idosubaru

you're likely loosing coolant somewhere. these engines are notably hard to get air out of once they've lost coolant. the radiators tyipcally have a bleeder screw on the passengers side to aid in getting the air out. if not it causes overheat as the bubbles prevent proper circulation.

EJ25 headers should bolt right up I thought unless I'm missing something. Ypipes should be interchangeable too? i've seen some aftermarket header discussions on subaruoutback.org.

PCV first comes to mind to me too but i'm not familiar with these engines or carbs. having sat for awhile is there any chance of an obstruction in the intake like a mouse nest or something?

Here's a thorough run down on how the connectors work, what to do with them, and the codes. That's a Subaru XT forum but this also has info for other non-XT EA82's: http://subaruxt.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1819

The connectors stay disconnected. They are only for reading and clearing check engine lights and setting the timing. I think there's a set of green and a set of black connector, both stay disconnected. Be sure to say what engine/trans when asking questions: GL could be EA81 (hatch) or EA82 (wagon). I'm not familiar at all with EA81 but I don't think they ever had FI, so I assume it's a wagon and EA82?

So you think the AWD doesn't work at all? Does the AT light blink 16 times at start up? A solid diagnosis might be in order if you want to fix. It might be possible for you to remove the rear tail of the trans and fix this. Might need a Duty C or the hub that engages the rear clutches, or both. If driven with torque bind too long that hub can shear off. Sold one of those hubs to a guy last year that had that happen. Hard to say without actually digging into it or seeing it. You could post on here to see if anyone has a trans lying around to pull the rear housing and clutch hub from. Sometimes plugging around on ebay or car-parts.com will help decipher what's interchangeable as far as transmissions go.

timing belt pulleys at the bare minimum should be inspected. it's a 10 year old interference engine, if the belt breaks you'll have bent valves. the belt should be replaced and i'd do it right and expect another 100,000 miles out of it. many of us get the ebay timing component kits for $200-$300 that include a belt and all the pulleys/tensioner. at the very least the belt should be replaced and pulleys inspected, replace any that are noisey. yes, the *might* make it - but if you want a reliable car and not risk major engine damage on your expensive repair i wouldn't risk it on a new car with low mileage you want to keep for awhile. yours isn't covered under warranty, the motor is already removed and it's probably out of date. i believe there was a 10 year limit to the warranty as well. but no matter yours is out of the car and not the engine that came with the car, it's not subject to warranty.

i wouldn't give up on this trans yet. the AWD issues, typically that is torque bind, are easily fixed as far as transmissions go. can be done without removing the trans and parts aren't that expensive. go used if you want, post in the parts wanted section here. read up on torque bind here and see if that's your issues and determine what's causing it.

there's a number of different things you can try. driving it for a bit might free it up. or not. that's also bad on components to drive it too much binding. sometimes a fluid change helps, sometimes it doesn't. it's not a 100% thing either way and depends on what's causing the issue exactly. do a drain and refill or two yourself of the ATF?

you might also want to discuss what's wrong since there are a few issues that are fixable with the 4EAT. in general if it plugs in i'm likely to think it'll work. not many changes to the 4EAT since the 80's. even without plugging in they are often interchangeable by splicing the right harness on. a major issue for you is the final drive ratio of the front diff, which is part of the transaxle assembly "transmission" - which is a slight pain to verify. first generation outbacks were 4.44 final drive ratio, not sure about yours but i would guess the same? Legacy GT, Impreza RS, OBW....should be the same final drive but I know that's not the affirmative info you're looking. final drive ratios available for your year 4EAT are 4.11 or 4.44, you probably need the 4.44. Impreza's (except probably RS and some STi's) often have the 4.11. Unless I heard otherwise I'd avoid those. another option is to just make sure you get the rear diff with whatever transmission you get that way you can swap it if needed to match. final drive ratio does't matter at all to the vehicle, just has to match the rear diff gearing. but likely you'll want to keep it the same.

no differences in sending units right - first gen to second or something?

those sleeves are heavy duty...relatively you know, i can't imagine those getting "rounded". maybe they didn't get seated right, but seems to me the tab of the caliper doesn't slide properly into place if that happens. hard to say without seeing it.

that should work fine. i've even rebooted clicking and clacking CV's and they quieted right up. tried it last year on my daily driver XT6 and they're working great now. cv clamps are totally annoying, i've always wanted to buy a bunch of really thin screw type c clamps. i even posted a thread about it on here but never got around to buying anything or finding the right fit.

i didn't see you mention auto or manual but auto's have front diff gear oil, manual trans gear oil is shared by the trans and front diff. so auto trans has two fluids - ATF and front diff oil, manual trans only has one - gear oil. find one of the owners manuals for your car on ebay or in a parts car or something, or ask in the parts wanted forum. they're quite helpful for where fluids are, what kind to replace with, and other specific info to your car.

Leak down test probably won't show anything. These engines typically leak externally which just means they loose coolant - compression and leak down will be fine, no overheating (until it runs low on coolant), no hydrocarbons in the coolant, no oil/antifreeze mixing - it can't physically fail any of those typical "head gasket" tests. But it's leaking and it's not going to go away or get better, this is very common for these motors. That's the normal failure mode of the SOHC Phase II EJ25 you have. Subaru offered an extended head gasket warranty for this engine and you're year would be covered up to 100,000 miles. Subaru also redesigned the EJ25 head gasket and the Phase II EJ25's like you have are required to have a Subaru Coolant Conditioner added to it. All that to say - replacing this engine with a used engine has a good bit of risk to it. Unfortunately the company that sells the motor probably isn't all that aware of all the idiosyncrasies of each motor design and failure modes. So they're left to decide whether you're trying to hose them or for real. They get hosed enough that they might balk a lot. But hopefully you can inform them well. If you go used - make sure you replace all the timing components (and rear separator) before it goes in. No point in spending all that loot to leave 10 year old pulleys in there that might fail before the next timing belt change.

not exactly missing it, if you bought an entire used bracket with all the hardware on it you'd have what you need. that pin has a square head, it resides in a cut out on the caliper when it's fitted together and won't spin. you have to "line it up" as you slide the caliper back down into place, then it's locked. unfortunately Subaru used so many different style brake bolts and pins that i can't keep them all straight so without seeing your specific layout I might be wrong, but I think that's right. In that case you could just need the pins, that hardware set maybe? Hopefully it's right, it's easy to screw up brake parts with Subarus with all the changes they made. Jamal has a great thread somewhere on many variations and bolt/pins changes and interchanges. Probably won't need it but if you run into anything like that you might want to look at it.

check ebay, sometimes shipping isn't that bad unless you're trying to do this dirt cheap. i bought a set of heated leather LL Beam seats off ebay, actually it was the complete interior. can't recall price but it was reasonable enough that i bought it and showing up in my parking lot was nicer than going to find it all. in general retrofitting other seats will require fabricating to attach your seat rails to the new seat. not hard, but not what most folks are after either.

it'll be fine. given how far that is from center the stress on the flexplate might not be as much as you think. it is bolted right to a crank and pistons experiencing thousands of cycles per minute of combustion so you're good.

the amp requires that round special plug, i'd have to cut that cable open to access the wires then since those are the inputs to the amp right?

just get a complete bracket with everything on it from a yard. there's like dozens of calipers for your car all over the northeast, they're not worth much more than scrap to a yard. 1-888-372-8862 has like a dozen of your calipers, maybe they'll snag a bracket for you.

for the joker just wanting to maintain his car and that's it, replacing the part is certainly simple. brackets are scrapped most of the time, should be easy to find. for the guy learning and enjoying working on his car, he might start drooling at learning and trying something else, buying new tools and equipment to have for the next screw up! i've been there and you guys have been here to teach me! i love it....except when i'm doing it.

there are two different EJ25's in 1999 if it matters to you at all. Phase II SOHC was offered in Forester and RS that year, the rest were the DOHC Phase I. find a junk yard with a blown engine and they'll sell parts, like the intake manifold off of it. a month late but I have one if you're interested PM me.

WRX unit - i have no clue - a 2002 I think? what page/section of the FSM are you getting this info from? wiring diagram? i'll have to see if i have any FSM's with the McIntosh in it. hhmmm, so the only speakers from the head unit are the fronts - that makes sense then that the WRX unit works then with the fronts. So this tells me both McIntosh units are bad? Checked the fuse a long time ago and it was good. So to get another unit to work, like the WRX changer, since the McIntosh are hard to get and might have low reliability anyway - i'll need to run new wire to the rear speakers? Wondering if the wiring is in place already, might be able to pull the rear door panels and look for connectors.

it's really easy. there's an access hole right under the throttle body, remove the black rubber plug if it's still there. insert a long socket extension or very stout screw driver into one of the cut outs in the flexplate to lock it in place.

over here the bottom cambered bolt is only on the front struts, no cambered bolts in the rear unless my memory is failing.