Legacy GT going under the knife today

Hey all...

Took my scooby to my local tech this morning, getting some leaky oil seals taken care of (cam seal and some other seal on the crankshaft failed and need replacement... leak's not huge, but it is giving a stink cuz it lands on the exhaust system when in motion). They're also going to be taking care of replacing my timing belt. Everyone I've talked to who's knowledgeable says that they might as well, seeing as how they will be RIGHT NEXT TO IT during the repair, and it'll be due for replacement in 15,000 miles anyway.

The next wear and tear item that I'll keep my eye on down the road are my valve cover gaskets. I don't know how many my 98 has (I'm assuming there are two for my phase 1 engine). What's involved in replacing the gaskets if I wanted to do this myself? They're damp, but they might stay damp for another few months.

Later!

-ryu_handea

Subaru wannabe NO LONGER! Now an owner

valve cover gaskets dont take long at all. there are 2 of em on the motor, one on each head. the valve covers are only about 1/2 to 3/4 inch thick, which is the very "outer" part of the 2 heads..

just remove the few bolts that hold the vlave cover on and then remove the gasket, a little cleaning and put the new gasket on with the cover.

if your spark plug wires/boots go through the valve cover, get hte gaskets for them as well, they should be cheap. a way to tell if these are leaking is if you pull the spark plug wire off and on the "boot" that goes into the engine to the spark plug, has oil on it.

and your correct, if your replacing cam and crank seals, it would be stupid to not do the timing belt. actually if the seals are leaking enough to drip oil onto the exhaust manifold, then chances are your timing belt is saturated in oil...which degrades its condition. so replacing it is great idea.

the water pump is usually what others worry about, since its also "deep within" the motor..

So far, there don't seem to be any surprises... looking forward to wrapping up the leak and having a nice car again...

Thanks for the advice, I'm going to be learning about automobile maintenance on this Subaru. I'm pretty sure I'm going to have my share of "doh!" moments, but I'm looking forward to the satisfaction of working on my own car.

What are some things I should keep in mind when starting to maintain my own vehicle? Is there really a start-off point, or should I just take whatever is wrong a step at a time? (I'm not going to start learning how to maintain the car by trying to fix the head gaskets myself, I know this for a fact. I *am* itching to start learning, though.)

God bless you and good night!

-ryu_haneda

Subaru wannbe NO LONGER! Now an owner

basically the best way to keep a car running good is to keep it maintained, which is mostly minor things, like oil changes and tire rotations, coolant/trans fluid changes. if you have a 4EAT..you can not change the ATF enough.. i would drain a few quarts with every oil change and then top it off.. but thats me. the #1 killer of automatic transmissions is heat(think Subaru SVX... ) so installing a larger trans oil cooler would be nice..but not necessary.

the "little" maintanence things are brakes, fluids, spark plugs, plug wires, air filter, tire rotations, and depending on how stuck it is...a fuel filter. those are all things that can be done in a driveway in a short period of time.

spark plugs, air filter, fuel filter, coolant and trans fluid i change every 30K miles.

What's the most annoying about DIY maintenance? Because if the worst of it is getting dirty, working outside, or finding somehwere where I can reliably jack my car up, I'll just buck up and do it myself.

'BOUT TIME I LEARNED HOW TO WORK ON MY OWN CAR ANYWAY!!! (Sheesh, I can only save more money if I'm careful enough)

Thanks for the advice!

-ryu_haneda

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Yes, it's a '98 Legacy GT. Yes, I'm not modifying the bodywork. Yes, I know it's hot just like it is.