idosubaru

Good you brought it up though since he'll see those for sale too.

Are you positive it's from inside the motor? Other loud noises that can be RPM dependent: Timing belt tensioner. RAP, RAP, RAP, RAP at higher rpm's as the tensioner gives way to heavier loads. I believe you can see it moving too if you remove the drivers side timing belt cover which isn't too hard and only takes a few minutes. The "newer" style tensioner installed on late 90's EJ engines is not as reliable as the older ones so this is fairly common. Doesn't sound like it, but exhaust shields wouldn't be it right? If the backing plate screws on the oil pump get loose enough I wonder if that would cause any noises? I feel like someone mentioned a symptom of loose screws before, though I've never seen symptoms even though nearly every EJ pump has at least one or more screw loose. There's an access hole to the flexplate under the throttle body. It's tight and hard to get to so I'm not sure how much visibility you have but it's used to remove the torque converter to flex plate bolts. by rotating it 360 degrees you might find crack? Some vehicles also have minimal access from underneath too.

sorry for the tangent as turbo stuff doesn't seem to matter to the original poster, but i'm confused. it's been awhile since i've done any EA stuff but I thought only EA82 turbo transmissions will go into an XT6 because of the spline count. Non-turbo EA82's and XT trans won't fit an XT6 because of the spline count....mental mix up on my part? i just checked and over at subaruxt.com all XT's are lumped into EA82 stuff for spline count. they can't be used in an XT6 swap - without messing with the axles which means using those early FWD 23 spline count impreza axles to make an EA82 swap into an XT6.

215 60 16 tires rubbed on my 97 OBS in the rears going around turns. It was bad enough (to me) that I took them off and used them on the XT6 and OBW instead. Someone has a great thread on the "rear end sagging" of the OBS and the fix for it. not sure if that would help with clearance but i would think it would given how it only happens on turns? i bought the parts but never installed them before I sold the car.

headgasket issues are on the EJ25, not the EJ22. the EJ25 is in general more labor too - harder to change plugs wires, valve covers, DOHC timing belts. they're still okay motors, but for what he's after the other motors seem like a much better fit.

The EA81 no timing belts. Don't overheat/run out of oil and it'll last as long as you care to maintain it probably. EA82 wagons can be equally nice, just with the added work of timing beltt maintenance. I leave the covers off and replace everything with ebay timing belt kits, belts, all pulleys, for $80. Legacy and Impreza's are options as well. Early gen or one needing some work will fall in that price range. EJ18 and EJ22 are fantastic motors. In your shoes I would look for an Impreza Wagon from the early 90's. I prefer the older locking diffs to the EJ viscous style but they're great cars. The suspension of the EJ's is nicer and EJ stuff is very easy to upgrade and buy parts for - like larger brakes, struts, wheels off all sorts of other Subaru's. You can take a set of wheels off any legacy from 1990 to 2010 and bolt it up to an Impreza for instance. Makes it easy to pick up take-off wheels/tires for cheap.

All EA82 non-turbo front axles are interchangeable. The entire axle, even left to right they're the same. XT's are all the same as well, what's the late model XT qualifier you mention Gloyale? They are the same EA82 axles as well unless I'm forgetting something?

i've seen the clips break, i would go ahead and have two new ones available. cheap from Subaru. i'd give the pull forward/pull back method a try, though i've never done it. those of you saying to do it - have you gotten it to work before?

you can leave it for later. if you need to pull the tbelt again in a year or two to reseal the pump you can without much of a glitch. another $500 in labor next year that could have been avoided is a good call for folks paying labor. if it's not leaking then you'd be resealing it for two reasons: 1. just to have it done and in the hopes it'll last until your next timing belt change at 100,000 miles. i like the idea of not needing to go in there again. 2. the backing plate screws are often loose. retighten them with locktite. but, i'm not sure i've ever actually heard of issues due to this common problem, but i do it anyway since i'm usually resealing due to reason #1.

Good question, mine seem to be loud too and I was always wondering if it was more age or normal. I've had a ton of them be loud...not terribly loud, just louder than i'd suspect.

one of the front wheels become the drive wheel with the FWD fuse installed. 15 miles with the spare, i would think you're probably okay. it's not "good" for it, but probably didn't hurt anything either. get your tires matched quickly, rotate them often, and don't allow the tread depth to differ by a lot. and change your trans fluid at least once.

I thought he may have subscribed to this thread. Oh right, I forgot about that John, I remember the shaft coming off of one of mine before but have never intentionally removed one either. Hopefully I'll be able to figure that clip out, much less risky and simpler. I've pulled the engine/trans as a lump enough times (including EJ25 automatics) so that's a last resort to angle the trans enough to pull the shaft all the way out too.

did you angle the trans or what? i'm about to pull a seized EJ motor as well with auto trans. guess i'll just angle the trans and remove it with the torque converter still attached.

that's a hard one. i'd probably do the heads on both side, redo the oil pump and call it a day, should be fine. the one time i saw this, cam gallery stuffed with RTV on an older engine, a thorough cleaning and reinstall was fine.

If you scroll to the bottom of this webpage right now you'll see "Similar threads" listed that are about the McIntosh stereo, probably be some good info in there for you. I have an 02 VDC OBW. There's a couple threads and reads about the McIntosh system here, online and probably at cars101.com. From a wiring point of view it was plug and play to remove it and install an in-dash 6 dish changer from a WRX. Since it's interchangeable like all the other subaru stereo's since the mid-90's should be simple to do whatever you want. It's supposed to be optimized for the vehicle, mine sounds great with just the WRX stereo so I'm confident you'll be pleased with any other stereo you install in it as well. I'm not sure whether the WRX stereo is getting pushed through the amp in the same way and all, I assume it is since it was plug and play, but I didn't worry much about it since it's sounds great to my untrained ears.

Will they replace both as set or only the ones that show signs? That's awesome I noticed my 96 LSi is frayed on the drivers side. Great thread RG.

add on's like a wetter you speak of might be good, but the 20 year old hoses and seals are still the issue. That on a car not worth much often means they haven't typically been maintained well over the past few years and previous overheating isn't hard to imagine. Decent motor if all things are in good order but it is not forgiving at all.

Some details might help - mileage, engine, trans? Previous maintenance - nothing, did you check all fluids, plugs, wires ever been done? Check engine light? Pop the hood at idle and try to determine if the noises are coming from front, back, right, or left. This could span the range from simply needing a tune up or bad internal engine mojo. Let's hope for the later?

opposedforces is Subaru's online exploded view party with part numbers too. check that out if you haven't already, that might help?

It's not the a/c, alt, or power steering? Something rubbing is definitely something to check particularly wherever you saw signs. Pretty sure you can get a mechanics stethoscope on each of the bolts for many of the pulleys with the side timing covers removed, which are really easy just 3 bolts each. Good luck, hope it's simple.

This run down might help. The best option is all new OEM parts, but that's cost prohibitive. Best real world option is to take it all apart, inspect the bearings, and a make a decision from there. Hard to make a good decision without knowing. But this isn't very realistic for many people either. What I suggest isn't best it's just the simplest "one size fits all" suggestion, I think other options are just as good or better though. I personally run the ebay kits on older vehicles, on newer cars I start leaning towards only replacing the pulleys that are really bad. If you can do all the work yourself it's really not that hard to pull the belt at 50,000 miles (halfway to the next belt change) and check things out real quick. Just another option to be safe.

It is more than likely that at least one pulley should be replaced. I rarely find last 90's Subarus with pulleys that feel anything close to new. The water pumps on EJ engines are fairly robust and not prone to failure, but they do fail. So it just comes down to personal preference really. I often prefer the ebay kits on older/high mileage vehicles. For $200 you get all new pulleys where you can only get one pulley for that price from Subaru. The 1998 I just did was the first one ever that didn't need any pulleys, they were all good. If you go "feel" what a new pulley is supposed to be like and compare it to your old ones you'll see what I mean, your old ones will feel noticeably free spinning and noisy probably. They'll still last a long time like that, but another 100,000 miles, I don't know? And you have them all....kind of hard to pull it all apart then go get what you want, most folks want to have all the parts and get it all done. Lots of dynamics in play. But yes - these are interference engines so it is wise to be precautionary, you can find threads on here with engines that have engine damage due to bad pulley bearings, failed tensioners, and failed belts and water pumps. So it's real and it happens, though not very often. Just depends how you view risk and how reliable you want the car to be, some folks are okay with that small percent chance on the old original pulleys.

read about headgaskets and torque bind. torque bind isn't a Subaru issue, it's more of a poor maintenance issue. some folks might associate that with the trans since it's major components are in the trans but paying attention to your tires and changing the fluids you shouldn't have to worry about it. i'd shoot for an H6 model myself. but you're limited to auto's in that case.

Nice hit Chux, that's what I suggested but it either got deleted or lost in cyberworld. Should be helpful too if anyone has similar questions of different ratios.

Exhaust can be tricky or easy. Difficulty is mostly due to rust and seized bolts. Often requires cutting/grinding, etc. Otherwise bolt on stuff is fairly straight forward, just annoying working on your back.