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I disconnected the cat, replaced TPS and Knock Sensor. Nothing helped.

I have a 96 Legacy Outback Wagon 5spd 2.2 with recently rebuilt motor (25k ago). I have had problems since day one with it when it comes to acceleration. If I floor the pedal it takes maybe a 1 second to really respond. When I try going off roading up a hill I can't get it to go because of this. I have had 5 subarus and they never had this problem. My 91 legacy climbed way better than this. I've also been getting 20 to 22 MPG which I usually get more with these cars. No check engine light. I have a donor car so I've been swapping parts. So far I have swapped Front O2 sensor, all 4 injectors, MAF sensor, New PCV valve, New Spark Plugs, pretty sure I did a fuel filter 25k ago, New wires and I've done a fuel system cleaner. What else should I do? Thanks

I'm using 5w30 full synthetic. I used regular during the break in period and changed the oil 3 times. I know coolant smokes white and thats what my fear was for a while but I haven't added a drop. I am leaving the coolant tank empty and that radiator full. I'm doing this so I know that I'm not sucking coolant in from the tank. Everytime I open the radiator cap I have coolant dripping off of the cap so I know it hasn't used a drop. I will ad my old catch can when I get back out to colorado to pick it up. As far as the rings go I am positive I got all the rings installed the exact same way. I was so freakin anal about this rebuild as it was my first. I took way too much time making sure it was perfect. I will take the intake off as soon as I am able. Thanks for the advice yall

So it's happening more frequently now. I took the plugs out and stuck a cotton rope in the hole and found a small amount of oil on the end in the 3 and 4 cylinders. Although it didn't smoke after starting it this time. I opened the throttle body butterfly and looked in and it looks pretty clean so I doubt any oil is getting sucked thru the pcv. Whats weird is that it slowly got worse after the rebuild and then the same after the head gasket replacement and valve stem seals. I'm thinking the oil is breaking down and getting thinner so it's seeping by something. Whats your thoughts. Could the rings not have set properly and sometimes it gets by them ?I highly doubt it but I also doubt the valve seals are leaking again or even leaked in the first place considering that they hardly ever have issues on these motors. No coolant loss and no oil loss that I can tell but it wouldn't take much I'm gonna add a bottle of Lucas to see if it thickens the oil up and stops it. Ugh its pretty frustrating considering I have a Mobile Mechanic sign on my back window and I have a huge puff of white smoke when I start this thing up.

Morning starts or after sitting a hour or so. What's weird is how it's only happened once in the last couple or so thousand miles. And when it was doing it more frequently before it could go a week without doing it then everyday for a while. That's why I thought maybe a fuel injector not shutting off all the way at times EDIT it happened again today, a smaller poof of smoke but still enough to notice

I most definitely replaced that oil ring. The whole engine was spotless when I put it back together and I cleaned the valve covers both times I had them off. The breather tubes are clean. The pcv hose and Y are clean. I replaced the Oil Separator with a aluminum one. It's only happened once that I've noticed sense I did the head gaskets and valve seals, where it i was doing it at least once a day when I decided to redo the heads. Weird

Yep. Everything is exactly as it should be.

Ugh. Another poof of white smoke today

Check the back side of the passenger head. There is a cam shaft retainer cap thingy that has to bolts holding it on. Inside that cap is a a large o-ring. That will get cracked and leak a lot of times and it will drip on your exhaust.

You are supposed to adjust it. It sounds like it needs to be backed off. If its too tight then your clutch is not fully engaging. Loosen the 14mm nut and 8mm locking nut at the end of the cable all the way. Tighten the 14mm nut. Watch the cable cantilever on top of the hill holder. When it starts to move the cable is tight so back the 14mm nut off till the cantilever doesn't move. tighten the locking nut and try that out. To test it get your car on a 5 degree incline and push the clutch in and put on the brakes. Let off the brakes and see if it rolls. If it does then you need to tighten the cable. Release the clutch slowly. I find that at about halfway the car starts to roll. if it doesn't roll back after that then you probably have it too tight. I absolutely love a properly functioning hill holder especially when on mountain roads or in hilly cities. If you really want to disconnect it just loosen the nuts enough so that you can take the cable out of the cantilever. You would have to move the cantilever by hand clockwise until you can disconnect the cable barrel out of the slot. Good luck.

So I checked the PCV and it looked clean and moved freely. I had cleaned it when I did the rebuild so I figured it was good but I decided to replace it with a OEM one because $10 aint bad. So far it hasn't smoked once and that was over 1200 miles ago. So I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I hear everyone always say to check you pcv valve on a variety of problems but until now I never realized how important it was. Thanks for your help guys. I'll let you now if it smokes again

Yeah I thought that was the problem but as I said I replaced them along with the head gaskets and no luck. As far as I can tell the intake valves could leak into the cylinders on these

Just had another thought. If it was coolant it would probably only be a few drops that would cause it to smoke like that and I might not notice a fluid level change. I just noticed that the IAC valve has a coolant line running thru it for whatever reason. Any chance it could be seaping into the intake thru that?

Good thought. I did check that the other day though and it was bone dry

I have a 96 Legacy Outback with a 2.2 from a 94, heads from a 97, and a intake from a 96. I rebuilt the engine a few months ago due to massive oil consumption caused by bad rings. The engine never smoked at all. The rebuild went great and it runs smooth but once in a while I would have a big puff of white smoke on startup after it sat all night of for at least a couple hours. Pure white smoke, no sweet smell at all, definitely not condensation and it would last about 3 to 5 seconds and the cloud would linger for a while. It didn't use a single drop of oil or coolant from what I could tell. After 7k I decided to tear it apart again and do what I should have done in the first place which was 1 use oem head gaskets and not Topline gaskets that came with my rebuild kit and 2 replace the valve stem seals. I had the heads checked and they were still flat. Got everything back together and after maybe the 10th time starting it I got the white cloud again. I'm at a loss. Could it be that I have a injector sticking open and that extra fuel gets burned off? . Been working on cars for most of my life and never had this problem before. I'll try to take a video when I get a chance.