A little bit of this and a little bit of that.....

[tossem]

I have had a 93 Legacy wagon now for 4 months and am coming on to doing an oil change. The car now has 178,000 miles on it (175,000) when I got it and am surprised it has not used any oil since I purchased it. The person I bought it from must have just changed it, it was clean then and I have been inspecting it regularly to see how it looks (through the dipstick). I had noticed there seem to be a bit of oil residue in the head and pan area so I figured it leaked, but so far it has not left any oil marks on my cement driveway so it must not be leaking. I did notice that I was low on the differential oil and drained it and replaced it with red line, also did the same for the rear differential. I am thinking of doing the auto trans, that is changing the filter and gasket and then filling with red line. On the oil change I may go ahead and try mobil 1 (use it on all my other cars), but notice that K&N does not make an oil filter for this car so I may have to use another brand (purolater the best?). I bought the car because I wanted a used wagon to haul things in and in comparing the Accord and Toyota's this car at 1,000 was the cheapest (and the only AWD). I since invested 200 on 16 WRX wheels (good deal considering 2 tires are practically new[Pirelli 6000] and 2 with about 50% left[Bridgestone 92's]). The car is not much to look at, but I must say I think it is one of the best cars around and I will now restore it little by little. I thought I would ask if any of you have any opinions on any of my planned undertakings. I will post later if I get around to doing any other major moidifications, since it seems this car can use quite a few parts from newer models.....
PS both differential drain plugs had about an inch of slug built up on them...

[THAWA]

First things first, get new tires. To be safe you need all 4 tires to match. If there is more than 1/4" difference in circumference you can damage the center differential. If the pirelli's are close enough you can get away with just two new tires. Also if you're changing any filter in the auto make sure it's the external, filter, it was an optional add-on filter I believe. The internal filter has no service interval. As far as oil filter go, OEM is the best I feel. I do believe purolator makes the OEM filters so either should be fine.

[scottzg]

you can use a 300zx na spec filter, its dimensionally the same. No point in bothering with a k&n though, imo.

Thawa speaks truth.

[BAC5.2]

K&N DOES make an oil filter for our cars.

Actually, all EJ subaru's use the same oil filter.

I use Purolator filters. Sometimes I use the "PureOne" filters, because they are WRB.

[LaureltheQueen]

I use bosch and napa gold(wix) filters on my legacy and am a big fan of them.

I wouldnt suggest switching the oil out for mobil1. You'll likely start many new leaks. Do a search on nasioc regarding putting synthetic in older engines primarily run on dino oil

[Manarius]

I'm going to take a guess and say that the residue you're seeing is oil leaking from the cam seals. They're a [expletive] to repair (well, the back one at least). I have that same issue and swtiched to 20-50 oil..now I hardly see any leaking at all; my gas mileage just sucks instead.

[professor]

you are about in the same boat I was last year, I changed over to wrx wheels and got the bent 14's off the car right away.

For a less costly alternative, you could advertise on www.nasioc.com for two RE92's with the same circumference as yours (measure with a tailor's tape or string), they are sybie folks and will know why you seek them and why you are being specific as to the treadwear. You should be able to score them for $50 or less.

I did all the routine stuff right away, the biggest change was plugs, mine looked sucky. I reset the ECU after changing those, to get a fresh tune from the computer. Consdier a new oxygen sensor unless it has been serviced before. I just used good auto parts store filters, IMO the K&N stuff is not worth the money especially for your (and my) needs. Oh and I removed the dead rat from my air box.

After it is running just right the suspension will be your next task. More than likely the shocks are gone, and the front ball joints will have wear. Take a good look at the rubber bellows boots on all of your CV joints (8 total), and steering rack boots. Detecting damage there early can save big $$$.

WRX brake parts fit and will be cheaper and better than stock replacements. the nasioc folks will cough them up cheap. That's what I'm doing next.

[professor]

to be clear, by brake parts I mean replacing the entire calipers, rotos and pads as a unit, the individual parts do not interchange

with wrx brakes you may need to change your spare, the stock one won't fit over the front brakes

[tossem]

I do appreciate all the comments I have received, yeah I do have a torn boot and thought of replacing that axle right away (front passenger side) and was adviced to let it go until it starts making noise. On the oil I guess the synthetic must be more slippery, since I don't see that the same grade oils would be any different between synthetic and organic as far as to squeeze through seals. The K&N site does not list a filter for this engine, and thought about just getting one from a local shop, that is a fram or mobil-1 filter. I may just go with there best filter. I do think that 3,000 miles is good to go with out burning any oil so I am just cleaning up the oil there and just keeping an eye on it until I start seeing a noticeable difference. I may change all the seals out in about 20,000 miles when it hits 200,000 and it wiill be time to replace the timing belts (I have a repair bill that says they where replaced at close to 140,000) and the suspension will receive my next attention. I do plan on getting one more tire that is 16 inch for a full size spare. I plan on having the same tires on an axle, so I did not think it would make any difference on the amount of wear between the front's and rear's. The rubber's under the spring are torn so I will be replacing them and at the same time replacing the shocks and spring's more than likely with H&R springs and KYB gas shocks. I did mean that replacing the brakes with those of a WRX would entail replacing both the calipers, rotors, hanger's and disk and not just indvidual pieces. I was wondering if the hubs have to be replaced as well or if those units can be interchanged. The car fires right up, and there are no hesitations and it passed smog inspection without any problems, but I may change the tune parts little by little until it is completely replaced....thanks...

[Tleg93]

When it comes to filtering I like to use K&N for both oil and intake.

[professor]

>>I don't see that the same grade oils would be any different between synthetic and organic as far as to squeeze through seals.

very different. organic oils have more seal-swelling cyclic hydrocarbons, and also get much thicker at low temperatures, like when your car is sitting. If you want to see this for yourself, buy a quart of the same grade of each, and put it in the freezer. the synthetic will remain pourable, while the mineral will get syrup-like.

when they make the "high mileage" oils they just deliberately stick in more high-solvent hydrocarbons, like the cyclics mentioned above.