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Dalee1104

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Everything posted by Dalee1104

  1. Yeah more and more evidence pointing towards just needing a new head in whole. What a pain I was hoping for an easy fix lol
  2. That's what I feared lol but it's what I was expecting as well. Appreciate it Sprank
  3. Hey all, so I'll preface by saying this isn't technically for a legacy but as I'm sure you guys are all aware the engines are shared amongst subarus. If not okay please remove this topic. Anywhos, the car in question is a 2001 subaru forester. The previous owner mentioned it has an engine swap from a 2003 subaru outback, intake manifold is still from the forester and whatnot. I'm pretty sure the engine is the same? I got this car for free in exchange for some work, the body is clean, interior is clean, but has a blown 5 speed and the engine has a cylinder 4 misfire. Runs okay, has a uneven idle, a little lumpy, but does still run and drive with no flashing of the engine light. The trans I already have squared away, picking one up this Saturday and going to stuff it in but the engine is more worrisome. I went ahead and did spark plugs and plug wires and when I pulled the cylinder 4 spark plug out the plug was huge. Turns out, it's a spark plug repair kit you can buy at autozone. The cylinder head had been stripped, and the repair kit taps new threads in and uses red loctite to secure a new fitting for the spark plug to thread into. I'm trying to get second opinions on what I should do. I was thinking about doing a leakdown/compression test to see if I'm losing pressure through that plug. Do any of you guys have any experience with these spark plug repair kits? Do they actually work? Am I most likely losing compression on that cylinder causing the misfire? Could the misfire be caused by something else like a coilpack (figured if that was bad id see misfires on all cylinders as its one unit, not coil on plug)? I'm leaning towards the only real way to tell is a compression test or leak down and I will likely chase that. I'm predicting I'm going to have to tear the engine down and replace the cylinder head. I was really hoping it would be something smaller but alas that's the way it goes, so I'm trying to be prepared for whatever the situation is. I greatly appreciate any insight yall can provide!
  4. Damn that's super unfortunate I'm sorry to hear that everything took a turn for the worse for you. I knew that EPA cracking down was going to start affecting people but I hadn't heard of any first hand experiences. I hope all is well with you currently! I know you've been a very active member in this community for some time now. Hearing all those hardships makes me glad I decided to keep my day job and do the cars on the side. I work in the repair industry and it's at least stable so I can keep cars as sort of a hobby on the side but be competent enough to do larger scale jobs with the years of professional mechanic work under my belt. The first start up is always nerve racking though lol
  5. Jesus yeah that makes sense, i always knew overhead was more than meets the eye. My old boss wanted me to take over the business. It was a small shop called subie solutions. It was okay business wise and we always had cars coming in but when I got the numbers in it didn't seem feasible. Everything was a 1099 there and under the table a lot but I wanted to do it right, and to do it right it seemed the business didn't pull in enough customers. With that knowledge I switched gears and bought a house instead, figured you can't go wrong with real estate. Duely noted on the insurance I've always kept that in mind. I try my best to have a great relationship with my customers as well so they know every detail and don't feel inclined to try and screw me over if something does happen
  6. Apologies, I call my garage my shop lol I split ways with my old job at a subaru shop awhile ago as I found you could make more doing it yourself. I was just digging around Google trying to find it but only turbo models come up. I appreciate the info Silverton, it's very much appreciated
  7. Hey all, another 02 outback in the shop for head gaskets. I had a quick question regarding the valve covers, I've been doing too many turbo engines. When bolting the valve covers on does the Ej251 NA engine require any rtv or sealant on any portion of the gasket/valve cover/block? On the turbo models you have to rtv the back half of the valve cover for the sharp bends. I was having a hard time finding any info on this as they all are referring to turbocharged engines. Just wanted to check so I don't bolt this engine together and have an oil leak.
  8. I agree with you completely, and this one was parked for like 4 years lol
  9. Figured I'd give an update or maybe the lack thereof even. I ended up getting fresh gas in it, ran a bottle of HEET through it, and pulled the pcv valve to clean it and make sure it was working okay. Everything was plugging away and checked out but the car still had this weird hesitation when trying to accelerate. My next move was going to be to swap out the throttle body. I've seen this issue at our shop and a quick throttle body swap did the trick, quite curious as there must be a crack in the throttle plate or some clogged ports somewhere despite my efforts on cleaning. This car has been sitting for over 3 years and the customer hadn't even driven it because it wouldn't run. Well we drove it around the block the other day to see if it was really drivable and while it is I discovered the transmission is in pretty bad shape. Binding hard on sharp turns, extremely hard shifts, and just not smooth. With that bit of information the customer decided he didn't want to spend any more money trying to hunt an issue when the car may not even be worth it. It was in really rough shape as it was, he just wanted to see if he could get it going without dumping money into it. And with that the hunt is over on my end, customer is going to drive it as is until it dies and then buy a new car. I appreciate the insight and help searching for this problem yall.
  10. Okay I'll give that a shot thanks for insight Chaz. We are in pnw a couple hours of Seattle so not much elevation. The gas fires surprisingly well here even after sitting a few years but it's less than ideal. I'll try to get all that gas out and get some fresh gas in and update
  11. Apologies for not including all the info. I have seen the 5speeds with the NSS but this one is indeed an auto. I agree on the timing part, I feel at that point I would be seeing some random misfires or really any sort of other indicator but it truly is smooth as hell until it hits that 3k rpm point. It will kind of peg bag and forth if you hold the gas steady. It's 3k, dips down to 2k, revs back up to 3k, and so on until revved hard, or let stumble down to idle to figure it out. I was wondering if old bad gas could be an issue with it as well. I know it's definitely not great. This whole p1507 code I feel is just the result of something else going on. A tad confusing this one
  12. Oh also I might add the previous mechanic replaced the throttle position sensor before he gave up and they towed it here. No codes for it but figured it was worth including
  13. Hey all! I've been a long time member in the 2nd and 4th gen forums but haven't posted much in this one. Backstory on me, I've worked in a subaru repair shop for a few years before leaving and have some ase certs so I can definitely throw some wrenches but this one has me confused. The car in question is a customer's car, a 2003 outback (I know not a legacy but these forums truly are the most helpful). The car has been sitting for multiple years before they towed it here. It has about 190k miles and came in having issues with a p1507 code, idle air control valve failsafe fault. The customer is trying to save as much money as possible so I started with cleaning the throttle body and making sure there is no gunk in the IACV as well. Pulled the IACV and cleaned it and when cleaning I found the piston has actually cracked and basically fell apart. We tried a valve from O'Reilly and matters were worse at no surprise to me. I found the plug wasn't contacting the pins completely and got a code for the voltage being incorrect so cut out the old plug and wired in a new one that actually does snap in place. Returned the O'Reilly valve and got 3 more from a local junkyard still trying to save money. Oem is a 330$ valve and junkyard is 15$ and free for the ones you sneak out lol. I hooked the engine up to my smoke machine and smoke checked for any vacuum leaks, all seems to be nice and tight with no visible leaks. Fuel trims seem to confirm as well as they don't look too far off from what they should be. The car idles beautifully with the oem junkyard IACV but when reved up to about 3k rpms, the car will stumble and start sputtering before it eventually recovers. If you smack the throttle and damn near floor it, it will rev past that point just fine. With that I wanted to pick some of the other members brains here. The code is specifically just the p1507, idles okay, revs hard okay, but typical driving is not okay. I was thinking maybe fuel pressure if the fuel pump was dying or the gas is 3 years old so maybe the gas. But again why would it only trigger just that code in that case? Do yall really think all 4 IACV were bad? That would be some really bad luck which has me thinking something else is going on outside of the idle air control valve. Any and all help is greatly appreciated!
  14. Okay cool I'll keep that in mind. I'm running BC racing coilovers with camber plates and I've previously never had an issue getting to -2° due to how low it sits so I'm hopeful I should be okay
  15. Okay perfect thank you much for the info everybody. I was suspecting something was different but just wasn't sure what. I work at a subaru repair shop and driving the various legacy gts I didn't really notice a huge difference
  16. That's actually what I thought as well I was under the impression that the racks were the same but the spec b has these bump stops on the rack to prevent steering too sharply and rubbing due to the larger wheels? I called 3 different subaru dealerships and got a different part number and answer each time hence coming here lol Does anybody know for sure if the spec b does in fact have a quicker ratio or if they are the same as the legacy gt? They are different part numbers but if they are the same ratio then that would indeed change which direction I may be going. Thank you all for the information of course I really appreciate it!
  17. I'm also wondering how much of a difference this will all really make. I can pick up a 08 legacy gt rack (2.8 turns as opposed to my 2.6) for about 130$. The sti rack looks like I can find for around 600$ and it's running 2.4 turns as opposed to my 2.6. Are any of these big enough changes for me to really notice? With the price difference if they changes are pretty small I may lean towards the legacy gt rack but if a 0.2 difference is super noticeable then I may try and make it work
  18. Thank you for the info! I know the spec b has a quicker ratio than the legacy gt and equivalent to that of an sti of the same age at 2.6 turns I believe while the LGT is 2.8? From what I was reading that 2015+ rack is a 2.4 turn so we are looking at a 0.2 difference either way. I'm feeling really lazy after this engine build so I did plan on just taking it in to my local suspension shop that does my alignments. They said they would install and align it for 350$ so I'll take it. With that said, I'm curious on the sti rack. From that forum it says at minimum I need just the rack but optionally you grind the inner tie rods? Did you end up doing that? Were you able to align the car properly without doing it? I usually get an alignment and just request -2° of camber as the car is lowered and driven pretty aggressively. Just trying to figure out if this is something I can just buy and take to the shop and they can put it in without calling me saying it won't fit
  19. Hello all! It's been quite some time but I'm back with a situation that has genuinely stumped me. The car is a 2008 legacy spec b, fully built, heavily modified, new block so nothing engine related. Anyways I'm looking for a steering rack as mine is starting to leak pretty badly. I've called 3 subaru dealerships now and I have gotten different answers each time or options just over 1,100$. I've managed to boil down the following parts numbers 34110AG07A (spec b rack) 34110AG06A (legacy gt rack) 34110AG05A (OB and legacy racks) I may have the info a little skewed but I believe those are the racks for those particular cars. The spec b rack is in stock but extremely expensive. I'm able to find reman legacy gt racks for a fraction of the price but I can't seem to figure out if there will be any issues from me changing racks. I know the spec b rack has bump stops to clear the larger wheel option the cars came with but other than that is there any other difference than the legacy gt rack? I've also seen people mention to upgrade to a 2015 sti rack but I have no idea if it will bolt up and I also have seen people mention that the improper ratio will cause issues with the VDC system on the car as it uses a steering angle sensor? I have no idea how much truth there is to this statement but any clarification is greatly appreciated. Ideally I'm looking for a solid replacement that will perform just as well as the old rack but actually fits and is relatively affordable
  20. That would be super cool if that works out as a way to get buy for sure. Super cheap and I'd imagine super easy
  21. I know at least the boost pressures are different. My brother has an 05 legacy gt with the vf40 and it makes about 15.5 psi roughly (friend blew the engine so we are building it now) but on my 08 spec b which is basically the same engine minus some changes, the vf46 on that guy is making 18psi regularly and spiking at 19psi some days. Given I am pro tuned with a downpipe but that engine should handle the boost for sure, just not sure on the tuning aspect of it
  22. I've honestly never send a head gasket sealant that works long term. If your in a pinch a lot of people have driller holes in the thermostat to allow the air pockets to pass through and then just carry like 2 gallons of water at all times just in case. Might get you buy but ultimately the engine will have to come out and be repaired. I think an amateur car guy could pull the engine but maybe not tear into the head gasket job? Idk if itll save ya some cash or not but pulling an engine for a seasoned car guy on subarus at least takes about 45 mins to an hour
  23. I would check the thermostat as well but pressurized upper hose and coolant being pushed back out does indeed sound like an internal head gasket leak. The combustion fumes leak their way into the coolant system and push all the fluid out at which point you begin to overheat as the coolant system pressurizes with those combustion fumes. There are a few tricks to get around it in a pinch but they arent always recommended. Also a fore sure way to tell is a coolant test kit. You can buy ones specifically for head gaskets and it basically tests if there are any combustion contaminants in the coolant
  24. There actually is credibility to that at least from what I've seen. We work with a lot of different subarus and the direct injection really does help keep things cooler. Newer wrxs can build power a lot easier compared to the older ones simply because direct injection over mpfi. I've seen people with just a downpipe and a tune making sti numbers or more. That's why I'm excited for the new 2022 sti that they hinted at. Claiming 400whp stock from a new fb24 dit engine with every original weak point on the sti (ringlands, connecting rods, etc.) being completely revised for this engine with much beefier components. REALLY hope its actually true
  25. That actually did sum it up pretty well. Pretty much exactly what I was thinking but just wasnt sure if it was factual. Hot air expands so everything has to work harder to get the same bang for your buck as cold air. I suppose that does explain how your average person wont notice too much due to tech advancements and it makes you wonder if subaru is just behind in the cooling department lol
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