el_freddo

And 3) swap your heads onto the EJ22. Cheers Bennie

Yeah fair call. I just did the conversion to km to put that distance into perspective - 488,000km! At that distance travelled, unless the gearbox was resealed and had its oil changed when it should’ve been, it’s bound to have leaking seals and worn bearings, not just the input shaft bearing. Still, sounds like a good one to pull apart to learn from if you can afford it. Cheers Bennie

I reckon for $50 it’s a good deal. Pull the box apart and replace the input shaft bearing and the oil seal. If the gearbox is toast it’s still good learning that’s not expensive (in my book anyway). The spigot bearing is the one that lives in the centre of the flywheel with the gearbox input shaft in it. If the spigot bearing was none existent then the input not bearing could have worn out due to the little bit of play it would be allowed to have. In the single range gearboxes this wouldn’t be so common as the input shaft is very long, going from the clutch all the way to the rear side of the front half cases. On the dual range boxes that we have, the input shaft is only a few inches long and relies on the spigot bearing and another roller bearing in the low range setup to hold the shaft for the main input bearing to run true. $50 is a good deal I reckon. Your call. Cheers Bennie

WEight has nothing to do with engine compression testing. You need a compression gauge for sure. Cheers Bennie

You’ll see the same cross hatching in your EJ engine. Probably best to post in the EJ to present models subforum for best results with answers. Most will probably tell you to get a good second hand unit. But they’re easy enough to work on. Provided you haven’t broken any rings or ring landings, the bores should be fine. You could also try replacing the PCV valve so see if that changes the oil burning. Also do a compression check, why repalce rings etc if it’s just valve stem seals? This could be done without removing the heads with the right tools too. Cheers Bennie

Voltage will only appear if you’re applying some sort of voltage to the system as you test it. I’m unsure, but I would imagine that measuring the resistance would allow you to determine whether the VSS circuit is working properly. Cheers Bennie

Would something like this do the job? https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Forged-Aluminum-Coilover-Kit-for-Honda-Civic-88-00-available-Coilover-Suspension/183420306878 Cheers Bennie

Is the cup holder not a standard feature? Over here I’m 99% sure this was standard across the AUDM range. Our Gen3 Liberty(Legacy)/Outback’s that are dual range only have one cup holder in the dashboard. The second one is removed for the dual range lever. Even the rear seats gets two fold out cup holders in the back of the console. That area rear of the front wheels is always an area to open up and clean out with new to you 2nd hand vehicles for the exact reason you’ve shown above! Cheers Bennie

I’ll dig up the pics of the EJ gearbox crossmembers that I’ve got. You may have already seen them though. I like the ones that are bent to shape rather than having a break with a welded in section. There’s one xmem that has a section of half pipe welded in to clear the sway bar, that’s the one I’m not keen on. I like your idea of the centre piece of the cross member to pass under the sway bar before bending upwards for the rear mount. As for gear selector rear mount, you could make up a plate that covers the trans hole while providing a bent section to drop into the trans tunnel for the mount to bolt to. This plate can have a shaped hole to fit the EJ gear lever boot, so it provides two uses. A rubber “gasket” under this plate would be needed to create a seal Cheers Bennie

My EJ22E has the charcoal canister in the engine bay in roughly the same place that the old EA82 one sat. Maybe the later models have the canister in the rear, but clearly not all models do... I should’ve mentioned that my L series was EJ swapped ten years ago, hence why I made the initial comment above Cheers Bennie

I’ve always filled my L series to the brim. Not the same setup as the EJ models but still has the charcoal canister in the engine bay all the same. No issues in ten plus years. If I go with the single click and stop filling the fuel gauge isn’t on full. If doing this is it is best to be doing a bit of a drive before stopping the vehicle for the night/a period of time Cheers Bennie

Investigate the check engine light, you may genuinely have a dodgy sensor. If the ECU runs the engine and hasn’t fried, it will continue like this. With the old ECU, find a new replacement resistor and place that in. Then you can swap the ECUs to see if it works. Mans your check engine light should illuminate with the ignition ON, engine OFF. Cheers Bennie

Re: how’s to tell if it’s the tensioner - read my first post in this thread As for driving with a tensioner like that, I’m not sure. We replaced ours as soon as we could and reduced the use of the vehicle where possible. Ours didn’t bounce like the ones you can find on YouTube. You can see the belt bouncing in this one: Here’s another good one. I didn’t know about the trick of applying pressure to the tensioner. You don’t need the harmonic balancer on to test this. I hope this helps. Cheers Bennie

Find out if it’s the tensioner first. If it’s the tensioner there’s no damage to the engine. If it’s piston slap I guess you’ll have to live with it. Cheers Bennie

Copy paste the link GD! Copy and paste! As Mike said, it could be the tensioner. Easy diagnosis is to remove the driver’s side cam cover and visually inspect the tensioner in action - sometimes you can see it bouncing up and down. Other times you need to use a stethoscope (carefully!) to diagnose. The use of a stethoscope will tell you where the noise is coming from - bottom end, tensioner area or the top end, possibly - I’ve never used this method for piston slap. I hope for you it’s a tensioner. Replace before driving as this can cause big issues for the healthy running of your engine if the belt is allowed to skip teeth. When’s your cam belt replacement due? Get a full kit from a quality source - Japanese parts are best! Cheers Bennie

You’re only swapping interior bits, so you should be right on direct swapping. Colour scheme might be a bit different to what you have now though. Cheers Bennie

12mm seems quite large! Why not use a liberty filter from the Gen1? It’s mounted in the engine bay. They also fit in the L series efi filter mount if you happen to have one. Cheers Bennie

If that’s the case you might be better off sourcing heats that still retain their hardness/haven’t been overheated. Cheers Bennie

Have you checked the dust shield on the brake rotor? And what are your brake pads looking like? Is the noise a consistent grind, does it come and go or change in intensity with different engine loads or vehicle speeds? Cheers Bennie

Yep, what carfreak said. That’s my understanding and experience too. Cheers Bennie

Yes, sorry Jono, also. My statement was specific to alexbouy’s reply. How are you doing the gearbox crossmember? An old Ausubi forum member that’s a good mate of mine reckons that back in the day he made mounts from the stock brumby crossmember fit the AWD EJ gearbox without the “H” style EJ crossmember. I’m thinking of looking into that when the time comes. Cheers Bennie edit: what box and diff ratio/tyre size are you going to run with?

That sucks when it happens. They should pass on the torch to those that will keep it alive. Cheers Bennie

I’m looking at doing the same but in my brumby, so I too am watching to see what the outcome is Cheers Bennie

@Mitchy - there is a bit of effort involved with a swap like this. But it’s nothing compared to a dashboard swap or removal of an EJ dashboard - a common occurrence went people “drop” and EJ turbo into their non turbo Subaru. This is my second dash install and my fifth removal in the MY platform. It’s very similar to the L series dash removal and install process, as I’m sure it is for the EJ dashboard. I’ve worked out the indicator issue - it was the plug to the indicator stalk cluster. The plug on my indicator wiring had one pin that’s been hot enough to melt the plastic of the plug, changing the pin’s position slightly. With a small tweak with a pair of pliers I was able to seat the plug properly with its mate and I had indicators again. I also located the plug for the intermittent wiper relay canister to live on. It was tucked right up behind the instrument cluster. For now I’ll place the single looped wire plug on there so my wipers will at least self return. Then I’ll go hunting for my intermittent relay canister to fit for my wipers to work with the four position switch - off, intermittent, low, high. Such high level of luxury! The windscreen was fitted yesterday. So now I can focus on getting the rest of the interior back together and sort out the rust in the tray - clean it up and seal the metal. Cheers Bennie

Mitchy, are you aiming for more lift than this, or are you happy with that height? In the before and after pics it’s difficult to see the difference, it looks like it’s maybe an inch or two at best. The lighting unfortunately makes it hard. I do like how you’ve positioned the car on the same angle though! Cheers Bennie