idosubaru

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.

post in the parts wanted section too, occassionally FSM's are put up for sale on the usmb as well.

actually....i still think i'd look into the distributor and CAS. that's the one item that i've had problems with twice that were very hard to track down. tested good, car acted very strange. after hours of testing, swapping parts and following the FSM, it finally started after swapping in another distributor. had that happen twice. i know you can't swap, but maybe you could take it apart and clean up the CAS and internals.

AH! that's crazy. so you ruled out the wiring harness completely it sounds like? too bad you don't have a dropping resistor and or ECU to swap. i have a couple ECU's one or two are turbo's.....you want to post the part number of your ECU?

HA! hey, my house is 40 minutes from you, watch out!i'd stick with the NGK's as well. used platinums once and nothing drastic happened either way. i like torque master the best...no maintenance plugs. but they're expensive as monkey balls and don't offer anything except they never need to be changed or gapped (there is no gap). i think you said it best: the stock NGK's held up well. you did mention before that the car has low miles and likely sat for quite some time, so they probably are original.

as far as daily drivers that i owned for awhile: first XT donated due to overheating first XT6 lost due to an engine fire. i was in the laundry place during college in downtown atlanta. someone runs in hysterical that a car is on fire in the parking lot. i walk to the window and look out and see my XT6 up in flames. i stood there, laughed, realized i couldn't do a dang thing and walked back to removing my laundry. someone asked if it was my car and i said "yep" and i kept unloading and folding my clothes. everyone in there was frozen, looking at me with squinting eyes, either expecting or hoping for more reaction out of me. second XT6 - accident third XT6 - at 220,000 fire wood on the freeway ripped my entire exhaust off (i mean all of it but the header flange) and i believe punctured a hole somewhere in the oil supply as the motor seized a day or two later. as it sat pending warmer weather and a decision on it's fate - i was playing in the snow with another soob and ran into the drivers side door/fender. too much rust and body damage so it got parted and scrapped. Others: parted out a few some to the scrap yard due to moving and couldn't get rid of them or part them quick enough sold some

i think the emergency brake is on the front just like in an XT6. if this is the case i'd suspect the e-brake to be sticky since both are hot. i find it unlikely or very uncanny that both front calipers would start sticking at the same time with nothing in common other than age. grabbing the e-brake lever on the caliper and moving it back and forth a few times will free a sticking e-brake, a very nice thing to know since it's an easy fix in a parking lot somewhere. on an XT6 i'm almost positive this can even be done without removing the wheel. they are super easy to rebuild. new oring around the piston and a new boot with circlip and you're done. if you haven't done one before i recommend doing them one at a time, that way you can see how the boot and circlip is installed on the second one while you reassembled the first. it's very straight forward, but nice to see exactly how it goes together if you haven't done it before. and of course grease the e-brake mechanism and the slides.

since he sent me an email and asked me to post i'll agree with what's been said. get the used transmission and hold on to it until problems return. $250 is a good deal and low mileage as well, and i'd be surprised if it doesn't start slipping again in the future. i've heard that electric signals can get fuzzy and components can work better after battery disconnects. doesn't happen often, but it does. disconnecting the battery and also running new ground wires (on the engine) are typical electrical clean up *tricks*. the exact cause and prevention i don't know. transmissions can be very resilient, i'd be tempted to keep driving your existing trans until the problem comes back. but this is coming from the guy that had to drive in 2nd gear from kentucky to maryland...it took about 16 hours i think. that sucked, but i got home and swapped transmissions so all was good! i knew my trans had issues but it was winter and i didn't feel like dealing with it then. good luck!

EA82 hubs can be found for $25-$35 used, i imagine EA81's shouldn't be too far from that? this gives you a few options. first you can just install a used hub if you don't want to mess with bearings. another option is to install new bearings in the used hub. you can take a couple days and don't have to worry about your car being down. finish the hub on your own time and swap hubs when you're done. no down time is good if you only have one vehicle. pay attention to your axle and axle nut - make sure it's installed properly and the nut is tight. hubs are ruined if the nut backs off. also might want to check your ball joints while the hub is coming off.

perfect excuse to get another soob! a solid soob can be bought for next to nothing, dedicate it for snow driving and nothing else. save your tires, spread out your miles, get a multi-vehicle insurance discount.....all will save you money in the end. and...having an extra vehicle makes it nice if you need to take one down for work or waiting for parts.

i'm not very knowledgable about tires but winter tires are very very soft rubber, not meant for summer driving. it doesn't surprise me at all that the fronts would show it worse/first.

GD is right. tell us how you really feel GD!!!! WOO HOO!

they both appear solid. there aren't any significant issues to speak of for either one. the 2.5's have been around for over a decade now, there are lots of users, many active members and most people that work on engines here have seen them, taken them apart and played with them. many on here have yet to work on a 6 cylinder, take them apart and not many cumulative miles for the 6 cylinder members on this board. based on that, i'm conservative and would stick with the 2.5. only based on that it's *more* proven, not better. there are more samples, more time to verify the integrity and far more cumulative miles for the 2.5. that's all my own oppinion of course i don't think either motor is better than another...lest we start another argument out of this thread! either way it appears you're getting a good motor. the "6 cylinder" isn't unique. this is subaru's 3rd production 6 cylinder. in the late 80's early 90's was the ER27 and in the mid 90's was the EG33. both turned out to be excellent motors (although they cheated with the ER27 since it was basically an EA82 block with two more pistons literally slapped on). but yeah - no timing belts is a huge ++ for sure. not familiar with numbers but if power is a concern...definitely get the H6. much higher potentail than the 2.5 non-turbo.

i would recommend one with new headgaskets over one with old in general, if it's a good deal of course. if yours was listed publically for sale, i think i saw it. although i'd really rather buy one with bad head gaskets and install them myself or have them installed. otherwise you don't know how badly the engine was overheated prior to the gaskets being replaced. if the owner is ditching the car or it's a vehicle being flipped i'd be more worried that it was carelessly overheated...but it's all guesswork really. assuming it wasn't overheated multiple times and driven hot the engine will be fine. head work, head gasket replacement and a valve job are not the same as rebuilt. rebuilt typically means the engine block was addressed - main bearings, rod bearings, rings, all checked and/or replaced. either way, engine work isn't anything to be scared of, anymore than an oil change, if it's done properly of course. there are corners that can be cut, so it would be nice if the person selling the vehicle had receipts showing the heads were tested, resurfaced and a complete valve job done. i'd like to see that new subaru gaskets were used too.

oh my monkey nuts! i was staring at that motor and couldn't figure out what that was until i read your reply! BAH HHHHAAAAHAHAHH!!!! HA HA!!!! is that really legal? no side marker lights?