearing off, and some get so rusty that a socket doesn't even come close to biting on them. that car really slow down someone that's never done this before.

i've gutted 80's XT6 cat with no notable difference.

use zipties to hold the cover on, easily removed the next time. or leave it off or concoct something, not a big deal. if the tensioner fails then you'll end up with bent valves, so i'd check that first. 2 bolts stand between you and avoiding a huge engine repair. if it's not that and it's piston slap then you can ignore it the rest of your life. i wouldn't worry about a flexplate, that's probably the least likely cause. well covered by fairtax...hopefully he didn't learn that all by experience!!!...it's just a plate between the engine and trans so it's benign in terms of "longevity of the engine car", it'll just leave you stranded eventually. I've never heard of any damage from one, but like he said with bad luck, i wouldn't necessarily want to see a worst case scenario.

if it doesn't go to FWD mode then the Duty C solenoid is not working properly. did the FWD light come on in the instrument cluster/dash? if you have a two piece driveshaft you can remove the rear half and it'll be FWD until you get it fixed. you can run it indefinitely like that too if you need to buy yourself some time.

i think the timing tensioner is slapping around - pull the drivers side timing cover (3 10mm bolts i think). get a light and watch the thing flop around. you can run the engine without timing covers to see. it'll be notably bouncing all over the place. interference engine - so you need to replace it like yesterday. ebay kits are the way to go - all new tensioner, pulleys, and belts for reasonable prices. or it's piston slap, it's benign but just annoying, turn the radio up and ignore it. doesn't seem like rod knock - like Shawn says Subaru rod knock seems to get progressively worse. if you're driven 14,000km without it changing that doesn't seem like rod knock to me. and rod knock doesn't diminish as it warms up....and that motor is not prone to rod knock like the EJ25 of the same era....lots of things in your favor here.

hard to tell, i don't see anything obvious, all that rust makes it look the same, LOL. i'm from maryland and live in the rust belt so i'm allowed to poke! i worked in greenbelt, dad works in Gaithersburg. you can tighten the two remaining lug nuts and drive it just fine...to get it somewhere. in some cases there it seems probably that the rear rotor is causing the lug nuts to shear off. presumably they aren't perfectly flat and this stresses the lugs over time. mine is currently shearing off as well - passengers side rear just like yours 2003 Outback Sedan. I have 2 sheared off at the moment and have been for months. so i take this to mean two things: 1. i would replace the two existing studs as well while you're at it - they're only a couple bucks each and it won't take any more appreciable time to replace them. if those three were fatigued to failure, the other two were probably fatigued as well. 2. you might want to consider installing a new rotor while it's all apart - again cost of rotor is about all it *should* be depending how honest the mechanics are.

I actually have a set of EA82 Permatorque headgaskets - you want them, i'll give you a few bucks under whatever they cost. PM or email me at my username here at yahoo.com. I have a granite slab as well but was told by machinists/online forums for machinists that they're not always flat...it depends on the source, how they were cut and manufactured and I don't have the equipment to verify flatness so i went with glass. When I was looking into it, glass is flat by property/processing. The granite is awkward due to it's weight too. I use the 3M roloc discs as well that Shawn mentioned.

his car originally came with 15" wheels so he'd be going back to stock. that being said changing wheel/tires sizes is not a big deal, people do it all the time and it doesn't affect anything. of course it should be known that it does change geometry and any huge changes should be noted/checked. wheeltire size changes can reduce or increase gas mileage depending on the vehicle, driving circumstances, etc.

unbolt the two 14mm nuts in the crossmember for the engine mounts and jack the engine up in the engine bay - gives a lot more room. i did a 2001 forester exactly that way last year. 1. without jacking it up - it's almost not possible by yourself and nothing but frustration 2. jack the engine up a few inches - lots of clearance and much easier. yes - use the EJ25 turbo headgaskets. resurface the heads. there's a thread on this forum about how to do it yourself actually - it's far easier than you'd imagine.

no special tools needed but those cam bolts are annoying particularly if you haven't done them before probably. the cams have a flat spot on them for holding with a wrench and since you're doing a headgasket job it's no extra work to pull the valve cover and hold the cams in place. use EJ25 Turbo headgaskets for that motor.