idosubaru

jesek - you're so talented just press in new bearings into the timing pulleys and all you need is belts and tensioner springs if you want to replace those.

ive seen roughly 84,194,342 carbs with issues. i'd start with the carb too.

what Dave said - just drive it and see how it does. i wouldn't needlessly borrow problems from the future - they were mass produced for the US market, daily driven for a decade or more and people still drive them, it's not the end of the world. Although - now is the time to move on if you're not a little forgiving on a 30 year old vehicle. You'll have that, and more, to contend with restoring a rare 30 year old Subaru. if maintained and understood properly i've known well seasoned Subaru guys that say the 3AT's plenty reliable. they're =unfamiliar today so very few people know anything about them.

no wires, they have COPs. they're tight, #6 is in the back with the least clearance, and not easy to remove, for my time and pocket change i'd just install a new plug in #6.

You're probably better off EJ swapping it. get a wrecked car and swap it. The 4EAT trans from later XT's or XT6's (88-91's) will bolt up and bolt in just fine but you won't have any computer to control it and a massive wiring nightmare ahead of you. and a driveshaft and matching rear diff if the final drive ratios are different. Manual swap requires trans, pedal assembly, driveshaft, shiter linkages, diff lock controllers or PT4WD gear depending which version you get, interior console to trim it out right around the stick, etc, and instrument cluster for aesthetics (but it'll run just fine with the automatic...actually it will run fine without any intstrument cluster at all). And matching rear diff is the gear ratio is different. You can use either non-turbo or turbo transmissions but if you use a non-turbo youll also need different front axles.

Plugs - there's nothing else to consider until those are checked, they might be 10 year old 175k plugs. I'd use the OEM NGK's, they are great plugs and don't look that warn ever after 100k. After that Check coil and Check for oil in the spark plug tubes. I prefer to do the valve cover gaskets and plugs all at the same time as the plugs are way easy with the covers removed and a debacle otherwise in the vehicle. The serpentine pulley bearings fail all the time, I replace them every 60k or so. Hey - I bought your 98 legacy in the past!

I installed new stock EA82 rear strut with springs and new EJ stock front strut/springs.

I've daily driven and owned 20 XT6's and worked on more over 25 years. Aftermarket has never supplied replacements. There's no market for them over here either. There may have been "more" of them, but it's a minuscule number not even remotely close to numbers needed to create a market for them. Here are the main issues: Availability - it could take years to source 4 good struts. Cost - "new" old stock are often very pricey and almost never show up. $$$. I saw two new ones last year for like $250 each. Used - were reasonable 10-20 years ago, now they're unreliable and prone to leaking. They don't seem to age well at this point if not in daily use - and i've seen hundreds of XT air bags and thrown away many dozens. If you install 4 used bags right now, I'd be surprised if you didn't have multiple failures over the coming years. 15 years ago I rarely encountered leaking bags - now that's about all I see. I guess that's tolerable for a show car but I use mine as a daily driver and don't want to be messing with suspension every year or two. Last one I was trying to get working I installed 6 air bags in a row and they all leaked at the bags. All the ones stored inside leaked and the ones I pulled off parts cars leaked - placed in large bins I could see air bubbling up like an aquarium air stone. You need to search all the time and hope you run into 'new old stock' or ones that were recently used in daily drivers and in good condition.

No. “not much trouble” is highly ambiguous. Not much trouble to who? Me? Or those that dont know which direction to turn a screwdriver?

wheel bearing. To tell which side - your hunch is probably right. Ride in the back or trunk or have someone stand outside while you drive past them from both sides. Check for play Or just wait once it’s bad enough you’ll tell.

This: Those things are awesome time savers. I can't imagine how much time I would have lost in the rust belt without one. A blind hate for rust, yes, not the fasteners. I hate allen heads - they rust and round out all the time and then require more tools. They seem to respond worse to alternative methods of removing once they rust/round out, but maybe that's just because there's fewer of them in Subaru world and i have less experience.

2012 outbacks don't have oil consumption issues - they don't get that engine until 2013. the 2012 has occasional headgasket issues instead. it's very common for people to just replace the oil and that's it. car enthusiasts, forums, and the like make it sound like impeccable maintenance is normal, but it's not. i wouldn't be concerned about anything with that car except the CVT fluid hasn't been changed. change that and the timing belt with a complete kit as soon as you get it. also - timing belt isn't that critical. i'd almost rather find one that hasn't been replaced if it means i'm paying some premium for a sub-par job i'm going to redo anyway. even if you find one "that's been replaced" - it's often aftermarket parts or just the belt or the belt and water pump and not the rest of the timing pulleys/tensioner. i just bought one this summer with brand new timing belt and went in and replaced it all anyway to make sure I choose Subaru parts and all the timing components are replaced, not just the belt.

2012 is the last year of the EJ25 - so it's not an FB engine and it has a timing belt. http://www.cars101.com/subaru/outback/outback2012.html

aftermarket alternators, starters, and fuel pumps are typically trash, i avoid them at all costs. so it's the opposite what you'd think - "new" probably means that is your problem. Subaru reman is $70 or so from the dealer. Go get one and return low grade aftermarket.

Its an EJ25. Nothing else non-turbo ever came in any 2000’s Forster. Resurface the heads (GD has a thread on here for DIY, really easy), install Subaru headgaskets and follow bolt and torque procedures precisely. Check valve clearance Install AISIN timing kit timing belt interval is 105 months or 105,000 miles. But at this age and miles the pulleys are not generally wise to leave in place. They should be replaced as well. If they fail then the new belt breaks and being an interfernce engine the valves bend, usually a lot of them. The kit is actually cheap for high quality and getting a reliable 100,000, no surprises, miles out of it. New plugs, wires, and PCV valve and it won’t really need anything but oil and air filters for 100k.

Outer tie rod end is a major safety concern if it does have play (which doesn't happen often with Subaru's). Without rust they are super easy to replace. I can do them without even jacking the car up or taking the wheel off. Crawl under, loosen tie rod nut, remove from knuckle and twist it off. Count number of turns you removed it and install a Subaru tie rod to the same depth/number of turns. The transmission and engine leaks won't be a problem unless you let the fluid get low. Top it off every week or month...or...etc - depending how fast it's leaking and it's no big deal. The transmission cooler lines should be fixed sooner rather than later. often times you can just cut the last 1" off of the hose that's all cracked and swollen and reinstall the lines on the nipples. No parts, quick labor. steering rack and rack and pinion are the same thing, but typed on two different lines. this should be confirmed first but usually this means the steering rack needs replaced. nothing will happens - if it runs low on fluid it'll just loose power steering which is maybe a little frightening if you don't have the strength to control the car or compensate for power steering going out, returning, going out...etc. rear diff fluid isn't a big deal. people routinely never change rear diff oil for 200k and 300k. no big deal. struts and rear bushing are just dependent how bad they are and how much you can tolerate, they shouldnt' cause any additional failures down the road.

It's not quite that simple. In general that would hold true, don't want to ignore cracks in heads. But EA82s (and ER and i guess EA81) are widely known to routinely have these cracks, I'm surprised if i "don't" see them. If you're going to discount "forum members" then you're also discounting Subaru because they've even said it's benign. Many of us would easily be able to tell if they're problematic or not or need further testing. i've been right 100% of the time for decades, but truthfully that's not saying anything really since it's really simple in this case. the EA82/ER engines you can check into the exhaust manifold ports and look for cracks there that have propagated from the valve side into the manifold which is where they'll be problematic. that only happens on turbo's or significantly overheated vehicles. i've never seen it on nonturbo heads. i've never owned one but i've seen the same thing range of opinions. another forum member has been around subaru's for 30-40 years and has always spoke highly of the 3AT and it's one or two maintenance needs like that modulator. he talks like they're decent if you know those one or two items people aren't familiar with. but clearly people hate them too.

confirm the leaks. yes it can be done but it's not ideal and need to be very careful to get a proper job that way.

1996 manual transmission outbacks are the only 2.2 liter outbacks ever made, original post didn't say MT so we all just assumed it was a 2.5 since it's a blown headgasket. That explains the 320,000 miles. Those routinely make high miles. "Doesn't look correct" - what does that mean? There's a leak? If there's a leak that should be fixed first. I'm not following this but it's either obviously a problem or not one at all. Those tests aren't always conclusive, they give false negatives meaning they don't show a headgasket leak even if there is one. It's pretty obvious it's a headgasket leak, the previous owner was chasing a headgasket leak, and now you bought it that way. It's been overheated enough I'm unsure I'd even want to keep the engine....but those headgaskets are super easy to replace. You can see all the headbolts just by popping the car hood and looking, they're external.

it's probably piston slap and benign. ignore it. perfectionists knurl the pistons to mitigate it if you want to pull it apart for something that will never cause issues.

repeat failures are not uncommon on those. use OEM gaskets and resurface the heads. what brand gasket did they use and were the heads resurfaced?

Headgaskets. Look for other simple things but be planning your move once you finally accept the HG's are bad. To the OP - that car was sold with bad headgaskets - they were chasing it, desperate, guessing and finally sold it with bad headgaskets. Initial headgasket failures on that engine don't always fail a compression test. It's not worth my time to compression test them. EJ18 or EJ22 swap it. The EJ18 is weak but I've done it and it's a perfectly fine commuter vehicle. I don't normally recommend EJ18's but you're already babying the throttle, it's a commuter only, it's an MT....those make for good fits for the EJ18.

you can pull the fuel hose and verify fuel flow or not. get a smaller socket (try metric, standard and 6 point and 12 point) and pound it (no sparks!) on top of the nut. i've had some that are really hard to get the nut out of the socket after i'm done, so have tools ready for that little situation too - pound the nut back out of the socket. a chisel properly worked in the loosening direction can also get them to break free. knock a "v" shape into it and then turn your chisel to hit against the side of the V which will push the nut in the loosening direction. It works if you get the angles and such right, but is a bit of a feel/art form than science. if you have any nuts that aren't totally hosed - use 6 point sockets, never touch rusty nuts and bolts with 12 point sockets, I try not to even have 12 points in my commonly available tool sets, they're not good in the rust belt except for very limited situations.

Oh yeah I don't know with the gasket thickness changes...wait for others. there are online calculators for determining where you're compression sits based on what parts you're putting together. i use those when i've done stuff like you're doing and don't memorize it all. if you're trying to dial it in precisely you probably need to measure the thickness of your heads.

98 are the old DOHC EJ25D pistons. If you’re hand picking the piston I don’t think you want those, you want 99+ EJ251 SOHC pistons. The 98s stick out way above the block surface Look up 2000 EJ25 pistons, those are the “251 pistons” or “99+ SOHC pistons” those all refer to the same piston and are mentioned by GD in previous comments. look those 2000 year parts up when sourcing parts. 99 is a goofy year to source parts because there’s a wild mix of old and new EJ engine parts across various platforms.