idosubaru

that's nice (crosses arms and gets jealous). that's what i'd do then, you won't have any problems doing it that way. annoying, but straight forward at least.

intake gaskets are rather common to fail. they are very easy to replace (assuming they don't seize or break...which is common). the next bet is probably a head gasket, much more involved to fix but EA82's are easy enough to do (air tools FTW). are you guys refilling with coolant or water? water is harder to see if you're refilling with that and checking for leaks. coolant is easier to see and makes more smoke. there's a water bypass hose for the water pump, throttle body hose (which i always remove) heater core hoses, heater core...and a few other hoses to check. most of them aren't in great shape at 20+ years old.

if it wasn't doing it before and is now, then something that happened while you were in there is causing this. it won't be something that you "didn't touch" so to speak. so i'd carefully examine everything you worked on.

let us know where the crack is for sure. you said exhaust port, if it really is in the exhaust port then another set of heads is in order. if it's just between the valve seats, it's not a big deal. it's hard to find any EA82 or ER27 that doesn't have those, every single one i've ever pulled has them.

just swap the engine without the intake on it. leave the 96 intake manifold in the 96 and bolt it to the older engine. the earlier engine will be a dual port exhaust so you'll need a dual port exhaust header to make it work, but it will easily swap and bolt in place of the 96 header.

wow, thread from the dead! awesome that you found it. he should be rewarded for using the search button! USMB cookie maybe? timing belt covers do suck bad, the inserts seize and break like that all the time....very common problem. i just break them all out and either use zip ties to reinstall or go naked. there's no reason not to go the zip-tie route, so plan on having those handy.

nothing coming to me as to what this could be. was it ever smoking before hand or is this a new habit? if it wasn't doing this before then it's related to something you did. if it was doing this before then maybe it's something unrelated to what you did.

oh yes, i've posted lots of information on this. i've written a huge post on this before but won't rehash it all. is the head still on on the engine? the bolt sheared off inside the intake manifold hole and now won't come out right? if it's not sheared off you have a few more options but i think it's too late for that? unbolt the head and pull the entire head with intake out of the car. have an engine lift...try hydraulic force to pull it off...i don't recommend it but i'd do it! PB Blaster, Liquid wrench, deep creep, and heat that thing up a few times. sometimes, if the intake will budge at all, i've been able to get a sawzall between the intake and head to cut the bolt and free the intake. being careful of course not to damage the mating surfaces of the head/intake. and of course you always have the option to drill it out. i'd get a very high quality drill bit and drill it out. cheap drill bits make this job suck.

that is correct, 105k. one thing to consider, unless it was carefully done the first time, i would want to inspect the timing belt pulleys before expecting them to reach 230,000 (the next change). this second belt is certainly seeing harder service than the first since the pulleys are 10+ years old and probably lacking grease. the lower idler often seems to need replacing on most.

depends which of the EJ motors you have, some EJ22's (later 1999+) are a PITA. the ones at 90 degrees are a pain. the 45 degree ones are simple.

i don't think it's all *that* common, there was one recent thread in the past few days. i doubt you'd find more than a handful of threads if you did a search. don't know if someone mentioned it already, but don't do it when the engine is hot.

the FSM is also an excellent place to start, detailed step by step instructions. in all reality it's not constructive to rebuild a 4EAT. they are reliable so the availability of them is huge. getting a used one to replace one is the best move. as far as performance you would "build one up" mostly by having the torque converter and valve bodies adjusted as well as changing the final drive ratio. you could also play with the rear clutch packs for 4WD and install a front LSD differential. so you could look up specifics on those areas for improvements there if that's what you're after. a board member here has a modified valve body and torque converter in his 4EAT and didn't notice very much in terms of gains. he recently upgraded to 4.44 final drive (from a 3.7) and didn't notice much there either. considering the level of difficult in rebuilding and sourcing parts a complete rebuild might not be your cup of tea unless it's strictly to do it.

nothing wrong with new cars except the car payment! new cars are designed to sell and be very appealing, doubtful you'll be disappointed.

if your 4WD axles are all toast....then there's no axles on your FWD that will fit in the rear of your 4WD. does that help? i have two axles that might be EA82 axles...they are 25 spline. i bought them for my XT6 and they aren't for an XT6, i'm thinking they just shipped me EA82 axles. if you're interested, hit me up as i don't need them....well i should check my XT Turbo axles first....but let me know.

subaru dealer north of baltimore quoted $699 to my cousin two years ago just for the belt. what a rip off, i did it for cost of parts...which ended up being $200-$300 since i replaced everything, water pump, a pulley or two and belt. expect $400-$700 i'd say depending on what all is done and labor rates (they vary a lot)...water pump, pulleys, seals, etc. personally i'd go with an ebay timing belt kit and get all new pulleys as well. you are almost guaranteed to need at least one pulley in my experience (most likely the lower cogged pulley), they get noisey and loose grease. they will break your timing belt if they seize (and they do not discriminate between new and old belts when they do). or have him inspect them and replace any that are noisey.....i think they run $80-$120 for each pulley.

are you having a problem getting the bolt out too? if so try and get something underneath of the bolt head...like a screwdriver, chisel or pry bar. of course taking care not to damage the head. pry upward on the bolt while simultaneously loosening the bolt, this should get it to come out. helps to have help doing this. once it's out there's not too many options. i'm a fan of having a machine shop do something like this as well and i've done that before, have them fix a block. but other than an insert the only other option i can imagine is to use a slightly larger diameter bolt...maybe a standard threaded bolt would probably work. use a bolt or locktite a stud into the block for the head if this is a last ditch effort. i'd probably just tap the holes with a different and slightly larger thread, like a standard thread. that will slightly change the clamping force characteristics but considering the standard usmb practice of using Fel-Pro permatorque gaskets and adding extra pounds to the final torque i wouldn't worry about it.

i have a 1997 EJ22 engine that is a non-EGR engine. it's the only 97 i've ever seen without EGR. even more odd is that it came out of an automatic Impreza OBS and every one of those i've ever seen has EGR. anyway, the head has the spot for EGR, has a boss there that i'm sure can be drilled and tapped. but i would certainly want a loose head to visualize where i'm drilling into, so sounds like you're headed in the right direction. good luck!

doesn't sound like things are really failing, seals do leak over time/mileage and are in a way maintenance items at this point. you've got a great non-interference EJ22 engine which is a good candidate for 280,000 miles. this car should be good for another 60,000 miles (another timing belt life), so if $2,000 is worth 60,000 miles to you then it's not a bad idea to keep it. that should be another 2-3 years. you'll likely spend $1,000-$500 to fix stuff now and at most $500-$1,000 in the next 2-3 years, so $2,000 is a reasonable number to work from considering 280,000 is not unreasonable to expect from this vehicle from your description of it. if brakes are working fine now then you only need pads. if you have some vibration or the rotors are scared then you may need new rotors. you should not need new calipers. as for the oil leaks....depends where it's leaking. valve cover gaskets are cheap and easy to replace. start there or at least have a look. after that the cam/crank/oil pump seals are all very cheap but they reside behind the timing belt. so replace those with the next timing belt change. make sure you replace them all...crank seal, oil pump oring, cam seals, and cam cap oring. since they're all behind the timing belt you typically replace them all at the same time, unless they're bone dry then you can leave them. the timing belt removal is the expensive part (labor) so this job will typically run $300-$600 depending on parts and mechanic labor charges. replace the steering rack with a used unit. in my opinion subaru racks don't fail enough to warrant the cost of new/rebuilt units. used racks are easy to find cheap since they rarely fail, yards aren't really selling many of those.

doohickeys are awesome, life savers no doubt! the small inline filter..about the size of a quarter in diameter is a good replacement item. follow all the vacuum lines from that passengers side solenoid. one of them will have a filter in line with it, usually under about the intake hose close to the engine. replace that filter - they're about $7 from subaru and can cause EGR codes. being a filter, not a bad idea to replace anyway.

if the caliper pins weren't cleaned and greased properly (brake caliper grease only), then this needs to be done. at this age and mileage both pins on all 4 calipers need to be checked. all of the ones i get into (2 in the past couple weeks), they're in bad shape. this is the spoken language of accomplished automotive experts who are shocked into unresponsiveness. this is an interference engine and the timing belt is a replacement item (every 60,000 miles on this vehicle). if the timing belt breaks....you'll be either needing an entirely new motor or very expensive repairs on your existing motor. you've actually got a great motor, one of Subaru's best in a very simple, reliable, and safe vehicle (that's why my wife drives the same thing). it will last a long time if you take care of it. my best advice is to think of the soonest possible time you can have the belt replaced and do it a little bit sooner.

unless there's something we don't know the timing marks aren't lined up right. the endwrench articles for EJ's are really good stuff. the compression readings are accurate? is the gauge accurate? did you use the starter to turn the engine over (by hand won't work)? i'd feel better to get a reading from the gauge before assuming every cylinder checked is zero, i've seen gauges fouled with oil. the "not-starting" thing isn't odd....but the random removal of a timing belt is...knowing why it was removed in the first place might help. if the engine was ever replaced with a 97+ EJ22 then it would be an interference engine. this is very easy to check for, just look under the car, if it's a single port exhaust then it is indeed NOT a 1995 engine and may be interference. or it could be a later model block...with the 1995 dual port heads swapped onto it....yeah, long shot on that...

the transmission side spline count (the stubby shaft side of the axle) is the only one that differs between turbo's and non. the hub sides are the same spline counts.

awesome! good to know. does it clear itself once the code is gone?

the one by the EGR valve (drivers side) is the EGR solenoid. the other, on the passengers side strut tower, is a "pressure switching solenoid" or something like that.

how are you going to do the exhaust side? tapping and threading an insert or getting an O2 type bung and welding that into the exhaust. if you need to weld to the exhaust then you'll need something you can weld. seems like some general steel pipe (like exhaust type material) would be ideal, then if you attach that to the exhaust there's no concerns about different expansion rates. i went and checked for you, the O2 sensor thread is larger than the EGR, so you can't just install an O2 bung (all muffler shops have tons of those, they've given them to me for free before) and then re-tap it to the threads you want. but...probably wouldn't be hard to buy some reducers, cram them and/or weld them into the bung. now that i think about it...since the O2 sensor bung is larger you might be able to get the kind of adapter you want (thread you wish to use) and weld that into the O2 sensor bung...if you can find one with an OD smaller than the ID of the O2 bung. there's a lot of options and i don't necessarily know what you're available resources, parts, or materials are to work with. nor am i metal expert either so even if i did know i don't know how much help i'd be?!?