GeneralDisorder

That is standard on trucks (and been that way since the introduction of airbags AFAIK) - it's only to be used if a child seat is being placed in the truck. So unless your child-seat-wearing offspring is going to be driving..... not applicable. GD

Hard to beat $50 + $5 Android app for a complete diagnostics station (wireless and pocket sized even!) with real-time monitoring (assuming you already have the $400 phone of course :-p). That's cheaper than my simple "read/erase" scan tool that doesn't monitor anything! GD

Oh! Excelent. I am definitely going to try that out. An excuse to use a new tool! I'm in..... GD

The new "Super Blue" is a long life coolant. Much like GM's Dexcool, etc. Honda has one as does Toyota, etc. It is my opinion that Subaru caved in to customer's wanting a "long life" coolant but having no real conception of why they wanted it. The usual questions I'm sure..... "My Toyota has 5 year coolant - why doesn't Subaru do that?". Basically it's marketing - yes it's $20 a gallon (premixed so you need 2 for a total of $40 for a fill) - and yes all the new Subaru's for a bit now are coming with it pre-installed. The reason Subaru held out so long against moving to this long-life coolant craze is that Subaru's, by and large, don't have problems with cooling system corrosion. The engine is alumiunium - so is the radiator and heater core. Then the tanks are plastic and there's a bunch of rubber rounding out the mix. There's very little opportunity for dissimilar metal reactions. I have NEVER seen pitting on a Subaru caused by galvanic corrosion. So is it out there? Yes - they now make the Subaru Super Blue. Is it neccesary? IMHO - no it is not. I run the green stuff in all of mine. I will likely continue to use the Super Blue in my 2010 Forester.... at least till it becomes a problem child and starts consuming the stuff. I am not going to play that game for long at $20 a gallon. It's 4 times the price of plain green when you consider I get 2 gallons of green for $10 (concentrate). GD

Is the VSS signal to the ECU one that I can monitor through the OBD-II? I am awaiting delivery of my new OBD-II to Bluetooth adaptor so I can use my Android phone as a real-time monitor, etc. GD

There is a guy that started a thread about an '84 RX but he actually has an '87 and was looking for heads - check out his thread. http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=119572 GD

This is quite true. In a way I feel that the consumer should be allowed to "tamper" with his own safety features but then most people don't keep a car forever and it could get loaned to someone that doesn't know this was done..... It is for the best that these laws are on the books as most people abide by the law if they know it exists.... though it should be pointed out that the law is, in most cases, quite unenforceable. There may be a fine for disabling an air bag but you could never actually levy that fine and collect it if it were contested in a court of law - it couldn't be proven that YOU were responsible.... in the vast majority of cases anyway. GD

Open diffs in the 4.111 and 4.444 ratio aren't worth much. $50 tops. They never fail and are found on every Subaru made in the last 3 decades. It's actually fairly accurate to say these are "a dime a dozen". Very little market for them since they just never die. GD

They ARE EA81/EA82 differentials (in a different ratio). They are all Hitachi R160's. Subaru has been using this same diff for over 30 years. Weight should be nearly identical. GD

Nice machine work on the hubs! So are you able to get pads and caliper kits and such locally? Just curious how it works for sourceing parts, etc If you need US parts don't forget to send me a PM, etc. I can get that stuff as well - our yards are full of such things. GD

Yes - I'll let you know. This just happened on a car that I'm reconditioning for sale. I haven't touched the tranny except for some ATF changes so it's not likely related to the engine swap I recently completed. Probably just a fluke thing. I should have the car back in a day or two and It will be looked into promptly. GD

That's just BS - they routinely last over 200k. That's a fair run for any wheel bearing. Mostly it's seal failure that gets them and you can't expect a simple lip seal to last forever in that environment. Subaru's tend to get driven pretty hard because of the AWD - they corner well and that puts a lot of axial load on them. There are a *couple* models that have issues with rear wheel bearings - mostly the older Foresters and the SVX. But Subaru has corrected those problems with updated parts. There are a lot of aftermarket bearings out there that haven't kept up with Subaru's updated parts for those models, etc. Unless this place is buying them from the dealer - they can't speak with any authority on the subject. I just did a rear wheel bearing on a '98 SUS - that was it's FIRST bearing and it failed at 212k. I have another customer with a '90 Legacy he bought brand new - 265k and all original wheel bearings. I would say they "rarely" fail before 200k. A lot depends on driving style too. I see MUCH more frequent failures on cars that are driven by "spirited" owners. GD

You get what you pay for. And if you can't build your own lift - forget about a V6 install. You don't have the skills. EJ22 swap is a good plan. Get a lift from SJR or PK (is he still doing them?). Those are your best solutions. Pull your head out of the clouds and work with the skills you have and the reality of your budget. That means going with proven swaps and mods. GD

Going from MPFI to SPFI..... never tried that but in principle you should be able to reappropriate the wires going to the MPFI ECU and use them to run an SPFI ECU. There should be more wires than you need since you would be going from 4 injectors to just 1. This will be something that you will want to be *experienced* with electrical to attempt. No doubt in my mind it could be done but if you are going to the trouble of that much wiring - why not just go to the EJ and get an improvement in performance instead of a downgrade.... I don't know of anyone that's done that, but I have heard of someone swapping a whole dash and front-end harness from an SPFI wagon into a turbo wagon (but both were the same body style and same year) and apparently it worked out fine. The rear harness plugged into the dash harness and all was well.... Being that you are now talking about an EA82T - those are much more common and you can easily get heads for them. Just post in the wanted section. They don't *usually* fail though and if you are concerned about cracks between the valves - don't be. They always crack there and it's not a concern as long as the crack doesn't extend into the exhaust port water jacket (they usually don't unless severe overheating has taken place). I would just have your heads rebuilt if you just have the usual between-valve-cracks. EJ22 swaps are also common into that body and highly reccomended. The retrofitting forum has all the info you need. GD

Interesting - I wasn't aware of the speed sensor back there. I have a spare tranny or two so I'll check that out. GD

I'm getting the exact same thing on a '96 GT right now. Speedo works fine and idle got a bit lower and the transmission is shifting at strange times.... makes sense since it's having trouble determining vehicle speed (apparently). But according to that FSM info above..... we need to replace the gauge cluster?!?! Tell me - does your dome light work? I blew a fuse when I unwrapped some e-taped wires from a very naughty radio install by the previous owner. That's when it started doing funny things. I just replaced the fuse (15A the main box under the hood) but then promptly loaned the car out and didn't have time to test drive it. I thought it might be related but then again it might not. Perhaps the radio, some illumination, and part of the cluster is powered from there.... WAG. GD

You can have them blasted by the people that do the powder coating. That's pretty standard for them. GD

I have torn one down because it was making the "ghost turbo" noise. The front bearing is a 6202 instead of the 6203 of the later pump. I beleive they use a different lip seal on the front as well so you might have to source that seperately. The rest of the seals should work. I would source a '95 to '99 pump and bracket (new pump is too wide by about 3/8" to fit the old bracket) and just use that instead. If you also get the lines for a '95 to '98 EJ22E it should bolt right in. And then it can be resealed with one of those kits. Should make for a much cheaper and more effective repair than throwing used pumps at it all the time or buying a new one from the stealership. GD

You aren't going to warp wheels in a "normal" blast cabinet. Not going to happen. If you have some kind of super-sized industrial setup that can put out MASSIVE amounts of sand and air (you would need at least a 50 HP rotary screw compressor I would say - probably larger) then that's just not going to happen. I have personally blasted wheels in $15,000 cabinets with glass bead.... no issues. Very thin aluminium can warp in a smaller blast cabinet if you aren't careful - but I'm talking sheet metal here. Definitely not a wheel. GD

25D's are notorious for bottom end problems. I avoid any of them that have been overheated - if they have I replace them with 22E's on general principle. GD

Bubbles in the overflow only applies to the '98 DOHC EJ25D. After '98 they switched to the EJ253 and then the EJ251 - both of which weep coolant on the ground and are unlikely to show any bubbles in the overflow. As for the engines being junk - I agree that the EJ25D is junk and I would avoid a '98 unless you plan on putting in an EJ22 or converting it to run an EJ251/253. The 251/253 is a great engine when cared for. They rarely leak in my experience except with the head gasket external leak. Mostly people have run them out of coolant, not changed the oil, etc, and killed the bottom end just like the DOHC engines. They don't have the nasty issues that the DOHC engines have and no bucket/shim BS either. I have all of $1700 into my '99. It's a great machine and the drivetrain is all original at 245k. Can't complain much about that. GD

Almost every PS pump made from '95 to '99 (and sometimes even the 90 to 94 pumps) leak as they age. This is VERY common and until this reseal kit arrived on the market (this appears to be a recent development) the only alternative was a new pump (over $200) or to attempt a reseal by matching up the o-rings and lip seal, new bearing, and then resealing the rear cover with one of the gasket sealer products - I used loctite 518 for a few of them and it worked out ok. Also - if you have an older pump (90 to 94) then this kit will likely still work but the front bearing will be a 6202-2RS instead of the 6203-2RS of the later pump's. NAPA sells these as "Alternator Bearings" - they are just a simple 6k series sealed ball bearing and will work for many applications including the PS pump's and the AC idler pulley's on EJ's... etc. When dissasembling the pump be VERY careful of the rotor and all it's tiny little vanes. If you are careful they won't fall out but if you aren't they will slide out and be everywhere. There's about a dozen of them and they are slippery and tiny. Do your dissasembly on a clean work area with clean hands so you don't contaminate the pump with junk. I have had them apart a number of times so I knew what to expect. Works slowely and carefully if you don't know what's in there. Oh - and Rockauto has the same kit for ~$15. Amazon is nice for free shipping if you order something else or two of them, etc. But I ordered 3 from Rockauto just now and with their price it worked out to $16.58 each after shipping and 5% discount code. Still a slightly better deal for those of us that need volume.... GD

Auto's are simple - just remove the 4 flex-plate bolts and insure that the TC doesn't slide out from the transmission - if it does - center it, rotate and gently push - it will slide back in..... Rotation doesn't matter as long as the TC is fully seated. What causes damage is when people force the engine in without the TC being fully seated - that destroys the oil pump inside the tranny. If you pull the flex-plate bolts before unbolting the engine and then push the TC back toward the tranny with a large flat-blade screwdriver - this is not even an issue. GD

It's very simple - you pull a valve cover and check the rocker assembly. If you have solid lifters it's an interferance engine. If you have hydro it is not. There is only a single questionable year with regard to this - '96 had the hydro valves and single port heads. So a '96 looks identical to a '97/'98 from outward appearance, but will have hydro lifters AND they changed the pistons in '97 resulting in it being interferance. As far as I know there was NEVER an EJ22 made with hydro lifters AND interferance pistons. Those are mutually exclusive from the factory. As far as I know removing a valve cover and checking the rocker assembly style is the only reliable way to tell. If course the solid lifter/roller rocker assembly fits on the older engines (even the dual port heads) so if someone went to the trouble of putting solid lifters on the engine.... you are screwed because there's no way to tell on a single-port engine like the '96. All these parts can be mixed/matched so if the thing has been heavily modified.... there's no rules that apply. GD

I still prefer the '99 253 engine. I have no problem yanking an engine for a head-gasket job though - I would rather have 8 more HP and replace a couple gaskets..... Just did a nice '99 with 135k on it a few weeks ago. t-belt/clutch/HG - engine was out and back in in two days (heads were surfaced). It's really not a concern to me but I can see how some people might be scared off by their tendancy to leak. GD