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it's just stop leak. The new 2.5 head gaskets fail externally with a weeping usually. This should fix the weeping of coolant. It's no use for the early 2.5s that fail internally.

Look for a rebuild or a Japanese low mileage take out if you can because junkyard engines are a crapshoot. If you and your friends have the time and skills a junkyard engine is fine. In college I used them a lot, but some are winners and some losers. I preferered to rebuild myself if I had the money in those days, but sometimes an engine from a JY got me by for a while. It is truly frustrating to have the same problem six months down the road. If it was a 2.2 I would say you have a better chance in a JY as they are tougher.

longer. I don't know about the states as I am more familiar with legacies in New Zealand. This is why I feel fairly sure there might be a bolt on soloution to your problem. Now whether that is available in the states or even in your local junkyard I don't know.

legacy with a 2.2 to see if the engine compartment connectors would fit. Otherwise I would trace down wire by wire. On a lot of cars the color codes stay the same for years. I have not played with a lot of subies so I don't know, but on my BMW I found that color codes were similar for years.

gaskets either, we know. My 2.5 uses about a half quart between changes with over 100,000 miles on the clock. Seems about right for an old car.

legendary reputation. Blitz has some great ideas on driveability on these things. Since I have heard nothing but good of the Naylor amp he invented it might pay to try his ideas. Do a search on Blitz if he does not chime in here.

Consider the extended warranty for peace of mind.

inflated and the exact same size. They cannot be out very much or they will cause a shudder. After verifying that I would just drive the dang thing till it quits. It might outlive you.

brands. I am sure someone from the board can step in with specific knowledge. Usually car body types are used for a number of years in many configurations. What I did on a Mercury several years back was go to a junk yard and match up the closest ford product that did not use the auto choke belts. I pulled the whole system from that car and mounted the belts exactly the same as they came from the donor. If I recall I had to put a small amount of braceing under the belt area to mimic the donor car. It was actually more trounble to get the old system out and find a similar color piece to cover where the moving rail had been. This is the kind of thing that could be a liabilty issue so not many mechanic would do it for a customer. The high dollar way is to contact a racing belt manufactuer.

stretching an old design a bit too far. VW did this in the seventies and buying Audi got them out of it. Audi had some fine designs but was a failure in the market. Subaru put a lot of its development into the rally cars and the WRX line when they were tight on money. Makes me wonder what effect all this had on the decision to stretch to 2.5 and why it did not seem to be up to the old standards.

in a beater. I think I changed plugs two times more in the time I owned it. The tough part woould be room to work without pulling the head on one of these. I would ditch those seatbelts and install something from another car if I owned one of those . I hate them. Just be sure to mount the seatbelts in a spot the factory has engineered for it. Odds are all the old gen guys will get here eventually. It's kind of like having your hair fall out.

Beach you ought to take his advice. Seems like I remember a few more late Outback owners on the board saying the same thing. Makes me think they failed to fit a large enough brake for the additional weight. You might search the archives on this to help you discuss it with the dealer. It seems Subaru loves to find something interesting to do on every model.

at everything. You probably have a few salty winters on it now don't you? Put it on jackstands if you can't find a lift and look it over carefully. Spin the wheels by hand and look for play. Turn the steering and see if you feel any looseness. Then pull the wheels and inspect the brake pads. It is concieveable to have a brake failure or wheel bearing fail at that mileage in a harsh climate. Why not look and be safe? If it is your first time get help from an experienced person if you can.

a major repair. Unfortunately subies seem to need major repairs more than they used to. Let's see, mine needed clutch, head gaskets, an exhaust pipe, clutch master and slave, and the engine seals and that interesting oil slinger you have to pull the engine to get to. In the end subaru ate the head gaskets but if I had the extended warranty I would have made out. All the rest of the things I have done to my car I would just consider normal maintenence.

but I think I have about 11,000 miles on my new clutch and it feels like the day it was installed. It seems like the second time around Subaru got it right.

When I started doing this we turned a screw or changed a jet to accomplish the same thing. What is frustrating is that you seem to have had to re engineer a system that should work right from the factory. Regardless it seems to me that this car should be repaired on warranty to actually run the way it should. We are probably all running slightly different gas in different conditions but this system should compensate if all components are in specs and properly engineered.

which is why I have a 99. I asked on this board and several folks steered me to a 99. I had been about to buy a 98 in better condition. I am glad I got the 99 as the only gasket problem I had was a slight weep and in the end Subaru paid for the new gaskets.

I still would be very tempted to go old school here. I have seen knock sensors that seemed to test perfectly to me. (this is an old fart in his garage with a radio shack meter). I saw absoloutly nothing wrong with my neighbor's sensor by testing but the bloody thing lept pinging. According to the book the knock sensor was fine and I checked the connections and to see if it was the correct sensor. I changed it and it works fine. Why? I don't know.

variety of noises you get to sort out. Fine if you have a race car, but a bit of an irritation at the supermarket. On my 99 Forester I went for a set of standard rotors and a set of Ozzie 4wd brake pads. So far no worries mate but my Subaru does not get relly challenging use like rallying, autocross, racing, or worst of all, mailman.

to see if increased gas mileage pays over the operating costs for the life of the vehicle. I would assume there is a simple software mod as in the post above because in some parts of the world high octane can be hard to find. Sure would be easier to recurve the computer than to change pistons.

is one more indication of my senilty. I was jammed on knock sensor and read knock sensor into that message. I do know that it has two o2 sensors and now that makes sense. I guess I better go back to rocking on the porch.

Does my 99 have two knock sensors also? All I have had trouble with have been mechanical items and the electricals have given no grief at all. I do have a light out on my AC switch and the CD player sucked but I can forgive those. The only Subie I had to do with years ago had a carb and gave me no trouble either. I was under the impression that I have one knock sensor, one cam sensor, and a temp sensor or two.

gas at he pump here in CA. It does not ping at all and has good power for its size. It does the psiton slap till warm and then is smooth and quiet. Actually smoother than both the Mercedes and the Accura I have had. Like kieth I think there is something wrong that may be hard to find. If it was my car I would ask them to change the knock sensor as I have heard so much about them that was not good.

no trouble at all. Quite the opposite of my 2.5. I may be forced to move from the forester next time to get an H6, but by then we may be running on hydrogen.

When I did the Subaru I printed it and went directly from it. Worked fine. On the BMW I did it faster but it has more of a race composition pad so I got away with that. It is a big change from the way we were taught when discs first came in of babying them for a while.