idosubaru

my college roomate would stuff the joints full of grease then wrap them in saran wrap.

+1 right on, i'll twist back and forth multiple times and if it's really bad take breaks to let it cool down every few minutes. never done the center punch before, another trick to add to the arsenal of stuck fasteners....

if you had it off once before for replacement it's probably more likely to come out this time than the original? drill so that the turning motion of the drill bit is "unthreading" the bolt out the *head* side where it would normally unthread from. that is ideal. so you use a left handed bit from the head side or a right handed bit from the other side. i generally start with a small drill bit...sort of depends how mangled it is. if i can center it i'll start with a larger bit, if it's trickier i'll start with a small bit to help center the larger one next. it's not hard to do it without damaging threads but even i you do it's not a big deal - just chase the remaining threads and clean them up or heli-coil it or use a larger bolt/threads and tap it to that. definitely try not to do that, but don't sweat it if you gotta get creative either. the housings can crack so don't go bonkers. and then yes you're just increasing the bit size until eventually it just spins the remaining shank/threads out. only takes one or two bits usually. in another thread they talked about some "rust evaporator", i would look into that - soak a rag in the stuff and wrap the bolt with the rag for a night or two - it breaks down the corossion. i would probably do that since a ball joint you should have some time to work with and not have to do it immediately? do that before you attempt to remove that bolt, it might help it come out? make sure you have a pickle fork, ball joints are difficult to get out in the rust belt otherwise.

i figured you'd be familiar with that. right on, total long shot and seems like you'd tell the difference. i've seen it 3 times now, twice on older gen engines though and this was the first on an EJ. not because this is what you have to deal with but just for jabbering sake.... i've seen a few failed tensioner pulley bolts. more than once i've seen a chunk of the block come out with the bolt too on XT6's! a guess is that the tensioners hydraulic mechanism can degrade and cause the pulley to "vibrate" or "bounce", which fatigues the bolt over time. i've seen them fail like that, where the tensioner is visually bouncing....so if one could fail "less" than that, but still vibrates - maybe it could fatigue the bolt? since i've seen them fail badly and it doesn't seem to happen on any of the other pulley bolts that seems somewhat plausible. this one had a complete new timing kit installed, it was the first engine i've ever pulled apart and seen all new timing components.

get a used bracket. there is a rust "evaporator"...i forget what it's called, but folks were just talking about it last week in another thread here. apparently it works quite well. soak a rag in it and cover the offending area with the rag and let it set to do it's work. then ideally you hit it with left handed drill bits. they drill and are "turning" counterclockwise so you loose it as you go. if you have access you can drill from the back with a regular drill bit which will effectively loosen it out the back. drilling also artificially heats it up too. i saw a friend of mine set his drill to "LEFTHAND" while using a right handed drill bit...amazingly it drilled the head off the bolt and ended up twisting the shank out, i was surprised how quickly it worked. as a temporary solution to get you by as you source parts, you can leave it and run with one bolt instead of two in the brake caliper bracekt. one bolt will hold just fine, i've done it before. i had a wheel shear off the lug studs in the middle of a 1,500 mile road trip. i found those brake caliper bracket bolts were the same thread as the lug nuts so i pulled one from each front and installed them with lug nuts borrowed off the rear wheels to get me back on the road at 2am in Charlotte, NC. worked like a charm, hardly no time lost! +1 on ignoring ezouts, they're essentially useless for home automotive.

sounds like you're familiar enough to tell the difference, but sometimes they sound very similar: take it apart and see. timing tensioners can sound like knock and only happen under load. they can sound strangely like rod knock. oil pumps can bleed off pressure too if the rear backing plate screws come too loose which is common and you're probably familiar with. folks have said this can generate a noise but i've never heard it yet, just seen the loose screws. it's not piston slap is it? the Phase II i just got and pulled was diagnosed by a mechanic as a bad bottom end and ended up being the timing tensioner knocking - this time because the bolt holding it in place was sheared off, not because the tensioner itself failed. it was wedged in place enough to still rotate and never gave out completely so it was allowed to turn over and make noise.

well you might be on to something: this wasn't something I worked on but I talked to someone that installed Phase II heads onto a Phase I block (but I can't recall for sure - though I think his was all EJ25 stuff) and said the pistons were striking the heads "wham, wham, wham". he said it had no noticeable interference when assembled and turning it by hand, it wasn't until they started it that it made the noises? i don't believe any "damage" was done but they could see the strike marks on the head when he pulled it apart. again - that's from memory but it affected how i proceeded with mine....so onto mine.... that, combined with the fact that the shop resurfaced the heads beyond limits on the one I was working on, i knew i needed to account for that. i used the 610 EJ25 headgasket which is really thick and gave enough room that it didn't matter. i prefer that gasket anyway as it holds really well on the headgasket issue prone EJ25's. there are companies like allwheeldriveauto and COMETIC that make custom gaskets and maybe they can get you a "thick" EJ22 headgasket to give you some extra room if needed? i believe you're supposed to match the headgasket to the block because of the fire ring so you should probably be using an EJ22 headgasket, i don't know the efficacy of using an EJ25 headgasket on an EJ22 block, but would be nice if you could just use the thicker EJ25 headgaskets already avialable.

i just pulled a Phase II EJ22 that had an older Phase I block in it, so it works for EJ22's. i was told the block was bad and was going to do exactly like you said - install a Phase I EJ22 block in it (which i didn't know it already had in it but assumed it would work). turns out the timing tensioner sheared off and valves bent. the Phase II EJ22 and EJ25 intake and exhaust valves have the same part numbers so while there are differences I doubt it matters. i've also installed Phase II SOHC EJ25 heads on Phase I EJ25 blocks, use the thick 610 EJ25D headgasket.

wow, thanks for sharing, that is quite a spectacle to track down! awesome it ended up being an easy (well, i guess that's relative but you nailed it) fix for you, that's great. JB weld often gets used in simple situations like this where, in the end, it's not much of a surprise that it would hold. crank pulleys are relatively easy fixes in a way. hogged out, wobbling, sheared off, key-less, out of round crank pulleys on cone shaped crank snouts will stay in place without nothing more than FT-LBS. it might wear through belts quick but if it comes loose it simply wasn't tight enough, get a 3 foot pipe and have at it! lol not surprising JB weld would do fine in a repair where it's not necessary. some situations are far more forgiving than others - in the less forgiving ones i've seen JB weld fail and generally don't need it now because the easier fixes usually have multiple repair options anyway.

any brake fluid that meets the spec's in your manual or on the cap is fine, DOT 3 or something, so synthetic is fine. not sure what you mean about "clutch"? if by clutch you mean the clutch in a manual transmission vehicle, then that's not applicable to your car. yours does not have a hydraulic clutch so it doesn't need brake fluid, it is cable operated (unless someone converted your car which is highly unlikely). in subaru's that do have hydraulic clutches they have a completely separate hydraulic line and reservoir.

this: maybe they like their labor and parts volume increases too much?

not worth it. they're a great idea but little more than a band aid that will eventually fail.

remove differential and axles. bust apart rear axles so you can install the outer cups into the rear hub assembly/bearings. remove rear half of drive shaft.

i used generic bolt/screw type coil spring compressors to loosen the pressure and adjust as needed while off the vehicle. they're under so much pressure i can't imagine getting them to budge otherwise, but i do recall reading about folks suggesting it's possible.

don't worry about the rocker arms. try to keep them in the same spots but it won't matter if you cant. yes, clean out all the passages you can.

any fluid loss? when you did the pads - did you also clean and regrease the caliper pins/slides? like Tractor pole said it sounds like your caliper could be seizing due to the caliper itself being hosed or the slides being corroded. knowing what it was like when you were just in there doing the job would be good. or you have a collapsed brake line - they collapse internally and cause the caliper to hang. i just saw this for the first time ever this year, it was new to me.

caliper brackets should be a dime a dozen on places like this, i believe i have a few.

typically simply replacing the wires with Subaru OEM wires will do it. there are probably okay aftermarkets but these motors are sometimes not very forgiving - i've seen brand new wires cause cylinder misfires so i stick with OEM on EJ's. swapping the intake manifold completely cured these two cylinder misfires. i have no idea what the root cause was but it was something on the intake manifold - injectors, fuel rail, FPR?

mine was like 250 miles, it was a loooooong trip and scary on crazy a#$# I95 traffic Philly to Baltimore but i made it. it was a board members car. i would never do that again. you nut bag!@!!!!! did the car fall off? how did Uhaul like that trailer return? is that when you worked for them?

looks like you might be in luck - i found this listing for part numbers included in the overhaul kit you posted and it lists the head gasket part number as: 11044AA610 that was from a skip who did his in August of 2003 and bought this same kit. so unless the part number was superseded at some point it looks like you might have a desirable HG in there!? like previously mentioned you can easily tell these headgaskets by looking at where the HG extends externally, simple visual inspection under the hood.

like he said they'll bolt into any EA82 vehicle, i have rear adjustable EA82's installed in my XT6 as well.

oh right safety wise it is terrible i did it once and like you said it's a safety hazzard and should probably be illegal, it was scary even in my full size truck! but this car was only going 7 miles on slow back roads so i wasn't too worried about that....but ended up being a bad idea for the trans anyway so just got a friend and did the extra work of pushing, pulling, drifting, to get it on right.

there's quite a few variables involved as you've sort of gleaned yourself. DOHC - Subaru has the 610 (last 3 digits) headgasket for those that's a nice MLS gasket, which i have used on SOHC heads as well. i'm a fan of that gasket and know the local subaru shop uses them all the time. SOHC - these gaskets suck from what i've seen, but i'm not a gasket expert. folks are using one of the turbo gaskets i believe...ends in part number 642 i think (from memory). there are quite a few gasket numbers and supercessions, etc. for DOHC - the 610 is definitely the way to go - for SOHC it varies. i would research those a bit and opt for the turbo gasket folks are recommending or see if that 610 gasket will work - it's very thick MLS and will decrease compression a bit but i'd rather have the better gasket. the one i used on a SOHC vehicle seemed to do just fine, i noticed no performance difference or loss of 8 hp.

good work, you're getting really good at using the forum, most excellent! someone had a welded hub/transfer clutch set up for sale that never sold on the add here - so if you wanted a full time locked set up or run RWD you could get that - LOL. might want to just put an add in the parts wanted forum for a used one? actually i am looking at buying a legacy with a blown transmission - they don't say what it is but my guess is front differential or something ominous like that, in which case that rear MPT part would be fine. won't know until next week though as i'm out of town.

striking out on part number, can't find that thing anywhere. call the dealer i guess (great timing to try and do that huh?) most folks seem to just get a used one. i've sold them before, might even have one more, not sure and won't be home for awhile. they take forever to wiggle out, just keep gradually trying. the turtle wins the race pulling them out.