GeneralDisorder

Absolutely incorrect. The head bolts are never replaced unless they are damaged. The block is aluminium and the bolts are not torque-to-yeild. GD

Replace the thermostat on general principle. You are complaining of no heat right? Replace it with a Subaru OEM thermostat and gasket - should be about $15 for both. GD

The pan's don't leak a lot on the EJ's - make sure what you are seeing is not the cam seals leaking and running around the lip of the pan. The water pump leak is interesting. Definitely get yourself the dealer gasket for that - it's metal with a graphite coating and is WAY superior. The problem is that the pump sits in a reccess between the driver's side cam and rear belt cover, and the oil pump. When you do it, since you are removing the oil pump anyway - put the water pump back on FIRST. It's very fiddly even with the dealer gasket, but with the oil pump off it's easier. The aftermarket gaskets are cardboard and unless you are very careful with them and use a couple light dabs of RTV to hold them in place as well as carefully tighten the bolts evenly..... yeah pretty easy to screw up for a novice I would guess. As I mentioned in PM - I really don't trust aftermarket gaskets and seals. Even when I buy the ebay timing belt kits I just use the hard parts. It comes with a water pump seal but I very often will go to the dealer and spend the extra $3.50 for the metal seal. The oil-pump seal is $1.62.... etc. It's not worth the hassle of the cheap aftermarket seals for the difference in cost. Especially with the EJ's where there's really only a handful of seals that generally need replacement. I'm sure you already know - but when you do the job pull the radiator out. What I do is unbolt the thermostat housing from the water pump and drain the coolant directy into a bucket (love the Subaru engineer's for this change over the EA's ), and then disconnect the fan's electrical connections, remove the upper radiator hose completely and the trans cooler hoses if equipped. Then the whole assembly - fans and all - lifts right out. I leave the lower radiator hose attached to the thermostat housing as this keeps coolant from getting everywhere when you remove the radiator and move it around, etc. GD

Don't worry about it - when you put the car back on the ground it will compress the axle and that will go away after it's run for a bit. GD

Power steering fluid (AKA, Automatic Transmission Fluid [AKA Hydrualic Oil]) doesn't start to gel till -10* F. It could be a bit thicker, but that won't affect the pump to any appreciable degree. What you need is to rough up those pulleys with some sandpaper and set the proper tension on a NEW belt. GD

So does it looked hacked together? There shouldn't be any single-wire blue connectors in the fuel pump circuit that I know of. I would find out what the previous owner's did, and undo it. Then start from scratch and fix whatever the problem turns out to be. GD

Yes - quite possible. Forgot about that one GD

It's the gauge itself. You will need to replace the cluster. They are very plentiful at the junk yards. This comes up a lot when it's cold out - the temp drop causes the old, dried-up lube in the speedo head to get sticky. GD

For a turbo, you really should consider synthetic - your change interval is fine. The added heat and cylinder pressure's will benefit from a synthetic oil. It will handle the heat of the turbine shaft housing without cokeing - which is generally why the turbo's fail - lack of lubrication will get them quick. Properly lubed and cooled they can easily last 250k miles. I would go with Mobile 1 since it's availible anywhere, and probably *increase* your oil change interval to around 5 or 6 thousand miles. Synthetics not only withstand the heat better, but they last longer as well. GD

Have him call Subaru Of America. That's BS and there's lemon laws for crap like that. At the very least the warantee work that was done most recently should be under it's own warantee and they need to make this problem right since it's had the same issue since day 1 and it's obviously never been properly addressed. GD

Is it not just an EGR temp sensor? There should be a +5v signal from the ECU going to some kind of thermistor that tells the ECU there is exhaust gas flow through the EGR. Take that signal, run it through a relay controlled by the signal to the EGR solenoid, then through two 5 watt resistors that simulate the voltage drop in the 5v line both with/without EGR flow (so the ECU see's the temp change when it shuts off the EGR vacuum supply). The ECU isn't that smart - it's looking for a temp change in the EGR passage when it opens the EGR solenoid. Find out the proper resistances that the thermistor generate's at typical EGR temps and give the ECU the signal it wants. GD

And when your $hitbox burns to the ground because of your hokey wireing practices and all the other piss-poor wrenching that you have done - don't blame this board - please go directly to Crayola's house and ask his mom if he can come out to play GD

There is a bullet connector under the dash area that was used to disconnect the clock power for shipping from japan. I tap into that. It's just a single wire that feeds the clock memory power. I can't remember the wire color but just take a look on the passenger side of the column and it should be there. I can't recall what the yellow wire does. I might have it in my FSM - I'll try to take a look today. GD

Well - I say start at the pedal and look the whole system over from there to the slave cylinder. Could be something very odd. These don't normally fail. GD

That's probably one of the ECU test connector plugs - you vehicle doesn't have an ECU so that plug does nothing. It's just in the harness because a lot of the wireing for the car is generic and fits many models. I don't know where you are getting that the fuel pump wireing is connected to that plug - how are you determining that? That single-wire green plug is very likely just a ground wire. The ECU test connectors are comprised of two single-wire green plugs, one goes to the ECU test mode pin and the other goes to chassis ground. Your green wire at the fuel pump is likely also a ground so if you are running a continuity test then of course both are connected to the same ground (the body) and you will see they are connected. But that tells you nothing about the fuel pump wireing other than it probably has a good ground connection. GD

Correct - EA81's do not have a constant power source to the radio. Typically it's tapped from the ignition harness for most stereo installs though I like to use the clock power personally. GD

There aren't any test connectors on a non-feedback carbed model, so there aren't any codes either. Check the FPCU as indicated by GLoyale - you may find your trouble right there. There may not even be a problem with it - sometimes people disconnect them or bypass them when they are trying to troubleshoot a no-start condition. They think that the fuel pump isn't running when it fact it only runs when you are cranking or the engine is running. This is not intuitive to most people and so they check for voltage to the pump with the key in the "on" posistion and immediately diagnose the problem as a fuel pump wireing issue and reroute power to it from the battery. More than one hack mechanic has done this I assure you. GD

If the slave cylinder was bad the first time and it's new now.... how about that master cylinder? Could there be a leak allowing air into the system? GD

Yep - just about what he said. That typically works for me. I will say that about 80% of the time, if you remove an old thermostat it won't work when you put it back in. GD

Worn cone washers/hubs or loose lug nuts would be my guess without seeing it. GD

Yeah - no synthetics on mine. There is some fabric and a bit of cusioning on the back of the tounge and such to pad the lace area but that's it. That's the problem I had with cheap one's as well - the insides would wear out before the outsides! There would be holes in the crappy synthetics on the inside of the heels and they would be all broken down and no arch support left in a matter of months. These Red Wings are 100% leather in the inside of the heel and amazingly they are just as comfortable! Properly stiched by a well-trained american boot craftsman makes all the difference I suspect. Seems like the cheap one's aren't stiched very accurately so in order to conform to the foot and not be real uncomfortable they use soft cotton fabrics and foam in the heel and upper. No beuno. GD

Try on a pair of Red Wings or Danner's. Either will cost you, but they will last 10x longer for roughly 2x-3x the price of the chinese stuff. I'm told the sole's wear like iron on these - he showed me a pair of his own that were 4 or 5 years old and still looked ok - plus they can be re-soled if the uppers are still in good shape (probably unlikely for me). I get free stiching repair, free oiling, and free laces for life with my Red Wings! When I bought them I mentioned to the guy that I wasn't sure about the braided (nylon or cotton) laces (no good around welding and cutting as I'm sure you know) - he said "no problem" and produced a pair of leather laces for me immediately. Free of charge. GD

I've used aftermarket one's, and while I prefer the OEM one's I suspect your problem is probably air in the system. New stat's, even the aftermarket units, generally work. They just aren't as good. I've never had one actually overheat right out of the box though. GD

You have to split the tranny. Then you have to get an LSD that fits. I'm sure they sell them but the rear diff units are too small. The rear's are Hitachi R160's and the front's are similar in design so maybe an R180 or R200 LSD would fit? That's just an educated guess from what I've seen of the internals. It also will require installing new tapered roller bearings on the front diff and resetting the R&P clearances. Not hard per-se, but something that does require a bit of knowledge and some tools. If you have never opened a Subaru transaxle - best leave it to the transmission experts. GD

Looking good. I doubt there's much you won't be able to fix with a welder if you keep this up. Good practice that sheet metal - it's not very forgiving is it? GD