I'm driving 800 miles each way on the 4th, pulling a jet ski trailer of roughly 1300 lbs.

 

I was going to do this in my 1990 Legacy, but the car either popped a head gasket or worse- no compression on either cylinder on the drivers side.

 

So, I bought a 1996 Outback that has the 2.5. The car runs great. But, as we all know, these are notorious for blowing HG's.

 

Am I setting myself up to be completely screwed here?

 

From what I understand, overheating isn't so much the cause as the symptom, right? Anything I can do to stack the dec on not blowing a head gasket?

From what I understand, overheating isn't so much the cause as the symptom, right? Anything I can do to stack the dec on not blowing a head gasket?

Find out if the HG's have been replaced before and if they haven't - do it yourself now.

yeah, simplest thing before worrying is to look at them and see if it's been replaced. look for a solid piece (old style) or a multilayer kind with two metallic looking metal thing pieces on the end. there's a nice chunk of the headgasket that protrudes out under the power steering pump, where the head and block mate.

How many miles are on it?

 

nipper

140k. It has the solid style headgasket on both sides. I can't see any evidence of leakage.

If it's an automatic, add a transmission cooler.

 

At 140,000 miles, if the car blows a HG (which is a long shot at this point) it will be due to age more then anything else. Part of me wants to say service the cooling system, the other part wants to say leave it alone.

 

If you do service the cooling system, triple check to get all the air out of the cooling system and you will be ok.

 

nipper

there is no doubt that you're at an increased risk compared to say, an EJ22. that amount of risk is entirely debatable and subjective. all i can say is that i see...and buy...a lot of blown headgasket EJ25's. personally, i'd never let my wife drive one very far. you know what to look for, the gauge will shoot up quickly and randomly. you won't see a leak, becaue they don't leak that way, it's internal. good luck.