GeneralDisorder

Your best bet is to dump in a bottle of the Subaru stop leak additive and see if that fixes the leak. It's approved for use on all Subaru's so it won't clog up your radiator, etc. The passages in a heater core are generally smaller though and the stop-leak stuff tends to clog them rather than fix leaks in them - either way it might stop the coolant loss. Otherwise you are going to be pulling out the dash for a heater core change-out. Either that or loop the heater core hoses together and bypass the core for now - you could get one of those 12v heaters that plugs into the a power outlet..... That's a very new Subaru to be having a heater core die like that - they are a pretty rare failure. That just sucks - heater core swap is a large amount of work and the core itself is not cheap either. You are looking at about 6 hours labor and a pretty penny for a heater core - probably about a $1k repair unless you do that labor yourself. GD

Your head gasket job didn't hold. Generic gaskets? Messed up the torque procedure? Improperly cleaned surfaces? Etc. That's a bummer dude. GD

Might be distributor related - is the tach signal clean? Put a test light on the negative side of the coil. You might not be getting a clean tach signal to the FPCU and that might be part of the running problem and the fuel delivery - being electronic it could happen for no good reason and at any time. I've seen similar bad behavior from the carbed EA distributor modules. GD

Again - feel free to PM me and bring the knuckle by. I had a cancelation this weekend or I would be doing a Forester HG and clutch job. But as it is I'm not real busy. Bearings are an interesting world - one that most mechanics of the automotive persuasion are not trained for properly. Mostly people in the automotive world are not trained for attention to detail of the level required for proper bearing installation to insure correct operation and long life. First - wood is not the answer - it is not hard enough. Second you need to INSPECT the bearing pocket VERY carefully. Burrs, nicks, folded edges, etc are all things that must be taken care of before attempting to install a bearing. Then the bearing must be started straight - typically I use a small ball-peen hammer to tap the edges in lightly all the way around the OD of the bearing. After it's started I place my driver on the outer race and with a LARGE dead blow, drive the bearing home. It's not something I can easily explain with words - it's a technique and one that is honed over many bearing replacements (not just Subaru wheel bearings) - you have to know where to apply force and how much. It's a feel thing and if you do it wrong you'll be back in there in a few thousand miles doing it again. GD

Ring failure on a Subaru engine with 77k on it is unheard of. I would be looking for a neighbor kid that squirted oil in the plug holes every morning before I went looking for ring failure. It's that uncommon. If you think it was rings, then hone the cylinders and replace them. I don't know what else to tell you since none of us are there to look at it. GD

Reservoir is usually not the leak on those - it's usually the gasket on the back of the pump. But can't hurt to try it. GD

It is not at all immaterial - you neglect that temperature AND pressure play in important role here. Not just the temp of the high side, but also the incomming temp and pressure of the low side - which is usually in the 40 to 50 F range and around 25 to 40 psi with refrigerant. When pumping air you have an incomming air temp of ~70 F and pressure of 14.7 psi. The discharge temp of refrigerant is typically about 130 to 150 F at 220 psi while compressed *air* near the same pressure would be (off the top of my head) up around 500 F (no f'n way you would get there in a single stage either - even the York's would catch fire). You could not run a single-stage AC compressor at more than 100 psi with ambient air temps and pressures - that's nearly 8:1 compression ratio in a single stage - you would burn it up at anything higher than that. Remember that it's all about the ratio - pushing 35 psi refrigerant up to 225 psi is only a 6.5:1 compression ratio - and with half the incoming gas temp. Even running at "only" 100 to 120 psi the temps would be high compared to refrigerant - having the oil cooled compressor would be a huge advantage. People use the York compressors because it's an easy choice - and likely very few people use them for very long at a stretch - but the advantages of an oil flooded compressor are obvious when you consider the temps involved in compressing air versus compressing refrigerant. Now - if you used TWO compressors with an intercooler between - one to get ambient air to about 45 psi, then the next stage compressor could push it up to 200 psi without much problem...... though I'm not sure what I would use that for on my wheeler GD

You need a BIG hammer. I use a 4lb drilling hammer and a thick brass punch. GD

Must remove drive shaft. Otherwise NOT OK. GD

McGuire carries seals I'm sure - but they don't do "automotive" by their own admission (frankly they are a bunch of jack-asses about it too :-\). If you get the timken seal part number (Autozone or rockauto's web site, etc) then Applied Industrial can help you (you won't like the price) - but I know Discount Import Parts in Beaverton or Clackamas has them in stock for $6 each. GD

If I wasn't busy with a Honda () I would shoot up there. I have an '84 FSM with the turbo info if you need to borrow it. I'm down in West Linn. Just send me an email - cropperr(at)gmail(dot)com GD

Thinner should not matter - just the ID and OD of the seal. Send me an email at cropperr(at)gmail(dot)com if you need to reach me - I'll get that on my phone. GD

Valve stem seals - probably not rings. Stem seals won't affect a leakdown test. GD

You have a vacuum supply problem to the heater control system as well as a burnt resistor pack for the blower motor. Pretty simple fixes really . GD

Yep - grounds and power supplies. Probably not the ECU. Ignition is handled by a seperate unit on the EA81T's - so I would say your ECU is missing power or ground, etc. GD

You can use any AC compressor including the one's that are used on Subaru's - you just have to know a bit about compressed air systems and how to build it. You would need an oil seperator and an orificed suck-back line to insure the oil stays in the compressor. And of course you need a check valve on the outlet side, and an air tank of some sort plus a regulator system to shut it down at an appropriate psi - at the very least a pressure switch, etc. It could definitely be done and someday I may build one - but I wouldn't sugest that most people try it without a lot of research - compressed air in the 100+ psi range can be very dangerous if you don't know what you are doing. The first step is to aquire your air filter, oil seperator, air tank, etc and then plan out your plumbing and mounting. Any good fitting and hose supplier should be able to modify the AC inlet/outlet flanges for use with JIC fittings and then it's a simple matter of some plumbing. Lots of commecial air compressors (mostly the rotary screw type) are oil-flooded and depend on oil-seperators and suck-back systems to insure the oil stays in the compressor. The york pumps are arguably not a better choice because the oil-flooded pumps will last longer and stay considerably cooler at higher pressure. GD

It's not the pistons that are the problem - on the EJ25D the valves interfere with each other, not with the pistons. GD

If you drift the bearings out with a punch and use them to push out the seals you can very often just clean them and reuse them. Unless they are cut, etc. PM me if you want to drop by my place - I built a pusher for these bearings, etc to make installation easier. GD

Just drain the tranny fluid and check the number of ring gear teeth with a flashlight through the drain plug hole. In any case you can always swap the rear end to a matching one if the tranny doesn't match the Loyale. I've had to do that several times to use a good working tranny in the car I needed it to mate with. GD

No - easily done with the engine in the car. Timing belt is good for 105k on that engine so no need to do it for another 20k. They don't fail prematurely like the engines of old - they are rated for 105k and will likely do twice that before breaking. GD

Thats's a good engine with low miles. I wouldn't worry about it. When they *do* leak they leak externally and the Subaru additive usually takes care of it for quite a while. GD

You are probably remembering the pre-'87/post-'87 FI distributor connector pin-out change. But definitely check them just the same as it's possible they are different. Generally speaking there is less knowledge out there about the '85/'86 setup because it was used for such a short time and most of them are off the road now. GD

You could just hard-mount it. Rubber is squishy and fails - and it's for nancy-boy's that can't handle a little vibration . With a little clever work you can likley use any EA or EJ mount. They are all pretty similar. I think EA82 mounts are the same or very similar if you just swap some brackets around. Did you check rockauto? GD

Electrical is a lot of fun . PM me if you like - I'll help as best I can from this distance. GD

No - while it technically can be done, it is VERY not fun and the issue is primarily one of cleanliness - you just can't do a good enough job of cleaning block surfaces, etc with coolant dripping out of the engine, and the chance of damage to the head or block surfaces or to the new head gasket durring installation is higher. Removal of the engine saves as much time as it takes and the end result is higher quality - also that oil seperator plate, etc is pretty much a deal killer for doing the EJ25D head gaskets in-car - why skimp out on a $37 part that will stop a major oil leak? GD