GeneralDisorder

Engine replacement is minimum $10,000 Find a competent COBB Pro-Tuner in your area and get it properly dyno tuned. This is absolutely NOT something you should be doing on your own or you WILL be buying a new engine AND paying someone to tune it so it doesn't happen again. Subaru's have ridiculous timing curves that don't match what most other engines run. They have the short block design of an F1 race engine, and the heads and manifold of a tractor. Just don't is my suggestion. I own a Subaru performance shop and I employ a full time Subaru tuner (who has the 3rd COBB pro license ever issued back in 2003). GD

I've never seen that on a Subaru. And the backing plate screws being loose was exclusively a 90's thing from what I recall. Haven't seen that in a lot of years. I've encountered a couple "back yard rebuilds" where the oil pressure light flickered at idle with 30 weight. Main bearing clearances would be my guess. The last one I tested with my Pico scope and pressure transducer was running about 4-6 psi. We put in 20w50 and that came up to about 14 psi and the customer wanted to send it so we dyno tuned it and AFAIK it's still running but I'm not 100% - I haven't seen it for about a year. GD

I would recommend two things: 1. Check the oil pressure at the port used by the idiot light with a mechanical gauge. Make sure you have the engine fully up to temp. The oil pressure will keep dropping for likely around 20 minutes as the engine oil reaches full temp and stabilizes. 2. Assuming this comes back with a hot idle pressure reading of under 10 psi...... cut the oil filter and inspect. I have not seen any significant failure rate with the idiot light switches - I've seen a couple leak but that's it. They are a rock solid part and I have especially not seen one react exactly the way you would expect it to react under a low oil pressure condition without that condition actually being reality. Further I have never seen a situation on any engine where replacing the oil pump fixed the low oil pressure condition. And applying science and logic to how pumps work makes it pretty obvious why that is the case. The pump isn't the source of the "pressure" that the switch is reading. Bearing clearance is the source of the pressure - or rather the lack of excessive bearing clearance. I've been doing this a LONG time. Back when my EA81 in my off-road lifted wagon had the flickering oil idiot light at idle..... I was about 20 years old (man - has it been 22 years? crap) and didn't recognize the symptoms. I resealed the oil pump and that indeed brough the pressure up just enough to kill the light. About 2,000 miles later it threw a rod on the freeway. IMHO - you have about a 1% chance it's something to do with the idiot light switch, and about a 99% chance that engine is going away internally. GD

#1 sounds like cylinder pressure induced ignition failure. Plugs, wires, coil, etc. #2 ....... hard to say. Might be a dropped valve guide, etc. Compression test both of these engines to get a picture of mechanical health. GD

Any 2008+ STI will have the 11mm pump. We use them exclusively on all engine builds. That said - the horse has left the barn so-to-speak. All of the pumps are going to produce about 90 psi on cold start. An EJ engine with good clearances will be about 20 to 25 psi at hot idle. The idiot light comes on at a ridiculously low 4-6 psi. This is a common misconception - oil pumps produce FLOW and the size of the pump dictates VOLUME. PRESSURE is a function of resistance to flow. What you have is a lack of pressure and thus a lack of resistance to flow. In every case I have ever seen this is due to significant wear in the main and rod bearings of the engine. The rod bearings we all know about. The mains get "loose" over time - especially the #2, #3, and #4 mains due to crankshaft deflection and compression of the cast aluminum block. Replacing the pump will not likely do much good for long. You can try. I would also switch to 20w50 on this engine to increase the idle oil pressure. I have seen borderline engines bump up 10-15 psi from thicker oil. Keep it cool and be gentle with it. It may last a few more seasons. GD

Just get a second engine, put a Weber on it, and swap them when you need to smog it. Only takes a few hours. GD

84 HP at the crank on a perfect engine. About 65 of that make it to the wheels (yes I have had them on my Dynojet). Vacuum secondary carb is lazy on throttle response. A 2010 WRX has the VF52 - factory tune is about 265 HP and about 220 of that makes it to the ground. More than 3 times the power. With added weight the WRX is ROUGHLY 3 times as fast. So a speed that take the Brat about 20 seconds to achieve will likely be done in about 7 seconds in the WRX. Count to 20.... one, one thousand, two, one thousand, three, one thousand...... yeah you starting to get the idea? Yes the Brat will feel unbearably slow. And frankly the Hitachi carb is a part of that with it's horrible throttle response. A 32/36 Weber at least gets you some torque down low and can take advantage of that long runner intake. GD

Cut open the oil filter and have a look. GD

Carb throttle shaft bushings are shot. There's no fix but to replace the carb with one that has no or less play or upgrade it. GD

Additives are snake oil. Won't do anything useful but lighten your wallet. GD

That is normal casting appearance. They all look like that even brand new. GD

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There's a tiny round nylon donut that snaps to the bottom of the pivot on the 4MT. That's certainly turned to powder. IDK if you can still buy them from Subaru or not. Might be able to 3D print one..... The entire 4MT linkage was terrible and the design went away with the 5MT and besides the extra gear, lighter weight, greater strength, and lower low range of the 5MT, the significantly improved linkage is probably 50% of why I always did the swap. Just did one for a customer last week. He tracked down all the parts and brought me everything including the car. Jerry still makes the cross-member kits. We had all the usual 40 year old vehicle issues. I don't know what he was into the parts for on his end but it was around $2k for us to perform the swap for him. We did EVERYTHING including transferring the timing marks to the EA82 flywheel and all the wiring to make it work like stock. GD

The usual scumbag Chinese aluminum radiators from ebay typically have a lot of fitment issues. Good luck. The 96 Legacy GT and some of the Outback's from the generation had copper/brass radiators. I would have looked for one of those. GD

Replace the radiator. It's garbage. Welcome to modern cars. Radiators last 8-10 years max. GD

Negative. Brat's are gen 1 till 1982. GD

That might work on an old diesel that has some serious mass to it and no real electrical like a D8 Cat... Don't do this on anything modern. GD

Interference is a non issue. Put this out of your mind. You need forged pistons (due to ring lang failure), and a Killer-B pickup tube, and a silicone turbo inlet. Also redirecting the turbo oil feed from the head to the engine block is an excellent idea. Beyond that there are many other applications so be carful.. GD

Subaru sells 120V AC battery blankets. This as well as a block heater. Plug all that in when it's parked. GD

The H6's tend to blow HG's somewhere between 175k and 225k. At which point you just throw the engine away and get a JDM replacement - they are relatively inexpensive compared to replacing the HG's. Personally they are an avoid for me and anyone that asks my recommendation. Subaru already has a hard-on for discontinuing parts to make room in their warehouses and doubly so for anything they made relatively low numbers of (try to get a part for a Justy or an SVX). Stick with the basics (4 cylinder, non turbo) and you will be much better served for parts on cars that are approaching two decades old. Some of the H6 cars had VDC transmissions - which are exceptionally hard to find replacements for. You'll run into issues finding quality replacements for electrical stuff.... it's not worth the hassle to have a few more HP on a 20 year old station wagon IMO. And this situation will only get worse - going into ownership of one now is foolish in my opinion. Especially one that may have questionable HG's already. I wouldn't waste my time. GD

It's a job for sure. My experienced tech's can do one in about 6 hours give or take. Lots of plastic and hidden fasteners. There's not really a good way to describe how to do it - you just have to start taking it apart. You will have to discharge and recharge the AC - that is not optional to remove the HVAC box. I would recommend a pressure test of the system first. Test at 20 psi or so to push coolant out of any pinhole leaks or tiny cracks faster than it would at operating pressure. GD

What year and model are we working on here? What codes came back? Transmission codes or converter codes? GD

If it flashed 16 times on startup it indicates the transmission control unit has stored a fault code. CEL will be triggered with a P0700 (transmission CEL request). Probably unrelated to the work but they likely did welding on the vehicle and depending on where they attached their ground it could cause issues. If this is an older car then it's likely there may be issues with one or more of the transmission solenoids. If welding current happened to pass though a solenoid coil it could easily burn it out. New OEM cat's don't smell after startup. That's cheap cat that the factory didn't pre-heat to cure the epoxy material that holds the matrix into the pipe. Having the vehicle do this curing is questionable since the added vibration and exhaust pressure of the engine running without the matrix fixed in position and the epoxy fully cured can be problematic. High quality cats are heated after manufacture to cure them and drive off all the volatiles you are smelling. We regularly install factory Subaru converters and also COBB catted high-flow downpipe's and we haven't had a single complaint or experience with any "smells" GD

Them's Poverty Caps kid. They aren't going to be available from Subaru. Heck I don't recall ever seeing a set in-person in the 25 years I've been working on Subaru's. Those are JDM right hand drive cars and it's entirely possible we never got that style of Poverty Cap here in the US. I would say LIKELY not or I would have encountered them at some time when those cars were still on the road and things like Poverty Caps were something I held onto - I sent all that kind of plastic crap to the landfill many moons ago to make room for Chevy parts in my shed. LoL. GD

Earlier cars have slow, poorly programmed TCU's and tend to have harsh AWD engagement. The transfer drums being grooved certainly doesn't help any. Replaced the drums on a Subaru reman with about 70-80k on it a few months back and now the transmission has developed another fatal problem - serious binding in reverse - and not the binding you associate with turning - this thing feels like it's got it's parking brake on in reverse even trying to backup straight. Not a fan of Subaru's transmission re manufacturing at the moment. This transmission was the last of 5 installed by the dealer after the first 4 they put in didn't work at all. It's making a lot of metal from the front diff, the transfer drums were grooved and obviously not addressed in the rebuild and now it's failing and going to get replaced with a low mileage used trans. Usually what we see is the rear diff bushings take a beating over this harsh engagement and of course due to age and being rubber..... Last one we did on an early 00's Outback the rear cradle was so rusty we just welded steel flat plate to the back of the bushing pockets and bolted the diff up solid to it. Report from the customer was that the noise is gone and he's happy with it that way. GD