Subaru Outbacks

[Rot Box]

Been a few months.. at this point I am very happy with our Subaru. We have put about 11k miles on it since the overhaul and it has been nearly trouble free.

I have a very-very small oil leak on the top of the passenger side head. After a week or so there will be a dime size puddle near an oil pressure sensor. I'm still trying to sort it out. If I leave it the car stinks like burnt oil so I wipe it down every couple of days.

Long story short: Since purchase we noticed the airbag light would come on randomly and stay on if there was a passenger in the front seat. After searching the interwebs I found out it was a due to there not being enough solder on a small circuit board above the rearview mirror. Several hundred dollars for the dealer to fix it or about 20 minutes and a solder gun if I do it myself Problem solved!

I noticed this car was very hard on engine oil. I was going through a quart of Mobil 1 5w-30 every 2500 or so miles :-\ At first I thought it was engine problems but after reading on the interwebs (again---lots of reading) it turns out this is very common on this particular motor. The consensus is to us Shell 5w-40 T6 diesel oil. So far I've seen no burn off and the oil stays cleaner much longer.

I wish the guy would have sold it to me with the torn OEM CV shafts so I could have re-booted them. They were changed out a few days before I bought the car with the Cardone re-man shafts. These are garbage. They vibrate and make the car shake. I'm going to fork out the cash for OEM shafts eventually I just haven't had the time or money yet.

I just replaced the toxic waste dump battery with a new Exide AGM. I've had very good luck with the one I put in the Jetta so I figured I'd give it a shot. Have I ever told you how bad I hate cheap batteries?! Typical O'rielly 'Super Start' was fairly new and bulged and leaking like crazy barely enough cca's to start the car in winter. This should solve the problem I think.

Not a bad looking car. I've taken it exploring quite a bit this summer and added some custom pin striping I've noticed right off the AWD is much-much better than the CR-V was off road. I'll have to dig up some action photos.

 

[Rot Box]

So long story short (so you don’t have to read this lame thread all over again) I had this 07 Subaru Outback. Needed head gaskets at 100k miles so I pulled the engine and replaced them. Along the way one of the heads was cracked so I replaced that too and resealed the engine. Once fixed it was such a great car! We sold it when we moved to Florida three-ish years ago. Well we’re back home and I think I might be in the market for another one. Kinda tired of driving Tinky Winky everyday it’s huge!

This time I’d like to find one around the same year with a blown motor (there’s lots on ksl) and throw a long block in it with the upgraded head gaskets. I’d like to find the XT so I’d have the turbo and a manual would be fun.

Anyone here have experience with the turbo 2.5? What should I watch out for? Certain years better than others? I’m thinking 2005-2009 for the price point and body style I like. Again I’m thinking long block looking around I can add some upgrades like ARP head studs and other things which may or may not be needed..

Also most places I’m seeing need a location with a loading dock and forklift for delivery what’s the best way to get an engine delivered close to home?

Thanks for any suggestions 😎

 

[Gravy]

The 2.5 turbo in the xt isn't quite as hot at the 2.0 turbo in the wrx, but head studs and an mls gasket and oiling upgrades would be in my list. If I was planning to turn up the boost I'd do head mods like fire rings and valve springs, pistons and con rods.

Metric motors sells some well priced built long and short blocks. You can have a motor delivered to your house if you request lift gate delivery.

The 2.0 turbo head swap is a thing people do also.

The 6 speed is much more durable than the 5.

 

[Rot Box]

Thanks for the info Gravy! Metric Motors? I’ll check them out.

I’m kinda back and forth on the turbo car idea. For one I like turbos haha and would plan on keeping it mostly stock on the other hand it does add a lot of complexity and I’m not sure about the DOHC engines. I’ll have to keep reading up on them.

I have awhile before I can get too serious about picking one up so plenty of time to think about it.

 

[RockChucker]

I know this isn’t a Subaru, but figure it might be similar? Shortly after we got married, the engine in my wife’s 07 civic cracked. It was a known defect that Honda extended out the warranty for. And of course we were 2 months outside the warranty. I found a JDM engine on eBay that came from a dismantled Japanese car for like $550 shipped to my door. It was fully dressed and ready to go…for a different car. I had to swap accessories and sensors over but all in all it bolted right in. I would imagine you could get a similar Subaru engine from a Japanese car that was dismantled. Oh and the engine only had about 40k miles on it

 

[Rot Box]

Thanks! I hadn’t considered a JDM engine. Maybe that’s what I could do and put the upgraded gaskets in it and reseal everything while it’s out. I’ll look around and see what I can find.

So the LL Bean editions with the H6…. I don’t think the six had head gasket issues maybe I should consider one of those. They’re really nice with all the bells and whistles too.

 

[2002maniac]

I have an H6 outback for my Gambler 500 car. The extra power is nice, but you'll be lucky to get 20mpg from it.

 

[Rot Box]

I have an H6 outback for my Gambler 500 car. The extra power is nice, but you'll be lucky to get 20mpg from it.

That’s surprising! Good to know though thanks for the heads up. Not too hung up on mileage but was hoping for 25ish or better.

Gambler 500 is cool 😎

 

[2002maniac]

 

[Rot Box]

Sweet I found one! Long story: My wife (it’s her last day of work today) works for a place that cares for old people or people that need a little assistance throughout the week. She has became very close with this sweet 90 year old lady who is such an awesome person they get along great. My wife has been caring for her in her free time off the clock just to help out where needed.

Well she had this 2003 Legacy L wagon with only 80k miles on the clock—total grandma car that she asked if my wife would be interested in buying it because she is now too old to drive. Well yeah of course!

So we picked it up last night for a fantastic deal—so good I kinda felt bad I think it was her way of saying thanks. Anyway it has all the service records dating back 15 years included. The head gaskets were done (thank goodness) last year so I don’t need to worry about that I hope.

It’s even got a factory coexist bumper sticker! 🤣. Check out the fuel door lol

Looking forward to racking up some miles on this ol’ girl. I did have the check engine light come on last night for a P0457 which I’m hoping was just a loose gas cap—knowing my luck lately it’ll be something a lot more difficult haha.

 

[TRD270]

Nice score but also damn you and this thread, I miss my dude-aru, and have been actively trolling KSL and JDM websites 😂

 

[Rot Box]

Hauled the first load with the Subaru today! Got all the essentials for working on Tinky Winky! 😂

 

[mbryson]

Hauled the first load with the Subaru today! Got all the essentials for working on Tinky Winky! 😂

View attachment 141444

Had to head out to Newton store for the Hamms, eh?

 

[Rot Box]

Loving the new car. I just received the mountain of service records that came with it. Wow it’s gonna take some time to dig through all of it! 15 years of records for every nut and bolt ever turned on it.

The leaves are on fire this year. So cool! 😎

 

[Rot Box]

Kinda looking at lift kits. They’re cheap! This is the Legacy so it’s about 2” lower than the Outback.

Thinking a 2” lift and a receiver hitch to haul my little three rail bike trailer should do the trick 😎

 

[Rot Box]

Added an Alpine Bluetooth head unit to the car yesterday and it fit like a glove. Huge improvement over our valleys radio stations—they suck bad!

Today I drove it to the big ol’ city of salt lake to pick up a receiver hitch I scored on KSL for $100. Looks brand new and came with all the mounting hardware. Should haul my little motorbike trailer nicely 😎

While I was under it I had to move an emissions reservoir of sorts to gain access to a mounting hole. I noticed one of the hoses had popped off I hope that explains the check engine light I have pretty sure that’s the cause of it.

Love the car so far. It’s great! I went through the mountain of service records and I think I’ll be good to go for a long time the shop went through it with a fine tooth comb at every visit and really took care of anything that needed attention.

 

[mbryson]

Added an Alpine Bluetooth head unit to the car yesterday and it fit like a glove. Huge improvement over our valleys radio stations—they suck bad!
....

I stream KLZX from the valley

 

[Rot Box]

I stream KLZX from the valley

You must like the two songs from ZZ Top and Kiss on repeat 24/7?? Hahaha

 

[mbryson]

Can’t remember hearing a Kiss song today.

 

[Rot Box]

Tow rig! 😂