Leaderboard

Used a spring clamp. About the safest I have ever felt using these things!That is install grease, not stress fractures

We are currently at $2,750 for the job. Add $400 if you want radiator and hoses along with it. We are cheaper than most of our nearby competition and we include more value-adding parts such as the complete 105k service with the HG job. There's a lot that goes into the pricing structure - overhead these days is crazy. I am fortunate to not be renting my property and thus not subject to commercial property rent increases in the last few years. By far the largest expense is payroll and taxes. As I frequently have to point out to people - driving is a privilege - not a right. It has to be earned. Either by spending money or spending your time. Doing the job yourself has it's own inherent risks associated with it including the prospect of the vehicle being in a non driveable state for sometimes a week or several weekends or more depending on your skill level and time you have available to perform the task. Weather you pay to have the job done or not is a DIRECT reflection on what your time is worth. If you make $13 an hour delivering pizza then your time is worth X. If you make $60 an hour as a commercial electrician then your time is worth Y. If taking a week out of your pay to do this job would cost more than having us do it (or even the same or slightly less if you also take into consideration warranty and turn-around time) then the choice is obvious. So you ask yourself - what marketable skill do you have and does that put you in a position to fix it yourself or pay us to do it? Of course there are other considerations such as physical ability to do the work, some technical skills and reading comprehension are required, etc. GD

Hyd clutch? If so, maybe bleeding the system will help

Just get cheap NGK plugs and gap them at 25. They will put less stress on the ignition system and last longer with a smaller gap. GD

I’ll try to remember to check when I can.

I say do what you want. If you want an XT then get one. It will be a valuable learning experience. It will take a lot of leg work to find parts. And you will be working on it (and learning) more than you will be driving it. But for many of us - that's just part of the hobby. The endless, frustrating search for dirty, broken, used parts with a 50% chance of finding something that will work for just a few more miles..... Personally - I got off the train. I realized that I want to USE my machines. Not spend endless amounts of time fixing them and trying to find or make parts for them. Make the decision - do you want to DRIVE the car or do you want to endlessly WORK on the car? The XT choice leads you down one path, and the newer car your parents want leads you down the other path. My choices have led me down the path of vehicles for which I can easily (not necessarily cheaply) obtain parts (and service information), and that give me pleasure to drive. I can tell you that the XT fits neither category. It's nigh impossible to find parts for, and it's underpowered and terrifying to drive. GD

Smart. I don't know. I do almost exclusively Subaru but I have done a couple other manufacturers head jobs. There's two heads and they're horizontal so they're not easy/veritically mounted right on top like some and there's twice as many as a vehicle with one head. But there are no special tools required and nothing is tricky like some vehicles have impossible to access bolt/cranks due to cramming those transverse mounted engines against strut towers. So it depends what you're comparing it too. Most people pull the engine, it's tricky to do in the engine compartment but can be done if you unbolt the motor mounts (2 14mm nuts - easy) and jack up each side as you're working on it to tilt it so the head is somewhat "up". Lift drivers side, work on it, lift passengers side and work on it. It's certainly nice to not pull the engine for some people. Use Subaru gasket, resurface the heads, clean and lubricate and probably torque the head bolts. Install a Subaru timing belt ($70) and lower cogged idler ($30) from Subaru, check the timing tensioner for oil around the seal (if it's wet replace the tensioner) (or just get a complete timing kit with all new pulleys and tensioner). New valve covers are smart while it's apart. Then you're good for another 100k with minimal maintenance. Then add a bottle of Subaru's coolant conditioner - they "require" it. Although I don't think GD even uses it when he does a HG job. Overflows are old and dirty I don't like to assume to much from them. A rubber seal on a radiator cap can degrade and get flakey and end up with black particulate matter in the overflow...etc. That's a horrible suggestion. These engines usually don't respond well and can still overheat without a thermostat. Also the coolant flow often gets disturbed and you loose cabin heat anyway when they start overheating because it's not cycling through properly - basically the same thing that makes the thermostat trick not work also makes the cabin heat not work. Also I've pulled heads that were driven for a couple months with bad headgaskets like that and they will wear the metal on the head down like water wears down rocks. You'll have a smooth, valley of warn metal where the head gasket breech is if you drive it long enough like that. Right by the combustion chamber will be wide and it'll chamfer down to a rounded point. Avoiding additives and blue devil is a good idea. The Subaru Coolant Conditioner works 100% of the time on initial overheats of factory installed gaskets....but this isn't an initial overheat and I didn't want to mention it unless we confirmed an external coolant leak - that's the only condition for which this will work. If it's leaking internally it's a waste of time, effort, and coolant.