idosubaru

no, not the same. i'll likely be sourcing aluminum pulleys for the XT6. if you're interested i'll do it now. there are none for the XT6, they'll have to be custom made.

have any seals been replaced - like headgaskets, cam carrier o-rings, or is all of that original? any oil leaks? if the cam tower o-rings are shot, you might be loosing volume there that the HLA's need. they are $2.19 each from the subaru dealer, you'll need one for each side. you can look at the bottom corners of the cam towers for leakage, but you won't be able to spot any internal leaks. there are metal reinforced o-rings, Subaru part only. http://www.thepartsbin.com is the only store/company i've seen carry them other than subaru. the most desirable next step is to replace or rebuild your HLA's. i'd replace them, they're a pain to rebuild, not worth the few dollars you can buy them for for mitzpah engineering or whatever that place is called, i always spell it wrong. the long term fix that might alleviate some or all of the noise is to do frequent oil changes. that will take a very long time and might not help. the short term fix is to use ATF in with the engine oil. i typically don't advocate adding anything to the crankcase except engine oil, so i don't recommend this, but it does work. start with one quart ATF and the rest oil. run it for awhile. if that doesn't help, try 2 quarts ATF and the rest oil. run that for 100 miles, getting the car up to operating temperature and drain. repeat if necessary. this is a quick fix to avoid doing work that you may not be capable of or desire doing.

check for air like nipper said. assuming they misdiagnosed this, have you asked how they want to proceed? they should have correctly diagnosed the cause of the problem, but this is an easy one for an uneducated person to mess up. they may be willing to work with you knowing they didn't fix the problem. and yes they messed up, they didn't do it in the right order. if it's true that you should have replaced the timing belt, it sholuld have been done at the same time as the headgaskets. as it stands now, you paid the timing belt bill once and you'll be paying it again - because the timing belt has to be removed to replace the head gaskets. part of the expense of a headgasket is removing and replacing the timing belt since it has to come off. so you're paying twice.

sounds good to me. these engines are excellent for reliability. 95 is a really nice year for the 2.2. make sure the timing belt is up to date on replacement (60,000 mile belt). if you want another 100,000 miles i'd also plan on replacing the water pump and thermostat now or at least at the next timing belt change. on the thermostat, PCV and spark plug wires, use Subaru only parts for those. don't use aftermarket spark plug wires, Subaru only or Magnecor (my personal favorite) is the only acceptable alternative in my book. keep your tires matching. these transmissions are very reliable, i'd suspect mismatching tires, vehicle improperly towed or something else probably initiated that rebuild. obviously i could be wrong, but these transmissions rarely require valve body work, particularly at that mileage.

wow, well i can't say i have much experience with engines engulfed in flames. i did have one soob catch on fire, but didn't try to reuse any engine stuff off of it. fire and having likely set for awhile in a questionable condition could have something to do with it. i'm not one to cry wolf though, it could be really loud HLA's, they can tap and they can also TAP! i've never had much of a problem diagnosing a tap from a rod knock, but i haven't seen that many rod knocks either. i think i'd address the oil pump and if that doesn't solve it, you'll still have the oil pump for the next motor anyway. oil pump work is easy enough to do, it'd be worth the effort to find out.

you're comparing an automatic to a manual. it's not so much power as it is gearing. the hunting is annoying. as soon as it shifts to 3 going up a hill, manuall shift it into 3rd and leave it there for the ascent. then drop it back to "D" (it'll go to 4th) at the top of the mountain. i do it all the time too...on those same mountains in western maryland. since you can drive a manual trans, this shouldn't be too out of the ordinary for you to get used to. sideling hill here you come.....

did you actually use an adapter plate for your jack? i talked to someone that said the one they used sucked and was not usable with Subaru transmissions.

have your headgaskets or intake manifold gaskets ever failed or has the engine ever been run with very low oil? these issues in the past can prematurely wear road bearings and cause them to fail later. it's hard to say without hearing it, might want to find a local that's familiar with subaru sounds and have them take a look? nippers idea of pulling the plug sounds interesting to try and at least it's easy. lots of TOD info on the board here, might want to start there if you can't figure it out. i do not know a way to tell someone to differentiate between ticking and rod knock.

and make sure it's installed perfectly. there were a couple members here and at xt6.net who had newly installed rear seals start pouring oil out shortly after installing. not sure if it's the quality of the seal or the install but i'd be very careful replacing them. for the few rear main seal replacements we see, having two fail last year is interesting and both were by seasoned subaru guys.

there's a "search" button on the gray bar up top, being a newer user i didn't know if you knew about it. this question gets asked all the time, so you could have found your own answer in about 60 seconds without ever posting. including more details on why it doesn't "work".

pretty sure i have an XT Turbo ECU, but i'll have to rummage through them. email or PM me if you're interested. turbone said he may have one.

not worth it. a search will yield all your answers and details on why it's not worth it.

engine out is the easiest method. but the fastest method can be the trans. but it can be very annoying working from underneath and without good tools for supporting and moving the trans. whatever you do, make absolutely certain the torque converter is fully seated. not doing so will ruin your transmission...unless you like tearing them apart to replace the transmission oil pump components. the last 1/4" can be tricky to seat fully and mistakenly installing it that way will break things. do a search for more info on that if yo'ure not familiar. keeping all this in mind, i'd try sliding the two apart and see what kind of access you can get without actually removing everything. sounds like a plan.

'ive pulled a vaccuum with those harbor freight air compressor tools, works fine the few times i've used them.

it's not that hard to do. the toughest part is knocking that axle nut loose. best to have a 3/4" socket or an impact wrench (air compressor style). they are very tight and i've seen many broken 1/2" sockets and breaker bars on axle nuts. i would also recommend changing the axle if you can get one, boots are super annoying and at this point an annoying, messy job that still might end up in clicking down the road would surely suck. but...i'm almost positive i've seen people replace the inner boot without removing the axle nut....pull it off the transmission, rebuild and reinstall. probably require removing something from the hub, but i believe you can leave the axle nut intact if you really wanted to. i always remove it since i replace the entire axle. i've also seen 36mm axle nuts, so if 32mm doesn't work then 36 is your next bet. no loss of diff oil like you'd see in a honda.

the short answer - not a big deal, just keep adding oil for now. it's annoying, but shouldn't be anything you can't work around. just because it didn't show up on the dipstick does not mean you damaged the engine or that the oil was "empty" or "all gone". even when the oil level is below the dipstick, there's still a fair amount of oil left in the pan. not that i recommend driving it at that level, but it certainly doesn't mean you destroyed the engine either. how long had it been since your last oil change that the oil was low? it's probably loosing a quart every 1,000 - 2,000 miles. that's not a big deal, just keep checking it and adding as necessary. buy a funnel and keep a couple quarts of oil on hand. the "high mileage" oil is not necessary, don't buy those. if it still leaks down the road, as summer and heat rolls around start using a thicker oil, that may slow it down somewhat. if you take some pictures of the underneath of your vehicle we may be able to help you diagnose what is leaking. follow the PCV valve replacement suggestion - they cost $6, i have a big bag of them. use Subaru only for that part, make sure to tell your mechanic you only want a Subaru PCV valve because some freaks that only work on Subaru's told you. better yet, just hand him one you bought from Subaru.

this motor doesn't have headgasket issues. but you want to be aware of anything abnormal. high miles, skethcy looking radiators, new hoses and clamps may suggest a car that has been run hot and that's not good on headgaskets. that's just something to look out and look under the oil cap for signs of milkshakes stuff, and the overflow tank for signs of oil. but in general, no this engine is solid.

do not buy a dealer from a car. the only thing you'll get is to pay higher prices and you won't know anything about the vehicle, that's what yo'ure gauranteed. there are people selling good vehicles in the paper and on-line (craigslist) every day that have full service records and great vehicles. look for one owner or two owner with service records and all. depends what you're looking for, but for the most part buying from a car salesmen does not gaurantee anything. sometimes newer vehicles have really good plans, like they'll offer them with new timing belts and such...but that's usually not the norm. buy from a private owner every time - you'll get a better deal and know more about the vehicle. dealer won't know anything. take along a friend or two as yo'ure looking and driving and get to know the person yo'ure buying from. if they seem shady or anything, go elsewhere.

awesome, glad it's going so well. keep an eye on that ring seal, it can be confusing on where along the shaft they are supposed to set.

sweet, so i was right you can just slide the cable out of the housing and leave the sleeve in place? excellent. that is good to know.

he is right, but it is highly unlikely that they pulled the stub out with the axle. a transmission shop would knock the pin out and drop the trans. if they only replaced the torque converter, that can be done by pulling the engine, swapping converters and reinstalling the engine - and never touching the transmission. if i saw the pins never touched like you mentioned i would bet the transmission did not come out. but of course it would require some more looking around.

that's cracked up girl. those rear windows are a PITA to remove, i mean a real pain. i would do whatever you can to try and seal that up without needing to remove the window. the lower control arms aren't that bad. the only tough part about the whole deal is rust. lack of rust would be a nice score for you right now.

FWD fuse is an automatic only thing. manual trans won't have that. the EJ22 (2.2 liter) engines are awesome. they are very solid and should not cause you any serious expense assuming they've been well maintained and continue to be so. in 1997 the EJ22 went to an interference design, so the 1996 and earlier 2.2's are nice in that if the timing belt ever breaks you don't have to worry about major engine damage. all 2.5 EJ25 engines are interference and they also may experience various head gasket issues at any mileage. great engine, great cars, but keep the headgaskets in mind in terms of maintenance costs and reliability. it'll run $1,000-$2,000 to fix it if they go. some people are far more capable of dealing with a $1,500 repair bills than others. the idea that any used car can blow a headgasket masks the EJ25 issues. what is nice though, is that it doesn't need to be discussed here. you can look it up yourself if you feel this is something you'd like to know more about. type in "headgasket" in the search forum, google or yahoo and you'll see that the 2.5 headgaskets have issues. you will be hard pressed to find 2.2's with headgasket issues.

i wouldn't typically replace anything. axle nuts are often replaced, but new axles come with them so that's easy enough. but i've reused them many times.

that's the seal, the one i can't describe, definitely not like any other seal. the rear output shaft seal is really easy to replace with the trans in the car, so that's a good one for them to "loose". good luck!