GeneralDisorder

Where is it leaking from exactly? There isn't much that can't be fixed with the tranny in-place. The seals around the front diff stubs are set into the front diff R&P bearing race holders and those also set the R&P clearance. If you do one at a time and mark it's posistion prior to removal it's not usually a problem but if they are put back incorrectly the R&P can fail from improper clearance (too loose, too tight, or gear misalignment). The only one that you have to dissasemble the tranny for is the front input shaft seal. That one requires splitting the case to access. GD

You need to replace the camshaft seals. Pretty common on these. The rubber gasket is just the rear belt cover seal. It's not important and usually they are just thrown away when the rear cover is removed (if you even remove it) for the cam seal replacement. Yep - cam seals. Pressure switch looks fine - that's not your problem. No need - not your problem. No special tools required. Timing belts on these are very simple. You will have to remove the cam pulleys to get at the cam seals. You should do the cam seals, crank seal, all the idler pulleys, and the water pump while you are in there. Not a bad idea to reseal the oil pump too. No torque wrench needed - just pull the rocker covers, clean, and install new gaskets and bolt grommets. When you are putting the bolts back in use a 1/4" drive ratchet and don't be too forceful with them - I have seen people break them Sure thing - this is a pretty easy job and if you have any other questions feel free to ask or PM me - I do these like once a week or more it seems GD

You can do the oil pan - it's not as hard as you might think. There are holes in the cross-member for a long phillips screwdriver to get to the rear bolts. Once the bolts are out you can put a bottle jack (these are cheap from any discount tool store, etc) behind the cross-member on the front of the transmission bell housing (using a block of wood to spread the load). Then you remove the two engine mount nuts, disconnect the exhaust (4 nuts), disconnect the pitching stopper (1 bolt) and jack the engine up with the bottle jack about 3 or 4 inches. This will allow the pan to slip out. Then it's just a matter of cleaning, prepping, and installing a new cork gasket (from the dealer ~$12 IIRC). It sounds harder than it is. MUCH easier than the oil pan gasket on my '69 GMC truck (350 SBC) - which was about a 4 hour job for me and I've done it 3 times . But this last time I used a single-peice space-age silicone unit that's quite the amazing peice of engineering. I don't think I'll be doing it again . GD

Sounds like your centering spring is missing..... GD

Yeah - swap on your disty and manifold (use dealer gaskets only - torqued to 12 Ft/lbs). Also the SPFI block will not have the AIS ports drilled out on the heads so ditch all that gear if you haven't already. SPFI block is also 9.5:1 instead of 9.0:1 so you may have to change your timing slightly to avoid pinging. Not much but it's worth noting. That block is 90 HP instead of 84 HP so you are getting a slight performance boost. It also might need a slight rejet on the carb and the idle will have to be readjusted for sure. GD

Razor blade? Typically paint will just pop right off of glass without much trouble. That's how it's done on pane-glass windows when you want to paint the frame, etc . GD

EA81 to EJ22 can be done in a weekend..... but ONLY if you have done one (or more) before . First time out - figure at least a month with a ton of help from the board and possibly some folks dropping by in person. This is NOT A SMALL TASK. You need to understand what you are asking about here - search/read/learn. All your questions have been answered here somewhere. GD

I'll "third" the wheel bearing/axle issues camp. Sounds pretty likely. Jack up each wheel and check for play - when checking the rear's remember to disengage the parking brake. It really sounds like a wheel bearing to me..... Gearboxes always have some amount of metal in the oil and on the plug (thus the reason they always have mag-plugs). Sounds pretty normal to me. You would know if it was bad - there would be a metallic swirl in the oil and after letting the pan sit overnight there would be a large amount of metal "sludge" in the bottom. GD

I doubt it's your rack. But putting that Lucas crap in there might cause it to fail - probably kill the pump too . NEVER use anything but pure, clean ATF in Subaru PS systems. NEVER! If you can put a bottle of garbage in the pump - why can't you spray down the steering coupler like we have sugested instead of questioning our experience and doing stupid things with chemicals that will quite possibly cause more harm than good? There is no such thing as a "repair in a bottle". Repairs are accomplished with tools by experienced mechanics..... GD

Yeah - there's no spline's Gary. Clean up the shaft with a fine file and then fabri-cut or scotch-brite, etc - make sure there are no burrs or nicks - the fit is not interferance - it's what known as "net zero". Which means the OD of the shaft is basically the same as the ID of the bearing race. If you get them both clean and then coat the shaft with anti-seize they will often slide right in with little effort. Sometimes just a little prying is needed - use the axle nut, then the cone washer (reversed) and axle nut, and then the cone washer, flat washer, and axle nut stacked up - you should be able to pry the axle through with those combo's and a couple small pry-bars. Make sure as you go that the axle is centered up in the bearings - having it angled going into the bearings will cause it to bind. This is not a job for hammers and brute force - you will just comprimise the bearings by doing it that way. GD

Being it's a 3 door (87+) and 2WD it will be SPFI (Single Point Fuel Injection). It looks to be a GL by the trim (blackout door handles, etc). The SPFI stuff runs near forever on those - the engine is a sound machine if you keep up on it's tendancy to eat timing belts and cooling system parts. Biggest thing to watch for is going to be the cooling system - with that many miles it's likely that it will need a head gasket if that hasn't already been done. The heads chafe against the gasket and it results in the fire ring damaging the head surfaces - usually this creates a need for head gasket replacement in the 200k to 300k mile range. It's easily repaired with a head resurface and some new head gaskets and can be done with the engine in the car. But at 270k it might have already been done. Would be great if they have some reccords..... That's a good price. The best part about that car is the decent mileage, the SPFI system, and cheap/availible parts. Even a whole used engine is usually only in the $250 or less catagory - despite the few flaws of these they tend to last almost forever - what usually claims them is not a fatal flaw but rather a need to do a major service like a timing belt, etc - when people find out that the service is going to cost more than the car is worth they just dump them in a trade-in etc where they then end up at dealer auctions and get bought by the junk yards for scrap metal. GD

Timing belt or broken cam shaft. Not really *easier* than a clutch, axle, or wheel bearing - those have their own little nuances..... But t-belts are not that hard on the EA82. Just a little weird in how they line up is all. GD

Interesting - my EA81 (back in like '04) tossed the #3. But aside from that one I haven't torn down any other's that had thrown a rod. I've seen a few but only in passing - never got into details like which rod it was, etc. EJ25D's throw rods because they get overheated and the oil isn't changed immediately after. It's just a side-effect of the bad head gaskets. Some people refuse to replace them and keep driving it - repeated overheating cycles will damage the oil and of course if they aren't doing the head gaskets they also don't know enough to change the oil either..... GD

It's not an "experience" thing - many people on this site including myself have seen both in person and it's obvious which is better. Not to mention the failure rates which are considerably higher. I've been here a long time - wrenched on more Subaru's than I can even count at this point - and aftermarket just doesn't cut it for Subaru gaskets. I'm here every day and you won't find a thread about how Subaru's gaskets suck - but you will find many where people have been bitten by an aftermarket gasket of one form or another. Call it anecdotal and try to convince yourself I'm full of hot air if you like - but that's the way it is whether you like it or not. GD

No - not at all. Everyone else on this site will back me. We don't buy Fel-Pro gaskets because there's no reason to. There's no cost savings, the OEM gaskets are spectacular and the risk is too great. To even consider buying anything else (from any manufacturer - including Fel-Pro) is just silly. The motivations of the two companies are entirely different - Fel-Pro is in business to sell gaskets and make money doing it. Subaru is in business to sell cars and build a reputation for quality. If they have to lose money on a gasket to insure there isn't a repetitive problem with them - they will. I don't care who makes them - aftermarket EJ25D head gaskets are NOT ACCEPTABLE. Period. End of discussion. GD

Due to lots of my own experience with both Fel-Pro and OEM gaskets. This started years ago - back when I did a lot of EA engine work. None the wiser, I bought Fel-Pro thinking I would save money over the dealer - MISTAKE. There are numerous gaskets that are obviously inferior just on a cursory examination. Their intake manifold gaskets are a great example - Fel-Pro makes them from more or less cardboard on the EA's - looks like you cut the side out of cereal box. The OEM gaskets are twice as thick and made from grapite impregnated steel like just like the head gaskets. Since coolant flows though them the Fel-Pro's don't live long in this environment. I had one blow out and strand me 20 miles from home about 5 years ago. I haven't bought much from them since but I've had occasion to see their gaskets in person on many occasions. Their intake and exhaust gaskets suck, their cork gaskets are cheap and soft, and based on this alone I wouldn't even consider using their EJ head gaskets. Their EA head gaskets are good - the Perma-Torque line of composition head gaskets are a time saver on the EA's becaue they don't require a retorque like the OEM one's. But those are a totally different animal than the EJ MLS gaskets. Fel-Pro *can* make good gaskets - but like any other company they need to make money and they put their engineering effort into stuff that will do that - I absolutely love their one-peice, silicone SBC oil pan gaskets - well worth the $27 for one. It's not that I dislike Fel-Pro - on the contrary - for *some* stuff their gaskets are great. But I have learned to distrust their products on Subaru's and when you take into account all the trouble that Subaru themselves had with sealing the EJ25D properly as well as the negligable price difference..... it's a no-brainer - OEM all the way. GD

Speculation. GD

Hard to say for sure. Fel-Pro has not been providing quaity head gaskets for the Subaru EJ engines. People have been burned before and that's why we don't use them. It took Subaru 4 try's to get to the current 4 layer design and they built the engine - I wouldn't trust any aftermarket brand simply because of this. And also because the 4 layer current design is totally indestructible - I haven't heard of a single blow-out and my guess is that you would crack a head or melt something before you blew that gasket. GD

It's not worth it to use the Fel-Pro's. The OEM gaskets are now 4 Layer and are $34 each. There's no win with the Fel-Pro's except possibly a small cost savings - still not worth the chance of failure - Subaru did away with all the stock of 3 Layer units for some reason - I don't know the story as to why but they felt it was worth it to dumpster them...... But if they are 3 Layer MLS - based on the 2nd gen OEM gasket - they will probably be fine. It's unlikely you will have a failure. GD

It means very little unless you break a timing belt - which is a few and far between type of incident on Subaru's. Unless you just straight don't do any maintenance on them - even then there's only a small chance that what stops it from driving is actually a broken/skipped belt that damages valves, etc. The EJ belts are awesome units and this whole "I can't own an interfereance engine" crap is just that - crap. Many of the people that feel that way came from the EA82 and have bad experiences with broken belts - it just doesn't happen on EJ's unless things get neglected. That's why Subaru went to interferance engine designs - they have advantages in effeciency and power over the non-interferance engines. So the reality is that they were non-interferance until the belt system was well proven - when it was determined that they were past the belt-breakage stage of engineering the need for non-interferance engines evaporated. So really it's not a "YAY!" sort of thing - it's ok if you feel like you may not be doing any maintenence till the thing breaks or feel that your skills in installing a belt are poor and might cause a breakage.... but frankly it's a non-issue. GD

You definitely have a bad lower radiator hose and that's the major leak I see. Job #1 is to replace both your radiator hoses. Then clean and start checking for these phantom head gasket leaks. In one picture you got a corner of both the oil pan (definitely leaking oil there) and the head gasket - head gasket looked dry on that corner. If you could get more of the engine block where the head mates to the block that would be swell. Liquid Wrench is not a cleaning product - it's more for loosening rusted bolts, etc. Brake cleaner is a degreaser/cleaner and will help loosen and dissolve oil/dirt/etc. GD

If you have a pressure washer or can go to one of those self-service car washes you can wash the underside of engine bay to get a better idea. Also a couple cans of brake-cleaner and some rag/paint brush work can do wonders. GD

Brat's have EA81's. Do a cooling system pressure test. "Seeing" some coolant is not a good enough test to make a judgement on HG's. GD

Hehehe - what will really blow your mind is that the threaded boss for the cogged idler is NOT the engine block - it's the water pump. So you just replace the water pump (which you should be doing anyway on a t-belt job) and you are golden. Complete t-belt/idler/water pump kits are ~$225 on ebay for the '99. If you swap back to a '96/'97 tensioner bracket and tensioner (more reliable) then you can use the $160 kit off ebay . Your engine ate the water pump and bent some valves. Not dead yet! Fix it. GD

Yes - have the CEL checked by any auto-parts store and tell us what code it reported. The cruise could be a lot of things and it could even be related to the CEL. GD