idosubaru

change your oil. the oil pump may need new seals or the backing plate screws tigthened. i think your EJ engine may have hydraulic valve lash adjusters, if it does it is imperative to change your oil on time. realize "on time" is very subjective and hopefully for your sake this thread doesn't go into that abyss of a discussion or it will become completely useless to you! anyway, HLA style valve trains can get gummed up if you don't change your oil often enough. freeing them because a hit or miss type affair. timing belts may make more of a slapping style sound if the belt starts to come apart, but that is rare and it won't sound anything like a typical "ticking noise" of a subaru. ticking related to the timing belt would be like nipper said and related to the pulleys/tensioner. most that i've seen seize without making a peep and the belt slides over it. if you're due for a timing belt, it's time to change it. they are maintenance items and will not last the life of the vehicle. even if it's 6 months or a year from now...at least put it on the agenda. better to plan now than have it start to go out or break then not have the cash or time to do it.

i've bought a number of those exact kits. they are excellent and have always worked great when i've used them. they are much better than 20 year old bearings with not much grease left in them. we've seen a number of threads involving failed pulleys, it's quite common for those with significant experience.

i'd get an ebay kit that includes all of the pulleys. even though i've found the aftermarkets fine in quality and haven't heard of failures, i go with those for non-interference engines and stick with Subaru only for the most part on newer interference engines. i have no reason, and in the future i'll probably start using them more and more on the interference engines. if you want to avoid aftermarket stuff a cheaper solution than new from Subaru is to just replace the bearings in the all the pulleys. they aren't very expensive but costs can quickly escalate and it depends much on your ability to find a good shop to press them in an out, sourcing the bearings, etc. no matter what, i'd plan on addressing all or most of the pulleys as they are very old and most 20 year old pulleys don't have much grease in them. on the XT6 all of the bearing seals are accessible and can be regreased yourself. there's a thread in the USRM with pictures on how to regrease them yourself. not sure how accessible they are on the older generation EJ stuff though. i think most of the EJ stuff is accessible and this would be a good option as well. and it's nearly free...a few cents worth of grease i suppose and a needle fitting for your grease gun if you don't have one for a few dollars.

in my area, the used battery selection is a set of batteries that were brought in as exchange, they are old, replaced as preventative maintenance but still tested fine. they were good for old cars, used car lots, parts cars, farm trucks and the like, but i would never recommend buying one of those for a normal daily driver. except maybe for someone who just doesn't have a spare penny. what about amp ratings? up north they have higher amp ratings, does that come at the cost of lowering battery life? good info guys, time to do some battery maintenance on mine.

lewis, how did you fix those? you have to replace the speedometer cluster itself? got a friend with one like that and the shop she took it too said they've never been able to figure out how to fix the few that they've seen. probably didn't want to mess with the instrument cluster.

if the WRX springs are tapered i'm pretty sure they won't work. there are two varieties, though i'm not well versed on what the differences are or what models/years they were on, except to say i've been told not to use the tapered variety. picked mine up this weekend from a board member, be a week or two before i get them in.

is it like a one time clunk or clunk, clunk, clunk, clunk...etc..??? sounds like the rear diff hanger based on what you're saying but there are other possibilities. there is no real harm in driving it, if that's what it is. if you can get a look at the bushing you'll see a crack through it. i'm not encouraging you or anything, but i will recite my experience. i worked at a government facility before, security clearance, armed gaurds, car searches with dogs and all that nice stuff too. the last thing they were worried about is the legality of cars. i've driven with expired tags, the wrong tag on the wrong car, emissions expired, even bought some and let them sit for a few days before i could get them home, etc. the only problem they gave me was when i tried to tow a car through the gate with my truck that i had bought close to work. my plan was to tow it to work and tow it home after work. they didn't like it and said i needed a special permit. i parked it down the road, walked to work....then used a different entrance gate later. still drove my truck and trailer down there after that too, just used the "other" side entrance.

my guess is they weren't replaced properly before, probably meaning the heads weren't touched. some people will ignore the heads and slap on new gaskets. that's a bad idea. my concern is that since the headgaskets were replaced you know it overheated before, but not how much or how far it was driven like that. when your water pump went out, how bad did the car over heat? one of nippers common recommendations is to flush out your radiator, i think that's a good idea here not knowing what happened in the past.

no, not for just a radiator/hose replacement. there's plenty of lubrication in the system and it primes up immediately.

i wouldn't buy one unless it was really, really cheap or the headgaskets have already been changed. great engines, but they loose headgaskets often enough. you can visibly inspect to see if they have new headgaskets, the last one i picked up did and i bought it as a parts car with a good engine. or they are often listed as having been replaced or you can ask the owner. 99's often have a delay when shifting issue as well.

wow, that is bizarre. we should have asked if the headgasket had already been replaced, that would have been good to know when discussing all of this and you can check it very easily, just by glancing at the motor. if yours is the MLI variety, it sounds like it's been done before. let's start from the begining - how long have you owned this car, total miles, miles when you bought it. i'll be interested to hear the answers to those questions. it's possible they just didn't do a good install or check the heads. checking the heads is the first step i believe.

the 4EAT is a great transmission as far as automatics go, particularly AWD automatics. they can fail, but being well taken care of, fluids changed and not overheated they tend to last a very long time and not cause many problems. the great news about that is two fold. first, it wont' be that surprising if you never have any problems with it. second, if you did end up needing it replaced they are reliable enough that i consider a used one a very acceptable option. i'm a stickler about reliability in my wifes impreza, if the trans went out, i would not hesitate to find a used one, but i doubt i'll ever need to. you can get a used one for $500-$1500 where as a rebuild could run up to $3,000+. check for torque bind, have the fluid changed and consider an aftermarket trans cooler. i install one but i do a fair amount of mountain driving, some off road and towing with mine. if you expect any kind of hard usage you might want to consider that as well to keep you ATF fluid temps down. the coolers are only $30-$50. i've seen the delayed shift too...tends to be 99 models, hopefully yours is out of that. oppinion really, but manuals definitely feel quicker, even if they are not. the automatic XT6 sports quicker track times than the manual, but you'd never believe it if you drove one of each. point being, the manuals definitely feel and are typically quicker, but you shouldn't be disappointed in this 01 though, my cousins 99 or 2000 drives quite well for an auto.

what still baffles me is that the first generation EA/ER series 4EAT's are more reliable...of course i'm basing this on experience and oppinion, than the newer 4EAT's. older 4EAT's never have torque bind issues. they are more prone to overheating, failing hoses, coolers and radiators, old fluid, abuse (people tend to treat old, undervalued cars worse than newer ones)....but yet they still are very durable today. i'm still baffled why the older model ones don't have TB issues like the newer EJ varieties. i've owned about 20 XT6's, worked on a bunch of others, been moderator of xt6.net and was a member of another xt6 group for over 10 years before xt6.net even existed....i've yet to see one XT6 with torque bind. i'm sure it's happened, but it's very, very rare on EA/ER stuff.

a machine shop will check those spec's, like he just mentioned, unless it's been specifically worked to increase compression it shouldn't be anywhere near causing any alignment issues.

yep, great motors and another 100,000 is not unreasonable to expect after you're done. that head work quote sounds about right for having it pressure tested as well. if it's an automatic, be sure to read very carefully and pay attention to reseating the torque converter when putting it back together. it's a bit tricky and if you get it wrong you'll end up needing another transmission, unless you like taking those apart. i believe some of the rear separator plates around your year are plastic. you'll see it next to the rear main seal, replace it with a metal one available at the dealer. remove the oil pump and tighten the backing plate screws with some threadlocker on them, they tend to back out. other than that, everything else is fairly straight forward. there's a ton of information on here about everything...crank bolt, cam bolts, cam seals, oil pumps....etc.

no joke these are hard to find, that's an understatement. personally i'd probably look around NASIOC for sale forums and see if you can find one, call CCR and then consider a non turbo block.

pay the money for a known good EJ22T. if that's not a good option then look into an NA install, i know people have turboed and supercharged the NA blocks very reliably. myxyphlyx...i still can't get his username straight, i probably know him the best of all the board members...anyway, he ran his 1997 OBS NA with a turbo and nitrous years ago, raced it and loved it. he still owns the car and has the turbo stuff still removed, car is in great shape. i wouldn't push it, but they are very easy to find. start a new thread if an NA block is a better option for you, just need to find someone who's done it, NASIOC may be a place to look if you can't find much here. but i would anticipate some not so friendly remarks!

no joke, exhaust port cracks definitely = scrap metal. he read correctly and got it straight - that head is trash, resort to your used one. a machinist should be able to check the spec's on it.

sealant is only necessary between the cam carrier and head, not the valve covers. it'll be very, very obvious where the sealant goes, it's a groove all the way around the perimeter of the cam carrier. the most annoying part is cleaning out the old stuff from the groove. if you're getting head work done the machine shop might be nice and just hot tank the cam carrier for you. save you the cleaning and it looks nice and shiney when you're done as well. technically speaking a small dab should also be placed at 12 oclock and 6 oclock on the oil pump housing. you'll notice that behind the oil pump housing the two halves of the block mate together and there's a zig-zag seam there. a very small amount of sealant should be placed at this seam but not on the oil pump to engine block o-ring, just the oil pump housing. it'll all make sense once you're looking at it. and as for type of sealant, it is best to use anaerobic sealant, ask for it at the auto parts store. it's expensive, but it's what yo'ure supposed to use, what subaru uses and is less risky as it won't coagulate in the oil supply. but, many people do use RTV sealant. if you do, be cautious, don't use so much that gobs will get caught and stuck somewhere in your oil supply..most likely in the bottom corner of your cam carrier, it does happen. best bet it to follow along in the FSM and ask questions to supplement. we had the FSM all uploaded to http://www.xt6.net in .pdf format, but seeing how our site is down at the moment you can't go there. if we're really lucky it'll be up and running next week. otherwise, it's more or less in the air...don't hold our breath. it's still accessible but i'm not sure where. we had the entire XT Factory Service Manual loaded for use and approved by subaru as well. the XT uses the EA82, so that's what you would want, the 4 cylinder XT info, not the 6 cylinder XT6.

wowsers, that block blew up huh? did it run like that? what caused it? overheating, blown turbo, detonation?

cracks between the valve seats are common on EA82 and ER27 engines. i don't recall ever pulling a set of heads that didn't have at least one, i see more with than i see without by a long shot. now...every one i've ever had were benign, they didn't go all the way through or cause any problems. yours may. ideally the head should be properly pressure tested and milled at a machine shop, i have all of mine done that way. that's a ton of work and not worth any risk or guess work for me. that's not an opportunity cost i'm willing to take. if you're certain it was internal coolant losses then the cracks may be that bad. was the car ever extensively overheated? usually takes a trip into the red to make things real bad. i'd even have the used one tested and milled. that being said...they'll check the thickness and surface spec's and see if it's out of specifications or not. with the proper tools i suppose you could do it yourself. that it was loosing coolant is definitely critical, but a thorough diagnosis should have been made before tearing it down, or at least that makes your work now much easier. intake manifold leaks are not all that rare on EA82's, yours could have been something that simple. that's a common internal leak. loosing a gallon it should have been obvious if it was internal or external, so i'm assuming you're fairly certain it was internal losses? do you have your old intake manifold gaskets to look at or do the heads/manifold show any signs of seapage at the water jacket?

i wouldn't replace any bushings or bearing if replacing struts/springs on an average late 90's subaru. find that thread i mentioned for upgrade info. the rear suspension of the OBS is not up to snuff, they typically sag. i'm not a suspension expert so i'm not sure of the cause, but i'm interested in an upgrade to avoid it in the future. either the struts or springs are weak in the OBS.

is the check engine light on? if so you need to read those codes and start there. the knock sensors are problematic for this year, it's only one bolt to remove it, worth checking. the housings crack. when is the last time the plugs and wires were changed? and are the Subaru wires and NGK plugs? if they aren't Subaru wires, it wouldn't be surprising if that was the problem. but you should have a cylinder misfire Check engine light if that's the case.

nope, not the same. it probably could work, but i'd be careful about boosting it. the NA blocks are quite solid and handle boost well...for an NA block, i know others that have turboed their NA blocks. and you'll need to address the oil and coolant supply to the turbo, the NA block won't have the oil supply and return lines.

you can post this under the New Generation forum, it will probably get more input. a search should provide some useful information. i ended up wanting the same thing for my 97 OBS as well and found some useful information on here. try using the search function. Zapar has a recent thread about "sagging a$$ end" or something like that in his impreza, some excellent info on that thread, try to find it. from what i remember you want WRX rear springs, but impreza 93-01 struts. but, i do also recall that there are two styles of WRX rear struts, some are tapered and some are not. i do not know exactly what that means, just regurgitating what someone told me. i'm picking up a set of 04 WRX rear struts tomorrow for mine, so i'll know soon what will and won't work. if the entire struts don't swap i'll use the WRX springs with new impreza struts.