1 Lucky Texan

how many miles on the car? is it due for a timing belt? could have slipped timing by a tooth. I know you said you could not find a vacuum leak - but you might try using a vacuum gauge to see what it looks like when it stumbles at idle. I wouldn't discount the possibility of a bad knock sensor either since you have low power.

how many miles? have you done a throttlebody cleaning? There's a spray Seafoam with a special nozzle that will clean the throttlebody ans help clean-out injectors/carbon in combustion chamber. or, try a can of seafoam or techron in a tank or 2 of gas. CEL on? what's the code?

if the turbo had a cracked housing or something? maybe coolant/oil could mix. not sure though.

maybe pressure test the cooling system while monitoring the oil drain? also, unless done in the recent past, car is overdue for timing belt.

if the crank was at the timing mark (not the triangle/arrow - never the arrow) then there's no way the valves can hit the pistons. But, if the arrow was at 12 or 6 o'clock, then you could have bent a coupla valves. A compression or leakdown test should confirm. look for any hoses that didn't get put back on or have slipped off. Especially the IACv one that goes underneath the intake.

are saying you feel confident this happened after your recent work on the car? I can only dream-up some way to misconnect some hoses near the throttlebody and intercooler/PCV valve area. seems unlikely

If you parked, and someone bounced the car up - down at each corner, would you hear anything? these kind of problems can be tricky.

torque bind - at least you know the Duty C solenoid works. That's what the fuse controls. 1. make certain all 4 tires are the same brand and within 2-3 32" of wear. 2. make sure no one has swapped transmission or rear diff and has mismatched the final drive ratios if the above are good, the wet clutch pack parts are probably bad in the tail of the transmission. On rare occasions, folks have done fluid changes/flush and/or used some Lucas or CRC or other additives and made the problem better. As for the howling - sometimes the A/C will do that if overfilled. Sometimes a whooshing noise comes from the engine intake filter box if not snapped in at the bottom properly. Could be a wheel bearing or a belt or ??? Is it from under the hood? can you hear it while stationary?

VIRGIN NO MORE!!!

they didn't sell you one of those new stretch-type belts by mistake did they?

Make sure it isn't the strut mount up top.

long shot but, what if PO used wrong fluid?

I suppose one issue might be, with , I guess, a history of 2 or more overheating events, has the lower end or other parts been compromised? I'd be tempted to go with 2A (JDM engine) 2B(junkyard engine) 2 (the subaru short block) or 2C (http://www.ccrengines.com/)

should be able to pull the maf from the intake and spray-clean it with CRC MAF cleaner.

worth checking kartboy, Whiteline and Prothane to see if they offer anything. NOTE: any aftermarket poly is likely going to transmit more noise/harshness, so, unless you MUST save every penny, avoid that. I think some folks have made bushings from a 3M product - windo-weld ????

I thought it might, just wasn't sure. I t 'may' get a little better mileage than a Forry, but of course you sacrifice space and maybe performance for that. It was just a thought.

on number 1 - The new FB engines are cam chain instead of belt so, there's little less maintenance there. check cars101.com for details, I can't recall if the chain came in 12 or exactly when. Does the Crosstrek come with a manual tranny?

first thing I would do is check the battery and charging circuit - including refreshing all the grounds and carefully inspecting the battery cables. Clear the codes and monitor how quickly and which ones come back. Also, see if you can borrow a gauge and check the fuel pressure. Additionally, next time it has sat and you think it probably won't start pull the plugs and see if one cylinder is noticeably wet with fuel. maybe an injector is leaking down. Another test would be, cycle the key to ON, not start, and wait 10 seconds, then cycle back to OFF, then to ON, wait 10 seconds, OFF, repeat one or 2 more times, then start. (the fuel pump will run for a few seconds each time - you should hear it) If it starts OK, maybe loosing fuel pressure in the rails.

if it was sludge-like, no 'chunks', and less than - say 1/2 or 3/4 teaspoonful or so, that would be consistent with normal i think. At least, that's what I found on my cars' magnetic drain plugs.

Take it to a different shop. Try making a new thread asking for mechanic recommendation near Bridgeport. could be front differential, transmission, ????

maybe fewer connections so - less chance of a leak? less volatile fuel volume to spill into the engine compartment in a wreck? i dunno. i wonder how many other cars are this way?

I'd be tempted to run a can of SeaFoam through a tank every 15K-20K miles and try to hold off the filter change til 100K. Is it really fine media or just another 'strainer'? seems crazy to have it in the tank, but not impossible to change.

LosDios - try searching or posting over at; http://www.subaruoutback.org

someone may have added a wrong oil to the tranny. You should consider doing 2-3 more drain/fill cycles. Check the front diff too in case someone put transmission fluid in there.

Pointing out that it is quite possible since it is in the tank on some soobs. Though i don't know on a 2010 Outback.