idosubaru

as long as the rear diff is the right ratio it doesn't matter whether it's LSD or not.

remove the one on the passengers side and you have a one wiper EA82!! the blade is easily adjustable with a little playing around you can get a different blade, any length you want installed on the arm of an XT wiper motor. you'd probably have to swap over an XT cowel, that doesn't sound very fun. the transmissions on them are very hard to find by the way. if you find a good one and regrease it though it should be fine for the life of the vehicle. sounds like a lot of work for a strange feature! not sure about the controls...i guess it shouldn't be too hard to install the right wiring/plugs. might be a simple splice and go.

+1 for GD's comments. thicker oil, different brands, additives and such can change the TOD but it's usually only temporary and very temporary at that. like GD said, did you replace the cam tower o-ring with a brand new metal reinforced o-ring and not a generic rubber o-ring? how long did you drive this car with a leaking headgasket? were you adding coolant for a long time and driving it? the solution most of the time is resealing the oil pump. a few of the XT6 guys (the XT6 oil pump is very very similar to the EA82), have had problems with the gaskets leaking soon after being resealed. i haven't had this problem but my guess is that the oil pump either gets warn...i don't think so because i've never had the problem on any of my many XT6's and haven't seen it here either. but i'm wondering if the plate of the oil pump that gasket sets in gets warped over time (particularly on an engine that ran a little hot...yours needed new headgaskets right??). this aluminum is very thin and seems like even a little warping would cause the new gasket to easily get pulled inside the suction port of the oil gasket. another cause of TOD is a faulty HLA. if they are frozen in the wrong position they will cause noise or if they are sticking. change your oil often, you don't want the HLA's getting dirty. adding MMO and ATF to your oil isn't probably the ideal solution but it can help free up sticky HLA's. the two bad, frozen, HLA's i've found were both out of an engine that had bad headgaskets. this engine was driven for quite some time with bad headgaskets and i'm assuming the coolant/water mixture in the oil and resulting condensation may have gotten into the HLA's and caused them to corroded/stick internally. i spent 3 days trying to get them to move a millimeter with tools, heating in an oven and soaking in solvent and they never moved. both were #3 cylinder on the passengers side.

double post woo hoo!

i can't imagine it being that hard to score an exhaust manifold for this engine. any chance of the 2.5 manifold bolting up or are the heads complete different? a 2001 Legacy Outback exhaust manifold for $75: 1-800-870-2799 a 2002 Legacy Outback exhaust manifold for $25: 1-800-243-6554 doesn't say if it's 2.5 or 3.0 though. Super Repair in Colorado has 2 2003 Legacy Manifolds but I don't think they list whether it's for the 2.5 or H6: 1-888-442-6508

the EG33 is essentially an EJ series engine i believe, so it will bolt up to any EJ series transmission no problem. don't know about motor mounts and such though but i'd suspect it drops right in (i mean heck the EJ series motors drop right in the old 1980's EA82 subaru's, complete different body style). but of course there's no way to be sure. i would stick with your current torque converter. i'm sure it'll bolt right up to the EZ flexplate. is your engine coming with the flexplate? i'd bet the flexplate from your 2.5 bolts right up to the EZ motor, but be nice to have the EZ flexplate as well for comparison. i second the notion that replacing the EZ headgaskets would be way over kill. people swap 20 year old EA, ER, EG and EJ engines all the time and with the exception of the EJ25, very rarely do you see anyone replacing the head gaskets even on these decade or more old motors with tons of miles on them. rarely an issue, i wouldn't even consider it.

i had a bad one and every time yo'ud shift or hit the gas you'd here it torque and whomp the underbody. guy that bought the car from me fixed it. i priced the bushings for him, they were available for $60 or $80 online. you end up buying the entire assembly, the 4 bolts that slide through and hold the diff to a plate which is all one piece with the bushing. i got lucky and one of the XT6's i picked up had a brand new on in it, so that went in my daily driver.

at 105,000 i'd definitely hold off. i've put over 50,000 miles on broken boots with clicking CV's...they are not going to fail and be a reliability issue. so when they finally do break you have pleeeeennnnttty of time to have them done with a brake job or something like that. same with bearings, they should give you ample warning, i've never had any bearing failures on a couple of 200,000+ mile soobs. i pre-emptively had my replaced at a little over 150,000 on one vehicle just because it was very old and i was redoing alot of front end work, but the originals were fine...and i think they're now on someone else's vehicle! the EJ's do have some wheel bearing issues, more so than older soobs but i'd still wait. they make noise and give you a heads up, i wouldn't do it as maintenance. 105k seems early.

more information would be helpful, it's hard to guess why you're asking this? the answer is "No." replacing the timing belt by no means requires coolant replacement. a proper timing belt job in my oppinion (and many others) includes a new water pump as well, because it's *right there* and easy to get too with the timing belt off. if the water pump comes off and part of the coolant is drained then it's not a terrible idea for the coolant to be replaced anyway. if they do make sure you get the 2.5 special additive/conditioner stuff as well, i'm sure they won't forget it, but mention it if you don't have a dealer do it. but the answer to your question is a resounding "No." if that helps you out at all.

yep, all done from up top except maybe a couple timing cover bolts. once you get a look under the car you can pinpoint the oil leaks. leaks on the outside of the engine block, passengers or drivers side from the front of the engine are typically cam seals. centrally located oil leak will be oil pump or crank seal.

awesome news, thanks for the update.

+1 don't use it unless you have to. in rain it really won't do you much good, helps to blow through some large puddles at excessive speeds if you'd normally hyrdoplane...but if you're driving like that, be careful! 4WD helps and has better control if you start sliding, but hopefully you're not reaching break away speeds around turns. morning bump for a good laugh! HEY LOOK is it bird, is it a plane, no it's GD earning his nickname!! woo hoo!

i don't know how EA81 transmissions are, but if you have an automatic transmission you can pull the stub out of the transmission. remove the axle from the hub and drop it down so it's hanging on only by the transmission stub. yank on the axle quick and deliberate and the stub will pop out of the transmission. this will allow you to work from the bench. if it's a manual transmission or different than the EA82's then this won't work. i bought some cobalt drills for drilling out a hardened steel water pump bolt. they sucked, didn't even touch it.

that's not necessarily true. maybe if it's sustained low pressure, but i don't think the HLA's loose pressure very quickly. i lost all of my oil and the engine seized, the valve train never made a peep. i violently ran over some firewood on the road previously and suspect the pan or oil filter were punctured causing a leak. i never verified this before having the motor scrapped though, just speculation since it was only a day or a few before the seizure occured. but i was totally surprised the HLA's never gave warning when the oil pan went bone dry. but i'm not surprised after the fact because i've disassembled HLA's before and they are difficult to compress and bleed down once out of the car. they take quite a working over to get all the oil out.

here's a loyale with 120,000 miles. doesn't say if it's an auto or manual though. might be worth a try, they may come down considerably in price if it hasn't sold yet: http://jacksonville.craigslist.org/car/206930877.\ keep your eye out, something will come up that fits your bill.

my best friend just left your area a couple months ago. i visited all the time. i would not have been opposed to driving down some cheap FWD soob from up here if he were still there. last year i drove down and flew home and left my car at his place so i had it there to drive when i'd visit. i finally flew down and drove back to MD. anyway....keep those eyes peeled, might be able to find something. up here the FWD are in less demand so maybe that will help you if you can find one.

i don't know EA81's at all, but if they don't leak oil all that much then they certainly aren't anything like the EA82 platform. EA82's and ER27's don't hold back on the oil leaks. you would at least want to have the seals ready and if they look wet or leaky at all, then replace them. if they look fine, dry and no oil then sure thing, leave them (and don't forget to tell us how lucky you were to find them clean and dry). the crank seal can be a pain to get out and replace, particularly your first time. but the cam and oil pump only take a few minutes so it's a no brainer in the time and expense department for me.

the PT4WD and FTWD both use vaccuum lines to control the locking of the center diff so that really doesn't help you much. but if you're creative at all you could fabricate a handle/lever of some sort to manually shift the diff lock as needed rather than rely on the vacuum lines, solenoids and the mechanism that moves the lock (forget what it's called). i've crawled under and switched them before manually by pushing the lever by hand. might be worth thinking about considering the solenoids and actuators are now pushing 20 years old anyway. swap costs vary wildly. easiest and cheapest way to do a swap is to get an entire donor vehicle. getting it piece by piece can be a nightmare on a trans swap. driveshaft, pedal assembly, interior bits, vacuum lines, solenoids, shift linkages, crossmember, starter, clutch cable, flywheel, instrument cluster...lots of things can pose issues. if you have the complete car, you have everything. subaru's are a dime a dozen around here, florida is much worse i believe. but a donor car is the way to go. installation will vary so much that you won't be able to nail down an accurate price by posting here. it's a job that few mechanics ever do and many probably wouldn't attempt it. but that's where most of hte cost would be.

i'd look into that EG33 swap, excellent point. if that was a plug and play swap that would be awesome. 3.3 liters and non interference (technically it's interference but because of the design they won't actually "interfere). and there are turbo and other add on kits....sorry tangent, i know you want the H6. having the entire car is certainly helpful, but much more so with a transmission swap due to pedal assemblies, linkages, console trim, driveshafts...etc. if the wiring harness is the same, then this will be a fairly simple swap. possible issues: power steering, a/c compressor, intake, exhaust manifold and cross member. i'd guess those will cause minimal issues though. good luck and let us know how it's going. i'm in morgantown much of the week...you close to there?

i have a 1997 Impreza Outback Sport. will a bolt on hitch from a 99 Outback Wagon fit? it does not fit a 99 Legacy Sedan or an 03 Legacy Wagon if that helps at all.

good points. i'd bet money you can swap with no TCU issues. but you could swap TCU's as well.

all your tires are matching?

i've wondered the same but never asked specificall, good question. i bet the transmission is plug and play. you could swap the rear diff to match as well if they are different.

for the 2.2 question mentioned earlier, all 1997 and up 2.2's are interference engines. yours being the last year might be wise to double check for future reference. i don't know how to verify the new engine though.

Timing belt, crank seal, 2 cam seals (buy the cam seal kit from thepartsbin.com as it has the o-ring that goes behind each cam seal as well), and reseal your oil pump. the oil pump has an o-ring, a gasket and a seal. replace all three. thepartsbin has all three of those items as well.