GeneralDisorder

The 03 is a third gen and has the EJ251 engine. GD

Even EA82 pumps are pretty much the same. Just have to get the right kit so you need to know what year and model it came from. GD

Wow that blows. Every one of those is gauranteed in stock at my dealer. They carry 4 seperator plates and bolt sets at all times (I've bought all they had a few times). And at least that many rear main's. They have Outback and Forester fog light assemblies and at least 3 of those cheap, reman 95 to 99 alternators..... :-p. All at basically similar pricing to www.1stsubaruparts.com when you consider shipping into the total cost.... I'm super lucky to live 3 miles from them. Makes my life a lot easier. Seriously - all dealers don't suck! It's true! GD

Every dealer I know of stocks that hose - usually in quantities of more than one. It's often replaced when doing the water pump because they end up oil soaked and bloated from cam seal leaks. I just refer to is as the water pump by-pass hose and my parts people know exactly what I want. But then my parts guy has been on the job for Subaru for 31 years. And yeah - I think I pay about $10 for that hose from the dealer. Radiator hoses are about $14. But then I get local shop wholesale rate. Actually I get amazing prices considering it's a dealership. They are often comparable to the prices from any other parts store or sometimes better. GD

Well I for one have never torqued a spark plug in my life and I have also never had same get spat out. But to each his own. The combo that works best is a wobbly plug socket (built in wobbly), 1.5" extension, and a 1.5" wobbly extension (the kind that allows some movement but not a full-on wobbly adaptor). And a normal socket wrench. GD

It's not that bad - start at the ECU and work your way out from there. Basically any connector not connected to the Manifold, O2's, MAF, MAP, Ignitor, FP relay, Ignition relay, diagnostic connectors, or Alternator gets cut - any wires that go back to the ECU leave as long as possible when you do your cutting. Then trace out what each of the wires going to the ECU that got cut do based on your diagrams and wire them up. Besides a little bit of confusion that is bound to happen surrounding the power feeds from the fuse panel - it's pretty simple and straightforward. The power and ground circuits are somewhat confusing because they branch out all over the place - just remember that any connector that doesn't go to one of the devices you need gets removed - you trace it's wires either to another connector you don't need (cut and remove as much as possible), to a factory splice (cut it there and leave the circuit intact except for the branch going to the connector you are working on), to the ECU (leave it as long as you can), or to another connector that you need (figure out what it is and label - leaving it as long as possible from the connector you are saving). Follow those basic 4 rules and you can't really go wrong. Once you do a few and you are able to recognize the connectors from memory - it's almost an auto-pilot job. I can pretty much do a harness from whole to install-ready in about 4 hours. :-p GD

Should fit fine. GD

The contact cement doesn't add enough uneveness to talk about - and it stays pretty flexible. When you are moving the head in circles you are distributing the uneveness of the paper and contract cement (which is a "fine" sort of uneveness) across the head. The glass makes the whole sheet flat - the roughness of the contact cement is on the same order as the roughness of the paper itself and is inconsequential to the process. Some roughness is required on the part of the grit of the paper in order to remove material - the contact cement application roughness is in the same "frequency" as the paper grit..... if you understand my meaning. I clean the paper when it gets clogged and I change it about halfway through each head. So that I end up using about two sheets of each grit per head. So two sheets of 220 and two sheets of 320/400, etc. I clean them by spraying liberally with WD-40 and blotting with a paper towel. Don't scrub or you will leave paper towel leavings on the paper. Blotting is the key and LOTS of WD-40. Mineral spirits will remove the contact cement on the glass easily. No scraping is required. It will melt it and wipe away. GD

I mean the glass is sitting on top of a peice of plywood - just to reinforce the table top. And also I put nails at the corners of the glass so it wouldn't move around and the plywood add weight so the whole thing won't move around while I'm working. As thick as you can reasonably get and 24x24 is a good size. Should fit on most benches/countertops. GD

You need to stop the leaks that bring the moisture into your car. Remove things that retain it also - carpeting is cheif among the wet crap in your vehicle. It also hides leaks that would otherwise pool and be visible and traceable. Repaint the lines on the back window with a silver electronics circuit pen. Get your thermostat working properly and your heater core flowing really well - should be able to bring the heat on much quicker if you address your cooling system. GD

Things like guides and seats can be problematic.... but with the right tools they could be done in the home shop. They are typically pressed in - sometimes guides are staked in place or knurled. Knurling a guide is not something you can easily do without a lathe... You can definitely do most head work - lap the existing valves, etc. Guide replacement is usually done with special shouldered punches. Seats are usually pressed in with an arbor press arrangement - none of that stuff is outside of the realm of a home shop - but some trail-error is probably going to ensue if you don't have some experience or training. Depending on which head design you are talking about - Subaru heads can and do end up with worn out guides. Especially the DOHC heads I've noticed. Getting the valve adjustment set correctly is time consuming when replacing valves and seats on the bucket/shim or shimless bucket heads. You have to carefully grind the valve stem till you hit the mark that you want for clearance - or go shopping for shim or buckets. Shims are about $6 each and shimless buckets are like $16 each. Those suckers add up real fast and thus grinding the valve stem is the prefered approach to adjusting the valves if you have the head off. GD

LOL. You're going to love putting plugs in that 255. They are a PITA. Coil-over plug so you have to contend not only with the plugs themselves but also the coil packs. I find that a wobbly plug socket (built in wobbly) a 1.5" extension, and a 1.5" "wobbly" extension (solid extension that allows slight wobble) works the best for me. That combination is flexible enough but also ridgid enough to get in and out of the plug wells and be able to twist without the socket combo rolling up like a rope. You should use the NGK or Denso Iridiums. The turbo engines don't like other brands and you need the iridiums to hopefully last a while before you have to do that horrible job again. If you see ANY valve cover leaks - especially on the passenger side - just do the valve covers at the same time. It makes doing the plugs a little easier to have the valve covers off. GD

If you are clever you can modify the wastegate actuator on a VF11 to open at less than 1 psi. Then you can dial in the pressure you want with a boost controller. 4 or 5 psi will be alright for a little while. But it will not last in the long run. You are better off building a frankenmotor - more reliability and about the same power. GD

Yes that's still very steep - the oil leak from the oil cooler is about an extra 10 minutes on top of an oil change and each of the valve covers is less than an hour. You should pay no more than $300 parts and labor for both. That's $100 for parts (still high as they would be about $40 from the dealer) and two hours at dealer labor rates of basically $100 per hour. GD

You make an excellent point and that can indeed happen. The needle is only a friction fit with the gauge's "drive shaft" so-to-speak - so that it can be pushed by the stop pin and then it will read innacurately. It could be taken apart and readjusted and zero'ed out again with the adjuster inside the gauge but it's a pain. GD

The Denso iridium plugs are good - I use them on all the DOHC engines (especially the turbo's) - not because they work any better but because they will last 100k and the fishing expedition required to change plugs on those engines is to be avoided if possible. I use the cheap NGK's on all the SOHC engines. I've never had fouling issues from either. So he made and acceptable choice - the Denso's are about half the price of the NGK iridium version. Japanese made and good quality in my experience. GD

EJ251's weep coolant AND oil from the head gaskets. That is their failure mode. GD

What bolt exactly do you need? GD

If you just replace the bearings you won't need a 50% sale. They are only about $10 each for the bearings from a bearing house - 6207-2RS-C3. GD

Take your trip - carry coolant, and oil, and 1 quart of ATF for the power steering. Check your fluids every morning and top off as needed on your trip. Find a board member in your area that can take care of the rest for 1/4 the price that shop quoted. Tell your friends to avoid that shop. GD

You need to verify your operating temp - the dash gauge is a waste of time. Use an infra-red temp gun or a k-type thermo-couple if you have a meter that can register one. The operating temp of the engine should be between 180 and 220* F. If it's not - start with the thermostat - get one from the dealer along with the gasket. If it is - most likely you have a clogged or partially clogged heater core and/or debris in the blower motor housing. The leaves you park under are not likely to be the culprit - the baffles that keep water out also keep out virtually all of the junk as well. It's all pretty simple and scientific - you do some tests with a temp meter and then you make the neccesary adjustments. GD

Coolant runs through those passages. Lookup Deck plate or block gaurd - it's common in the Honda community to install a reinfocing bit to hold the cylinders in alignment.... http://www.goldeneaglemfg.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=76_93&products_id=146 The EJ257 uses a semi-closed deck block that pretty much eliminates the need for further reinforcing. You can sleeve a 22T up to at least the same bore size as the 257 and get a fully closed deck but they don't flow coolant as well. GD

That's what I've seen, yes. The hydro block is a completely different casting - so the lifters can be removed without splitting the block.... and some of the bolt bosses are different to acomidate the turbo accesory mounts..... GD

A full fill of the transmission and TC is actually about 7.5 quarts or something. But you will only get about 1 gallon out if you drain the pan and then refill it. Standard practice around here is to drain/fill the tranny 3 times - driving about 10 to 20 miles between each - in order to insure that you have changed a high percentage of the fluid. Takes about 3 gallons to do this but it can be very helpful for cureing torque bind, etc. I don't prescribe to the cheap oil philisophy - I run synthetic in anything that I give a crap about. But transmissions don't produce blow-by and their fluid isn't exposed to combustion in any way. ATF is just hydraulic fluid and if changed regularly it doesn't really have to deal with anything but some metal particulate and some moisture. It's not a tough environment for the fluid and the Subaru transmissions do just fine on the cheap stuff - at any rate they don't do any better or last any longer if you use expensive fluid.... changing the fluid at the right interval is 10x more important. GD

They are probably similar enough to work if you remove the tone-ring. Gen 1/2 axles are the same. You are asking about 2/3 axle compatibility. That I'm not sure of..... but I don't see why they would be any different. GD