idosubaru

personal preference, do whatever fits your lifestyle. the 4EAT is a great transmission as far as automatics go. unless it's really cheap and good i would not pay for any kind of transmission insurance. "could be up to thousands in repairs"...that's a blanket statement that really doesn't mean anything. lots of issues can result in thousands of dollars of repairs. those costs can typically be averted or done for far less though. rebuilding an automatic transmission is a really bad idea on a Subaru with a 4EAT, they are easy to find and reliable enough that installing a low mileage used unit is an excellent and inexpensive option should yours ever fail. if you're the type that doesn't have the time to spend on any issues that may occur and you like to be ahead of the curve on everything and have someone else deal with it should it happen...then get the insurance.

replace both headgaskets no matter what. against what i knew and heard from others i replaced one head gasket once since it was the only one leaking. did not take long at all for the other to have problems as well, ended up replacing that one as well. should be lots of headgasket information on here. i'd use the Fel-pro permatorque gaskets sinc ethey don't need to be retorqued. after that i'd use Subaru gaskets. RAM performance sells a performance headgasket, there are new and noone on here has used them yet. i'd consider using these if i had a turbo motor and running more than stock compression. otherwise i'd stick with the fel-pro's and subaru's. never heard of the ones you mentioned but these questions have been asked before, try a search on the forum.

that's alot more than i would have expected to see, never seen that much on this coast. interesting. you PNW people probably are familiar with it, but i'd want to clean them both off really good and see how long it takes to come back. this is a turbo? i'd make sure no coolant/water is mixing/crossing in the turbo or lines as well. check the intake for any oil/coolant mixing in there as well.

sounds like the trans oil pump is hosed. might want to see if you can buy the trans cheap out of that car you got the motor from. if you're not sure on the torque converter, PULL IT OUT and reseat it. make sure it seats that last 1/4", don't assume it has. if not...you must get the torque converter to seat that final 1/4". if it doesn't, you haven't got it right.

"almost positive" isn't enough to determine head gasket issuse and be adding bottle after bottle of stop leak, destroy your engine type stuff. you should verify the headgaskets are to blame and rule out other items - thermostat, radiator cap, water pump, leaks.... subaru supplies and adds a coolant conditioner to 2.5's with the external head gasket leak. yours may be beyond what additives can be used for, they are a band-aid at best really. be advised, if you plan on keeping the motor, adding more and more stuff to the coolant takes you further and further down the road of not having a useable engine at all in the future. consider a 2.2 swap if money is an issue. with some effort they can be done very inexpensively.

hey steve, long time no see slick! where did you end up? how old are the ignition wires and plugs? do these things have an idle air controller of any sort? i'd check with those as well. on the XT6 you just have to clean the idle air control valve out. no check engine lights (think - coolant temp sensor?)

i have an RX alt phil. came off of kevin's RX. yours for shipping (fits in a flat rate priority mail box for $8.10). sounds like alt problems to me on them all. fusible links will start to blow if it sustains the high voltage (seen it before).

bent wheel?

in my area the cheapest method is a 2.2 swap. they can be found for $200 around here (even less with some work) and have a shop install it for a few hundred if you can't do it yourself. or rent/buy/borrow an engine lift and do it yourself. many have done the swap, search this forum if you're interested. 2.5's are hard to find, but keep your eye out and you might be able to snag one for $500 or so, but they're usually in the $1,000 range. i'd point someone away from installing a used one as the headgasket may be questionable on it as well. headgaskets runs $1,000+ if you're paying someone to do it. engine doesn't have to come out to do them, but it is much easier without air tools to have the engine out...more room for turning wrenches.

your legacy is a newer generation subaru (one of the first years). the older subaru's that you're speaking of had two different automatic transmissions. the 3 speed auto and the 4EAT (like in the XT6). the 4EAT is a very nice *automatic* transmission. the 3 speed sucks. i'm not sure what EA vehicles have the 4EAT, but just make sure if you get an automatic that it has the 4EAT in it, not the 3 speed. i know the XT6 has the 4EAT and i think 87+ XT's have the 4EAT - not sure which others (if any) have them. it's actually the same transmission that's in your legacy if it's an automatic, just an earlier version. they are very reliable if taken care of, i'm weird - i prefer automatics. an older turbo tends to bring with it more complications though. turbo components are hard on head gaskets and engines when not maintained well. and it's not hard to find an ill-maintained 20 year old turbo vehicle. and they probably have the same horsepower as your legacy or maybe less. they can be modified for more of course though. be sure to check the engine carefully on any older vehicle, particullarly those old turbo's.

how many miles on this engine? i wouldn't expect noticeable injector performance loss until 150,000 miles. i've had them tested at professional (RC Engineering) injector places and they've shown dripping/leakage but fully functional. if i had a block rebuilt unless it was really low mileage i'd have the injectors professionally cleaned/rebuilt as well. RC does six of them for less than $150, chump change, and that's for six. others, like the one mentioned earlier, are far cheaper. about half the price. they flow test them before and after and replace any parts out of spec.

Subaru OEM Factory Service Manuals are the way to go. they cover everything. the haynes and chiltons manuals are okay, but not that great. if you're going to have the car and do some extensive work the Subaru manuals will serve you faaaar better than those others. there were a few significant changes on either side of 98 so you're good to get the exact year.

i'd guess brake pads/caliper off the top of my head. have the rears ever been replaced? i'd get that wheel off the ground and see if spinning it by hand causes anything? was definitely there before and after the tire change? they were balanced properly? wondering if you lost a wheel weight.

the kerosene trick has been around for decades, good point frank. a handful of people have told me to "clean my engines" by running kerosene in them for a few minutes. i'll pass on that one, but they swear by it. i don't think engines today are like engines from 20/30 years ago but who knows, i'm not an engine expert.

did you remove the sprockets yet? just curious if you're positive they're not damaged or it has keyway damage of any kind?

joost, that's awesome. but i have to say electrical stuff like this usually comes back. have you tried "resetting" the ECU and unplugging the battery for a couple hours since the rewiring effort?

done it, seen it done plenty of times. putting only oil in the engine is a good philosophy but if there are issues that a high level detergent may alleviate without tearing the heads or block apart it can be ideal for some situations/people. ATF, MMO, seafoam...do a search on seafoam and or ticking, tick..you'll find lots of people that have tried it. i wouldn't do it for the water condensation myself though. whatever the ATF gets too, the oil and regular oil changes should flush out as well.

might want to search on intakes/carbs/spfi/mpfi stuff too, well covered in the forum for sure. or post a separate thread (with a more attractive title for intakes) if you have a specific question on the carb/intake stuff.

(go easy on me nipper!)...don't buy a used 2.5 unless it has new headgaskets. particularly not for $1,000. click on the search button here, search the new generation forum (this one) for "headgasket" or "overheating" and see how many 2.5 engines come up. not worth the risk in my oppinion. you have a good vehicle, sounds like you have terrible luck but good decisions on the engine and trans now will give you many years and happy miles of use. i gotta go or i'd offer some more babbling.

i just edited my previous post, might want to read through it again..or maybe not.

before clicking on anything else....look to the bottom left of the webpage you're looking at right now. you'll see a list of similar topics that have already been posted. almost all of them look like information you're looking for. "head porting" "porting/die grinder", "porting/polishing", and "porting polishing heads". those threads will be time well spent for you. i wouldn't expect much. a better question might be what are you trying to do? there are some minor improvements to be made. but this isnt' the ticket to making the EA82 a race car either. it's not a huge power plant and if you're looking for horsepower, i think you'll be disappointed. are you talking about a turbo or non-turbo engine? i wouldn't tear apart a perfectly good EA82 or ER27 (same motor - 2 more cylinders) just to port the heads. if you're already taking it apart for some other reason then i would (and have) do it. but the gain is so small and these motors are not power houses, it's probably not worth it unless you're really just interested in trying it out and doing the work (like kevin). but most are loooking for fast cars and you're not going to get that by porting an EA82. basically you don't want to enlarge or redesign the heads, unless you're looking to have them flow tested, matched and get crazy...i'm assuming you're not. in that case you're looking to just smooth out the passages and match the manifold, gasket and head all together. there is an excellent website detailing the process. i had a set ported on an 86 XT EA82, it ran well afterwards but it wasn't my vehicle and it didn't run that well before hand so i can't comment on before/after results. i posted pictures on http://www.xt6.net. i can't really say it was noticeably faster than any other XT i've riden in. felt nice and maybe a bit of gain, but nothing drastic. that's alot of work for "i think i felt a difference?". that car had to come apart for a headgasket leak anyway. those heads were done by an aluminum head specialist, not me. i posted pics of the ER27 ports and gaskets and intake manifold, and porting that i did. same basic design as the EA82. the intake, gaskets and head openings don't line up all that well and the gaskets protrude into the airflow a good amount. for improved flow, based on what i've seen in the ER27, an area to focus on is cutting the gasket to match the head and intake. i smoothed out the head ports, then matched the gaskets, then matched the intake to this. i have pictures of how much the gaskets protrude into the air flow at xt6.net. i'd think that's more significant than the heads themselves.

the easiest way is to note the position of the distributor relative to other fixed items on the block. reinstall in the new engine the same way. even take a picture of it before hand.

i think he's saying it would be a nice and easy upgrade to the EA82 without doing a complete EJ swap which requires extensive wiring and computer work.

i think you'll find the CAS troubleshooting flow charts in the part of the FSM's that list the CEL codes. i believe a CAS code is 11, but don't quote me on that. look that up and check out the tests. again, i know yours doesn't show a code 11, but neither of my faulty distributors showed a code 11 either. also - BOTH of mine, while bad, tested fine. so testing may not show you anything. it might show that it's bad...but if it passes all the tests that doesn't mean it's good and you're left right where you are right now. not until i finally swapped in new ones did it fix the problem. i think the sensors just got dirty or mal-adjusted somehow, i still have those disty's but haven't taken them apart yet to see. so we don't know that yours is bad. and even if it is, it may test fine (like both of mine did). without swapping in a known good disty or putting yours in another vehicle i don't know that you can verify it's good (i have two bad disty's that test fine). but taking it apart and cleaning it may show something or fix the issue, that's why i say i'd probably do that first.

keep your eyes out on here (post in parts wanted) and look in the parts for sale section and on ebay. over time you'll likely score one cheap. looking when you need something typically means you'll have to pay more. buying ahead typically means you may buy parts you don't need...but you can get them dirt cheap. i like the second option myself. http://www.thepartsbin.com has good prices though i think clutch kits aren't typically cheap, but that's from memory and i don't drive a manual or memorize prices... http://www.rockauto.com can have really cheap prices, just make sure it's the right part. it's annoying that they list EA82 parts when you drill down for XT6 parts.