slo5oh

I'm no novice, but I'm no expert either. Why does a subaru auto trans need a cooler? Are there problems with them overheating? I know what a trans cooler does, just wondering in this application.

You make a lot of great points. more air in + more air out = more HP HP/$ spent = value Spark intensifiers have their purpose. In turbo, supercharged, and Nitros situations you can "blow out" the spark when making too much cylinder pressure. Intake swirley do dads.. The science makes sense... but I don't see it. Now if you are talking about a good port job on the intake... well well... there's lots of power to be had. Even SVT (fords special vehicles team) to make the power they wanted had the contour SVT's intake manifold extrude honed. For those that don't know, this is a process that runs a gooey gel through the intake that acts like liquid sandpaper and all but polishes the surfaces smooth. Smooth intake runners make little to no air turbulence allowing for air to pass through faster thus allowing more air into the engine. And the last one the cans of goop that thicken your oil. I used to use the cheapest one I could find when I 17 driving a 78 Honda with 180k? 280? dunno since the odometer only read to the 10s of thousands. It did little for me, but I added less oil weekly. I have a good friend that many people consider the best parts man in northern cali tell me that the silver bottle of "engine restore" will just about stop your oil consumption and restore some power. Having ripped apart and rebuilt, with my own 2 hands, several 302s I totally agree that nothing can compare to new rings and bearings, but lots of people just can't afford that. Even more wouldn't know how to do it themselves, and probably shouldn't, so it will cost lots of $. When he told me about the engine restore, he was putting new rings and bearings into a geo metro for the second time on this over 300k engine. This little geo started smoking bad over 50k earlier and the owner was using the engine restore to keep the smoke at bay until he could afford to have my friend rebuild it.

Like I said, we were 16… or should I say, I was 16, he was still 15 and driving without a license. Luckily for him his father was a cop so he always got a slap on the hand instead of a ticket. I do still run a K&N in both my mustangs. His problem could have been from an old dirty air filter, the sound could be because without the air filter nothing muffles the holly double pumper, who knows. I have a 10" cone style K&N filter stuck on the end of my MAF. When you put a supercharger on a 5.0 you have no choice but to ditch the stock panel filter. That's why I bought my first K&N. Not to mention the supercharged engine was sucking over twice the air of a stock 5.0… so I obviously needed a filter that could flow more air. I honestly had no intention of buying one for my Subaru, but even at Wal-mart it cost me over $20 for new paper filter last year. For $10 more I can get a K&N or other reusable filter, so when this one gets dirty it will be replaced with one of those.

3m makes a sticker remover. That may work.

I have 3 words for you, Red Line Waterwetter

Dude, Fix your head gasket! You are blowing coolant out of your radiator because there is too much pressure in the cooling system from the blown head gasket. The power loss, missing and hesitation are all from the blown head gasket. Replace the gasket before it's too late and you warp your head (if you haven't already)

Higher compression + high timing = need for high octane. I ran a supercharged 5.0 mustang on the street with 87 octane. All I would do is drop my timing down to around 8 or 10 degrees BTC (10 is stock for that car). When I needed the extra power for a track day or a race I would fuel it up with 91 or 92 and raise my timing up to about 16 degrees. I'd have to say the extra timing would add easily 40 to 50 hp espically in the low RPM range. But that's only 10 to 15% of the HP the car was making. If your car will not run without "pinging" on 87 octane then your timing is too high. Every car is different. Every engine is different even when they roll out of the same factory. I've seen stock mustangs that would not allow over 10 degrees BTC, and I've seen ones that would go up to 15 or 16 without pinging. The new subaru motors all seem to be higher compression (over 9.5:1) With compression like this, considerable power gains can be had by running higher octane and more agressive timing. Stock timing seems to be friendly to 87 octane since I have been using the cheapest crud I can find in my 2.5 RS since the day I got it. Never a ping from the engine, nor what felt like silent detonation in my car.

Update. It's monday morning and I drove my soob to work. Next time I'm starting on a Saturday. I got the front of the engine apart so late that I didn't want to spend the extra time cracking down to the oil pump. The instructions I have say you need to drop the water pump to get to it. I replaced the front crankshaft seal and whoever wrote that it comes out easy with a dentist pick is soo right. I unfortunatly can't find my tool similar to that and ended up using a real small hex key, but it worked. The stupid mitchell repair instructions (CDs) are off with the timing marks... when everything is lined up the sprocket "behind" the crank is at 12 o'clock, but the arrow on the crank is at 3 o'clock. The damn drivers side cams are slightly open when lined up... so a warning in the instructions would have been nice.... something like... "don't sneeze near drivers side cams or they will spin like a top". Damn I miss the timing chain on my 5.0. Thanks to all of you for telling me about the "access port" in the bellhousing, but my car does not have one . So I had to pull the starter and put the handle of a big screwdriver in it. There was no way to get the working end of a screwdriver between the teeth and have it hold the engine. Looking back on it, I wish I had taken a million pictures, it seems that's the main thing we are lacking. There is no Haynes or Chiltons... so we are stuck with the "online" manuals. I haven't seen all of them, but I can tell you the Mitchell one has very few pictures. If (crossing my fingers it's not) my oil leak was from the oil pump and not the crank seal I'll probably be back inside it again next weekend and I'll take pictures of everything.

It does kinda make you wonder why there are so many people that don't belive synthetic is better... Everyone tells you "don't use synthetic until you hit 10k". I wondered why. Synthetic oils lube so well that your rings will not "seat". This is the process when breaking in a new engine where the rings form a tight seal to the cyl walls, what happens is the rings rub, metal on metal with slight oil film, on the cyl walls and wear away any imperfections in either the rings or the cyl walls to allow for a nice tight seal. If synthetic oils lube sooo well that ring seating may not happen then they obviously lube way better then std oil. Funny thing about the old "beater" subies. My brother had a mid 80s one that slowly starting sounding like a diesel engine. He had it looked at by a few mechanics that all told him he needed a new engine. My brother the frugal king decided that he'd wait until it blew up then replace the engine. 100k miles later the main mechanic he took his cars to closed up shop. The new mechanic he found simply by listening to him drive up told him his oil pump was making that noise and he could fix it for $x. 2 subaru's later my brother still goes to that mechanic.

nevermind.. got it.

next question.. It's abou 8:30 and I'm losing light quick. How the hell do i compress the tensioner? It's not playing nice.

sorry.. damn I'm having one of those days. THought this was new gen.

sorry.. need to be more detailed... I have a 98 2.5 4 cam engine. The $ucking timing belt is being a bi$ch. On the old belt before I removed it I lined up all the marks on it with the marks on the corresponding cam pulleys. The only one that didn't seem right was the crank, but I think I figured that out.. The mark on the sprocket behind it is straight up, but the arrow on it is pointing to 3 o'clock. My new dilema.... I set the new belt on the drivers side cams and while trying to route the rest of belt the top (intake?) cam spun. After changing my underwear I spun it back the way it went by hand and it seemed not to hit the other valves (or piston). Is there an easier way to put this thing back on?

timing belt and alignment marks do not line up...I had the aligment marks all lined up but, the timing belt marks were all off by about 2 to 3 inches to the right. Now i've rotated the engine around and I have the timing belt marks all lined up, and all the alignment marks line up .. except the crank mark... it's pointing to roughly 3 o'clock. WTF???

old timing belt marks don't line up. When I'm at TDC (at least I'm guessing that's TDC) and all the built in marks line up... the I's are up and the IIs are facing each other, but all the marks on the belt are off to the right. Is this normal? Did I jump a tooth on my belt? what's up?

nevermind... I got it... damn thing just wanted to be wiggled for 20 minutes.

Thanks. Mine does not have that access port. It's all solid alum behind the block. I pulled the starter and got the handle of a screwdriver in to hold her and broke the blancer bolt loose. I can't get the damn balancer off though. I don't need a puller for this do I?

I must be retarted. I can't find anything about the access hole in the bellhousing. I've done sevaral searches. Can anyone tell me what I am looking for? Thanks.

I've seen similar situation end up being the o2 sensors. The up or down steep hill will cause either rich or lean condition and the o2's should "sense" that. A code reader should tell you that you are lean on one or both sides.... I wouldn't take it back to that mechanic since he could not pull the codes that were being sent. Some of the low end OBD2 senors seem to be a paper clip and 5 LEDs wrapped in plastic.... just my $.02

You guys kill me. See air through the filter? haaa! when I was 16 we used to run my friends 350 camaro around town with no air filter, it made more horse power and there was a noticable tone difference to the exhaust. K&N filters do make a difference. An air filter, any air filter "inhibits" air flow. The Idea is to "inhibit" air flow as little as possible. I agree with the "don't count on 5hp" statement though. As for syn vs. petrol oil... I've seen the inside of a 400 hp engine pulled apart that ran normal crap oil... and I've seen the inside of my own motor (400hp also) that would go 10 or 15k on redline between changes. Mine was all nice and clean with a red coating over everything, the bearings looked new. The other was coated in black sludge, the bearings were scratched bad. True synthetic oil is a god send. 990bw, Sorry if you already know this, but you can get Mobile 1 10-30, at wal-mart in a 5 qt. jug for about $20, along with some other temp ranges (not sure what ones). The best fitlers for the buck are the generic wal-mart ones, they are made by purilator and work great, for under $2. When you are there pick up a can of the engine restore. It comes in a silver tube, looks like a thin 1950s oil can. I have a friend that's been the head counter person at a local auto parts store turn me on to this stuff. Put it in with every oil change and it helps recondition your rings and stops blowby. My little 105k engine picked up quite a bit mid RPM tq. It surprised me.

The difference between being in D and either N or P is simly that the drive pin is engaged (when in D) and now you are spinning your torque converter. The trans is not spinnnig until you let off the brakes and the Torque converter which acts similar to a clutch now has less resistance allowing it to make your car roll. Sounds like your dealer's mechanics need to go back to kindergarden mechanic school. If it idles fine, revs fine, and tacks out fine and smooth so long as the car is not in gear then you have a drive train problem. I would call around and price out having your TQ converter replaced. My subie only has 105k right now and the trans (auto) shifts harder then I would like, but then I hear all the autos do that.

#1 read this: http://minimopar.knizefamily.net/oilfilterstudy.html #2 never, never, never use Fram or Penzoil oil filters (penzoil is fram) How much is it now for a quickie oil change? $25 $30? Take a trip down to Wallie world (wal-mart) and get one of their generic oil filters... can't think of the brand, black box, they are made by purilator and are great fitlers for about $1.98... then walk down to the other end of the isle and pick up a 5 quart contaner of mobile 1 10-30 (or thicker or thinner depending on your climate) for about $20.... That's less then you pay for a quickie oil change and you can do it yourself. Check it every 3k and you don't have to change it for 10k (hell, redline originally said you can go 50k on their oil with normal fitler changes at 3k)... or call around and you can find a shop that will do it for you for around $10. You said you are running a turbo. With a turbo it's even more important to run a good full synthetic (red line, mobile1, etc) and a good oil filter. If you don't believe synthetic is that much better check out redline's website. They compare their oil after 15k miles of use against brand new petrol based oil and still protect way better. Synthetic is the $h!t and it's sooo inexpensive now, espically when you realize you don't have to change it at 3k. normal oil change 3k $25 " 6k $25 " 9k $25 " 12k $25 " 15k $25 " 18k $25 " 21k $25 _____ total $175 Synthetic Oil chg 3k $35 (20 for oil, 5 for filter and 10 for some1 to do it) " 13k $35 " 23k $35 ______ total $105 and if you want to anal you can change your filters every 3k if you like... at $2 each you can offset the cost by skipping starbucks one day a month.

I have a good friend that used to say "I've never met someone tougher then my 10 best friends". Call the local police and see if this guy has the right to keep your car. If the police tell you that they don't get involved in situations like this (since the poilce try not to get involved anything) then take 10 good friends with you and walk into his shop (with your spare keys) and take your car back. I think the shoe should be on the other foot, take your car back and let him take you to court for the $ he claims you owe him. Then drive it down to a locksmith and change the keys.

I have a friend with a mid 90s (or was it late 90s) Impalla SS. He paid the dealer around $300 to put new plug wires in it. They said something about the Alt., Pw Steering, and I think A/C needing removed to get access to a couple of the plug wires. What the hell are manufacturers doing now a days? Can you see the engineers sitting back with a doughnut in one hand and a starbucks cup in the other scratching their heads asking "what can we do this year to make more money for the dealers repair shops?" I know, I know.. cars get smaller, and engines get bigger. But damn.. I have a 302 stuffed into a little late 80s mustang. It's only about a foot or 2 longer and probably not any wider then my soob. It has plenty of room under the hood. You want to see tight.. one of my crazed friends stuffed a 460 big block Ford into his mustang.

Thanks. Theotherskip, It's an auto, so I'll do the search for the access hole. Is the O-ring between the block and the oil pump a standard size? Or is it a dealer only part? I've got a good friend that works the counter at the best car parts store (probably in nor cal) around. So long as it's not a special order part I can return anything I don't use. One of the posts I read in here said to retighten the oil pump, and to be extra careful only taking out one bolt at a time. What was that about? Are 70 springs going to shoot out if i pull the oil pump completely? Damn I wish I had a repair manual or detailed cut away view of this setup. envy_petter, Thank you. You're right. I'm at 106k and change right now. I've always had the "don't fix it until it's broke" motto, but not when it comes to parts that will instantly destroy my engine when they fail. I had girlfriend have that happen to her Honda. Luckily I have a good friend that dropped one of those 30k engines out of Japan in for her and I think he charged her like $200 or $300 over the cost of the engine, probably saved her $800 to $1000. I've already ordered my timing belt. I'd probably have a shop do it, but I don't have the $$. I enjoy working on my cars when it comes to enhancements. New heads, new intake, new cam, etc. But when it's fixing broken stuff... slo5oh