nipper

i was going to suggest the oil pump o ring. nipper

i can see how it can be the diff. Drain the diff fluid and see what comes out. Run it through a filter of some kind. If there is metal in it, your done with that tranny. Its not the diff gears itself, but the pinion gear that drives the ring gear on the diff that may have failed. If it was inside the tranny you would have some issues going forward too as reverse uses some common parts with the drive gears. nipper

il'd check all the fuel lines, especially the short ones, they can be sneaky. nipper

So about those cooling fans ...... nipper

Thats ok i dont remeber if you have one or two fans on this. If the fans arent working ...... your going to boil over. nipper

A easy test is to remove it and let it run without the thermo stat. It's easy to install it backwards in any car. Also when you remove it compare it to the old one, do they look exactly alike? Are your cooling fans coming on or functioning? nipper

YOu may have air bubbles, a T-stat installed backwards, or both. A clogged or decrepid radiator usually showd up under load, where as a sudden overheat would be from the other two. nipper

was there bubbles? Did you fill the cooling system with the car running, and continue after the T-stat opened up? What condition is the radiator in? nipper

Does it change with engine rpm?

Bad Alt, chattering brushes in any electric motor in the car, a bad ground... nipper

Are you sure its not coming from under the hood. !st thing i would do is get a pressure test on the cooling system. If it fails that look for leaking hoses first before you put in a bottle of stop leak. nipper

JOb may never have been fone. Other reasons are bad fron brakes, bad master cylinder. There really is not a lot to go wrong nipper

If it is truly a crate engine (brand new/rebuilt out of the crate), why would you need to replace these parts? Or is this a used engine? nipper

http://seqair.com/skunkworks/Engine/Storing/Storing.html http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070731123424AAmW14H nipper

At 242,000 miles on the transmission i would replace it with a used one. 200,000 miles is a long stretch for a subaru transmission, and would most likely keep going if you left it be (no broken AWD as stated). At 245,000 its like open heart surgery on a 95 year old. A much cheaper and wiser option is a good used transmission. nipper

velcro on top of the steering column.

Did you try a metric T block? Also what was wrong with the hillholder to begin with, not much to them to go wrong. nipper

i dont do "camp" anymore. i am sick as a dog right now from that "camp" thing, but i dont have anything planned for October so im interested nipper

It"s funny. Here I am at freinds in Jackson, Mi. Blu was all nice and shiney till I got on their street. The entire street it torn up so its serious 4 wheeling so now Blu dirty.

Well so far all good zigzag across PA and blue is behaving like he is brand new. I will have to replace the ps pump when I get home as the steering is heavy. I may not have net access next ten days so play nice. Nipper

Starter solenoid contacts like he said, but really first thing is first, have the batery tested. The car is old enough to need one. nipper

Could it have been they did not properly seat the torque converter? Yes don't go back to the same place find an other. And ther shop was correct, you can instantly kill a tranny by running low on fluid. I am surprised it lasted this long. JDM may have a diferent final drive gear ratio then a US transmission. Try to stay with one from the USA, they are available, why make life hard for yourself? nipper

Seems to be really short trip then park for 6 or more hours. nipper

Blu did it again today after a really short trip the other night. I am going to put a better oil filter on him monday. I think the filter is the problem. If it was an injector there would be a cloud on startup I would think.