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Headgaskets should be here tomorrow. Then I can get to final assembly and then hurry up and wait for the weekend after Easter to install it.

There's a reason that VWs, luxury cars, and especially Subarus get notoriety for being "unreliable" They're cars that are primarily owned by drivers; not mechanics. People don't tend to pay any attention to a car until an idiot light comes up, it smokes, or doesn't run. So when you have a car that has some quirks that can lead to failure, most people don't notice until that failure happens. Whereas most of us would pull over and shut the car off at first sign of a temperature rise, they'll drive until the car shuts off from melting parts. Just my $.02. I have remnants of two phase I 2.5s that were ran dry on oil, and I just bought a legacy that disintegrated a timing idler and collided valves and pistons.

Mine was wheel bearings. Repetitive thump/clunk on accel from 0-15mph, noise frequency increased with speed. Sound about right?

Mikevan10, I've replaced 2 clutches recently due to failed TO bearings and neither of them had clips on when I pulled the engine. Whether the lack of clips led to failure of the TO, or failure of the TO led to the clips falling off isn't certain, but I'd bet on the former.

There's a difference between "can't" and determined it to be unnecessary since the block was probably done within 500 miles of the engine going. Yes, all of the signs pointed to a bonehead rebuild and subsequent failure of the engine. Properly reassembling/resealing the oil pump was a procedure the PO should have followed a little closer. Anyways! All ready to get assembled when my parts start coming in the next week or so. These engines are surprisingly simple to build from scratch. Then again, the last time I split cases, I was 17 and rebuilding a VW 1600.

Definitely a capable machine. From driving mine in stock trim vs an L in stock trim I could tell that the suspension is stiffer, larger tires, and aesthetic differences; hood, 2 tone paint, bumper cover, roof racks, etc. However all GC/GM/GF cars use pretty much the same parts, and as such a lot of the newer (GD) parts also swap over. I have STI springs from a 2004 installed, and am in the process of building a "frankenmotor" from about 4 different engines; using the block from a 98 Legacy 2.5 Short story: Better starting platform than a Brighton or L IMO. Not quite an RS.

The machinist didn't want to screw with decking the block, so the HG is the only point I'll be shaving any depth. I almost have the block built, just waiting on enough time to commit to it. Not taking other builds as gospel, but the one I'm following closest had his block shaved 010 and ran 020 under HGs, so I doubt I'll have an issue.

Looking forward to assembling this tomorrow.

Physically possible? Yes But I wouldn't do it. Too tight a fit.

GD sometimes forgets that not everyone is capable of doing their own major engine work/pulling their engine. I guess the heads could be pulled in car, but yick. If it's a POS old battlewagon, then just throw a new belt at it and drive it until it blows up. But if you plan on getting a lot more life out of it, pulls the heads and check the valves. Do a gasket and timing set from eBay while you're in there (they work fine if installed correctly) and have the peace of mind of knowing that the engine is less likely to blow up from sucking a valve.

97 IS interference, sorry to say. Sounds like some chewed up valves are causing the head to bind up.

Barely $10 more than OEM and I'm getting them .010 thinner than OEM for that extra little bump in CR.

I refer you to the carnage thread: http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=131215 Basically I thought I was going to get 2 rebuildable engines, turns out I got 1 usable block out of the whole deal (aside from the parts I'm going to sell) However, some light at the end of that tunnel. I took my carnage rods and cranks to my usual machine shop to see if anything was salvagable. He took the parts in on trade towards a reground crank and set of rods. With all the bearings and piston rings, I spent $270 and will have a virtually new rotating assembly. So the build is back on the road. My (hopefully) good block is currently being hot tanked and honed, and I should be assembling my "new" shortblock this weekend.

Six star and Cometic are both good aftermarket brands, and not much more than OEM. I have seen a few more complaints about Cometic on the STi side of things, but a lot of that has to do with installation/application error. A stock application HG with standard head bolts will fail at high boost; no matter the brand.

I would try this guy first (they're not really bent like that, it's flexible). Drop it down the filler and see if it ends up where the tubing did. Get a good one at sears or something, I had a snapon one that would draw blood it had such a good grip. I'd strongly advise against driving around in hopes it will mash up. That's just asking for trouble.

One set of heads/cams had some scarring. The other looks like it was a quick painful death from the sump getting punctured, and the heads are pristine.

Yeah, I may have found a good one from someone on here. I'll be taking both cranks, the bad case, and all the rods down to the machine shop. May be welding up some cool garage art out of all the destroyed goods.

Well this one is thrashed too. Between the 2 though, I should have a good engine after I find out if either crank can be saved and/or buy a good crank. Anyone have a good 2.5 crank? The second engine completely lost the #3 rod bearing and beat the hell out of the case. Probably salvageable, but the first case was nearly perfect. Going to definitely be a hodge podge like everything else, lol.

This is one of 2 EJ25D core engines I got on CL for $150. I'm fighting the other one hard trying to get it disassembled. Don't know any history on either engine, but this one was the more crunchy/binding of the 2.

Rod bearings were disintegrated. Wondering if the crank/rods are even salvageable at this point? I'm going to split my other block soon, but it felt just as crunchy NOT HAPPY.

Pretty straight forward. The gaskets sit in a nice deep groove so you shouldn't have any issues with it trying to unseat. Only pain is the tight fit of getting a tool on the bolts. Just make sure you have a fine tooth 10mm ratcheting wrench. Makes the job 100x easier.

I'll probably be buying one next year. Seems like a perfect fit for me. Plus then I can drop something nasty under the hood of the OBS.

On a slightly related note... are the cams for sale?

This is a hydro/flat assembly. Maybe I need a better lit picture from him.

The rollers are easily visible on the exhaust rockers.