WAWalker

just drop the exhaust at the heads. The chances of this happening to the intake guides is slim. There is a certian amont of oil getting sucked past the valve guide seals and into the valve guides on the intake side, keeping them lubricated. Not on the exhaust side though. The exhaust valve stems get a "carbon seal" built up on them. That is, part of the stem that is inside the guide when the valve is closed gets carbon built up on it. This can at times cause valves to "hang up" in the guide and close late, causing a misfire. Agian normally no noise. But if the guides are loose and this carbon seal causes resistance when valves are opening, this could "pull" the valve guide out as the valve opens. That old of a car with that few miles setting for a long time without be run...............seems like a good candidate. Like I say I've never seen it, after 10 years of working on Subarus, but I'm told it happens.

Internal at the center of the engine or out at the heads? In my experiance..............collapsed lifters do not cause a misfire. Have seen many 2.2L engines that have had to much sealant put on the oil pump and get pumped into oil bleed holes on the rocker arms causing the lifters to collaps, none with a misfire due to this. Lifters pumped up all the way will cause misfire, but no noise. Worn rod and main bearing noise should not completly go away intermittently, and should not cause a misfire. Back to inspecting the valve guides. I have not personally had the chance to see this, but have heard from many professinals in the business that it does happen. Valve guides will come loose in the cyl head and slide down the valve steam holding the valves open and causeing a misfire. Valves hammer the guide back in place and misfire goes away, untill guides move again. I have to assume there is going to be noise associated with this problem. Good luck.............will be interseting to hear what you find.

Just another little note. I'm sure you have been over this car with a fine tooth comb already but..........I just had a '97 OB in a while ago that had a bad misfire on cyl's 1 & 3, also had a knocking noise that sounded a little like rod bearings. I traced the noise down first. The engine had been replaced in this car and they had taken a clamp off the steel power steering lines and the lines were hitting the engine craddle causeing the noise. That was the easy part. Figureing out that this "rebuilt" engine had two different cams (neither being right for that MY engine) causeing the misfire wasn't as easy. What I'm getting at is....................Is the noise and the misfire caused by the same thing? Or is the noise something different and only being created due to the misfire?

If your O2 and Knock Sensor codes cleared after replacing the knock sensor then you don't have to worry about those. You need to start with the basics. Spark plugs, wires, air and fuel filter. I'm not saying you HAVE to replace all of them, I'm say that is what you need to check. If any of those items need replacing, that is were you start.

There will be a code stored in the memory. CEL need not be on to pull codes. MAF's do go bad but are not a common failure.

How many miles have been put on since this started? If it were lower end noise it should be dead already. Useing a stethascope you should be able to pin point were the noise is coming from. That would be very helpfull in determining were to look for the problem. Broken flex plate should not cause a violant misfire. If the noise in fact is top end noise............Drop the exhaust at the heads and inspect the valve guides to see if any are protruding from the head further than others. Also keep in mind that most of these auto auction cars are there for a reason. Your first 350 miles may have just be "lucky". This could have been a pre existing problem. So rather than second guessing your work, focus on pinpointing the sorce of the noise, and go from there.

What year is your car? My wifes '03 is like that. Unless you have the cruise set at 90+ it shifts down on every little hill, drives me crazy. My '98 only does that on step hills or if you have the cruise set below 80 mph.

Sounds like a timing issue. I would recommend taking a look at your crank pully to see if the bolt has come loose causing damage to the timing belt drive sproket and key.

That is what Subaru said. I have personally sent at least 2 '03's to the dealer for warranty head gasket work. My wifes '03 Legacy SE sedan had just had head gasket work done before we bought it with ~35k on the clock. The former Subaru tech from the dealer said he has done '04 head gaskets. Can't always believe what the Manufacturer tells you.

Well the Hatch has another set of twins. I took the A/C condersor fan out today and put in a second Main fan for better cooling on the trail. The main fans seem to move a lot more air. Took it for a little ride this afternoon. The dual carbs are for sure making a differance in low end power. I did a longggg, steeeep, hill climb today, wasn't sure it would make it but I just gave it a little more go pedal and it pulled all the way to the top. That made me a happy guy, cause I sure didn't want to back it down that one. Here is a pic after turning around at the top. Pictures never do justice though.

Here are some pics of my '85 Hatchback. You can use whatever pics you want. SPECS 1985 Hatchback. Stock EA81 engine Dual Hitachi carbs w/ custom mounted K&N air filters Stock D/R 4 speed MT..... 5 speed D/R MT waiting to be installed Welded rear diff.... going to try a LSD to see how it performs, if I don't like I will put the welded unit back in. 3 / 3 PK lift Hubs drilled for 6 bolt lug pattern 14" steel 6 bolt Nissan pickup wheels 27" Super Swamper Radial tires. Sway bar removed Before This was two cars made into one. Now Some of these aren't real clear. I was in a hurry due to batteries going dead in the camera. After This may well be a never ending project. Have no plans to git rid of it and it is no were near finished.

This happens. Just have to use a bigger hammer and more peretrating oil. I use a Snap-On air hammer.

Next on the t'do list................I aquired a '88 GL EA82 wagon in need of an engine. So I'm going to grab the 5 speed D/R out of it for the Hatch. Also got a line on a '88 Turbo wagon that I will be getting the rear LSD from. I've got the rear diff welded now which is best for off road, but this project was never intended for serious wheelin', I've got my Toy for that. I can see this being an ongoing project for a looong time. It will never wheel like my Toy, but it is way cooler for sure! I'm not a big fan of the EA82 cars myself but this '88 GL is in really nice shape body and interior wise, so I hate to haul it to the wrecking yard. Thinking I'll keep it around and see if I run across a wrecked Legacy, then transplant an EJ engine and transmission in it.

Finally put the dual carbs on the Hatch! Took it snow wheelin' in Feb, found it worked well but it was a full throttle deal, and still lacking power. Took it out this summer and pointed it uphill at 9500 ft elevation..................ran out of power and had to abuse it more than I would have liked to in order to get were I was going. I hopeing this will help a little. Now I just need to find the time to test it out again.

All of the extended warranty policies that I have seen will not cover a pre existing problem. So whom ever you have do the head gaskets will either need to be willing to lie to the warranty company, or you will have to convience them that the new thermostate and radiator were not installed to try and fix a pre existing problem. Plus if you try and make a claim within days of the warranty coverage starting, I would think they may find that a little strange.

If there is somthing wrong that the dealer would have to fix under warranty............they may not tell you till the car is out of warranty. If you don't trust your local stealership, find a good indepenent who knows Subarus.

Subaru does say that the spin on transmission filters do not need to be replaced. But it is not a bad idea. The OEM filter is a little spendy compaired to an oil filter. Fuel injector cleaning is not nessasary IMO. But at higher milage I think it is a good idea. Not that the fuel injectors themself need to be cleaned, but more due to the fact that it is cleaning carbon from the intake ports, valves, and pistons. Carbon build up will absorbe fuel, leaning out the fuel air mixture. I short it will affect efficency of your engine. I always recommend replacing differentail and MT fluids every 30k. I have drained some 30k mile diffs that had nasty looking fluid in them. Also depending on how a car is used the front diff fluid on automatics is, I believe, affected more by heat than is the rear diff, due to exhaust and transmission heat.

My parts supplier told me that Brembo is not makeing the 2000 and newer rear rotors anymore, and that they have been searching for a new source. It has been a long time and as far as I know they have not found another source other than "Made In China" rotors that they will not stoop to selling. Don't know what the deal is, but I think were out of luck for good quality aftermarker rear rotors.

Your problem may be a worn transmision quill. Check out this web site. This is a very well made product. I have sold quit a few. http://www.tranquil-usa.com/index.html

I just have to ask. WHY? I would use the EJ25 injectors. Shouldn't matter if they have the potental to flow more fuel, the engine management system should adjust injector puls width accordingly for the reduced mass air flow into the engine.

They have two bolts holding them to the body, they come straight out and should be flat. One bolt going up through the plate, crossmember bushing, into the body. The corners of these plates should not be bent upwards at all.

Your Phase II 2.5L intake should fit on a Phase II 2.2L from a Legacy. I don't see why that wouldn't work. But I do not remember if the Phase II 2.2L's have EGR. I believe they do. A '95-'96 2.2L is out of the question for what you want to do. Won't work.

Did you look at the body mounts for that differentail cross member? I have seen this many times. If the plates are not bent check for any mud or rocks stuck between the cross member and plate. Have seen a rock got stuck it there and do the same thing.

In front of the rear wheels there are mounting plates for the rear diff. crossmember. These plates sometimes get bent to the point that they will touch the cross member. Makes a terrible noise when you let off the gas.

Also keep in mind that brake fluid is water soluble. Meaning that water will wash away brake fluid. I know it rains in your neck of the woods a lot, I lived there for a while. How many times have you had to add fluid, and over what period of time? How many times has the light come on due to low fluid level. How low is the fluid when the light comes on, in relation to the Min and Max level marks. If the brake light is coming on every 600-2500 miles and the fluid level is actually low enough to be the cause of the the light illuminating, then this is not normal brake wear. If it was due to brake wear you would be replacing brake pads more often than changing your oil and filter.