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I'm contemplating replacing the engine in my 95 legacy, and I'm trying to figure out where I should be looking. eBay? Junkyards?

Ironically I just finished doing head gaskets on a 2.2 last week. But that motor had a hundred thousand more miles on it. at least the machine shop will be happy to see me again Thanks for all your help.

I drained the coolant, and it looked like black tea. Not milky, or foamy but dark dark brown. Does that mean the exhaust was leaking into the coolant? There were no bubbles in the overflow tank. The top radiator hose port also crumbles away with very little force applied. I can break it up like a cookie. Is this from age, or heat? I'm pulling the motor to fix the oil leak (looks like it's a cam seal), and replace the timing belt, as well as do the head gaskets while I'm there. I'm assuming if I'm going that far, I'll do the water pump, thermostat, and accessory belts as well. Anything else I should be on the lookout for? I can do all the work myself, and as I can't afford to replace the car I need to make it reliable.

I'm going to tear it down as far as the timing belt and see if I can figure where the oil leak is, then I'll replace all the fluids and radiator cap & thermostat. If it heat seized, wouldn't it smoke a lot when driving as oil made it past the rings? When I drove it home (35 miles on the freeway) everything seemed ok. The temp gauge stayed just under the halfway mark and my wife, who was following me, said everything looked normal from her perspective: no smoke, no leaks, no smell.

Yeah my thought was it overheated as well. I think the rad cap is bad, along with quite a few other things. Thanks for the confirmation! I've never seen an overheat puke oil before so I wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something obvious.

My friend borrowed my 95 legacy 2.2 and drove it work (35 mile freeway). Car ran fine. Pulling off the freeway as she's coming to the light the car dies and "massive amounts of white smoke" come up from the hood. Coasting, she makes it to the breakdown lane and tries to restart it. Nothing but a click, lights and radio work fine. I arrive an hour later, and here's what I find: Oil stain about the area of a piece of paper under the cylinder 1 area. Several small drip spots mostly along the front of the engine. Radiator & cap are still warm to the touch (temp gauge 1/3 up from bottom). Overflow tank full to about 1" from the top of the tank. Carefully opening the radiator cap, I see no fluid in the radiator neck. I squeeze the top radiator tube and it feels empty. I fill/burp/fill/burp the radiator with about a pint or two of distilled water. The dipstick is covered in oil several inches above the full mark. After wiping and rechecking the oil level is between the marks. From what I could see, everything (hoses/tubes/wires) seems correct. The underside of the motor is slick with oil, but because it has had a slight oil leak for months, it doesn't look too much worse than usual, if only a bit fresher. I start the car, and drive it about 2 blocks to a better spot and have lunch. After lunch, I check it over again. Now the overflow tank has sucked back in all the coolant to about 1/2" under the full-line. I proceed to drive cautiously the 35 freeway miles home. Car seems to run fine. Temp is just a hair under 1/2 on the gauge. What happened? Over heated? Too much engine oil? Something else? (Background on the car: Has had an oil leak for many many months, needs about a quart every 6 weeks or so. Friend checked the oil on Thursday, after a CEL was thrown, and added 2 quarts.)

Ok, secondary question. I'm trying to put together a parts list, but I want to make sure I'm not missing anything: - Head gaskets - cam gaskets (the heads are getting rebuilt due to poor vacuum) - intake & exhaust gaskets - valve cover gaskets anything else? It had the timing belt & pulleys replaced less than 50k ago.

Thanks, I'm going to have them checked. I guess I will take them apart.

I'm doing just the head gaskets on an EJ22 (95 Legacy wagon). Is there any reason to dismantle the heads, or can I leave them all together and just pull them off to check for flatness and swap out the gaskets?

Thanks for posting the solution! I'm going to remember this when I finally destroy my remote.

Thanks for your quick reply! I'm doing the water pump, thermostat, oil-pump seal, and all the idlers (cam seals if needed). It's got 116k on it now, yes the t-belt is overdue...but so far so good right? You said spark plug tube seals? Is that under the valve cover or on the boots themselves. When I pulled the boots, the oil was all at the top, above the oring, but some trickled down to the bottom of the boot after being pulled from the head. It's normal for oil to be there?

Hi all- I'm working on my timing belt, and I pulled the spark plug boots in order to pull the plugs, and at the top of the boots there was a fair amount of oil, on all of them. Have you ever come across this? I've searched, but didn't see anything. 2001 Outback Wagon, 2.5 4/cyl. Thanks!

1995 Legacy Sedan, 120k (2.2 though) 2001 OBW, 113k (and knocking on wood) I hope it lasts much much longer. I also thought that the HG issues were fixed by 2001. Time will tell I guess.

2001 OBW, 2.5 5MT 113k (I've had it since 2005/50k) 22 mpg, regardless of octane, supplier, season or driving. I believe I got one tank that was 19 something, but I'd been snowdrift jumping and general mountain shenanigans at 8k feet.

Update: it was the battery. I guess this is the first time I've had to replace a battery in a 'modern' car, so it's failure mode seemed weird to me. But shiny new battery, cleaned contacts and the Wagon has been running like a top. Thanks!