idosubaru

the only issue i can think of is to check your VENT hose and vent orifices at the top of the transmission. these vent pressure from inside the transmission. if this vent hose or orifice was plugged somehow that could build pressure internally that needs to be relieved somewhere and could put too much pressure on the backside of the seal. if the venting isn't too blame, this is very strange, it's strange anyway. i have no inclination as to what the problem would be, but i'd probably do all of the following to make sure it doesn't happen again: first the seal is held in place by the transmission. i would thoroughly check that mounting area the seal is pressed into. i'd mic the the entire diameter, sounds suspicious if it's not holding. then be sure to get a Subaru OEM torque converter seal and make sure it's for the right transmission. (it should be, not a ton of variance there). the only other thing related to this seal is the torque converter shaft riding through the middle of it. suppose it's out of balance or something? i'd replace the torque converter with the shaft and flexplate if you can find them. post in the parts wanted forum. good luck and i hope you can resolve this.

it wasn't always a standard option so some models may or may not have it as well. XT6 and GL-10's and maybe others could have it as well, but few of them do.

head gaskets are easy. best bet would be to get two used heads (sounds like you can pull them from another motor?), have them milled, valve job and cleaned before you start on the motor. the longest part of the job is cleaning up the heads, head bolts and head bolt holes. having heads ready to throw on saves a ton of time.

the engine typically would be fine for quite some time beyond this. but you are at the point that for reliability the timing belt pulleys need to be addressed as well. kind of a risk to replace belts and water pump but leave 200,000 mile pulleys and bearings in place. the pulleys loose grease over time. buy new ones (pricey) or repack them. i posted a thread on how to repack the timing pulley bearings for zero cost (well the cost of grease and 3 minutes of time). if you're looking to do this job and run it another 100,000 miles, i'd go ahead and do it right if reliability is a concern, which it sounds like it is since you're talking about buying "newer".

that is not correct. splice a switch in-line with Duty Solenoid C and you can lock the rear transfer clutches. i modded mine a couple years ago and others have recently done it as well. seems to work across the board on most 4EAT subaru trans. very simple and it works great. search the forum for more info before this topic gets off topic. P.S. - if you're looking for hauling capabilities of the Baja, why not get a trailer for your goods? is that a better option than major body modifications. then you can still look into lift kits and larger tires, locking rear diff, etc. i wouldn't expect too much in terms of body flares and such, never seen that. lift kits, if not already available are in the works.

you can rebuild, if you're close to a warehouse or electrical shop willing to help you find the right brushes and solenoid. i rebuilt some van, forget the make when i was in atlanta. but at the time i knew of a good supply warehouse. they matched up the parts and i put them in. they are very cheap, but finding them is the hard part. i've tried to source some good supply stores in maryland and no luck with any that will help out. it ends up being really cheap, but like i said need a little help or know where to find the parts. it'll be a matching type deal, find a replacement part based on the old one. agree with the above too...check battery connections and starter connections. any bad connection or a bad ground from battery to engine/body will cause the same situation. next time it clicks run jumper cables from battery ground to a good engine ground and see if it starts right up. that would narrow it down to a bad ground wire. or - do the opposite - run jumper cables from positive battery to starter and see if it starts. if it does then your cable, connections are to blame. as you can tell, you're only using one line of the jumper cables, make sure you use the same one.

thanks! i'll keep that in mind in case i don't find one, find a rusted one, end up welding up something to bet by for now.

i'm not having very good luck finding one, that's likely why. probably not legal in some states.

i'm looking for an EA82 (non turbo) exhaust header. none of the local yards have older subaru's. anyone know of any WV or PA pull it yourself yards that have a decent number of EA82's? preferrably close to MD?

i woudln't recommend any locktite on the threads, but i'm not saying "it's wrong", not trying to start a debate. the crank and pulley bolt are both iron, crank the CRAP out of them. if you reinstalled this bolt and did not crank it really tight, it'll come out again. that's likely why it came loose this time. the last time the timing belt or some other item requiring removal of this bolt was done, the bolt wasn't tightened enough. i use my socket with a 2 and a half foot pipe over the handle and have at it. I make it really tight, it's all cast iron so no worries on stripping threads. i mean you could if you wanted to, but you'd have to go ballistic on it. be sure it's tight...very tight right now or it'll happen again quite soon. i've never had one come out that i've tightened and i've probably done it 50-100 times. i have forgotten to tighten one before though!

i know nothing about gas. but i do know that years ago i did notice a couple mpg difference at the two local cheap gas stations compared to the others. a mile or 2 per gallon.

Could you get a better price on the vehicle? Running vehicles without a blown head gasket routinely sell for under $3000 at your mileage and year. I'd look for a better deal. Three subaru's of your vintage locally sold for $800, $500 and $1,500 - 2 with blown head gaskets and one with an "engine problem". i can buy you one and ship it to you for well under $3,000. If you stick with the car and want to keep it awhile then CCR is a great route, they have an excellent reputation. You get a warranty and a brand new motor. Well worth the extra expense. Replace the torque converter seal on the transmission and it should be golden.

i have a 1997 bumper available, it's blue and or gray. car is blue, can't recall what color the bumper is, i guess it's blue. i'm in maryland, i'll send an email.

how the vehicle is driven makes a significant difference as well. and terrain (flat verses mountains). driving to work, using the same gas station my mileage on my 89 Subaru XT6 is pegged at 25 mpg, doesn't vary more than 0.5 mpg. i drive 500 miles a week nearly all highway miles so i get very consistent conditions to compare, drive the same every day to work and back and mpg is almost always dead on. take the impreza on roads trips and get the same thing, nearly 25 mpg almost exactly every time. within 1mpg. that one seems to sway a little more than the XT6, but still less than 1.0 difference each time. since my wheels/tires are larger than stock it's really over 25, but that's what the numbers come out to. (it's really whatever percentage difference my tires make, haven't calculated it yet, but probably only a few percent higher mileage). either way, the comparison is the same. i'm driving 1000 miles or so this weekend in the impreza and expect the same consistent gas mileage, so i'd probably attribute it to driving conditions, weather, mountains or something like that.

nice job, busting that O2 sensor out, i recall my trouble with it the first time as well. not familiar with a 2WD loyale, but most soobs i've worked on can be done with an open ended wrench. no need to drop the exhaust down. for some reason exhaust header gaskets are quite robust on subaru's. they last forever. i've pulled off exhausts many times and reused gaskets with no problems. i've replaced bad ones before too, but they are reusable much more so than most gaskets. what kind of highway mileage you getting out of the 2WD trans?

not at the moment, but i'd like to keep it for awhile in case i re-turbo the thing. i have another turbo block and a brand new EA82 block to put the turbo goodies in...so i'd like to hang onto it until i'm confident with the XT project.

sounds okay, but there are much better deals to be had. i don't know your area though. if you need one now, test drive it and check it out. an average or okay deal now is better than finding only terrible deals when you need a car. if you can wait, hold off. in the states if you're willing to travel (fly and drive back) you expand your area and options and can get great deals. i've gotten most (almost all of my daily drivers) from other states. any service records? if not you may want to check into having the tbelts changed, that will be an additional cost.

awesome thanks for that link steve. i appreciate and printed it! what is an "L" series that you refer to? you mentioned you got an engine code after the swap, recall what that was? my donor motor doesn't have the a/c or alt on it, but appears to have the brackets. both being XT models (where yours was an XT to RX swap), maybe the alt and a/c will bolt in place? i'm converting it to XT6 electric power steering so no issue there. it has the crank pulley on it. i don't have the dogbone, i'll have to fabricate something for now. thanks for that heads up, i'll put an order in the parts wanted section. see how the throttle cable goes as well, that should be interesting. that might be my biggest concern at the moment. thanks again steve! here's a pic of the donor motor.

are you sure the valves need adjusted? valve cover gasket replacement would be well under $350. i would not replace the head gaskets now if there is absolutely no sign of failure. they could very well last much longer. but i would check your coolant level frequently and keep a gallon or two of coolant in the car or at least at home. keep an eye out for any amount of coolant loss. another reason i wouldn't replace them is that they don't necessarily BLOW all at once to the point you'll be stranded. annoying, yes and it might take some time letting the car cool off, not driving it while it's hot but you shouldn't get stranded if you keep an eye on the coolant level and temp gauge from time to time. if it does happen down the road, $1,100 is the going rate for head gasket replacement at a dealership as quoted by members on the board here. if you have the $ and plan on keeping the car awhile and want sure reliability then replacement is not a bad idea though (the new head gasket solves the problem and won't leak like the original). if you have the car another 5 years and 100,000 miles that averages out to $30 a month or less. big deal, beats another car payment! personally if the gaskets started to show signs of failure, i'd get a 2.2 liter motor install new timing belt and water pump and be done with it for $500. you'd be a happy subaru owner 150,000 miles later.

miles is right, don't get anxious about the calls to swap your trans. the axle should pop right back in. this same exact question was posted yesterday? weird.

Awesome! thanks guys, sounds good. The car and donor motor are both MPFI and 1987+. Original Car 1987.5 Turbo XT Donor is a complete MPFI XT 87.5 NON turbo one vote for a 2 wires disty that won't match and another vote says they will. guess i'll find out, that has to be resolvable. sounds like the swap should be fairly straight forward. no turbo stuff. i have the NA intake, still looking for an NA exhaust. hope you can snag another, i needed one. didn't have a motor for it at all. i was wondering if anyone here was considering it.

installing a 87.5 spider intake EA82 (nonturbo) MPFI engine in the next couple days. looking to clean it up as much as possible in terms of hoses and lines and such. ASV - do MPFI nonturbo motors have this? is that what that stupid metal fitting is that screws in by the head? it's only on one side, drivers side? i thought THAT was the EGR....XT6's are so much simpler when it comes to vacuum, hoses and lines.

depending on diff custom axles shouldn't be necessary. some nissan and subaru differentials are interchangeable, just have to swap the stub axles for the bolt on nissan stubs. those are interchangeable on the diff side so the axle stays with the vehicles. nissan guys call our (EA series) 3.7 and 3.9 rear diffs R160 and R180, same differentials used in 80's nissans. only the stub axles differ and they are interchangeable. so really you have whatever you want with no axle change. if you want 3.7 or 3.9 get the subaru (or R160/R180 nissan designation of the same box) or the newer soob diffs of higher ratio if you wanted that for some reason. 4.11...4.44...

if anyone mentions removable lines that are MPFI related too, mention that as well as i'm installing an MPFI EA82 within the next few days.

subaru_styles says there's a minor wiring difference, anyone else know what that might be? another member says the NA exhaust should clear the turbo cross member no problem.