GeneralDisorder

Use a bottle jack and a small bit of wood to jack the engine free of the cradle - do this on the transmission bell-housing right behind the engine. Clean up all the surfaces and don't use a gasket - just use Ultra Grey RTV or Loctite 518/Permatex Anaerobic. Cork blows..... GD

It wouldn't be a significant savings over buying a new one I'm afraid. They are getting pretty cheap anymore. You can find brand new one's online for $199. Then you just have to buy the adaptor plate ($35) and the air filter ($15). I couldn't buy one, rebuild it, and sell it to you at any kind of worthwhile profit. I would love to do it for you just to be a nice guy - but I am far too busy right now to look for one, buy it, and rebuild it. I would have to charge more than a new one and it still wouldn't be new. GD

Oil pressure has to drop to between 2 to 4 psi to make that light stay on. It *should* be up around 20 when hot and should easily be around 40 when cold with thick oil... at idle. I'm afraid it's not long for this world if you are getting a consistent oil pressure light like that. Even if you replace the oil pump - I would give it about 5,000 to 10,000 more miles before a rod comes out the block. I really don't beleive that limping it along will work and the cost in time, labor, and parts to do so will not justify how long it will last. I've been through this exact scenario with an EA81 a few years back. Oil pressure idiot light was flickering at idle. I resealed the pump and the light went out . About 5,000 miles later a rod came out the block . GD

I have one in the garage right now with 137k on it about to drop into a Forester. I'll take a look and maybe a picture. Definitely a '95 - OBD-II and dual port heads..... GD

EJ223 is what I meant to say - sorry for the typo. All phase-II engines are RR and SLA. The tendancy with all the phase-II engines is for the valves to get tighter not looser.... so not sure what your clatter is. Could be piston slap. GD

We need a picture of this engine. Hard to say if you have an EA81T or an EA82T in there by your descriptions.... GD

Time for a new oil pump. It's a timing belt job. But.... with oil pressure that low and the knocking.... your bottom end is likely fried. I would just replace the engine. Not that hard and pretty cheap. GD

Sure it's possible. It's all about how much money you have an who you know. It's not going to be cheap. Probably not going to get something like that done for less than $1000 for a one-off.... much more likely that if anyone you find that's capable of doing it is willing to do it they are going to want a minimum of $10,000 for an initial order of 10 or more peices. GD

Sure. I run my own Subaru shop. I could do the whole job or give you pointers on it, or whatever assistance you need, etc. It's what I do every day . I have reasonable hourly rates. Probably get it installed and running for about $100. I'm working with a fellow board member who has access to water jet manufacturing on a new line of better fitting manifold adaptors for the Weber's to the EA81 and EA82. GD

Again - best answer I can give you is: I could easily do it in three hours. YMMV. :-p I don't know what you can or cannot do. All I can tell you is that I can install one in three hours. But I've done so many I've lost count. I can rebuild one almost as easily as I can field strip an M16.... which I can strip and reassemble in 40 seconds in the dark. GD

Then you can't ever work on it. So you won't have a car for long. GD

Never an easy sort of question to answer - actually it's impossible to answer in any meaningful way because it's too nebulous and lacking in background or focus....... Best I can give you.... Not hard for me. YMMV. :-p GD

Yep that's a good example. Don't pay more than $100. Maybe a bit more for shipping. I buy these from locals all the time. I don't EVER pay more than $100 for a rebuilder. I don't care how good it looks or what they think it's worth. That's my top price and I'll just find another motivated seller if I don't get it for $100 or less. I do give some extra consideration to good condition DGV-5A's with the simplified manual choke system as those are harder to find and fit the EA82's with power steering much easier. GD

Save all the rear end parts that are good when you dissasemble it - those are all spares for your Brat. The tank is smaller on Hatchbacks though and is particular to that body. Everything else is good. Especially save the torsion bar assembly in case you ever need one. Sometimes they fail due to rust on your side of the country. GD

Sure. If it was cleaned up and made to not smell of gas, etc you could just plug all the ports, wrap the sharp edges, and slap a label on it. I got a large exhaust section (5' long and oddly shaped) from Fed-Ex that way just a few weeks ago (and they didn't even pad the sharp bits ). They don't even neccesarily care if you put it in a box. That's how they ship tires too. Slap a label on them and throw it on the truck . But yeah - a box, some packing (newspaper works well) and some duct tape over the holes so it doesn't leak anything in transit... etc. GD

32/36 DGV, DGEV, DGAV, or DGV-5A. I average $175 to $225 when I buy/rebuild/install Weber's. I've done about 20 or 30 of them over the years. Still own two myself. GD

Yeah I'm only interested in the tank itself. It could be shipped reasonable in a large box. They are only about 10" thick. You can snap off the bolts that hold it to the body - they aren't important to the integrity of the tank. Sending unit I can deal with. I can have the tank epoxy lined and such. There's a drain bolt on the bottom of the tank. If you can get that out and see what, if anything will drain out..... if it's solid and not leaking I may be interested in it..... course with all the rust you have there and how long it sat... may be junk. GD

Weber is THE way to go. Pick up a used one from craigslist or ebay for about $100 - no more. Most important thing to check for is LITTLE TO NO SHAFT PLAY!! Rebuild kit is $35, Adaptor plate and air filter is $50. Maybe a couple of jets at $5 each. Done and done. GD

Is it 4WD? If so how's the gas tank and what would you want for it? GD

Piston slap is benign and being 1 quart low wouldn't cause it.... Many Subaru engines develop this eventually when the coating wears off the piston skirts. Rebuilding it will not even solve the problem. You will have to have the skirts coated/knurled or replace the pistons which is prohibitively expensive. Just live with it - it's not harmful. GD

I've done HG's on as new as '06 for external leaking. Before 100k. GD

I did that the first time I did a 2.5 to 2.2 swap. Common mistake. We have all done it once. I do the flex-plate first after getting the engine seated in the x-member. Always. The one time I did that it did not hurt the transmission. I was able to swap to the 2.5 flex-plate and everything was fine. The automatics are great transmissions. They don't have many of the problems the MT's have. And the flex-plate bolts are not that hard to deal with once you have the process down. What I don't like is the lower tranny cooler line. That's a pain in the rump roast. GD

Phase-II started in 99 with the EJ223 in the base legacy and outback sport, and the EJ253 in the Forester and 2.5RS. The legacy Outback, and legacy GT retained the phase-I EJ25D till '00. GD

The lift kit is not at all compatible. EA81 is 74 HP, EA82 (carb) is 85 HP. GD

'99 is a phase-II engine and is competely incompatible. The heads on the phase-II are basically EJ251 heads. GD