porcupine73

Right on, no RTV for the valve cover gaskets. How about the RTV's that claim to be 'sensor safe'.... can those still cause o2 sensor damage?

Congrats on the new soob! Sure it's hard to see a beloved old soob go. I mean sure you could fix it up with enough time and money, but I'm sure you'll fall in love with the new one pretty fast! haha yes when I was a kid we didn't have these fancy plastic motor oil bottles. The oil came in tin cans and we liked it. And we didn't have these fancy can openers, we used an old rusty nail and a piece of lead pipe to poke some holes in the can. We changed the oil when it was rainy and windy out and we didn't have these fancy funnels, we cupped our hand over the oil spout and poured it in. And we did all this barefoot. And we liked it.

Looks good! You can definitely see the lift in those pics which sets it apart. Looks like it was just detailed! Here is wisdom Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for the number is that of a man; and his number is six hundred and sixty-six. Revelation 13:18 NASB

Could also be a vacuum leak. wd40? that doesn't have any silicone in it does it?

Cool test for the MAF, I've never heard of that but will have to try it out! Unhooking the iacv intake hose is making it sputter because then the airflow is bypassing the maf which messes up how much fuel the ECU is injecting. So you might have to unplug the maf while doing this so tht the ecu will not be trying to use the maf input?

None is bulletproof. Like any vehicle there are many factors involved including maintenance, operating conditions, manufacturing, mileage etc. There may be 2.5L phase I drivers who never had a head gasket issue in 200,000 miles and there may be 2.2L drivers who blew a head gasket in the first 10,000 miles.

Ditto, phase I 2.5L (dohc) sometimes gets the internal exhaust blowing into coolant leak. Used up to and including 1999 on Legacy and Outback (I think Forester got the phase II sohc in '99). phase II 2.5L (sohc) up to ~03 sometimes gets the external head gasket peeping/dripping leak usually at the LH/driver head. Yes those '90s soobs with the 2.2L are very reliable and take a beating and keep on ticking.

Yes, yours should be the 'single pole' style (this is the type that was prone to cracking):

Good point, there have been posts in the past where this happened, the ATF getting into the front diff gear oil, some input shaft seal or something....

Ah quick good catch evothis! Lisle and others make similar tools, which I wasjust looking up... hotlink

No problem. On that set up, injector cleaner in the gas or seafoaming through a vacuum line will _not_ touch the IACV. Soob typically suggests insitu cleaning before replacement. this pic is from a '94 but position on a '96 is similar sans the engine plastic cover

I haven't. I don't know for sure the benefit of removing the iacv because then it's 'dead'. While instlaled with engine idling, its position will move as it is idling and fighting to keep running as you add those chemicals which will make the engine sputte.r Dont' give it too much at once as engine will stall (Tho you can just restart it). Reason I say seafoam first is it is a great cleaner but it is oily. You don't want oily residue in ther because it can gum it up with dust in the future. throttle cleaner is just xylene or other solvent, so no residue.

I cleaned mine by, at idle, letting it suck in a little seafoam, idling, followed by valvoline throttle body cleaner. You can access the iacv intake on that setup by pullling the hose off the palstic intake tubing. Note it may idle poorly with this hose removed since airflow then bypasses maf.

Wow nice pic! So do you need a 'inner tie rod' tool to do this, or will the good 'ol haynes 'use a crowbar and vise grips' method work?

Ok let's see.... 22650AA034 & 22659AA060 VALVE ASSEMBLY AIR CONTROL FOR 1992-1999 LEGACY ALL (EXCEPT 1999 2.2) (has two hoses coming from it and comes with gasket), looking ~$270 for new from dealer. Other soobs sharing same part #: 1995-1999 LEGACY OUTBACK & SUS ALL 1994-1998 IMPREZA 2.2 1998 Forester 1990-1991 LEGACY with AUTO TRANS

Hi, I will do a part # lookup for you (hopefully!). Often the IACV just needs cleaning, i.e. with seafoam. WHat makes you think your IACV is having issues?

Hi. So I hear from my coworker in Mississauga you guys got like 8" snow up there! Yes one of those is the front diff vent and the other is the auto trans vent. One thing that can cause venting is overiflling of the front diff. However, I am curious if the synthetic front diff oil you are using is Lucas by any chance?

Hi. Someone had a thread on here not too long ago about replacing inner tie rod end. I think the long inner tie rod end tool is helpful in getting the old tie rod end out.

I believe that may be the pressure sources switching solenoid to allow map to measure barometric pressure? Not sure for sure.... sounds like your vac hoses were very brittle. Mine are pretty brittle too.

It sounds more likely that a vacuum leak is causing the high idle?

It's a good thing you didn't leave any windows down a crack! Now you can nickname your soob igloosooby or something! Do you have a heated garage or someplace you can get the car in for a few days to try to dry it out? Water isn't great for the electrical stuff but if it doesn't have salt in it or anything it should dry out ok.

Hi. I think the factory vacuum lines are purposely kind of hard to keep them from collapsing under vacuum. If you have a lot of vacuum type leaks, one of those smoke emissions system leak detectors can be useful in finding the source. I've been meaning to build a diy one but haven't gotten a round tuit yet; the commercial ones are a few hundred $ on up. I'm guessing the metal lines there are just to keep the routing away from any potential hang up in the throttle cables.

haha yah my coworker has a late 90's one of those and the timing belt broke. I forget the cost to repair that and the valves and such but it wasn't cheap. When he was looking for valves on the internet (since the oem ones were like $50 each or something he said), he kept getting offers from people wanting to buy his engine but no offers for valves.

Hi. Yep that's the spot to check an add gear oil. Typically I use one of those gear oil pumps that fits on the quart bottle. Otherwise I typically spill a plenty! If you're looking to change your gear oil, people often like redline ns/no-shock or valvoline. Some other brands seem to cause hard shifting like the syncros aren't getting up to speed or something.

The fans will also run if you have the climate on any a/c or defrost setting and sometimes if you have it on 'auto'. Also you will not see enough flucuation in the temp gauge pointer to show when the fans are coming on and off. Typically the fans come on around 202F engine coolant temp if you are stopped. Now there was a recall IIRC for certain soobs of that era with the cooling fan relays having issues and fans running all the time, but I think that was even if the key was off but I forget....