Fairtax4me

If the holes in the crank sprocket are threaded use a harmonic balancer or steering wheel puller. Using a jaw puller might damage the sprocket. It's not pressed on or anything, it should slide off fairly easy if you can just get it started.

Looks like it's for the Evap purge valve solenoid. If the line goes to a T you can replace it with a generic T from a parts store. Probably goes to this little bugger though which is going to cost some $$ from the dealer. http://www.subarupartsforyou.com/cp_partdetail.php?partid=15215 Get one from a junkyard for $5. They don't often go bad.

How does the tread on the tire look? A loose tie rod can allow the tire to "walk" a bit which can cause the tread to feather or cup, leading to vibration and thumping or wobbling sounds.

Engine Coolant Temperature.

I'm not questioning the integrity of the replacement gaskets, just wasn't sure if you did one or both. Hopefully it's just because the thermostat isn't opening all the way. A bad head gasket or cracked head/block would almost certainly make air bubbles in the coolant. Might be worth doing a Block Test if the Subaru T stat doesn't fix it. You did mix the coolant 50/50 right?

No codes? CEL works? ECT sensor is a common failure, tends to cause driveability issues but could also lead to poor fuel economy. Which O2 sensor was changed? Front or rear?

You replaced just the passenger side head gasket? If the engine was overheated, the driver side head gasket may be compromised.

Well at least it's fixed... for a little while. Poor connections are fairly common. Sometimes wires and harnesses just need to be unplugged and screwed around with. Had a strange wire problem come into the shop earlier this week. Car had a code for a pedal sensor, wiring checked out, tech replaced the sensor, then the control unit and the code kept coming back. He finally did a visual check of the wiring and found a section that looked like it had been heated up by an external source. No bare wire showing, but when the wires for the sensor were isolated away from the others in the harness the code went away and stayed gone. Tech checked sensor readings on the scanner and found they were erratic when the wires were grouped together with the others in the harness. Wrapped the wires in insulating tape and the erratic signal went away.

As long as there's beer. PCV valve was one of the first things I replaced on this car. It was clogged shut, which may have accounted for the MASSIVE amount of oil leaking from it before I did the work. I got under the thing with a light and a mirror today and still couldn't get a good idea of exactly where the oil leak is coming from. Guess I get to pull the engine again to fix that. Not like it's hard... I'm tired of draining the coolant out of the thing. I swapped the brand new tensioner today with the old leaky one. I checked the condition of the idler bearings, they seem to be in good shape so far. Thought I could feel some play in the cogged idler but it may have just been my imagination. (I want something to be physically wrong/broken so I can shoot it) Either way, old tensioner on, the whirr has subsided. Just gonna have to keep an ear on it, check it all again when I pull the engine to fix the oil leak. In the mean time. The outer cv boot on the right rear axle has split open, and the rest don't look so hot.

Compression and/or leak down test. You can pull injector plugs to see if it makes a difference. Otherwise I think they need to be out to check spray pattern. If you can smell fuel in the cylinders they are at least spraying fuel, how much is another story. I wanna say there was a thread here some time ago where the poster had several valve guides fall out and lodge the valves open. Maybe a side effect of overheating?

If it runs rough, you can pull injector plugs one at a time to see which cylinder/s are not firing. Or I suppose you could just do a compression test on it. (if you have a gauge)

Time is just as harmful to oil as mileage, and oil break down in cold conditions can be just as harmful as hot conditions. When oil is cold, parts of it will collect and form into waxes that will stick to the engine. The waxes attract acids and collect moisture, the beginning stages of the creation of sludge. Once sludge formation starts, it won't just go away. I'd change it ASAP with a high detergent synthetic blend or full synthetic oil. If you don't plan to drive much during the colder months, change the oil before putting the car away for the winter. I would pay attention to what the owners manual has to say about spare tire usage. The service advisors may just be trying to get you to come back with torque bind in a few years after a flat tire or three has damaged the transfer unit in the transmission. If everybody got 5 more mpg when running mid grade, don't you think everyone would do it?

Whaddaya expect for $11?

That is awesome! Really shoe-horned that thing in there.

My best guess is that it does not support the protocol used by Subaru in the 97MY Outback. Or it's broken.

I've heard of people "fixing" worn/bad bushings with 3M Window Weld. Not sure how well it works out in the end but that stuff is pretty tough.

Yoodaman! Subaru seal driven just a hair further than the old seal. Perhaps it needed to go a bit further still. There was some buildup/corrosion/crud on the end of the crank that I wanted to be sure to get past so it wouldn't chew up the new seal. Maybe it chewed it up anyway while I was installing it? I tried to clean it off but it was crusted on pretty good. Figured it was better to leave it and not risk getting grit in the main bearing. I might grab the borescope from work and stick it down in the bell housing to see if I can tell where it's leaking from exactly. :-\ That thing is not the greatest quality though. Didn't even check end play. Everything else except for the valve cover gaskets has been replaced, including both rear cam cap seals. VCGs were not replaced because they were, and still are, (surprisingly) not leaking. I got the steering rack bushings replaced though. More of a pita than I thought it should have been, but it was worth it. No more wandering. Something still clunks/rattles in the front end from time to time if I hit the right kind of bump. Everything seems tight though. Also changed the transmission fluid, the old stuff looked a little brownish on the dip stick. But when drained it looked like chocolate. So I changed I twice more the same evening, gonna do it one more time (bought a whole case of Castrol multi-import ATF) and call it good for 12-15k miles at least. I did notice after changing it, there was a very slight rumble when accelerating around corners, that has now gone away. Mild Torque Bind maybe?

It would be interesting to see a diagram of the oil feed system, to see exactly where the oil goes after the pump.

No I'm just complaining about the whole thread in general after the first few replies. OP didn't ask for a debate on the topic. I think it's pretty clear that after 97, ALL EJ engines are interference design. The crossover of non-interference to interference seems to go between years. I've read of late 96 model year 2.2 having bent valves. My point is, you could get either one in 96 or 97, depending on what Subaru had left over. But regardless, there's no guarantee that valve-piston collision occured. No way for valves to hit valves in the SOHC design, so that part is out of the question.

Did you check the condition of the hoses at the back of the car near the canister? (could just be coincidence you got the code after the engine swap)

The saga continues.... There is still a slight whine from the tensioner and cogged idler bearings, even though they are brand new OE brand parts. I checked the belt tension, seems fine. Even backed off the tensioner just for good measure, no difference. Maybe it's nothing and will go away? I dunno, I'm just a little annoyed by it right now. Another issue has popped up. There appears to be an oil leak from the bell housing area. Of course there's no room to see exactly where it's coming from, but it appears to be running down the differential cover from the bell housing. Brand new separator plate sealed with Permatex anaerobic. Has a brand new rear main seal as well, since the old one was leaking. Guessing by the repeat offenders record the new rear seal didn't take. Oh the joys of auto repair.

The bearing itself can go bad and will create a whirring/humming noise when driving similar to a bad wheel bearing. The rubber isolator around the bearing can deteriorate and cause the driveshaft to move around. I'm not sure if the bearing can be replaced or not. This is not a common issue though, so a used driveshaft out of a junkyard should fix it. A new shaft is like $6-800 IIRC.

Yeah the middle pin might as well not be there though. It gives you a false sense of accomplishment by popping out really easy. Then the large pin won't even budge. I had to use an air hammer on mine before it would move at all.

I was going to suggest a bad strut but if the vibration moved after switching wheels around it's probably an improperly balanced or bent wheel. Would be worth going over the whole front end to check for play.

We can make some recommendations if we knew what year, model, and engine you have.