GeneralDisorder

There are no update's as far as I know. I recently bought a '99 Forester with the Phase II 2.5 - it's got 234k on it and runs just great. It's got a tiny bit of oil leakage from the head gaskets - not even enough to cause a drip. When they blow I'll just swap in an EJ22. The problems people are seeing with the phase II's are external head gasket leaks (coolant, and more rarely oil), and rod bearing failure. There is some speculation that poor cooling system maintenance leads to head gasket failure and the resulting overheating, etc can result in rod bearing failure. It's hard to say what all the factors are. There are probably threads around here about swapping in the EJ22's in place of the Phase II EJ25's.... can't imagine it would be that difficult if you used a '96+ EJ22 with the OBD-II setup. The '99 Forester is a nice ride overall. They have some annoying rear wheel bearing issues from what I've seen - our's has had them replaced twice on one side and three times on the other according to the reccords and one or both are on the way out again. As for putting the EJ25 heads on the EJ22 block - I think that results in some stupenously high compression. I doubt that is the way to go but I haven't investigated it closely. GD

TOD is NEVER EA81's. Always in reference to the EA82's. EA81's mostly had solid lifters and those that have hydro's rarely tick. The oil pump design is superior and there are no cam-case o-rings to leak. The lifters are also much closer to the pump being a push-rod engine. I agree - your sound is most certainly ticking lifters. Do some searches as this has been covered weekly for the last 10 years. GD

Not being familar with XT headlight switches, I would direct you to the XT forum for that particular info. http://www.subaruxt.com/forum/ GD

It is best to stay away from suspension lifts in general - you will eat axles like mad. It is best to run them as neutral as possible and get your lift from bigger tires. This allows them as much compression as extension. Even to the extent of running the axles *more* neutral than stock. As for cheap? Well - do you have a hot knife, welder, and metal cutting band saw? If so it's just the cost of the steel and hardware. About $200 in materials if you shop around and do it right (grade 8 hardware, etc). Otherwise - no there's no cheaper way than buying a lift if you don't have the tools to build one. Popsicle sicks and elmers glue ain't gonna cut it. GD

That's the rub - there's no place that sells them. You'll have to find them used or convert the car to 5 lug using XT6 parts. Only two brands ever made in large numbers used that pattern and neither use it anymore. GD

Yeah - take a look. It's pretty easy to spot. From what I have always heard, the single-port went along with the interferance design change that netted an additional 17 HP. I can't swear that the engine hasn't been replaced, but if it was it's the cleanest swap I've ever seen and with only 113k on the car and a clean title I can't see any reason it would have been swapped out..... GD

Water pump's rarely fail in that way - so rare that I have yet to see one. Either they work and leak out the weep hole, or the bearings totally give out and the seize, or just chew the bearing right out of them and gush coolant all over. If it's not leaking them it's not the water pump. Most likely the head gaskets or you haven't got all the air out of the system. If the radiator was bad enough to crack it might just be clogged inside from corrosion - you may need a new radiator as well. GD

The regulator is an IC type - they are not repairable. Cost to replace just the IC is much more expensive than a replacement alternator and with the replacement you will get brushes, bearings, etc. Try upgrading to the Nissan Maxima 90 Amp unit - they seem more reliable from my experience. GD

It was a mid-year change in '83. My '83 hatch has them as well (4 speed D/R). They did a mid year update in '83 and changed several things like the vented disc's and the clutch cable's, etc. GD

I said *IF* I were going to buy one. I never said when. So far I'm not comfortable that you aren't a scammer - you are new here - 48 posts - and you want LOTS of money and you want it NOW. How do you suppose that looks? I hope that's not the case, but I'm a skeptic and I'll beleive it when I see it. And if it does come to pass, then I'll wait for one of the 10 that you send here to be resold (at least a couple will go unused - people buy stuff all the time and fail to do anything with it). Hell there was one for sale within a few hundered miles of me just a few months back. GD

This is definitely a Phase II - it has single port heads. Build date is 09/05. It doesn't look like it's been replaced - car only has 113k on it. Engine looks original - clean, factory install, bolts unturned, etc. GD

I've never seen one. And I've seen a lot of EA81's. GD

This is a '96 phase II EJ22.... are you saying they *do* have a step after a certain year or is it just the phase II's? GD

I will measure it against a precision ground surface with a digital height gauge for warpage - thanks for the tip. I didn't feel any warpage when I drove the car though so I'm pretty sure it was just a worn down disc that was the problem here. The rivets dug into the pressure plate so I'm going to do a clutch kit on it. GD

That was my thought as well - just wasn't sure how soft the flywheels on these are. Thanks. GD

Not as such - but have you verified that you have 12v to the blower fuse? You can work either way as Gary points out - but I prefer to work forward from the point that I have voltage and then see where I lose it - but both methods are useful at times. GD

Is there supposed to be *any* kind of step in the EJ22 flywheel or are they cut completely smooth on the disc/pressure plate surface? I just pulled one from a 96 Legacy and the flywheel has a small step in it. Otherwise it's undamaged and the disc only went to the rivets on the PP side. I cleaned it up with a 3M pad in the die-grinder and I'm tempted to reuse it as is if that step is supposed to be there.... I looked at some online catalogs and some seem to show a step, while other's look smooth. If it's there it's small though so it's hard to tell from small, grainy pictures.... GD

Have you checked the fuses? Do you have power at the blower fuse? GD

At least I know the noise I was hearing wasn't a front wheel bearing GD

Yeah - it was still going strong and if the clutch hadn't worn down to the rivets - other than there being no 2nd gear I don't see why it wouldn't have "limped" for a long time. GD

I wouldn't be surprised if this were a WRX or something - but a plain-jane L series 2.2? Smells like a really bad driver - the guy said he got it from his sister so who knows. GD

Well - I split the tranny and 2nd gear is wasted. So it's time for a new tranny. Both the drive and driven gears are without nearly all their teeth. Don't know how this happened - the rest of the insides of the tranny look great - I don't see any real wear anywhere. So..... I'm pretty baffled. I can't see any wear to the syncro on 2nd either. Only thing I can figure is that one gear or the other had a factory defect that eventually killed them. Maybe granny drove around everywhere in 2nd gear? Could sustained high speeds in 2nd do something like that? The clutch is fragged also - maybe starting in 2nd all the time? *edit* - now that I look at it more closely I see that the bearing for the driven gear doesn't turn - so effectively it's locked to the shaft. That could easily mean that it tried to run for a short time in multiple gears - that would cause the destruction I'm seeing. I would have to further dissasemble the pinion shaft to see what went wrong in there, but that looks like as likely of a scenario as any. GD

Double Post.

I've never seen one up for sale. Your best bet for a nice wheel is to find or make a momo adaptor. They used to sell them for the EA82's but they are discontinued. Sometimes they come up on eBay. GD

Subaru's don't have filters on the alternator, although it is possible to install one. You should have a noise filtering capacitor on the igntion coil - look for a black wire running to a small metal cylinder - the other end of the cylinder will be another black wire running to a chassis ground. The wires are often broken at the cap, or the entire cap is just missing because people don't know what they do and when the car seemingly has not ill effects from it being broken or disconnected they are tossed. You may want to get a cap filter for the alt as well. GD