scoobiedubie

A bad O2 sensor or one that looks like it is hooked up but actually is not, will cause an incredible amount of bogging.

I thought that the shiny area was due to the oil that leaks through the rings when the engine is off, loosens up the carbon that is then blown out.

That problem looks like it was caused by somebody using a standard rubber O-ring, instead of the genuine Subaru high temperature O-ring. The oil passage goes directly to that channel from the O-ring location, as I recall. The standard O-ring melted.

Yes, You buy a used one at your local subaru wrecker.

Since the oil must pass through the oil filter, before it can be sent through the oil passages to the lifters, and since it is impossible not to have gasket maker squeeze inside the camtower chamber, I am not losing any sleep over this issue.

Loose intake manifold bolts, or bad intake manifold gaskets or cylinder head gaskets that need to be replaced, will cause a bog that will drive you nuts, and will also be accompanied by coolant disappearing from the overflow bottle and a white residue on spark plugs.

Hydraulic lifters are supposed to be rock hard with very little compression when recently removed from engine.

It isn't the "O" ring causing any smoke. Just clean everything with brake cleaner and see what effect that has. As far as the fuel injector harness, you would want to study the wires to see what their natural bends are telling you, as to which injector they attach to.

You might check the bolts that hold the exhaust pipe to the bottom side of the cylinders, and retighten them if at all loose.

Oil leaking out of the cam tower cover gaskets and dripping onto the exhaust cross pipe. You need to remove the cap and using new gaskets, seal them in with some high temperature gasket sealer.

I have ran mine with and without the fan working. It runs on electricity off of the alternator and does not run off the fan belts. I saw absolutely no difference to the power that the engine puts out with that fan on.

Myself, I would not be pouring a couple thousand into a car that is rusted out around wheel wells and other unsightly areas. You can buy and Outback at the local vehicle auction for the same money.

If you are looking for a little more power for very little money and keep within emission specs, you plumb a 2 1/2" exhaust line right into the bottom of your front catalytic converter, take out the middle cat and then go with a sweet sounding muffler.

They are both catalytic converters. You don't need the middle one.

$300?!? That would double the value of the vehicle. lol

Under the turbo is the cross pipe outlet. Oil burning or asbestos burning or ?? Oil drips onto cross pipe below the turbo.

Some people attemp to to build a 3.9 limited slip rear differential by robbing specific parts out of a 3.7 differential, and putting it into their 3.9 differential.

ebay has a few center caps

Change out your two vacuum pumps that sit on the drivers side, just in front of the firewall.

You jack up the side of the car that you are working on, maybe 8". This helps hold the rockers on, providing you put some globs of grease at the two contact points. Don't forget the subaru rubberized metal O-ring. And of cours if you want a really quiet engine, a faint touch of gasket maker around the two oil passage contact points. Keep the gasket maker away from the actual oil passage hole.

Smaller tires. But, then you might need armor plating on your rear differential, and your entire exhaust system. And you will be sweating every speed bump and cow pie. Forget about 4WD'g in the snow because you could high center on the snow drift at the end of your driveway. BTW, is that the silver wagon from John in Gaston, because there are not many of those on the road in northern Oregon.

$100 for a set of four plastic retainer rings, for sale.

If the compression on the passenger side is OK, then leave it alone for now. However, you may want to recheck the cylinder head bolts to make sure that they are as tight as you can get them. There is a lot of prior knowledge required to do a cylinder head properly. So if you haven't done them, you best find a good youtube video of how it is done. The problem with the driver side cylinder head, may be the only the cylinder head bolts have loosened up. You might try just tightening them and then try is out for a bit to see whether you are still going through fluids.

Just drop another short block into it.

You would want to know when they were last running and then see if they turn over from accumulated rust on the bearings. Is there still oil in them? The rust may only show by taking the block apart. If there is rust, then they are toast.