idosubaru

i hate to add to your list and price but at that mileage you'd be best to replace the noisey or bad timing pulleys (one is surely to be old and have noisey bearings). if you plan on keeping the car awhile, this is highly recommended. you'd be a forever subaru hater if you pay all of this and then a bad bearing fries your new timing belt in 6 months. takes the mechanic no substantial amount of time to check the pulley's while he's in there. the sprocketed pulley by the oil pump will be the most likely to sound noisey and need replacing. others should be checked as well. dont' forget the 5 dollar thermostat with all of this too. same thing...no point in new radiator and water pump only to have the 5 dollar thermostat fail and overheat/blow up the motor. done right this joker should get you another 100,000.

i've had two non-turbo's like that. one was an internal leak that i drove for 20,000 or so miles just fine (not including adding of the coolant of course!). it was a leak on the outside edge (of the head, sort of on the fire-wall side of the engine so to speak) between the cylinder wall and one of the small coolant passages at about 3 o-oclock (looking at the head). the other was a small external leak. i actually traded for the car and was told it was a "hose", nope sure wasn't it was a head gasket. passengers side seeped out the back ever so slowly. this one leaked very slow, rarely needing coolant. i replaced the headgaskets on both of these. lots of newer generation vehicles will leak slowly as well, dodge neon's, any pontiac or buick with that POS 3100 6 cylinder, the subaru 2.5's...etc. all can be driven for quite awhile before serious issues occur. similar failure modes but much larger frequency. and of course i've seen the completely blown head gaskets before as well. loud and wet!

i just installed larger wheels/tires on my XT6. the on-line tire size calculator said i should see a 5% difference due to the larger tires. i am only realizing a 3% increase, not sure why that is but apparently there is something inaccurate in the speedo, the calculations, tire size consistency. i know it's minor, but just a heads up.

this is definitely fresh oil. XT6 has electric power steering, not around that area where it would be on an EA82. oil is the only thing it's loosing and it's alot. and there's a lot of oil on top of the block. i mean oil, not caked on grease/dirt/grime. definite signs of oil just pooling up. oil filler is on the other side on an XT6 so that's not it either.

what's it worth to you, that's what matters. if you really need it, you may not get many chances down south to pick one up. might be a good deal for you. rats , i'd be checking the wiring too. rodents are fond of chewing insulation and wires.

i just installed impreza aftermarket steering rack bushings on my old school XT6. fit perfect.

i had this same problem years ago and i did get it to tighten without any crazy effort or tools but can't recall how. off the top of my head i'd run a die over the threads and equally run a tap through the castle nut. if the threads on both are clean and perfect it should glide right on with easy. then as soon as it grabs the hub it'll tighten. be sure to run it a number of times and sort of "push/pull" while turning the die over the threads. i like the jack idea as well.

i wish! not valve covers i've seen plenty of those. it's coming from the block. not the cam towers, centrally located - the block. it's directly under the intake manifold on the p/s half of the block. two of the bolts that hold the block halves together sit in sort of "indented" areas of the block. these are filled with oil just sitting in them. no signs of spatter or spray, just oil lying on the block.

my daily driver XT6 has oil on top of the engine. spark plugs 3 and 5 (passengers side rear two) have oil around the spark plugs, appears to be flowing from underneath the intake manifold and towards the center of the engine somewhere. most of the oil is just sitting on top of the engine block. PCV system is all clean and tight there is no oil on the wiring, hoses, etc. just on top of the engine block. can the bolts that hold the block together leak? wouldn't that be really odd? i don't see it pouring out from anywhere but i'm putting 1+ quarts in per 1,000 miles. i'm thinking i'll clean the top off as much as i can and see if i can spot where it's starting.

are you sure you want an engine swap for mild piston slap? from what i've read piston slap isn't a big issue really. might want to read up on it some if you haven't as except for the noise it's not much of an issue from what i've read here on the boards. if you already know that...then pardon the rambling!

i've seen seized timing pulley bearings on number of occassions. in those cases none made noises, but i imagine they could as i never drove them until they failed or tore the belt up. replace your belts and pulleys and you're probably golden. good time to replace the water pump and oil pump seals too, and cam seals. it's all right there once the belts are removed.

hubs are cheap and easy to find and easier to swap out if you can't get anywhere.

andy, sure valve adjustment party sounds good. and bring those snow tires with you!!! never done it before either, all my older soobs have HLA's and 200,000 miles...no adjustment ever needed.

there's some excellent DIY porting tips but i'm not home to look up the link. the basic idea is that you cannot properly improve flow without significant bench testing and matching of the ports. so you can't do a full on race, redesign of the heads. what you can do is smooth everything out. you're looking to take off all the casting flash around the edges and make all the ports relatively smooth. particularly around the valve radius' as well. you'll see the casting flash, it's very prominent. smooth that out. the other thing is to intake and gasket match the heads as well. typically the gaskets between the heads and intake manifold aren't perfectly matched. look to have a smooth flow from intake, gasket to head. on the older EA82 and ER27 motors you generally have to cut the gaskets down significantly as they protrude alot into the flow path. i have pictures of this posted at http://www.xt6.net but it doesn't really relate at all to your 2.5 motor except in principle. good luck and have fun

for whatever reason....this just happened TODAY, again. last summer i did the brakes on my impreza OBS and gas mileage went up about 2 mpg. there were no problems with the brakes, they weren't way over due or anything. i just replaced them as preventative maintenance. and 2 mpg instant gain. same thing just happened today on my XT6. did the brakes yesterday and instant 2mpg gain??? this is all highway driving, very consistent comparison. i'm thinking cleaning and regreasing the slides each time helps the pads pull off the rotors or something...just a guess but i know it's fact. 26.5 mpg yesterday 28.5 today??? that's on a 6 cylinder XT6.

2.2 cam seal replacement is much easier, does not require removing the entire cam. check out the new generation forum for 2.2 liter stuff. remove timing belts and cam sprocket to get to the front cam seals. easiest way to remove the cam sprocekt bolt is to remove the valve cover just to allow access to put a wrench on the cam to keep it from turning when loosening the bolt, but is not necessary (it's not the only way).

looks awesome, has a slight "tilt" to it? got a picture of the entire car? where did the rear disc brakes come from? i have three OBS and all have drums.

no - he's talking about hydraulic valve lash adjusters, completely different. they are not adjustable at all, there are no bolts or shims or any way to make up the difference in clearance (well there isn't supposed to be, you could if you really wanted to of course). they are self adjusting to an extent and utilize oil supply to do that...hence the name "hydraulic". just about all late 80's subaru's were like that, the EA82 and ER27 engines. adjustable valves are completely different animal. you can and you can't adjust the valve clearance on the 2.2. depends what year you have. 1996 and earlier 2.2's had hydraulic valve lash adjusters like yours (and like the 9 other older subaru's in on my property with EA82 and ER27 engines). 1997 and up 2.2's had adjustable valves and no hydraulic valve lash adjusters. that's why you're confused - yours is a pre-1997 2.2, we're talking about a 1997.

copy that. looks easy to check so i'll give it a try as mine makes a light tap at start up. sounds exactly like the old school EA82, ER27 HLA tapping, though much lighter. valve adjust is easy, if it's piston slap then so be it!

Buy the OEM wires from a subaru dealership only. or magnecor. anything else is hit or miss. There are online retailers here on the site. subiegal can hook you up, search for her info she'll mail you a set. there's also 1stsubaruparts.com

i can't find much valve adjustment information, and there's virtually none for 2.2's. never done a valve adjustment before but i want to check my 1997 2.2 OBS. i have the endwrench procedures and it looks straight forward but it says to: "adjust exhaust valve clearance while lifting up the vehicle". so you check all the intake valves, then lift it off the ground to check the exhaust valves? how weird!

2.2's can be found for $150-$400. depending on installation charges it can be a few hundred less than the $1,100 or more for a proper head gasket job. it's not always possible, requires some work looking for a motor and isn't always the best option but it is an option. if it were my car i'd do the head gaskets and keep the 2.5 like nipper said. but i'd do them myself so expense would be limited. if a friend came to me wanting it done cheap i'd source them a motor for $250 and have it installed for around $300....well under a head gasket job. and you can source a 96 2.2 which would be non-interference. again...if cost were an issue it's just one of a few options. it's a 1996. hey, it's time for a valve adjustment anyway right nipper? good time to adjust the valves while doing a head gasket job on these motors, i think the valve adjustment on the 96 2.5's is a big job, do it now.

start looking while you have a good car to drive. you can get a great deal on newer impreza/legacy models if you keep your eye out. i got an impreza OBS for my wife and she loves it and i like it as well. she keeps telling me to get one, but i won't do it. stubborn, challenging, etc..i like the older ones. only things i don't like are the gas mileage sucks and it's an interference engine. my XT6 has AWD and is a 6 cylinder but the auto and manual trans both get better or as good gas mileage as the newer EJ's. the interference engine can be avoided depending how new and which motor you get. check out the new gen forums if you start looking.

yes, as long as you use OEM Subaru wires. don't use anything else, with the exception of magnecor but most people don't need those. i have them in all of mine. but no matter, these motors are very sensitive to having good tight fitting wires around those deep spark plug holes. i've seen brand new wires from the auto parts store cause CEL - "cylinder #1 misfire" immediately after installation. if you get the right wires and install them carefully it's easy. unplug the old, plug in the new. EDIT - 1997 does not have hydraulic lifters so no issue there. (they can be noisey after setting awhile, but yours doesn't have them, 1996 was the last year the 2.2 had them).