Alaskan Ravin

Thanks for all the helpful feedback. When we initially turned in the vehicle, the service rep told me that the owner thought the knocking might be a problem a "wrist pin." What is a wrist pin? Would the shop have had to access, manipulate, replace, remove, or otherwise deal with the wrist pin performing any of the work I reported in my initial post? I think I am going to contact the Subaru dealer here in town for a second opinion. Thanks, again, Alaskan Ravin

All, I have a 1998 Outback Ltd. Edition; it's automatic transmission and has a 2.5L DOHC engine. The engine overheated once...the temp gauge spiked. Luckily I was close to our trusty Subaru repair shop and I got the vehicle right in for inspection and work. I had to replace the head gasket, reseal the powersteering pump, replace the plennum o-rings, replace the rear inspection cover including a replacement of the rear o-ring and rear main seal (crankshaft), replace radiator hoses, replace the left rear lateral link, and align all four wheels. When we picked up the vehicle, the engine had a new, strong knocking sound when the engine was idling; the knocking increased as the engine revved and when I drove. Recently, I took the vehicle in for an oil change and the tech said the vehicle had a bad engine leak. I took the vehicle back to my Subaru repair shop under the warranty for the work stated above. The new diagnosis is crank walk. The repair shop is telling me that crank walk is virtually unheard of in an automatic 2.5L DOHC engine and that it's unrelated to the work performed. The shop recommends replacing the engine block. It is willing to do the engine restoration and inspection for free if I buy the used engine. I am not 100% convinced that the crank walk is unrelated to the work as the knocking sound did not exist until the work was done and I noticed it immediately. I need to know whether to continue to push the shop to cover all of the repair, that is can the crank walk problem be directly linked to the work performed previously. As I have research crank walk, it seems related to the thrust bearing. What are other causes of crank walk? When the initial work was performed, the shop inspected the engine cylinders for irregular wear or scoring from the overheating. It also cleaned and inspected the block surface for damage or warpage, cleaned, inspected, and measured the heads for tolerance, removed carbon from the piston tops and valves, adjusted the valve lash, replaced the intake gaskets, valve cover gaskets, and exhaust header gaskets. The timing belt idlers and hydraulic tensioner was inspected and a new timing belt was installed. Any and all advice is appreciated. Thanks!