idosubaru

convert to FWD manual trans and run studded snows in the winter.

honestly the idea that more weight decreases mileage isn't entirely true. it depends what kind of driving you're doing. for highway driving it doesn't make any difference at all...maybe in really steep mountains with an underpowered car it would. in the same EA82 unloaded or loaded with 400 pounds of passengers and luggage i'd get the same exact gas mileage. not even a *small* measurable difference. so it'll depend exactly what this guy is looking for, how much he cares about mileage, and what kind of driving he's doing.

short answer - yes. long answer i typed an essay on above (sorry!).

as for gas mileage i doubt the swapping will matter. i've done that to a number of vehicles and it doesn't make much difference in gas mileage. i've done it to manual and automatics and noticed zero difference in highway gas mileage on XT6's. maybe 4 cylinders or city driving makes a bit of difference, but i wouldn't expect much. ideal solution is to have a few vehicles...which is a good idea when you're running 20 year old stuff that you like to work on yourself anyway. a PT4WD might be a better option, at least it's in FWD when it's not in 4WD. but.....there's some good options out there for 4WD even. XT's can get over 30 mpg with 4WD. even the XT6 (6 cylinder) FT4WD manual can get 29 mpg...probably 30 if you're driving the speed limit and flat land - all highway miles of course. not sure about carbs but i've seen people quote 30+ mpg in carbed soobs...i personally hate them and will never know. point being..with the right set up you'll get mileage you can live with having 4WD and FWD won't make an enormous difference all by itself (keeping engine, gear ratios and stuff in mind too). if you only need 4WD for snow/ice driving, another option would be to invest in studded snow tires or high quality snow tires. a FWD with studded snows is a better bet than 4WD for daily commuting activities. i mean i love 4WD and all of my subaru's are always 4WD with the exception of one and that was a project of sorts, just something i wanted to try, snow tires are AWESOME. so...depends how much good gas mileage you want and what you need the 4WD for. good luck with it man, hope it goes well!

buy a 5 speed vehicle that needs minor work. EA vehicles are cheap as dirt in areas that have a lot of them. not hard at all to find something cheap that needs a door, engine, trans....the best bet is something that needs a clutch or head gaskets - easy fixes. in the time it takes to do a swap of the magnitude you're talking about i could probably buy and flip ("flip" - buy a car, fix it and sell it) enough subaru's to make enough money to buy a herd of EA82 vehicles. when it comes down to time and finances it just doesn't work out really. but if it's something you'd like to do then by all means tear it up, there's good reasons to keep it too i know! in that case i'd just keep your eyes open for a 5 speed vehicle with a blown engine or wrecked. i've gotten EA era stuff free, passed it up, or bought/seen them for dirty cheap $50-$300. just get something like that for the swap. piecing a swap can be annoying...and hardly any cheaper unless you have a really cheap place for parts.

don't throw that much money away for two reasons: 1. there's a good chance this isn't an ECU. 2. you can find an ECU much cheaper than that - $50 tops. someone on here probably has one, just post in the parts wanted forum. what happened...did it run fine then just not start one day? have you checked the fuses? have you checked fusible links? battery? ignition switch? have you had any ignition, starting, electrical or other problems? the more info we have the more we can help, hopefully it's just something simple. give us as much specific info you can.

pulley outside of the front covers? the only pulleys outside of the front covers are the crank pulley and accessory belt related pulleys (all very simple to remove..just a couple bolts). i've run without covers even on my off road vehicles that i've had burried in mud, water, snow, etc and i've never had a problem. the only time i had a problem with timing covers was one that became loose and wore a hole in an ATF hose...so you could argue that stuff has some liability with it as well! plenty of guys...including us that drive off road and in some sever snow areas have run without with no problems for 100's of thousands of miles. if you want more info...just do a search for "naked" or "without covers" or something and read all the opinions. bottom line is you won't have any problems unless you're doing something to intentionally shove stuff up under there in which case you're not using a proper vehicle or driving is the problem, not the covers! can't really tell about replacement unless you know the dealer or shop, prevoius owner or have the records. just get a peak and see if it looks cracked and how warn the lettering is. another major thing to check with a timing belt job is the timing belt pulleys. age makes them low on grease and those can cause premature timing belt failure. if it looks decent, all the pulleys are turning with no visible failure signs (seized, bearing popping out), then you can probably guess...like plan on a timing belt change this winter, or next summer, something like that. how bad was the crank seal leak? oil will degrade the timing belt QUICK. i found that out last year. i installed a timing belt last summer on a friends car and the crank seal started leaking (EA82 engine). it was leaking badly and got on the timing belt. i replaced the seal and just wiped the belt clean. it broke less than 10k miles later, and all the wise people here say it was due to the oil leak. if that's the case for you - plan on a timing belt change sooner rather than later. it is a NON-interference engine. all 1995 and earlier subaru engines are non-interference. so no worries if it breaks (though sometimes it will break your covers!) grooves on the front surface don't harm anything for used parts. i can't see it, but if it bolts up and isn't damaged then use it. the only problem i've seen is ones that have been on overheated engines are warped or melted due to heat, avoid those. but that's normally just inside covers, not the fronts. for installing "new" used covers, just use the bolts holes you have. frankly zip ties are far better than bolts. t he bolts seize in place and turn the inserts they screw into rather than backing out when loosening. this ends up ruining the covers by prying or wahtever means is used to remove them. i just wail them with a chisel and throw them away (like i did just this week on an EJ22). it's a family members car so i don't mind, they know i know subaru's! and i know my grandmother isn't off roading! so yeah - just zip tie some front covers on there and call it a day. then they won't be seized in place next time. pardon the length...hope that helps...

the mechanic would have had to remove the timing belt front cover to replace the front main crank seal...is that missing too? the best solution is to save your cash and do the belt replacement at the next timing belt change. some of us (me included) don't even install the timing belt covers, it's just easier to leave them off and makes future jobs much quicker. being my own mechanic i think it's actually more advantageous as well to have the covers off for other reasons. if/when you decide to replace it: you definitely don't need anywhere near "all" of the timing cover bolts, there are far more than necessary....so maybe you could sneak the stuff in place without removing all the belts and such. it's hard to say what you need. there are 5 pieces. two rear pieces that are on the passengers and drivers side - behidn the cam sprockets essentially. and then the three front pieces - drivers sides, middle and passengers side. do you need all 5 or just the fronts? the fronts are easy and don't really require anything to replace...maybe remove the fans (super simple). the rears require removing the crank pulley, timing belt and cam sprockets to replace. loosen the cam sprocket bolts before doing anything else, with the timing belt in place. otherwise it'll be annoying to try and hold it. it's not hard to replace them. if you have the tools and time to search here and read Endwrench (subaru's mechanic aid) you'll be able to do it. it's not hard at all. just a couple tricks and hints you can read about here or ask. the EJ22 belts are cake really ,easier than the old school subaru's...which i don't find hard either.

good news is there's hardly any differences between EA82's as far as this is concenred so this swap is no different than all the others that have been done. so this should make it easy to get info from here and others! we can guess based on questions...but is it FWD and what year/model vehicle are you doing? the easiest way to do a 5 speed swap is to have a complete donor car. piecing one together is really annoying and can end up costing way more money too. there's really no reason to piece it together. i've gotten (and refused) plenty of free subaru's...and passed on plenty of really cheap ones too, it's just not worth it to piece together. the spline difference is from non-turbo to turbo. you current vehicle is a non-turbo? if so then if you get a trans from a non-turbo the axles will easily swap. if you get a 5 speed trans from a turbo vehicle the splines will differ but the only thing you need is turbo axles. then just swap the inner joints or swap the entire axle. the hub sides are all identical, so no need to swap those. you'll need the rear gear ratio to match...but that like the spline count doesn't vary due to 5 speed or not (not for EA82's anyway). maybe someone else can verify which you'll need. RX transmissions for instance are 3.7 final drives. a guy on the xt6 forum swapped from auto FWD to AWD 5 speed. lots of pictures and details there, you definitely should check that out. the rear driveshaft is easy - just get the front half. the rear halfs are the same so if you currently have 4WD (though i think you might not based on infeering from your questions). anyway - all the rear halves are the same auto verse manual. so even if you need both, this makes it easier to find the rear half, that can come from either - the front only needs to come from the manual trans. the carrier bearing support bolts won't be there if it's a FWD but the bosses and place for them should be. if this is a FWD to AWD conversion i woudlnt' even attempt this without an entire parts car. that would be a complete waste of time. yes - the pedal assembly is removable, just unbolt and remove. the biggest tip i can give you there is just to remove the steering column, trim and whatever to get it out of your way. trying to remove minimal parts makes this job very annoying sometimes i've noticed on some vehicles the manual trans have some apparatus on the brake master cylinders...i think it's for the hill holder mechanism. you'll have to decide if you want that or not. and you'll need the 4WD vacuum hoses, fittins, and solenoids. it's nice to swap the dash too, get a manual trans dash. although they are very similar and you "might" be able to convert an auto to a manual dash, never tried. and of course you'll need a flywheel.

might want to say what you need done too. like something marjor - head gaskets, or just general maintenance? the best thing you can do is get a good mechanic and get advice from USMB on parts and how best to proceed with the given repair.

someone PM'ed because they couldn't find that post. under the advanced search function search for posts by user "WAWalker" and i used "crank pins" for the search words - it came up a few down the list: http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=54697&highlight=crank+pins the only problem i see with mine is i can't seem to get a new pulley to sit flush on the crank for some reason. i'll inspect that more later though. getting it to stay won't be the problem, getting it to line up i think will be the issue for me.

thanks rick, i did find it. i will attempt that fix - i could probably print that picture off and hand the parts to my machinist. thanks!

swap in an EJ22 is another option. although the 2000 year is harder to find, they can be cheaper and easier to find than the EJ25 - and as a bonus they have fewer head gasket, piston slap, and bearing issues.

if the car was "empty" it can take significantly more than one can to fill. the last one i charged i want to say took *roughly* two cans...but that's from memory. pretty sure just one won't cut it. what i would have done is pressed in the schrader valve to see if the system is pressurized at all or not before you charged the first time. if it's empty and you have a leak that bad, it's not going to stay in long. if you determine another can is needed, try some with the "stop leak" stuff in it. i'm not a big fan of those kinds of "fixes" but i've seen it work and probably most successfully/often in A/C systems.

that's what i would have done (and have done) rob, just swap the harness over, makes things easier and simpler in the long run. you got it figured out but for anyone else having issues, maybe this might be helpful. i have had mild success doing some minor "rewiring" by pulling the pin outs out of the connectors and reinstalling what i needed. it's an easy way to "rewire", add or change things if needed. for instance...take a knock sensor connector and wiring and put it into a plug by finding the right pin out and pushing it through and actually "installing" the metal pin into the engine harness plug. make sense? the back of the plugs are a soft pliable rubber so you can actually remove and install pins from the back of them as needed. at least on the few i've dealt with it wasn't a problem.

this isn't as simple as a lot of other automotive things. i would want to know why you're recharging it and if you tracked down exactly why the a/c isn't working or why it was low to begin with. and if it's low did you fix the leak first? maybe someone with siginficant a/c experience will pipe up but if that doesn't happen i'd suggest doing a lot of reading about a/c stuff on the internet and learning how it works. that helped me a good deal in the past. i'm personally not acquainted enough to tell you to ignore charging "into the red". from memory, the EJ's that i've recharged took approximately two cans of charge when completely empty. but it sounds like yours may have had some remaining charge and you obviously aren't drawing a vacuum on it?

right on, that's not really an option. like i said, i've installed crank pulleys without keys before so i'm not that worried about it. iron crank - iron bolt - i've never had one strip yet with some serious stank put on them. i'll try again - looked like the new pulley wouldn't seat but hopefully i can get it to work. it was "working" before so i figure i can at least make it a bit better.

are you saying you can use the existing wiring and plug and play an EJ22T ECU with the addition of a couple wires? don't tell me it's that easy?

Bought a 1995 Legacy EJ22 for my grandmother and when putting new timing stuff in it, i noticed the crank pulley was severely damaged. It wobbles a bit while running, but did run and drive fine. So...i'm not doing a motor swap considering it runs and drives great. I'm thinking just get the pulley as flush as I can and bolt it on tight. Maybe some non-permanent lock tite. I've done this before on other cars, I can get it tight enough to not come off even though the key is completely gone. On first check it seems like a new pulley isn't going to want to sit straight on it, that might be the hard part. It was running the belts fine and considering she drives 5,000 miles a year maybe that's okay, replacing those once a year isn't a big deal. Any other ideas? I'll post pictures when I get into it. I know there's a crank shaft fix kit for this but not sure i need all that, but i'd like the link if anyone has it (i've even posted it before for others !)

yes - non interference for sure, so no damage. that drivers side pulley will stick in place - keep on trying, just move it gradually. be careful with channel locks, don't want to scar important surfaces, but i've never had to use anything like that - just the 17mm socket on the pulley bolt and it's golden.

that's an interference motor too so if the belt skipped enough teeth or broke the pistons will hit the valves. this can result in a bent valve or worse...so yeah this is going to be an expensive fix if you're paying someone to do it. you could also entertain the idea of buying a used EJ22 and installing it. i can pick those up from a yard, with warranty for $150. you could probably sell your old EJ25 for that - scrap or someone may want it for parts since they tend to have lots of issues anyway. so for a few hundred, or a couple months of another car payment, for installation you could get a nice EJ22 with all new timing belts and a couple more years out of your wagon.

yep - too bad we can't swap heads! i'm over here making plugs/caps for them and you're trying to drill holes in them!!!!!!!! HAAA!!!! good luck - you won't have any problems getting this to work. $100 sounds about right for a machine shop. i have this local one that is really super cheap but west virginia is much cheaper, Maryland was always very expensive. and i go there because it's the place the Subaru dealer uses. heads milled - $12.xx AFTER tax!?! and if i only take one head they only charge that 12 dollars and change, that's insane cheap? in maryland it was always a one hour minimum shop fee for anything.

porcupine, i wouldn't concern myself with this being head gasket related. the newer style like yours will only seep externally. that being said, you drained and refilled coolant for the radiator swap - i assume you added the subaru goop additive for Phase II EJ25's with the new coolant?

i really don't know what to make of that but i have had experience with a 97 subaru that had a failed strut. it made noises for a year or so on bumps and some turns. then it got really bad earlier this year and started vibrating and other stuff. even when it got bad it wouldn't have any noticeable symptoms when parked, bouncing, or when jacked up and pulling on stuff...only while driving. i guess the road forces/torquing were more than i could give it with my weight/hands.

well i tried the ghetto "press hard on the radiator cap" and it didn't make the bubbles go away. i can snag one off my XT6 and put it on there, looks to be the same cap. no overheat yet but i haven't run it much either. and yes it is the one with the head cracks - i went with GD's recommendation that the cracks on a non-turbo were not likely to be into the coolant jacket. i'm going to drop the exhaust and check there too. i have two crack-less heads already in the mail just in case.