[Mericet]

Started tonight to work on getting the tranny out of the car. Will post pics of the inner carnage as soon as get to the insides.

 

[The_Lizard]

Good luck with it. How do you take it out, drop it from the bottom?

 

[Mericet]

After looking at it, that will be the best way for me to do it.

 

[Mericet]

Well, did some more work tonight. Removed the headers and exhaust in one piece. Also managed to find the drain plug for the gearbox (it was MIA for some time now) and removed the driveshaft.

During the time I removed the car from the towdolly, I also managed to damage the front bumper. But nothing I can not fix.

 

[FMGreen]

I propse you change your username to Macgyver.

 

[The_Lizard]

Does the drain plug have a magnet to catch metal fragments?

 

[Mericet]

Does the drain plug have a magnet to catch metal fragments?

Yes, and it is full of them.

 

[Mericet]

Update!

Well, as can be expected I am not very enthusiastic about this escapade. But with the Camaro runnning like a dream (almost 180K on the clock) it is sometimes difficult to motivate myself.

But, I am close to removing the front driveshafts. Once those are out I only need to remove the 4 lower transmission bolts and the tranny is loose.

TIP: invest in at least one set of 6 ton jackstands when doing this.

 

[The_Lizard]

Well, just to amuse you, I'll tell you that I'm currently driving a 1991 LeSabre while I save up enough money to fix the OB...

 

[Rivalred]

Is whatever going on a common problem?

 

[The_Lizard]

Head gaskets are famous for failing on the DOHC engine. Enter "outback head gasket" into google and read up on the tales of woe.

These days mine blows so much oil on itself that I fear it could catch fire. So I don't drive it much, but dang, it does feel good to drive that 5MT after floating around in that Buick.

Hmm, too bad that Buick's 3800 V6 wouldn't fir in the OB, could be a nice combination.

 

[PTinVT]

Head gaskets are famous for failing on the DOHC engine. Enter "outback head gasket" into google and read up on the tales of woe.

These days mine blows so much oil on itself that I fear it could catch fire. So I don't drive it much, but dang, it does feel good to drive that 5MT after floating around in that Buick.

Can you elaborate? Which years, models? Searches indicate
"older" cars (from 90s) - do I need to worry about this in my 2002 Impreza Outback Sport?

[I'm not THAT worried about it, I've got 30K and will probably be putting about 8K miles per year on the car]

-Peter

 

[Mericet]

Of course, my headgasket problem is a thing of the past. The problem now is something in the gearbox. As soon it is out, I will know what. All indications are there that this car was fairly well abbused before I bought it.

 

[FMGreen]

Frankly I'm shocked that my '97 is showing no signs of Head Gasket problems. No significant oil leakage under the hood, no strange spikes in the oil temp...*knocks on wood*

And as far as I know, the previous owner never had a problem either, so after 144k miles I'm still sitting pretty. At my last oil change I considered going synthetic, but decided against it because I don't want any leakage under the hood from the looser oil, that would make it harder to determine future HG problems.

 

[The_Lizard]

Just keep a close eye on your coolant level, and maybe you'll be lucky enough to avoid trouble.

 

[Mericet]

Update!

The tranny will come out tonight. I probably will not go into the box itself until tomorrow or the weekend.

 

[Mericet]

Tranny is out and the rear extension case is off. Already have 2 gears with broken teeth:8: :11:

 

[bheinz57]

Quit shifting so hard! You broke a bulletproof tranny Brian

 

[Mericet]

Gee Brian, I drove the car no harder than any other car I have owned. I really think I inherited problems the previous owner caused.

 

[bheinz57]

Yes, you did inherit a lot of miles on the Outback. So how is your BAC meters working these days, any new technological developements? Brian