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i think it was the belt. i did not notice the smell yesterday during the 2 hours of driving with every electronic on i could turn on.

So hello, I’m new here. I impulsively traded in my 6 speed GTI for a 6 speed 2015 STI recently and thankfully I only had one “Oh Crap WHAT DID I DO?!” moment but anyway, here we are now. I figured it would benefit me to join a forum and learn more about my car from the people who know and love them. I’ve always coveted them for their beauty and excitement but obviously I didn’t prepare myself for actually owning one. Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to as the opportunity to buy one presented itself and I jumped on it. I don’t know a lot whole lot about cars but I know more than the average female. I am confident I can be a good car owner. I’m here to learn from the best!

Those are later EJ25's. you want the 610 gasket: https://parts.subaru.com/p/Subaru__/Engine-Cylinder-Head-Gasket-Top-End-Engine-Gasket/49500367/11044AA610.html

The 610 EJ25D headgasket is MLS - use that, resurface heads, clean surfaces, and clean and lube head bolts. Nifty on the dual port. Ours were 90-95 only, and all EJ25's of course.

Welcome! Share pics of your Subie! Kind Regards.

You might have fixed it with the new belt. You said the belt squealed on start up and then when you turned the headlights on the smell came back. Both of those cause the alternator to charge and put a load on the belt. A lot of times I use a small wire brush and clean out the grooves in the pulleys with the engine at an idle. Be careful.

Subaru Head Gasket 11044AA642 Subaru Head Gasket 11044AA770

Typical. You have to resurface the heads, clean the block surfaces really well, and use the 770 or 642 gaskets or the HG's will leak about 25k miles after replacement. It's not a matter of if they will leak, but when and how many times they need to be redone till someone does it the right way with 770's. GD

The window is the motor. They all do that. It will be rusted solid inside. If you have the right tools you can do it in about 20 minutes. But book time is like 2.8 hours or something silly. Can be done by brail with a LONG 90 degree #3 Philips bit driver. But per Subaru you have to pull the regulator. Don't bother with used or aftermarket - they ALL fail like that. I have done dozens and dozens of Forester window motors. They are $225 from Subaru. Cluster illumination - you turned up the dimmer right? GD

i actually have checked the headlight connectors the first night wiring was cool to touch no melting at the headlights. timing belt looks good i changed the alternator belt and well see if that makes a difference today the old one was a bit stretched

Great - that’s perfect. I’m going to assume your 90-94 engine is the same as our 90-94. Here’s the easy way for you: Bolt your EJ22 heads to the EJ25D block and then use your EJ22 intake manifold. It’ll be as if nothing changed. It’ll bolt right in, no wiring, no ECU needed and you’ll have new headgaskets (EJ25D headgaskets - match the gasket to the block). If you wanted to run the entire EJ25D engine and not swap heads then you would look into simply installing your EJ22 wiring harness onto the EJ25 intake manifold. You can do this with 95-98 EJ22s but I’m not sure about 90-94s. when swapping a 95-98 EJ22 and EJ25D you swap the entire engine - plug and play compatible. The wiring connectors are identical. You can’t swap manifolds as the EJ22 doesn’t fit onto the EJ25D. But there’s no need as the wiring is plug and play anyway. But this also means you can’t just bolt your 90-94 manifold onto the EJ25D. Hence you’d have to see if you can swap your harness onto the 25 manifold. the 90-94 intake manifolds are the same bolt pattern as 95-98 EJ22 so they’re interchangeable physically, But the electronics are different.

Given the OPs name could the smell be caused by something unrelated to the car? Until you find it you may want to carry a fire extinguisher with you and don't park it in the garage in case it goes up.

pretty much every EA-82 has those cracks between the valves, normal, in a sense, nothing to worry about unless it causes another issue, i've had 3 3rd gen subaru's, they've all had them.