idosubaru

i brought a friends car home this morning that needs the exact same repair - he's right it's either 2 or 2.25 but i can't recall which either. There's a dozen ways to skin this cat: Diameter = circumference/pi or circumference divided by 3.1415. You can take a tape measure and measure the circumference. Sometimes parts stores, particularly the good ones, have mic's on hand and i've measured exhaust right in the parking lot. You could call and ask your favorite stores and see if they have one. Or, you'll have to cut the old flanges off anyway to install whatever replacement you're going to install. Measure the diameter or take them with you to match up. Ebay often has exhaust parts for sale - almost always - not sure if they have the dimensions listed on there? Rockauto sometimes have dimensions of parts too. I wouldn't use the flex pipe, that stuff rots out in a matter of months. I'd get either real pipe or the bolt on flanges you're talknig about, those sound like a great idea, Ive never seen those.

V8 and rotary in an XT have both been done before. V8 guy i believe remarked how bad the weight and handling was. i don't think it was every driven much, if ever outside of playing around.

probably comes down to your time/skills/tools. if you can pull the motor, get a lower mileage EJ22 and swap it out. it's not hard to find them inexpensively. harbor freight had a deal as of two days ago down here...like %50 off - $100 engine lift - my buddy went and bought one. or you could probably borrow one if you know anyone, i'd let you borrow mine. if you can't pull the motor, the head gaskets on this car can be done without removing the engine, so that's probably your best bet. use Subaru head gaskets, not aftermarket. if the girl likes it and it's running fine there's nothing wrong with doing the headgaskets if you think you can get another few years out of it - sounds like rust is the determining factor to me.

any way to pay him cash when you get there? if he can't communicate efficiently enough to do that i don't think i'd blindly send him cash.

You don't mention which engine. HLA's are probably getting warn. if you've noticed oil causing it in the past, it may be that the oil needs to be changed more frequently or the leaks fixed. You probably need to replace the noisy lifters and reseal the cam towers. Another option is to add MMO or seafoam to your oil....or ATF if it's sticking rather than warn.

they don't leak often, but they can. if it's just leaking then the seal needs replaced. remove/move exhaust, drop rear driveshaft, remove and reinstall new seal. it's not hard at all - just the annoyance of removing exhaust parts which have rusty bolts, etc sometimes. Other than that not much to it. if the exhaust looks like it's ever been worked on, weak, or is currently leaking, an exhaust leak below that seal may have just heated it up and deteriorated the seal. one of the ones i worked on had an exhaust leak right below a leaking seal so i sort of assumed that was the cause, just a guess though. i wouldn't expect anything more than just a seal. if it's leaking profusely, like pouring out - then there *might* be something more and/or the trans may have run the risk of being run low or without oil. i've seen two rear seal leaks, both were minor and a seal replacement fixed it.

tis true, there are all sorts of other things in play. they have people they have to deal with every day - claiming parts are the wrong ones or wrong sizes just to get money back, no receipts, hearing lies daily, or people breaking stuff and saying it was that way, or folks trying to act like they know more about vehicles than they really do....don't be too hard on the guy behind the counter.

not to sound like a dork quibbling over 40 degrees but 7/8 sounds tight - the ones i use say 3/4.

not sure what those numbers apply too but a lot of the later legacy's got larger brakes, dual pistons, a little more power, and they're heavier cars, so you're right in assuming the newer ones are a tiny bit better for towing. my XT6 is a manual trans, i like towing with auto's better, so consider that a plus.

if it was literally fine, then not - you're on the right track. hopefully it's that simple, i recall seeing wires down there too by the filters. sometimes i'm a bit cautious though because folks "say" it was fine but really they were noticing something....then the problem was worse later more than after.

I towed a MASSIVE trailer to Colorado and back last fall with my 1989 Subaru XT6. It's a 6 cylinder but the power ratings are roughly the same as the legacy. I had a 6x12 trailer filled with a 4 wheeler, massive amounts of camping gear - like army tent, wood stove, equipment, and carried 3 people in that little 2 door car too! We were seriously weighted down. But it made it many thousands of miles out there and back. I look at it this way - if you're going to be consistently doing something like that, it's a very bad idea. Towing is not something to mess with, which you'll learn once you tow enough that you have something happen - that's scary. It's not safe, it's a ton of weight, the brakes aren't up to it as well as probably all sorts of other things. But to do it once you're probably fine. I would go through a lot of effort to not do what I did again though, it was too much and definitely not safe but i sort of got cornered into and didn't think better at the time.

i'd check the mating surface or something, it shouldn't be leaking. of 100 folks on here using subaru oil filters i'd think 99 or 100 aren't leaking.

check the plugs, make sure none of the pins are bent. aside from that, i'd probably throw those two parts at it as they aren't that hard to change. i had an EJ18 intake manifold sitting around, if i didn't junk it i still have the TPS.

there's a hundred possibilities - read GD's list. i would focus on trying to determine the following which will help us help: are you loosing any coolant when it's NOT overheating. in other words if you drive it around and check levels before and after, without running it hot, is it loosing coolant? any signs of leaks anywhere? the "bubbling" isn't necessarily a "headgasket" symptom, it is sometimes but not all the time. that being said, fix this NOW or you're going to be stuck with scrap metal. running a 20+ year old car that hot is not good for 20 year old head gaskets and seals, you're likely to blow something. if you had to pay for timing belt install you'll definitely be paying for a head gasket job which for newer cars is around $1,000.

drivers side, below the brake master cylinder.

nice pics john. the new style are a multi layer design right, is that what it's called? the older/original style seem like EA82 gaskets - just one solid piece of material. is that true or is that just an artifact of age making it look like that when i remove them? i saved one of the last ones i took apart to take a picture though i'm not sure i could get any detail with it. if you see a multi later set up, i'd think that's a new gasket. but they do start rusting, getting dirty, aging, and it's hard to tell sometimes. there were plenty of failures at all sorts of low mileages too - 30,000...etc, so it's possible they were replaced any time in the past 10 years.

that's awesome...no. i've seen melted timing belt covers quite a few times, but not knock sensors.

gas mileage can increase with larger tires since the car is "traveling further" for the same number of revolutions, or it can decrease. there's a lot of variables. i have an EJ18 (1.8) conversion, if i put the 16" wheels on it, it's just terrible on performance and economy. barely usable, not fun. 15" it's fine. with 14" it's great - particularly in flat land - mountains kill it. with my XT6 (6 cylinder) which came stock with 14" rims, it gets better highway mileage with the larger wheels because it's got the power to move them, it's usually running 16". start traveling mountains, a/c on, carrying heavy loads, or going 80 mph and things start dipping quick.

there's hardly any gaskets or seals that get sealant applied to them - actually i can't think of any right now off the top of my head. parts are sealed with either sealant or seals, not both.

this has been discussed before in other threads. at dealer prices very few folks would like that price tag. subaru sees more value in taking the risk than the psychological component connected to high price tag maintenance. it's a trade off and in todays world few original owners hold on to a car that long and an even smaller percent of them will equate that with anything negative. Subaru will roll the dice and take that small hit. i'd at least inspect them. a 1998 is also 12 years old, age is starting to become a significant factor on that one. a 2008 with 100,000 miles will likely have better pulleys than a 98 with 100,000 miles. geared toothed one is most likely to be bad in the ones i've seen.

new sensor could fix the problem, hard to say given we have no clue on the history of the car - why they replaced them or if the mechanic is even %100 certain they were new. we should probably get as much information on that as possible. O2 sensor life varies wildly, but 100K is used by some people as a typical replacement time for O2 sensors, doesn't sound all that early to me though plenty make it beyond that too. these transmissions rarely have issues so issues at such low mileage is odd. the front diff issue is the one concern here.

this has been covered extensively here. WJM and others have dyno'ed, looked into, researched, built, etc all sorts of EA82T stuff. i'd read some of their threads as a lot of those folks aren't active or as active now but the info is already all there. RAM performance has whatever pistons you want (and more). Delta Cams is a board member so to speak and does cams.

since there's still a lot of fluid still in the valve bodies, pan, and rear housing, it's hard to say how much you'll need. i'd add a quart, then start checking in half quart increments. quick guess - 2 quarts will be plenty. and if you're doing head gaskets then it's no extra time since the manifold has to come off anyway. that is annoying. but MT fluid stinks terribly and with center diff failures, clutch failures and input shaft bearing failures...and synchro's, the manuals aren't that advantageous from a maintenance standpoint.

yes: rotate your tires and make sure they match, and don't improperly tow the car. change the transmission fluid at some point. this is a 4WD vehicle, so treating it like a 2WD or ignoring those points could lead to transmission damage. timing belt change is at 105,000 miles on this engine. it's an interference engine, meaning you'll incur bent valves if the timing belt breaks, plan on a major maintenance at that time - timing belt, pulleys, and tensioner. replace it all and you're good for another 105,000 miles. if the coolant is ever changed, this motor (it's the only one with this requirement) requires a subaru coolant additive.

fluid level good? if unplugging it does nothing then seems like a fluid pressure loss which would speak to the symptoms too. any clue if the motor/trans were ever removed before? i'd guess the oil pump is cracked from the torque converter not being lined up properly. be interesting to know what that code is since fluid and filter have nothing electronic directly associated with them. those are a pain to extract but folks have posted the insane process to retrieve them on here before. on older gen stuff there's at least two different filters and i've gotten the wrong one before. they'll look the same but the outlet tube sizes will be slightly different. i wouldn't imagine EJ's having different sizes but maybe, that is the first year impreza. maybe the oring on the outlet tube wasn't installed right, i recall my first one i ever did wondering where the oring was supposed to sit on the tube - didn't seem as obvious as other parts. why change the filter, i wonder if there were issues? few folks do that for absolutely no reason - a lot of times there are issues or hints of issues that make people try something.