idosubaru

i removed the rear diff. 26 as a daily driver in mountainous terrain. 26 on the highway because of the mountains. 32 in flat land. EGR light is on, TCU flashes because I think it still thinks it's a 4WD....so maybe it would do better without those issues? keep in mind it's an automatic too. i had a FWD manual trans to put in it but wanted my wife to be able to drive it.

Probably best to leave the EJ22 head gaskets in place rather than replace them with cheap ebay gaskets. EJ22's don't blow headgaskets, so it's likely a waste of time to install inferior gaskets. Ask MDJC, he's seen multiple EJ aftermarket head gaskets fail. Maybe he'll chime in for you. I have yet to do an EJ22 head gaskets (because they never need it:lol:), but every other Subaru I've done you don't replace head bolts, no one on here does it. Replacing head bolts isn't an opinion, it comes down to the type of head bolts used, Subaru to my knowledge doesn't use Torque to Yield headbolts so replacing them is completely pointless. Good luck!

get an aftermarket temp display in there while you trouble shoot so you can at least drive it without worrying. probably get something for $20 at the auto parts store? the instrument clusters aren't terribly hard to replace actually. if you did an engine swap you could easily swap that. and the ones i've done you can even drive without the cluster in place, go try it while it's out, it's really freaky! if you hit it with a temp gun while running and it was fine then it sounds like it's running fine, just the readings are wrong. just to make sure, the DL doesn't have two temperature sensors like the XT6 does it? on the XT6 you'd have to replace the one in the intake manifold which is for the instrument cluster.

sorry, i even recommend that, though I've got dead EJ25's lying around. that's typically a better bet than an unknown one. Legacy GT I recently picked up with a locked up motor had the headgaskets replaced at 34,000. With EJ25's coming in the nicer vehicles and having better options it's harder for folks to get into an EJ22, the late 90's EJ25's are at a common price point now. Hard to come up with a one-size fits all recommendation but sorry you got hosed here. hopefully you can find a nice EJ22 and be done with it.

yep, starters are interchangeable.

in town driving is terrible for gas mileage, maybe even more so with a 4WD Subaru. if you're pulling mountain grades i wouldn't expect that to help either. i also think all 20 year old cars are not the same even if they came off the line right next to each other. if you want top mileage, O2 sensor, plugs, wires, cap, and rotor are a good place to start.

right on needing EGR. unless your state doesn't test the check engine light and you don't mind ignoring it. i installed a non-EGR engine but CEL doesn't matter in WV. i like the cleaner look, better reliability, and fewer parts. you're off by one year. as referenced in all the swap threads it's 1995-1998 EJ22, 1999 will not work. a 96-98 will require swapping the exhaust header too. finding one is the only hard part, post here if you want one. functionally speaking it's only 2 or 3 more bolts. the JDM motors i've bought had different wiring plugs and needed the intake manifold swapped which you can't do on these motors. so you'd have to also buy an intake manifold separately for an EJ22, unless someone says otherwise?

all the swap questions are answered here but you use the EJ22 manifold, they are not interchangeable (which means it's easier, just swap the engine). I wouldn't replace the EJ22 headgaskets, they don't unless they've been overheated or beat to death. Valve covers and timing belts/seals, I'd do all that while it's out. Definitely reseal the rear separator plate and replace it with the newer updated metal plates and screws. All of that is covered on here too.

silly rabbit, what JCE said: I converted...i mean castrated it just for fun to FWD.

It was making the sound before the new tires and still is. But I only replaced two - so it would have to be one of those two tires. I'll swap another set on to see, only makes sense to try that. Problem is all my other rims are 16" and this little EJ18 gets notably under-powered with 16" on! LOL can a tire noise be there one day and not the next?

we have the complete XT FSM's hosted through subaruxt.com. pretty sure others have had injector wiring issues too, typically under the front passengers side seat, i think there's a thread about that.

Oh no fairtax not at all, you're not any luckier than the other tens of thousands of folks running with aftermarkets on EJ engines. don't hear what I'm not saying. I'm not saying that every single aftermarket set of wires installed will cause issues, that's silly. Aftermarkets have %XX success rate, whatever it is, it's less than the nearly %100 of OEM subaru's for the EJ motor series. Older gen subarus will run on speaker wire i think :lol:

yeah i've done that too, i'm up for trying it again though but i just bought two new tires for this thing recently.

Internal bearing issues are not uncommon on EJ25's. No matter what you do you end up with an EJ25 and their inherent headgasket, bearing, and piston slap issues. Do an EJ22 swap. More reliable and if they're not overheated/run out of oil they do not have bearing or headgasket issues. Read about it here, plenty of information already covered just do some studying, it's plug and play!!! EJ22 swaps are also much cheaper.

Yeah that was a terrible description. The drivers side front control arms rear most mounting point has two bolts in it. It looks as if the mounting points on the body are pushed forward and the control arm is shifted back to compensate. * It was like this before the alignment as I was checking this out before. The crossmember (i think) also appears pushed forward about 1/2" - as there is 1/2" less clearance behind the inner tie rod compared to the other side and the boot barely touches the metal. Drives smooth, tire wears perfect, no pulling, and 25-26 mpg so all seems okay. I'll take a picture someday and get some feedback.

i've seen cylinder misfires caused by aftermarket ignition wires cause a car to be nearly undrivable and hard to start. even seen it from brand new wires. if they aren't Subaru wires I'd swap another set on to check. these EJ engines are notorious unforgiving with plugs and wires for some reason.

My LSi which is my daily driver (along with my XT6) has a wub-wub-wub sound of wheel bearing. It is typically light but sometimes gets quite loud. No noticeable changes will make it get louder or go away, just random. Though it's most noticeable after driving some time and then slowly going through a parking lot. I jacked up the drivers side and both wheel bearings seem fine: No play. No noises or feel by hand when turning, feels smooth. No noises with stethoscope on hub or strut springs. Last time I kept temp gun in car both sides were very close. I'm going to keep the temp gun in the car again but am I missing anything? It's had multiple wheel bearing issues on this side in the rear. Bad bearing when i got it, pressed in news ones that lasted 20,000 miles, then installed a used hub which is in there now. I'd like to fix it but not sure where to go from here.

sounds like you burped it right, but i'd do it twice just to make sure. multiple overheats? was it limped home, shut off immediately when running hot, coolant added, run hot for a couple times before being fixed? if any of that is the case then it sounds like the 20 year old headgaskets took a beating and are returning the favor. personally i'd just keep adding coolant and make sure it's not leaking somewhere simple. heater core hose, heater core, bypass hoses...?? nice to make sure before concluding the worst.

everything looked good in the back comparing side to side. thanks for the feedback. i'll look at those rear adjustment bolts on that side. thanks russ, i didn't get the numbers, read your reply after the fact. they said it was out a good bit and adjusted fine, but wish i would have gotten some specifics. different but related subject one of the front drivers side control arm bolts is not quite lined up right and the crossmember it bolts too is pushed about 1/2" forward. that tire has always been fine with wear and the car tracks straight so i'm not worried about that at the moment, that looks like a huge job either pushing that crossmember back 1/2" or replacing it completely. don't see that happening any time soon.

I don't think you found the igniter, wrong part. The igniter isn't on the firewall, just close to it. Unless I'm thinking wrong it's dead center right behind the throttle body and has more than 3 wires - like 5. No vacuum hoses to the igniter.

how far down did it go, can you still see it or is it way down there? two sided tape wrapped around something thin enough to stick down the hole. get one of those three prong "fingers" to fish it out. they have a handle that opens/closes the jaws to grab stuff and are very tiny, will definitely fit down the dipstick hole. random thought if it feel way down in - remove the drain plug and pull it through the bottom of the differential?

excellent work. i think archimetes...sp?...also put one in an EA vehicle.

yeah hold on to it, if you ever have TOD that won't go away replacing the oil pump is a good thing to try. sometimes with age the pumps are fine but they just won't hold the gasket tight enough and cause air to get sucked into the oil supply and giving you TOD. replacing the pump often fixes that issue.

wait a second, is it just the front boot that's busted? if that's the case, just ignore it. i've driven 50,000 miles on busted front boots, clicking CV's before. the Subaru axles are going to take a lot of abuse before they actually fail. if it's just the boot, dont' sweat it, ignore it for now.

dies are typically 1 inch - wrench, socket, or die wrenches. put a jack under the tie rod and push it up through the hole int he hub with the jack under and jack it up enough to put some of the weight ont he car on it an dhold it in place. otherwise it'll just turn with the die - you've probably already had that happen. gotta go, good luck.