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Intake manifold gaskets. One of the 7 cooling system hoses. Radiator in poor condition. Check it at least once per day. Even then, some of these can fail worse suddenly, leaving you low on coolant and over normal temperature. If that happens, sooner or later, head gaskets. Check things until you find it and fix it.

You guys make some good points. The passenger belt I have is OK for in a pinch, and I just might get a driver's side for a spare. My tensioners could probably be reused, but one is not so great, the other is not bad, and as I've said, I'm considering reusing the idler pulley. It's NOT a Subaru original. It has no real play, spins with some tension, and no noise. In other words at the very least, I'll have spare belts and parts. All that said, I WILL be replacing the tensioners with the belts. I hear you on those cover inserts. I removed two of them after prying the case off. Since I live in snow country, I'm leaning toward putting the covers back on. I'll look for some neoprene screw washers to replace the ones that broke, or I've also thought about zip ties and carrying wire cutters, too . I do have to admit that the access is great and the checks ARE pretty clever. I know one thing. These cars are TOUGH, if like you said, you take reasonable care topping off the oil and keep them from overheating. Some people would balk at doing this sort of work on a car with 258K miles, many of those highway miles, but my plugs look great, the car still gets 30+ mpg, so why the heck not.

I have a 1981 DL 1.6 motor. The fuel filter on this car is under the car behind the rear driver side. The fuel pump is under the hood. It is on the right side as you stand in front of the car next to the fire wall at the windshield. You may want to check the carburetor. I had this fuel problem. I found that two black small hoses that go to the carburetor on the right back had come loose from the carburetor body. If this has happened you cannot get fuel. You have at least 8 PSI which is lost if these are not sealed in the body of the carburetor. I will have to glue or something else to make my work. I am checking to see what is best. Good Luck Paul

I have the theory that this hose is sometimes important for air pocket escape. I have done a repair to block by taper tapping to 27? TPI in 1/8" to accept a 45° brass elbow male into block then female to take a barb fitting. This neatly clears the MPFi twin port turbo intake. Another I have bypassed the TB due to rotted fittings - no freezing up. Another I didn't do the bypass, I totally taper tapped and plugged the holes, right and left of manifold

I used the SMP brand with good results (Standard Motor Products) on our 95 and 97 EJ22. These knock sensors use a vibrating Piezo Electric element to generate a signal to the ECU as shown in this picture. That is why mounting torque is important.

No they all suck. Rebooting originals gives 10x better product. Anything else is a waste of time and garbage. Granted, easy train is so enticing you won’t be able to resist until one cuts loose on the interstate and you’re stranded and learn by experience, like many of us have done. So, ignore me, but keep your originals for when the “new” ones fail. “Heavy Duty” on Subaru axles is marketing click bait. It’s nonsense for so many reasons but chiefly old Subaru’s don’t support a market for quality axles. Cheap people will buy cheap and wise owners of reliable daily drivers will reboot Subaru axles. There’s nearly zero market for more expensive quality axles. If there was I’d buy 100 OEM and rebuild them myself and sell them. But it doesn’t exist. Companies know this better than me. The last “heavy duty” axles new to the market I said there’s no possible way they’re any good. Someone on here swore they were worth trying and wanted them to be all that. they were garbage and he had issues with them. Maybe the same trash you’re looking at. HD something or the other. ive seen brand new axles blow up in less than 100 miles multiple times, or click, clack, or vibrate, they’re terrible. I wouldn’t trust one or feel good about it if it did install and had no symptoms at first. The good Subaru specialty shops buy Subaru OEM axles from the dealer or rebuild or buy used OEM ones.

Another option is to spray the internals with copious amounts of cleaner and just clean the old one. PCVs aren’t typically cleaned and it’s not ideal but this might be a time to try it. They’re just a ball and spring so it’s not a big deal. I’ve cleaned them before, albeit out of the vehicle. it might be worth it here even if it’s just to get it drivable and heat cycle it a few times before trying any other solutions. Try to tighten it a very small amount - like 2 degrees, barely noticeable amount. Once you get it to move the key is to work it back and forth at very small ranges and let it cool. - like a 1/4 turn, or less, depending how bad it is. Loosen 1/4, tighten 1/4, repeat a few times then go have lunch to let it cool down. Repeat. Increase the amount you’re turning it depending how bad it feels. If it’s really tight go up to 1/2 a turn, if it’s loosening fast then go up to 1 or 2 full turns. Loosen tighten loosen tighten. Again give it cooling breaks, more and longer the tighter it is. The heating will encourage expanding and poorer metallurgic properties for easier shearing and stripping. Keep it from heating up. When removing stuck fasteners they can be way too hot to touch, smoking hot. The alumnin manifold won’t handle that much very well. Id guess (granted I can’t see it), you’re not putting as much torque on it as you think. The PCV threads are huge and not typically rusty like radiator hold done bolts and dan bolts that shear off left and right with torque. I can’t see it but if you’re using a short handle 3/8” socket it’s not that much leverage for the large diameter PCV threads. I don’t want to suggest going Hulk and destroying it but I’ve put some pretty big tools behind older PCV valves that are stuck in there from a quarter century.