idosubaru

can you stop in a store and measure them? used ones might be a slightly different measurement, have been turned before? i think i have some EJ drums lying in my garage somewhere, but i don't have anything accurate to measure them with.

right on, good point. i have a nicely built one, i should just beef it up a little, that makes more sense.

yes, i already did that for you based on what you said here: in a sense it really doesn't matter though because you'll want to replace it all, they're over 15 years old. If one started leaking there's a good chance another one might some time soon too. It's kind of silly to take it all apart and skip replacing a $5 seal...... Actually you already know what I'm talking about: so why just replace one seal, only to have another start leaking and have to do it again? 2 cam seals and 2 cam orings - replace them all. Yes, crank seal is part of the oil pump behind the crank pulley and sprockets. Most folks on here reseal the oil pump while it's staring them in the face rather than just replace the crank seal. the cam sprocket bolts are TIGHT AS ALL GET OUT. i loosen them before taking the belt off. otherwise they're a pain - but rubber strap wrenches, chain wrenches (with suitable rubber to protect the gears) work too. i've heard there are indentations on the cams themselves that a wrench slides right on to hold them in place, so you could pull the valve cover and do that as well, that would be an easier way to do it. these motors are so reliable and easy to maintain that in some sense it's a really good idea to just replace everything now. good chance you can run this thing another 120,000 miles by just replacing the timing belt at 60k without any other problems if you do a good job now.

nice hit, thanks for the warning, i would not have proceeded slowly enough with this!

When it heats up is the fan(s) coming on? Radiator cap(s) ever been replaced? Intake manifold gasket leaks are common and not too bad to replace, much simpler than head gaskets. Bad radiator? Water pump could be the culprit, though the leaking should show somewhere up front under the pump. If it's head gaskets it's very rare to just replace one, it's best to replace them in sets. These engines do not typically blow head gaskets, something caused it. Whatever caused it on one, stressed the other. Replace both.

Anyone buy a hitch for their EA/ER series vehicles? Did they bolt up fine? Any issues? Only concern is the ones I'm seeing are like generic or something, or are they always vehicle specific?

Toughest decision to make is with the idler pulleys. The engine can make another 100,000 miles but the idlers have a good chance of not making it to the next timing belt change. They are very expensive from Subaru. Ebay sells complete kits for $200 for the belt and pulleys. Some folks buy the kits just for the pulleys and use a Subaru belt. You'll have to price it out yourself and decide. You're talking $400-$500 for belt and pulleys from Subaru verses $200 from Ebay. Along with that I typically replace the water pump, thermostat, reseal the oil pump and replace the cam seals while the belt is off.

very simple: make sure all your tires match in size, tread depth, and wear. 4WD trans like this have to have good matching and frequently rotated tires. no point in fixing anything only to ruin the new "fixed" stuff. change the fluid. a simple drain and refill isn't enough since only a portion of the fluid comes out. need to do at least 3 or just have it flushed by a shop. this can easily fix torque bind, might take 100 miles of driving though, so hard to tell right away. being a used car you just bought i'm going to assume it's been this way for a while and a simple trans change wont' fix it. if not, find the GM limited slip additive and add it to your fluid. done deal. otherwise you need a Duty C solenoid but these are robust transmissions and that additive seems to work well.

there's no one-size-fits all. if you've owned the car since new, it never overheated, and you can replace the $50 gaskets yourself (like many of us can and have), it's kind of simple. and of course there's any number of scenarios where a swap is a good option. people aren't robots, i know that's hard for some engineers to understand since I am one and had to go to school with some of the worst in the country!!!! but, people are not machines and there isn't one solution only to every single decision. think differential equation, not 1 + 1 = 2!:lol:

piston slap is another "knocking" type sound, you'll want to determine which it is for sure since rod knock is terminal and piston slap is benign. use the advanced search function and search for "knock" in titles only New Generation. "rod" won't do you any good since the search function doesn't work with 3 letter words:rolleyes:. although *rod or rod* may help since the asterisk can work as a place holder.

Anyone ever replace one of these? Never seen this before, but the one on my daily driver just broke. I have a parts car, the bar looks convoluted, wondering if there's any tricks/tips to this job. Any clue how long this would take, i'm hoping an hour or so?

nah, that doesn't sound strange at all. the cam seal is leaking, it's behind the cam sprocket and rear timing belt cover, can't see it until you get the sprocket and rear cover off. most folks, and wise/honest mechanics, consider it the best idea to do a timing belt and reseal the entire front of the engine on a car this old. timing belt and all the pulleys cams seals, cam orings oil pump seals, crank seal all of that resides behind the timing belt, so best to do all in one shot. silly to replace just one seal, then 6 months later one of the others starts leaking. Use Subaru seals for all of those, they are higher quality.

there are clearance issues and pulling the engine is a great way to do the job! different EJ25's are harder - the original DOHC being the worst. i'd be interested to watch a dealer do it. they make more money if their fast, so the incentive is high to get it done quick.

sounds familiar to some of the scenes i've witnessed and conversed about as well. 3 a week that's $150,000 per year for a dealer. if there's 100 Subaru dealers in the US - that's $15 million worth of revenue just for head gasket work on EJ25's. Many folks would be surprised at how organizations look at numbers. There's HUGE profit margin in service that vehicle sales don't even come close to touching. Gone are the days of the 70's when companies made money on cars, now the profit margins are in used cars, parts, and service.

No and no....but also yes. They've taken steps to ALLEVIATE the issue, so I would say "yes" the "issues" have been taken care of....meaning the old head gasket issues with it's own percentages of risk, known issues, etc. Doesn't mean the new ones are zero though. They are hopefully far fewer, but there have been incidences past 2002. There's no quantitative information people!!! It's not like Subaru releases "percentage of head gasket failure charts", without that there's no way to know anything about when "it" "went away", etc. 2002 was commonly thrown around and Subaru's extended warranty was 100,000 miles for headgaskets through 2002, so the INFERENCE is that it "went away" around that time.

the engine doesn't have to come out to replace the headgasket and the dealers i've talked to do not pull the engine. a 2005 loosing a head gasket, that's very unfortunate. glad it was under warranty and thanks for sharing. you didn't happen to ask them if they ever do any other newer ones like this did you? i should ask next time i stop in if they ever get newer ones in. i usually ask "how many EJ25's you got getting new headgaskets in today", but just assumed they were all older ones.

Do all the tires match tread depth, tire size, and pressure? Get those right. Sometimes torque bind goes away if all of that is take care of. Has the fluid ever been changed? One drain and refill doesn't get much fluid out keep in mind. Torque bind often goes away with that, I fixed one like that just this year. Last option: After those important things have been addressed then you can add GM Limited Slip additive (there's an entire thread, even a couple, on here about that). After that you need a used rear housing or new clutches. Duty C is optional in your case since yours is working. Price it out and see how you feel about replacing it while you're in there.

right on. there's no blanket statement that covers all situations. i steer friends/family to EJ22's of the late 90's to avoid the possible $1,500 repair. but that's not new enough for a lot of folks.

i figured something might come up and yeah i'd be scrapping that thing too. gear teeth, sounds like a an old lady owned car huh

As I've said before if you rule out every car company that has had a problem area on a vehicle - you won't have any companies to buy from. As to GD's comments - to you or I it's 'just a gasket' - to some it's a $1,500 repair. a lot of people...whether it's $500 or $5,000 are spending about as much as they can on a car, like the friends/family I help buy cars, and can't afford a $1,500 repair bill in a year. they need to keep the head gasket stuff in mind.

yes those two will both bolt up the same. but those engines might not be easily interchangeable. the EJ22 (and EJ25) went through quite a few changes then. just go look and you'll see how different a 99 EJ22 is from a 98. if the intake manifold doesn't swap (it may not), then the wiring may be different.

replace it with new or used. maybe it was replaced the first time with aftermarket or something cheap. Subaru ones rarely fail, just get a new or used one. should be very cheap as there is zero demand for them. i wouldn't mess with those aftermarkets/kits or non-OEM style as you'll likely have to do some wiring. a fuel is just a pump so in some ways you can install dozens and dozens of different pumps in that OBW - probably fuel pumps from an Army tank if you wanted to resize the lines and wire it up. the wiring can be annoying though and who wants to go cutting connectors on a 2001 OBW?

One time moving kind of gig, I wouldn't worry about it. I used to drive like this multiple times a year 45,000 miles in one year before. If the car is running fine now you're not likely to have problems this one time. The trailer should be fine, just drive safely and leave lots of room between you and the car in front. Make sure the trailer tracks straight, oscillating is BAD. very scary on a full size truck, hate to see a small vehicle. Biggest convenience for me when traveling long distance all the time was having a full size spare. Relying on a real spare is annoying on a road trip. Having good battery cables (connections) and alternator connections is key to your battery and alternator lasting a long time and not dying randomly. I'd usually have extra parts like an alternator ,coil, and distributor, easy to fix and will leave you stranded if they go. But for a one time shot, you'll be fine, I used to do this all the time. I'm going on a 1,700 mile (2,700 km) trip in a month with my 1988 XT6 and I'm not too worried about it.

i hope it's okay to laugh because that was funny....i mean not that you have to go that route and all the drama assocaited with but your telling of it was funny.

it'll bolt right up but the wiring is going to be different.