Fairtax4me

ATF really should be changed sooner rather than later. I generally change every 30-45k miles, depends on what kind of driving was done in that time. Heat is the major contributor to degradation of ATF. So if the car is driven in stop and go traffic often, where the engine gets hot and the fans have to run often, the ATF will in turn suffer from the heat in those conditions, moreso than during open highway driving. If the ATF has never been changed, definitely do it, even if you just change it yourself.

I never use lines on a belt. Not even on the Subaru belt. Just line up marks with the covers and check everything at TDC after rotating the crank.

I can definitely feel more vibration from the engine at low RPM, especially at idle. I now feel a small running condition with the engine. It surges a little bit in spots through the RPM range. Once it hits 4k, everything kicks in and it pulls nice and strong, but below that, it will seem to bog down a little, kick a few times, and eventually straighten itself out. Only seems to happen under heavy throttle. This has been happening for a while, just every now and then it would just feel a little short on power, but it is much more pronounced now, possibly because the mounts are transferring more of that energy into the chassis. Hoping a can of seafoam will straighten it out, but I'm not positive. Kinda thinking knock sensor. No codes other than the MAP code that it's had for 2 years.

http://www.main.experiencetherave.com/subaru_manual_scans/ Have at it!

Check the fusible link in the underhood fuse panel. It's the thing that looks like a wire.

Those have been on the list since I got the car. they just keep getting pushed aside for other things, but subframe bushings, trans mount bushings, and lockdown bolts are on the menu.

I had to do head gaskets on a 2.2 with 178k on it. Bad HGs on a 2.2 are not as numerous as the 2.5, but still entirely possible. Very common for a seller to do head gaskets even on a swapped engine just as regular PM. It's not difficult or costly, and will almost guarantee another 150k miles of service from a 2.2 engine with nothing more than a timing belt change or two. Where are you located? I see clean repaired Outbacks on my area Craigslist for $3500 - $4000 on a regular basis. Year and mileage don't seem to matter that much as long as the car isn't a rust bucket.

It loses something in translation! Isn't group N some kind of class in racing? I've always kinda figured that was why they called them group N mounts. Update time! Got the new motor mounts in, big difference. Mostly noticeable when starting, I can feel the engine shaking the whole car, and you can definitely hear it more. When removing the mount plates from the old mounts the mounts would twist and the upper and lower plates hit each other before the nuts would crack loose. The Megan mounts barely moved when tightening. They also lifted the engine up about 1/4", maybe more. I had to jack up the transmission to get the pitch mount bolt to go back in. More of the slop is gone, but not all of it, so I know I have more work to do. One of the front control arm bushings is leaking, so thats on the list now as well, after I get the new tires put on because I ran something over and cut a giant hole in one this weekend. So far though, I'm pretty pleased with the mounts. The shifter doesn't kick around front back and side to side anymore when I acc/decelerate, seems to have made it easier to find gears. Not that it was difficult before or anything. I didn't know there were different mounts, they bolted to the factory mount plates from my car just fine. I did notice though, the Megan mounts seem to be about 1/4" wider. They overhang the mount plates, the stock mounts did not. Still fit just fine though.

Put a big screwdriver in the shift selector so you can turn it. Everything you would do with the shifter in the console is the same here. Left and forward is 1st, right and back is reverse.

Speaking of pics. I almost forgot these: Part number looks familiar doesn't it? I'm still not sure why Megan put this part number on their mount. This was supposed to be a comparison shot but apparently I screwed it up. Look pretty similar. The Subaru part has the same code on the side. So at least we know the Megan dogbone is made of the same stuff.

As long as the tensioners on the timing chains hold up there really isn't much to go wrong on the H6. From what I've read It's built just like a 2.2, only with 2 extra cylinders. The nylon tensioners on the timing chains are the weak link. They brittle with age and fall apart. Pretty common occurance on many chain timed engines. Unfortunately it often spells disaster for the engine, and bent valves aren't cheap.

Well the pitch mount before swapping the trans mount was just at the very end of the elongated holes in the bracket on top of the trans. With the Megan mount in place the pitch mount had moved back by about 1/8". The old trans mount I can easily twist and move with just my hands. I don't think I could move the Megan mount with a sledge hammer. That thing is a rock.

No need to disassemble the inner joint. Cut the boot off the outer, clamp the shaft in a vice and whack the inner race for the outer joint a couple times with a soft face dead blow hammer or big hammer and brass drift. Once the outer is off you can remove the bearings clean and re-grease. Slide the new boot on the axle shaft, pop the outer joint back on then slide the boot over and tighten the bands. As for tightening, you can do it with a couple pair of pliers but it's 100x easier with a banding tool. I think they're about $20 at the parts store. Sears carries a Lisle brand tool that is really nice for like $25 or $30.

Well I got the transmission mount and dogbone put in yesterday. I did it in a hurry otherwise I would have taken pics of the process, but both of those are fairly straightforward. So far, I can hear / feel a little bit more noise coming from the tunnel when starting, and when accelerating. There was some "flop" when transitioning on/off throttle when in gear, and that has been reduced slightly. I'm hoping that the engine mounts will take care of most of the rest of it, but there are quite a few other worn out bushings on this car that need attention too. Gonna try to pull the engine this weekend, replace the clutch, fix an oil leak and put my Delta cams in it. Motor mounts will go in then if I get a round tuit.

What he said^. The pans on these are very flimsy. Put a piece of 3/4" plywood between the jack head and pan. That said, swapping one of these is a slice of pie compared to pulling a 4L60e from a 1 ton Chevy. Talk about heavy! The torque converter bolts are a bit difficult to get to. I use a serpentine belt tensioner tool with a 12 mm socket on it. A 0 offset boxed wrench will work as well. Cram a rag down in the access hole in case you drop the bolt.

Just be prepared to drill the pinch bolt out. Drill it all the way through and put in a longer bolt with a nut on the end. Getting the ball joint out of the knuckle can be a trick. Usually the control arm will separate from the stud easy enough with a pickle fork. When it does, put the nut back on the end but leave a 1/2" of space, then wail on the control arm with a 4lb sledge.

It sounds like normal operation for a transmission in gear. But you're saying that even with the trans in neutral the input shaft will not spin independently of the axle stubs? If you put the transmission into gear what changes? When you removed the top plate, did you make sure all three shift forks are in line? As screwy as it sounds, it is possible to get a transmission into two gears at the same time, which will cause it to lock up. There is also the possibility there is unrelated internal damage. It's not all that hard to split the case. Look up Gloyales easy front seal replacement thread for pics of the process.

Not accessible from above. The cross member is in the way. Worst thing is trying to work around the sway bar, but it's not so bad if you turn the wheel so the rack extends in the direction of the joint you need to replace. You can remove the jack plate and the sway bar mounts from the cross member and lower the sway bar down.

Tires? Accident damage? Bent/loose suspension parts? Loose nut behind the wheel? :-p Alignment specs would be interesting to see. What about axles?

No such thing as an Outback LS. Outback and LS are two separate trim levels. You get either/or, but not both. Legacy Outback has two tone paint. The bumpers and below the trim strips on the doors are gold or grey colored. It has 15" aluminum wheels with 205/70/15 tires, and will likely have a scoop on the hood. Large 6.5" round fog lights in the front bumper. Legacy LS model typically has 15" aluminum wheels, 195/60/15 size tires, body colored trim and mirrors. Fog lights, if equipped are small projector type, only about 3" around. Outback automatic trans will be a 2.5, unless a 2.2 was swapped in by someone after the 2.5 bit the dust. LS will have a 2.2 Look straight down behind the left corner of the alternator. There will be a big casting with "EJ2 X" in the top of the block. EJ25 also has a bowtie shape to the timing cover on the front of the engine. DOHC, 2 cams per head, which makes 4 cam sprockets to cover up and they take up some real estate under the hood. 2 indents/ bumps on each side. Ej22 only has one cam per head. Timing covers are much smaller. and will have one indent/bump on each side.

You need one from a manual trans Legacy. (it is a Legacy this trans went int right?) Impreza wheelbase is shorter, as such, it has a shorter driveshaft. The rear section I believe is the same, but the front section changes depending on auto or manual trans.

Hopefully this isn't an onen. :-p Yup. I just bought a set. Both engine mounts, 5 speed trans mount, and dogbone/pitch mount. Bought the kit from Importblowoutsales on Ebay for just under $200. They shipped right away, and with a warehouse in PA they were here (VA) the very next day via UPS ground. WHY did I pick these? I was looking for a less costly alternative to buying from a dealer. I did some research and what little info I found about this set was good, so I decided to go for it. A reviewer at NASIOC said these even had Subaru part numbers on them, which upon inspection of the parts is true, I'll elaborate a bit more on this later. The idea is that these are similar construction to Group N mounts available from Subaru. Same durometer polyurethane/rubber insulator material, same fit and function as a Group N mount. But this kit is about half the price of Subaru parts at regular retail. Initial observations of the parts. The engine and transmission mounts are spray painted. The whole thing, like you would expect to find on a rebuilt part from Autozone. Maybe new Subaru OE mounts are the same way? I don't know for sure, but I figure it's worth putting out there. There are leftovers from the casting, where the rubber material flowed between and out of the molds. Part numbers, yes they do in fact have Subaru part numbers stamped on them. The numbers are raised on the cushion/rubber of the mounts. Engine mount numbers 4102AA080 come back the same as Group N engine mounts. Transmission mount number is the interesting one. The number 41022AA180, shows on opposedforces.com as being for 93-98 Impreza L, LX, Outback, and Brighton, as well as 95-98 Legacy L, Brighton, Outback, and GT models. So my big question now is what part number will be on the stock mount on my 96 Legacy L? I can find out tomorrow when it's daylight and not raining cat and dogs. The digits are also unevenly spaced and not exactly in a straight line. This kinda seems to me like someone stamped these numbers into a mold and poured their own insulator material into cleaned up mount brackets. The dogbone mount is composite plastic with standard rubber bushings. Very similar in appearance to Group N mounts I've seen pictures of online. HARD RACE is cast on one side, an arrow on the top notes orientation. Number in the mold is PA66- GF50, which when googled appears to be a code for the type of material the bone is made from. The rubber insulators have numbers 7345B, and 7345S, both of which I can find no information about. Some pictures: This last one's a little dark, but you can clearly see the "waves" in the part number stamp. I'll get more info up (before and after feel, NVH increases, etc) after I get them installed, hopefully later this week or this weekend. I have quite a bit of work to do to the car and am looking forward to a weekend without rain.

What vehicle? Impreza bushings up to about 2004-5 are the same as early Legacy. I think rallitek makes a set of those bushings. Prothane may make them as well, but it's been a while since I looked those up.

Get an igniter from a junkyard. $20-25 and there is almost 0 chance of getting a bad one. O2 sensors don't always trip codes right away. But they also don't generally cause misfires unless the engine is warm. Does your misfire happen while the engine is cold?

Big channel lock pliers. You don't even have to bend the little notch out, just turn the joint and it will shear off. The new tie rod comes with a new lock washer It is fairly tight, but special tool is generally not needed.