Fairtax4me

Good plugs and wires. Worth every penny.

When decelerating down hill the engine is pulling high vacuum for a long period of time and it sucks oil past the stem seals and past the pistons rings. Not gonna hurt anything. Just a typical trait of an older engine. If it starts smoking when driving normally, you drive it until it starts to foul the spark plugs, then replace the plugs and keep driving. :-p You do need to address the cam seal issue though. Coat the outer lip of the seal with anaerobic sealer before installing in the block to help hold it in place. Also be sure to check the Y fitting in the PCV hose that comes out of the block. Make sure it's not plugged up. And check the breather hoses that come from the valve covers for blockage.

Sounds like someone tried to hook up the dimmer on the aftermarket radio and cooked the lighting module. Two wires in the main radio plug, one is yellow w/blue the other white and blue. They are on the same side of the connector one right above the other. These can not be connected to an aftermarket radio because the dimmer control module will short and let out the magic smoke.

Don't have a part number off hand. Advance Auto Parts sells them in the Help section for about $3 a piece. 14mm thread, washer type seat.

Did you get the RMS from Subaru? I always see the RMS driven in just beyond the lip of the case. Never seen one totally flush, but I haven't done many. What year and engine are we dealing with?

It's to keep the CEL gremlin P0420 DTC code away. Put a spark plug non-fouler on the rear oxygen sensor and it pulls it back out of the exhaust stream. It reads that the exhaust is normal, rather than short the effects of one cat. This keeps the ECU happy, and the CEL off.

Now that's some serious rust. You can get a pretty good price on new catalytic converters from Rockauto.com if you want to go that route. If you don't have emission testing in your area you could cut out the second cat, trick the rear O2 sensor with a non-fouler, and have momnpops exhaust shop make a new pipe from there back to the muffler.

I really hate to drain $40 of synthetic gear oil after only a few months of service, but I wanna try the Synpower. :-p But it appears that Valvoline TDL 75w 90 is a different mix than the Synpower 75w 90. Valvolineeurope.com says about the TDL fluid http://www.valvolineeurope.com/english/products/transmission_oils/gear_oils/cid(501)/synpower_tdl_75w-90/product-information Valvoline.com (US site) says the opposite for the Synpower labeled fluid sold here. http://www.valvoline.com/products/brands/synpower/gear-oil/59 So... Question time! How can I get some TDL from across the pond? :-p It's coming from an O-ring or seal that he didn't replace, (wrist pin cover, separator plate, cam cap O ring, etc) or possibly a seal that he DID replace with a low quality aftermarket part. Either way, it was going to leak. The new oil didn't cause it. Crawl under the car and figure out where the leak is coming from. Front, rear ,left, right side of engine? This will help pinpoint where it is leaking and what needs to be done to stop it.

Should have just left the battery hooked up. When the battery is unhooked the computer forgets all of the fuel and spark curves it has adjusted to over the course or the last few drive cycles. As a result it defaults to its base parameters that allow it to run, but it may not run well until it completes at least one drive cycle. The definition of a drive cycle varies, but generally it includes the engine reaching normal operating temp for a certain period of time, and changes in engine load calculation and vehicle speed over a period of time. Unhok the battery again for about ten minutes. Reconnect and start the engine and allow it to reach operating temp in the driveway. Cut it off and wait a half hour or so, then take it for a drive with some stop start followed by a 15 minute or so highway drive at constant speed.

Crooked wheel + dragging sound + hot = Completely shot to hell wheel bearing. Lift that corner up I bet you can wobble that wheel all around in every direction.

Struts/springs will change your ride height. Cross member spacers will not. The cross member spacers are there to get the axles to a better operating angle so they don't wear as quickly. You don't necessarily have to remove the spacers but ground clearance under the cross members will be about an inch lower than without them. This also means the oil pan and will be that much closer to the ground. FWIW With them on the whole drivetrain is ~1" lower, which will bring the COG of the car closer to the ground though. Might give it a handling advantage?

Why would you build those and not swap in a JDM Turbo instead? Some people man. Is the stock header supposed to be equal or un-equal? I'd be happy either way. I've kinda grown fond of the farm tractor sound my 96 makes with the stock setup. :-p I've been trying to find a stock header to ship to Sube101 to make a model from, but I haven't found one whole. Found two in the junkyard a few weeks ago, but they had both been cut before the flange for the cat.

There are a few MM of frame in the way of getting a wrench on the nut to keep it from spinning. I'd try to cut a hole inside, under the rear seat maybe where it won't be as likely to get dirt/salt inside the frame and rust everything out in a year.

Is there enough room to double wrench it? Hook the boxed end of a longer wrench on the open end of the short wrench for more leverage.

Coolant usually leaves a white/greenish powder-like residue after a few days of drying. Oil is oil. It doesn't really dry. If you check it when the engine is warm after running/driving for a half hour or so you may be able to spot a drip forming.

If the main part of the transmission was not harmed, you can swap just the center diff, transfer gears and bearings. Then ditch or sell the rest. The whole transmission should bolt in and work just the same. Though the 97 will have 4 fewer bolt holes in the bell housing. Not like it really matters. Subaru used 4 bolts to hold the bell housing together for like 25 years (maybe more) before the new 8 bolt bellhousings came around. You may need to swap reverse and neutral switches to keep wire harness connectors the same, and maybe the Speed sensor. Some of the mounting brackets may need to be swapped around, but that's just a matter of a few bolts. Actually 97 might have had a cable clutch, so the clutch release arm may need to be switched out for the hydraulic one. Forgot to paste the link for parts interchange info. http://opposedforces.com/parts/legacy/us_b11/type_47/manual_transmission/mt_transfer_and_extension/illustration_6/

Disassemble it and you'll get more for the aluminum case if you can get all of the other metals out. Keep the solenoids, front diff, transfer clutch.

I've never used a gasket on an Ej oil pan. Always just use Ultra grey RTV. Definitely check the separator plate on the back of the engine. That's a guaranteed to leak on an older engine. Also if you didn't get the rear main seal from Subaru that could be leaking as well.

Oh ok. Different bushings. Yeah those can be a pain. I have a c frame press for that sort of thing. Makes it a breeze.

I thought they only fit on one side. Like the center is cone shaped so it won't fit on all the way if you put the bushing on the wrong side.

Afaik the 60k timing service only applies to 96 and earlier ej22 engines and the ej25 had a 105k mile interval. When the service was last done did you replace all of the idlers and water pump or just slap a belt on it?

[thread jack] This caught my attention. Though I'm also glad to hear that my favorite store brand Valvoline High mileage oil helps to stifle piston slap in the 2.5. What benefit does the Synpower gear oil offer? I have tried a few different synthetic gear oils to try to correct slow synchros and it always just moves the problem from one gear to another. :-p

I don't know where the idea comes from that timing chains don't need to be replaced. If a chain is flopping around on broken guides it is almost certainly stretched. Compression check might tell you something, or it might not. A leak down test will tell you if you have bent valves to deal with.

Either one can be pulled in about 2 hours. 3 if it's your first time. So it comes down to would you rather, A: sit or lay on the ground under the car while cleaning the back of the block B: Put the engine on a work bench and work on it comfortably with easy access to all of your tools :-p Either way, do some research here on tips for removing the torque converter bolts, and making damn sure the torque converter is properly seated before bolting the engine and trans back together. In a perfect world, the TC would not move after being unbolted from the flywheel. But every engine I've pulled from an auto trans car the TC eventually ends up getting bumped/turned/pulled and all it takes is 1/4" to screw everything up.

I generally look for mid 13 when I check voltage. Anything north of 14 gets me uneasy.