So the girl is getting up there on miles, and it's about time to do some serious work and I was wondering what people have paid to do this.

First, I'm planning on changing the timing belt next spring, if not earlier depending on how many miles end up on the car. Has anyone done this themselves? I've rebuilt engines before, but old V8s with chains instead of belts. I am not scared to attempt this myself, but are there any tricks that I need to know about before I start taking things apart? Should I replace anything at the same time while thigns are apart so I don't need to monkey around in there later? I thought I remembered that changing the belt wasn't that bad in the SOHC engines, any advice? Does anyone know of instructions located online?

Next will be the clutch. I have also replaced clutches before, but once again on old V8s with lever-operated throwout bearings and such. I've never taken apart a new car and with the front diff being invloved with the tranny it makes this seem more complicated. I took a look at something I saved from a while ago, and it seems like some of the front suspension needs to be taken apart to do this? Do you really need to take suspension parts out to get the axles out as well? This project has me a little intimidated, and my only problem would be that I would have to borrow a buddy's garage to do this over a weekend and would really like to get it done in two days. Does this seem optomistic for a one, maybe two person crew? What prices are people being quoted for labor? And I thought I read that the Subaru flywheel isn't able to be resurfaced, is this correct?

Finally, I'll be changing my tranny/diff fluids. I've pretty much decided on using the stock fluids because of problems I've ben reading about with synthetics. I know it seems to be a hit or miss thing, but in all reality I've never had a problem with what Subaru put in the car so far, so I think I'll stick with it. If I decide to put a clutch in next spring, would I need to drain the fluids out of the tranny and front diff as well? If so I would probably just wait to do everything at once.

Thanks for any help guys, I've worked on cars for a while, but never something new that I needed to rely on for daily transportation :) and just want to prepare myself. If anyone has advice about what to do at the same time, how much this would cost or where people have documented any of this I would appreciate it!

well all i know is in order to take out the axel you have to take out the whole housing where the wheel baring sits. I had to take off the low control arm the suspension and the other arms that connect to the housing in order to change out my axel. I had bent it hiting the curb but yea its not that bad after the first time it didn't take me long to do it again. I hope this helped

My you sound ambitious, I dont think the timing belt/s would be too tough, it's all the junk in the way that you have to remove to get to it. As far as the clutch goes, I would be guessing. Good luck & have fun.

I'll be doing all these this spring when the car hits 60k miles.
Clutch and flywheel will be swapped for Excedy and Jun.
Change timing belt and reset valve lash.
And a new dose of Redline 75w90NS.

Changing the tranny fluid is easy. The drain bolt is down behind the exhaust y pipe. The fill is the tranny fluid check hold on top of the tranny. Make sure you have a long necked funnel.

Timing belt is harder. You will want help for this one as it involves lining up the timing marks on the belt and on the cams. Easiest thing to do is to slip a hold pin into the belt tensioner. Covers are pretty easy to get off. At least once the radiatior fans have been removed. Just make sure that the timing marks on both cams are lined up. Ie check the marks before you take off the belt so you know what it looks like.

Clutch is suppose to be easy, easier if you have a tranny jack handy.. Also you will want to make sure you have the alignment tool handy...

Can't think of anything else, but I'm planning on having some help from one or two experienced club members so it shouldn't be that bad. :p

Currently my RS is at 53k miles.