idosubaru

i prefer the H6 engines over the 2.5, i'd get one of those in the style/body/trim you like. you'll get much more car for your money from an individual seller than a dealer.

how much was it leaking? was it the entire reason for pulling the engine? i have an H6 trans i'm getting ready to install and i picked up that oring at the dealer (H6's don't have a rear separator plate). i wasn't 100% convinced of replacing it but with the trans already out it's easy enough so i will now.

what was it? there's a shift resistor for auto trans, if it got unplugged that would make it shift harder.

there's no reason to remove one, it doesn't "gain" you anything. replace it with a Subaru unit once or two in the lifetime of the vehicle and you won't have issues. engines are designed to run at a certain temperature, tstats keep them running there. the ECU uses different routines for controlling an engine when cold or warm. without a tstat you may be running as if it's always cold, which means it'll run rich, causing bad gas mileage and maybe some long term effects to running rich as well. view your engine as a more technologically advanced piece of machinery (even though it's just an EA ) than your lawn mower. they are rather designed, engineered, technologically advanced equipment in terms of thermodynamics, materials, etc. i'll let others more knowledgeable say whether it matters or not in the long term.

you say rear in title but talking about tie rods which are up front? have the struts ever been messed with, they can make noises too?

if you replace them again, use Subaru gaskets, you'll notice a difference as soon as they're in your hand by look and construction, they are much more robust. this is fairly common recommendation here for folks that have done what you're doing dozens of times. it's not like they always leak, i've used fel-pro's before too, so i don't think that's your current issue..... how long have you driven it after the headgasket job? EA82's typically take awhile to run normal - they can run *terrible* after you first put them back together from a large job. just takes a bit for everything to seat, get all the coolant/water out of the exhaust, and hydraulic valve lash adjusters to fully pump up. i've seen some that i thought were definitely done wrong at first, coughing, sputtering, clamoring....but after 10 or 20 miles of driving they smoothed right out. that's fairly common on these motors.

as of a 6 hour drive today with the a/c on the entire time, no leakage. no noticeable issues, but hopefully it's solved. thanks.

you've heard of them acdtually gettting crimped before? luckily he had a long drive today so we dried it with towels and i told him to drive all day with the a/c on as high as he could and on re-circ.

a stumble would not suggest to me any coolant or headgsakets issues - you sound confident though but could it be leaking somewhere externally? were you able to run or test the motor at all before working on it? do you know the symptoms before you started working on it? what headgaskets did you use and did you retorque them? anything other than Fel-Pro's require a retorque procedure, did you do that? so you replaced the intake manifold gaskets (the ones with coolant passages going through them)? the aftermarket ones are school girl panti-wetters and prone to leak....but other issues do seem more likely since you were already trying to fix a coolant issue.

great news will, glad to see you back with a reason to hang out with us some more! great to have you back! nice save rick, that's definitely way too easy of a fix to let drift away. i wouldn't even think about radiator or core support replacement in that, just bolt on stuff. rick just wanted it for the push bar and ski racks!

those gen I's are money mechanically, goes beyond the engine too.

oh, good question. man i've driven that car and can't remember if it has one. almost positive it only happened when a/c was on. does sunroof have it's own drain or do they share/come together at some point? where is it if it's different, be good to know as i'm sure i'll see this at some point. 4 of my current daily drivers have sunroofs.

i meant what i said, good question. you can partially bolt one lug nut on and the wheel is all cock-eyed. i do it to keep the hub partially shielded and off the ground of parts cars and 14" rims out of my storage space.

they do *not* clear the front calipers. i'm not guessing or suggesting, i've actually done it.

there really is no "best" as the EJ22's are all great motors, just depends on preference/what kind of owner you are. i'd much rather get the car i want at the deal i want than sway in those areas just for a different year EJ22 that won't add any value to my ownership. you're already limiting yourself away from the nicer optioned and trimmed EJ25 vehicles so i wouldn't keep pounding the issue - penny wise and dollar dumb to me. honestly i'd rather get an EJ25 with a blown motor (easy to find) and install an EJ22. you get nicer rides, options, etc, and an EJ22. good way to get a great deal too as blown EJ25 vehicles aren't expensive. some obsevations that might help: 97 and up are interference engines. (although a 1996 on another forum recently broke and had valve damage so there are some 96's that were interference or it was swapped with a later model). if you don't maintain vehicles well or don't plan on installing all new timing components (pulleys and tensioner), the non-interference versions are nice as you don't have to worry about them braking. just drive and replace whatever breaks, if it does. doesn't matter to me as i'm more concerned about reliability - i drive too much and too far to afford a break down (maine, georgia, SC, florida, new orleans all in the past year), so i replace all the timing components anyway. if you maintain it properly interference doesn't much matter. the older style tensioners are less expensive and more reliable. so that would be 1996 and earlier, though it seems like many people say 97's are old style tensioner too but the 97 legacy L and Impreza OBS were both new styles that i owned/worked on. anyway, the timing kits are roughly $80-$100 more for the new style tensioner timing kits on ebay. and the newer style tensioners are not only more expensive, but far more prone to failure, go figure. the 99's+ are hard to find, a bit harder to work on (plugs through covers), and not as common if you need parts/work/replacement. probably won't, but there you go. wikipedia has the horsepower breakdown if you want to get a little more grunt out of it, with small increases in 95 and later. i think it went from 135 to 142 hp or something like that.

you can reboot it, it's not that hard at all. if you got no rust to deal with when removing nuts, it's easy. but even with rust it's not usually bad. if it's leaking then yeah you're kind of hosed. personally if it's just "seaping" like getting wet but not really loosing much, you might be able to leave it. but if it's leaking, like you're frequently adding fluid, then you'll probably want to do something about it. maybe with a cleaned up joint, grease, and boot the leak would slow down? sounds unlikely but who knows? given that it's on it's way out anyway, i'd try a bottle of (which i very rarely recommend, i think they're generally terrible) power steering system stop leak. if it doesn't work you're out a $3 bottle, but might save you the work.

the predictability of it suggests pressures, which we've already talked about rechecking, are going to tell you something. good luck, hope it's simple.

if you're worried about the lines then just leave them as is. personally i often replace them and just run new hose, one piece, all the way from the trans to the cooler. the metals lines can rust (or at least where i live they can!!), and it doubles the amount of connections and clamps - where leaks always happen. route them smart and nothing ever happens on a subaru. there's any number of ways to do it. route them smart and there's no need for securing them, but there's always brackets and zipties for that too. if you're worried about it though, just don't do it.

maybe the bearings are just shot? if you had it wired completely wrong it seems there would be issues. are the connections good and solid? measure the output?

in-laws first subaru - so hopefully this doesn't get complicated! a/c is pouring condensation into the passengers side floor. with 80% humidity it turns into a veritable pond. water is pooling front and back. i pulled the carpeting and trim to look at the drain hose. pulled it out of the floor, no visible signs of cracks and ran some wire through it to clean it out. wish i would have looked closer before pulling it to see if it was crimped anywhere. ran it for awhile and a steady flow of water was coming out of the tube at the bottom like it should and nothing inside (man a LOT of water was coming out of that thing, steady flow). but maybe it was doing that before too - and still leaking somehow as well, i didn't check. wish i would have checked that too. maybe those two things i wish i would have did will help someone else later. any other thoughts? they are out of town traveling now so i'm trying to help them out, but the car is also under warranty for 3,000 more miles. hopefully they can report it before then and subaru will take care of it if needed in the future?

the larger rotors don't come on the GT's until 2002 or 2003, so he can use smaller wheels, though no subaru 14's will work.

looks like this might be the vehicle from your other thread:

what vehicle, engine, trans? are you asking for help diagnosing or feel confident about it being the rack/ball joint? racks are straight forward to replace, nothing special to it. they very rarely fail though so make sure you need to replace it - get some new fluid in there maybe (it's probably 30 years old )!? have a pickle fork (or some other ball joint specific tool) ready to get the ball joints out, there a real bear if you don't have specific tools for removing those. other than that it's usually easy.

they're really annoying and yes it could definitely be a heat shield. often times you can just get a hose clamp, wrap it around the loose section and screw it on tight. *very* common and simple solution. see if this works, it often does. worm two hose clamps together if you need it really long. some people use self tapping sheet metal screws to reattach them, but i do not recommend that for various reasons...like screws ending up in the road if they fall off. you can also just bend them out of the way of whatever they're vibrating against. not likely to help but sometimes that's an easy solution depending what exactly is going on. or you can rip it off. they can be hard to get off though sometimes, but that is my preferred method, they only get worse with time, not better. an exhaust shop may be able to weld it back in place, depending how/where it separated and what's left to work with.

what he said though i wasn't sure about the steelies.