idosubaru

take your pick. in general the OEM gaskets are really nice, particularly the manifold to engine gaskets. they look solid and robust. the aftermarkets tend to look cheezeball and whimpy sometimes. but these gaskets rarely leak too, so it hardly matters really. actually, often times you can reuse the old gaskets without any leaking. i've done it bazillions of times. even old crustied up gaskets tend not to leak in my experience. maybe it's because i'm always repairing the stud threads and installing new bolts or something :rolleyes::lol:

hmm, that stinks. i would repair it. are you doing the headgaskets anyway? remove the insert and repair the thread properly. a machine shop can do this for you if you're not comfortable. with the previous hack job effort to it, might be good to just let pro's do it right now. high cost area (DC) this would cost me $100, around lower cost areas probably $50 (WV). if you're not doing the head gaskets (which i recommend doing) a good machine shop will fix it "on the engine" so to speak if you take them the entire thing. some shops familiar with aluminum heads/repairing spark plugs might even do it if you drop the entire engine off, just make a few phone calls.

get a used one for like $35. replacing the ujoints is covered on here if you want to search for it. i have a driveshaft i replaced the ujoints on and some others do as well.

it seems like your Duty C is failing. but the steps for getting to the clutches is the same. if you did a timing belt yourself then you can fix this torque bind. search on here for information on replacing the clutches, clutch pack, Duty C, etc. the annoying part is rusty exhaust bolts and working under the car on your back. other than that it's not much to it. i just removed a rear extension housing (that houses the clutches/DutyC) and i don't think it even took 15 minutes with the trans on the floor. a few small parts are in there, so keep an eye on those and get tips here on where they go. probably best to go new, but you could get a known good rear extension housing with good clutches/Duty C in it to save some money if that's an issue. i have one but a friends car is going to need it. in the short term you could disconnect the rear half of your driveshaft and just run it FWD. this will be better than destroying other components of your car like you've been doing for months. i have done this before, so :rolleyes::rolleyes: to the comments forthcoming. it sounds like you've driven it a long time like this. i assume you know that's really bad? you're putting extra strain on your entire drivetrain and could be destroying all your axles. the bad vibrations while driving straight are probably from compromised axles due to all the binding.

The McIntosh stereo wasn't working. I pulled it today and the plugs are still identical to other Subaru's. So I plugged in an older one i had in the garage and got sound. Didn't seem like any sound was coming from the back, just the fronts. But I didn't really play with it very much either. In a wagon, the rear speakers are in the back doors?

being over 15 years old there's plenty of room for something not to be "as good as new" in any number of areas on the car. FWD vs. AWD does make a small difference. and i wonder if the sedans are lighter than wagons? you can look up the hp differences from carb to FI if you want. the FI one is better? that's not surprising either. and unless the carb has recently been rebuilt or cleaned it's probably not %100. but even at %100 carbs suck. that's why yours is the "newest" one available from Subaru and hasn't been used since:lol:

i have no idea on that one.

awesome, that's a good feeling indeed.

Hank, good point, i'm not sure of that. i have heard other folks say you can do it but haven't tried myself. it still might work, just depends how it operates. the ECM does detect cetain parameters and then activates the solenoid. the solenoid would be hooked up and would actuate, it just wouldn't have any hoses on it. i don't think that solenoid would trip a code, but maybe something else would? he doesn't live in the rust belt like us....i mean as hard as it is for me to imagine that thing not being a pain like you said...."THEY SAY"...those west coast people, that rust is much better out there

the two annoying parts are the connectors (you already know about) and the torx bits. some have torx bits, some don't and some have the security torx bits. if you need to get the tools, get the security torx bits as they will work in torx and security torx bolts. torx only won't work in the security torx bolts. does that make sense? the security torx are a torx bit with just a hole in the middle. yeah the cost of doing this stuff was the reason i got a good deal on my 02 OBW VDC H6.

Get the 97 but buy a complete timing belt kit for it off ebay. Old style will only be $80, new style will be $190 for the complete kit. All new belt and pulleys. You can even convert to the old style by swapping brackets if $100 is going to make/break you. And the old style is more reliable anyway. I've done it and i'm currently driving one with EGR. EGR = less reliable so it's a nice move if you don't have to worry about emissions. You could splice the EGR solenoid in place and plug it in (without actually being connected to anything) in order to pass emissions, since they don't do anything but "look for codes", this would satisfy that. But i'm sure you're not interested in all of that.

The passenger air bag is a separate unit and wont' destroy the dash. In subaru's they aren't even that hard to remove, doesn't require removing the dash at all. a bit annoying cramming yourself in the passengers footwell or working through the glovebox, but relatively few things/bolts to remove. Yards typically sell the bags and computer as a set, so just buy a complete set. They aren't that expensive. Replace those three things and if the air bag light doesn't go off, replace the front sensors. Those are easy to get to as well. Be sure to figure out how to remove the air bag connectors. the ones on Subaru are extremely difficult to remove when you first try. They don't make sense and it doesn't look obvious how to remove them...until you break them! A friend of mine used to work in a body shop and his family (wife/3 kids) have never owned a car that wasn't previously wrecked that he bought and fixed. He's done all sorts of different models and said they're all very similar, nothing really special about the components from one to the next. There's also a company that can reset the existing computer for $50, i don't recall the name. There's a link posted to it in my 2002 OBW H6 VDC rebuild thread from a couple months ago either here or on Subaruxt.com. I'm on dial up so I'm not looking it up.

I'll tell him to drive it for a bit to see if maybe they'll loosen up before I go digging into it. So - the AWD doesn't allow the normal 90/10 split since they're seized. But the Duty C essentially "allows" a 100/0 split, completely disengaging the seized clutches. Is that basically how it works? I have a spare, known good rear extension housing. I can either swap that or he can pay for the new parts. Labor is free so I'll let him decide what he wants to do. I've pulled the rear housings before, is replacing the clutches much more work once the housing is off? Thanks JCE, this is the first one that someone I know has happened to, so I'll actually be doing the work this time.

Helping a friend with his 96 Impreza with 4EAT. When he bought it, it had brand new front tires and very warn rear tires. It started having torque bind issues. Goes away with FWD fuse installed. He had the transmission fluid flushed and new tires installed. Still has torque bind, which goes away with FWD fuse installed. So that means the Duty C is working and the clutches are bad?

i thought only the H6's came with the side impact air bags. good car. the H6 motor is awesome.

i'm all about the air suspension in my XT6, i totally dig it. but unless you have a really compelling reason, take it from folks that have delt with these things for decades - convert to coil overs is your best bet. the air suspension is a really flake monster sometimes. it's not worth it for most folks. lots of diagnosis info posted on here, you can also check subaruxt.com - since all 4WD XT6's have air suspension we have a good bit of info on the system over there and they are identical in function.

don't know for sure but there's a really good chance they're interchangeable. i have a 2002 OBW H6 and like the leather seats, are they different or just personal preference i guess? or maybe compared to XT6's my opinion is whacked?

if you pulled the code, look it up and tell us what it is. is it always doing it, just at start up, does it flash 16 times at start up, have you tried clearing it and see if it comes back, does it ever go off....need more info.

founds this in 12 seconds of searching: http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/us-fidelis-c138951.html

Keith, I'd buy the EJ22 if it's a full price vehicle. Wait, how much do you want for it, I know a girl that needs a car right now. PM/email me with pictures and price. If you have time, list the car for awhile as-is and see what happens. If you get what you want out of it then you saved yourself a buttload of time. Keep in the mind the EJ25 is worth more than the EJ22. Might be able to get $500-$1000 for it, particularly with the headgaskets. Personally I'd advertise it as a more reliable engine with fewer head gasket, piston slap, and bottom end failures. You can even print out all the EJ25 webpages and info. It's fairly easy to sell a more reliable vehicle in my experience. It only takes one person who just wants a reliable, nice looking car and doesn't care about 20-30 hp. Not hard to find at all and saves you an engine swap. I sell mine quick usually, it's not hard to find that person that wants new timing belts, the whole 9 yards, etc.

awesome, you're the one in 50 that sounds for real about this! why didn't you say so!? used engine prices are all over the board and vary wildly. the EZ30 is a decade newer than the EG33 so the prices will be substantially more....unless you're lucky. you can buy an EG33 for $200 and the next one be $1,500. usually just time dependent, the longer you have to look the cheaper it will be. the EG33 and EZ30 have both been done. if you get an XT6 you'll want to join our subaruxt.com forum for all your XT/XT6 specific information. both of the folks that did the EG33 and EZ30 swap are frequent members...like almost daily. then there's a number of EJ turbo swapped XT's as well. so lots of info there. but in general it all fits very easily. there's no real clearance issues or problems getting it in. just be sure to do all the timing belt stuff and valve cover gaskets before installing the engine!

i agree, pointless is a strong word. but i wasn't saying it in regards to "info", so that's out of context. i was referring to cost, in which case you're still right pointless is a strong word!! that is why the rest of my post is about cost. i'm trying to help him. the first question is surely "who is doing the work". what phil paid won't be what everyone else can expect to pay. the market for used newer gen engines and vehicles is highly subjective. some times these kinds of questions get old. these kinds of posts usually result in no follow through. hasn't priced the engines, that takes less than a minute to price new and used engines? hasn't priced the vehicles? zero research, info, and knowledge. i shouldn't write everyone off though...patience isn't a virtue of mine sometimes.

are you asking a question to clarify someone else's question? or for your own? old thread yes - but at least someone searches instead of making a new thread!

if the donor trans is hydro and the other is cable, you're going to run into some issues there. i have both and i don't think they are interchangeable without some tweaking. maybe i'm wrong. match the flywheel to the engine. so keep the original flywheel. alignment tool is not necessary.

AT MT doesn't matter. they engine interchangeability is independent of the trans.