GeneralDisorder

The VF11 is a good turbo. People have also used the early WRX TD04's - they are more plentiful but require slightly more modification. Either is sized well for a turbo upgrade on the EA82T. The consensus is to keep the boost turned down as much as possible and do not under any circumstances exceed 10 psi or so. An intercooler and a turbo upgrade will increase performance even if you *don't* turn up the boost - and an intercooler is never a bad idea for reliability. Keep it cool and stay within it's limits - that's the name of the game. GD

And WAY more cost. The whole concept of the frankenmotor is built around being inexpensive. Go ahead and price out a head rebuild on the DOHC heads, and a set of high-comp pistons and rings. Now you are talking about opening up the block..... that's not what this is about. Frankenmotor recipe: 1. Used, good condition EJ25D short block ~$200 2. Rebuilt EJ22E heads (generally you already have them so only the rebuild cost) ~$160 3. Timing belt/WP kit ~$120 4. Delta torque cams ~$170 5. Misc. gaskets and seals ~$100 That's a grand total of $750 for an engine that reliably makes over 200 HP without a turbo. If you wanted to use the DOHC heads - add another $350 to the rebuild cost, and another $170 for two more cams. Around $500 for high comp. pistons and then about $500 more for bearings and rings. That brings the cost up to about $1800 - well over double the cost for gains that are incremental and all above 5k RPM because you still have the some comp. ratio - just heads that flow 25% more. Not a win. And arguing that using the whole used EJ25D is better is not viable either - they run about $1200 for a good used one, and are only 165 HP stock. Also not a win - more expensive and lower performing. GD

We have had idling issues with the first-gen ECU's (90 to 94) and the torque cams..... it's not that bad though with the EJ22. If you do the frankenmotor it's way beyond what the ECU can handle it seems. GD

It's not easy to procure. I don't know of any retailer that sells it. When I need it I buy it by the case from a former employer of mine that buys it directly from Chemsearch.... it's about $160 a case (12 cans). A while back I did a group buy on the stuff and bought three cases for board members. http://www.chemsearch.com/productDetail.asp?country=USA&language=English&language_id=4&countryName=United+States&pLetter=Y&pName=Yield%C2%AE%C2%A0%0D%0A GD

Yield - I use it all the time. GD

Count me in for a B.H..... Just bought a t-cased hatch (THE t-cased hatch?!?) and it's pretty much a no-brainer to go over to the Yota transmission. Any way we can get on a list for one of the first batch or what's the game? GD

Yeild is the best. PB Blaster is like water by comparison. WD-40 is for Water Displacement - it's no good for corrosion. GD

You can't easily replace the ferrule on those EGR tubes since the tubing is crimped on the end.... you would have to replace the whole tube. I would just clean it up with a file and keep using it. GD

It would end up being lifted. If that's what you want.... no reason you can't do it. Notching the frame rails and boxing them in would be much easier. GD

Heat it up as much as you can and shock it while hot with penetrant - should break the rust bond. Then clamp the vice grips on so tight it hurts your eyeballs and smack it with the heaviest thing you can find ........ GD

Clamp onto it with the biggest vice-grips you can and hammer on it with a 4lb drilling hammer. Those are always tight.... GD

If it sounded ok I would buy it..... cheap of course . I can't think of a reason that jumping the car would cause abnormal strain on the transmission..... suspension and body would take the biggest hit. If it doesn't have any bearing noises, the syncro's all work as designed, doesn't pop out of gears when you let off the accelerator, etc - go for it. GD

Sounds like you got it under control. Good job. I would definitely check on that blockage you felt and it sounds like it's time to replace the radiator hoses also. GD

You could use an impact of any type - though a cheap battery or electric one might not do much at times. A pneumatic or quality electric/battery operated impact will do the job nicely. Mine *claims* it makes 650 ft/lbs but I doubt it. You can also easily do it by hand with a ratchet and a cheater bar or just a long handled ratchet or breaker bar. And yes - with the exception of removeing the outboard inner race from the hub, the FWD service set has everything you need to do a wheel bearing with hand tools.... without removing the knuckle from the car. Though I almost always do remove the knuckle and put in in my bench vise for easier access. It has all the right sizes and works perfectly. A dremel would eventually work it's way through the outboard inner race - get the largest, toughest cutting wheels you can find..... Or just buy a cheap puller and grind the arms to fit under the lip of the race. Hell - buy a bearing seperator and drive the hub out of the race with a brass punch. There's a lot of ways to get it off. GD

That's a good point about the block distortion - hadn't considered that myself. The stock final torque value on the EA82's is 47 ft/lbs..... but the stock Subaru gaskets require a retorque where the bolts are loosened, oiled, and retightened after a run-in period. The Fel-Pro's supposedly don't require this extra step. As an added safegaurd against having to retoque the gaskets (because it's a huge pain in the rump roast), I typically do a final torque of 55 ft/lbs after the 47 just to be doubly sure. Emperical evidence sugests that this is not a detrimental practice at least in the case of the EA engines as both the 55 ft/lbs and the Fel-Pro gaskets have proven quite reliable in everyday testing. In any case 8 ft/lbs is not a lot and I did it as much because I was using a cheap $20 torque wrench and wanted to make sure I wasn't on the loose side due to any innaccuracies in the tool..... which was probably an unfounded supposistion as they are actually quite accurate but I didn't know that years ago when I was messing with EA stuff and doing lots of HG's on them. I rarely touch one anymore - mostly I work on EJ's and I use the stock HG torque from the FSM GD

They are different aspects of the job. The puller is to remove the *outboard, inner* race from the hub - not the outer race from the knuckle which is what they are talking about. If you don't have any other way to get the outboard inner race off the hub you can simply cut it off with a die grinder. Or if you have a press as apparently a number of us do - a bearing seperator makes short work of the outboard inner race. GD

In my experience the HF FWD Service Set has plenty of force to do the job. I operate it with my 1/2" impact or sometimes an 18" 1/2" ratchet. So far I have done a '91 Legacy front, '98 SUS rear, '99 Forester rear, and a '97 Impreza front. None of them gave me any trouble. I *also* have a 20T press - and I prefer to use the FWD set for this job. The forces that can be acheived with threads are quite high - especially if you use a relatively fine thread. GD

There's a local machine shop (that I trust) that does EJ25D long-block rebuilds for $1300 out the door - that's bearings, rings, and complete head rebuild, etc. Not sure what shipping would run but it's worth a phone call. He does these a LOT for the Subaru dealerships and shops in my area. Real nice guy too. http://stevesprecisionmachine.com/home.nxg CCR has not had good reviews on this site of late. I am not a customer of their's - at the end of the day their prices are just out of this world. Also - the noise you hear on startup when cold is most likely piston slap. Very good chance your engine can be saved just by putting in the new updated head gaskets. GD

The same build that Jacob runs (EJ25D block+HG's, EJ22E dual-port heads, delta torque cams) was dyno'd by someone on NASIOC (at a fairly high elevation IIRC) at 208 HP. So far we have had no reliability problems with this combo running 92 octane. My butt dyno agree's with that figure. I've driven a lot of different rides with around that much power and it definitely feels like it's right around the 200 mark. The torque is obscene as well - it starts at 1200 RPM. Jacob's Brat is not lifted as it is built for Rally-X.... as such it's quite a dangerous machine even on dry pavement if you aren't a fairly experienced driver. The front helical LSD probably has something to do with that. It will outrun a stock 2.0 WRX and probably give a stock 2.5 WRX a darn good run. GD

Yeah - looking at the valves closer it does look like the valves and seats are pretty hammered. Not much left of the valve faces or seats I wouldn't guess. Probably be prudent to rebuild the short-block but I would have to see it. GD

Subaru issued a TSB telling their tech's to ignore cracks between the valves. It's normal - you will not find a used head that doesn't have them. Resurface the heads and run them. GD

Head gasket - classic symptoms. Sorry about your luck. GD

Ok - you do realize there are two dipsticks for the transmission right? One for the front diff (gear oil) and another for the actual transmission fluid (Dexron III)..... just checking that you are aware of this.... If fluid level isn't the issue - I would say the transmission is shot. Odd since they are quite reliable and doubly odd that it would happen right after major engine work. Very strange indeed. GD

Well if you just kept the TC attached to the transmission that makes it much less likely that something went wrong. When you were installing the bolts from the flex-plate to the TC did it pull the TC up to meet the flex plate or was the TC pushing on the flex-plate? Typically the TC has to be drawn up to the flex-plate about 1/8" or so..... after the engine and transmission are fully bolted together. Did you bolt the engine and tranny together first and then put the flex-plate bolts in or the other way around? There should have been no resistance to mating the engine and tranny other than the friction of the alignment pins..... GD

The difference in compression is 9.0:1 for carb, 9.5:1 for SPFI. Different pistons. You can swap them back and forth all you want - the SPFI blocks are rated at 90 HP and the carb blocks at 84 HP. The difference is too small to really be an issue. You might see half a MPG less with the SPFI if you give it a lower compression short block. 6 HP is really pretty meaningless either way - you aren't going to feel a tremendous difference unless other mods increase the spread between the two. The biggest problem with running high-compression and a carb is that you have no knock control. Not that the SPFI does either but it DOES have the ability to be factory tuned to insure it doesn't ever get into detonation and break something. Someone that knows how to tune carbs can make the high comp. block work but you do need to know what you are doing. GD