GeneralDisorder

I get good used rack's with warantee for about $50 to $75..... it's about 3 to 4 hours labor to swap one out.... I charge about $40 an hour so figure another $160 and then you need an alignment which is about $75. So worst case from me would be around $300 to $350. A new rack from Subaru would increase the price by a LOT. I don't trust the "rebuilt" racks you can order through the aftermarket. They almost never fail anyhow so a good used one with good, dry boots is usually the best bet. GD

Adjust the choke? There are fast-idle adjustments but they aren't usually touched..... I would check the choke and adjust it first as it is integral to the fast-idle mechanism. GD

Could be a lot of things. Start looking around. Perhaps a blown-out exhaust gasket or a hole in the exhaust somewhere..... GD

It should be clarified that the AT Temp light will only flash after the 2nd key-on in a short period of time. You have to turn the ignition on, then off, then on again to get the light to flash indicating stored codes..... GD

The clutch pack itself is cheaper than the duty-c - I would have definitely replaced that while in there. With it locked up into torque bind they were probably overheated and damaged anyway. TCU's do fail as well - worth a try. GD

25D heads are popular for EJ257 short-block builds. They flow very well and make excelent turbo heads. That's why they are worth so much. GD

Based on your second-hand account of what the "family friend mechanic" told you.... he doesn't know squat. I seriously doubt the shop that did the work the first time does either. I don't think anyone that you have taken the car to really knows a damn thing about what they are talking about. You don't claim an engine has valve damage without some kind of hard evidence and plug wires routinely "look fine" and are definitely not. I see no evidence that any of these people have the first clue about Subaru engines nor even basic mechanical troubleshooting. Get that car to a GOOD mechanic. You have struck out twice. That said - you need someone to verfiy the valve timing on the belt, run a compression and leak down check, and find out what, if any, internal damage has been done. Beyond that - get a set of OEM plug wires from the dealer and some NGK plugs. Probably clear up the misfireing. GD

Much more likely an input shaft bearing in the tranny. Noise with the clutch pedal depressed is throw-out bearing. Noise when clutch is released is inside the transmission. GD

It's the performance of the engine, not it's weight, that is the difference. The added stopping power is nice when you can wrap the speedo around to the "P" in MPH . They also never get out of adjusment and are easier to service. GD

You need a Hitachi manifold and then you can replace the carb with a Weber. The Weber will not fit the Carter manifold. Those single-barel units are crap anyway - don't bother rebuilding it. GD

Sometimes they don't go quietly..... I've had to break the pullies off with a hammer in one instance . And I have air tools. You can break the rear belt cover and remove the cam with the pullies attached..... or keep trying to remove those bolts. Apply a little heat and then some penetrant perhaps.... I don't see you getting access to the head bolts without pulling the cams. I'm not sure they will even thread out far enough to allow the head to come off without removing the cams. GD

I wouldn't worry about it - use the thicker head gasket for the 25D and call it a day. The pistons are never going to hit the head if the gasket is correct and the head surface is even remotely flat. And as long as there's no valve strike once it's timed (unlikely) then it's good to go. Remember that portions of the head surface are inside the combustion chamber already.... so you have smaller combustion chambers now.... not really an issue. The larger head gasket makes up for the pop-up pistons and nothing more. The head surface doesn't enter into the equation at all. It just needs to be flat and not stupidly below spec causeing a valve strike. GD

Pony up the money to do it right. The 2" strut lifts that people do with some sqaure tube are lame and can hardly be called a lift at all. Build a 4" lift if you don't want to buy one. It's not that hard and for what most of the people that build them charge you could buy all the tools to crank one out. Dropping the diff won't help with tire clearance. That's done to prevent axle damage. Your clearance is determined by your strut placement. Stiff suspension defeats the purpose of having a lifted rig with mud tires. If you are going off road you want a soft suspension to conform to the landscape and grip the terrain. Stiff just means you end up with two tires off the ground all the time. Stiffer will not help you - you need more clearance to run the tires you have - that means more lift. GD

You can cut anything that goes to the TCU. You will find that most of the wires that go to the TCU actually are not going from it to the ECU but are branches from some of the engine bay sensors, ground circuits, and power circuits. You will have to solder about 30 wires that cross the "Super Main Junction" or SMJ for short - it's the monster connector that screws together with a 10mm bolt..... that has many of the sheilded sensor com wires as well as some of the power supplies and radiator fan control stuff.... Instead of eliminating "wires" focus on elimnating "connectors". Find one that you know you don't need, cut a single wire from it and then follow that wire to either another connector (cut) or to where it joins another wire at a factory splice (cut). Follow that simple rule and after some tedious hours you will have it mostly under control. Anything remaining at that point you can take pictures of and post here. The connectors you NEED are the ones for the ECU, fuel pump relay, and ignition main relay... and then anything connected to the engine including the intake, ignitor on the firewall, O2 sensor in the exhaust... etc. GD

ECU's and TCU's for Subaru's both have a tendancy to fail in specific and usually not fatal ways. Specific driver transistors or capcitors will die leading to a failure in a sensor or solenoid circuit but not a failure in the overall function of the computer. Thus you get a code for the bad circuit or something doesn't work right but it still runs. This has happened with a lot of the older TCU's - the transistors will die leading to duty solenoid codes and failure of specific functions but will still otherwise work. Recently I saw a '93 with a TCU that had a duty-A solenoid code. The solenoid was fine - the driver circuit transistor in the TCU had failed. It drove find but the TC wouldn't go into lockup. GD

Gary - here's what I know. Hope it helps. There are multiple methods used for "surfacing" of cylinder heads: 1. I have seen shops use belt sanders..... personally I dislike the method. Both because of surface finish as well as the implications for the surface not being "square" to the casting. That is taking off more material from one side than the other. *probably* not an issue in practice but it bothers me. I won't take my heads to shops that do this. 2. Blanchard ground.... this is what most *good* machine shops use. It's also used for surfacing flywheels. This is what produces the characteristic swirl pattern that most are familair with. 3. It is possible to either do it on a milling machine with the right setup (fly-cutter, or even an end-cut mill) or even by chucking them into a large enough lathe..... but these are not common methods. I have resurfaced heads myself using progressively finer sandpaper (usually stopping at 240 grit) and WD-40 on a thick pane of glass backed up by quality plywood with a finished side. This works very well but is time consuming and takes some skill. Since they are likely true due to the belt-sanding.... I would just clean then up with some 120 grit and glass. If this was an older 2.2 I would say throw them on as the composite head gaskets will suck up that rough finish. As it is with the MLM gaskets of the EJ251 I would want a better finish than that. The machine shop is obviously a bunch of hacks. Don't go there anymore. GD

Well - since you get good ohm readings for the prior steps you can safely assume they are not open or disconnected - otherwise your meter would read infinity. Thus you answer "NO" to that step. GD

Don't block PCV lines with rags - you will blow out cam and crank seals from crankcase pressure. It's not economically viable to rebuild EA82's. Find a used low mileage one and drop it in. Rebuild on *any* engine is going to run $1,000 minimum. Parts and machine work alone will exceed $700 typically. And if you are paying for assembly you have to add in labor..... GD

Just get a used engine - rebuilding an EA82 is pointless. They are common as dirt and worth almost nothing. You will be hard-pressed to rebuild one for less than $1,000. The car isn't worth that. GD

Well - I always setup all the valves before I install the heads. To each their own I guess but that's my habit from doing the bucket/shim heads. It's much easier to install a cam sprocket and bolt and turn the cam till each cam lobe is relaxed and then check your clearances, etc. IMO there's no right or wrong way to do it as long as the adjustment ends up correct. Depending on how far the engine is to be (or is) torn down will dictate how I go about doing the valve adjust. GD

You don't wait - you adjust them as soons as the timing belt is installed. Then they are adjusted ever 105k miles - every timing belt interval. GD

How old? How many miles? Did you buy the car new from the dealer you plan on approaching? The dealer is more likely to comp you some labor if you are a regular customer of theirs. It has to be in their interest. At this point all the one's with major head gasket issues ('96 to '99 EJ25D, and '99 to '04 251/253) are getting so old that it's doubtfull they will do anything for you unless you have some kind of extended power-train warrantee. The head gaskets are not that bad to do. Even if you have to rent a hoist to pull the engine. It's a weekend and you'll save $1000 easily. To me that's worth it and if your time is more valuable than $1000 I would say just buy something new with a warantee. That's how I see it - there's plenty of members here that can and will help or do it for dramatically cheaper than the dealer and probably do a better job - Subaru makes them do the HG's in the car which is not ideal. GD

Yep - we got the JDM STi 5 speed into renob123's Brat a couple weekends ago and it's a hoot - it can actually use the frankenmotor power it has now. Before it was all wheel-hop and inadequate suspension.... the AWD actually mitigates many of the suspension problems we were having. The front helical LSD, short ratio gearset, and 4.111 are mighty fun. Don't let go of the steering wheel though - it wants to recenter in a big hurry. The problems with the D/R transmissions: 1. They can't handle the power of a built EJ. Either the turbo's or the frankenmotor. They just weren't designed for it. 2. The dual-range option is alright for the plain EJ22 if you use the part-time transmission or build a custom FT box with the 3.9 final and the 1.59:1 low. 3. The RX box has a 1.2:1 low AND a 3.7:1 final drive. That means that when it's in low range it has the same basic gearing as a *real* dual-range in high. Thus it effectively hasn't got a low range. You can get the same gearing or better from the EJ AWD transmissions. So really - the best options out there for EJ swapped rigs are EJ transmissions for the non-lifted or mildly lifted crowd, and for the lifted stuff the best option is either the 4EAT automatic or the (soon to debut) Toyota W series bell-housing adaptor. Many people will also still be using the part-time dual-range transmissions which is not a bad choice for the ~4" lift crowd. Much over that and you won't have enough gearing - below that and the EJ transmissions with 4.111 or 4.444 are better choices. GD

You just loosen the locknut, turn the adjuster till you get a slight drag on the feeler gauge (.008" for intake, .010" for exhaust), then relock the nut. Simple and quick. GD

What do you mean by "lose electricity"?? The sending units are ground circuits. The carb has a couple hot leads for the choke, idle cut, and bowl vent solenoids..... have you checked the fuses? And no - I've never seen a problem with all of them before. There are typically some intermittant connectors that connect the manifold harness to the vehicle harness.... I would check those. GD