WoodsWagon

2.5 is tight with the DOHC but is doable. You can use the same harness as a 2.2 to run an EJ25d. You can also run EJ22 heads on an EJ25 block to make a high compresion motor. It requires premium gas all the time but they have great torque. The only issue with the EJ25d is the headgaskets. If the headgasket is caught early and replaced with the updated one, they're good for the rest of the life of the engine. If some one ran it overheated for a long time, the rod bearings can spit out soon after the new headgasket is put in. They're not bad engines. And the power out of them is respectable. I tore a lot of drivetrain parts up with a 2.2l, so I can imagine what I'd do with a 2.5. The clutch will be more of a concern with the 2.5l if you're running an EA transmission. Use a high performance WRX clutch disk, XT6 pressure plate and the flywheel cut to XT6 specs and it should last a while.

There's actually a service bulletin that I read on Endwrench about this problem. If you overtorque the lateral link bolt (the one that goes through the two links that go parallell to the axle) it deforms the housing and the bearings will burn up. Since that bolt travels out in the open between the two ears of the knuckle it will squeeze the ears together if you crank it down too tight. The legacy bearings aren't junk, they're the tapered roller type. It's the ball bearing rear bearings that fail all the time in the foresters and impreza's. You fix that by upgrading to the legacy bearings which are the same diamter, but a lot more reliable.

Spray penetrating oil on the 2 u-joints that couple the steering column to the rack. They're right over the drivers side axle. Use real penetrating oil, not WD-40, so Kroil, PB blaster, Yeild, something that actually lubricates. I've used bicycle chain lube in a pinch. And by purple powering, do you mean cleaning off the exterior of the power steering pump to see if there's a leak or do you mean pouring some additive into the power steering reservoir? Also see this recent thread about the same problem: http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=116592

How does tight valves work for ones burned in hydro lash adjuster SOHC EJ22 heads (90-95)? I've burned a couple. And not just burned an edge off, it looked like someone took a cutting torch to a section of the valve face.

What did your lsd come from? I have one out of a 2001 ouback that I can check both axles on, but the 1 I pulled out looked like the single spline axle on the right.

So you want to find a set of calipers that bolt to the 4 lug EA82 caliper bracket and use the 4 lug EA82 pads but don't have E-brake mechanisms, correct? I belive 89-94 legacys have the same distance between the caliper slides that the EA's have. So that would give you a caliper without E-brake that would bolt onto the EA bracket and pads. I have 4 lug EA knuckles, 5 lug EA xt6 knuckels, and 1st gen legacy knuckles down at my shed. If you want I can mix and match parts and see what fits for you. As for the front E-brake being the source of your troubles, I have multiple EA82 cars with 150k+ miles on them with the origional non-leaking calipers. I don't think you're doomed to leaks if you have front e-brakes, I think your calipers are junk and you'd be better off with a fresh set.

The PB will work for a while, but the binding will come back because the joints have rust inside them now. I'd reccomend replacing it if you plan on keeping the car for a while. Or you could do a once a month spraydown and keep going that way. A coupler is a lot cheaper and easier to do than replacing the rack or pump. Just make sure you keep the steering wheel lined up with the rack when you take the coupler off, if you let it spin round or get it off a turn the clockspring connector for the airbag, horn, and cruise control will get broken off. Glad you flushed out the fluid. That's an object lesson in not throwing miracle fixes at an undiagnosed problem.

Also check the bushings where the rear trailing arms attach to the body under the back door. If they get loose then the back wheels will shift around when cornering leading to some very tail-happy tendancys. Do the bounce test on the shocks on all 4 corners, bounce the car up and down as hard as you can and then let go, it should go up, then back to center and stop. If it keeps bouncing the struts are not doing their job. Also check for leaking oil at the struts in the wheel wells.

Did you just soak them in oil or replace the coupler? New couplers are around $70 from the dealer.

Trannys are cheap and plentiful, and not hard to swap. Just make sure the diff ratios match. They must have really been having fun with it to smoke reverse!

Automatic or manual transmission? The problem is not in the front or rear diffs, you can change the gear oil but it will not fix the problem. The binding is in the transmission. If it's an automatic, put the FWD fuse in (take a spare out of the under hood fuse box and put it in the fuse holder up on the passenger side strut tower that says FWD. Then drive in circles. If the binding is gone while the fuse is in and FWD is lit up on the dash, then all you need to do is change the automatic transmission fluid a few times. If the binding is still there with FWD lit up on the dash, then you need to take apart the transfer housing on the back of the transmission and start replacing parts. Same thing if the AT temp light flashes 16 times when you start the car. If it's a manual, then the problem is in the center differential. No fluid change will fix that, the limited slip portion of it (viscous coupler) is a sealed unit. So you have to replace that, which means you need to pull the rear transfer housing off the transmission. We need a damn torque bind sticky at the top of the new gen forum.

Did you unplug the fuel pump by any chance? Or hook the hoses up backwards?

The cable is probably seized. Take it and the can off of the tranny, shift the diff lock manually and use some baling wire to keep it held in the unlocked postition. Then get to soaking the cable in penetrating oil until you can get it to move again. You may be able to get one from a pushbutton 4wd car to work with a bit of modification, if not I'm sure somone here has one you could buy. Does it have a digital dash? If the tach isn't displaying but the alarm still goes off when you exceed redline it's just the display going south. The tach is kindof worthless anyway. I've had EA82's up to 8200 rpm's and then the valves start to float, just wind it out until it stops pulling as hard, then pound the next gear and keep it pinned. As long as you keep the oil filled and fresh you're not going to kill one by overrevving.

Stuts only from an outback, the springs are the same regular legacy vs legacy out back. You reuse your strut caps in the rear because of their specific bolt pattern where they bolt to the body. You can use the outback ones in the front if you want, they're the same as the legacy ones. If you find outback strut assemblys (with springs and strutcaps allready assembled) then you can fit the front ones right in, but you will have to swap your caps on to the rear ones which requires a spring compressor. Handy tip: when you remove the brake line clips from the struts, you can cut the tab on the strut and fold it open. Do the same things on the new struts, and when you install them put the brake hose back in, fold the tabs back shut and put the clip on. That will save a lot of brake bleeding.

Check the secondary throttle plate to see if it's stuck. If the car was driven conservatively around town for a while, the secondary can get stuck shut. Then check the vaccum diaphram to see if it will pull the throttle plate open when vacuum is applied to it (use a hand pump) make sure the vacuum line leading to it is in good condition and that the tube it connects to is clear to where it opens in the primary throttle bore. Mine would top out at 100mph with 30" tires on it, so if you're having a hard time holding 70 with stock size, there's a problem.

Would that include the R150f used in V6 4x4 tacomas? I've beaten the piss out of mine with a supercharged 3.4 and it's held up great. The R150f has a shorter input than the R154 in the supras, would that not match with the depth setting of your bellhousing?

No, they were sawed off: Recall Date: 12/11/1998 Summary: VEHICLE DESCRIPTION: PASSENGER VEHICLES. INADVERTENT AIR BAG DEPLOYMENT CAN OCCUR AFTER UNDERCARRIAGE CONTACT OF THE TOW HOOKS WITH CURBS, DIPS, SPEEDBUMPS, POTHOLES, ETC. Consequence: UNEXPECTED AIR BAG DEPLOYMENT COULD RESULT IN PERSONAL INJURY. Remedy: DEALERS WILL REMOVE THE FRONT TOW HOOKS. Potential Units Affected: 95673 Notes: Subaru Legacy

Diesel, probably in it's turbo form. A 1.6td out of an early jetta can be picked up cheap and with MLS headgaskets, head studs, an intercooler and 2.5" exhaust with the pump turned up can turn out scary torque numbers.

I would reccomend replacing the pushbutton 4wd transmission with a dual range 4x4 manual shift transmission out of an 86-89 EA82 car if your going to bother cracking the case to replace seals. Might as well upgrade the car while you're there.

Not a concern if your buckled. If your not bucked, then the airbag will be worse for you than no airbag. That's why all the newer multistage srs sytems have seatbelt latch sensors that let the srs system take that into acount and alter the inflation of the bag to compensate. So do occupant weight and position sensors in the seats and seat track position sensors. A 93 impreza has none of those. I will not argue the point that airbags save lives. However, they are a supplemental restraint system, the primary being the seatbelt. 1st gen airbag systems are single stage, which means the inflation rate of the airbag is a compromise for the probable impact speeds. Minimum is 15mph, maximum normal would be 120mph (2 60mph cars hitting head on). So for a slow speed accident the airbag inflation rate is too fast and violent. That's why there is multistage airbags. The inflation rate can be tailored to match the impact by chosing which or both charges to fire. How many front tow hooks did subaru saw off in the mid 90's after reports of airbags going off bumping the curb in parking lots? It's not a high tech system they used. Remove the bulb in the cluster and remove the plug from the charge in the wheel.

There's a big vacuum can bolted to the side/top of the transmission by the bellhousing that has a cable coming out of it that goes to the back of the transmission. Make sure the vaccum lines (there should be 2) are connected to the diaphram can. You can also connect each line one at a time to a vacuum source to see if it shifts in and out. Trying to work the cable back and forth at the lever end with a prybar is kind of the last resort. You can feel the vacuum output from the 2 solenoids switch when you switch the diff lock on the center console?

Both of those are EJ22 charts, and they are hp at the wheels, not the crank. So the EJ22 is turning out more power after drivetrain losses than an EJ18 can muster at the crank. I couldn't turn up an EJ18 chart. If you could that would be great. The differences between those 2 charts is variaton due to different dyno's. It's frankly absurd to reccomend the EJ18 as better for offroad use than an EJ22. Of course it will make less torque at any point in it's rpm range, as you said there's no replacement for displacement when you're trying to generate torque. Leone turbo has a $100 bet out that if you overlayed a EJ18 dyno graph on an EJ22 dyno graph the EJ18 would fall under the curve of the EJ22 every step along the way. One could argue that he would want it to be two stock cars tested back to back on the same dyno. Smaller displacement gains you nothing for torque. It's advantages are lighter reciprocating mass for higher rpm capability and better fuel economy. Of course the torque specs at any rpm up to 4500 of any subaru motor are laughable compared to what my old Caddy 500's and 472's turn out. I'm happy the EJ18 works out for you. However I would never reccomend that someone seek and EJ18 out over an EJ22 for offroad use. That doesn't make sense. I would recommend that you swap an EJ22 into your car, you may be pleasantly surprised at the improvement. Oh, and if you're going to do an EJ swap, you usually start with a donor car. Starting with and EJ18 car will not be good because of the lack of knock sensor. So you have to use and EJ22 car, at which point it makes more sense to use the EJ22 the donor came with rather than seeking out an EJ18.

That fits for a binding coupler u-joint and nothing else. You may want to flush the power steering system now that you put that lucas "miracle in a bottle" crap in. It works by softening and swelling seals, which will make junk seals work for a bit (long enough to sell the car, that's the point of all those products) but will eat good seals and make them junk. Use a baster to suck the fluid out of the resevoir, take the short return hose off the pipe leading up to the resevoir and kink the rubber hose to keep fluid in the resevoir. Put an extra lenth of hose on the end of the pipe coming up along side the engine and run that down into a bucket. Crank the rack lock to lock a few times with the engine off to clear most of the fluid out of the rack and into the bucket, then put a funnel in the resevoir and pour ATF into it while an assistant cranks the wheel lock to lock with the engine running. After pouring at least a quart through and having it blow out into the bucket, shut the motor off, hook the short hose from the resevoir back to the return line, and fill the resevoir back up. Run it for a while, the pump will whine because of all the air bubbles trapped in the fluid. Turn the wheels lock to lock to make sure the rack is full again while it's running. Then shut it off, wait a while, and top off the resevoir. That should flush out most of the lucas stuff.

It may be net-zero with the origional bearings and spindles, but I never ran across one. Even new ********* bearings and GCK axles were a crank together with the axle nut fit. Believe me, if there was a way they slipped together, I would have used that rather than cutting up aluminum pipe to make spacers. Getting them out usually resulted in mushrooming the end of the axle, so I'd leave the nut on for the first few hits, then grind the threads and back it out. Sometimes working on cars in the northeast requires a different level of "finesse"

EJ22's: