davebugs

Welcome. There are a few here from your area. I don't do as much Suby work as I used to. And don't have any experience with the older stuff. Over the years several members have stopped in though. Lots of good folks here interested in the cars and keeping them running (versus turbo's, wheels, stereo's). The search is pretty easy to use and lots of good info here.

My opinion on seals. I always do them. If they are black they MUST be done in my opinion - either older style OEM or aftermarket crap. If it's someone else's car and the seals are brown and the folks are cheap they can skip them. But it makes NO SENSE to me for maybe 30 bucks to literally be right there and not do them. IIR like 8 bucks each. As I've posted I did get some seals for a 2001 Legacy (IIR) in a kit from theimportexperts that looked the same as OEM at half the price. I didn't install them and don't know their longevity. They claim they are from the OEM manufacturer.

I'd say 200 is fair and what I can get them done for locally if I'm too busy on SOHC's. However I'm usually dealing with DOHC's and thus also recommend new seals and checking oil pump screws then it's 250. I always do fresh coolant too - it's the most neglected thing in a car. You've got it drained anyways - why not just replace it?

On my VW they are very hesitant (or won't) mount up anything under a H rated since they are what came one the car. I will say that if you put a T on my VW and do travel at high speeds you will notice a difference in handling and squeeling around serious bends as low as 70 mph or so. And snow tires are usually a real problem because there are no H's affordable usually. But for a typical Subaru driver I would think T's would be fine.

Heck they used to show 95-99 Legacy and Imprez'a as not interchangable. My local JY's finally caught on when I'd call and ask for an Impreza Auto 2.2 first and if they didn't have any ask for a LEgacy. At the time the Impreza's they's charge 100 bucks less for!

I use the 1/4 ratchet in the palm of my hand. As GD says the shoulder of the bolts bottom out pretty firm all of a sudden.

I LOVE electrical.... Good luck Gary

Yep. Dots and dashes NEVER ARROWS!!! Confirm this before spending time chasing anything else down.

Beats a new cat! I just have them cut out that flex joint and put a sleeve of pipe in and weld it. My local guy does it for me for 40.00 - but I used to have him do a lot of these. So you saved 400+ bucks. That makes it a good day.

The sale of used cats is illegal. Doesn't matter whether the car would end up meeting emissions or not. And they say money spent on lobbying is wasted! Make SURE is isn't the flex joint before you stress abotu a cat. A local INDEPENDENT muffler shop can fix the flex joint (or do most other work) usually real reasonably.

Yep. I don't believe I've ever needed his help but he knows his stuff. And about a topic I strongly dislike! Which is when the help is appreciated the most!

I'd like to point out that I did have issues (and needed a longer belt) when going from a 99 Forester SOHC to a 2000 and 2001 Legacy SOHC - the Forester belt is shorter. Don't know about what other weirdnesses may exist.

I've just swapped alternators. I believe it is something internal. When they test an alternator at a parts store they test it's OUTPUT not it's draw. An electrical shop will test what you did if you tell them what you suspect. I'm still not an electrical guy - but have had this happen to me on non Subaru's.

GG, Hardly an electrical expert but I have had alternators fail that have seemingly caused this. Have you had it tested?

He's probably talking about the 2 large plugs (in 2000 it started 2 plugs with the SOHC IIR). On passenger side bell housing near the top. WHere engine meets tranny.

I'm usually working on 95-99s and I learned to just plan on putting a new slave on them. They usually have 120-180k and I'm doing HG's or a 2.2 swap and I swear it just gets over extended and they often failed for me in a couple hundred miles it seemed so I just started putting new ones on - and they CAN be a pain to bleed.

A little lube on the tranny input splines? But it's still a alignment issue. If the car is on it's wheels it raised several inches when the weight of the engine was lifted. This changed both the height and angle of the tranny. I find that usually the tranny has to look to be really high in the front to get things to line up. I assume you're NOT hanging up on the lower studs that are probably in the bottom of the engine at the bellhousing? Sometimes if the angle is bad it'll slide until it hits the threads. You could remove those studs but I like to leave them in. After all they do help with alignment but I have removed them to get the engine in when having extreme problems.

Looks good. Where did you get those mufflers? I'm an old air cooled guy (still have a bunch) and have a similar header setup so that it's easy to get the valve covers off to adjust the valves on my street legal buggy. How does it sound with only a small hole in the middle or each exhaust (seemingly about the same size as the stock "pea shooters") and why did you choose that exhaust? Does look like a nice setup the trike and the camper. Does the Blonde come with the camper?

MANY Ebay kits. Not all are the same - as you might imagine. It's not all about price. Please specify vendor.

Gary, Look up fitment online at a reputable hitch place. I'm guessing the muffler size may actually be the issue. Most Outback hitches allow for a larger muffler it seems. So mounting points are likely to be fine, but having a bend to go around the muffler will likely be your issues (or change the muffler).

Yep. Lots of good info and folks here. But not as much with newer and modified stuff. Good luck.

Both - no doubt about it. Reseal and you're hopefully set for a very long time.

FYI locally the NAPA paint store used to mix Martin Senior(?) paints and would put them into spray cans. That was many years ago, and they let me down so I never went back. But I had done that many times with them. Typically to get correct paint for seat frames in my early 60's VW's.

Post what parts you need here at USMB. Several of us here have bought and sold these to each other. I've actually got a box of 2.2 and a box of 2.5 covers. Here (in the rust belt) usually atleast the one by the waterpump is rusted and breaks out of the plastic. Also not everyone on this forum is from the rust belt.

Dust shield if rotors on rear. Otherwise probably just rust, and/or the rust on the outer lip of the drum is rubbing. I aways descale them a bit on that lip.