GeneralDisorder

That's how every machine shop does it. They always reuse my original shims - that saves me time and money as well. GD

Where are you getting your heads? Driver's side is $324 (reman from Subaru) if you return the core. Passenger side is $464!!! I get them rebuilt for $475 for *both* heads. That's cleaned, surfaced, all new valves, seats, guides, stem seals AND the clearances already set using the existing shims. If you buy reman heads from Subaru you won't get the bucket/shim's and you will have to buy all of them and setup the clearances yourself. By the time my shop is done - they *are* reman heads. BTW - "new" heads from Subaru aren't available for the 25D.... pretty sure they sold out of them long ago. It's reman or nothing. GD

If it's that tight - probably going to be replacing valves, seats, and guides. The machine shop can open up the clearance by grinding the stem but if it's that far into the head already - chances are they won't be able to grind the valves and seats any more due to wear. Guides like to wear out on those heads also. It's typically about $450 to $500 to have a set of those heads gone through - they are troublesome from a labor standpoint and like to wear out faster than the SOHC heads. Too bad since they flow very well - just one more of the many issues with the EJ25D. Sort of a bad apple from a longevity perspective. The bottom ends aren't great either so it often happens that you don't get that second 150k from your rebuilt head expenditure..... GD

I'm just saying that part of owning an older car like your hatch is going to involve some checking of connections and generally looking over stuff, tightening things, and noticing where corrosion is taking it's toll, etc. Even still - it's cheaper than a car payment and gets good mileage - your blessings are many. Even a couple thousand is cheap for 6 years of ownership. It's just catching up to you is all. GD

Why not promote it? It's a great deal for a great product. You pay like $40 for a 72 hour pass - you can download all you like in PDF form and keep it. That's cheaper than buying the paper format FSM's and you can just print them and keep them in a 3 ring binder - then when the pages are greasy and oily and messed up - you just print another one! This is 100% a positive thing for us. FSM's in paper form cost hundreds of dollars. How is $37.99 for all-you-can-eat a bad deal? GD

It's an operator error type of thing I'm sorry to say - If that connection was inspected, tight, and proper - chances are it would never have burnt up. That's simple lack of attention to detail. I have something like $750 into my '83 GL hatch and that's over the last 4 or 5 years. It has like 250k on it. I have done lots of little stuff - battery terminals, Maxima alternator upgrade, rebuilt used Weber, new oil pump and water pump, belt, valve adjustment and valve cover gasekts, clutch cable, new EMPI axles, rear disc brakes and new front pads/rotors, new ($37) stereo and speakers, used wheels/tires from u-pull-it.... etc. All that stuff was done pretty early on when I got the car (had been sitting for several years and neglected). Now it doesn't give me any trouble. Drive it all the time. It just seems like it's the quality of the work and the attention to detail that's giving you problems. Slow down and take your time - do some research. Do the job right the first time. These are very reliable cars but the mechanic has a lot to do with maintaining ANY older car being used in a daily-driver fashion. Trust me - you won't be any better off with another brand. The car is not the problem - don't blame it or your tools. GD

Pretty high with that engine. They can't inspect the main and rod bearings without complete dissasembly. They can speculate, do oil analysis for metal, etc..... but there's no good reliable way to check them. That's a problem that really needs to be addressed by someone with a PCM scanner that can drive it and look at the sensor data stream when it's "acting up". If there is no check engine light that accompany's this symptom then it's down to inspecting data streams and trying to respond accordingly. Reccomending a fuel injection service (which almost always accomplishes nothing) is foolish without doing the proper tests to narrow the scope of the search. GD

You can pay a subscription fee to Subaru and get access to their digital service information. This is cheaper than buying the manuals, you can print stuff off if you really want, etc. This system is much better - Subaru can control the content and update the information as needed, there is no printing mistakes, no cost involved in printing, shipping, or warehousing these documents. It's a better system all around. GD

Yeah - had to do some searching - the one listed in the Exedy catalog is nowhere to be found except in the full kits. Atsugi is probably the same as Exedy in reality - divisions of the same company I think. That one should be correct though. It says it's correct for an '89 RX which would definately be the EA82 225mm disc. Exedy lists the same kit for turbo and non so there's no difference in them. Plus I happen to know that only the the EA82 225mm disc has that weird squarish damper pack. GD

I used to use that stuff in the Army - the aerosol cans are real conveient. I thought it was just RTV though? My favorite though is the loctite 518/Permatex anaerobic gasket maker. LOVE that stuff. I used it on the last EA82 cam carrier I installed and it worked great. The great thing about the 518 is that it doesn't dry in air - so the caulking gun sized tube that I use never even has a cap on it. Just hangs on the wall. LOL. GD

The starter shouldn't be an issue for the install - having the socket on the crank so you can rotate it a bit does usually help though with input shaft alignment (assuming it's a manual right?). Put a jack under the transmission so the engine mounts will clear the x-member as you slide them together. Tilt the engine backwards at the same angle as the tranny. Usually they slide right in. Sometimes with the EA's you will have trouble with the tranny input shaft lineing up with the clutch disc and pilot. On EA's I leave the pressure plate just loose enough that the disc can slide around with just a little friction. Then once it's mated you can tighten the PP bolts through the starter hole. GD

You have a poor connection at the junction where the melting and heat damage is located. Poor connection = resistance. Resistance = heat. Dead-head that wire, crimp on a new ring terminal, and insure you have a good tight connection with the alternator. You might need a new alternator if the heat damaged anything inside it. GD

*** edited: No need to live up to your old title Rick... the Brat was purchased with the carb already installed. - Mick I thought he got this thing from grandpa? Wasn't that the story? Ah hell - I can't keep track. :-p GD

Replacing the oil pump is a "too little, too late" kinda thing.... if it's ran out of so much oil that it will no longer start and run - the horse has left the barn kid. Replacing the oil pump will only result in a lighter wallet and a non-running (completely hosed) engine that has a shiny new part on it. Your PCV setup is wrong. Do a search for the proper way to hook it up and fix it. You may have blown the front main seal right out of the engine with too much crankcase pressure - partially or completely due to your lack of a proper PCV system. Verify fuel and spark. Then verify valve timing. Till you do those three things we cannot help you any further. As to what damage could have been done - if you ran it out of oil..... you'll be looking for a new engine. You should drain what oil remains in the engine and check for metal. GD

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Atsugi-Clutch-Disc-_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQhashZitem5ade4e7e69QQitemZ390276742761QQptZMotorsQ5fCarQ5fTruckQ5fPartsQ5fAccessories GD

That was my impression as well - but it could partially be the the 2.5 torque converter and gearing on the GT. I swapped in a great 2.2 in place of a 2.5 that was destroyed inside..... I was pleasantly surprised with the power actually. It likely has different timing characteristics and the obvious higher redline, etc. GD

Yep - exactly the same symptoms. Idle changes slightly and the shifting gets werid when the light is on - shifts perfect when it's off. It will be a few more days before I get the car back and have a chance to check this - things went south on a Plymouth timing belt job that it's a loaner for. Did the timing belt, etc - then when replacing the thermostat we found large amounts of oil in the coolant - upon further inspection the head gasket is definately blown..... so now I'm waiting on parts to repair that and the '96 GT is still on loan. :-\ GD

Dude! I never said it was out of line - I asked you to tell the board how you check it for accuracy and if you would trust it for a paying job rather than your own personal head gaskets. I'm allowed to do as I please also - which includes challenging people's opinions and asking they explain how they do stuff. You are right that it's better than nothing. But if I were going to do this I would try for a beam-style wrench rather than a dial-indicator wrench as they are easily calibrated (bend the needle arm till it zero's ). I'm just saying that's a risk I'm not willing to take. My former employer bought their own (Snap-On is all they would buy) torque wrenches for the shop to use. As I noted though - the cost of our jobs could not be trusted to a sub-standard insturment. Cool - well at least you check the accuracy. All I was saying is that statements to the effect of "It's very accurate" and "I trust it" are pretty vague and useless without some supporting information. The "how" and the "why" were missing. GD

The '96 I'm having trouble with has 148k. The person currently borrowing it noted that the CEL comes and goes. I think it's very likely the same issue. GD

How do you know this? And no - you aren't allowed to list the specs from their web site.... That really doesn't meant a lot. One isolated case does not a statistic make. I noted that I have used mine for (quite possibly a couple dozen) Subaru head gaskets and haven't had a failure - but that doesn't mean the thing is anything like an accurate insturment. Just means it's in the ball-park and I've been lucky. I get that you trust it for your own personal use - but would you trust it if you were charging $800 for that head gasket job? Personally - that's too much risk for too little gain. Over the life of the wrench that will amount to pennies against each job. It's just not worth saving $80 to $100 on such a critical measureing device. As I noted above with my little tale about the $25,000 "mistake"..... that was a Snap-On unit. Very high quality. Still broke on us and wasn't at all apparent till we examined the operation of the wrench in detail (the damage was internal). GD

Pull the valve covers and check for proper valve operation. Timing gear failures are completely unheard of - very unlikely. Sounds like you have a stuck intake valve or serious ignition issues. Hard to say - you need to check stuff on your end.... "oil everywhere" and "blowing out the carb" are not descriptive enough for us to help you. GD

Compare the codes on the transmission (sticker on the bell-housing) with this chart: http://www.gearhack.com/myink/ViewPage.php?file=docs/Subaru%20Transmission%20Chart If they use the same final drive ratio - then yes. Otherwise no. They are a dime a dozen at junk yards and never fail - don't buy a new one. Should be able to pick one up for $50 or less. I know the OBW is a 4.111 (for a manual transmission). I am not sure what the Imp. would be. GD

I will find out today or tomorrow if this is also the issue with the '96 I'm dealing with. I will definately report back with pictures. GD

I have used my $20 HF torque wrench for a bunch of head gaskets (back before I started doing this "for money"). None of them have had any issues. But I consider myself lucky. It's definately not a quality tool. For my money, there is no beating the CDI products. CDI Torque Insturments is owned by Snap-On and makes all the Snap-On wrenches. But they also make a private label product that is just about as good IMO. I have two of their units - a 3/8" inch-pounds wrench, and a 1/2" ft-pounds unit. Both are very high quality. The little one was $110 and the bigger one was $130 or so. I got both of mine from eBay and am a very happy customer: http://cgi.ebay.com/CDI-TORQUE-WRENCH-1503MFRMH-1-2-DRIVE-20-150-LBS-/140325979396?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item20ac148504 And http://cgi.ebay.com/CDI-Snap-On-3-8-Torque-Wrench-30-250-in-lbs-2502MRMH-/370475266125?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item56420bf04d I use my HF wrench for lug nuts, etc. I feel it is accurate enough for that and I don't wear&tear on my good stuff. From a professional standpoint - calibration at regular intervals with documentation is ESSENTIAL. Allow me to relate a little tale..... I was "training" (on the job training) on a peice of equipment - a compressor pump worth about $17,000. I was using a 3/8" Snap-On torque wrench owned by my employer. I needed 14 Ft/Lbs. It never clicked. My boss was watching over my shoulder and I expressed my concern that I was likely in the 30 to 40 Ft/lb range and no "click" was occuring. We checked the wrench and sure enough - it was broken. No clue how this happened. Probably broke and someone put it away like that. So per his instruction I removed the bolt, he inspected it, and said it was ok. We put it back using another torque wrench. Long story short - that bolt was stressed a little too far. It looked alright - but lasted only 3 hours in operation. It caused $25,000 worth of damage when it broke. Luckily I was not on the hook for any of it because my boss made the call to reuse that overstressed fastener. I was very happy when I left that meeting unscathed! GD

Resurfacing is pretty cheap here - I have a guy that does 2 heads for $50 for me. Depending on mileage - a resurfacing might be all they need. But at comparatively low mileage (~150k) the 25D heads are usually worn pretty badly. Cost for a full rebuild on the 25D heads is rediculous. $450 to $500 for a set. That's all new valves, seats, and guides (they usually need them), stem seals, and resetting the shim clearances on each. Do yourself a favor and put EJ22E heads on it - compression increase and power gain. The SOHC heads can be rebuilt for half that cost or less. GD