heartless

Gary - for all the bluff & gruff, you really are a pretty decent guy! (shh - I wont tell anyone tho! lol) I was only kidding about the $100 bucks! The engine in the parts car will need a good going over - it has been sitting for several years - and I would much rather do the job right the 1st time and be done with it for a good while. (but very good to know about regreasing the bearings anyway!) By using the parts car motor, I can take my time, and still have my current daily driver on the road while job hunting, etc. (only one more semester of college to go for my associates degree! yay!) and that will save me a ton in gas if I dont have to drive the big Dodge pickup...5.9L, gas sucking pig that it is, it does have it's uses. I only thought of using the motor out of my Legacy because it is known good runner, and just had a full reseal/timing job last summer (only about 18-20K on that), but after a little more thought, it just seems to make more sense (time wise) to use the parts car motor - I am fairly confident in my (our) ability to get it up & running just fine again. It was a runner when we brought it home for use as a parts car - tranny had supposedly been rebuilt, but they forgot an o-ring or something in it, so it wouldnt shift right/move or something..regardless, we got it cheap & didnt need the tranny, so didnt care. There have been a few minor bits & pieces pulled off it over the last 4 years, but nothing we cant handle replacing easily enough. A couple more pics of the new beast - on the trailer just about ready to head home with it... It is now sitting in my driveway, still on the trailer - was pouring down rain when I got home... I am going to miss my sun/moon roof tho...

Thanks for the additional info! Actually now thinking about yanking the 2.2 out of the parts car (a 91 I think) - that one has slightly fewer miles on it, but would need a reseal, timing job done, etc......using it would mean being able to keep my current Legacy on the road until the Forester is ready to go... already have a full gasket set, would just need to get a timing kit for it.... anyone have a spare $100 bucks lying around I could borrow? LOL

Thanks for the replies, guys, much appreciated. Especially the bit about the flexplate - missed that last night. As for getting the EGR setup - I have pretty much a Zero budget as of right now - $350 for the car, and $70 in gas to go get it blew what little i had - will have to make work what I have to work with. I am not adverse to doing a little wire splicing - if it comes to that, and CEL is no big deal around here - no emissions testing to worry about. Overall the Forester is in pretty decent shape for rust prone Wisconsin - just starting to get a little in the left rear wheel well, has a few little dings here & there, but nothing serious - not too bad for a 15 year old Wisconsin car. The biggest "problem" (aside from the motor of course) is the interior could use a good shampooing. LOL Got a spare grill & the Subaru cargo area mat for it as well.

So, madkow keeps a running alert of Subaru's for sale from Craigslist, and this little gem popped up last night... 1998 Forester, automatic...Bad engine - $350 - I am going to pick it up and bring it home today - leaving very shortly in fact. Apparently the po (prior to the guy that has it now) had replaced the head gaskets on it, but didnt bother to torque anything to spec...or so says the guy's mechanic.... So - will be doing a 2.2 swap with my current 1990 Legacy as the donor (known running engine) Is there anything I should be aware of specific to this model - and/or doing the swap? I did a bit of research last night, and know I need to swap over the throttle body & intake harness from the dead 2.5 to the 2.2 so things will plug in - what else? Tranny should be the same, right? 4EAT?

Survey taken. Happy to help out a fellow student.

Trico single edge type here - but - do NOT get the ones with the offset mounts! they perform very poorly on the down swing (i got talked into a set recently, they were cheaper than the ones I usually go for - bad move) get the ones with mounting points that look like the pic 1 Lucky Texan posted. I have tried all different styles because of lifting on the down swipe on my 90 Legacy at speeds over 40 mph - leaving streaks/smears behind... the good quality single edges do the best of any I have tried.

that is all well & good - the problem is I do not have the extra cash to spend on this. I have none - zero, zip, zilch, nada. It might only be $200, but that is money I do not have. I dont even have $50 to spend on this - but I do have plenty of metal out in the garage - including some aluminum.

being a 1990 - mine is non-interferrence, so no worries there. I dont offroad (altho some of our roads seem like offroad trails at times) so the chances of going thru deep mudholes is pretty slim...being faced with deep snow, however, IS a fairly common occurance up here and I dont care to have to do this stuff in the cold if I dont have to. But - do I really want to go to all the hassle of putting covers back on - or... would fabricating some kind of skid plate suffice....

Numbchux & kingbobdole - thanks for the validation. LOL, yup - that is how I managed to strip several teeth on my old EA wagon - first time I ever did a timing job on one, didnt change the oil seals when in there (my fault entirely) and about a couple months later was left stranded on the side of the highway with a bad timing belt that had been completely saturated with oil...

Ok, perhaps "argument" wasnt the best phrase - cause I am not trying to start an argument, per se..."talking points" may be a better choice of words. Dont know what else it could have been, Gary - car was running fine until I got into the deep snow, then it stalled & refused to restart. Did pop the hood while waiting on a tow (was only yards from my own driveway), and there was quite a bit of snow packed up under there... It was cold & windy, so it sat off to one side of the drive until the weather was more cooperative, and what you see above is what I discovered when I did get to it. Now, I have personally never had one jump time for no particular reason - break a belt, yes - strip teeth due to oil saturation, yes - jump time because it wasnt done correctly (happened within the first couple hundred miles of the job being done by someone that knew diddly squat about subarus) - yes...but not one that was done right & for no other "apparent" reason. If you have another plausible explanation as to whay it would jump time suddenly, I am all ears. I can agree with the "rusted up" fasteners - been there, done that. I had an EA82 before with rusty, stuck fasteners, and the embedded nuts that turned, and oh yeah - loads of fun...I live in the northern half of Wisconsin - plenty of salt gets used up here, too - you dont have the market cornered on that one. But I also know I have been thru deeper snow than is pictured above - with the same car - when the car still had its covers and had no problems whatsoever. Granted, this is all personal experience here - not saying that everyone should keep their covers, or not based solely on my experience - it is purely up to them what to do in that respect. I am simply sharing my experience, and will let others draw thier own conclusions.

That choice was kind of made for me a couple years ago. Several board members came up and helped me yank the motor & do a reseal job - and we did a complete timing job while we were at it, since it was close to being due...anyway, the covers kind of disappeared, cause that is the preference of the main person that was helping.... Next time it is due, I may put a set back on - in the meantime, I will be a bit more cautious about driving in deep snow!

the above car is a daily driver - it goes to school, to town for groceries, etc, etc...I do not offroad with it (even if it looks like I do) - but I do need it to be able to handle the deep snow (because our township cant plow frequently enough). the timing covers weigh much less than a full skid plate would - and with gas prices the way they are - I opt for the weight savings - thanks. A few years ago, before the covers came off, I drove a lot further (8.25 miles -vs- a couple hundred yards) thru snow just as deep, and deeper, with no problems at all (and no skid plate...) Eh, woulda, shoulda, coulda...its all a moot point now - it is fixed & running again - thank goodness - cant afford to put gas in that beast of PU truck anymore! If you are gonna go that far - just go the full skid plate route - it would accomplish the same thing with less aggrivation.

Hey gang - long time no visit, and lots of changes I see! Anyway, just wanted to share a recent experience. I know a lot of folks here like to run "naked" timing belts, and that is fine if that is what you like. Heck, mine are naked - but I now have an argument for keeping the covers - and I may replace mine... Coming home the other evening, I was faced with this on my road: Normally, I dont even think about it, just keep moving and it is all good. Made it thru basically the same mess the evening before with no issues - not quite as deep, but close. (snowfall of only 3-5 inches, but 30+ mph winds making for interesting driving conditions - and the road was plowed out that morning) But this time was a little different, about halfway thru the deep stuff, the engine died and there I sat. Long story short(er) - the snow was deep enough to get caught up in the timing belts and caused it to jump time - pretty badly... It was finally warm enough out to do something with it today, and this is what I found...Crank pulley mark is set to 12 o'clock... The two cam pulleys were not... Drivers side: and passenger side: Now granted, no covers made fixing the problem easier - BUT - I wouldnt have had a problem if the car had still had covers on it.... So, in conclusion, the choice is yours to run covers, or not, and I certainly wont condemn those that dont. Just a word of caution if deep snow conditions are a regular occurance for you, as they are for me...

putting a fuse in the holder under the hood puts the car in FWD mode - but it ONLY works if the car is running! Flat bed tow is the best option for an AWD Subaru - unless you want to crawl under the car and disconnect the driveshaft.... for brake fluid replacement - go pick up a cheap turkey baster at the dollar store. suction out as much of the exsting brake fluid as you can - replace with clean, new brake fluid. after addressing the pads, calipers, rotors, etc, bleed all four brake lines until clean new fluid flows thru* - making sure to keep the resevior topped off throughout the procedure. Done There is a specific order in which this is supposed to be done - make sure you are working in that order! I want to say Right Rear, Left Front, then Left Rear, Right Front... somebody please correct me if I am wrong - it has been a while...

yup, perfectly normal in cold weather. annoying, but normal

That little bit of rust is nothing compared to what we deal with up north. on the CEL codes - start with the first one, address that issue, then reset, see if any of the others come back. If they do, start again with the first code, and repeat until all codes stay cleared. It is not unusual for only 1 problem to throw multiple codes.

1990 Legacy LS wagon, EJ22, AWD, 4EAT, currently has a tad over 230,000 on the clock, northern half of Wisconsin...Most of my driving is country roads, with some city driving thrown in (I live 10 miles from anything, 15 miles to "small town" & 30 miles to the nearest town of any size) Summer average - 28-29 mpg average, mixed driving Winter average - drops to 24-25 mpg average, mixed driving. factoring winter blend gas, and extended warm-up periods, this about right. Not a huge "lead-foot" but dont putz around like grandma, either. I did break the 30mpg barrier once, during a freeway run.

We have a TON of HF "stuff" and I agree with most of what has been said already. the 4.5" angle grinder is JUNK - plastic gears in the head - major fail. The shop crane/cherry picker - WIN! possibly the most useful tool we have purchased from them. The welder that was posted is ok, does a decent job for the low price, but we just sold ours since the other half bought a nice Hobart recently The spring compressor set - they do work, but we trashed one set by trying to use an impact gun on it (ate the threads)....went and got another set and only use hand tools (ratcheting wrenches are great!) - works fine, just a bit slower. Have a large assortment of odd shaped wrenches - regular stubbies - both SAE and metric, "S" wrenches - both types, offset boxends - both types, and various others - all do the job, perhaps not as precisely cut as say Craftsman wrenches, but for the price and infrequency of use, they do the job. Have a pretty large assortment of impact sockets from HF as well including these items: http://www.harborfreight.com/13-piece-12-drive-sae-deep-wall-impact-socket-set-67903.html http://www.harborfreight.com/13-piece-12-drive-metric-deep-wall-impact-socket-set-69279.html http://www.harborfreight.com/4-piece-12-drive-impact-extension-set-67972.html They have been used and abused & held up pretty well over the years - have only cracked one in a particularly stubborn situation. the 1/2 drive "Earthquake" Impact gun is not bad for occasional use, just remember to keep it well oiled! (we had the older version that cost less & lasted many years - the newer version just doesnt seem quite as robust...) http://www.harborfreight.com/12-professional-air-impact-wrench-68424.html The other half stumbled upon a really good deal for an Ingersoll-Rand model (requires a LOT more air flow), so we use that more than the new Earthquake model now that we have a bigger compressor. =) We also picked up the Goodyear 50 ft airhose from HF - not that long ago - believe we paid like $20 for it...excellent quality. We also had purchased one these: http://www.harborfreight.com/1500-lb-capacity-atv-motorcycle-lift-2792.html but it doesnt work so good when the exhaust runs partially under the bike as with older Japanese inline 4 cyl bikes (of which we have several)...would work fine on a v-twin or something where the exhaust runs off to one side - in fact, sold this to a buddy that had a V-twin Kawasaki Vulcan - he likes it.

Dont write that oak off yet... If you clean the wood thouroughly and then give it a bleach/water treatment, it would more than likely be fine. Several years ago I bought a large bundle of 2x4's that had gotten moldy (not sure how/why, but they were moldy - some were downright nasty) Took it to the local car wash and pressure washed every last stick. Brought it home, mixed up a spray bottle of 1/3 bleach to 2/3 water. laid several spacer 2x4's on the floor of the garage to keep the wood elevated, lay out a layer of the 2x4's with space between each piece, spray liberally with the bleach mixture on all sides, lay a set of spacers, another layer of the wood, spray with the bleach mix, and repeat until all wood has been treated. The key is to have space between each and every piece so there is good air circulation. I used those 1" x 1/4" lathe strips for spacers between the layers - worked fine. Allowed it to dry completely and thoroughly - about 2 weeks - and it was fine. I did re-stack it once to move the spacers slightly so that area could dry properly. it never developed the mold again, and it has been used to rebuild both our front and back enclosed porches with zero issues, and with some left over yet. We did have a few pieces get pretty warped, but they worked just fine as smaller filler pieces between door/window framing and top plate. =)

yup, that would be the procedure. and as it says, be very careful pushing the glass out - it will crack if you put too much pressure in one spot. as a side note - i had to replace a cargo area glass on my old GL wagon once - had Auto Glass Specialists (the little red truck guys) do the job for me - $50 to pull (times 2 - broken one, and replacement), $50 to install - had a parts car on the premises to obtain the glass from. Total cost: $150 saving myself the headaches and aggravation: priceless

that was cool :cool:

yes, which rear side window are you referring to? the one that goes up & down, in the door? the little quarter window on a sedan, behind the door? or the cargo area side window on a wagon? the first one is the one held in place by two nuts. the other two are glued in, and can be rather difficult to remove.

my first reaction was "ewww" - but then I started reading, and looking closer at the pics. Definitely not my cup of tea, but the creativity, time and thought that went into that car - well, hats off to the guy. It is definitely different, that is for sure! I do have to say that the uses of the skateboard wheels = pretty cool.

Um, this can be done in an automatic, too...I do it all the time. just slip the lever down a gear... It doesnt particularly like it when the tranny is still cold, but works a treat when fully warmed up. I would not recommend doing it at speed, but slow down a bit, downshift, and let the engine slow you more. 1990 Legacy AWD, 2.2, 4EAT -

two words - Plumbers grease. I use the plumbers grease, which is a silicone based lubricant, to lube up the slide pins on my brakes. It lasts longer than the stuff they sell at the autoparts store, is waterproof, and does not cause the rubber boots to swell & cause binding. (also useful on O-rings) I had to replace the pins & boots on my car due to neglect by the po. Used the plumbers grease on them during installation more than 3 years ago, and have not had any problems with the pins trying to seize. I do relube when I do a pad replacement, just to make sure, but in my experience, there was still plenty of lube on the pins after more than a year.