Kakadu Posted December 20, 2004 Share Posted December 20, 2004 Hello, I was wondering if anyone knew some of the problems that commonly face Subarus. For instance, my wife and I bought a 1997 Subaru Legacy Outback about 8 months ago. We got a great deal on it because it had a new engine in it. From what I understand the previous owner saw that the engine was heating up and tried to make it home and blew the motor. So we got a newer engine put in it which dropped the price. Now the problem... My wife is now experiencing the engine overheating frequently, she is now putting coolent in it once every 4 or 5 days. We brought it to a personal mech and he said that the model Subaru that we have is prone to the head gasket failing due to poor engine design. He told us that if we get it fixed (around 1k to fix), eventually it will happen again. This is most likely the reason the previous owner's engine blew as well. So is this our car or is this a common thing, Subes? If it is, is there a model where the design was fixed? My wife really likes this car, but I am not about to keep forking 1 grand every 60k miles 'cause of a head gasket. Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kakadu Posted December 21, 2004 Author Share Posted December 21, 2004 Ok, so I took some time to see the older threads here and yup, it does look like this is a problem everyone faces... So instead of everyone saying the same stuff in the threads...after reading them all, I didn't see much closure. My question is, if we buy a new or used engine to put in this car what modle should we be looking for that will work in a 97 legacy outback? OR If we trade in this car to a subaru dealer what would be a good thing to look at to replace this car. For reliability, mileage...yadda yadda... What is a good year/make/model that is close to the 97 Leg Outback but doesn't come with the gasket problems... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cookie Posted December 21, 2004 Share Posted December 21, 2004 Useing the latest version of gasket for your car installed absolutely correctly should work fine.There have been three versions of your gasket before they got it right. I have seen few repeat problems on a good head gasket repair. This should run around $1200 and include adjusting the valves while the head is off. My choice would be to move to a post 2000 model or 99 in a Forester. While these later cars have rare failures that include an external leak it is not so problematic and Subaru has a gasket fix and offers goop (sealer) and extended warranty. Oddly enough I have a 99 Forester with the phase 2 and have changed to the latest gaskets and run the goop too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gnuman Posted December 21, 2004 Share Posted December 21, 2004 you can also swap in a '96 2.2L engine and bypass the headgasket issue altogether. . . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rweddy Posted December 21, 2004 Share Posted December 21, 2004 Useing the latest version of gasket for your car installed absolutely correctly should work fine.There have been three versions of your gasket before they got it right.I have seen few repeat problems on a good head gasket repair. This should run around $1200 and include adjusting the valves while the head is off. I agree with Cookie. You need to have the work down by a Subaru specialty shop. Many shops that do not specialize will use non-oem parts and this will lead to more failures. The 2.5 is a good motor with bad HG from the factory. If you used the updated versions you will be fine. Or you can swap in a 2.2. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kakadu Posted December 21, 2004 Author Share Posted December 21, 2004 thank you very much! how much would a 2.2 engine with a new HG run? Meaning, get a whole new engine all together... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coloradosubarules Posted December 21, 2004 Share Posted December 21, 2004 I would go with the 2.2 (because I have one with 240K on it) and from what I hear there is a company called CCE or CCR that stocks the 2.2 and the conversion kit. I hope someone will chime in and supply the website link. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rweddy Posted December 21, 2004 Share Posted December 21, 2004 thank you very much! how much would a 2.2 engine with a new HG run?Meaning, get a whole new engine all together... It would be a lot cheaper to fix your 2.5 HG. But the comany that has the 2.2 converstion is http://www.ccrengines.com/ they also have very good rebuilt 2.5 engines. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cookie Posted December 21, 2004 Share Posted December 21, 2004 want to spend. I would love a 2.2 conversion but the car has to be worth it. If the car was mint I would spend what was necessary. I reckon it would cost about $5,000 or more to do it up right with a conversion. What is the car worth afterwards? If the car was woth say $8,000 I would hesitate to put 5 Gs in it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mtsmiths Posted December 21, 2004 Share Posted December 21, 2004 Kakadu, I agree with the fix your 2.5 faction. If it's done right by a knowledgable tech with the new Subaru replacement parts, you will have no further issues, and it will be by far the cheapest route. We have the 2.5 in our '00 Legacy and have had zero issues with the car in over 160,000 miles. I've also got a '95 Leg with 130,000 miles on the 2.2. It also runs just fine, but if you swap a 2.2 into the Outback you're gonna wonder where THE POWER went. Before you do any of this stuff, search and read about burping the cooling system. If it isn't an air lock, and really IS a HG swallow hard and fix the '97 2.5, it's still cheaper than getting into another car. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gnuman Posted December 21, 2004 Share Posted December 21, 2004 Just to be clear, these are problems that a few particular engines are prone to, not Subies in general. Big difference there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattocs Posted December 21, 2004 Share Posted December 21, 2004 f you swap a 2.2 into the Outback you're gonna wonder where THE POWER went It is like a diference of 30 HP. My OBW with a 2.2l is decently quick. Its by no means fast...but its no Geo Metro or something. It might be worth it if you plan on keeping the car for a while. Take care of it and all that, and you will get a lot of miles out of it. But if you never have to redo that HG in the 2.5 again, its a lot cheaper. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kakadu Posted December 21, 2004 Author Share Posted December 21, 2004 Ok I have another question then... If this isn't prone to all subes, then how many people reading this thread have had a HG problem with their car, replaced it, and hasn't had a problem since? Then the other way around, had a problem, forked the 1k and it broke again? Here is a little more background for those who were wondering, we bought it for 5,500. The car itself has ~ 132,000 miles on it. The ENGINE has ~ 72,000 miles on it. Like I said in the first post, the reason we got a 97 Leg/Outback for 5,500 was cause the engine was replaced, which I thought would mean a good deal, newer engine and cheaper car! BUT the original engine that the previous owner was using blew due to overheating and her just running it with the car overheating. I don't know exactly why the car was over heating, but I would put 90% of my eggs in the basket that says it was the HG.... mtsmiths, you are right when you say that 1k is cheaper then just getting a new car...but if we get it fixed and it just will happen again, is it worth it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gsrxrsx68 Posted December 21, 2004 Share Posted December 21, 2004 Add this to your question: How many people got their head gasket fixed and then got rid of their car. I know my car is going bye-bye. I would also guess the motor has been out of the car once before yet mysteriously that is not in the service logs(I guess someone color coded all the hoses just for fun). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JT95 Posted December 22, 2004 Share Posted December 22, 2004 Was the engine that was put into the car as a replacement from a salvage yard? If it was pulled from another Subie around your model year, then it would still have the bad factory HG. I'd pay the cash to have the head gaskets replaced with the correct OEM kits. OR, I would buy an engine from the whatchamagigger place mentioned earlier and feel good about it with its warranty. As far as powerless 2.2s go--I just test drove a new 2.5 and it didn't have much over my 2.2. If you do 2.2 swap, they are good engines. Someone on the board just recently posted a lot of good info on his recent swap to a 2.2. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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