nipper

External transmission cooler and make sure your brakes are up to snuff. nipper

Back in the day it did make some differnce, but on modern cars (read mid 80's on), cars are designed to run as effecient as they can with AC. Most people who dont beleive in AC are the ones who drive trailer queens (or trailer queen wannabes). Hehehe i only respect them if they dont have AC in thier houses. nipper

WOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooooooo Put down the tools and back away from the car. You started a mass replacement of parts, from what i can tell blindly, so you may have made something bad even worse. Lets start with basics. How many miles are on this, year, and when was the last time the timing belt was changed. Next lets make sure you have a strong blue spark on each coil pack. It sounds like to me its flooding (assuming the timing belt is ok). A good suspect would be the temp sensor. Re read the codes. Then disconnect the battery for 30 minutes. Try to start the car again and tell us the codes then. nipper

Look on the bright side ..... Its June. You dont need heat untill October, maybe december. If it is the core, just bypass it untill the time is more convient. nipper

wonder IF its your heater core. Since we ruled out air bubbles, and the car hasnt over heated, lets assume its not the HG's for now. Next step is to pressure check the cooling system, and see if it leaks. The smell of coolant in the cabin is something that needs to be looked at. DO you have a recirc position on your HVAC? If you do, set it to recirc, can you still smell antifreeze? You can bypass the heater core and see if the problem goes away. If it does, we have the problem. nipper

Remove the radiator cap. Let the car warm up. The car MAY spit up a bit when the T-stat opens, this is normal. After that point, look for bubbles in the coolant. Bubbles are bad. The mileage on that engine is quite good, so a blown HG wouldnt be unreasonable. nipper

Actually SUbaru doesnt put it there, its there by design on most AC systems. If the coils freeze up, the ability of the coils to absorb heat is reduced to nearly zero. By cycling the compressor on and off as needed, it keeps the coils from freezing, and therefor keeps the car cool. You wont hurt anything by bypassing it, BUT basically the flow of air will stop and you would have a very inneffecient AC system, not to mention all the fuel you would waste. nipper

For your purpose i would recomend ceramic pads. i am sure others will chime in with a brand. nipper

Everything .......... i use Purlotor myself, or OE or Wix. nipper

Engine braking is used in conjuction with the brakes. The addage that pads are cheaper then an engine is true, but dangerous. The problem with long hills and just using the brakes is that the brakes over heat and you loose the brakes. Then you find out that cost of the car and your life is much more then brake pads. Also riding the brakes will warp your rotors if its done often enough. If the hill is long enough to use engine braking, use the brake pedal too, dont ride the brakes, just press it enough to bring the car speed down to where your comfortable, release, and repeat. It takes far less work for the brakes to maintain the cars speed with this method. I dont know of anyone who has blown an einge during engine braking, as the engine at that point is just a giant air pump, using the work of compression to keep the speed down. nipper

i want full size wheels as spares. I dont need tires as i can buy those locally (unless they are already mounted). The shipping bogles the mind. Where in MD are You? nipper

Mine isnt here yet , but then again i havent heard a UPS truck in days. I'm geting tired of hearing the brand new struts whimpering in the shed, and Blu looking at me with sad puppy eyes.... nipper

That would be cool. I have the 15" wheels and am staying with 15's. 15 inch steelies would be great nipper

That would do it. nipper

Air suspension is wonderful if you buy the car new, and plan on selling it after it 5 years. AFter that you should just be prepaired to rip it out. Of course first check and see if its as simple as a bad O ring or leaking hose. Usually its something expensive like the strut itself that goes bad. Also Even air struts/bags get tired and bouncy and need replacement after a while, and thats pricey, or almost impossible to find (general statement for all cars with air suspension). nipper

From all the reading i've done on traveling to the great white north, it seems that Blu will need two full sized spare tires, not just one. Blu is a 1997 OBW. WHere can i find rims for him? Blu has 15" alloy rims on him now. Thanks nipper

sooooooo working on AWD system #2? hehehehhe

Oh man, if your going i have to go nipper

http://www.motor.com/MAGAZINE/Pdf/102006_09.pdf O2 sensor. nipper

There should be zero bubbles in the coolant. there is your answer nipper

If this car was in my driveway, i would start tearing it down, but its not, and i want to rule everything else out before i tell you the same (but i think thats what is going to happen). Top off the cooling system. Look for bubbles in the coolant. YOu should see lots and lots of coolant getting pushed out of the radiator. If you can pressure check the cooling system, that would tell you the same thing. nipper

Oil test will tell you rings or valves. Its just so rare to see numbers that low. The wat Soobies blow HG's is that its just one cylinder that gets a big drop. Are you putting out any smoke? If it was a HG with a joint cylinder failure you should be putting out smoke, or at the very least pushng out a ton of antifreeze. I wonder if the engine ate something....... Or if the cam seized ..... Can you put a vacume gauge on the engine and tell us what the needle is doing. nipper

Man i need to find those owners who absoloutly beleive the ECU/CEL light on their cars (in reference to the cat). i have a nice bridge in brooklyn to sell them.... nipper

DO a wet and dry compression test. Let us know if the number change. DOuble check the valve timing, even if the belt looks good. Its unusual for a subaru to toss a HG in this manner, usually its just one cylinder that craps out. nipper

The front sensor really needs to be a Subaru sensor. This has been known to cause a 420 code. nipper