GeneralDisorder

Any 87+ ('86 SPFI as well) EA82 FI distributor will work - check connector AND pinout as some will plug in but not work due to the pinout changing. All the optical pickup distributors are the same other than the wireing. GD

The damp air is ok because the AC compressor runs with the defrost - that removes the moisture from the air prior to it hitting the heater core. Though sticky, glycol smelling stuff on the inside of the winsheild is still a heater core problem most likely - regardless of having fogged up windows or not. :-\ GD

Maybe - remove the radiator and inspect as I noted above. Put a garden hose in one end and see how quickly it flows out the other side. If you only have a trickle then it's plugged. Where is all this corrosion? It would be evident in the coolant - it would be full of crap if there was enough in there to plug up the radiator. I've drained muddy, brown coolant from a couple Subaru's and had them run fine afterward - so it would take a LOT to plug one. I highly doubt that's the problem or you would have seen evidence of it when changing the t-stat. Consider for a moment that virtually the entire cooling system is composed of aluminium - the engine block and heads, the radaitor, and the heater core are all nearly 100% aluminium and plastic. What is there to corrode and plug stuff up? There just isn't the neccesary components for that level of contamination. Usually EJ's are very clean from a cooling system standpoint. I rarely see anything but nice green coolant and I have yet to encounter a plugged EJ radiator - cracked plastic end tanks is what I typically see. I say it's head gaskets - I've seen that behavior before and I've tried installing new radiators, thermostats, etc and it didn't help. Pulled the heads and found the problem. GD

Pull the radiator and thermostat - flush the radiator and look inside with a flashlight and see what it looks like. If it's not a clogged radiator or bad cap then it's head gaskets. An exhaust gas bubble will displace the coolant - even cold coolant - due to the increased pressure in the system. That same bubble will cause the engine to overheat and yet the fans won't come on due to a weird fluke in the way the temp probes are setup - the ECU probe doesn't see the temp change the same way as the gauge probe does so when the coolant level drops the gauge pegs and the ECU doesn't see the change and doesn't kick the fans on. *something* is displacing the coolant - and usually that's from either severe overheating, or from exhaust gasses taking the place of the coolant. Coolant expands when hot but the fact that you have cold coolant in the overflow bottle doesn't lend credance to that argument..... You are going to have to do some investigating. But it sounds like a HG problem to me - 7 miles on the interstate shouldn't overheat the engine even with a partially clogged radiator due to the massive airflow at those speeds - does the coolant look like mud? If it's clean and green then that's probably not the issue. GD

All I can say is be cautious about your spending! One of the biggest mistakes people make is not keeping their money solvent - buying things is great but I would caution against buying something you will use once or twice in the next year - you could easily rent that tool for a fraction of the cost - the return on the invesment is not there. It often happens that I have to buy a tool for a job - and if the money in the job is good then it's not an issue. Having another tool is great if the return on the invesment is there - but having the MONEY in the bank is a *more useful tool*. I suppose this insight comes with age. I know how it feels to want a tool and have the money for it burning a hole in your pocket. It's a tough call to say "No - not now. Yes I could buy it and it would be pretty and shiny - but I don't have a use for it *right now*. If a job comes into my shop that requires that tool I will find a way to get it or borrow it." Having all the tools in the world is awesome - no question there. But my customers are always very understanding when I explain that I will have to aquire something to do the job right for them and it could be a few days before I get it. Looks like a nice place though - you have a lot of potential there. GD

Yeah - if the radiator is bad it could be overheating - how does the coolant look? And how does the radiator look? I know in some parts of the country the radiators look about as good as the wheel wells by that age . GD

I highly doubt you have a cracked block - just doesn't happen with these engines. You probably just have blown head gaskets like the thousands of other EJ25D's that blow them like clockwork between 50k and 150k. Who said it has a cracked block? Get another opinion. GD

You can *try* replacing the radiator cap - that's about the only thing that would allow it to throw all the coolant into the overflow bottle if it were bad other than the head gaskets. But I hate to tell you - that's almost a sure sign of head gasket failure. You can probably borrow a bit of time by punching the guts out of the thermostat and driving it without one. Also leaving the radiator cap loose or buying a lev-r-vent cap and leaving it open..... that will vent the exhaust gasses that are pushing the coolant into the overflow bottle and allow it to be driven at least. What's happening is exhaust gasses are leaking into the cooling system from the head gaskets - that causes the system to go over it's intended operating pressure of 13 PSIG - the radiator cap opens and the exhaust gas escapes and takes a quantitiy of coolant with it. Over time that results in a loss of coolant - it's volume being replaced by exhaust gasses. There is a tipping point in the system where enough coolant has been lost that the water pump can no longer circulate coolant through the block - it just can't push it past the exhaust gas bubble - that's when the gauge spikes and you pull over - finding the overflow bottle full and with bubbles in it. After it cools it sucks all the coolant back into the system and drives normally again till the cycle repeats. This is very common with the 2.5's of simlar vintage but I've seen a few EJ22's do it as well - when the gaskets blow they seem to blow the same way as the EJ25D's but it just happens very rarely on the 22's. Both hoses should be hot when running and the thermostat open. Though I have seen situations where bad head gaskets would cause overheating quickly enough that the thermostat didn't open - resulting in an overheated engine and a cold lower hose.... sounds weird I know but I've seen it. The fact that it was driven for a week after the first overheat would seem to point to a bad radiator cap as a possible culprit..... but then again the overheating could have damaged the head gaskets as well so it's really hard to say at this point. GD

The elbow going into the throttle body has a 5/8" T fitting on it that appears to be open.... is that plugged somehow? Any leak in the intake tract would be bad for air metering..... Looks good. I like your creative use of copper pipe fittings. Home Depot FTW . GD

They can blow for any number of reasons - corrosion, over-pressure, manufacturing defect, etc. It will be pretty easy to tell what happened when you get the old core out - better than conjecture anyway. I would replace the radiator cap with one from the dealer just for good measure. Too bad you aren't closer - I only charge $40 an hour . But $65 is still much cheaper than most shops. GD

They aren't electronic so there shouldn't be any differences. GD

Yeah - dealer gaskets FTW. They have a nice wide "fire ring" and are made of stout stuff. Definitely the only exhaust gaskets you will find in my shop. GD

They are mounted on rubber isolators - perhaps your's are bad? GD

Your best bet is to dump in a bottle of the Subaru stop leak additive and see if that fixes the leak. It's approved for use on all Subaru's so it won't clog up your radiator, etc. The passages in a heater core are generally smaller though and the stop-leak stuff tends to clog them rather than fix leaks in them - either way it might stop the coolant loss. Otherwise you are going to be pulling out the dash for a heater core change-out. Either that or loop the heater core hoses together and bypass the core for now - you could get one of those 12v heaters that plugs into the a power outlet..... That's a very new Subaru to be having a heater core die like that - they are a pretty rare failure. That just sucks - heater core swap is a large amount of work and the core itself is not cheap either. You are looking at about 6 hours labor and a pretty penny for a heater core - probably about a $1k repair unless you do that labor yourself. GD

Your head gasket job didn't hold. Generic gaskets? Messed up the torque procedure? Improperly cleaned surfaces? Etc. That's a bummer dude. GD

Might be distributor related - is the tach signal clean? Put a test light on the negative side of the coil. You might not be getting a clean tach signal to the FPCU and that might be part of the running problem and the fuel delivery - being electronic it could happen for no good reason and at any time. I've seen similar bad behavior from the carbed EA distributor modules. GD

Again - feel free to PM me and bring the knuckle by. I had a cancelation this weekend or I would be doing a Forester HG and clutch job. But as it is I'm not real busy. Bearings are an interesting world - one that most mechanics of the automotive persuasion are not trained for properly. Mostly people in the automotive world are not trained for attention to detail of the level required for proper bearing installation to insure correct operation and long life. First - wood is not the answer - it is not hard enough. Second you need to INSPECT the bearing pocket VERY carefully. Burrs, nicks, folded edges, etc are all things that must be taken care of before attempting to install a bearing. Then the bearing must be started straight - typically I use a small ball-peen hammer to tap the edges in lightly all the way around the OD of the bearing. After it's started I place my driver on the outer race and with a LARGE dead blow, drive the bearing home. It's not something I can easily explain with words - it's a technique and one that is honed over many bearing replacements (not just Subaru wheel bearings) - you have to know where to apply force and how much. It's a feel thing and if you do it wrong you'll be back in there in a few thousand miles doing it again. GD

Ring failure on a Subaru engine with 77k on it is unheard of. I would be looking for a neighbor kid that squirted oil in the plug holes every morning before I went looking for ring failure. It's that uncommon. If you think it was rings, then hone the cylinders and replace them. I don't know what else to tell you since none of us are there to look at it. GD

Reservoir is usually not the leak on those - it's usually the gasket on the back of the pump. But can't hurt to try it. GD

It is not at all immaterial - you neglect that temperature AND pressure play in important role here. Not just the temp of the high side, but also the incomming temp and pressure of the low side - which is usually in the 40 to 50 F range and around 25 to 40 psi with refrigerant. When pumping air you have an incomming air temp of ~70 F and pressure of 14.7 psi. The discharge temp of refrigerant is typically about 130 to 150 F at 220 psi while compressed *air* near the same pressure would be (off the top of my head) up around 500 F (no f'n way you would get there in a single stage either - even the York's would catch fire). You could not run a single-stage AC compressor at more than 100 psi with ambient air temps and pressures - that's nearly 8:1 compression ratio in a single stage - you would burn it up at anything higher than that. Remember that it's all about the ratio - pushing 35 psi refrigerant up to 225 psi is only a 6.5:1 compression ratio - and with half the incoming gas temp. Even running at "only" 100 to 120 psi the temps would be high compared to refrigerant - having the oil cooled compressor would be a huge advantage. People use the York compressors because it's an easy choice - and likely very few people use them for very long at a stretch - but the advantages of an oil flooded compressor are obvious when you consider the temps involved in compressing air versus compressing refrigerant. Now - if you used TWO compressors with an intercooler between - one to get ambient air to about 45 psi, then the next stage compressor could push it up to 200 psi without much problem...... though I'm not sure what I would use that for on my wheeler GD

You need a BIG hammer. I use a 4lb drilling hammer and a thick brass punch. GD

Must remove drive shaft. Otherwise NOT OK. GD

McGuire carries seals I'm sure - but they don't do "automotive" by their own admission (frankly they are a bunch of jack-asses about it too :-\). If you get the timken seal part number (Autozone or rockauto's web site, etc) then Applied Industrial can help you (you won't like the price) - but I know Discount Import Parts in Beaverton or Clackamas has them in stock for $6 each. GD

If I wasn't busy with a Honda () I would shoot up there. I have an '84 FSM with the turbo info if you need to borrow it. I'm down in West Linn. Just send me an email - cropperr(at)gmail(dot)com GD

Thinner should not matter - just the ID and OD of the seal. Send me an email at cropperr(at)gmail(dot)com if you need to reach me - I'll get that on my phone. GD