BushmasterSI

Awesome! I'll look into it.

Thanks. I'm not 100% sure, but most of the crud and fluid looks like it's coming from the back of the pump. It could also be seals on the hose connections, but I haven't removed them.

I used the OEM set from 1st Subaru. Everything's been working great. In fact, I just got back from the emissions inspection shack and it passed with flying colors. Thanks for everybody's help here!

Mine's started the chewy song too. It's leaking though. Is it easy/worth rebuilding with new seals or should I just replace it?

I finished my first hg job 2 weekends ago and I also got smoke from the manifolds. It smoked like a mofo for a few minutes and had me worried, but it eventually stopped. I'm pretty sure it was just grease burning off where I got it dirty with my hands. My father-in-law suggested that it could also be the exhaust gaskets burning. The smoke might be related to your issue, but I'd look for electrical connectors or vacuum lines not connected first. Good luck!!

After my head gasket job, I had a DTC of P1507 which the FSM said was the Idle Air Control Solenoid valve. I removed it and cleaned it thoroughly with electrical contact cleaner and I think I've solved the problem. The valve was gummed up with grease/crud from the crankcase gasses. Before I cleaned it it had a slight resistance when turning it manually and aftwerwards there was no resistance at all. It's been a day since I cleaned it. Hopefully the CEL won't come on anymore. Here are some pics: The IAC valve is in the center under the big black PCV hose. It's got the grey three pin connecter connected to it. I broke the PCV tee by pulling too hard on the line. It came loose and I broke it. I should have used pliars or a screwdriver to pry it off instead of pulling

Here are some pics of the project. The 'sick bay' The bad gaskets. You can see where they failed on the right side of the left and the left side of the right one. They were the same on the other side. A close up of the failed gaskets. We kept everything organized and marked so it goes back in the same hole. I cleaned the tops of the pistons off. The front before we replaced everything. The cleaned and machined heads. I'm getting a P1507 now, which I think must be related to the IAC motor/valve. I'll have to diagnose that.

It's alive!!! Yesterday I finished my HG project. My suby runs stronger than I can remember! And best of all, no more overheating!!! I ended up replacing the tbelt and all the tbelt pulleys along with the water pump. Setting the timing was really pretty easy. We got it all put back together, filled it with liquids, and then held our breaths as we cranked it. It fired right up, but had a bad valve clatter on the right head. It smoked quite a bit from the new gaskets and grease on the exhaust. It threw code P1507 Idle Control Aux Inputs. We cleared the code and after a couple of shake down runs it's been running fine. I think that the clatter was because there wasn't much oil in the right hand head. We cranked it several times before putting the spark plugs in until the oil light went out, but I guess it wasn't enough. Next time, I'll take the PCV off the right head and add some oil in there cause the left one gets all the oil as you fill. We did use assembly lube/grease on all the cams journals and lifters, but I guess it needs a healthy bath of oil. I'll post some pics tonight. It feels awesome to put it all back together, turn the key, and hear it run just right.

Thanks again!

Comparing the valve trains, mine is the B13 because it doesn't use rockers. Still where do you get this code from?

Ok guys, sorry to keep piling on the dumb questions here, but maybe this will serve others as well... On opposedforces.com they have you choose from three options for the OBW: B11 '93, October — '99, May B12 '99, February — '06, April B13 '03, November — What does the B11 code stand for? I assume it's a manufacturing run or something like that. How do I know which model my car is? The FSM vin decoder doesn't give this info, and it only gives the manufacture year. I didn't see it anywhere on the car either. I could have overlooked it though. Thanks again!

That's an awesome domain name!

Great! How accurate are they?

What do you think of graphite head gaskets in general? I prefer to go with OEM. I'm thinking of getting one of these cheap kits and using everything except for the head gaskets. Has anyone done it before?

So far I've only really looked at 1st Subaru, but I found this gasket set on Ebay. What do you think? Has anybody used them? It looks too good to be true - you get what you pay for. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=260442875520&viewitem= Thanks