idosubaru

i was only going to say what josh said but hoped someone who knew for certain would pipe up. CCR probably knows and NASIOC would probably be a better bet, they would have more EJ20 experience there. if you find out, post back to this thread and let us know for sure.

awesome, some mid day humor! wow, that sounds a bit complimicated. glad i saw this thread for when i leave my switch on.

crack ,to think i've been walking past it all these years. actually while we're on the subject.....i have rotors sitting in my garage and of course they're going to want to rust...engine cylinders too. what's the best way to prevent that. i've oiled and sprayed cylinder walls but i'd like something i don't have to repeat all the time. i guess the rotors need to be bagged with dessicant to keep from rusting?

if they brakes are warn evenly from side to side and worked well and didn't wear quickly (from last brake change), i would leave the calipers. are the piston boots torn or wet at all? i've seen some uneven front to back wear on a single pad before, i'd be interested to hear what causes that, but it's definitely not a reason to replace the caliper, i never have. my only guess is that it's a function of the pad just getting old...but that's a complete guess because i've seen it on single piston calipers before as well. how old were your pads, did they still have life or were they close to the end? be sure to grease the slides with brake caliper grease only. and flush the brake fluid. that may help as well. and...if you want to replace the calipers, just rebuild your existing ones. it's very easy and they are very cheap. new piston seal, boot and clip and you're done. very simple to do and doesn't cost much at all....waaaay cheaper than new calipers. if you're changing your own pads, you can rebuild the calipers. as an added tip, if you want to do this at your next brake change, buy a used set of calipers to rebuild and have them ready to go when you go to do the brakes so you reduce your down time. not a bad idea for your first time anyway.

that's a good vehicle if the maintenance is kept up right you can expect some more solid use out of this vehicle. what condition is the vehicle in, does it look, drive and smell okay? oil leaks aren't a huge deal if you can manage the spots on the ground. some small leakage isn't abnormal at all and not a sign of anything significant. and...it can probably be fixed at the next timing belt for a few dollars (seals are about $5 each). you say water pump replaced...was the timing belt done too, it should have been. a proper water pump job would include the timing belt, oil pump seals and cam seals. since they are all right there, easy to replace and only cost a couple dollars. that would take care of your oil leaks. i would hope the timing belt tensioner pulleys were inspected, by 150,000 and/or 10 years i usually find one that i like to replace. and i woluld definitely replace the turbo hoses if it's never been done. the coolant and oil hoses are old by now, they need replaced or resealed...and that's really bad if they break and they only cost a few dollars. i usually replace things ahead of time rather than wait for them to fail. better than a new car or car payment. as an example - in your case i'd be concerned about the alternator, battery and the end terminals on the battery cables ($5). if the car is very rusty and not very comfortable or nice then maybe it's time to move on and sell while the car is running rather than get discouraged the next time it needs something.

wouldn't the missing clutch plate be lying on your work bench? i've never replaced them, so im' not sure how they work exactly, just trying to picture it, probably easier to wait until i have to do it!

he's talking about the area under the wheel, not the caliper. rotors rust very, very easily. remove wheels and clean them off, clean off wheels as well and then reinstall properly.

how did you like the original brakes? if they weren't that bad, then no need for upgrades. keeping in mind that your brakes suck now because they need maintenance, not because they are poor in design. they will perform much better when everything is properly replaced. probably not a bad idea to just get new rotors if they've never been replaced before. are they grooved or is there any vibration when braking, those are definite signs you need rotors. otherwise they may be fine. from what i've heard going with bigger brakes is far better than "performance" rotors. i've heard many people rave about ceramic pads, particularly the ones at NAPA. haven't tried them myself, but enough people that i know have said good things about them that i will try them next.

nice job getting it back together. how did you figure out you "missed" a clutch plate?

i'm with numbchux. a 2.5 swap is a lot of work for a headgasket prone and expensive motor. if power is what you're after then making a decision based on a measley 20 hp difference isn't worth it anyway, just get an EJ22 and turbocharge it. they are very easy to put a turbo on and quite capable of low boost and will be more reliable than the EJ25. and...like he said you can pick up EJ22 vehicles for a dime a dozen. don't bother trying to piece this together, your best bet is to get a donor vehicle so you have everything. finding a wrecked car or something that's rusted or needs work is easy to do and will be cheaper than buyhing the parts one at a time.

your car, your decision, thanks for the humor!! i don't care what you do to your car any more than you care what someone suggests you do to your car. that very common repairs didn't work sounds odd, so it would make sense to figure out why they didn't work before just jumping to more extreme measures. that's why we're asking. but you're not telling what you did, why they don't work, what size you used, how the threads got messed up to being with...so it's hard to answer the question properly. in the end, this would be good info for the next time you have to deal with this. in my oppinion welding should be a last resort for various reasons, there are very easy fixes to this that are far less riskier than welding, and that's not normal to choose more labor intensive, expensive and riskier repairs than are available. i understand that you want to weld it, but don't fault us for trying to steer you the more common route. if welding is how you want to proceedd then the bottom line is that as long as the same person doing the welding isn't the same person who couldn't get the helicoils to work, you should be fine.

thread repair inserts are excellent, and should work every time they are installed properly, particularly in this application...they are used very extensively in exhaust manifold threads. so i'm not sure what happened but they certainly did not come out or fail because they can't do the job. they were installed improperly, either the wrong size was used or they weren't installed right.

a machine shop can make a threaded insert for you as well. any material, size, shape you want.

port deposit? never even heard of that. remanned axles don't have a good reputation, i won't even install remanned axles on subaru's. i had one less than a week old blow to pieces on me. i've used Subaru only or MWE since then. i'd install a used subaru axle before a remanned, the soob axles are very tough and rarely break. 'ive seen other remanned axles break on the boards as well. all that to say...i wouldn't rule out the remanned axle just yet, but i'd certainly look around.

excellent, easy fixes are the best. you'll likely need a 32 mm socket to tighten it. in very rare cases i've seen 36mm nuts. they need alot of torque to tighten. best bet might just be a local shop, tell them what happened. i stopped by two weeks ago and asked them to loosen two axle nuts for me and they did it for no charge...they shouldn't charge much just to tighten a nut! and it needs alot of torque, so make sure it's really tight. where in MD?

you might be able to check, i have a few EJ25's at my place...some with blown headgaskets, i'm pretty sure you can visually tell if the headgasket has been replaced. once it's replaced it's golden, they use a newer updated gasket. the ones i have, the blown ones are just a thin one piece design you can tell without even pulling the motor apart since part of the gasket sticks out at the top and bottom of the long block. just look down by the power steering pump. if it's been replaced you'll see a multi-layer design gasket....this is just from looking at the ones i have, i'm not real keen on the differences..and i could be mistaken, but i've seen two types on the EJ25's i have so i'm assuming that's why. i have one in my garage right now with 83,000 miles - and a blown headgasket. myself, i don't recommend paying top dollar to any of my friends if money is a concern at all or something like that is going to leave a bad taste in their mouth. if a $1,500 repair bill, or you can do it yourself and that stuff doesn't bother you, then buy it. for people that i know that are leveraging all they have and paying as much as they can for a car...if that's the case i recommend against an EJ25. it depends as much on you as the car...some people have a very demanding demeanor and get very upset if they incur a problem...wanting to dump the car, call it junk, never buy Subaru again, etc, etc....if that's you, then you might want an EJ22 vehicle. otherwise, a great car, excellent reliability and very functional. check for torque bind too before you buy. search for "torque bind" on the forum here. basically drive in figure 8's, tight circles and see if there's any binding. which leads to the next point, when you get it be sure to plan for a timing belt and also change the transmission fluid right away. many people don't, so i make it practice to change ATF in any used Subaru i come across and do not know.

agreed, make sure the mating surface of the hubs and wheels are clean. look for wheel weights to make sure none fell off.

double check your lug nuts and axle nut to be sure they are torqued properly. make sure the cotter pin for the axle nut isn't compromised somehow. i would replace the cv axle, very common and your symptoms and mileage are about right for cv issues. but...it could be something else...like strut top, ball joint or this sway bar issue i've never heard of. if that's a 2000 or OBW specific thing, i'd definitely look there first, hate to see you replace an axle only to find it wasn't the axle. you could swap axles...they are same left to right. if the knocking changes sides, you know it's the axle but that's alot of work to diagnose!

where did you get the wheels from? were they dirty at all? did you have them balanced before installing them? wheel weights can fall off.

what he is saying is that it might not be "tire" related, but "size" related. if that's the case, new tires won't solve the issue. the shorter wall doesn't absorb much. there are always trade offs with any performance upgrade. larger tires, low profile rims, they handle better, but you also feel and hear the road more. it could easily be the cheese-ball no-name tires as well. tires of any size can make plenty of road noise. in fact, just different tread patters or manufacturers can vary quite a lot in noise. snow tires tend to be much louder for instance, not because of size though. i can't tell how loud this is or how sensitive your hearing/sensory systems are, but i would think good tires should be comfortably quiet for this tire size, it's very common.

i can't imagine resorting to welding to fix this. helicoils work every time if done right and so does drilling and tapping. figure out how big the hole is and use the appropriate sized tap/bolt. use your drill bits to "measure" the hole, then tap accordingly. this is hard to imagine, but if the hole is really huge, then tap it for some steel threaded rod and insert that flush to the block with red locktite. then drill and tap inside that steel rod whatever you can get to fit. 8x1.25 will definitely work as you can do that inside the stock studs...so if this is as bad as you say it is, and you have to go this route you can do this steel rod method and probably drill and tap to the original 10x1.25.

both are electric fans and appear to be running well. pulled the radiator and flushed it. blew the radiator and condensor fins out, they looked good. condensor was dirty with bugs/debris, but not enough to cause issue i don't think. still some in there that i couldn't get out, but passing air well, i could feel it coming through. i'm going to move the ATF cooler somewhere not in front of the condensor and replace the top hose. these two things may help. outsidetemps are cooler now, so it'll be hard for me to tell if anything is different for right now.

once they get bad, you can also disconnect the rear driveshaft (or remove the two front axles, driveshaft is really easy though) and just drive the car in FWD or AWD. it works.

interesting. mine will still go up without the a/c...has to be "hotter" and more demanding conditions though, but will still do it given really, really steep grades up hill. i'll be checking my condensor as well.

i'll be an echo of those guys...sounds like it, change the fluid anyway maybe? was it ever driven with mismatched tires or towed (improperly)?