MorganM

I'm with Phillip on this one. I would get the valves re seated if they looked pited up and the valve seats looked worn. Good call on checking the vavle stems thorugh the ports to see if they show signs of valve guide wear. theotherskip's suggestions on what else should be attended to is dead on. Now is the time to take care of those things. Since you will be taking off (or atleast moving aside) the intake manifold you will also need gaskets for that and the coolant crossover tube. If you end up doing the timing belt check the condition of your tesnioner pullie(s?) When you get this deep into an engine its time to dig up sekeltons and really see what all is wearing out and what needs attention. Just go over everything as you are working.

Has anyone actually cut out and ground down that unibody seam that sticks out purpondicular to the wheel well? Im at this point right now. Either bash the crap out of it so these 30"s dont rub or cut it out and grind it down. Looks like if I pound it there will be still a half inch of folded metal sticking out. If I could cut and grind it down I could gain that half inch back.

Thanks for reminding us here. I never go to that forum but maybe I should pop in there now and then to learn neat stuff like this

My GL came with some sort of undercoating. Its a thick, chunky black material similar to bedliner in a can. Anywhere that stuff is the car is solid. Everywhere it had scrapped off years ago there is now rust or a hole. Another key factor is mud flaps! They arent just for getting chics Saves the poor fenders in the front and rear. Here is the poor mans undercoating that I learned myself and also noticed the OZ guys like to use Used motor oil and dust! I noticed in my engine bay where thick dirty oil had formed a protective skin that any metal and paint underneath was MINT. I mean you wipe it off and its showroom finish. Some have gone as far as slapping it on after an oil change and running up an down the gravel road Maybe not quite the sollution you are looking for but it works

I was told the XT6 flywheel swaps in too if you want a lighter flywheel.

I was hoping for something in October as well but, like McBrat, I have no time between work and life I still need to get in my 4WD tranny and drive shaft! Now we are on 10 hour days here due to "Operations Tempo" so spring is sounding more realistic Maybe at the start of the wet season so we can all play in the mud?

Please take my advice and stop throwing parts at a problem you havent even diagnosed fully. Instead of buying a $70 alternator you could have bought a $10 needle stethiscope and figured out what exactly is making this noise.

That looks mint Qman. What did you use to cut the hood with? Rotozip? Dremel? Recpricating saw? Thx

Looks about teh same shape as my '88 GL wagon. To be blunt you are beyond the point of no return. Just drive on with a on your face knowing full well you will eventually be replacing it. Good news is you can salvage all you want thats still good for your next Subaru Shoot for a GL series next time and you will fall in love all over again. Personaly I found teh Loyales to be more like the DL models. THe GL, GL10, XT, etc etc have so much more stuff to play with :cool:

Get a mechanic stethiscope and start probing. Sticking your head under the hood will only locate the general area, at best.

soobme: brake lines are fine.

soobme: how cheap were those Remingtons? these crapadelic baja widetraks I have right now wont last me long

New to working on cars in general? Start easy Just start doing general maitainace yourelf. You will learn alot about your specific car. Once you start learning precisly how these complex systems all work together you can start seeing room for improvment in areas. Its amazing what you learn just doing oil changes, spark plugs, plug wires, alternators, radiator, thermostat, water pump, timing belts, rotoating tires, etc etc. By doing these relativly easy maitanace projects you are touching and familiarzing yourself with veriouse systems of yoru car such as cooling, iginition, suspension, etc etc. Perhaps I assume to much from your post, maybe you are already familiar with all of this and if so please take no offense. Thank you.

Awsome! Glad to hear it swaped in and she is up and running. Compensation? Come install my 4WD dual range tranny for me j/k

The temp sensor in the intake manifold is one of the highest points of the coolant system. You will have to drain very little from the coolant system to swap it out with out a big mess. My trick to bleeding the coolant system is this: Take it slow. Be patient in letting it settle down, then add more, settle, add... Use the lower radiator hose like a hand pump. You can force out air and suck in coolant with it. Once she gets almost full you squeeze it in, pour in a bit of coolant, then let it out and watch it suck all that in. Repeat this untill it simply will not burp out any more air or suck in any more coolant. Make sure the overflow is properly filled and you shoudl be good to go. There should be a bleed valve on top of the radiator also that you can use to get the final little bit of air out. This method has worked very well for me. Ive never had to use the bleeder screws to bleed the system doing it this way. HOpe it makes sense and helps

I dont want to make this sound simple or anything but your final paragraph makes it sound overly complex Kevin. You dont need to track down all of those individual parts for the rear, you just pull the entire rear main subframe assembly with all that crap still attached to itself. What GeneralDisorder and Kevin are both saying, in general, is true. Its a major project. I have 16 hours of hard labor into my swap right now and I'm half way to 4WD. Granted I'm installing a lift kit at the same time but honestly that's one of the easier aspects of this project.

archemitis: Just today I saw a silver EA81 hatch back screaming down Lyndale... and you werent driving it! Looked IDENTICAL to yours and I was about to flag you down but I saw it wasnt you driving then as it drove off I saw it was 4WD.

Fight it till the bitter end... and when they finally bury you in paper work and legal actions that take more time away from your life then you can afford; it's time for a 5speed swap Now you know why I will never buy another automatic transmission

I dont see why it would be any different then the older ones. You need all those parts when converting old models to 4WD. I think it would be much easier to swap in a new engine on a blown up 4WD model I know that doesnt always work out either however. I'm half way thorugh converting my old GL wagn from 2WD to 4WD. After doing all this, owning a Legacy myself and working on plenty I think its doable and wo uld be a blast.

Get that pulley swaped in yet? No worries on money for that thing. Someone needed it years ago and they fell through on the deal so it was just wasting space. Let me know if you need a hand. Peace

wow holy crap that sounds pissed off! I LIKE!

This is one of the most active Subaru boards around but your question is very unique. I would agree with the tech. who told you that it would require the wireharness and such for it to work properly. On the back are lots of plugs and wires that go to specific devices. While you CAN figure it all out and wire some stuff up yourself it will be a lot of work. How about some aftermarket guages and guage clusters?

Too bad they removed the side steps That decreased the MAX passanger capacity by 1 atleast (maybe 2 if you they had small enough feet to share the side step ) Also made it harder for short people to access their BRAT bed! Was that the original intent of those things? There must be some VERY short people working at Subaru if they couldnt lean over that thing and reach in the bed

that thing is looking stellar man, way to go

WOW! That's looking sweet. Sooo.... you heating the whole planet with that heater? Need some walls and a roof to keep that heat in! hehe