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It's a 10 year old car in newengland, that's par for the course. I throw my car up on the lift a few times during the winter and fluid film it. A spray gun and the fluid film really aren't that expensive and it really helps mitigate rust. Even if you don't have a lift drive it up on ramps and go to town. With that said, if you have time to shop for cars drive south and buy one that isn't rusty. I'm looking for a replacement car right now and probably going to rent a car, drive 1000 miles south to buy a car and drive it home. It'll be a fun roadtrip with friends and I'll get a not rusty car.

Did you swap the whole LSD differential from an RX? Because if you did, it's the wrong ratio. Try putting the car on jack stands and see if it binds with all 4 wheels off the ground. You could also try to remove the back half of the driveshaft (make sure to mark its orientation before disassembling) and see if it drags in 4wd without the rear diff connected. This will help isolate if it's in the transmission or the rear end.

Yea, you can thread a digital pickup into the dual range. I've done it in my GL for testing custom speedometers. That project deserves a thread... However, can't you just use front wheel drive impreza axles?

Here's one thread in which someone swapped a dual range into a legacy http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/topic/85351-i-want-dual-range-awd-for-my-95-legacy/ There's another great thread with a white 2nd gen wagon, but I can't find it for some reason. It's not an easy swap. The tranny doesn't just bolt to the engine. The sift linkages don't line up. The wiring doesn't plug in. The driveshaft isn't the right length. And you have to modify the transmission crossmember to work. Then there's all the stupid little things when doing a retrofit you didn't think about that waste time and money. It definitely takes some research and work to make it happen, but it has been done and has been documented. This isn't a swap you'll finish in a Sunday afternoon, it's something you'll have to pick away at for a little bit. Other potentially useful thread: http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/topic/100087-gds-ej-dr-thread-of-questions/

That actually isn't super uncommon, last time it happened to me I brought it past my local machine shop. They put a helicoil in it and sold me a 3/8" bolt for like $10. Took them 10 minutes an I was out the door.

If you don't have a fog light button, the plug is probably for the fog lights. Just go to the junkyard and pick up a fog light button for your particular kind of car.

I guess you don't have to worry about rust, so you can get away with that. In the rust states, the pumps rust out and start leaking before they fail. You can use an f150 fuel pump from the early 90's, the secondary high pressure one. They're around $20 brand new, then you need a 7/16" fitting for the fuel line. That's how I fixed mine several years ago.

There is barely any power difference between the phase1 and phase2 ej22. Just drop a phase1 in there and call it a day. Or just get new heads and put them on your 2.5. It's pretty rare a belt breaking on these causes more than just valve damage.

No, they don't. The 99 back doors have a protrusion that makes them not fit on the 96. You can put early back doors on later cars, but not the other way around.

What door? The fronts will physically bolt up and work, not completely sure about the wiring, though. Just unhook the connectors on your car and see if they match the donor car. If it's a rear door it WILL NOT work. Sometime between 96 and 99 they added an extra little safety thingy toward the back of the door for extra strength in a crash or something. This will cause 99 back doors to not close on a 96, ask me how I figured this out Maybe it's a wagon vs sedan issue there, not sure. But I tried 99 OBW doors in a 96 leg.

When you turn the key, does the starter solenoid click? Or if you put a meter on it, is there power going to the solenoid? I have an issue on mine where some wiring is probably old and crappy, so when I turn the key it doesn't provide enough current to put the plunger all the way into the contacts. My solution was to just add a relay, so the ignition energizes a relay that gives battery power to the starter solenoid. Not really the most ideal solution, but I just wanted the silly thing to go and stop again. It's been like that for at least 4 years now...

An outback also has a 4.11 rear diff ratio, so it would directly work in your forester. The outback has a shorter 5th gear, though. So you'll be running higher RPMs on the highway, I wouldn't advise this. Putting a forester trans in my outback was the best thing ever. The legacy GT and RS also have a 4.11 manual transmission that will directly swap into your forester. Being a 99 you have an 8 bolt bellhousing, so I'd advise a transmission from a 99+ impreza/forester or a 2000+ legacy/outback. A 4 bolt transmission will work, it just requires more messing around.

What kind of car do you have?

75w-90 is fine, just make sure you get a GL-5 rated gear oil otherwise your diff will be destroyed.

Pictures of the rust? I can't imagine it's more than just surface rust. I don't think there's a steel thing in my engine bay that doesn't have surface rust, same goes for any other car in the north east. I've never seen or heard of a fuel rail rusting through.

You can rotate it by hand. Go carefully and if you feel resistance, stop. The engine was already being spun around really fast by the transmission when the belt broke, one more rotation isn't gonna do more damage. Good news is, when this happens the pistons and block don't usually get damaged, it's usually just the valves.

You're gonna have to use your USDM intake manifold for it to work, which has an EGR valve. Just plumb the intake of the EGR valve to the intake post MAF. I've done this with success on a few DOHC cars.

It's probably the ground from the battery to the engine. It bolts to the top starter bolt. Take that out and clean all mating surfaces of the ground lead until they're completely shiny. Do the same on the battery end. Certainly wouldn't hurt to do the same on the positive lead to the starter.

I fully second the recommendation to use the OEM subaru thermostat. Just in case you need a really good reason... DO NOT drive the car anywhere, even just a mile. If it blew all the coolant out you will damage the engine, even in just a short distance. With no coolant flowing over the temperature sensor it won't even register an overheat condition at the heads, you'll think everything is fine but the engine can be destroyed.

Yea, you got lucky on that one. I still maintain there's never an excuse to break the pinch bolts, if they don't come loose with a wrench you need to heat them up or they'll break off. I've had to cut the ball joints into pieces with a die grinder through the pinch bolt slot, though... I've seen people apply unreasonable force to things like the pinch slot and break one ear off, etc. It's ridiculous. I live in land of the rust, you have to be patient.

The shortblock will. You can put the 98 block between the 99 heads and it'll work fine. I put a 96 block in my 02 forester using the phase2 heads and it works great.

Listen to what johnceggleston said... Pretend the arrows don't exist and use the dash/hash marks.

People totally are lazy about it, I read posts on here all the time asking if the engine is interference or not. Then stating "well I can ignore this for another year blah blah blah" They changed the pistons in 97, so 97 up is interference, yes even the 2.2. It has to do with making the flow in the combustion chamber more efficient or something like that, the byproduct of which causes valves to hit pistons when the belt breaks.

I don't understand people who ignore the timing belt just because it isn't interference. It doesn't matter if I'm on a road trip or my way to work, if the belt breaks it interferes with my day; therefor all engines are interference to me. Replacing the timing belt, idlers, and water pump is a lazy afternoon job and only costs around $200 for the Gates kit, no excuse not to get it done.

Does it make the sound if you just rev the engine up in neutral? No idea what you're talking about "more of a click when there's no real drain on it". Some periods and commas might help your case.... First thing I'd suspect is you have an exhaust heatshield rattle, they can make an absolutely terrible that sounds like the end of the world. Get under the car and see if any of them are loose and rattling around. If they are, welding them back into place is the best option. If you don't have a welder you can use beefy hose clamps to hold them in place. Or you can just rip them off entirely...