MilesFox

I would think the water pump is more likely than the HG. the engine is an ej22e with composite head gaskets, undoubtedly the most reliable subaru engine ever. Many go 300,000 mi on their original hg's , my 96 has 261,000 on its original hg's. low coolant will cause poor heat. You have to undo the vent plug on the radiator to add coolant. It is even better to fil the block via the upper hose first if it is too low.

A bad wheel bearing won't necessarily pass a wheel wiggle test unless the axle nut is loose. I vote on wheel bearing.

The soob will be more practical, and handle better on the street in snowy weather. Inless you are haulig tonns of cargo, a trailer hitch and a u-haul rental on the forester will do the job. The subaru would probably do better in a roll over considering their beefy a pillars that defeat the jaws of life.

you can get another 200,000 miles out oft he car. mine is a 96 with 260,000 on the original head gaskets. any ej22 engine 90-96 is a direct bolt in, just use a 95-98 legacy intake. otherwise, components form an obd2 intake (intake harness, cran/cam sensors/ thrtootle body) will swap onto an obd1 intake

There is a shield that spans the tunnel over both the exhaust and the driveshaft. It is really arbitrary; if it is failing, just pull it out.

I had an ej25d with internal head gasket failure, (bubbles in the radiator. That would be a common failure with ej25d. the 1996 ej25d had composite head gaskets like the ej22, and 97 and up went to MLS gaskets. From what i know from reading, the external HG leaks are pertainent to ej251 engines in 200o and up models. Good call on a likely water pump leak. This would drip off the timing belt covers; external leaks would come off the bottom or back of the heads, and you would see green stains along the gasket seams. Ypu should be a ble to remove the outer belt covers with basic tools, after removing the alternator belt and ac belt/tensioner. In the case of a failed HG with an engine with a hg problem, it is best to repair the hg as swapping another engine is prone to the same problems. Usually, a HG repair is a permanent fix if the block itself has not been overheated. IF it is an external hg leak, you could probably get away with a sodium silicate type block sealer. Bypass the heater core if you go this route to administer the product. Replacing the hg's will use an updated gasket that supersedes the original gaskets. I am not the expert on ej25 as i have more experience with ej22. But my comments reflect common knowledge in regards to ej25d.

the cracks are fine, you can rough up the surface with sandpaper to take out the shine.

I experienced this a few weeks ago requiring the purchase of a new battery as my attempts cooked the old one. Suspect the ECTS, change it anyway our of routine maintenance as it is a 23 dollar part. Hold down the gas pedal half way or fully while cranking, especially if the engine is flooded and smells of raw fuel. Replace the fuel filter as it may be freezing in sub zero temps. blame it on the alcohol in the fuel. You sound like you know what you are doing. my comments based on my experience. Good luck

always check the oil and add if needed. Subraus use oil, this is a fact of life.

likely so. No cause for alarm as it is nothing that is catastrophically failing or ever will. The condition may be caused by a cavitated o-ring in the cam tower, and posssibly also in the oil pump. Either work can be done easily enough if you are handy with cars. But it may be expensive at a shop if they are unfamiliar withthis car, so find a reliable subaru guy. Here is a video that illustrates the cam tower o-ring

Questin should be "is a proper replacement thermostat available" Use onle an OEM thermostat with the correct jiggle ball and brass innards. aftermarket (54mm chevy) cross-references and fits that will be supplied at the parts counter, but won't function properly in a subaru.

sounds like a combination of sloppy shifter bushings, and a loose clutch cable, or just worn pressure plate. My car is like this at 260,000 miles, and the clutch will slip in high gear at highway speeds if i force it. Shifting it is like rowing a boat and throwing ahot dog down a hall way. In my case the sloppy bushing is on the shifter shaft, comes as a unit, and is secured by a roll pin, and is a 60 dollar preassembled part at the dealer, for which you cannot get individual bits for, and cannot service unless you drive out the roll pin and remove it from the trans. Try double clutching techniques. First check the clutch cable adjustment as it has to be adjusted to compensate for clutch disc wear.

Yeah, i cpuld do that as well, least amount of work using shelf parts, without having to disassemble a good motor. I wouldhave to steal the header off the forester, though. I think i'll stick with the dual port for simplicity and labor as i had originally intended. I would probably need a 1997 and later single port head for any potential gains anyway. I'll just swap the cams and rollers from the single ports as long as the lifter style swap onto the single ports to keep a complete spare engine around.

At the end you will see which way i park my car. AT the beginning, you will see where wheelspin can be your friend in snow. at about 1:45 you will see how deceleration will bring the rear around, and throttle straightens it out. At 3:45, you will see what snap oversteer does (almost a 180 spinout) throwing the car into a fat throttle-on understeer (almost bit the curb on the way out). For the rest of it, enjoy the ride. Mind you, the car is equipped with rock hard A/T tires with uneven wear and 40 psi.

Be careful, becuase if you don't set up with a lift-of oversteer, you will just powerslide a fat understeer off the road

I can imagine that condensation had formed in the vent system, remaining frozen, and now that the weather is slightly warmer, it is finally evaporating. I could see the AC drain being frozen temporarily. The only other thing i can think of is water infiltration in the a pillar or windshields seal.

I would imagine it is there as a drin. Oil sometimes collects in the air cleaner if the PCV system is in need of maintenance.

Driving tips: avoid braking while turning. Brake before entering turn, gently accelarate thru the apex. The car will have a tendency to oversteer if you let off the gas. If the tail wags, give it some throttle to straighten out, then brake.

MilesFox, on 10 Feb 2014 - 12:35, said: In my case, dude's car would show hot and begin to fail start from hot start after a few hours of urban driving (food delivery). It left him stuck needing jumpstarts, and the car would start after it sat for a little bit. I suggested he put the pedal down while cranking, and that got him started until we arranged for me to replace the temp sensor per my suggestion. After replacing the sensor, the temp gauge would peg, although it solved the hot start and stalling issue. He had the same toruble agian with the hot start. The next week i inspected my work, an plugged and unplugged the terminal and wiggled it around. After a few days he came back and said it was working properly. So the variable was poking around at the same installed part. I was doubly sure to look up the part number to make sure it was correct, and it is the correct piece for aftermarket supply (NAPA echlin)

i have noticed in post 2000 subaru legacy, the engine temp sensor and the dash gauge are in the same unit, with 3 prongs. The car i fixed always showed a pegged temp gauge. Replacing it solved the matter, but it took a few cycles for the temp gauge to correct. Perhaps it was a corroded pin in my case.

The only difference in availability to me is either using heads off the shelf (dual port) vs taking heads form a complete motor (single port) Perhaps i'll consider swapping the roller assemblies to the dual port heads essentially making '1995' dual port heads of them. Now, this sparks eanother question, so that i can still have a complete spare engine: Will the standard dual port rocker assemblies swap onto a single port head? And another thing to consider, the car currently has a straight pipe all the way back, so if i want to keep that, i;ll have to stay with single port. But this will require my hybriding or swapping heads. Otherwise, i already have a complete dual exhaust system to swap over with factory cats. I guess i could go either way if there is nothing to gain or lose other than the exhaust pipe itself. My car will have to be emissions legal as it still has yet to pass.

I have an ej25d block. I have dual port heads from a 1st gen legacy, and a 1st gen intake to swap components to. My current car 96 legacy brighton 2.2 single port heads. I was going to use dual port heads on the ej25 block, but if there is an advantage to using single port heads, i can consider them,but at the expense of a functioning engine for parts. I read that the single port head has bigger valves. Is there an advantage with single port heads in regards to valves or cam options vs dual ports?

The brat looks like it has ea82 headlights janked into it

whack the knuckle sharply with a hammer to shock out the tie rod. Good luck

I just replaced my WP with a rebuilt unit that came with a paper gasket. I noticed the original WP had a smooth machined mating surface with the metal gasket, but the re-man had a textured surface from whatever media blasting. Put i pitched the paper gasket, applied a thin film of ultra grey to the textured surface, and re-used the metal gasket dry against the block.