jonathan909

Possible but unlikely - I put a new belt and toothed idler in but re-used the tensioner, since it appeared to be okay. But I'll probably pop the cover off and revisit it to make sure. I'd still like the knurling questions answered, though.

This has been drivng me nuts. I replaced those two little springy-things with what seemed light a tighter pair, and the rattle persists. What's the fix? New gasket or something else?

I can't be the only person who finds this weird. Now that my (rebuilt stock) EJ25D is back in the '99 OBW I've been noticing a bit of (what must be) slap, and it's unpleasant. I think if I'd thought a little further ahead and anticipated this rather than being hell-bent for finishing the job after all the delays, I would have had the pistons knurled. I'm pretty certain I'll have it done as a matter of routine in the future. So can you give me a ballpark cost for knurling a set, and is there any downside to doing it?

Oh - so you had a skip and not a crash? Then my $.25 is to spend a few bucks on it. I jam econo too, so I just replaced the belt and the toothed idler (which, for some reason has a much higher failure rate than the smooth ones), but went premium on both (per GD's recommendation): Mitsuboshi belt and NSK idler - I think I paid less than $100 CDN for the pair. Unless you have a reason to distrust the pumps and tensioner, that should do it.

A very slight taper right at the tip (which is flat so it can tap all the way to the bottom of the hole, unlike the usual pointy tapered taps) just to get it started.

It's just an aluminum casting - shouldn't be that hard to tap - but you're going to have to use a bottom tap, otherwise a through-hole tap taper is probably going to just chew up the hole.

Just to clarify, a helicoil is a coil of square wire. You oversize drill and tap the damaged hole, then screw the helicoil into the new threads - that's what keeps it in place. Then the inside of the coil is the new thread your fastener screws into.

"Awful sound" doesn't give us a lot to work with, but let's give it a go. The most common cause of misfires is bad spark. So take a look at the plugs - these engines strongly prefer NGK. If they're something else (or just ugly), replace them. Look for carbon tracking on the outside of the plug ceramic that suggests you've been losing spark to the outside of the plug. Check that your wires and connectors look/feel good. Listen for arcing where the wires pass by metal. If that doesn't solve it, the next step is a compression test to see whether the engine internals have a problem e.g. a broken valve.

Mobsters planted bomb. Get out.

Yikes. Get the exact wiring diagram for your year and model.

Nothing "hard" about it. First head gasket job I did was on a '99 OBW w/ 2.5, and I did it without lifting the engine at all, which made it a bit more of a challenge than otherwise. Lifting engine a few inches (too lazy, ornery, and rushing to beat the cold weather to unbolt it from the tranny) would have made it a little easier - when it's that tight to the wheel wells every 1/4" extra knuckle room makes a huge difference. But by the time you've stripped all the stuff off necessary to remove the heads, you're only half a dozen nuts+bolts away from having the motor unhitched anyway, so you might as well pull it. I've had the engine in+out of my '95 (same as yours) a few times and it's a breeze. The real problem you have is how much it was overheated. If you get on top of it early enough and keep the engine temp under control, you may be okay with just the gaskets. But if it's been severely overheated you may do the head gaskets only to have the crank bearings fail shortly thereafter.

My lingering suspicion (read: fear) has been that this connects to the crossover pipe, and that I missed it because it's one of the miserable things you have to attach while lowering the manifold (e.g. the coolant temp sensors). But (naturally) I was sure I got everything under there. If you're right, I should be able to peek under the TB just by taking the air box off. Will advise... [edit] Yup, that was it alright. I'd attached the driver's side hose but not this one on the passenger side of the TB. A million thank-yous, gentlemen.

No oil cooler on this motor.

Someone who does this all the time (like GD) would be able to answer, but I can't remember at the moment whether it's the front- or rear-most bearing. If someone previously said #1, that's as good an answer as any. And pulling the plug wire isn't going to affect whether that bearing is spinning loose. Regardless of whether the offending cylinder is firing, the others are going to drag that piston around. Doesn't take that long for this action to grind the crank out of usable spec, either (been there). So get a look at it asap. If you lift the engine just a little (at least, this is how it is in my '99 OBW) you can wiggle the pan out and at least get a peek up at the crank.

I just checked, and that's not it, though I see what you mean. I've had the engine in and out of this thing a few times, and haven't had to mess with anything at the firewall other than the heater hoses.

Captain Stupid here. We're all acquainted with the "spare parts" theory and don't panic when there's an extra nut or bolt leftover from a job. After a lengthy delay (caused by two car wrecks and a nasty cold winter spell) the EJ25D I pulled from my '99 OBW and rebuilt is back in place and things look pretty good. Except... for this rather distressing spare part. I've turned it over and run it (for just a few seconds because the rad isn't in yet), and it seems to be running smoothly, so I don't think it's a manifold/vacuum thing, which would be the most likely guess. Obviously I can't tell yet whether it's coolant-related. I'm freaking out.

There's no confusion about whether you need to split the block to get at all the rod bearings. You do.

Desktop. Mos def - clicking "Start new topic" takes me to the correct page, but clicking either the Subject or message body boxes delivers me directly to the paypal donation page. Since you've added the donation button directly above those two, might there be a problem with the donation link (tag) not being properly closed and the open link overriding those that follow? [edit] Hey - works now. Was that it?

Fair enough, but glass and stones aren't affected by UV the way plastics are. When I first used the Mothers kit, the results were good but I was disappointed in how short-lived the improvement was - seems like it wasn't more than a few months before the sunlight had fogged them again. So for my second go I wanted a kit with a "UV protectant", hence my choice of Meguiar's. That was in the fall; we'll see how they hold up. So although I can't (yet) actually produce proof of the long-term efficacy of the anti-UV coating, I wouldn't be dismissive of it as a "sealer" or a trivial cosmetic addition.

I was away for a few weeks and didn't know there was an outage. Best wishes for any recovery necessary. But I just tried to start a new thread, and I'm getting routed straight to paypal. Is this intentional? Is a donation required?

Okay, but keep in mind that I'm not a modder or a rodder - my present interest is in what I might use as a replacement in this 2010 WRX. As such, my firs thinking is "stock", since if I go ahead with it I'm more likely to sell than keep it. On the other hand, if this is a desirable combo for the performance crowd, perhaps I should consider it. [edit] Actually, here's a question: I may be able to get my hands on a crashed Forester that (according to the shock tower plate) has an EJ20GDX1NY engine. Might that be a candidate? If so, how much other stuff needs to be screwed with?

Are you telling me that an EJ207 is a drop-in replacement for an EJ255 and has no less power?

Is there a reason for me to be interested in the EJ20? I was just asking about the EJ25x.

Thanks for that - very helpful. Not as many blocks as the numeric designations suggest. If you happen to find the time to post a few pics showing the differences you described, I'm sure many (including me) would find them useful. One of the reasons I'm trying to get an understanding of this is that I may have a chance to pick up a 2010 WRX hatchback that the owner blew by doing his own oil change and not tightening the drain plug (no comment). He said that it has a 255, which fits with what you said. He didn't specify turbo, so I don't know what's up on that front - do they all have it? And I have no clue what this thing should be worth in its present state.

I asked this question in the recent frankenmotor thread but didn't get an answer, so I'd like to give it another shot. I get that these are engine (and not block) designations, but I find the discussions around them confusing. What are the differences (if any) between the various EJ25x blocks? How can one tell them apart, esp. from the outside? I'm trying to get a handle on this, and the wikipedia article isn't clear, though it suggests that the differences between some of these designations are in which pistons are used, and don't actually represent differences in the block casting, machining, or markings. Is there a better reference or FAQ around somewhere that breaks all this down?