So I cleaned up the plates, bought new motor mounts, and installed them yesterday.
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This is what the motor mounts looked like. ?Great.
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I agree with you, John. ?Let’s do this. ?Why not make it clean and fun? ?It won’t run any better but it’s a point of pride in my work. ?
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Of course, before I installed the intake manifold I had to install the RMW coolant crossover pipe. ?When I took the old one off one of the bolts twisted off and I had to use an easy-out and a tap to clean it up. ?However, when I went to install the crossover manifold the bolt stripped out at 7 ft lbs. ?So I had to get a helicoil kit and drill, tap, and install. ?I got it done and I can only hope it holds.
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Photo ? ?I broke the plastic bits that hold that mess so I had to get a couple from the wrecker. Haven’t cleaned mine up yet but yup they are gross. I have to rip the bundle apart anyway to move the temp sensor for the reverse coolant mani from RMW. They have a new new one now that you don’t need to do this for but I bought mine 2 years ago?
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On Sat, Jan 25, 2025 at 6:30?PM SubieVanagon via groups.io <wklail@...> wrote:
Then I got into that tangle of wires that live under the intake manifold. ?What a mess. ?They were dirty and grimy and sticky, etc. ?So I cleaned them and re-wrapped them and finally got them reinstalled. ?
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Love the chrome. I did my intake and bits and pieces including fuel rails and hard vacuum lines with steel-it grey paint. The stuff is amazing and addictive. Yours looks nice and clean. I don’t understand when people spend a pile of money and skip spending elbow grease in cleaning up the old motor.?
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On Sat, Jan 25, 2025 at 6:28?PM SubieVanagon via groups.io <wklail@...> wrote:
Having gained some confidence with the powder coating, I cleaned and sandblasted the fuel injector rails and guards. ?I coated the rails yellow and one guard chrome and one in bright yellow. ?
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Then I got into that tangle of wires that live under the intake manifold. ?What a mess. ?They were dirty and grimy and sticky, etc. ?So I cleaned them and re-wrapped them and finally got them reinstalled. ?
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Having gained some confidence with the powder coating, I cleaned and sandblasted the fuel injector rails and guards. ?I coated the rails yellow and one guard    chrome and one in bright yellow. ?
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So I received a powder coating kit (Eastwood) as a gift. My wife let me have our old toaster oven to use. Powder coating is incredibly easy. You clean or sandblast the parts to be coated, hook up the machine, spray on the coating, and put it in the oven at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. I decided to powder coat my valve covers. Not a pro job but they turned out pretty good. 
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Subaru has used three oil separator plates over the years. First was plastic and I’ve seen pics of them brittle or even melted. Then they used aluminum (which was on mine) but I’ve not seen or heard of issues with them, but the latest offering from Subaru is steel. So I went for it. Not sure if there’s any advantage though.?
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My intake manifold was a mess. Filthy dirty. So I used carb cleaner (lots of it) and cleaned it thoroughly. Then I sand blasted it. Then painted it. Then I removed and cleaned the throttle body.  
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My engine came from an auto Subie but I’m putting it in a MT Vanagon so I had to add the piece above the crank pulley to make sure the timing belt would not skip a tooth or two if the engine should jump backward as when parked on a hill and roll back … 
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Here is a photo of the new oil pump, water pump, timing pulleys, and timing belt. 
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The seal shown in the image was a Felpro seal. It was difficult to install so I pulled it out and bought one at the Subaru dealer. It went right in.?
There were literally some sleepless nights when I questioned whether something was installed correctly. I replaced the new cam seals because I thought I had inserted them too deeply. I took the oil pump back off because I was concerned that the little o-ring slipped out of place while I was installing the pump (it was fine), and I took the timing belt off numerous times because lining up the timing marks was not as straightforward as I thought it should have been. And that Felpro rear main seal caused me to lose some sleep.?
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What’s the benefit of the steel plate? I also did the crank seal and pulleys as well. No end to the money pit. The dealers don’t replace the water pumps or pulleys generally I hear?
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On Sat, Jan 25, 2025 at 1:44?PM SubieVanagon via groups.io <wklail@...> wrote:
I replaced the oil pump (OEM) and squirted some assembly lube and rotated it a bit, replaced the oil pump/crank seal, replaced the water pump, thermostat (OEM), all idler pulleys (Aisin), timing belt (Mitsuboshi), replaced the cam seals and adjusted the valves. Replaced the rear main seal (OEM), and oil separator plate (replaced the aluminum one with the Subaru steel plate).?
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I replaced the oil pump (OEM) and squirted some assembly lube and rotated it a bit, replaced the oil pump/crank seal, replaced the water pump, thermostat (OEM), all idler pulleys (Aisin), timing belt (Mitsuboshi), replaced the cam seals and adjusted the valves. Replaced the rear main seal (OEM), and oil separator plate (replaced the aluminum one with the Subaru steel plate).?
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The guy I used for my heads felt more or less the same way, but I went new for peace of mind. He said the cam is good, better than the dohc that do need replacing more often and he said the same about bearings. ?
Any thought on switching to the 11mm oil pump? I read it’s better at high rpm but can cause frothing at excessive low rpm. In the van these motors tend to be revving higher than in the Subaru most times. My thoughts anyway?
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On Sat, Jan 25, 2025 at 8:42?AM todd s via groups.io <tsorel1600@...> wrote:
I would inspect the condition of the bearing journals before spending the money on a full short block. I have pulled a number of 150,000 mile-plus engines down and have almost never found problems with main or rod bearings, let alone problems with the entire case. Also check ring gap and if there is bore taper or ridges but, again, that sort of wear is rare unless the engine has been ran low (or without) oil. I think freshening up the heads and gaskets like you have done and checking the wear on the oil pump is typically sufficient to allow for continued long service life.
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