idosubaru

yep, i'm with you, i'd rather know they are done right. machining the heads is absolutely critical to the headgasket sealing properly. not just the flatness, but the finish is important as well. as for pulling the engine, that is way overkill on these engines in my oppinion. the EA82 is fairly easy to do in the car...if you have air tools i definitely wouldn't do it in the car. the cam towers and heads come off super quick and with air tools and cleaning the head bolt holes is a breeze as well. clearance looks tight, but once the valve covers are out it's a walk in the park. in the time it takes to pull and install the engine i can remove both heads and be on my way to cleaning up things with air tools. there's one tool that helps a ton - a wratcheting 10mm wrench, makes the valve covers go from annoying to a breeze. the pull or not pull thing has been addressed a billion times, so i'm not trying to start that again, but wanted you to know that the EA82 is actually cake to do in the car.

there's an atlanta area soob guru on the board here, WJM, hopefully he sees this, he should have a good recommendation for you. what does it need, headgaskets and headlights require completely different skill sets and scrutiny.

of the set in the middle - the one on the lower right row. if it has a washer that doesn't really come off, it looks exactly like one of the water pump bolts. make sure they are in place. the two to the left (one has a nut on it) of that resemble distributor hold down bolts. the two larger bolts above it look like timing pulley/tensioner bolts but could be for something else too. the one on the set to the left is an exhaust stud with the nut. they may have removed an a/c or alternator bracket and not replaced all of the bolts, there are a few.

the headgaskets were probably supposed to be retorqued, and may have held had that been done. the Subaru FSM and probably Haynes mentions retorquing the headgaskets. almost every EA82 headgasket is supposed to be retorqued. some notes on the EA82 headgaskets - use Fel-Pro permatorques. most other gaskets (Subaru gasket included) require retorquing the heads. these are designed not to require a retorque and are highly regarded on this board. use them and increase your final torque settings by 5pounds for good measure, though that's not necessary probably if you insist upon "by the book". they are excellent gaskets and save you all the hassle of retorquing. they will be indicated by a fel-pro part number starting with "PT" also make sure to have the heads machined and clean the head bolts and holes to get a proper torque on them. seating of the headgasket is critical and the bolts/holes are usually horribly dirty or corroded on EA82's. all of the smoke and ticking after your original start up is very normal for this job. very common for coolant or oil to get where it shouldn't particularly in the exhaust, while driving, sitting and seaping and during disassembly. takes awhile to burn out. and the HLA's are typicallly noisey too after having the engine part, they usually quiet up after a few minutes of driving. so don't worry about that all happening the first time, it's not a bad sign and don't be surprised if you get some of it again this time around. i'm in morgantown, should be visiting elkins some time this year. good luck with it and have fun!

oil in the coolant is typical for "most" headgasket failures, but not on these EJ25 motors. actually it is very rare on these motors. if oil and coolant is mixing that could be a sign that the motor was significantly overheated or driven for awhile in this condition. none of the ones i've seen have had mixing. so that's why i'm trying to figure this out. maybe it's nothing, but i wouldn't want to continue without knowing for sure whether it's oil or dirt. none of the EJ's i have sitting outside right now (all over 100,000 miles) have dirty overflow tanks. the outsides are dirty, but looking in is not. can you just ask the person you bought it from? i've bought a few EJ25 vehicles and looked at multiple others, people are easy to talk to about it.

in my experience throw out bearings are always in horrible shape. nearly every one i ever pull is noisey and does not feel smooth at all. it seems to me they are one of the worst bearings in the entire vehicle, i have yet pulled an old one that sounded okay. actually it bothers me how poor condition most of them are that i pull. all that to say...wouldn't surprise me if it's the throw out bearing and that would be my guess. maybe even adjusting the clutch cable would help or does this one have a hydraulic clutch like the GT's? even as a last resort, EJ transmissions are a dime a dozen. labor will vary wildly. a nice transmission shop will go $250-$500 depending on your area, they are set up and can do these quick. if you can find a reasonable one they will charge you fairly. a local trans shop in maryland that was high quality, rather expensive for rebuilds (due to their good 30 year reputation), would only charge $200-$250 to swap a transmission. mechanics tend to be a couple hundred higher than that....but just depends who you know and where you live. if you're in DC i'd expect $500-$1,000. out in the sticks, $250.

if you don't replace the timing pulleys then i'd reuse the belt and go back and replace it in another 50,000 miles, that will give you a chance to inspect the pulleys again. pulleys failing with interference engine = you need a new engine or major head work at best. it does happen. i'd probably replace the water pump for the same reasons GD mentioned. heat is bad. i have yet to personally see a 2.5 with a blown headgasket that had oil/coolant mixing. i have a couple in my garage right now. they've all been just overheating. i know it happens and have seen a few post with that symptom but makes me wonder how much it was driven while hot. nipper - how many do you see with mixing?

in general replacing the headgaskets fixes the vehicles, there's really no test you can do. take the heads to a machine ship and have the heads tested and milled. you want them milled for flatness and surface finish to gaurantee a good headgasket seal. i've seen a few loose bottom ends in a matter of months or 50,000 miles after headgasket replacement. there's no way to test for that, but if the car was driven for awhile when overheating or had significant oil/coolant mixing then i'd start to worry. frankly the 96's do not often have oil/coolant mixing, usually they start with overheating and coolant loss, exhaust gases escaping into the coolant. that you have significant oil in the overflow tells me this one was bad. but...are you sure it's just not a dirty overflow tank? you might want to drain the radiator/coolant and oil to see if it was mixing ,maybe the tank was just dirty. if it turns out it was mixed, make sure to clean things out as good as possible, including the radiator. or since it's 10 years old it may need a new one. i'd also change the transmission fluid, it easily could have gotten hot as well if it's still routed through the radiator coolant lines.

definitely get it, sounds like a great vehicle. i'd personally go for an engine swap unless you can verify a decent engine. there is no shortage of "i got this EJ25 and within a year it lost the rod bearings" or something like that. you'll see far more EJ25's with blown bottom ends than EJ22's, and i woudlnt' be surprised if it's somehow related to the headgaskets. all that to say, maybe you can keep it - but i'd make sure it's good or get another one that is. i'm not saying it's bad but hopefully the people you're getting it from can be honest and give you some details about it. thing is, this 96 should be a great car, so i'd do whatever i could to get a great, reliable car out of the deal. they're nice cars and have air bags and should require less maintenance over the next 5 to 10 years than the loyale. but the loyale is a dang reliable machine.

yeah, you definitely don't want to attempt to get at the height sensor, that won't happen. technically you could intercept the height sensor signals and move it up/down and see where the height triggers are, compare it to each side. but yeah that'd be a lot of work. i'd rather swap another used one in and see what happens than do all of that. i believe much of the air suspension stuff is at the front drivers side strut tower. there's a empty female plug there that allows access to various circuits...i know the compressor and all the solenoids, but i can't recall if the height sensor circuits are there, i'd guess not, but you could use that connector to air up/air down to do the test i just mentioned. if problems arise, it is best to get rid of the air suspension, particularly with the legacy since it's so easy to get stuff for. air suspension stuff is real freaky. in a way it seems really simple since i've got billions of extra parts lying around, but it always seems to do bizarre things and can be very tricky. i like it on the XT6 so i keep it, but my suggestion is to not like, it's far easier and those people are much more sane than myself!

close - 2.5 and TZ102Z2AAA - last three are different than you said - AAA instead of ACA. this is for the currrent vehicle, the AWD. don't know anything about the parts trans yet....maybe the wiring diagram would tell me which is a better fit, but i'd imagine they'd make all the FWD auto trans inputs the same.

Can anyone post the TCU inputs for 1995, or 1996 Legacy FWD or AWD Automatic transmissions? I believe it's only two pages in the FSM. (page 146 in the first generation legacy FSM)

if you talked to anthony's then you should be golden. talk to Garry, he's the man up there with the XT6 brushes, knows all about them and takes good care of us!

i believe the stops are fixed and have a 10mm bolt attaching them, and they are adjustable. they may not be your problem, just a suggestion to look at. they should keep the window from going "too far" like you said they are doing. did you compare it to the other side? that is key and really helps when looking at these window mechanisms. unless you've seen one before and have a good idea how they work, they can be really confusing and not make any sense.

reuse the headbolts, noone uses new headbolts - dealers definitely do not. definitely thoroughly inspect all the timing pulleys. most likely at least one will need to be addressed - replace, regrease, or new bearings. regreasing is the cheapest method and requires a special needle insert, new bearings is another option but is typically time consuming sourcing the bearings and can end up being expensive anyway after you pay for the bearings and someone to press the old out and new in. new ones are rather expensive from subaru, i'd keep my eyes out for aftermarket kits on ebay that include all brand new bearings.

i'd do a search here, i've read through some informative knock sensor threads. cleaning the contacts, checking the wire visually and making sure the sensor housing isn't cracked and making sure it's bolted to the proper torque is a great start for simplicity. and of course make sure the new sensor is good, not cracked or damaged somehow. i recall someone not too long ago actually relocating the knock sensor somewhere else on the engine. a "trick" is to wrap the knock sensor threads with a few wraps, 10-15, of pipe thread tape and then install it. i haven't heard of anyone doing this on the newer gen stuff though, i've done it on older models.

hmmm i'm familiar with these but my memory is vague too. the easiest way to fix this is to take both door panels off and alternately inspect each stopper. do it multiple times, all the way up, while moving, etc. you will notice one isn't like the other. make the broken one like the good one. the way i've seen it (on a 97 legacy), is you just unbolt one stopper and rotate/move it so it catches properly. it was the one closer to the front of the car so to speak, not by the latch. i can't remember why, but it would not go back in place without unbolting it. or of course yours could actually be broken...there are a couple possibilities.

$20-$30 tops for the brushes. look elsewhere, better yet, just order them online. cheaper, delivered to your door, no running around, why bother going to the dealer?

tedder, did this engine have problems before you removed and installed the belt? i'm with john, probably misaligned. read that endwrench article very carefully and make sure you're lining everything up perfectly. i always line up via the flywheel/flexplate. there's an access hole under the throttle body/intake. remove the rubber plug (if it's there) and use that.

if the fan isn't being used and never comes on then it certainly won't hurt to remove it and place the other in it's place. nothing beneficial about having a fan that doesn't work or do anything. some older subaru's, non a/c, only have one fan.

yeah i was completely baffled when he pulled into my driveway last year with his hatch. i forget exactly what year it is...but it might be an 88 or 89 if they made hatches that long. i was all confident about the fact i had taken apart a billion EA82's and ER27's...then popped the hood, ready to tell him all about it and saw that freak of nature EA81, i coudln't believe it! i never see EA81's around here, had no idea they made them that long, it was the first one i had ever touched, i'm going to end this runon sentence. so yeah, EA81's and XT6's coexisted too.

thanks a bunch. i was able to give him a bunch of places that had a hub he couldn't find. one locally was wrong, another he had shipped was wrong...so thanks for helping make his life a bit easier tomorrow 4x4welder!!

trying to help a buddy of mine out. he needs a front drivers side hub for a 1987 GL Hatchback. I think it's a GL...it's a hatchback, one of those little white jokers, two door, EA81 motor. when i go to look up hubs for this it shows stuff from 1981 as well...is that showing right, and am i punching in the right information? are all EA81 hubs interchangeable?

maybe he means the harness on the intake manifold he was trying to use didn't have a connector for the knock sensor, though later model Turbo XT's have knock sensors.

often they're low on refrigerant so i would start there. test the pressure in the system and see what you get. once the pressure is in range, the a/c compressor should kick on, if not then you need to start looking elsewhere. a quick test with the engine and everything off is to very slightly depress the schrader valve in the high or low pressure port just to see if there's any charge in the system. doesn't take any time, tools or anything really. if it doesn't do anything then you know that's your problem, it's low and likely leaks. if something comes out then it has charge in it...but you can't tell without a pressure gauge whether it's in range or not, although with enough experience you can sort of guess. other than that, slap some gauges on it and tell us what you get. there are great automotive a/c pages and information on the internet, that's a good place to start when learning/diagnosing a/c stuff yourself. do not play games with the a/c it can be dangerous.