dave833

I don't have the car yet, but I did drive it and the noise varied with where the clutch pedal was- I can't remember now whether putting the pedal all the way IN eliminated the noise, or letting it out all the way-- I think putting it in. I suggested to the seller that it sounded like the TO bearing and he said the dealership said no, it was internal to the tranny. He also said they told him that Subaru transmissions are "sealed" and cannot be repaired- a load of BS, but I can see where a dealership would rather replace a tranny with 202k than try to repair it.

I'm looking at a '98 Outback Limited wagon with a 5 spd. that's noisy (202k miles). Local Suby dealership says it's going bad. Anyway, I was looking for a used one and car-part.com seems to indicate that the ONLY one that will work is from another '98 Outback wagon. Anyone had any experience with this? I know that '97 and later have a hydraulic clutch, but are there other differences too? I'm sure any '95 and newer will bolt up, but is the diff. gearing different for '98 only?

In Utah, where this is taking place, you can reassign a title when selling without re-titling it-- twice on the original title and any number of times with a title reassignment addendum. I've bought cars that had two extra PAGES of title reassignments! The latest seller of this car says he "hasn't had time to fix the damage" which is true since he's only owned it ONE DAY!

Ok- maybe I'm jealous because I didn't get to it first, but this is the darndest thing I've ever seen in a car for sale in online classifieds. Last Thursday a seller in a nearby town offered a '95 Impreza L 2.2 for $300 with light left front damage but drivable (I wanted the engine). It was snapped up within an hour by someone who re-listed it in the same classifieds THE NEXT DAY using the SAME picture for $550. NO work had been done, but of course the seller was able to give lots of details about the maintenance history! TODAY the same car was relisted again by a THIRD seller in the same classifieds for $1100! This genius at least used a different picture, but it's the SAME car, again with no repairs done on the damage. Seller says it's an "original title" car, whatever that means. If this Impreza keeps appreciating exponentially every day, pretty soon it will be the most valuable Suby on the planet!

Why oh why oh why oh WHY would anyone go to all that work and not use Subaru OEM HG's? -at least not anyone that reads this board. That's one mistake no one will make twice!

Is the early-style EJ22 tensioner pulley (2-bolt tensioner) the same as the one used on the Phase 1 EJ25 (also 2-bolt tensioner)? I'm talking about the pulley itself, not the tensioner.

Anyone know the Subaru part # for a '98 EJ25 rear main seal? Yes, I know they 'never fail', but I've got one that's clearly leaking, as is the oil separator plate... lucky me!

I tore down the EJ25 out of my sister's '98 OBW tonight. It was diagnosed by a shop as having a blown HG and had the typical symptoms. Having removed the heads, I looked at the HG's and they look to me like the new style-- at least as I've heard them described. Can anyone help me identify new vs. old? The ones I took off are 3 layers of metal with the middle layer about 2x as thick as the outside layers, and the outside layers have a blackish finish to them. Are the old-style gaskets just one piece? If these are new-style, then it's not the first time the HGs have blown. I got suspicious when the engine came apart way too easy- even the cam sprocket bolts and the head bolts weren't difficult, which makes me think it's been torn down before. (Unfortunately, I don't have access to any maintenance history.)

Wondering if Subaru makes a complete engine re-seal kit with head gaskets for a '98 EJ25 and if anyone has the part number for that. Thanks!

Sister's '98 OBW blew the HG's a few days ago (confirmed by 2 shops and my own observations). Instead of replacing the head gaskets, I agreed to swap in an EJ22 because she's terrible about maintaining cars and I figured we both might be time and money ahead with a more reliable EJ22. Her car is is an automatic, and I've got two choices right now for EJ22s-- a '97 Impreza (interference) WITH an EGR or a '96 OBW manual trans. WITHOUT an EGR. I'd prefer to put in the '96 because it's not an interference engine, but I'm concerned about it not having an EGR and wondering if it will run without throwing an EGR code in her '98-- important for passing Utah safety and emissions. I have to pick one or the other because I'll be driving the car with whatever engine I don't choose for hers. Any suggestions?

Yes, the EJ22 from an AT car will swap into an EJ25 car with a manual tranny and everything lines up, at least on a pre-'99. I just swapped a '97 EJ22 from an AT Impreza into a '97 MT 2.5GT wagon and there were no bolts, holes, connectors, or vacuum lines left over.

Sounds like me today! I swapped out the front strut assemblies on my '97 GT wagon and tightened one of the upper strut mount bolts til it broke off! Now what do I do? (I did use a lot of PB blaster today though... good stuff!) I do remember swapping out the rears on my '95 legacy wagon a few years ago. What a PITA that was!

Found the problem- it's a gray cylinder with a 3-wire plug that sits on the intake manifold right under the TPS and has about a 3/4" hose that connects to the plastic intake plumbing. Not sure what it's called, but I noticed that the one on my '96 Outback makes the same sound just not as loud.

So after my EJ22 swap into '97 2.5GT I notice a medium-pitched tone coming from under the hood, almost like an electronic test tone. It doesn't vary in pitch with RPM and it's not a whirring or scraping, more like a ringing sound. I only hear it with the engine running, not if the ignition's on but the engine is stopped. I poked around with an old stethescope and found it loudest in the air filter box, then I traced it up as far as the MAF sensor- it's either coming from the MAF sensor or somewhere else in the intake path. Anyone experienced anything like this? I'm relieved it's not a timing belt idler or worse, but I'm really puzzled!

I wrapped up my first EJ25 to EJ22 swap on a '97 GT wagon and I'm happy to say 'it's alive'! I got lucky with a $69.00 EJ22 from a '97 Impreza at the pick-n-pull with 136k miles that had the timing belt done about 12k miles ago (documented). Drove it today and aside from some air in the cooling system (fixed with a little burping) and a noise in the left front wheel that turned out to be loose lugnuts (doh!) I'm quite pleased with how things seem to have turned out. The best thing was that it threw NO ENGINE CODES while I was driving it today-- a big deal because it has to pass Utah emissions. This swap is as easy as everyone said it would be. The only REAL snag turned out to be when I tried to mate the engine to the tranny, not realizing I had duplicate sets of alignment pins hitting against each other-- again a pretty easy fix once I knocked out the pins on the tranny side. I'm crossing my fingers that it continues to run well!

The EJ18 and EJ22 were used in various models worldwide from 1990-1999.

Pulling the engine's really very easy. I just pulled a 2.5 from a '97 and it took me 4 hours start to finish- I'm sure others can do it faster, but I've pulled Honda/Acura engines and they're MUCH harder. On the other hand, I did the head gaskets for an SVX EG33 with the engine in the car because I didn't have access to a hoist. I jacked up the engine/trans as far as it would go to clear the frame rails and it wasn't too bad either.

Well I just paid $600 for a clean '97 2.5GT wagon with a rod knock (confirmed: the oil pan is full of metal) and the seller came down from $1000, so I definitely wouldn't pay $2500 for this one.

OK- so this isn't my car, but is there something fishy about this ad? http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=443&sid=&tab=list/view&ad=1107590 If the seller's on the level, it's a little suspicious to me that he'd have a burned valve after just having the timing belt done at the dealership. I've had a couple of experiences with burned valves on Hondas and I seem to recall that the timing being off was a contributing factor. I feel for the kid if he's indeed a college student short on money.

Both the EJ25 and the EJ22 are 1997.

OK- so I'm swapping an EJ22 into a '97 Leg 2.5GT and my EJ22 came from the junkyard without a coil pack-- I thought I could just swap over the coil pack from the 2.5-- WRONG. It's bigger and the connectors are different. Looks like the wires going to the 3-pin connector on the engine side are the same, could I splice the connectors and use the coil, or do I need a coil from an EJ22?

I concur- last time I cut off a race I used a Dremel with a reinforced cutoff wheel. Pretty hard on the dremel, but a smaller cutoff wheel (1.25") means less chance of damaging the spindle or hub.

I guess drilling a couple of holes in the lowest part of the pan assures that it drains completely- Sometimes the drain plug isn't in the lowest part of the pan, for reasons I've never understood.

I'm going to put a 2.5 pan on a 2.2. Got a junkyard 2.2 for a swap into a 97 2.5GT but the, uh, geniuses at the pick and pull yard drill HOLES in the oil pans of all the engines for some reason! They couldn't take 30 seconds to remove the drain plugs?

Do the '97 EJ22 and '97 EJ25 engines use the same oil pan?