Gnuman

Are you serious about that $4k paint job? Wow.

Depends on which green stuff you were thinking about. . .

Let's see. I'm in CA so I don't have much as far as bad weather goes. I did travel north to Seattle to help a friend move, and crossing the border into OR on I5, there was a "chains required" area. The spotter pulled me over and said I needed chains. I told him I was in a Subaru, and he said "Oh, OK. Go on" :cool:

Does it have to be a manual? Does it have to be a sedan? Give me a call. My boss has several for sale (mostly automatics, though) the manual we have is a 98 Outback with the 2.5L engine that I refurbished (correcting the headgasket issue with this car). 925-354-7718 Let's see if we can get you mobile. (Oh, and we are in the Berkeley area)

How, exactly can you tell that by the pedal?

Tom, First off welcome to USMB. Second, is your engine a SOHC or DOHC? If I remember correctly the 99 Outback was DOHC and the conditioner was not applicable to them. The conditioner is only applicable to SOHC engines, which have the external headgasket leak. The DOHC engines have an internal headgasket leak, for which the corrective measure is to replace the headgasket with a redesigned one that is more robust. This is actually a correct fix for headgasket problems in the DOHC engines, as it corrects the problem almost 100% of the time. In 99, only the Forester and Impreza models had the SOHC engine, and they went to the full line in 00, If I recall correctly.

Do you have the equipment to pull the engine? Have you ever had the Head Gaskets replaced? Has the engine or tranny ever been out of the car? If you have the equipment to pull the engine, and have never had the head gaskets replaced, or never had the engine or tranny out of the car, then I highly recomend it. In the case I set up above, you will be replacing all the seals, all the valve cover gaskets, and the oil seperator in the back (your car came with a plastic one, and you need the metal one) as well as refurbishing the oil pump and replacing the timing belt. Ther parts for all of this comes to about $260 at 1stsubaruparts.com, and the job takes about two full days (perhaps over a long weekend?). The job is not all that hard, considering that you have already done rebuilds. You should have the heads checked for flatness, and replace all the seals (4 cam seals, front crank seal, oil pump o-ring, valve cover gaskets, 4 spark plug gaskets, and 12 gromets for the bolts that hold the valve covers on) the gaskets are leaking because the engine gets hot and the rubber gaskets have been baked hard over time, and are no longer sealing properly. I have personally started recomending that the valve cover gaskets and seals be replaced with each timing belt change (that is a 100K interval for the gaskets). There is lots of information on this board on how to do the head gasket and timing belt change, and stopping the leakage now will make it a lot easier to keep your engine clean (so you can see if something goes wrong). the reason I recomend changine the head gaskets is that they have been redesigned to correct the high incidence of failure experienced with the original design. Replacing them greatly reduces worries about head gasket failure, making your engine just that more robust.

Between the battery and the engine (right next to the radiator) would be the transmission fluid filter. The fuel filter has thick hoses going from it to the engine itself.

There is your answer. If the repair had not been done properly, the engine would be running poorly if at all. Also, with a recent repair like that, I would suspect that the headgaskets have been replaced with the updated ones, making the engine just a bit more reliable than before the incident. One thing to do is have the compression checked. If the compression is good on each cyl and even with each other, then you should be good to go.

99OBW, I believe you just made final body repairs to Emily practical. . .

*waves hands* These are not the issues you are looking for. . . OK, silliness aside, the issue that you are speaking of predates the issue that this thread is about: Your issue - the 96-99 DOHC phase I 2.5L engine suffered a high incidence (by Subaru standards) of head gasket failure between the combustion chamber and the coolant jacket. This was corrected with a redesigned headgasket (which supercedes the old type, so if you order a headgasket for these engines, you will only get the new one by now), which, with a proper repair procedure, permanently fixes the headgasket problem (incidence of repeat failure is very low after proper repair). If you have a failed headgasket in these years, replace it, and have the heads checked for flatness (and milled only if needed). This will correct the problem. The issue at hand here - The phase II SOHC 2.5L engines suffered from a high incidence (by Subaru standards, but lower than the DOHC units) of head gasket failure between the coolant jacket and the outside environment. Subaru initally "resolved" this by mandating the use of a "conditioner" that ammounts to little more than a "stop-leak" type product. By the information I have gotten, this conditioner has caused as many or more problems than the original HG failure. If Subaru has indeed corrected the head gasket problems on these model years with an updated head gasket, then I would recomend using that, and skipping the "conditioner". IMNSHO, the "conditioner" solution was an effective "slap in the face" to all the loyal Subaru owners that had upgraded to these model years of cars. I doubt they could have more effectively sabotaged customer loyalty if they had actually been trying to.

Well, I'm at about 320,000 km on my car, and it is 15 years old. After driving it a bit, the clutch and release fork settled into place and now work quite well. I can even break traction in first for a good solid "chirp" on dry pavement! I seem to have quite a bit more responsiveness to throttle with the drilled flywheel as well. I also seem to be getting a bit better milage, as i need a lot less throttle to get the same "oomph" out of her. I had replaced the WP as I suspected it as the constricting element in the cooling system. Now my biggest suspect is the radiator. I will also re-burp the system, as I did not have the fuel to comfortably burp the system when I added coolant. I do not hear any bubbles in the system, but if I'm stuck in traffic, the temp goes up (but as soon as I bring the RPMs over 2K, the temp drops like a rock right back to where it is supposed to be). This is with a new WP. I did spin the WP before putting it in, and there was no binding on the berrings at all. I also used an OEM thermostat (of course), so I suspect the problem is not there. forcing the fans on (turning the AC on. The compressor is disconnected) does nothing, so I suspect this is not a fan issue. It has been really hot here, but I don't think that is much of a contributing factor, as bringing up the RPMs would not correct it in that case. Nothing corrects this but an increase in RPMs. That spells constriction to me. . . Oh, and it has "eaten" about 8oz of coolant from the overflow as well. In other news, I got the car washed the other day, and was drenched by spillage from inside the sunroof. It looks like the headliner has to come out for a look-see. . .

They weren't thinking. . . . Oh, and a better fix is to put a 5MT into the SVX. Why Subaru refuses to mate a manual tranny to any H6 is beyond me. . . .

Also check for a bad connection between the ignitor and coil pack (also between the ignitor and ECU), as this will cause the kind of intermitant missing that you describe.

You have the DOHC 2.5. Your plugs point straight out from the heads. on a SOHC engine, they are angled upwards, making the underside aproach problematic at best. I actuall would like to jack slap the "engineer" that did such a poor job of test fitting where things would end up with the DOHC engine actually installed in the car. The plugs on the DOHC engines are almost right on top of the frame rail! Talk about a tight fit. . .

That is called the Subaru Virgin Switch. You are no longer a Subaru Virgin. (was it good for you? ) The actual purpose to that switch is to allow you to leave marker lights on when parked on the side of a narrow street (this is a safety requirement in Europe) even though the headlights turn off with the ignition switch. The alternative is to allow the headlights to stay on when the ignition is off, which would badly drain the battery in short order. This switch has been a feature of Subarus for decades, and I doubt that it will ever go away.

You get at them from an access at the top of the bell housing, to the right of the Throttle Body. there, you will find a hard black rubber plug that can be pulled off to access the flexplate to torque Converter bolts. They are 12mm bolts, and there are 4 of them. As for the rear main seal not being bad, how many miles do you have on the car? if over 100K, then go ahead and replace it (keep in mind that it will be a PITA to do). I would also replace the plastic oil seperator with the more reliable metal one. This will reduce future problems.

the najor changes to the auto tranny happened in 2000/2001. a 97 tranny should work, but beware of the final drive ratio. You should get the rear diff from the same car you get the tranny from, to avoid problems. The other big gotcha is that perhaps the wiring changed slightly over the years. This would be in the form of wires not going to the same pins on the plugs as they did in previous years. I recomend getting the wiring diagrams for both auto transmissions to compare the pinouts. Those are the biggest concerns you will face.

the 96 Legacy will be a 2.2L engine, these things are as close to bulletproof as you will find anywhere. On this car, I would replace all the seals, as they will not last annother 100K miles. That is the cam seals (front and rear on both sides), valve cover gasket, at least the front crank seal and O-ring for the oil pump. If you plan on pulling the engine anyway, add the rear main seal to that list. This will reduce the chances of the gaskets/seals failing due to age, causing leakage all over your very nice engine. on the 00 Outback, you have the SOHC 2.5L engine that has a history of head gasket problems (coolant jacket to outside world). Subaru provides a "conditioner" to correct this problem. I, personally, have problems with a manufacturer using stop leak as a corrective measure for coolant leakage problems. I have also heard that there are as many problems caused by the "conditioner" solidifying in small coolant passages (radiator, heater core, small passages in the engine) causing much greater damage than the original leak. I believe that Subaru also redesigned the head gasket a few years later, and that redesigned gasket may be a better solution than the "conditioner". I would laso replace the seals for this engine, to prevent leaks. Also, on this later model car (post 96), it is much more important to follow the service interval on the timing belt. If it breaks, the repairs are very expensive. . . Those are the biggest "gotchas" on the cars you mentioned. Overall, they are really great cars, and should give you many more very happy miles.

Yeah, mail delivery is hard on cars. That is why Subarus are so good at it. They hold up.

Yohy, it sounds like you (and the rest of us as well) need to stay far away from these fools. I recomend going through Jason at 1stsubaruparts.com. He is very good and tries very hard to get you exactly the right part every time. more than that, he is fairly fast WRT shipping and stuff. I regularly get my parts within a week (and he is a few states away from me as well), and they are the parts I asked for. First time, every time.

Well, this week I was supposed to diagnose and repair a 97 OBW with "transmission problems". When bought, it was thought that someone had put gear oil in the tranny. When it arrived, I was able to push it around the shop to position it while it was in park. OK, we have confirmed transmission trouble. I jacked it up, put it on stands and slid undewr for a look-see (it was dripping fluid fairly bad, so I wanted to see where it was coming from. I was under there for 10 sec before i had to get back out and walk away from the car for a bit. The axel stubs on the front diff had been smashed out of the treanny from the inside, and the diff case was smashed as well. Not a good start. Also this car had come from snow country, and there was copious corrosion on the underside of the car. I had already been paid for the job, so I went ahead with the transmission swap that the owner had agreed on. To pull the transmission, you need to pull the halfshafts, drain the transmission, pull the exaust, seperate the transmission from the engine, and pull the propeller shaft (driveshaft). Pulling the exaust turned out to be a problem as the exaust nuts were seized to the studs so bad that two of them broke on one side. This made pulling the engine a requirement as i had to take the head off and either replace it, or take it to a machine shop to have the siezed studs extracted. We have an engine of the same type that has a good head on it, so I swapped it out when the time came. There have been several threads here that have mentioned problems removing the balljoints from new gen Subarus. I have always wondered what the problem was, as I had never had trouble with them. I now ask forgiveness for myt arrogance. Until this car, I had never seen so many siezed components on the underside of a car. All told, it took me two days, and a can and a half of PB Blaster, as well as a MAPP torch to get the engine out of the car (the tranny took a further 20 mins, after). At the same time, I was doing a 200K mile maint on Emily. it took me a mere two hours to get her engine out and into a stand. That versus two days for a car that is 5 years younger. Granted Emily's engine was filthy, due to the seals (all of them) being hardened to the consistancy of plastic. When dropped, these rubber gaskets would go "tick tick tick' as they hit. My guess is that they were not sealing a damn thing, which led to lots of leaks. Now that I have discovered what seals look like at 200K, I will be replacing them every time I change the timing belt. in 100K miles, they should still be fairly good (pre leakage anyway), so this should make the engine not leak for a lot longer. I also changed the headgaskets (even though they did not need to be changed) so I could have a look inside the combustion chambers. I was quite impressed that I could still clearly see the crosshatching from the factory boring. I also noted that there was not much in the way of carbon in the combustion area at all. Granted, I did put a can of Seafoam through it, but that has been over 50K miles ago. I had been using about 1/2 quart to 1 quart of oil every 3K miles recently, and with the condition of the combustion chamber, and the condition of the seals, My guess it was lost to leakage, and not in the combustion area (rings). From my experiences last weekend, I figure I'll have to double my estimates for snow country cars, over my usual California cars. . . I will also be advocating reseals with every timing belt change, as the seals will not go 200K miles, but 100K miles is no problem for them.

Well, if you would rather have the cookie over the cake, sure. *swapps the cake for half a dozen chocolate chunk cookies*

Biggest problem would be the final drive ratios. Get the rear diff from the donor car as well as the tranny. I'm not sure if the wiring on the plugs is the same, you should check the pinouts for both trannies

'98s are DOHC. Do NOT put the conditioner in these engines (there have been as many problems caused by the conditioner as from the HG problem itself. it is time for Subaru to come out with a valid fix for this.) The DOHC HG problem is fixed by replacing the HG with the updated ones. The "black gunk" in the overflow is just sediment from the cooling system, and it is in every overflow tank I have seen outside of the showroom floor. Clean it out and keep an eye on it. If you get an oily film on top of the coolant in the overflow tank, then you may have cause for concern.