Just bought my friend's mom's 91 Loyale wagon, AT, 4wd with 48K on the clock. Drove 900 miles home so it's in pretty fair shape. Timing belts changed in the last 2 years (2000 miles ago) so good there. Needs some TLC: fluid changes, plugs, wires, disty cap and rotor, pcv valve, and all that I think I can do, had VW's but not soobs so here's my questions. I'm real concerned about the cooling system hoses and want to replace all of that first thing. Should I buy OEM hoses, or head to my local parts store? I know I need the upper and lower big hoses, how many more are there, or can I just call one of the online stores and say sell me all of them, and if so, how many $ will that run? I've read the warnings about only getting OEM thermostats and pcv valves, so will sure do that. Lots of oil leaks, will give the motor a bath and then start looking. I'm sure I'll be back for some searching or advice. Y'all all seem like a great bunch of folks with lots of good help.

the leaks are the factory own rustproofing system. If you wash the gunk off, its likely to leak even more when you brake off the sealing gunk.

 

welcome to the Subaru world. Sounds like a really good start getting something with low miles and such. Post your questions and someone will answer, this board is really beneficial

This will be my 16 year old daughter's starter car, and I hope it takes her well through college! My first was a '72 Fiat 128 and you learned a lot about cars having a fix it again tony!

I'd pop in a new radiator along with the hoses. Could save you a lot of future problems.

I'd pop in a new radiator along with the hoses. Could save you a lot of future problems.

the low mileage original radiator is better quality than any replacement would be. As long as it is clean inside, and fresh antizreeze, don't change out to a made in China crappy radiator that will crack in a year.

I'd pop in a new radiator along with the hoses. Could save you a lot of future problems.

 

I bought my Loyale new and after 42K miles the cheap plastic radiator began leaking. When I went to replace it, I aksed the shop if there was a metal version available and they gave me one for aLegacy I think. Anyway, no problems since. I am at 122K miles now.

the low mileage original radiator is better quality than any replacement would be. As long as it is clean inside, and fresh antizreeze, don't change out to a made in China crappy radiator that will crack in a year.

 

I find this kinda funny, being leary of replaceing a Japanese radiator with a chinese one.

Anyways sounds like the only sucky thing about the car is the auto tranny. If you do some searches on here there poorly made and make the car really rap out in the rpms. Do a coolant system flush. Flush the heater core and all the engine, get that 18 year old coolant out of the thing. When you are doing this check for missing fins in your radiator. When its runnign do you have coolant leaking from the front of the motor as well. Oil leakes tend to be the valve cover gaskets but there are others. Its usually the valve covers first. (i find it odd i give this advice when my car pukes oil and coolant on a daily basis.) I dont know if i would bother giving the thing a tuneup. Ive got 200thousand on my distributor and its still running (kinda).

All the maintenance receipts along with the window sticker were in the glovebox. The plugs and wires are from 1998 and looks like the disty cap and rotor are the same vintage, to they'll get replaced also. Fortunately they had done axles and timing belt in '06. I plan to flush the fool out of the radiator first thing, don't see any receipt for that, it still looks green in the overflow tank, and not green jello! I wish it was a 5 speed, but then it's going to be my daughter's car so I can't dwell on that. S'posed to be a little warmer this weekend in Little Rock, so we'll spend it in the garage. I'll work on the cooling system first, then get to the tune up stuff, valve covers after that. Looks like everything is pretty easy to work on.

Plugs and wires went on last night w/o any trouble. Starting to develop a "Subaru stain" on the driveway, so may get to the valve covers next. Looks like the pass side shouldn't be too tough, a/c in the way on the other. I am waiting for my local Sub dealer to get back with me on the prices on some parts before I go on the internet and search for the OEM stuff.

If you go under the car on the drivers side, remove the splash shield ( 2 bolts ) the 3 lower valve cover bolts are easier to get at.

Pass side from the top, drivers from the bottom, got it, thanks! What kind of gasket sealant do subaru's like on their valve covers, or none at all?

I dont use any sealant on valve covers, just a thin film of vasoline between the cover and cam case. Make sure you replace the seals on the bolts as well

The parts guy at our local dealership says there's possibly two different part # for the radiator hoses, one for a copper radiator and one for a aluminum radiator, how the heck do you tell which one you might have? I gave him the VIN #, but he didn't have a clue how to tell them apart. I guess I'll just have him order one of them and I'll take the car out there when I pick up the parts on Wednesday.

Usually the copper radiators are painted black, and the center section of the aluminum is natural aluminum color.

I'd say I'm the aluminum one then, no paint on the fins that I can see, black plastic on the sides. Thanks so much, that saved me some aggravation!

no problem