Tlag

That's aggressive. I like that :)

I was going to refurb one once. Got it out of the car, drained the fluid, lay it on its side and removed one side of the casing. Took one look and replaced the cover before sending it away. What ever is in there is black magic and I'm not messing with it :) Seriously though, take your time with loads of pics and you should be ok.

Hi, welcome along. Being a relatively rare car, it may prove difficult finding owners on a forum. Have to say though, I have always had a soft spot for them. :)

The seal on my black GTB has also lifted although not leaking yet. When it does, I will try silicone too to re seat it.

That's bad news indeed. Sounds like a real Frankenstein motor. I wonder what the real history of it is.

Pulling the earth off the battery for about 30 mins will reset the ecu. The downside of that is that your radio will probably lose it's memory. I agree with Gambit. Using the green plugs is the factory way, but the battery way is less hassle.

Haha, I wasn't aware of that particular etiquette. Maybe it's a forester thing :)

Hi and welcome. With the engine running at idle, unplug the MAF. If the MAF has had it, the engine will run on without issue. If the MAF is a good one, the engine will falter and maybe even stall. However, if the running issues are fine but the engine rocks from side to side, it's probably got a broken engine mount.

Good work! Looks stunning too.

Just take your time and you will be fine. It is vital that all bolts are tightened to the correct torque settings or problems will occur down the line. Use graphogen paste between all moving parts when you build it, dont go mad with sealant and you should be fine. The head compatability issue: The later heads (V5 onwards I think) have a different bolt pattern to the earlier ones for the inlet manifold. Yours will be the later ones. Yes, the 2.5 STI,s have AVCS which you should steer clear of

Not sure whats going on here. I shouldnt like it because I dont like the evo X looks. This looks so much like it at the front, but I like it. The back, I'm not so sure about though. It may grow on me.

250 miles with a 1/4 tank to go! I can only dream of those type of things. In fairness, my Legacy twin turbo is a bit different to your car, but I only get about 21mpg generally. 25mpg on a long steady run. Not with use of the fun pedal though. ;) I would have thought 28-30mpg was pretty achievable on yours. Probably a few more if being careful.

As Gambit says. The easiest route is to replace the whole engine. You would need different heads anyway and with your engine having so many miles on it, it would be easier. You will need the wiring loom, ecu, solenoid sytem that controls the turbo and of course the turbo itself, exhaust manifold, exhaust sytem. If you could get an accident damaged Impreza turbo, the easiest way is to swap everything from the Impreza. The cheapest way to do this is to sell your car and buy a turbo forester. You then just need to get it mapped to get it up to impreza power.

The temp gauge needle should be approximately in the middle and should stay put once up to temp. Some sit below the middle and some in the middle. Yours is too high to be normal. Before you drive it next, check your coolant levels. Top up if needed. Then go for a normal sort of drive until at least its up to temp. When you stop, before turning the engine off, open the bonnet and lift off the yellow cap on the expansion bottle just at the top right of the rad in your engine bay pic. When you look inside, you should see a handful of tiny bubbles and the coolant being fairly static and at the normal level. If you see the water bubbling, frothy and higher than normal, you have a problem. It means you have suspect head gasket failure. The way to confirm this is to get a sniff test done at a garage. No point looking for oil/coolant mix type mayo in the oil filler cap. Scoobies dont do that very often. I think the rad on yours looks like the normal one. It dosn't matter anyway. In fact, it makes bleeding the air out much easier. Ref, your earlier comment about changing the water pump. By all means do that, but take the opportunity to replace the timing belt at the same time. It has to come off anyway to change the water pump. Obvioulsy, if the head gaskets need doing, it will all come off anyway.

That's the Alps and was taken on our Epic Run in 2011. That's Adams car behind mine :)

Thought it was about time I added to this :D Heres my old RS saloon. Badly miss it :( The old meets the new (new one is directly in front. Bips to the right)

Standard gaskets on a car of your age were the paper/cardboard type. Later cars had the metal multi layer ones which are better. The general rule is always skim the heads when doing the gaskets on Subarus.

Sounds like head gaskets again. Usually happens if the heads were not skimmed last time

That's the metallic version of cashmere. Bips is a flat colour. I think the metallic was only available as an option on the s-edition. Great looking car and rare as hens teeth. Good luck with the sale

That's the ones. They come with bushes already inserted

Sounds to me like the near side issue is a worn bush at the top of the drop link and the off side issue is the bush at the bottom of the drop link. If that's the case, a pair of drop links will sort it out which can be got from import car parts for standard ones, or upgrades from various sources.

Happy New Year everyone. 2014 is going to be a blast :)

Not really sure until I get a dashboard to pieces, how to proceed. I made a bezel a few years ago for a carpc. I was quite pleased with the way it came out. (Bezel, not the PC). I wish now that I had done it in the air vents then. The PC project failed because I used the double din slot, which is quite low in the console and difficult to see.

I'm thinking about deleting the centre air vents and setting it in that area. I'd need to fabricate a bezel of some sort for it, so it kind of resembles a modern cars sat nav/I drive type thing.

That touchscreen thing I found, the sensors are all wired to a central box which can be hidden behind the dash. Then it's one wire from the box to the screen. No messing with OBD or ecu. Sounds good to me :)