idosubaru

compression tests are useless on that engine, they'll pass a compression test every time on an initial headgasket breach. there never will be on these motors, they don't fail that way unless it's abused. as lmdew mentioned in the first response to this post, test for exhaust gases in the coolant, since they blow by pushing exhaust gases into the coolant. that's what happens when the exhaust gases get pushed into the coolant, it stops circulating properly, one of the radiator hoses will be cool as well. that engine doesn't blow headgaskets so it was most likely overheated sometime prior in it's life. make sure the cooling system is properly working.

that is funny. i'd lean towards the cleanest one internally. is the "dirty" one also the one with more carbon on the top of the cylinder? if it's anything like the EA81 and EA82, then the difference between 10k and 50k isn't much for engines that make 200,000+ miles really easily.

leak down test. borrow, buy, or rent a bore scope? pull spark plug? pull the valve cover gaskets, poor maintenance, oil changes, etc usually shows itself in black and dirty. well maintained 200,000 mile Subaru heads will look surprisingly good when torn down - very shiny and lacking black nastiness. could pull a head off and check condition of valves and cylinder walls.

can you talk to the place you purchased it from? i can almost guarantee the headgasket issue (if it exists) was there before you purchased it - probably why it was for sale. nippers right - make sure. if it's headgaskets, which is sounds like it is, don't plug around for stop leak brands, use the bottles provided by and required by Subaru. $2.47 a bottle at the dealer. high success rates adding ***two bottles*** to an existing, and relatively new, leak. that's what I would do if you can confirm it's a leak and everything else is in proper order. my concern is that since you just bought the car that likely means the headgasket issues were the reason it hit the used car market and who knows how long it's been bad or how badly it was previously overheated.

my local dealer matches online pricing so you could get it for $65 from the dealer, no shipping, and they might be able to get it sooner. millions of ebay transactions happen just fine, i've bought literally hundreds of items and tons of people use it. i would strongly consider it an option in the future. but the $65 possible dealer price isn't much more so the ebay price so it's not a huge savings here. maybe you can cross reference which years are compatible with yours (opposed forces can help) and someone on here will have one. looks like lots of 95-99's will work - but the 4EAT did change some around 99, maybe not the cable though. i probably have one somewhere but no clue where or time to look.

you could first try just removing the hoses and blowing it out with water from a hose. i've done that before. chunks come out and walla - you have heat again with no parts, no work, no cleaners. it's worth a shot.

Boo. Check with car insurance, home owners insurance and see if there's any provisions for those tools? Or keep an eye on craigslists/local pawn shops.

great. it's not impossible for a new part to fail, just unlikely. hopefully just the a/c. there is a bearing in/under the clutches that is known to fail on those.

easy test: remove the a/c belt and run the car without it for one minute. if the noise goes away it's the A/C. if the noise remains it's not. yes you can cut it and replace it later, athough it's actually really easy to remove. it takes like 5 minutes to remove the alternator belt and then the a/c belt comes off next, very easy and don't really have to remove much of anything...NO the a/c belt does not at all need to be in place, remove it. that is almost meaningless. did you replace both timing idlers and the lower sprocket? they loose grease (at this age few are in great shape), bearings fail, pulley separates or seizes, and takes your timing belt out no matter how new or old it is. a brand new belt means nothing if the pulleys it rides on fails. a mechanics stethoscope is nice - you can put it on the a/c right by the pulley, at the base, on the block, on the tbelt covers and quickly narrow down the source. $3.99: http://www.harborfreight.com/mechanics-stethoscope-41966.html

he never drove it on the road that I'm aware of. i'm not sure which engine it was, only recall it being a V8. i believe it was Yukon on the old XT forum put one in an XT like 10 years ago.

a V8 350 (i guess, I don't know my V8's) was put in an XT...."could" fit whatever your skill set allows. got torches and welding gear you can do whatever you want. the more interference you run, the more spacing you put between motor and body right? take some measurements of how long each motor is?

oh yeah for $950, that's definitely a very low price, at least in the rust belt areas where that's common. that car would sell very fast around here for $950...where you live it's just going to take someone not worried about rust, that's common around here though. any $1,000 car that's usually valuable (not talking dodge neons and old ford taurus') is going to need some kind of work and have something wrong with it - at least you know what it is. in addition to his $1,000 vehicle comment I'll add that most 1995+ Subaru's that run, drive, pass inspection, can easily sell for $2,000 quickly around here.

Did it do this before the plug change? If not then check for a loose spark plug. (though i'd expect a performance loss you didn't mention) It runs fine? How many miles? Is the sound a knocking metallic, dull, thumping, or? 1. timing tensioners can fail and have a lot of slop and flop under load and sound like engine knock. that is behind the upper drivers side of timing belt covers. remove the cover and you can see it physically move under load (like pulling the throttle by hand). 2. internal engine issues - like he said, check oil 3. remove accessory belts and crank engine for two minutes to rule out all pulleys, bearings, etc.

get an Ozone generator. places that rent tools, lifts, and such have them. You can also rent them online. Get one, plug it in and let it run in your car all night long. Have the floor matts out so they aren't covering the carpet, glove box and center console open, windows shut. I pull everything out of the car that i can easily and then also try to run the car for an hour or so with the vents on so it's cycling through all the HVAC. stuff works amazing.

if it works - it's not just long enough to pass inspection, it is a long term and excellent solution to a silly issue. yes, folks use the L shape ones. if inspection is an issue i almost wonder if you'd rather have the straight spacers though for a more stock look? i don't know if that matters or not, my state doesn't check emissions.

Your symptoms sounds like classic CV axle issues. Has the axle ever been replaced, because if it has then this is even more likely. Reboot a known good Subaru axle, available for $25 - $35 from a junk yard before you buy a new axle. Aftermarket axles suck. MPE is another solution, but more expensive. The only aftermarket worth trying ti EMPI. Though - that it is intermittent is really strange, usually CV axles are fairly consistent under the same loads (turn, hill, acceleration). I'd be concerned about tie rods and check those immediately, they are very dangerous to have go out.

That's a $2,500 - $3,500 vehicle.***qualifying statements coming $2,500 it would sell very quickly. $3,500 it would sell over a longer period of time or right around early tax season when folks are temporarily rich and need a car immediately due to wrecking in the snow. *** Areas matter - south east you're looking lower end, in Subaru rich areas you're looking at higher end or even surpassing $3,500...although a lot of the higher priced Subaru areas (Denver, Northwest) don't have rust so this one would stand out as a blemish. Dealer prices can command higher prices, some of them smoke crack. I see your concern, but I have a hard time calling that "ripped off" when the rust hole is that huge. Did anyone look at that car before purchase? Rust repair - don't even bother doing it cheap, quick, or improperly, it'll return in a year or two and get worse. The metal needs cut out and replaced. At a body shop it's going to cost sick amounts of money - that would literally be like $1,000+ to repair at a shop properly....highly cost prohibitive. If you can do it yourself and don't need a show room look - it's actually not too bad and costs little in materials/parts. More info and a picture of really bad one I did earlier this year (also a 99): http://www.subaruoutback.org/forums/66-problems-maintenance/45485-rear-wheel-panel-rust.html It's close to show the imperfections really well - i just cut it all out, welded in new metal, filled, painted with NAPA $20 paint, bought some online 2 stage clear coat for $20, quick and easy. I didn't worry about it being smooth or factory painting. So yeah it looks rough but it also doesn't look bad from a distance and it's done right at least. Car wasn't worth tons of time/money but it's worth not having rust again in a year. I hate to say it bu the body metal, while annoying is just a sign of the underneath probably. It's not threatening or dangerous, but that rust is going to suck to work on, future jobs will have hte possibility of being a debacle - axle nuts, ball joints, tie rods, the strut top mount bolts are going to round off without careful attention - suspension bolts/nuts, timing cover bolts, all the hose clamps will never be reusable, they're just going to twist off, exhaust manifold nuts will never come off the studs - they are now bolts (but that's like every car, literally in the rust belt), brake caliper slide pins are likely to be rusty, none of the exhaust will be easy to work with and the front flange and maybe somewhere else is more than likely going to break at some point, those things do all the time. you should go ahead and do the brakes right right now - get all new caliper hardware - slide pins, boots, and pad clips - they are always rusty and cause the pads to hang, just be done with it now and have the brakes be easy maintenance over the rest of the life of the car. Rockauto is a great source for cheap brake parts - almost doesn't make sense to skip that step.

he shoots and he scores, well done! sounds like this issue was present before the swap and all the work? i think you're all over it then - try that MAF. I'd also consider installing a used igniter, coil, and ECU as a test since those are so easy to do and rule out. Two forum folks just cured some issues by swapping ECU's, one was Fairtax's 96 though the issues were different. I was surprised considering how rare Subaru ECU issues are. I have a spare 1996 EJ25 ECU i'd mail you to test if you wanna ship it back.

interesting symptom. did you try googling "low brake pedal"?

i second being careful - good point by previous posters. Subaru master cylinder failure is extremely rare. And Rock Auto - cross reference the part number on google, ebay, other parts sites, it is easy to get the wrong part from them.

I would check or replace the knock sensor. Usually you get a code but sometimes they don't. Front O2 sensor? I wouldn't expect that but I've seen crazier things. Original 97 EJ22 intake manifold on those heads or something else? Timing marks all look dead on and you have the correct timing belt installed? Timing tensioner (new style probably?) isn't "bouncing" is it? Every one I've seen that does that makes noise, not sure if they can flop and not make noise?

on manual transmission XT's and XT6's the brake master cylinder has a mechanism for the "hill holder" system that holds the car in place on an incline when you let the clutch out. that might be the difference since auto's don't have that hill holder function obviously. but i would bet if you ignore the hill holder component they are interchangeable? they do seem really simple, i wouldn't be concerned about rebuilding Subaru one. (Loyale 2.7 - you've seen Subaru MC's out of spec?). the original lasted a quarter century i wouldn't hesitate to rebuild my known good one? i would almost trust that more than an aftermarket rebuild, that's probably all they're doing on an unknown MC. I wouldn't for other manufacturers I'm less familiar with, I'd just replace, but Subaru brakes are so robust, they rarely have issues. i haven't done a master cylinder but i've done brake caliper rebuilds before and they are similarly very simple and easy to do, not much to it, like a seal or two and that's it.

Awesome! Sounds like an easy 200,000+ mile vehicle! Subaru dealers don't change the timing belt pulleys or tensioner (it's too expensive) - at most they change the tensioner, but not the pulleys. Next time you're in there consider an ebay timing belt kit for $160 - $200 and replace all three timing pulleys and the tensioner. The pulleys usually make 200,000 miles but they do occasionally fail before then so I replace the pulleys before that second belt change almost every time unless the car is junk (rust, wrecked, etc) and not worth it. These belts are rather robust and don't break often, most failures are due to the pulleys. They loose grease over time and the bearings heat up and eventually seize/fall apart, you can find pic's in forums like this. Or do the complete kit at 200k and you have another reliable 100,000 miles. It's an interference engine (if your 96 is a manual - it is not), so if the timing belt breaks on this new car you will incur bent valves. I've fixed a bunch of them.

there are two engine platforms in 1987, need to know which you have: 87 gl hatch is EA81 engine (adjustable valves) 87 gl wagon is EA82 engine (non adjustable valves) If EA82 - basic steps i'll summarize: 1. change oil 2. reseal the oil pump (or skip to #3 to avoid doing this again or if you're paying someone to do the work so you don't have to do it twice) 3. replace the oil pump ***In the odd event that you have one sticky or lazy HLA, then adding MMO, seafoam, or even ATF to your oil can free them up, but that's rather rare. usually the oil pump reseal/replacement solves it. It's an easy job - it's basically a timing belt job with a 5 more 10mm bolts for the oil pump. Once the timing belt is off it takes 5 minutes to remove the oil pump. Very simple. Grab an ebay timing belt kit for $80 while you're at it - new blets and pulleys - and you've got another reliable 50,000 miles. I'm not familiar with EA81's but looks like someone else already commented.

great thanks...is that usually obvious, have to check with car in the air? first i've heard of this.