GeneralDisorder

Original radiators are good for about 8 years. We are seeing catastrophic failures on 2010/11 models now. The new blue OAT coolant seems to be eating cooling system plastics just the same as Dexcool did 20 years ago on GM's. Don't use any stop leak on your WRX. It won't do anything useful. Go with full welded aluminum. The CSF offerings are quite nice. Koyo is nice also but their warranty is poor. Mishimoto is garbage. GD

The rings are very high-tension, you won't need pliers. You will need a tapered-sleeve ring compressor (wiseco makes them). As you read - honing is a VERY bad idea. GD

Doesn't really matter since the rule with these is to replace them with a used one when they fail. So one day when it stops moving or when you get tired of dealing with the symptoms, swap the trans with a good used replacement with a warranty. There's nothing else that's going to solve that type of problem and rebuilding them is non-viable. GD

I'm not aware of any significant differences in the 93's. GD

The Brat model - being 4WD, always uses the Hitachi distributor. The ND distributor was used on 2WD models. GD

Based on coil, manifold, and valve covers, it can only be a 97 engine. 98/99 use the male coil, 96 has different valve covers. Get NGK wires. New laser platinum plugs. Coil should be fine. It's a Diamond. Those are excellent coil packs. GD

First off - don't replace a working OEM coil pack. ESPECIALLY with some aftermarket garbage. They almost never fail and aftermarket one's do. A tune up doesn't include the coil unless it's not working or damaged. Second - do you have an EJ25 or an EJ22? Pics of the heads and timing belt covers please. GD

Look at the bearing - the surface that's still intact - there's no significant damage. The oil film that the crank rides on was not critically comprised by the loss of that small amount of surface. No question that this isn't ideal. But the reality is that the EJ22 makes 135 crank HP. These bearings can support about 500 HP and last quite a long time doing it. I have not seen a single failure that could be traced back to this type of surface flaking and I've probably seen damage exactly like that and found those little pieces in the pan or stuck in the pickup screen a dozen times over the years. The first few times I found those pieces I tore down the engine and found exactly that type of damage. But really considering the effects of that damage and not seeing any collateral damage that can be attributed to it.... I have since ignored that symptom. GD

Oh - and just use the factory graphite head gaskets. The EJ22 requires too thick of a HG for MLS. GD

The light scuffing and flaking is only a mild concern really. That would likely have ran out the remainder of it's life without issue. Think about it - what problem would that cause? I have actually seen that quite a few time. Found bits of the thrust bearing surface in many oil pans. Never seen it cause a failure. Regardless - you're stuck with the decision now. Line hone it and undersize the crank. DO NOT touch the cylinders, and DO NOT just polish the crank. Regardless of what the machine shop says. Have the rods resized to the crank. Get ACL tri-metal race bearings. GD

Likley internal coil ignitor failure. Cheap electronics in the coil pack. Overheat and stop working. You want to know for sure? Stick a scope on the ECM 1/2 coil driver signal, and the 1/2 secondary ignition. Drive till you get a failure and capture it. If you lose the driver signal you have wiring or ECM issues. If you don't you need a coil. GD

It's completely normal. Subaru issued TSB's to ignore the cracks unless they extend into the exhaust port and leak coolant. Back in the day I did head gaskets on dozens of EA82's and I don't remember seeing any that didn't have cracks between the valves to one extent or another. Never caused a problem. GD

Mostly that's a Zero.

2098 is a post cat fuel trim code. Usually this is an exhaust leak. Not related to oil leaks. Valve covers leaking oil generally do not constitute enough of a vacuum leak to be measurable. GD

Subaru (and my shop) uses the 3M white bristle discs for gasket surface prep. GD

Not really - you can deck the other case half off the cylinder head surface to compensate that side similarly. Not that it really matters. Only talking a few thou. It's essentially a non-issue though. GD

No. You have to deck the block half (the smooth one), then run a line hone through it. You only get to do this once before you get into problems with oil pump fitment. But we do it all the time. I believe there are also oversized OD bearings being made now also. At least for the #5 thrust engines. The #3 thrust engines can have the thrust moved also and use a phase II crank. GD

Aftermarket coils are crap. Likely your problem. In fact a 1/2 misfire on a wasted spark ignition system is going to be a coil 99.99% of the time - since that's prettymuch the only thing shared by 1 and 2. Get an OEM coil. 100k is a good run for a coil. Also (OEM) coil failures are typically a result of plug gap being too large or the wires being shot. Anything the increases the secondary ignition voltage requirement will cause more heat in the coil and kill it sooner. GD

The wrist pin bush is bronze and that is completely normal appearance. GD

You pretty much can't get any of those things. Oil pumps are NLA as are most engine parts in general. You will spend the vast majority of your ownership searching for parts. Used, new old stock (rare), and otherwise. These vehicles are absolutely not viable daily drivers. GD

There is essentially no aftermarket for a 1990 Legacy. You can have exhaust custom made, but don't expect it to provide any performance benefit - it really will not. DO NOT change the intake in ANY way. Don't change the airbox, don't even put in a fancy air filter (especially not some oiled garbage like K&N). You will throw off the calibration of the MAF sensor and you will ABSOLUTELY lose power and fuel economy. You can't change the intake on a MAF vehicle without being able to tune it, and you can't tune a 1990 Legacy without spending way more than the car is worth. You can buy a lift kit. That's about it. Everything else has to be custom. Don't try to stick a turbo on it - besides the fact that this will cost a small fortune for someone in your financial position, the results will be spectacularly bad... if it runs at all. And if you succeed you will just blow the engine up - the compression is too high, etc. Basically just drive it and enjoy it for what it is. Basic transportation. Which is all that 99.9% of these will ever be. GD

The first round of replacements was "interim". They replaced the airbags with the same defective Takata units (just newer) that were being removed. The Takata bags were considered more dangerous the longer they were in service and the higher the humidity of the environment they were exposed to. This second round is to replace them with permanent replacements rather than the defective original units. GD

Not that epic really. Just had a Formula Drift BRZ/FRS in here on Saturday with a 2JZ in it. 470 RWHP. GD

The shadow at 5 o-clock means nothing really. The "skirt" doesn't come up that far..... whoever you talked with is talking out their a$$ and has no experience with Subaru engines. The cylinders look fine. Put rings in it and call it good. If there is piston skirt scuffing then send me the pistons for knurling. Every EJ turbo we build has forged pistons and they fit quite loose and "slap" when cold. Doesn't have any real effect and they still don't burn oil. GD

I have seen absolutely zero videos that do a block measure and assembly properly. The reason I say not to attempt it, is not because it can't be done by mere mortals (which might describe me - on a good day), but rather because the investment in proper tools, and the steep learning curve generally precludes it being worthwhile and without hands-on training on assembly techniques and the minutiae of accurately reading 10ths bore gauges, the chances of it going very much sideways shortly after startup are quite high. The problems are many, and the pitfalls serious and deep. Primarily you are dealing with an aluminum block where main bearing clearances and not stable with respect to temperature. So that cold clearances (setup) are half what operating temp clearances will be. Further you have a split block that has two dowels that align it - after a dozen dissasembly and reassembly cycles during cleaning, checking, and so forth they are no kind of accurate. With cold clearances being between 0.0003" and 0.0012" you can EASILY be out of alignment on the case halves by MORE than half your total bearing clearance resulting in immediate main bearing damage on startup. Just think about that for a minute..... There's a lot of other pieces that are unknown or ignored. Too many to go into and honestly most of this is hard won trade information that's not known or published anywhere including the factory service manual. I will leave you with this. The FSM states there is NO remedy for enlarged main bearing clearances. You must replace the block in cases where it doesn't meet spec. I have measured a LOT of blocks and NONE meet the spec. So written between the line of the FSM is that virtually all blocks are garbage and should be disposed of..... a good machinist can line hone a block once or maybe twice. After that they are indeed scrap. GD