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I took the offending head to a professional repair shop this morning and they thought the knurled guides were too tight and they reamed them with the proper sized reamer. I now hope all is well. I will have gasket set tomorrow. There will be a test.

Just use the coolant conditioner. On an '03 H6 I had a seep like that the conditioner mostly controlled and drove it for almost 200k after seeing the seep.

Don’t add the stop leak stuff. It will not work. The symptoms don’t sound good but also you’re admittedly new and we only have what we can read to work with. There’s a slim chance that you have something else going on and it’s not headgaskets. It seems ominous but It should be diagnosed for sure first. Oil loss could just be burning it internally. 1. The brown could be internal scaling/rust and a quarter century of debris in the radiator and cooling system. Overflow tanks alone can be filthy. The overheating could just be air still in the system. It never overheated and then overheats one time after you drained the coolant - the first step in that scenario is to make positively sure you got all the air out and there’s no leaks. The radiator cap - test it or install a new Subaru one. Thermostat - test or replace with a Subaru one. You can boil it in a pot of water and see if it opens. Radiator could be clogged. If the brown is debris then radiator may be internally clogged. see if it can flow the garden hose turned all the way up from inlet to outlet. 2. If it’s AT the trans fluid can also be pushed into the coolant via a failed radiator. It does sound like headgaskets could be the issue but make sure these simple things are ruled out first. It being able to see it, it’s hard to say what’s happening with just text.

The piston screws in. Pressing won't move it until you bend the parking brake screw, ruining it. Bleeder screws do not seal when loose, so you will always have air visible if applying suction to the bleeder. The best / surest way to bleed is 2 people, one to pump brakes, the other open the bleeder, and close after each hold down of the pedal. Some systems the sudden flow helps drag the air out.

a clogged/gummy PCV valve may make the problem worse so, no harm in replacing it.

I'll try to get some pics up this week. One of the things that saddens me about these guys is that it keeps getting harder to find parts. Back in the old days there were always several old Soob's at one of the You-Pull-it yards. Now they send me emails for 25%, 40% and 50% off parts but they don't have any Subaru's of my DL/GL vintage.

milty60, The BEST information about car repairs you could ever get is to "never chase a problem with parts"! Unless you know for certain that you need to replace a failed part, you often find that the new part didn't solve the issue and you just wasted your money, because the issue is still there. Get the problem properly diagnosed and then buy only the parts you need. I have a neighbour with an idle problem. He bought new plugs, new air filter, changed his MAF sensor and several other parts only to have the same problem. An independent mechanic eventually fixed the issue (car only has 58 000 km) by shortening a vacuum line that had a crack where it joined its fitting.

Well, I just wanted to thank you. It was indeed the battery terminal. The nut was loose to leads on the positive terminal. I took the time to clean everything up and tightened the nut and no problems since! Thank again for helping out a car-dummy.

We still love pics! Mine are nuggets too - “good from afar, but far from good”! ^ I’ve had Ruby Scoo for well over ten years, I think I’m coming up on fifteen years. She’s got a computer but that’s never given me any trouble and I love the reliability, power and “starts every time” factor that came with the ECU and EJ22. Mid you’re willing, I’m keen to see pics of yours, as I’m sure others are (or start a thread in the members rides subforum). Cheers Bennie

Noise/rattle at the back of the car could be a muffler that’s broken down internally. Cheers Bennie