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Well, here's the coda: I was deeply apprehensive about this assembly because I was suffering severe creak on most of the head bolts during the torquing. Some of them had spots of pitting on the threads and I should have replaced them, but simply didn't have the time, given this summer's circumstances. So I cleaned them up as best I could, degreased and blew out the block holes, lubed 'em up and forged ahead. Probably should have chased the block threads as well. Anyway, the torquing was all my best SWAG, as I figured that if I could get anywhere close to the final ft-lb spec, the creaking probably wouldn't matter as I did the final angles. We finished slapping it together last Monday and ran it around town, putting on 200km in 30C weather with the AC blasting. When it held, I figured it was worth trying on a more serious trip. So last night we got back from MT - 1800km since the rebuild, and most of the trip in 30-35C ambient. Unfortunately, the AC stopped blowing cold when we got down there, but the clutch is still engaging, so I figure it's a hard O-ring and some lost refrigerant. And an O2 sensor decided to pack it up an hour or so from home, but that didn't cause any problems. And with the four of us, all our kit, and towing a trailer carrying both a Sea-Doo and a sailboat, the a$$ was nearly on the ground (I'd bought new shocks for it last summer, just hadn't gotten to them in yet, and am doing them now). But the engine temp was rock-steady-eddy throughout the trip, so it looks like I dodged a bullet. And now I'm going to dive into our other '01 H6 - the one I bought about a month before the initial COVID lockdown, $500 because it too needs HGs and the PO was clearly in way over his head when he thought he could change them in his back yard (not only no garage, but on his lawn). Sadly not the all mod cons of this one (i.e no VDC or McIntosh - sniff), but body in better overall shape. It'll be a first if we can actually go into this winter with every car running...

Knock sensor is OEM and isn't any older than a few years (replaced last HG go-round). Going to clean the MAF and check for vacuum leaks in the inlet system this afternoon.

Are you saying it's on one side? If so then replace that one rear wheel bearing. That has nothing to do with the diff/trans. That's normal for wheel bearings, particularly OEM ones, they can take a long time to get worse when they first start. Eventually they start getting worse quickly. I routinely drive wheel bearings thousands of miles while humming/groaning. Got one right now, not worried about it, just did a 500 mile road trip this weekend. I like to turn the steering wheel rather sharply momentarily at higher speeds, like 50 mph, (tough to find good road conditions to do this) to change the loading, you'll often hear the noise momentarily disappear. This guarantees it's a wheel bearing. If you don't think it's on one side or think it could be something else, drain rear diff fluid and check for metallic discoloration of the fluid.

I’ll add that that cars we find now for $500 are full of industry planned obsolescence and inconvenience to the backyard mechanic compared to the awesome $500 beaters I was able to pick up right through the 2000’s. Different world now. Not one company treats their customers as Subaru did once upon a time.