Ross

Also news to me -- I have a 1995 JDM EJ25, and I always assumed it had hydraulic lifters as if it sits for a while (a week or two) it'll make what sounds like valve clatter when it is started, lasting a second or two.... Do some have hydraulic lifters?

No, I'm not concerned, the motor is out because I'm doing a little juggling around with two crap cars to make one good one. Just had a peak for interests sake and thought it looked a little abnormal. It may well have more carbon build up than normal due to the misfire it had (spark plugs -- hopefully....). In any case, I'm not doing anything about it, it's a good engine and it'll be going straight back in once I've stopped it leaking from every orifice..

Just looking at the tops of my (Ej25 DOHC) pistons through the spark plug holes, they look much rougher than I've seen pistons looking before. The surface almost looks pitted/corroded. Many small 'craters', between 0.5mm and 2mm-ish in diameter, not very deep looking. Similar on all pistons. No mechanical damage to spark plugs so it's not like there have been any foreign objects in there. All this is just from looking through the spark plug hole so it's hard to tell exactly what I'm seeing.... The motor runs fine (well, it missfired a bit, but I'm attributing that to the ancient spark plugs with 1.4mm gaps...).... ANy Ideas?

OK I've come across some more info that might clear this up a bit. Seems the early VLSD units had the viscous clutch in the center, and required the second spline on the end of one axle. The center also looks very different to an open one. Some time about 1999 they changed to a VLSD with the center clutch between the carrier and one of the side gears -- exernally, this looks very similar to an open diff. The additional spline on the end of one axle is not needed with this design. So it looks like both types are a viscous lsd, they just changed it in ~'99, possibly so that the same axles could be used on lsd/non lsd diffs...? So it seems the mystery may be solved. I wonder if either Viscous unit is 'better' than the other......

No, you don't want to tighten teh spring down fully. There needs to be some springeyness in it for the flex joint to work, just not as much as you have. The shoulder is so that you can tighten the nut up so that it doesn't come loose, without fully compressing the spring. You could put more spacers on the spring head with your bolts (so that it almost, but not completely compresses it), although that might make it difficult to get the nut started....

As long as you are not using an imperial socket on it, it should be obvious.... If you ARE using an imperial socket set, stop it and buy a metric one!! Bolt head sizes on subarus (and most Japanese cars) tend to be: 8mm, 10mm, 12mm, 14mm, 17mm, 19mm.

Find a bit of th ehead gasket that you can see (around the front coerner of the engine there is a good spot IIRC). The original ones are a single layer fibrerous looking thing, and are carbon coloured. The replacement ones are a multi layer metal gasket, you should be able to see the multiple layers. You likely wont see any singns of HG failure in the oil on the EJ25, just look at the coolant. As you mentioned check for bubbles in the radiator, altough if the coolant level is lowish you may see bubbles even when there is no HG failure. Smelling the radiator overflow tank is a good way to check for a blown HG IMO. If it has a blown head gasket, it will smell like exhaust gases. Otherwise it should just smell sweet like anti-freeze.

Looks like what was on my old '81 wagon. The front one is just a collector, I think it is completely hollow. It helps make sure both cylinder banks see the same exhaust back pressure fluctuations. The second one is a straight through resonator muffler -- it quietens things down a bit, and doesn't really restrict flow. You could remove either/both of them, and it wont do much/any harm, but it wont gain you anything either..... I wouldn't worry about the water, if there is no holes then the worst it will have done is corrode the baffle tube in the resonator, reducing it's noise reduction performance but not leading to any adverse flow restrictions...

It came from a 1997 JDM legacy GT-B. Problem is, I don't think you got anything like that in the USA AFAIK. They share most of the driveline components with WRX STis of the same era.... I'm also not 100% sure that it is actually the original diff from that car, it may have been swapped at some stage for all I know....

Also, can anyone confirm that on a VLSD I should be able to see the spider gear shaft if I look through the side gear/axle holes? On my diff, I can see right through to the other side, there is no shaft running across the hole, just a smaller diameter splined hole in the middle. From what I gather, this means that I have a clutch lsd... correct?

OK so I've found this picture on another forum, which would seem to explain why there is another, smaller splined hole in the center of my lsd. Do these look familiar to anyone? My non lsd axles certainly don't have that extra spline, so looks like I'll need to get new axles.

Hey all, Just in the middle of a manual conversion on my 1995 250t, I have a rear diff with an LSD to go in where an open diff used to be. If possible, I'd like to retain my current axles, and perhaps modify them if required... So I've found through searching that there is a difference in the axles between LSD and open diffs, but can't find any info on exactly what the difference is, save for a vague reference to the LSD ones being 'shorter'. If anyone has, or can get, photos or (even better) dimensioned sketches of them so that I could compare with my current ones it'd be appreciated.....

Subaru has sold FWD ej15, ej18 etc. powered imprezas and legacys over here for a long time, and they have never sold terribly well. There is a good reason for this. Q: If you wanted a small engined hatchback that runs on a oily rag, why would you buy a subaru? A: You wouldn't. You would have to be mad. You can get a toyota for much cheaper, that will use less fuel and (dare I say it) probably last better as well. Or you could get a suzuki swift for even less. Subaru has it's own niche that has worked VERY well for them over the years -- although perhaps not so much in the US as everywhere else. In towns near ski fields here almost half of all the cars driving around are Subarus. I'm not exaggerating. Trying to compete with the likes of Toyota and Suzuki in the areas they specialise could do the Subaru brand quite a bit of damage, since they really wouldn't be competitive.

I've got a 1995 250t wagon that I'm currently fixing up. The ABS system does not function (It's got the 5.3 system), and the light on the dash does not light up (ever). I'm thinking that the previous owner probably took the ABS light out to get a warrant of fitness after the ABS unit stopped working -- obviously this wont work to get a warrant of fitness from any but the dumbest mechanics, since they are supposed to check that the ABS self check works. Before I go taking the gauge cluster out to look for a blown or removed bulb, is there anything else (that's easyer to get to) that could cause the light not to work?

Cheers -- sounds good. Another question: Do I need the starter motor from the manual car? OR will the auto one still fit?

I'm going to put a 5 speed STI box in my 1995 250t wagon (2nd gen), which currently has an automatic transmisison. I tow my suzuki Samurai with this car so I wanted a strong box with low gearing. I've done quite a lot of searching on the matter, and am finding conflicting information on a couple of points: -Will I need the transmission crossmember from the manual car? -Will I need the halfshafts/drive axles from the manual car? The list I currently have is: Gearbox Rear diff Driveshaft Pedal Box Centre console Clutch etc. Clutch Slave etc. Flywheel Anything else missing? Cheers.

Free to a good home!

Hey Waimaks, I have a set of three (yes, three, someone stole one!! ) of those 14" SSR wheels, identical except chrome instead of gold. If you (or anyone else) want one/some/all of them for spares let me know.

So are you saying that the dash gauge reads 18V but you've independently measured the battery voltage to be 14V?

BTW, is this for the one you got off me? How is it inside, had it blown a HG or something?

Pretty sure you can use hydraulic and solid heads interchangeably, but you do need to keep the pushrods and lifters together as a set -- using pushrods from a hydraulic setup with solid lifters leads to drastically changing tappet clearances as the engine warms up. Pushrods from hydraulic lifter engines are all steel, ones from solid lifter engines are aluminium with steel end caps -- this ensures the pushrods expand with temperature at the same rate as the aluminium block (not important when you use hydraulic lifters). So far as I can remember, that and the different sized valves are the only differences....

The VR is of the internal IC type. The vehicle has two near new batteries in it so should be fine there. I'll find another alternator, but I am still rather perplexed that this has happened twice in a row now.... seems an odd coincidence, but these things do happen. Cheers.

Small cracks are argualbly not worth worrying about in that area. However, if you noticed them without a really good clean and close inspection I'd be inclined to find some more heads. Any ea81 head will fit, but there are some differences you'll want to look into. There are two different sizes for the valves, you'll probably want to check that your spare heads don't have smaller ones than your originals... You can still use them in any case, but there will be a minor performance difference. Where on the heads are these extra bolt holes?