987687

Oops, sorry. It's an 89 GL sedan.

Is there any way to re-bend the trunk torsion bars so it holds the trunk open? My trunk has a habit of slamming closed on my head, probably because it has the stick on spoiler thing. Is there a trick to getting more tension in the bars so the truck stays open better? Some cars have so much tension in those, as soon as you pull the release the trunk pops all the way up.

If I was in the market for a brand new car, I wouldn't get it just on the principle that it's a new model. The first generation of anything is bound to have issues, let other people be the beta testers, and get the 2nd revision.

I'll second this, I have a cheap fcaw. Sometimes my welds are a little boogery. But I can run a constant buggery bead between two bits of sheet metal and not have any pinholes. It depends on the quality you're looking for. If you're fixing up your beater GL, it's more than fine. If you're fixing a smashed panel on a brand new STi, ya, it's worth buying the good welder to make it come out well.

Good chance the sheet metal is a bunch thinner. Also even if it's solid, but surface rust, sometimes it can have rusted thinner than you think. Making it a real bear to weld. I've run into that with exhaust, too. And I learned all about trying to weld old sheet metal fixing up my GL. If you hold the welder (whatever the handle thing is called), further away from the metal, it will make welding thin stuff easier. It makes more blobby bubbly welds because it's cooler. Since you have a longer stickout of wire, it cools off more before it gets to what you're welding. This probably isn't proper, but it works, and with some practice, you can actually weld pretty thin stuff and have it come out looking pretty good. I too just have a crappy cheap box that only has a couple heat settings, so every little trick helps out.

If you lift the front end off the ground, do you have any side to side, up/down, or in/out play in the front wheels? Side to side is bad ball joints or steering rack, up and down in ball joints or strut top hat, and in/out is wheel bearing. Also, with a bad bearing it'll wobble in any direction. You can tell by looking at the CV while you wiggle the wheel. If the knuckle stays still, but the CV moves with the wheel, the bearing is loose. Tighten or replace it. A tired and failing strut top, control arm, and even radius rod bushing will cause alignment to slip. Also, engine crossmember. Check the bolts, bushings, etc on that. I doubt it's loose, but something is going on, check all the rubber/moving bits for play. If everything is tight, it won't slip on alignment. So something is loose.

Heads should last forever, just pull some cam caps or whatever to make sure there's no scratching in the bearings or lobes. I bet someone would sell you, and ship to you, a set of heads wicked cheap. They have no value, 2.2s aren't worth rebuilding. So there's an excess of heads. And the heads never really die.

You have a whole 2.2 short block? Well then, just get some 2.2 heads. They're not that heavy, not that expensive. Just have someone ship you some. I'd bet GD or someone has a set they can just send off. I have a single port set of heads, but you don't want that.

Every engine has a secret supply of coolant. I got an ej22 that had been sitting for about 3 years. The first thing it did was dump coolant all over me. And yes, it dumped coolant all over the back of my car the whole ride home. And I didn't reseal it before I dropped it in the car. And that bit me in the rump roast. The oil pan leaked pretty bad, but of course I didn't know because it was dry when I got it from sitting. And now the crank seal is dumping oil. I just wanted the car running. Also, I'm lazy and hate working on cars. But that's the 3rd engine I've had to put in the car, so I was getting tired of swapping motors. One of them was a 2.2 with over 300k miles, and the 2nd one was a 25d with around 230k miles, that had been overheated, and then I bolted 2.2 heads onto... Moral of the story is, don't do what I did. High mileage 2.5 blocks that have died are evil. A 300+k 2.2 that burns a qt of oil ever 500 miles and leaks out of every seal, and ultimately runs out of oil and seizes, is also evil.

Are you sure the crank in your 2.5 is OK? Depending on how long it went with the bad bearing, the crank might be beyond repair. At that point, it's probably going to be more expensive than just getting a good 2.2. The 2.2 is such a painless swap, timing belt, reseal it, and you're good for the next 100k miles.

In the video (other thread), it appears to have frameless windows.

How would you use 25D rods, when the 99+ block has bigger rod journals?

The cup holders on every 2nd gen is a problem. They're some of the worst engineering I've ever seen.

With the 25d, it's less of IF the head gasket is going to fail. It's WHEN the head gasket will fail. When I worked in a shop, most of them came in around 110-130k with bad head gaskets. Seems like that's how long they last, other mechanics in the area have noticed the same mileage ranges. Have it fixed properly now, and that engine will last another 100k miles. It's probably due for a timing belt, wp, idlers, etc as well. Fix it properly now, it'll last a long time. Let it overheat really bad just once, and you've cooked it. Except a few thousand miles till you start having rod knock.

The ea header IS slightly UEL. Mine has a nice rumble at idle.

It may be getting an intermittent connection. Check the connector to make sure it's not all green and corroded. Or the spade connectors are splayed out and loose.

Dunno if you have napa around your area, but they sell mandrel bends. They also sell 2-1 collectors.

I drove it to NC and back like that, and it didn't really get any worse. The noise just really annoyed me, I can't stand things screaming a slow mechanical death. It's just painful...

Ya, it doesn't bother me so much, it doesn't even happen every time. Just curious as to what causes it. This transmission is leaps and bounds better than the last one. That was a serious nightmare shifting when cold in the winter, and the bad bearing noises just made me cringe all the time...

It could be transmission mount, dog bone, and the other one I've seen give a lot of driveline slop is the trailing arm bushings.

I've never seen an ea81 in a Maine junk yard, and only once saw an ea82 wagon that had very few usable parts on it. Maine is an older subaru void, I'm jealous of all you guys who can walk into a yard and grab ea parts all day.

Right, that's what happens when the center diff in a 5speed starts to get tired and bind up.

manual tranny, I assume? It sounds like the center diff is going bad and starting to seize up.

^ We did that on my friend's 4speed truck. It's not a huge deal, I only use first gear getting moving from a stop and engine braking down my driveway, just wanted to know what's up. Thanks for the clarification on that! That's awesome to know how it works better. It's weird, on the old transmission the first gear syncho didn't work at all. It was like trying to shift into reverse while moving at all. It was seriously grindy unless I double clutched it. I'm still in that habit, but I just figured this one was better. Huh. At least it doesn't make crunchy bad input shaft bearing noises...

I haven't tried, but my driveway is a very steep bump dirt road. So being bumped around probably does it. I wouldn't think a bad synchro would do that, the 1st gear syncho is actually tons better than the old tranny. And that one never jumped gear. I was fearing it was the dog engagement gears...