RallyKeith

On my 96 GT, there is a high pitch squeal that comes from the transmission only above about 3500RPM with at least about half throttle. Uder 3500RPM there is never any noise, and if I'm only giving it a little throttle but am at 4000RPM I don't hear it. Any ideas what it could be? The fluid is new and the level is full. The car drives just fine, including a 40 mile 1 hour trip to work this morning. 99% of my drive I never hear the noise. Keith

Has the steering wheel ever been apart for something? I learned that the air bag plug has a little green tab thing that has to be pop up otherwise the airbag light stays on. I found that out after taking my airbag out to install a new windsheild wiper switch. Keith

Hadn't considered that.... I don't know. Break in is supposed to seat the rings to the cylinder walls so I guess the rings are softer and wear to match?

the original cross hatching on the cylinder walls of the DOHC EJ25 I just did the head gaskets on. I was very impressed when I pulled the heads off of this motor and you could still see it. That made me feel a little better about this car considering the large amount of money I spent just to redo the top end. Keith

Just a heads up, the gasket is made with metal so it can rust to the pipe. Just means it can be a pain to get off and may require some work to get all the old material off so the new one fits on. Keith

Cam bolts = 17mm

I wish I could tell you... Even though I own one from the first shipment from Japan, I can't find any production date. I can tell you that I picked mine up in May of '03 and it probably takes a month on the boats to get them here so if I was going to guess mine was built in March, but that's a guess. Keith

That wouldn't hurt. Subaru's do have very smart ECUs and they do learn certain things like global/general ignition timing. Give it a try. Keith

Yep, there are two cabels on the clutch fork. One goes to the clutch pedal and one goes to the hill holder. Sounds like they f'ed up the hill holder cable adjustment while doing your clutch. In fact, I'll bet that the idiot who did the clutch couldn't get your pedal to adjust right even though he was adjusting the cable, and in fact was adjusting the hill-holder cable and thus totally screwing up the car. DEMAND that they get the head shop mechanic to work on your car, explain that there is thing called a hill-holder that works off the clutch and holds brake pressue in the lines when the clutch is depressed, and demand that they inspect and replace your brakes where needed. Keith

Well, the bad news is that you'll never know if it was the headgaskets of the valve guide seals if you have the valve guide seals replaced. To do that you have to remove the heads and disasseble them, and in turn replace the headgaskets. Also, compression tests don't always catch bad head gaskets. A leak down test would verify that you don't have problems in the combustion chamber such as head gaskets or worn out rings. Keith

I just realized that the wire is supposed to be routed through a little metal hold back that is attached to the bottom bolt of the transmissoin. Since the wire runs up right by the half shaft the wire needs to be held back through this thingy or it could rub against the half shaft and wear through. Keith

If you open the hood and stand along the passanger's fender the wire and the plug for the front O2 sensors runs along the engine/transmission where they mate. My 96 Legacy has a square like gray plug. The actual sensor is located just behind where the half shaft comes out of the transmission on the passangers side. It is relatively easy to replace, but exhausts are known to get rusty and sometimes the sensors don't come out easily. It is however acessable from under the car. Keith

Well, to replace the clutch the mechanic either had to move the motor or the trans. If he just moved the motor front, he had to un-bolt the exhaust from the motor, and most likely un-plug the front O2 sensor. If he pulled the trans, then he most likely dropped the entire exhaust and thus un-plugged both. In both cases there is a chance that the plugs/wiring could have been messed up. If the exhaust was removed completely then anything is fair game. It could have been dropped on the floor causing shock damage, or it could have been kicked/ stepped on while on the ground. Hard to say, but there is some chance the mechanic could have create the problem. I'd suggest to the mechanic that they may have caused it in their work, and see if they will replace it under good will and hpefully only charge you for the part itself. Keith

I've read all the stuff on hear, and we've gone around on this board a few times on the topic of reusing the head bolts on the EJ motor. I'm in the middle of doing the heads on my 96 EJ25 and I asked the head mechanic at my local dealer what he thought on reusing the head bolts. He told me that Subaru had not instructed them to replace them, and as such had been reusing them. However, they (The dealership) are currently in the middle of discussing things with SOA are it looks like they are going to start replacing them as part of their head jobs. They have had a few cars where the head gaskets blew a few times. The final thing that fixed them was replacing the head bolts. Keith

Oh I hope! I'm gonna stop and ask the service manager in about 30 inutes and then see what happens! Thanks.

Well, I think I have them broken loose, but to me it seems like they are corroded inside the head. This car does have a head gasket issue, which is why I'm doing it. How strong are these bolts? How easily could I break one if I put a 2' pipe on a breaker bar? I guess I'm going to try soaking them in penetrating oil? Keith

Once it's up and running try grabbing the key and jiggling it in the ignition. I've had a few cars where the problem was the electrical conection wearing out in the ignition itself. Keith

HAH, that rates up there for understatement of the year. This is the DOHC motor and the bolts sit under the cams. So not only are the valve covers off, but so are the cams, the exhaust, and the intake manifold. I wish I could do that but being that I spent 3 hours getting to this point I don't think I could physically get the engine warm and get back the bolts before they cool off. On a the other note. I do have strong connections to my local dealership and will be calling or stopping in to speak with the shop foeman tomorrow morning. The car has 182k miles on it, and I've got a pretty hefty packet of maintanance records for it and don't see anything to make me believe the heads were ever off. This is very odd to me. I've done a EA18T and the bolts were not like this, and my father's done a few EJ22's that weren't like this. Something doesn't seem right. Keith

Yes, my 96 Legacy GT is OBD-2. There is actually a sticker on the under side of the hood that states it. Also, pulling the battey will clear the codes. I did mine over night to be safe. Keith

In the middle of doing the head gaskets on a 96 EJ25 DOHC. How much force should be required to remove the head bolts? I pulled everything apart down to where all I need to do is unbolt the heads. When I went to unbolt the head I got about 1/8 turn on each bolt with a 16" breaker bar and after that I'm putting almost every ounce of force I have on them and they don't seem to want to move. Is this common? What should I do? Help! Keith

I agree 100% The first thing I learned in the engineering world was that you can make the same numbers have totally different impacts based on how you display them. That is also why I called into question the flow rate. Keith

I only have one question about the test. Is 350CFM representative of the duramax diesel's actual flow? A filter of X size when at low flow rate would show much less restriction for the amount of dirt trapped than at higher flow rates. I'm not disagreeing with the results exactly, I'm jus curious. It works just like a restrictor plate, at a low flow you don't know it's there, at higher flow you notice. Keith

YES There are TWO (2) drain plugs and two dipsticks on the automatics! The dipstick on the passanger's side is for the front diff. The front diff drain plug site underneath where the half shafts come out of the transmission. There is also a dipstick on the driver's side of that is for the actual ATF. The ATF drains from the plug on the side of the transmission pan half way back. It sounds like you drained one and are trying to add to the other. Check it out. The trans (ATF) dipstick is often over looked. It sits near the brake master cylinder and under some some hoses. Keith

Oh, don't get me wrong, I've been there and done that. I was more or less thinking outloud on the board. To most this is a high mileage engine. The thing was simply that I've put so much time into this car already that if I'm at least half way to completely tearing the engine apart, do I do it right away. I'd rather not, I just know I'm gonna be really mad at my self if something goes wrong 10k miles from now. Keith

I've had several cases where either the end nut on the half-shaft wasn't tight enough, or there was some sort of misalignment that wasn't causing the half-shaft to seat properly and in turns made it sound like a bad CV joint. I assume in that situation it is slack in the bearings of the knunkle that cause the issue. I've had this on Legacys, Loyales, and a Justy. I don't know if there is a torque spec for that end nut, but in my experiance a 16" breaker bar with a 3' pipe and all my weight down on it was what it took. Also, torque bind is called that because the car binds up and un-naturally slows it self down and wheels shutter. I don't think you have that problem, but like cookie said, try putting in the FWD fuse. Keith