GeneralDisorder

You may as well remove the radiator - you get a lot more room to work and you will lose the coolant anyway when you pull the water pump. It's going to give you another 4" or so to work with. Which is very valuable. GD

You can use it still - just swap over the stuff from the intake of the SUS and drill/tap the EGR port into the head - or run a tube down to the exhaust and weld a JIC fitting to the header. GD

It does matter as the stuff may not mix well and/or you can cause seal failures if the correct fluid for that type of seal is not used. GD

NO! The SOHC EJ222 (that's right - three 2's) will not work with the older belt. The cam sprockets are farther away from the crank and it requires a different belt. You MUST buy a kit for a '99 to '01 EJ22. I beleive it's basically the same kit as the 251/253 though..... I beleive you can use the older tensioner if you swap the bracket..... but you will have to mix/match a kit to make that work. GD

Sounds like a definite timing belt tensioner. Fix it quick or stop driving it before the belt breaks and you crash the valves. The knocking you are hearing is the tensioner slapping against it's stop as the belt has added friction on it from one of the idlers dieing...... To manually disable the alarm - turn the key on and off rapidly 5 or 6 times.... should stop it. GD

If it's from a '91 as he says he will not have that problem. Your's may have already been swapped over to the later ('95+?) larger flange pattern. At the worst all he has to do is swap the pinion shaft flange from his old diff. It will bolt right on. No drilling is involved. GD

Valve adjustment is required every 105k on the 25D. Compression test will show if an exhaust valve is burned. GD

That's a bad investment. $2k is WAY too high. More like $1k. I would buy it for 1k, do a 2.2 swap and sell it for $5k (and I would get it). GD

+1 - that's a real possibility. GD

There is nothing inside the ECU to make a "click" sound. It could still be the ECU but failures in that respect are very uncommon. I would lean toward the ignition relay or the fuel-pump relay..... one of them may have a weak driver coil or something. I would get my hand up there on the relay's and figure out which one is clicking.... try a replacement used one. If that doesn't cure it then the ECU could be at fault for not keeping the relay pulled in. Might be a grounding issue also as the relays are ground controlled by the ECU.... GD

How many miles and have the valves ever been adjusted? How about plugs? Sounds like gapped-out plugs to me..... The shaking over 20 mph could be a bad wheel balance.... bad axle.... etc. Hard to say - you seem to have symptoms of multiple problems in there. GD

No - that's not a good price for a VLSD. They are more or less worthless for your application.... and that's top dollar for one. They typically go for around $150 in that ratio. It will be the same as an open diff for you which you can get for $50. They are pretty much worthless for any application that's not on tarmac. They depend on heat/friction to engage and that will never occur at slow speeds. What you want is a clutch type LSD or a welded diff. And you don't need a new diff to replace the rear cover where the fill plug is located. Hell a pipe nipple extractor will take it out and then you can just replace the plug. You are going after a fly with a tank...... If you don't want to go welded the best thing you can do is swap to rear discs and use 200SX calipers - then you can have parking brakes on each rear wheel. When one spins in the air just lock it down with the parking brake handle. GD

Agreed. That's a good check and should always be performed anyway along with plasti-gauge. Yes - or just take the crank to a machine shop and have it ground. 3 tenths will be corrected by the undersizing process. GD

It should be clarified that this post is dealing with the EJ25D only. EJ251/253 is a different world and the 22 swap doesn't typically apply. I agree to a point. I will tell someone to repair their 2.5 if that's warranted. There was a recent thread from a member with 99k on an Outback and my advice was to replace the head gaskets. But it's often a big gamble. I have done plenty of HG's on 2.5's and haven't had a single issue with one yet. But depending on mileage and treatment it's OFTEN more economical to put in a used 2.2. The basic problem we are dealing with here is bottom-end failure due to lack of changing the headgaskets at the first signs of leakage. The 25D also has a propensity for burning large amounts of oil and thus running dry and throwing a rod that way.... when rebuilt and properly maintained they are a great engine.... As for availibility - I can often buy low mileage (150k or less) used EJ22's in my area for under $500. Availibility really depends on where you are located. ALSO - people don't even talk about JDM EJ20's - those have about 150 HP and can be swapped into the EJ22/EJ25D cars with about the same amount of work and can be had cheap from the importers. Another point to consider - the EJ22 has inexpensive or no required valve adjustment, timing belt kits are about $100 less..... etc. It's a cheaper engine to run, replace, and maintain. With the price of gas going nuts it's a no brainer which one I would choose. And power loss/mileage can be mitigated to some extent just by dropping a couple tire sizes on the Outback for street duty. I have 2.2'd a Legacy GT and the power loss wasn't a problem at all - in fact it was surprisingly peppy. The problem is that most of these swaps occur on taller geared Outbacks with tall tires. Thus the power loss.... GD

Quite frankly - .0003" is such a small amount that I would be questioning what methods you are using to check the straightness of the shaft. How is it being done? That could easily be testing error...... GD

No competition. The EJ22 is a far superior engine. You won't regret that choice. GD

YES! Put the 2.2 in. More power and WAY superior reliability. The RX is the perfect platform for it actually. You would be way ahead of the game by installing the 2.2. Do some searches for EA82T and you will understand. The majority of members here will not own one. We consider it the low-point in Subaru's engine line up. GD

Loctite 518, or Permatex Anearobic. Don't waste your time trying to source the Three-Bond. It's nothing special. It's basically an RTV product. Most of us that know and do this all the time have moved to the anearobic flange sealant products as they are superior and have better curing properties/shelf life and are easier to work with and clean off durring dissasembly. I used to work for a susidiary of Kobe steel and we used a lot of Three-Bond on various stuff. There are cases where certain formulations of Three-Bond are better because they will not clog tiny oil passages in gear train lubricators, etc as we noted can happen with ultra-gret/ultra black/Loctite RTV..... but on the whole the 518 type products do this better as they do not cure in the presence of oxygen so will not clog things either. GD

Drain/fill the ATF with new stuff - do this 3 to 4 times driving about 10 miles in-between each. Should take about 1 gallon each time. DO NOT USE ADDITIVES. Plain ATF is what it takes. GD

Yep - time to rebuild or replace the rack. GD

Seems like a poor deal. I have a (very good) machine shop that rebuilds EJ25D long-blocks all the time (they have one in stock for core exchange at all times) for $1300 out the door. Several of the local Subaru shops use them as well as myself. GD

$2500 is pretty high considering age, mileage, apparent condtion, and being saddled with the EA82T. Looks like a $500 unit to me - is there $2000 worth of engine in the rebuild? Who did the rebuild.... why.... and how far did they take it? That engine is pretty picky about who works on it and what they know. Be very careful. GD

That's not enough to worry about. Use it. You are very much overthinking your build. GD