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Take the cover off and watch the tensioner. If it hops up and down and makes noise it is defective.

Drop it in and drive it. Should be easy and if the rest of the car is good you should get a long time out of it. On a car with that many miles I would address issues as they came up. One would think the tranny would be next.

Folks clean them with everything from brake fluid to plexis. Do a search here.

If you have a 98 phase 1 the sealer won't do you any good. you have combustion gasses forcing thier way at very high pressure into the coolant. How is a sealer going to seal? The sealer is for the external leaks developed by the phase 2 engine. In this type of leak you have a very slight leak to the outside going from maybe 10 PSI to ambient pressure. the sealer goes through the gap on it's way out and builds up until it seals. You can limp a phase 1 by with pulling the thermostat but you lose heat. I am not sure how long this can last but some folks have reported getting by months on one of these. I don't think I'd care to try it in an Alaska winter from what some of the folks say, but it works here in CA.

I would think those long winters would keep your operating temp down and give you more chance to crud. My car is always on high detergent oil, currently Mobil 1 for the last couple of years, and gets up to temp on each trip. the Mobil 1 changes color quickly but the engine seems pretty clean. I'll probably pull the valve covers to check the valves next year as it has been 36,000 miles since the last time it was opened up. At that time I'll see if I have to change the way I'm treating it. The last oil analasis said it was in pretty good shape.

In the 50s I worked in the local garage while I was in school. Oil was so bad that the engines would crud up and block oil and lifter passages. People used ATF and locally we used kerosene to flush them out. Before I use any product on an engine I look to see if it actually looks dirty. My Subie has always had good oil and regular oil changes and flushing it would be a waste of time and money.

I also have a 99 Forester that now has 125,000 miles. I check the oil at least every second fill up and add a small amount about once a month. I think a small amount of regular usage may be fairly normal for a lot of these 2.5s as they age. I also have no leaks and do not see excessive smoke. Consumption increases a bit as the oil gets older and on longer trips. The trip consumption may be partially due to the oil being a bit thinned by fuel and having it evaporate when hot.

This is a man with the courage to fight the system!

The good news is that I had a PO 420 code and changed the front oxegen sensor on my at the time 120,000 mile Forester. It has been a few months and the code has not come back. Why not change it yourself?

Some of us got lucky the first time. I broke a belt in New Zealand on a borrowed car and the folks who sold it to me spent ten minutes showing me how not to screw up. They even drew me a diagram of the marks.

That sounds much better to me.

I'd tear off the heads and inspect it. Any scoring on the cylinder walls would rule it out, but the only reasonable thing to do is fit new head gaskets. This is why I stopped swapping engines in CA., it's a pain in the butt. By the way, is wife swapping legal there?

I don't usually use stop leak either, and for the same reason. I have the Subaru stuff in my phase 2 now along with the post 03 head gaskets though.

He's probably already scared himself.

Have you done a search here? It seem like lots of folks have had clunking in the front on those. I have a clunk less Forester so I don't know much about it.

hi, I am sure you will be watching the head gasket threads!

If you have a vac leak you will have a high idle.If its too bad the car won't even run.

A lot of alternators need a power line to charge. I imagine it just goes though the light circuit to provide a warning light.

You need t have the codes pulled. Take it t Autozone and they will pull the code fr free. Then replace what the code tells you to.

On a fairly old car if I had trouble hookin up the antenna I would just get a cheap auto parts fender antenna and install it on the right front fender where it is easy. I replaced my troublesome antenna on my Mercedes with an auto parts store one that worked better than the original.

So I might as well weigh in with my guess. I think a few of early 2.5s will not need replacement due to thier use, and will last as long as rings or valves. By this I mean head gaskets often nearly fuse to the surfaces. There is not much support on a 2.5 for the gasket and if you take a car that is running fine around town and move it to the next stage of heating I think the gasket can break loose. With dissimilar metals and an alloy block expansion seems destined to make it move around. You also often get a big change in use when a car changes owners. Younger owners hop in the car and do long ski trips and college trips that settled folks with jobs don't have time to do. The phase 2s are a different problem and a bandaid is likely to be an OK for a lot of these cars. When I had external leakage on my phase 2 the Subaru goop would have taken care of it. I would just plan on a gasket change with a phase 1 and expect lots more miles out of it.

Don't add oil with the engine running. You are shutting it off to check aren't you? It sounds like it is burning oil which is about right with the blowby.

Probably not, especially if it is an automatic.

If an Outback sport with a 2.2 would fit your lifestyle it is a winner. I don't like the DOHC engines for a couple of reasons, they are harder to work on and the internal leak problem. I needed the extra room and settled for a 99 Forester with the phase 2 2.5. Some of us old folks need room to haul things and the Forester does it quite well.

Looks nice! on my last Mercedes I made a custom key when faced with this problem. Your version is tough enough for a Mack truck.