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I LOVE turbo cars. Those fools bought me a dyno. All the money is in the turbo world and making more power. About 75% of our work is turbo cars. After you do a few hundred you get the process down. We turn them out like an assembly line. If we go in that far, we do forged pistons. Period. You can't judge the condition of the pistons visually. The ring landings can fail from fatigue at any time. It's a $hitty casting and the are weak. My cost on a JE set is like $450 and they come with rings. With that much labor on the line how does it pencil out to NOT have forged pistons and increase the value of the car when doing this invasive of a job? And the pickup tubes are $37 from Subaru - in stock. Not even worth cleaning or checking for cracks. Labor is $100+ per hour everywhere..... How much time can we spend on such a part? And why take the risk? I have several in my graveyard that are broken off at the flange. Killer-B or new Subaru. No way I'm reusing that junk. I still think you will find some kind of camshaft issue which isn't really a turbo thing per-se. Could happen to anything. I've seen broken cams, seized cams, and everything in between. Never happened in 20 seconds on a startup..... so I'm going to say either it's a freak component failure, or an assembly error/journal contamination, etc. GD

90's EJ22 are the easiest, and most durable engine choice. 130~135 HP, so plenty to move a GL around but not so much munch the rest of the drivetrain. You don't need to get an AWD trans if you get an adapter plate and redrilled flywheel. Much easier actually than a full AWD swap where you have to make new shifter linkage and driveline and get turbo (25 spine) axles.......it's doable if you want.......good combo for lots of road driving with just some light snow/trails. But for ease of swap, and best full off-road capability, keep your D/R 5- spd.

Keep your current trans if you want the dual range 4wd. If it’s on road traction you’re after and not 4wd capability, then go the AWD gearbox. Read up on the EJ conversion document that’s floating around here. Really any EJ engine will do the trick. Pick one that does NOT have factory security where the ECU talks to the key fob (for the want of a better description). This will make the wiring cut down so much easier to do. You’ll love the EJ! Cheers Bennie

I like the reviews on Amazon for stuff like this, but it pays to check any 1 or 2 star reviews in the mix. Sometimes there's a 'feature' lacking or something odd I don't like....

You're actually a bit low for MSRP on OEM brake parts. They're about $85 for a set of pads, and for each rotor. Still, that's only $510 in parts. I bet book rate is 1.5 hours or so per axle, even at a dealer labor rate, that's probably $900 or so with tax and shop supplies. Now, due to the number of times I've been on the other side of this situation, I will never condemn a shops estimate/work as a 3rd party. But something definitely doesn't add up. OE rotors are considerably better than aftermarket. $20 spent resurfacing a 6 year old rotor is much better than $20 spent on a cheap new rotor.

Make sure you check the coolant in the radiator, when it's cold. Many times the coolant will not pull back into the radiator so the overflow bottle seems full but the coolant system is low. Good visual of all hose connections, recommended. Check to make sure all the fans are working. Is it an original Subaru thermostat? Don't use and aftermarket.

Nipper, if it was a 50/50 torque split, then you could lift the front axle off the ground in gear and use the engine to spin the front wheels freely without particular danger of the rear axle propelling the vehicle over the 2x2 blocks you were chocking the rear wheels with, just like would happen if the center divider was an open differential, which is a 50/50 torque split. That doesn't happen, which is the layman's way to know the torque is being redistributed unequally to the other axle. Another simplified explanation is at the website you posted a couple posts up. I'm sure you can go through the calculations for yourself if you don't prefer the layman's method.

I dunno about you, but i consider torque the cross product of a force, and the length of the lever arm it's applied upon :cool: (thank you wikipedia for the pic ) Why the OBS isn't on the road... well it won't pass inspection... missing that front swaybar, needs new exhaust studs in the block... a few other goodies :cool:

No, it's absolutely not a 50/50 torque split, but I'm not going to go through this with you again.

It doesn't work like that. especially in the older 4eats found in GL's,GL-10s, XTs and XT-6. First of all you only get the increased transfer in 1st on these old ones. BUT there is no 1st on the select lever. You must push in the 1 hold button when the shifter is in 2nd position. Then you get 1st gear. so you'd be limited to about 20-30mph tops. Second of all, The increase from being in 1st is not nearly as much as when you lock it with the switch. It just isn't. If you haven't done it you don't know. Third and maybe most importantly, The older computers just aren't as good as the new ones. It takes way too long once the front slips to kick in and send power. Even then it is not smooth and isn't even enough power to the back end when it's really deep snow. I have a 93 Legacy, with 80,000 more miles than my GL, and it transfers beautifully. It just bites and goes no matter what. No front wheel slip. even in the deepest snow. I don't need the switch in that car. But my GL just doesn't transfer power real well(unless I use the switch). Also, If EITHER of the speed sensors fail, or if the AT temp sensor fails or becomes grounded, the computer control won't send any power to the rear wheels. So this switch gives you a way to get out of bad conditions even if one of these fails by overriding the computer and lockin em up.

Hey! new thought! I've been going through the FSM. It says that the duty solenoid C gets a "pulse wave modulation" at 50Hz. This controls the Duty Ratio from 5% to 95%. When we do the simple switch mod and interupt the circuit, obviously that means the solenoid has a 0% ratio, and never opens the drain for the pilot pressure. If a controller or just a simple fixed value cicuit could be fitted to send only a 5% duty ratio signal to the solenoid it would provide the maximum torque the transfer clutch is made to take. And allow the drain to be opened juuust slightly so that pressure does not exceed what it would under normal operation. I put up a post on Electro-tech-online.com(another forum) asking about how to go about generating this signal. Could this be a solution to the "you'll F-up your Tranny with that switch" problem?

OK people should not be doing this if they dont have a basic idea of what switches are and how they work. http://www.kpsec.freeuk.com/components/switch.htm double pole double throw switch. Two indenpendt circuits on one switch. You can wire it so when one side breaks the circuit, the other side makes another circuit. nipper