my 98 obs has bad pistion slap and i want to overhaul the engine. this car is just a daily driver, nothen special. i spent a lot of time trying to find replacement pistons and came up with nothing. is there any companies making pistons for 2.2 liters? id rather not have to buy forged if hypers or regular cast alum. are available. any information would be really helpfull. thanks Ronnie

If you're opening up the block anyway, have you considered getting it rebored and getting 2.5 pistons?

the thought had crossed my mind but im in college now so money is tight. on the up side i do have access to all the mahines i need for the cleanup work so all i need to buy is pistons, rings and gaskets. all in all i thought i could do it for less than $500. i do plan to mill and deck to increase the CR. any idea what the minimum piston to valve clearance is? thanks ronnie

If you're going to take out the piston you'll need to make that cylinder where the piston slap was uniform at least, so you'll probably end up needing a slight bore/hone/whatever. If that's the case, most machine shops I've dealt w/ charge 2 times for 'mounting the engine' in the machine since the block is in 2 halves. All 3 times I've over bored a subaru engine, it has cost ~$350, which doesnt leave much room for pistons, rings, gaskets, any other misc stuff if you're aiming for a $500 limit.

Anyhow, the stock valve clearance (same for N/A 2.2 and 2.5):

Intake (mm) - - - .20 +\- .02

Exhaust (mm) - - - .25 +\- .02

That sounds like a lot for a bore but i'm in a rural are so things here may be cheaper. Then again its been at least a year since my last bore.

Good luck getting anything done for $500 even if you do it yourself something like this will probably cost you $750 min to do a good job. Let it slap.

i will be performing all the machine work myself, i have ordered a gasket set. now i just need to find pistons and rings for 2.2 liter n/a engines. does any one know of any companies that make 2.2l pistons and rings? can they be ordered from a subaru dealership?

Contact Jamie at Subarugenuineparts.com for any parts you need, she can get them for you and her prices beat what you'll pay at a dealership.

thanx guys, i found what i was looken for at subarugenuineparts.com.werd!