[drivemusicnow]

Wow.. I cannot believe how tight those bearing clearances are stock.

I have a couple questions for you guys.
First does subaru use any process at the factory to harden their cranks at all?

Also, does your machinist that cuts the crank down re-radius the journals? If he does, than that's a great price, and definitely worth it. if not, I'd probably take my part elsewhere.

Has anyone thought to try O-ringing the head instead of trying to get custom headgaskets done? A simple o-ring job typically will cost about 150$, and then you can run the stock, or stock equiv headgasket without any worries. Might be an option to look into at least. You can choose whether you oring the block or the head as well.