idosubaru

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).

find out what CEL code was thrown and go from there. yes it could be HG, it could be something else. if it gave you a code, no point in ignoring good information and trying to guess what the problem is. keep your eye out for loss of coolant, leaking anywhere on or under the engine, coolant out the tail pipe on start up, bubbling in the overflow tank...etc. and keep your eye out on a good motor (also known as an EJ22). unless you want to pay the $ or do them yourself.

mr. radon at xt6.net has an excellent thread about this with pictures and details. he converted from FWD automatic to AWD Manual. he didn't have too many troubles, but he is very proficient. he did have to create some mounting holes that others with FWD already had in place. so it sort of depends on your vehicle. if the mounting holes are already there (and often they are) that's certainly much easier. if they arent' then it gets trickier. for the XT6 it seems some have them, some don't. center driveshaft support, rear crossmember mounting location, and rear diff mount are the ones that you would hope are present. in yours, i would bet they would be. a peak under the car would tell you if the center driveshaft mounting holes are in place. that's 2 bolts on either side of the center indent that houses the driveshaft so to speak. swap over the rear end - hub assemblies, axles, driveshaft and diff and you should be golden.

in the drivers side fender well (at least i think that's where it is on your car, that's where it is on my XT6 and XT Turbo), is the air suspension compressor, air tank and drier. the other item of interest that would be dedicated to a particular strut is on the air compressor outlet (the receiver i believe). there are 5 air lines connected here. one to each strut and one to the air tank. i'd carefully inspect the line and fitting to the strut giving you problems. there are the same o-rings here as on the other fittings. replace all of these o-rings as you on the strut solenoids. another common issue is the plastic fitting itself. the female side that's connected to the air compressor assembly can leak. the base of them are only plastic and they crack very easily. i believe they are only pressed or lightly glued in place, they crack easy enough. the soapy water trick should work here as well. if your strut and solenoid look good, and you don't find a leak at the compressor fittings like i just mentioned i'd start thinking the suspension computer or the strut height sensor (internal to the strut) are bad. when you're under the fender well area with all the suspension goodies, that's a good time to also remove the valve attached to the air tank. it's obvious since it's the only thing threaded into the large air tank with wire coming out of it. takes a wrench to get it off...something big like 14 or 17mm. remove this valve and scrub all the flaky corrossion off the inside of it. i've seen some completely corroded shut. get all of that out of there and reinstall, only takes a couple minutes. good luck and have fun.

are you talking about the y-pipe at the front of the car, under the motor/trans? that's a catalytic converter, specifically it's a pre-converter. in my experience there isn't much performance gain messing with the cats. a better flowing muffler at the back of the car in place of the stock muffler offers some performance gains and better gas mileage at highway speeds on an XT6. messing with the catalytic converter has offered little to no measureable improvements in my experience. i've had hollowed out catalytic converters and high flow converters, no noticeable difference. open up the exhaust too much, larger pipe, no converter...you'll end up loosing significant low end power which is really annoying for daily driving. been there, done that too. again on the XT6, but very similar engine and i'd expect similar results on a non-turbo EA82.

pay close attention to how the old one is connected. i actually attached mine incorrectly and it popped off so i had to reinstall it again. unfortunatley i can't recall exactly what i did wrong, only to say it's not exactly obvious how it attaches down at the pedal. take a good look at the old one before you remove it.

always a good idea to install an aftermarket trans cooler anyway, so i'd do it and get the stand alone trans cooler going.

the non-interference is a nice safety if you can come up with a 96 in great shape and the mileage/condition you want. they definitely made the 2.5's in 1996 (at least in the US they were installed in some 1996 vehicles). the 96 has fewer km's on it as well, sounds like a great car. you would be fine to run those tires. use this tool: http://www.miata.net/garage/tirecalc.html to help you see how far off your speedometer will be while driving and the differences in specifications. your speedometer will read 60mph when you're really doing 62.7mph. all the 97's i have (3 of them) came with 15" wheels. 205/60/15 tires. the torque bind is very very rare in the manual transmissions, so i'm not surprised you didn't notice anything. you said you did "doughnuts" in the parking lot, that's not a good test for torque bind. you want to go very slow in a tight circle, steering wheel turned all the way. if yo'ure going fast and doing doughnuts you'll give the wheels opportunity to slip and you won't notice the binding. go slow and the binding would be obvious, it's like driving a vehicle (think truck) locked in 4wd on pavement, it starts binding, hoppping and feels VERY slow going around turns because the wheels need to spin at different rates but they can not. it'll feel as if the car just want to come to a stop, has the brakes on etc. if you don't like the interior, it is not hard at all to swap front and rear seats. very very easy to do, you could look for a nicer set and get the color/design you want and newer as well. the door panels are easy to swap as well if you needed a complete matching set of those for the new seats as well.

looks like he's looking for Subaru OEM parts, which is often highly recommended here over aftermarket. dealer prices can vary all over the place. even still OEM subaru head gaskets can be had for $26 for the XT6 and less for the EA82. the dealer may be able to come down in price or come close to matching another dealers price if you get a quote from a State-side dealer. worth a shot, that price seems very high. if you have time, have someone send you a set from the states. maybe one of the online Subaru retailers would ship it to you? might not be much of a savings, but if you ordered a load of stuff it may be worth it.

have you already resealed the oil pump? that would be the first step. there's a seal (behind the oil pump sprocket), a gasket (between pump and engine) and an o-ring (behind the oil pump body). resealing the oil pump solves it most of the time. if you are sure you need to address the HLA's, this is a much bigger job than replacing the oil pump, but it is fairly straight forward and isn't that hard. it can be done in a couple hours depending how you plan on addressing the HLA's. (disassembling and cleaning them takes a long time). you have to remove the timing belts and the entire cam carrier assembly. with the valve covers off you'll see a number of 12 mm bolts inside the valve cover and a few outside (top and bottom) as well. all of these hold the cam carrier (the entire assembly that holds the cam in place) to the head. it's just a matter of unbolting all those bolts, removign the entire cam housing with the cam still in it. once those 12mm bolts are off, the entire cam housing pulls off the head (with the cam still in it) and there is your valve trains, HLA's, valves and rocker arms. once you pull the cam housing - run a straight edge (a ruler) along the tops of the HLA's, any that are at "different" heights from the rest means that one is seized and liking causing your issues. it'll be obvious..it's nicer with the XT6 because being a 6 cylinder there are more HLA's so it's easier to have a base line of good ones. two bad ones will stick out against 4 good ones. with the 4 cylinder if you have two bad ones...it might be hard to tell which are bad and which are good just by looking. if it's just one it'll be obvious it's at a different height than the other 3, so that's the bad one. you'll need to decide ahead of time whether you want to disassemble them and clean them or have new ones ready to install. i'd suggest having new ones ready to install as the disassembly is time consuming. if you do disassmble them, plan on some down time for soaking and replacing a bad one or one that won't come apart. best to have a couple spares in case. mitzpah engineering sells completely rebuilt HLA's for like 5 bucks each, well worth it in my oppinion. drop them in and you're done. once you have them out i'd have some good parts cleaner to soak them in over night or take them to a shop that might be able to heat and soak them for you. here are the tricks youll need to do this easily: partially unbolt the cam carrier at first (all those 12mm bolts i mentioned), just loosen the bolts enough that the cam carrier will only come 1/4" from the head. then tap it loose with a mallet. this will allow you to use a mallet to break the seal without knocking the entire cam assembly on the floor (seen that happen). and....it will also prevent the rocker arms from falling out. once the cam carrier is loose, loosen the bolts far enough that the cam carrier has enough clearance for you to reach in there and pull the rocker arms out one at a time. i generally loosen one side more than the other that way i can get the rocker arms from one end, then the other and don't risk them falling out on me while i'm pulling them out. you want to install the rocker arms in the same place they were, if they fall out on you there's no way to keep track. pull them one at a time and mark the location of each so you can install each one where it way. the second trick is during reinstalling the rocker arms. they'll want to fall off the HLA, they won't stay in place to install the cam carrier. use high quality grease (like wheel bearing grease, thick stuff) smeared all over the head of the HLA and the rocker arm. this will hold it in place as you install the cam. on the cam carrier housing get a new o-ring at the base (bottom corner) of the o-ring. this is a subaru only part, although it can also be bought at http://www.thepartsbin.com, that's the only aftermarket parts place i've seen that carries this o-ring. definitely replace this oring. you'll need anaerobic sealant for the cam case seal, it's a squeeze on gasket maker. some people use ultra-grey and other RTV sealants. anaerobic is better in my oppinion as it's what subaru says to use and it is made to not coagulate and clog oil passages. (there's a picture on the Yahoo! XT6 groups of a piece of clotted RTV that clogged a guys oil passage from this). this job is WAY to easy to even think about pulling the engine. you can have the passengers side cam off in an hour easily. i could have both sides off in an hour no problem. all of this being said...the one, and really only, very tricky part to this job is if any of the HLA's are stuck in their bore and you want to remove them. i've had a heck of a time removing them many times. i'd probably suggest running some sort of detergent in your oil for awhile before openign up the motor in the hopes it'll help free any that don't want to come out. i'd use ATF or seafoam would do well too.

on the XT6 it is very common for the check engine light to come on when you're holding a steady speed (think cruise control). as soon as you hit the gas or breaks it will go out, this is a sure sign of the "vehicle speed sensor", which is located in the instrument cluster. there is no need for alarm and it doesn't cause any driveability issues. maybe if the sensor went completely bad there would be issues but i've never seen that happen. more than half of the dozen or so XT6's i've owned long enough to tell have had this issue. not sure if EA82's have that same sensor or not, but the symptoms are obvious like i just mentioned.

excellent, glad it worked.

is there more information on the rear disc brake swap? i'd like to do the same on my impreza.