The piston slap is a result of a change in design of the piston skirts around 1997. The trade off is a little bit more power and efficiency.

Good to know about the piston slap!! Thank you..

 

When i said the engines looks like can be removed without a lift, i meant without a 2 post lift to gain easy access to underneath the vehicle.. I would not attempt to remove the engine without an engine hoist.

 

However i did just pick up a 2003 forester for 2500.00 in very good condition (for NJ anyway) with 171k on the clock.. starts up cold with a VERY faint piston slap noise that goes away within a minute or so. No torque bind issues, no oil stains on the ground where it was parked, however it does need a left front axle or axle boot (boot is ripped but not clicking yet).. Anyone change the axle boots on these before? I have done a few on older ford taurus where its just a matter of whacking the joint off putting the new boot on, stuffing it with the grease and whacking it back on. 

Get a boot kit from Subaru. The aftermarket turds fall apart in 6 months. If the axle cups are painted green they are OE Subaru axles and you should try to keep those if at all possible.

 

Ahh, no vehicle lift needed to remove these engines. The 99 and later engines have 4 extra bolts in the bellhousing but are still way easy to pull if you need to.

Best part is the wiring. Look on top of the bellhousing on the passenger side and you'll see 3 big plugs and a few small ones. Unplug those and all the engine wiring is unhooked. Engine pulls out with all the sensor wiring in place! No fidgeting with connectors for 2 hours trying to get them all unhooked.

Get a boot kit from Subaru. The aftermarket turds fall apart in 6 months. If the axle cups are painted green they are OE Subaru axles and you should try to keep those if at all possible.

 

Ahh, no vehicle lift needed to remove these engines. The 99 and later engines have 4 extra bolts in the bellhousing but are still way easy to pull if you need to.

Best part is the wiring. Look on top of the bellhousing on the passenger side and you'll see 3 big plugs and a few small ones. Unplug those and all the engine wiring is unhooked. Engine pulls out with all the sensor wiring in place! No fidgeting with connectors for 2 hours trying to get them all unhooked.

awsome! Thank you.

however it does need a left front axle or axle boot (boot is ripped but not clicking yet).. Anyone change the axle boots on these before? I have done a few on older ford taurus where its just a matter of whacking the joint off putting the new boot on, stuffing it with the grease and whacking it back on.

Since you have to do all the work that you would in simply replacing the axle, and you have no idea how long it's been ripped, you may be better served in simply repoacing the axle. Depends on how important long term bulletproof relibaility is to you. There are decent aftermarket axles out there for not all that much $$.

 

One thing unique to Subie axles is that the inboard side is helt into the fron diff with a roll pin that you need a very long punch to remove.

If you don't feel like rebooting your own, consider getting genuine rebuilt Subaru axles from MWE in Denver, CO.  (You can Google them.)  We have them on two Subies in the family and they're excellent quality.

damn thing needs head gaskets!!!!!!!! was driving it all day today and no problems, then suddenly later in the day the temperature gauge started to rise a bit, but it went back down... then on my way home it went really high (almost in the red) and i lost heat (sure fire way to know its a head gasket)....

 

So it looks like i got a not so good deal and am now in the market for a good head gasket kit... any recommendations? can the HG be done with engine in the vehicle?

subaru head gaskets, get the ones made for the 2.5l turbo motors. part number is here in the forums, a search should yield results, and yes completely doable with engine in car

going to run some tests today.. i am hoping that its just an aftermarket thermostat that was used.. typically the minute you get a headgasket leak you loose heat... i didnt loose heat until the temp went very close to the red zone... There is a new upper rad hose so it's possible the system could be underfilled as well.. keeping my fingers crossed.

Actually on the sohc ej25 they don't loose heat.  One of my friends had an 02 impreza rs that he ran about 80k miles after they started leaking, as long as he kept the antifreeze topped off it never lost heat or had the tempurate guage go out of normal range. 

I would suspect low coolant level first, but its worth it to check the thermostat.

When you refill the system fill the block through the upper hose before filling the radiator.

i have this chemical that we used to use when i worked for ford and ford had that HUGE problem with 3.8l headgaskets on the taurus and the lincoln continentals... the chemical will change from blue to yellow if i detects exhaust gases... i will give that a try when i get a chance (very busy at work lately and i hate working on cars in the cold)... But if it does turn out to be the headgasket i am going to replace it with the 2.5 tubo head gaskets or the 6 star headgaskets as suggested... Anyone know what the part numbers are? or should i just go to subaru and tell them that i have a 03 forester turbo and get the head gaskets for that.. i only want to do this job ounce, well get atleast 60k miles out of it worry free.

Edited February 23, 201313 yr by Hakim Craddock

So today i finally got some free time and the weather was not too cold.. picked up an xactstat 48457 from pepboys, pulled the t stat housing off and YES YES YES it had one of those little cheap thermostats in there (in the back of my mind i was also hoping that the previous owner did not replace it because they were trying to fix an overheating problem) So i swapped it out, filled the system via the upper rad hose first, then the radiator... went for a 20 mile drive on the same highway where it would normally over heat within 10 minutes and it was perfect!! 

 

I can attest to the Fact that the right t stat in Subarus can make all the difference..

personally in the ej engines um wary of any form of aftermarket thermostats at all, that's one of the main things I always stick to oem on

 

appears I missed the memo on that particular thermostat, carry on lol

Edited February 25, 201313 yr by 86BRATMAN

that's something we suggest a lot around here, glad to see the info actually helped someone!