GeneralDisorder

Turns out - I'm pretty sure the radiator is bad. Appears to be clogged and the flow through it drops off so rapidly that where I was measureing with the temp gun really IS 40*F cooler than where the sensor is at. I made a few changes, thought everything was good and went for a drive - it spiked and I pulled over. The radiator was cold in the middle and on the bottom. Top was hot. Looks like a clogged radiator. GD

I for one took no offense. The response of "get a new car" is a tounge-in-cheek repsponse to your comical posting here. I don't wish to offend, but it should be pointed out that this is a place to come when you would like help from a DIY point of view. You don't seem to be willing and/or capable of taking advantage of the insight we may or may not have to offer regarding your problem and thus it seems pointless to spend my time trying to help you find the cause of a problem from your la-z-boy. You are taking it a shop and if they are reputable you will find the answer you seek - your money and not your time will be used in exchange for this answer. Thus it would seem that you have no need of us. I'm simply calling it like I see it. I wish you a good day and I do hope you get your problem rectified. It seems to be frustrating you greatly and that was the only reason I agreed that you might want to consider a newer, under warantee automobile that will not be your problem if it fails to perform as expected. GD

That was one of the first things I considered. But it just doesn't add up. How does that account for my temp gun reading correct (thermostat regulated) temp, and the sending unit reporting (via the 20 Ohm reading) that the temp is 248*F. The gun says 195*F. The gun is reading 4" away from the sending unit on the same coolant passage. I can't see a gradient of over 50*F from that distance. And nothing I am seeing says that it's really overheating. It's an EJ22 with 147k on it. Runs great with good power and didn't lose a drop of coolant on the trip home with it. Overflow bottle is nice and clean...... I'm just not seeing signs of a HG failure here. GD

I've got this '97 Legacy. Former owner said the temp gauge would peg out occasionally but it never overheated and then it would just drop. He described it as happening quickly. I marked it up to a bad sending unit. Drove home 60 miles with no problems. So I go in for a timing belt/water pump, etc. Lo and behold - someone punched the guts out of the thermostat . I put in a new one. After that I ran it up to operating temp in my garage. I noticed the temp climbing - pulled out my gun and the reading from the upper radiator hose is 175* F . Obviously somoene had bandaided the broken sending unit/gauge by punching out the thermostat. At this point I should have taken a resistance reading of the sender but I figured it was bad and this would be a slam dunk. I had a used coolant cross-over laying around, pulled the sending unit, cleaned it up and installed it. Drove around the neighborhood and all is well..... till I'm about to turn down my street and I look down and the gauge is pegged out again.... WTH?!? Temp gun says 195*F so I'm know I'm not overheating. This time I figure.... like maybe a wireing short or something. Pull the wire off the sending unit and the needle drops to C. Ok so it's not a wireing short. Now I'm getting a little frustrated - pull out the DMM and the resistance is 20 Ohms. Checking with some PDF manuals I have this should indicate I'm at the top of the range for the sending unit (248*F).... but I'm clearly not. So the gauge is working and giving me the reading it see's based on the resistance of the sending unit - which appears to be wrong. Is this just a random fluke? I've never read about many of these failing and this is the first time I've seen it. I've worked on and owned a lot of Legacy's and this is the first one (two?) that I've ever seen fail. Am I missing something obvious or should I just pop for a new from the dealer? GD

It's broken. Several people asked questions - he could not or would not answer them and simply bumped the thread to the top of the forum. Now he's taking it to a shop - which he could have done without even posting here. Thus we concluded that he needs to go get something with a warantee and stop bothering us. GD

The budding machinist in me says "why buy it when I can just make one?" You are right to an extent - if you don't think you can do the job right then just buy a replacement. I don't consider a thread repair to be a super-involved master-mechanic type of repair - frankly if I thought that it needed to be an aerospace grade repair I would weld the hole up, anneal it, mill both sides flat, layout the hole and drill/tap it back to spec - then probably magnaflux the whole part just to be sure.... But in the real world a heli-coil with some loctite will handle the job . I agree that there are people who shouldn't be changing their oil but I'm also still hopeful that the folks who come here and pose a coherent question are willing to learn and maybe give the repair option a try - at the worst it gets buggered up even more and you are out the cost of the heli-coil kit AND the new part. And you have learned something - either how not to do the job next time, or where your own personal limitations lie. In the end my advice is just internet banter - and in this case I don't think any horrible accidents are going to result from a caliper slide bolt comming loose. Worst case the caliper flops over into the inside of the wheel and makes some nasty scraping noises. GD

I would have fixed it and I'm older the Noah (in reality). The reasons are several: 1. That part will be an order item. Not stocked at the dealership level. 2. I stock heli-coil's in all the common Subaru sizes. 3. It would be stronger than it was originally, and it would cost less. But that's me - I'm all about doing it quickly and for less money. But at $40 I can see why you would go with the replacement part if you aren't equipped for heli-coil installation, etc. GD

You should be able to heli-coil it without much trouble. Take the bolt to NAPA, etc and get a heli-coil kit for that size. It's probably an 8mm thread I would guess. Since it's likely a threaded straight through the part (not a blind hole) you will want to loctite or peen the heli-coil in place so it can't thread straight out the other side, etc. GD

It would be best if you started a new thread, but...... These timing belts are easy and you could do it yourself. When I do them for people I typically charge $200 plus parts. The kits for the early EJ's are cheap on ebay - $121. I have had no problem with them and expect they will last easily till the next belt change in another 60k. Valve cover gaskets and the passenger rear cam cover o-ring are usual oil leaks. I suspect they meant valve cover gasket when they said "head gasket cover" as there is no such part. GD

'99 Foresters are already SOHC Phase-II engines. They were the first models to get them. Only the '98 Forester has the DOHC engine. GD

I think that's pretty optimistic. I've done a LOT of Subaru work, and the Brat I just converted to EJ22 spent a month in my garage. Mind you the work was mostly being done by it's owner after work and on weekends and he was following my direction in buying parts, etc so there is lost time in all that.... There aren't a lot of people that have done EJ22's into the EA81 body. Mostly the swap has been done to EA82's and it's considereably easily in a number of ways. But it is possible on the EA81's. If you could work on it 8 hours a day you could probably get one driving in that much time but to get it "fiinished" will take longer most likely. GD

+1

Machine work may or may not be neccesary. If the heads are not warped or pitted then there is no cause to resurface them. Proper *cleaning* would still be required to insure the gaskets adhere to the sufaces of the heads and block. But there is no reason to have surface grinding done to a head unless it is severely pitted and damaged or is actually warped and needs to be trued up. Now - *assuming* they didn't do a surfacing of the heads. *I* would be asking to see their machinists straight edge and gauges that they used to determine the heads were not warped and did not require a surfacing job. I would be willing to bet they don't even have one . And no - you can't use any old metal ruler either. If they pull out a machinists *square* I would laugh them right out of the shop. You need a truely flat, ground surface to check for warpage. Either a surface plate and height gauge, or at the least a straight edge and feeler gauges. If you know what the job entails and what they *should* have done, you can entrap them pretty easily. Chances are they never even checked them. GD

I use a lot of Lauquor Thinner for cleaning. It takes off most gunk. If there is a real nasty varnish I'll use Zep "Industrial Degreaser" in the purple gallon jugs. Works great. There really isn't much that Lauquor Thinner won't touch though - it will eat most paints even. Also - in my experience you are still using too much sealant there. Rather than a bead, I apply an thin coat with my finger to the entire flange area. Nearly all of that is just going to squeeze out anyway. A thin coat makes sure that every surface is covered, and it prevents a ton of squeeze out. Makes your tube of sealant last nearly forever too. I've had to throw out tubes of RTV that still had good stuff in them because they were just nasty and I couldn't justify saving the last bit since a tube lasts me for months. As to the speculation that other passages might be clogged - I would be worried as well. Unfortunately I think that's just a gamble you'll have to take. I don't know of anything that disolves RTV so if there is a clog it's not going anywhere. GD

The 25D block wasn't designed for that kind of power or hanging on to head gaskets at those power levels. The 257 is a semi-closed deck block and as such is much more rigid. At least that's my understanding. I wouldn't bother with using a 25D block - that's just a waste of time and effort. GD

No seriously..... GD

No need to rebuild it most likely. They are very reliable. I would just reseal it and hang a new timing belt, water pump and tensioners on it. GD

From a wireing perspective, the SPFI swap and the EJ22 swap are about the same. But the EJ22 swap requires a lot more time, money, and mechanical work than the SPFI swap does. Wireing wise they are about the same - lots of wiring. LOTS of wireing . The EJ22 in the Brat is awesome though. I just finished helping out with a swap into an '85 Brat. It goes like hell with 135 HP. And yes - SPFI will fix all your running problems. GD

Post is 6 years old :-\. It's all well and good that you are searching - we commend that. Just don't bring back zombie threads while you are doing it. GD

It's just a 6k series bearing. Knock the bearing out of the pulley and install a new one. Should be about $5 to $8 for a ball bearing . Take it to any bearing house and have them match up the old bearing. GD

There aren't any diagnostic tool connections on an '81 Brat . The one's under the dash plug into something - I would ask in the Historic section since your Brat is technically a hold-over from the '79 model year. It might be an accesory you don't have.... but I have no clue really since I don't do Gen I's myself. The one's in the engine bay look to be for AC relays or something as Tom mentioned. Hard to say though since relays generally have a 4 pin plug. Again I'm no expert in Gen I's. I also agree about the door speaker wires - though that car never had door speaks - looks like maybe someone intercepted the speaker wires going to the dash speaker (s?) so they could run them into the door? IDK. Ask in the Historic forum or have the mods move this thread there. GD

EJ oil pans are never gasketed. They are RTV sealed from the factory. Use Ultra Grey. GD

A Loyale will work for the conversion parts. And yes - you should be able to make the computer from an automatic car work. The wiring harness from the automatic will also be compatible with a manual transmission ECU if you want to go that route. It's not hard to find a manual transmission 87 to 89 ECU. I'm sure there are plenty of folks that have one laying around. Shouldn't cost much. GD

That's a LOT of work. More than you understand I suspect. Almost nothing about the EA81 will work - everything will have to be modified. The suspention and brakes will not handle that much power even if you do get it moving. If you aren't working on this project full time - figure probably 6 months of down-time minimum to get it on the road. Probably that much again to work out all the bugs. GD

You could through-bolt it like that - but if it's me - I'm pulling out the welder about now. Capture nuts are screwy enough and already prone to failure without a lot of modification. Since you already have a hole in the floor (), weld that sucker down tight (adding more material in the process) and then tap it oversized. GD