idosubaru

nothing, not enough to make a difference.

the tensioner styles are only interchangeable if you have all the bracketry that holds it.

you can tell the "correct" orientation by looking at the splines. on the axle pin hole, one side will have a "V" in the middle of the pin hole, the other will have a "hump" in the middle. line it up accordingly on the stubby shaft. if you can't seem to get the in-and-out lined up right, try sticking a hex or something else in place enough to hold it while you drive it in from the other side.

they're so cheap that if you're concerned about it, it's still a fantastic deal to buy the kit and a Subaru OEM belt for only $59. still cheap as all get out for the entire job. call them, fairly certain they will mix and match what you want. both style tensioners are available but the newer style is roughly $100 more.

John - that sounds right to me, cars101 is the place to go for all the info and i'm guessing you pulled it from there? only impreza's had EJ22's 2000+. that might be your experience, but overall the market isn't bearing that out. i've yet to see any on craigslist, not even one locally. and like you i buy them all the time (bought *another one* just a couple weeks ago). like i linked to above - EJ25's are a weekly occurence. there's an enormous discrepancy in the market, not just opinions - ebay, craigslist, even on here.

i just did a 10 second sampling - denver, baltimore and DC craigslist have at least 3 2000+ EJ25 vehicles with head gasket issue experience for sale (and numerous other pre-2000's). not one EJ22 of any year is listed. and that's normal, i can buy a blown head gasket EJ25 every week. ask Dave in pittsburgh how many he bought last year alone - it's in the many dozens. there are loads of EJ22's with high miles and much older being around since the early 90's.

really? surely you know the EJ22 does not have head gasket issues like the EJ25. Subaru acknowledges that with their extended head gasket warranty campaign and the additive recommendation. i've seen countless 2000+ EJ25's with failed head gaskets, and i've even looked them up and found 5 in one week on Denver Craigslist before. i've yet to see an EJ22 that wasn't over 10 years old with obvious maintenance neglect with head gasket issues.

your philosophy works well and that's great. but it doesn't mean someone else is "wrong". to think one experience is the only fit in the world that applies to all people, situations, for all time is usually a bit shortsighted. let's not turn this into a philosophical debate like every other oil thread always does. most oil threads go this same route...it's like a sitcom, scripted to happen every time. if you're a commercial enterprise and can run an extra 1,000 miles between changes without any significant degradation in the oil properties you can save yourself thousands of dollars per vehicle. if you have hundreds of vehicles, you can save yourself hundreds of thousands of dollars. well worth some upfront expense. now, for the average daily driver, i don't know what value that holds, but it is an interesting experience. it's relatively inexpensive anyway, so it's fun for kicks if someone wants to. i don't expect everyone to operate like i do, when i start doing that, and i have, i soon realize there's other compelling interests and modus operandi than my own in the world.

your black font is REALLY hard to read on this grey background, i'd change that. if your problem is the rear cv shaft axles not being the same design - meaning the axle stubs on the diff verses the axles, i'm fairly certain this problem has already been covered. i'd try doing some searching, i can't recall the details for certain. on the fronts you can leave the stuby shafts on the old style in the old style cv's to slide them into the new style trans front diff.

pretty sure this is a straight forward swap if the cam sprockets are swapped as well. side note JCE: i used both of those 6203 bearings you sent me, thanks, they worked perfectly! if you have any more, i'd advertise them over on the subaruoutback forums, as that's a very common H6 problem and they have an entire thread dedicated to it which i just posted to in the past day or two.

i had the same thoughts will. seems like metal or coolant would be indicative of other problems (particularly on this motor) rather quickly. so to really "catch it", you'd have to do these analysis rather regularly? i think one use is to provide appropriate oil change intervals. 3,000 miles and 7,500 miles are both "industry standards" in many cases via marketing or your factory owners manual. this can help determine what your actual intervals should be for your engine, driving, habits, terrain, usage, etc. long haul truck commercial companies do this sort of thing and this market was initially in place for that reason before it caught on in the daily driver market.

are you sure the hose is bad? that is really odd...actually it's so odd that i don't believe the hose is bad unless something happened to it. more likely the oring at either fitting end is leaking. those are frequently the cause of a/c leaks. most common problem i see.

i think the 96's had hydraulic valve lash adjusters. after sitting for awhile they can be very noise. let them run awhile and change oil regularly. hydraulic valve lash adjusters are very nice as you never have to (nor can you) adjust the valves. BUT - the downside is they don't do well with poor maintenance. don't change your oil often and they will give problems.

well i don't know anything about the test monitors, but is he really sure about that? that sounds bizarre to me. but - 1996 was the first year for the 2.5 liter, so maybe there were some minor code quirks like this. ECU's are like lego's. you can swap 2.2 and 2.5 ECU's all day long from 96 up to??? not sure when, but at least 1998 to maintain the same engine config of the Phase I DOHC's.

basically the same as a WRX swap, you'll still need all the wiring and ECU swapped. the EJ22 designation essentially makes nothing simpler. i thought hydraulic clutches were a later thing - like 96+, but i could be wrong.

i don't think i have any EJ racks sitting around that aren't still attached to a parts vehicle. i have a few projects going on and will be in the garage a good bit so if i think about it and get a chance over the next week i'll see what i have.

I picked up an OBDII scanner off ebay for $30-$40, absolutely worth every penny. The O2 sensor won't be causing any of this. Subarus run perfect, with no noticeable change, with the O2 sensor completely removed. There is a way for the O2 sensor to cause problems, but it's not what you're experiencing. If the O2 sensor wiring gets the plastic sheating warn off and grounds against something metal it can cause flakey things to happen. But to say that's rare is an understatement.

i will say if you plan on doing a thorough job cleaning the head bolts to spotless and don't have air tools, having the engine out is big plus. i'd like to watch that too, and i mean that seriously not argumentatively. an engine come out in 40 minutes...meaning lift, chain set up, and everything. still talking 1.5 hours pulling and installing. for how simple the head gasket is it's not worth 1.5 hours to me. if he's having trouble with one bolt on an EA82 head gasket job i would think an engine pull might be more than is good for him to attempt right now.

+1 it is a waste of time to pull the engine for an EA82. actually i'm in the middle of an XT6 (6 cylinder) and i wouldn't even think of pulling the engine to do it even though i have all the equipment to in my garage. much quicker doing it in the car. i can have both heads off before someone has the engine out. you should post a picture, nothing comes to my mind that makes these things hard. the hardest part is the lower valve cover bolts, which come right out with a great tool - the ratcheting wrench. the most time consuming part of this job is cleaning up the heads, and cam towers. that's one reason that sending them to a machine shop is so nice - stuff comes back clean and you spent zero time scrubbing and scraping. you said one head gasket is blown, best to replace both while you got it all apart. good luck!

just make sure it isn't the under the seat 6 disc changer. those kind of suck. you probably want the in dash changer. it almost has to fit. mid-90's stuff plugs and plays with even my 2002 H6 OBW with the McIntosh system which has an external amp, etc. i've swapped a bunch of in dash 6 changer units into various legacy's and impreza's and i know they'd also fit in my 2002 OBW, so it's hard for me to imagine it not fitting. but i can understand you don't want to buy somethign that doesn't work either.

i've put an XT6 rack in an EA82 - identical bolt on affair. i use aftermarket EJ steering rack bushings on EA and XT6's - exactly the same. a visual on them (no measuring or confirming), but laying in the garage they look the same. a NZ XT6 owner can't get the cybrid power steering fluid locally and has had no problems in 4 years or so running ATF in the stock XT6 system. i've mentioned swapping EJ/EA racks before and even suggested folks try it that needed cheap racks, because from everything i've seen they are the easily interchangeable. i haven't done it but i have some greenbacks i'd bet on it. you guys are all over it, the tie rod end lengths would also be the one thing i can think of. i would think the rack bodies are the same, so just match the inner tie rods to the vehicle. for instance if it's an EA car - use EA inner tie rods.

i've done JDM swaps - you did right by using the US manifold. keeping that in mind, i would suggest keeping everything USDM as much as possible. there are probably some simpler things you can check first but: since you're having problems with cylinder misfire you may end up needing to swap the crank and cam sprockets, cam sensor, and crank sensor. since you used the JDM block you probably retained the JDM sensors and cam/crank gear. i would say to swap the sensors first since those are easy, take one bolt and 5 minutes. but i also don't think you will find your problem there. it's more likely to be cam/crank gear related (though i'm not sure). which brings up a related point - you really should install a new timing belt anyway. with age and not knowing how long this engine sat without running, you really don't want to risk the timing belt on an interference engine. if the timing belt breaks you will incur at least valve damage - maybe piston. it's really not that hard, just pull the timing belt and swap the cam gears and the sprocket on the crank.

99 Foresters have the later Phase II EJ25 with SOHC's. Those have different failures and symptoms than the earlier EJ25's. It should be leaking out the rear of the headgasket to engine mating surface. I would verify the year or that it's SOHC or DOHC. For the foresters: 96-98 = DOHC. 99 and up = SOHC.

oh yeah, that's good. the online subaru dealers are annoying because they charge a minimum - so your $8 order would have had $12 shipping charge from some sites. wow $8 for all three parts of the oil pump reseal and shipping? that's good, when was the expected arrival time? if it was one of the online subaru dealers it would be very odd for me to get it by the end of the week.

that's where searching and reading come in. you'll get for more info than waiting for the few anecdotal responses this week. i don't even know how many EJ vehicles i've owned, a lot. the EJ25's are not my favorite, well that's harsh - it is nice that they are easy to find cheap - i have two in my driveway right now. blown head gaskets, cracked blocks, lost rod bearings, piston slap....easy to find. have you considered an EJ22T or one of the Ebay turbo engines? if that's out of range another option is an EJ22 with low boost turbo or supercharger. that would be my choice for low cost "performance". if performance isn't that important (which it probably isn't since Ej25's are not fast) then the 20 extra hp isn't worth it to me for lower reliability and higher expense.