Fairtax4me

And still run regular 87 gas?

Swapped temp sensor, no difference. Pulled plugs again. This is after about 50 miles of driving. Number 2: Clean, looks perfectly normal. Numbers 1,3, and 4: The housings are covered in black soot. All have very minor discoloration of the ceramic. On 1 and 4 the ground electrodes are white.

Bored and stroked? Sounds great, but I can't imagine that's in my budget range right now.

Codes for knock sensor and cylinder 2+3 Misfire. Pending codes for cylinder 2+3 misfire. Knock sensor codes may have been old. I also had it unplugged at one point to see if it made any difference in the misfire and it did not. It did retard the timing and the car barely made it around the block but it still misfired. I drove the car to work this morning and had no trouble out of it until it got warmed up. I'm going to try swapping the temp sensor later to see what that does, if anything. It has the sensor from my sedan in it right now, because I swapped the crossover pipe with the block. That car had been having some strange driveability issues when warm before the transmission went out.

Pull one of the fuel lines off the fuel filter and make sure it's getting fuel. Just stick the end into a bottle then turn the key on. Check fuses?

Plugs out, nothing obvious. Swapped wires just for the heck of it, no difference. Also swapped the knock sensor with the one off my other block and no difference. CEL is on, but has not flashing. It might just be because I was pulling fuel injector plugs though. I'll limp it up the road to advance auto later and see what I get out of it.

Well got it running today. But... Problem 1: It's misfiring. I can't tell which cylinder/cylinders as it is not a dead miss. It comes and goes, mostly under load, above about 1500 RPM. I'm leaning towards number 3 since that one seemed to make the least difference when I unplugged the injector. But number 4 seemed to be about the same. Problem 2: It seems to be putting an awful lot of steam out the tail pipe. I'm inclined to think it's just leftovers from what it was blowing out of the engine before. After bleeding the cooling system I don't see any bubbles in the radiator. But steam + misfire, not a good combination. I'll pull plugs tomorrow and see if they hold any clues. Right now i'm just and tired.

Doesn't sound good. A pressure test is a start. I'd take it to an Independant Subaru shop though for a full check-over. We have a few members on the board here who regularly work on these in the PNW. Not sure how close any of them are to you, but they all seem well versed in Subaru and fully capable of finding the source of your coolant loss and repairing it properly.

I'll look into a set of pistons for a pre-phase 2 then and see what I can find out. I don't want to be stuck running premium gas, as I hear you have to with the frankenstein. I think a small boost in compression coupled with some cams will make the difference I'm looking for and still run regular or mid grade at the worst. I'll have to get some numbers dug up so I know just how big of a difference there will be. Right but aren't the 2.5's also "peakaboo"? (The piston crown comes past the end of the block at TDC) Or was that only certain years? I know the 2.2 piston doesn't stick up past the block. The heads I have are single port anyway. And non-egr, which I would keep since other-wise I would need another intake and ECU to keep the CEL away. I'll probably need that CEL to be off because I have a feeling state emissions testing will soon come to my area.

Agree with Subaru _dude. At 300k miles the engine probably won't be worth putting a new chain on. The car will be beat to hell and probably ready for the scrap heap. Emissions standards, which are constantly changing, will make these engines virtually obsolete by the time they get that sort of mileage, if they make it that far. Keep in mind, car makers these days have figured out that a car designed to last forever makes them no money. Cars are designed to be disposable, ten years and 150k miles is about the limit for the average car these days, then it's all downhill from there. And that's what Subaru is aiming for by becoming "more mainstream". I really don't see a downside to the FB. There's no need to even get under the car to change the oil if you use a fluid evacuator. The only other things that will need regular maintenance are the accessory belt and the air filter. Spark plugs are generally good for 100k miles these days. The timing chain eliminates the need for regular belt changes, which were 105k mile anyway on the EJ. Head gaskets, if they are a major issue, won't be any more difficult than the EJ. You just have to remove an aluminum plate rather then a plastic plate to get access to timing components. The only way I can see this being bad, is if the engine is a complete flop and all of them throw rods at 75k miles.

So the pistons from a 97-98 2.2 are the same diameter as a 95 2.2? Thanks!

Fuel pump is in the tank. It is accessible through a plate in the floor behind the right rear seat though. Don't know about interchangeability, but pumps for these are fairly cheap.

I think a box end wrench works best on these. Some cars you can't get a wrench on the sensor because of clearance. These there is enough room to swing a wrench, and you can whack the end with a big hammer to get it cracked loose. A wrench always works better than those stupid sensor sockets you can buy at the parts store. A little tip, getting the pipes hot will make it easier to remove the sensor. Wear protective clothing (long sleeves, gloves) so you don't get burned.

So I'm trying to decide what to do with my other block. I'm going to need a block for my sedan now since I so graciously donated it's block to my wagon so I could get that back on the road. So the question I'm faced with is: Find a 2.5 block and build a frankenmotor, Or rebuild the wagon block and build it for slightly higher compression? I'm trying to look at this from a cost perspective. Either way the block I choose to use will get rebuilt. I might be able to get away with reusing the bearings in the 2.2 block, but I'll have to tear it down and see how they look. I just don't trust the 2.5's enough to run a junkyard block outright. I'm trying to figure the best way to get the extra compression from the 2.2 though, and I'm wondering what the differences were between the phase 1 and phase 2 blocks? It's my understanding the phase 2 was higher compression, (also interference, but a frankemotor would be interference as well). But where was the difference that raised the compression? Crank stroke? Piston top? Combustion chamber? Combination of all three? Anyone know offhand?

It should say on the emissions sticker on the bottom of the hood.

What they said. Re-check belt timing, be sure all three sprockets have the lines pointing straight up. The arrows are to there to indicate proper timing at TDC for number one. You can use the arrows to check for correct timing at TDC. Setting the timing by using the arrows is way more of a PITA than its worth. Set timing with the lines on the sprockets. The line on the crank sprocket is on one of the reluctor teeth for the crank sensor. When set properly, all three lines should point straight up, the arrow on the crank sprocket will be at 90 degrees, the arrows on the cam sprockets will be at 45 degrees.

Probably nothing. Wipe the shavings out with a rag and put it back together. Be sure to set the position of the solenoid exactly where it was before or it will cause problems. Cleaning the Idle valve is easy with a can of Throttle body and Air Intake cleaner. Very effective stuff. It will also lubricate the inner workings of the valve.

Fuses first for sure. Sometimes there are some extra screws behind the kick panel holding the gauge bezel in.

The suspension lift overall is only about an inch. The car appears higher by about 3" overall because of the tires, taller struts, and the higher roof because of the hump. But ground clearance is only about 3/4 - 1 inch more, because of the extra height of the larger tires. The subframe is lowered from the chassis to keep the CV shaft angles close to 0 degrees to prevent excessive wear and vibration.

95 was the first year Legacy Outback in the U.S. at least. It was the one with the trim but not the height. 96 was the first true Legacy outback, It had the large wheels, taller struts, bigger brakes, etc. 96 - 99 Legacy Outback struts will give you the lift you need.

Update time! Finally got my cams back from Delta (damn cross country ground shipping). I yanked the engine out of my sedan for the shortblock. Got it stripped down, cleaned, (cylinders all looked great for 190k miles) and have one head on. I'm waiting for a head to block alignment sleeve to come in on Thursday. One pulled out of the block with the head I pulled off, then I messed it all up trying to get it out of the head. I tried getting one out of the old wagon block with no luck(they're pretty well rusted in). So once that gets here I can put the other head on and hopefully put it all back in the wagon this weekend. I think I said that same phrase about three weeks ago.

Only one fan normally operates to cool the engine. The other fan is to give extra cooling capacity when the AC is running. SO it is 100% normal for only one fan to run. Is the heater core integral to cooling the engine? Yes and no. The heater core is part of the bypass loop that routes coolant from the engine through the core and back via external piping to the water pump. (external to the engine block) This loop is designed to return still warm coolant to the back side of the thermostat. This does two main things. It keeps the thermostat open in cold weather when coolant returning from the radiator can be cooler than the 170 degree opening temp of the thermostat. It promotes more even heating of the block as the engine warms up. It regulates the temperature of coolant coming into the engine by allowing the thermostat to open only partially, then the cold and warm coolant join and mix at a semi-controlled rate until the coolant in the radiator is warm enough to keep the thermostat open. It prevents a rush of cold coolant into the already hot block when the thermostat opens. Cold water on hot aluminum = cracked block, warped heads, bad stuff in general. The heater core isn't going to cause your temperature troubles though. Running hot going up hills or on long drives is a typical symptom of a clogged radiator or bad radiator cap.

When does the code set? As soon as the engine is started? If it sets the code immediately it's a wiring problem. Check the connector, also check the three large plugs on the bellhousing for tight clean connection.

This is a problem normally reserved for the dual cam 2.5 found in 96-99 model Subarus. Typically it gets blamed as a side-effect of overheating. To hear of one with that low mileage having trouble certainly doesn't boost my confidence in the newer engines. Honestly though, I'd get a second opinion first. Take it to another dealer or independent shop that specializes in Subarus. The timing belt tensioners on these are known to wear out and rattle/knock and can sound similar to a rod knock.

Trans in the sedan finally bit the dust today. Hypothetically anyway. It still drives but I don't trust it to go any further than the other side of the parking lot. I noticed it making a bit more noise last night driving home. This morning driving to work it sounded like I was getting ready to throw a rod. So I made some videos, then drove it a nervous 18 miles to my friends shop, where my wagon is. So I'm going to combine the two (sort of) and hope Sunday afternoon to drive out with the wagon in working shape. http://s145.photobucket.com/albums/r236/CadiLLacPimPin97/Car%20Videos/ Frontdiffnoise. I made this a few days ago before it started knocking really bad. Trying to capture the noise the front differential bearings have been making for about 6 months now. Funny, I figured those would go first. If you listen you can hear the mainshaft bearing knocking when I start driving. There's no "video" per se because it was dark and the camera was on the floor for the recording. Transnoise1. This is the sound at idle from under the car. Pretty sure its the mainshaft roller bearing knocking around. Transnoise2. This is the sound inside the car and I stuck the camera out the window to try to pick up the echo from the wall next to the car. Mostly picked up wind noise but you can hear some of the transmission noise as I start off. TransnoiseCE. This video was taken inside the car with the help of a Chassis Ear kit. It uses a transmitter and receiver box to allow you to listen to noises in the suspension, or any other part of the car pretty much, while driving the car. It helps with tracking down noises that can't be duplicated with the car on a lift. This is what it picked up with the transmitter attached to the side of my transmission. It's amplified a little, but no exaggeration. From outside the car this is exactly how it sounds.