idosubaru

Most are non turbo. How many miles on the block? Leak down and compression tests? Check the PCV valve system for blockage? Seems like a long shot but if you're confident the valves and rings aren't it.... Was it burning oil before you replaced the rings? After you replaced the rings did it burn less, more, the same, or can't tell? When rings were replaced were there any signs suggesting which cylinder was the culprit? Did you replace all the rings? There's only two ways for oil to enter the cylinder: valves and rings. Rings are most common

Great choice, the turbo's with age are highly problematic. Gas turbo's in general are be design more complex and don't age well. The turbo's fail, replacement turbo's often aren't good quality, any overheating or low oil situation quickly plants the seeds for catastrophic block failure. And by this age it's not uncommon for one to see oil or overheating issues at somepoint in the past.

Good luck! I'm from Carroll county, was at the Lock House Museum close to you in the spring or last spring on the way back from Philly.

2008 Legacy - oil level seems to be rising and smells like gas and thinned out, running poorly. No check engine codes. Can I unplug the electrical connector to the injector as a test? Or do they just internally whether they are plugged in or not?

John in KY - you still on here, I know I just talked to you recently person to person but thought Id reply to this old post. Did this end up being an injector issue or oring issue? I have high oil level and it's also running poorly in a 2008 legacy EJ25. Orings can cause an internal leak into the cylinder? How does that happen? I have orings on hand, but not injectors....

Your biggest potential (though unlikey on a car this new) issue will be trying to get the ball joint out of the knuckle. It will all depend on how much rust/salt that thing has seen. The guys out west and down south don't have to worry about that and can pop ball joints all day long. The ball joint just pops out. Up here....sometimes they pop out, sometimes they don't. I've ripped t(metal shards and all) the ball joint shaft right through the actual ball itself which was left rust welded into the knuckle, then you're spending a lot of time chiseling/drilling to get the remnant of the ball joint outer casing separated from the knuckle housing and you'll need to replace the ball joint. Good chance a 2018 isn't that bad and comes right out...but if you ever do experience a rusty ball joint you will curse everyone who says "oh just pop the ball joint out" and realize they often live down south/west or are dealer guys only working on new cars under warranty. Are the current axles bad, these newer axles often run a lot of miles without issues and almost never fail. An aftermarket axle may very well fail before the originals with 200,000 miles. In rust prone areas many of us avoid the ball joint and just undo the lower strut mount bolts to replace an axle. The top bolt impacts camber, so you mark the HEAD (not the nut) of the bolt relative to the knuckle housing and make sure you install it exactly where it was before you did the work. EA81, EA82, ER27's are all front parking brakes, so yeah nothing newer than 1994!

Original engine? 01's and some 02's were notorious for timing chain noise. I believe due to tensioners and they have jumped timing before. I've seen failed tensioners and guides, never a failed chain though I'm sure anything is possible.

Thanks guy. The tensioner does look suspect - the small pin that pushes against the bracket to create tension looks somewhat mis-marked like it's not contacting evenly. I'll go ahead and replace that. It's OEM - I'm about to restart it with a new belt, I'll see if I can see the tensioner flopping around at all. I had a 1997 EJ22 tensioner (same one piece style) do that - I guess lost hydraulic pressure and was slapping a bit until it warmed up. Though I don't recall it wearing the belt weird. I'll try to post a pic. It's very odd - like a worm ate through the top of the belt in spots...I'm exaggerating the car was still driving but it seems like anything pulley related would simply be straight not curved and wiggling across the surface.

I'm only running this way for testing purposes, it's temporary. I DO NOT NEED RECOMMENDATIONS or discussion about how bad of an idea this is. I've driven a few hundred miles and the top smooth surface of the Subaru belt is showing odd grooving and uneven wear. It's never touched any fluids and belt and pulleys are all OEM and only 5 years old with maybe 50,000 miles. I checked them just in case although there's really no way for a pulley to cause such uneven wear. All of the pulleys and water pump seem fine - so I'm wondering what's causing this - could it be the heat from the exhaust coming up from those 2005+ odd exhuast systems that run forward under the timing belts? That seems really unlikely but I've also never seen a timing belt do this before. I'm going to install new pulleys and water pump and timing cover, but I'd also like to know for sure what's causing this.

Hydraulic clutch - if the clutch pedal doesn't come back up does that mean there's air in the hydraulic lines or the throw out bearing is toast?

Also - it looks like you've already fixed it good enough for rural TN if it doesn't leak coolant. LOL

You can just twist, pull, bend them back into shape. They're not that structurally important relative to the bumper beam, the top radiator support is very flimsy, it's not that stout. I've put on gloves and yanked them by hand forward a few inches before. Not gonna do that to a bent bumper beam. They're welded in place so the job is 300% harder if you have to cut and weld, which I've done before. Yes, totally repairable and easy. d If you want original show room lines it'll be harder than being okay with your hood lines being 2 mm off. I'm pretty sure TN Is very favorable to this but You should look into state laws on rebuilding and reconstructing if the insurance sends you a salvage title. If you're lucky the insurance just doesn't mess with it and doesn't send you a salvage title. THen you dont' have to do anything. But they're supposed to and usually do. If they do then you have to get it recertified by the state before you can title and tag it. You have to go through a separate inspection for that in some states. Some are rigorous and some are very easy and pass just about anything. Check that process out.

I installed heads, never installed (therefore never ran) the engine. I need to pull them and reinstall. Everyone even some very experienced mechanic said it's not worth it. It's probably debatable how long they'd last. A month, a year, 50,000 miles? I think it would be very hard to argue they'll last as long as a properly installed new set.

Does that mean yellow (EJ) can be attached to Black/White stripe (EA) since that's the remaining unused EA wire? So the complete wiring would be: B/W (EJ) goes to White/Red (EA) White goes to White Yellow (EJ) ignition switched engine fuse in the cabin

Aftermarket are still available in the US front and rear. Rockauto always has options. They're often on ebay too and ebay tries to encourage international shipping. Order them now before the US postal service has any more troubles or deficits. 1989 SUBARU XT 1.8L H4 CV Axle | RockAuto Rears are not XT specific: All EA82 rear axles in the US are interchangeable. EA82 models are DL, GL (wagons), Loyale, RX, XT, XT6, though I don't know if they're called the same thing in your country, but all the rears are interchangeable. They are so vastly different from EJ axles there are no other options unless you did massive cutting and welding/converting or installing an entire rear EJ subframe. Can you regrease and reboot yours? Mine have 250,000 miles (400,000+ KM) and I'd never even think about replacing the axles. I'll just regrease and reboot if needed. They'd have to fail in some way to put low grade aftermarkets on there. I've seen new aftermarket Subaru axles fail after 1 mile, 50 miles, and later. And it's always been EA vehicles. If you're installing them on a lifted Subaru their poor craftsmanship really shines - nearly every one clicks, pops, and hacks up a lung, then I install an OEM Subaru used unit and it works flawlessly. GLoyale (his old username) has a shop and said years ago he has much better luck if he buys aftermarket axles, cleans them and regreases with a proper amount of high quality grease. He said they're often lacking a proper amount of grease.