GeneralDisorder

Touche! But yeah - you need the rods too. The heat is getting to my neurons. GD

It's pretty simple to monitor the fan's - just plug a scanner into the OBD-II port and watch the temp. They should cut in at about 205* F. When the vehicle is in motion - anything above about 20 MPH - the fans are superfluous because the forward motion of the car pushes air across the radiator. The fans SHOULD NEVER have to be on while the car is moving as the temp should regulate to about 190* F on it's own. Subaru uses a cold-side-controlled thermostat of about 170* - assuming a delta of 20* across the radiator you should see a hot side temp of about 190 - which is where the coolant temp sensors are located. GD

No the ECU case is not required to be grounded - but it's a good idea to have it mounted in such a way that it is. GD

No sense in rebuilding a 48mm block and crank. Trade it out for a '99+ block and crank - get back the 52mm rod journals and the improved #5 thrust bearing. You can use the 25D pistons and rods if you like. GD

They aren't held in at all. They should just fall out. If they don't then there's a ridge holding them in place. Which likely means the head is garbage due to lifter bucket wear and so are the lifters so throw the whole mess in the scrap metal bin. GD

As mentioned - you should also check the ignition timing and if the vac advance is working. They tend to have diaphram failure problems by this age. Without your full ignition advance you will not get proper performance or economy. GD

Makes no sense. When the car is moving it doesn't (shouldn't) need radiator fans at all. Thus they wouldn't be the cause of an overheat while driving. I would suspect they have bandaided the car in some way - drilled holes in the thermostat or gutted it, put some HG sealer goo in the system, etc. How do you know when a used car dealer is lying?...... Easy - his lips are moving! GD

There is no filter inside or outside of the tranny. If it's slipping then it needs to be replaced. No amount of maintenance will cure that for any length of time that will be worth the effort. A used replacement will be the best value. http://opposedforces.com/parts/ Cheapest does not always mean best - or even that they will work at all. You have to be careful what brands you choose to buy and for some things the dealer is the only viable option for a variety of reasons. www.rockauto.com is a good general source with excellent prices. www.subarupartsforyou.com has a useful catalog as it lists OEM part numbers. GD

My 650 Ft/lb gun never fails to remove staked axle nuts. Takes them off like they weren't even torqued. Chicago Pnuematic FTW. GD

You may have ground - but how good is it? With a custom install like that you have to insure your connections and your wire sizing can carry the required current. Just because you have continuity using a 9v battery in your meter doesn't mean it can carry a 10 amp draw from a real component. Get yourself a set of these and watch the youtube video on how to use them: http://www.amazon.com/Electronic-Specialties-180-LOADpro-Dynamic/dp/B004IKPUL2 GD

They are great cars if you don't get one that's been abused by a kid. Most of the one's for sale have been, and you can just assume that any you see on a used car dealers lot have been abused much more than the average example. Don't even bother buying one from a dealer. My shop is on an "auto mall" strip and I have the opportunity to see what they sell on a daily basis. A 20-something kid from down the street comes by my shop needing help with an '04 WRX he bought with a rod knock. Says he owns the dealership :-p. Anyway I torched off a rounded exhaust nut for him and he shows me the short block he's putting in it.... it's sitting on a tire with no oil pan or heads on it in a filthy hole of a shop. The cylinder walls are washed out clean and smooth. I tell him it will be an oil burner at the very least. That car is for sale right now on his lot for $9k. He put it together himself with the worst selection of tools I've seen in a while and in a nasty, dirty shop. Whoever buys that will be lucky to see another 10k on that engine. That's just one story - I have many more. GD

You have power supply and grounding issues most likely. Pretty much impossible to diagnose any of that without having the car since the entire fuel injection and ignition system have been custom installed into a different chassis. GD

There is air or exhaust gasses in your cooling system. That's what creates the noise. The Subaru stop leak (HOLTS Radweld) is used to fix the external weepage problem. Not a bad seal on a HG fire ring. It will do less than nothing for your problem. Bubbles in the coolant is not a failure mode of your year engine's HG's. They weep externally. You need to test these bubbles for exhaust gas contamination. You may not have a HG problem at all. The used engine market is national. Shipping an engine is simple, and relatively cheap compared to their price. In any case you don't want a phase-II EJ22 as they are expensive. If you replace it at all then replace it with an EJ25. Sounds like you have a problem but it's not going to be solved with coolant conditioner. I would be having a talk with your mechanic - something is not right with a HG job that only lasts 32k miles. GD

Hard not to point out the obvious.... The reason the carb didn't make much difference in power is because you haven't got it tuned right . That much is clear by the large decrease in fuel mileage - obviously you are running rich. A rich running condition will be apparent by a bogging, loss of power sensation... or in your case... "Hitachi performance" because you haven't experienced what a properly tuned Weber feels like. Beg, borrow, or steal a Wideband O2 sensor and find out where you really are AFR wise. Makes tuning a lot easier for those that aren't familiar with how a carb works and what the different jets do. GD

Why don't you just call them and get a quote? GD

My commercial account price at my dealer is $0.90 each for the OEM crush washers. And they deliver to my shop for free. Not much point in using anything less IMO. And I do replace them quite often. Half the time I pull off plugs they are missing - probably lost at lube joints that have poo-flinging monkeys climbing on cars.... GD

Doesn't even look like a crack to me - clean it up with a wire brush and get another picture. Looks like an undercut on the weld or something. Frankly it's probably been that way since it was new - I would just run it. GD

You have a few possibilities - clogged radiator, bad thermostat, head gaskets or air in the system - though air usually results in a cold upper radiator hose and tank. Start with the thermostat - replace it with an OEM one or a Stant XACT stat (also OEM). DO NOT use an aftermarket thermostat. That could be part of the problem. GD

What other mods are you planning that would require a larger, hotter spark? GD

Can't even see much in that pic. Looks fine to me - throw a bead of weld on it if you like. I would probably just run it. This is a Brat - not a swiss watch. GD

It's not calcification. It's the dry form of battery acid. It means there is some leakage going on around your terminals. You can clean it with baking soda and water then grease the terminals with a good dielectric grease. That will help prevent it from forming. A new battery will be in order eventually - leakage like that begins the end-life of a "maintenance free" battery. Kmart in Austrailia.... wow. GD

RWD has a fun factor all to itself. You can't really compare the two on the grounds of "more car" or "less car" as they are designed for entirely different driving styles. The BRZ is for those that enjoy having the rear end step out a little on a corner and it's entirely a street machine. It's not a rally car and it's not designed to be one. I like both - they serve different purposes and different audiences. Costing less and having a feature that would defeat the entire purpose of the other is not grounds for it being "more car". That said - there's four reasons I won't be buying one: 1. Never buy the first generation of any product. Let other people do the beta testing. 2. It's not a turbo. 3. The only reason it's not a turbo yet is because Subaru is greedy and they want all the early adopters to buy an NA BRZ and then in 3 to 5 years when the turbo version (STi version perhaps?) comes out they can sell the same person another car. 4. No used BRZ's on the market. Buying a new car is a huge money losing proposition. I have money because I don't do stupid things with it like buying new cars that will lose half their value over the next 3 to 5 years. Letting someone else take the loss is much more practical. Especially for something that's a "want", not a "need". (Though now that I have a Subaru specialty/performance shop... I may "need" one as a marketing tool :-p). They could have just turbocharged it from the outset - and I'm sure they have reasons beyond the obvious desire to sell more cars - but I'm also sure that's the overiding principle here. GD

It's normal to see that kind of varnish under the seperator plates. Even on clean engines (I'm not saying that one is) you will still see a considerable amount of varnish in that location. The inside of the valve covers tells the real story - if that's clean then it's a good bet it had proper maintenance. The cam cap and rear wrist pin covers use special o-rings of sizes that are not in a generic kit - the diameter of the o-ring cord used for those is quite small - 1mm or 1.5mm IIRC. You will have to get those from the dealer. GD

Oh yeah im still around - mostly down at my new shop. PM me and ill send you my address and such. GD

It is not a sealed unit. You will still need the seals. All the rear bearings work the same but there's different configurations - some are three peice and some are five peice. Depends on the brand and on what year the car was. They all interchange the same though. GD