idosubaru

http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=56483 here's your original post.

the HLA's (tappets you call them) need to be disassembled and cleaned if a new oil pump and new seals didn't solve the trick. if the engine was just put back together it can take some time to go away. clean oil helps alot. dirty oil kills them, they get sticky or something. might be good to verify oil pressure with an accurate gauge. check the oil pan, make sure it's not dented as the sump in the oil pan is close to the bottom. a dent can restrict flow to the dump and rest of the motor (including the HLA's). how long has it been doing this, recently, all the time, many miles? if it just started, change oil filters. any leaks or loss of oil? on the cam housing is an oil rail. remove that and clean out the banjo bolt that has a spring behind it. weird set up - 17mm bolt i think the banjo bolt is. there are two bolts holding the fuel rail on - the larger one is the one i'm talking about. don't think that should cause the HLA noise, but good for the lube system.

thumbs up!

my favorite trick is to weld a nut on top of the stud. then you can use a socket to get it out.

sounds odd. i've swapped transmissions and never had to adjust the auto lever mechanisms. just bolt it in and go. i'd probably tell the dealer and have them look at it, in case there's anything that could have caused it to come loose.

yep timing belt. should have been done by now. if you don't know then you're looking at at $500-$1000 job if you're paying someone else to do it right. can be done in the $300 - $500 range if you belt slap it and ignore everything else that should be checked while the front of the motor is open. the 2.2 rocks, the 2.5 has the head gasket issue which is hit or miss. i think some auto trans have torque bind issues, not sure what years that applies to, but i believe it's a wide range. take some sharp turns at slow speed on dry pavement and see if you feel any "hop" or dragging while turning. that would indicate torque bind. not real common, but not something you want to pay someone to fix either. other than that, the 2.2 will last a looong time.

im getting an aluminum pulley for mine (EA82), but i'm doubtful you'll come up with 100 buyers. that's alot of orders. i think mine will be custom anyway because i removed the power steering pump and went with electric power steering and i might move the alternator and install an XT6 alternator. my pulley has routings for two belts, i'd like a crank pulley with one belt design.

agreed - he installed the timing belts incorrectly. tell him to install the cams 180 degrees apart from one another. very common mistake (and it shouldn't cost you anything, it was his fault!) but don't start pointing fingers, you're at his mercy until he gets the car done. i've owned like 12 of these things, there should be no need to tear into this motor just because the timing belt broke. too bad you're on the West coast of ohio, i'm headed to akron tonight until monday and could fix it for you with my eyes closed.

there's mention of other tightening down more on the head gaskets. to use the spider, have a shop weld a fitting in place on the intake manifold or drill and tap it as opposed to JB weld. i agree, i've had bad experience with that stuff as a long term solution. it's usually fine for a long time, but for 50,000/100,000 mile life of the vehicle type stuff it doesn't cut it. but lots of people do get it it to work for some situations.

agree. 10 minutes you say? that much, i think you're exaggerating! it was so simple the first time i did it i thought for sure i had done something wrong (even posted about it!). so easy, air filters can be trickier to install that the clutch disc!

i HATE those kinds of bolts. anyone ever replace them with normal bolts. i guess no one would typically mess with head bolts. if i ever have to go that far into an EJ22 i'd want to put something else in there, i hate those things.

ah...great point. my mileage went up last summer by about 2/3 mpg after doing a brake job on my 1997 impreza outback sport with 70,000 miles. it had always gotten about 25 since i got, i hadn't had it very long so i figured that was normal. i never noticed anything wrong with the brakes, but after replacing the pads my mileage went to 28. this is on all highway/road trip comparisons. be sure to grease the caliper slides when doing a brake job. if they are dirty at all that will cause the pads to ride on the rotors more. like i said, mine had nothing wrong with them except the pads were low. calipers and rotors were perfect and i only replaced the pads (and greased them slides!)

most oil bottles say "compatible with other oils that meet so-and-so specifications"....etc. so, yes they should be, pick up a bottle of the stuff and read the label. but it is usually recommended to stick with one kind. if it were a really bad thing to mix then anyone who doesn't use the same kind of oil in a car since new would be doing something bad because there's no way to drain all the oil out of car....well there are ways, but not conventional of course. did it use oil, how much after how many miles?

does this EJ22 have solid or hydraulic lifters? i think early models had one, later had the other? it could be as simple as valve train related? if the motors been sitting and you have hydraulic valve lash adjusters, they could be to blame and that may be an easy fix. sometimes just pumping them up.....cranking the oil pump, cranking the motor over will pump them up. sitting on the ground that does not do you any good. i know on the HLA motors i've pulled and reinstalled the HLA's are very noisey from sitting and/or being disassembled when you first start them up. i've never tested compression but i'd imagine during the "noisey" stage the compression would be off. takes a minute or two of running to get them all primed and working right again. last one i did just a couple weeks ago i slapped a high speed air ratchet on my oil pump socket and ran the oil pump by itself (timing belts off) for a few minutes to cycle oil through the engine. put the timing belts on and turned the motor over by hand a few times. cranked the motor a few times with the starter before finally hooking everything up to start the car. first time it started, no HLA noise. i'm not nearly as familiar with the solid lifter set up and what issues are possible there. i have a 2.2 i'd like to do a leak down test on. how did you do it? Just used an adapter for hooking your air compressor to the spark plug hole? leak was obvious or hard to tell?

looks like one of those optical illusions, you're supposed to cross your eyes and everything looks straight again. i figured it impossible for you to not know about tacoma narrows. as an aerospace engineer we touched on that bridge in our vibrations analysis. based on all that yield stress technical discussion assuming the threads were'nt all out of whack or you chased them with a die to straighten them up, maybe even a "stretch to yield" bolt would be reusable if you torqued it to higher than it was previously torqued to, again taking it into the plastic region and re-stretching it somewhat. people on the old generation forum over torque head bolts on the turbo motors to keep the headgaskets happy, can't imagine an extra few pounds would hurt. might be better than reusing the bolts straight up. of course unless you did it, there's no way to easily verify exactly how much it was torqued "last time" but you'd assume it was factory spec since you'd hope to do head gaskets one time only!

copy that, i think i was referring to earlier 2.2 specific info.

agreed, i did the same thing and it's quite simple. but it's something most can't do and when you're showing up to work dripping in sweat those big repair bills don't seem quite as bad. second/third quotes are a good thing. price around.

you'll want the XT6 to be AWD, have you checked that yet? if it's a manual or rear ratio of 3.9 it's AWD. if it's air suspension it's AWD. rear - backing plate, hub, rotor. unbolt and take the entire rear control arm with caliper and rotor and you're golden. i think you'll want the brake line too if yours is rear drums. (but being a turbo i think it should have rear discs already) on the fronts i've heard someone say they got EA82 control arms to work though probably best to snag the XT6 ones while you're there. to get technical - lower suspension arm, ball joint, tie rod ends, front calipers, struts, rotors, backing plate, knuckles and axles. basically take everything up front you can get. keep it as an assembly for easy removal and install. snag the front air struts from the XT6. the rear struts in your wagon will work fine. i've always wondered if the height sensors between EA82 and XT6 air struts (rears since they are swappable) are different in anyway? that being said, you might be better off grabbing the rear XT6 air struts just in case they are. i've gotten a good deal of info from searching the boards, so use that and you'll find some good pictures, write ups and info on it.

let's define "tune up" what are you referring to when you say tune up? cause i don't even know what i mean! tune ups aren't like they used to be. used to require adjusting the carb, grease some zerk fittings, adjusting the timing and other things that i'm not old enough to know about...etc. but kind of like your old lawn mower that never really runs right....well not really. modern cars don't require the tweaking older cars did. but there's money to be made by advertising "tune up". sounds like something you should do but it's really quite vague and allows for lot$$$ of padding in the cost. if you've done the plugs, wires, air filter, fuel filter and such then you've done a good job at having a basic tune up. have the PCV valve replaced and consider the wires though i don't think those are cause for alarm. be sure to replace those with Subaru OEM wires and check the air filter. and consider having the transmission fluid replaced. has the trans fluid ever been replaced? check the belts, a stiff pulley (a/c or otherwise) will usually start to cause the belt to slowly disintegrate and you'll see fine black dust on the a/c, alternator or some other item close to the belt. couple bottles of fuel injector cleaner might not be a bad idea. try replacing the gas cap or having it tested (some emissions inspection stations can test your gas cap). are you positive it's vehicle related and not related to a job change, gas changes, elevation, less flat road driving, speed related, odometer discrepancy, lead foot related....lots of variables. subaru's should hold their performance levels to 100,000 easily.

+1 lots of words for little function. saying "plastic range" by default means you went through the elastic range, through the point of yield and into the plastic range....lots of words to say one thing. but no matter, the last thing i want to do is revisit materials classes, they were terrible. actually what your dad mentioned is the most profitable information to be gained in materials engineering. slap the appropriate equations in place for those terms he mentioned and consider yourself well versed in materials. it's all downhill, boring and useless from there! tell your dad i'm not listening to anyone who studied before Tacoma Narrows (that's a joke, ha ha). if you don't know what that is, look it up on the internet and check out the video, it's really cool. it's certainly the highlight of any civil engineering program. not sure if the vid's are copyrighted or available or not, but it's cool. reuse the headbolts. subaru does. not often that head gaskets fail pre-200,000 miles and if they get a head gasket replacement they don't typically re-fail (you turbo guys aren't allowed to respond!!!)

sounds about right to me. they're usually straight forward and toque isn't that critical so long as they are seated flush and can't come loose. the electrical connections, corrossion, dirt are important sounds like you addressed those just fine.

if the timing belt has never been done now is the time. highly unlikely that would affect mileage, i've never seen timing belts do that. water pump should be replaced and timing pulleys checked (they run out of grease basically). any noisey or free wheelin' ones should be replaced. onto the gas mileage - has it ever had a tune up? get new NGK (stock OEM) spark plugs, new OEM Subaru spark plug wires, air filter, fuel filter and PCV valve. do it all at the same time, easier to keep track of what's been done and you'll know all major items are addressed. also check tire pressure and have the transmission fluid replaced (if it's an automatic). manual trans too can be replaced, but less likely to affect driveability in my oppinion assuming everyting is working properly.

it would be odd for a condensor this new to randomly start leaking unless it was punctured. any recent work done to the car, any recent mishaps to cause this on the front end? a loose belt can cause the a/c to not work well, but you're likely to hear whinig or screetching noises with that. there are fittings at the condenser, with each fitting have an oring to seal it. those orings can leak...though shouldn't on this new of a vehicle. if the oring is to blame, it's a 3 dollar part and the dealer doesn't stand to make much money so replacing the entire condensor is much more profitable. me - i'd install a good used condenser as they don't fail too often (unless someone punctures it). i just priced a new one on-line at $167.00 just for the part. add more for dealer mark-up, installation, etc....i'd say at least $500. the dealer will install a new condenser, say you have to get a new drier too (which really isn't a terrible idea depending how bad the leak is) charge you for vaccuuming the system and charging it with freon. $500 - $1000 depending how far behind they are on their boat payments.

not sure either M. at first on paper it showed California spec belts/vehicles as 105,000 mile interval belts and others as shorter. it is a matter of debate whether back then the belts were really any different. for now it doesn't really matter, any new belt you buy from Subaru will be the 105,000 mile spec. belt even if it originally was less.

at that mileage unless you can verify exactly when they were done you'd want to have it done very soon. whether or not they were done isn't the issue so much as when were they done.