idosubaru

start with doing the basic tune up first - replace your spark plugs and spark plug wires. use SUBARU only spark plug wires and NGK spark plugs (any auto parts store will have them). this is a relatively easy job. if you find it annoying, you shouldnt' do any more. if you don't mind it, look into the next thing. i think this will cost less than $50, will alleviate at least one code you're dealing with and help the car run much better. take your time and install the spark plug wires carefully, if you're mechanic friend helps make sure he's aware of how sensitive these EJ motors are to using proper (Subaru only wires) spark plug wires and making sure they are seated and installed properly. no other engine i've ever worked on is as unforgiving as these, so he likely won't believe you! "yeah, right, sure subaru real finnicky, whatever your dump board-member friends say, i've worked on plenty of cars"...is probably what he'll be thinking. even the older subaru engines (EA and ER series) are nothing like the newer EJ series in this regards. i am not making this up.

seems high to me and i wouldn't want a carbed vehicle. look around, the travel time to save $1,000 might be worth it. can you install all new timing belts, water pump and such yourself? i'd stay in contact with them, i'd be surprised if they get close to $2,000 for it. i'd think if you stay in contact they'll come down to $1,500 come holiday season. these things are easy to pick up around my area as well. there's a few in the $500 - $1,000 range now but they don't have the new parts this one has. if you need the car and they are hard to find around you, then get it. it's a good car (except the carb, i hate carb's!), but otherwise should last you a long time and be a great decision over the long run.

guess work really, but if the motor wasn't abused and ran for a long time like this then new head gaskets should be golden. i know a number of subarus on the road that i've put new head gaskets in and they are still running fine years later just as many others have on the group here. should be good to go. i'd rather have new headgaskets than a used motor with questionable history any day. get the perma-torque fel-pro gaskets and should be golden.

after doing an oil change the oil may read high due to the fact that the oil filter isn't completely saturated and full yet. so don't assume it's full just because it reads high on the stick. it should be the oil filters capacity past the full mark. if you had it at "exactly" the full mark, it will read low once the system is primed and the oil filter and passages are once again saturated.

make sure it's not the drive belt/serpentine belt. with a newly installed t-belt maybe the sepentine belt just needs retightened, they often stretch after a removal and/or install. it has to be removed to do the timing belt. i'd like to know which pulley is making the noise. if it wasn't making the noise before, then you're mechanic probably wouldn't have noticed it. i've seen a few subaru's with seized pulleys. they make noise first...then eventually seize so the belt slides over them (so long as it's not the sprocketed timing belt pulley). i had a seized pulley and drove 1,500 miles between MD and GA before getting it fixed. the belt was sliding over the seized pulley. i don't recommend it, but that was my experience. it was do that or pay hundreds of dollars to the dealer for a new one. i took my chances and won (that time!) sometimes a simple dowel rod placed on each pulley and held to your ear can narrow down which one it is.

this gets asked all the time, use the search button and read yourself asleep.... he's not saying using those oils will immediately incinerate every car they are used in. there's lots of debate and little quantitative useful information to the average car owner. yes there are differences, but the bottom line seems to be that the net results of those differences don't amount to anything substantial/functional in the real world (my oppinion). in other words...you're much more likely to have water pump, alternator, suspension, driveshaft, transmission or some other problem before the fact that you used "X" oil ruins your engine or keeps you from making it to 200,000 or 300,000 miles. change your blah blah blah synthetic oil on time and subaru's make 200,000 miles no problem, period.

clarify which motor, by star thingies i assume it's the EJ motor in your legacy, but not everyone may pick that up.

no, he's either wrong or confused. i assume this is an EA82...i think there were some EJ's in 91... EA82's blow headgaskets when they are run hot or if they're a turbo (which can mean, they run hot). keep the cooling system in check and the head gaskets will hold just fine. water pump, thermostat, radiator, hoses, clamps, radiator caps. any one of these gives out and the car will run hot and that's not a good thing on 15+ year old gaskets.

if that's the range of all 4 cylinders, that is excellent.

looks like all the motors i've taken apart as well. i have one block that has crytstal clean heads but i haven't removed the pan yet. it had 200,000 miles but was the cleanest heads i've ever seen. wondering what inside the pan looks like.

easiest way would be to keep the intake manifold and just swap blocks. then you'd also need a non-turbo exhaust manifold and all the non-turbo intake hoses to attach to the throttle body and MAF sensor. i know the wiring had some changes from 86-87 so if you wanted to swap the entire engine including the intake manifold that might have some issues. but you could probably just install your existing 86 wiring harness onto what ever engine you get....assuming all things equal of course MPFI for instance. i had some issues with my 87.5 XT turbo to non-turbo engine swap but it was mostly due to the fact that the 87.5 XT is a rare engine among other things...

no puffs of smoke on shifting/accelerating/start up out the tail pipe? check the owners manual but might want to bump up to 10w30 oil. probably won't make a difference, but may slow the oil loss depending where/how you're loosing it. check your intake hose, it could be filled with oil. replace the PCV valve (use Subaru only on this part). a tune up may help it. new plugs, wires, and air filter. otherwise i wouldn't bothering with the performance route, you'll keep getting the same results as you mentioned "alot of work for little return". that's how it goes with small non-turbo engines without lots of money and serious engine work. depending where your oil is going, there could be some power losses associated with that as well.

i thought you meant it was a used vehicle. let Subaru deal with it, that is not normal at all nor have i seen/heard anyone else having an issue like that. make sure they document exactly what it is for future reference.

these guys in Rancho-Cordova 1-916-638-5773, have a few of them for $65 as new as 1999 (that will fit your vehicle). they have a bunch, might come down on price?

i've messed with racks, hubs, control arms and such before. like they said, mark and count well and you won't need an alignment. i've done 100's of thousands of miles and never get alignments. i'm waiting for uneven wear to prompt me to do it, but it hasn't happened yet??? i'd consider getting a used rack myself. i'd see how new i could get from the yard for under $100 to save myself some time. failure is so rare i'd imagine these are easily available cheap. someone on here probably has one they'll sell you cheap. if i didn't just send my two EJ parts cars to the yard i'd have one for you.

is this EA81 or EA82? i think EA82 but i'm not sure. any check engine light? start there if you have it. ignition comes to mind - plugs, wires, cap and rotor (if it has them, not sure what motor you have). did you gap the spark plugs? are they fouled? check the rotor, i've seen new ones come unscrewed and also blow to pieces the first time they were cranked (bad parts??). water temp sensors are frequent problem children. look for corrosion of the harness that plugs into it, the sensor won't be the problem. green, nasty corrosion is what you're looking for. did it set for awhile? you could add some of that water absorbent stuff to your gas, maybe there's gas getting in there? if i started replacing sensors i'd start with the MAF.

i think i'm seeing the throttle body. i'd clean that out and clean the throttle plate off really well. replace your PCV valve with a Subaru OEM valve. see if that helps, it will if this is PCV valve related. people actually install oil catchers in line with the valve cover vent hoses to prevent oil from getting into the intake like this. this could also be due to excessive crankcase pressure caused by blowby past the rings. thicker oil is about the only thing that will alleviate that besides major engine issues. i wouldn't try this until you replace your PCV valve though and make sure your hoses are all cleaned out. knocking the crud out of your filter as best as you can shouldn't hurt anything.

check out your owners manual. it'll show the ranges of oil to be used for your temperatures. stick with your 10w30 regular synth. that mileage on your block is nothing and "high mileage" stuff is highly unnecessary. +1 for marketing.

check continuity to Duty solenoid C. being disconnected will cause the transfer clutches to be fully engaged and hence binding on hard surfaces.

automatic transmission i guess? AWD or FWD? seems it has to be auto AWD but best to give us more information. if all the dash lights came on, that sounds electrical - battery, alternator, or belt (that drives the alternator). alternator and battery are a nice place to start since the local auto parts stores all check them for free now anyway. i'd have a look at the belt right away, see if it's broken/working properly. did the check engine light come on? if so...your friendly local auto parts store (advanced auto parts, autozone...etc) will also read the codes for free as well. if the CE light is on then there's no point in guessing what it is, the codes it spits out will tell you the problem.

i'd guess ignition related. how old are the wires? best if they are Subaru OEM wires or Magnecor on any EJ series engine. any others are questionable. might want to consider replacing if they are old or this returns. if it returns check the previously loose wire for damage.

i have an impreza cup holder like the last poster linked to a picture of. i'm going to install it in my XT6 like he did in his.

connie, a year ago i'd say fix it. now i'd say no way unless you really want this car. i witnessed first hand what can happen to a car with this kind of rust. myxyphlyx from this board came to my house so i could help him install his intercooler. when he left my place his rear wheels collapsed into the car due to rust. i posted a picture..okay it wouldn't let me attach the picture since i've posted it before. check out the pic i posted in this thread: http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=55764&page=4 it's hard to see from this pic, but the top of the rear wheels collapsed "inward" and rested against the inner wheel well. you can see the tilt of the wheel. both sides were like this. very scarry stuff to be driving a car like this. what metal is left it weakened and not safe. it could fail like his did or it could prove costly to yourself in an accident. if you were going to fix this...i'd get a donor car without all that rust and completely swap the entire rear subframe. with your old subframe out, the undercarriage, gas tank and such should be accessible enough to fix easily (relative term as far as rust/body work is concerned). basically swap everything underneath for non rusted parts and reinforce any rusted attachment points or sheetmetal. junked subaru's with bad engines/trans aren't that hard to come by very cheap. you'll also run into all sorts of problems with rusted bolts and removing parts to fix this. that's one of the most annoying issues. most bolts will shear off and won't want to come out.

sounds like you have a complete non-turbo motor that you want to put in a turbo vehicle? yes it can be done by removing the turbo bits. you'll also need a non-turbo header and intake parts and the vacuum lines will be different. year may matter as well...what year is the car, what year is the motor and are you swapping intake manifolds or not? basically....need more information on what exactly you're doing. there are issues, but nothing that can't be overcome. the non-turbo intake parts are particularly tricky to find. i posted and posted and called and searched and still don't know if i have everything for it. but certainly you can make something up as you go along if you don't mind it being non-stock. automatic, manual...trans details? i know the flywheels are different either between the turbo's and non-turbo's or AWD and FWD so that could be an issues depending what you have. i did it but haven't gotten the car running yet due to other issues. i'm fairly certainly it had ECU issues, but some may be conversion related as well...haven't looked into it recently.

here are some pictures of some work i did on the heads, gaskets and intake. http://www.xt6.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4169&highlight=intake+runner never noticed those fins on the XT6 - but they have dedicated ports for each intake, so that explains that.