GeneralDisorder

You will not be using the gaskets that are original to that engine. You will be ordering gaskets for a 2006 STi. Part number ending in 642 or 770. They are entirely different gaskets from what was used on your model from the factory. Your engine didn't get these gaskets till 2011. GD

Pull the EGR valve off and check for blockages - if you find none then you most likely need to replace the Back Pressure Transducer. It's the plastic UFO looking thing above the EGR valve on a bracket. They fail on the regular. Dorman makes replacements for like $25 GD

There would be no code if it just needed a flush. GD

Well when I go off road I don't consider I'm doing it right if I don't break stuff. EA suspension doesn't have enough damping on its own. GD

I actually have hit stuff that hard, and it bends the strut housings to a banana shape and the front wheels camber in.... the foam wouldn't stop that kind of force. GD

He mentions torque bind and 99% of the time that's going to be a duty-c code. GD

All this screwing around..... can you just work some extra hours at your job and buy a Weber? Would be more efficient. You can do a Weber for like $250. That's really cheap. GD

The duty-c solenoid has likely failed. Check the resistance through the solenoid coil. And seafoam is a waste of time. Especially since sooner or later you will end up replacing the head gaskets on that short-cycled 25D and then you can clean the combustion chamber and piston tops by hand anyway. GD

Use ONLY the Subaru OEM 642 or 770 gaskets for the turbo models. Don't use anything that is sold for your engine. Nothing else will work long term, and nothing else will provide better sealing than the 770. GD

The switches fail ALL THE TIME. They leak from the electrical connector. The grey one. We replace them on every HG job. If they get touched in any way - even to unplug them - they get swapped out. Dealer stocks dozens. GD

The deck is never a problem from the point of flatness. The block is just too rigid to warp in that way really. Unlike vintage American stuff, the machine work is never a problem on the Subaru engines. Like as not that Ford 302 was manufactured with the decks wrong. The Subaru deck can have pitting in the area of the fire ring, but unless you completely dissasemble the engine, decking it with conventional techniques is pretty much impossible due to contamination of the oil passages, cylinders, etc. And point in fact we rarely deck used blocks even when they are completely torn down. It's just not an issue. GD

No. Nothing will directly swap. They are entirely different drivetrains. The whole car is wider. GD

Sure. More airflow via less restriction = better performance. But how does the filter achieve this? By having bigger holes in it. Which equals more engine wear. No surprises here. Besides K&N - none of the aftermarket intake manufacturers use oiled cone filters for example - Cobb, Grimmspeed, AFE.... all dry element. The Amsoil panel filters were made by Donaldson. Might start there with trying to find the synthetic dry filters with the lowest price. I think they manufacture under several name brands. GD

Very few drivetrain parts interchange directly. GD

It's not paper. They are a woven synthetic fiber. K&N has a huge marketing department. Doesn't make their product worth a $hit. The problem with them really is that the theory is kinda sound but the implementation is extremely variable based on using exactly the right amount of oil on the media. Tests have been done and the results are very poor with too little oil, restrictive and sensor fouling with too much oil, and the sweet spot is extremely hard to achieve and is fleeting at best. They take a long time to clean compared to an synthetic dry fiber filter that you can blow out in about 45 seconds of compressed air. It's pretty simple really - no OEM's use this technology. And the reusable dry synthetic fiber filters blow them away in performance and are much cleaner and easier to maintain. GD

Do not attempt to straighten the heads. Just leave them be and surface them flat. You can't straighten them - they don't warp like that. They lift away from the deck and are cupped in the center, not warped in a way that can be straightened. GD

COG isn't a problem for any of the LS equipped GM sports cars - Corvette and F body both handle very well. Even my gen-1 small block equipped F body will easily out handle a Subaru. 35mm front sway bar FTW. The engine design isn't a problem if it's designed and positioned correctly. GD

Eh - I don't think it would work well - the T-tops on my Trans Am are definitely best in fair weather - if you go through a car wash you get a shower - and this is even mentioned in the owners manual as being pretty much expected and normal. Being that Subaru's are really best suited to inclement weather it really doesn't fit. They worked on the Brat because they didn't extend to the door glass like you are proposing, and like my Trans Am is built. GD

Just use brake cleaner. It's cheaper. Same thing basically. AND GET RID OF THE STUPID K&N! Worst idea ever on a MAF car. MAF sensors are much too expensive to be damaging then with cheeeeesy K&N filter oil. They don't even filter that well. Especially when they have relatively little oil in them to "save" the sensors. Completely stupid. The synthetic paper element panel filters from like Cosworth, and others are what you want. They cost about the same and you can blow them out and reuse them for like 100k miles easily. Unfortunately Amsoil discontinued their dry panel filters due to poor sales. GD

Gasoline and a match works really well for cleaning oiled air filters. Step two is to buy a proper synthetic paper element panel filter. GD

Been a long time since we did that. I'll have to check. I believe he still has the jig for it. You would have to ask though. He has moved his shop since we did that one several years ago. The car had a broken up-pipe/header and they are NLA from Subaru. GD

Steven at Inferno Fabrications can and has done lots of EA headers. Including EA82T. GD

They aren't targeting customers like you. Neither am I. You have a 15 year old car that you maintain yourself and a lifestyle that is willing to be interrupted by failures. "Don't fix it unless it breaks" is one philosophy - one that is *sometimes* successful in saving a tiny little bit of money. But over here in the real world where people rely on their cars to arrive at their place of work where they get paid far in excess (amortized) of the savings from attempting their own repairs, missing work, and paying tow bills, etc.... it doesn't pencil out to be profitable. Not to mention - no military, aviation, government, or other important organization has ever concluded that preventative maintenance is a bad idea long term. And generally speaking we are a specialized society. I fix cars. Someone else bakes my bread, and some other guy cobbles my shoes. Just how it's done friend. If you do it for funsies that's fine - but don't be mistaken that you are saving money. You are trading time - and time is often more valuable, and is directly proportional to money at some rate. We do a lot of preventative maintenance and we pride ourselves on keeping our customers fleets at a full state of readiness at all times. GD

No. It's an all-or-nothing swap. Buy a wrecked donor car. 02 to 05 WRX/STi. Don't go past 2005 WRX or 2004 STi or you enter the no-mans-land of immobilizer keys. GD

Turbo swap is GOING to be at least $10k. Also not really conducive to a lifted wheeling application. Just do a high compression dual-cam 2.5. Can get up around 200 HP. We have a custom engine we do that gives around 200 HP out of the 25D heads using a 257 bottom end. I have a customer with one in a lifted Forester that gets 28 MPG. GD