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Ditto on the nice work Frag. Did you use stainless steel screws? Commuter

The last OEM revision of HG for these engines is 4 layer... Unless they have changed them again in the past several months, but I doubt that. P/n ends with 610 as I recall. I'd be loath to use anything other than OEM parts for the gaskets and seals for these engines. Subarus are not that common. I doubt that you will find much out there on the aftermarket. Btw... I got to 160k miles before mine failed. I'm just coming up on 100k miles on the "new" (but still Phase I) engine. Commuter

I can't remember off hand if the engine is single or double overhead cam (but single I believe). I'm sure it is 4 valves per cylinder. However, none of that is really relavent to my comment. The exhaust gases from all 3 cylinders are brought together inside the Aluminum head to a single port before they go into the exhaust manifold. That's all I was commenting about. I have not personally verified this, but I have not heard to the contrary either. Commuter

I know a guy who had a 2001 Outback H6 and wanted to boost it (only to about 7 or 8 psi as I recall). The tuner talked him out of it when he found out that the engine has a single exhaust port for each bank of 3 cylinders. He was concerned about temperature rise inside the head (I believe). IMO, you are taking your chances boosting the 2.5L engine, unless you do a full build up. You might try your luck on finding a turbo'd engine from a wreck, or an importer. Commuter

I know this has come up before. You could try a search. I think you might have more luck finding this info on the old i-club board (nasioc is it now?). You can do a direct hardwire replacement of the wiring, but I think there is an easier way. Commuter

I have a 97 OB and did the exact same thing. I put in the Subaru / Panasonic P123 6CD/tape/radio unit. It works just fine. If I'm not mistaken, the second plug is for the optional under-the-passenger-seat subwoofer. Commuter

Did you use Subaru or aftermarket seals? I recall Emily of CCR saying (about 2 or 3 years ago) that for whatever reason, aftermarket seals just don't seem to fit / perform properly with Subaru engines. Commuter

Go for the DOT 5.1 instead (non silicone). Motul recommended. Commuter

Can you fish it out? Bent up coat hanger sort of thing? Just an idea. Commuter

Putting a "full" Phase II 2.5L engine in is a lot of work. One guy did it (on a 97 GT as I recall), but ran into quite a few issues. Just changing out the short block with a Phase II is possible though as far as I know. It's a lot of coin, but a CCR engine would probably be your best and safest bet. Otherwise, just fix the HG if you are reasonalbly assured that the rest of the engine is ok. I'd have them pull off the oil pan though and see how things look on the bottom end first. I fixed my HG, then had a conrod bearing fail. And NO, one did not lead to the other IMO. They just happened at the same time. Commuter

As I stated, I honestly believe the 2 were totally unrelated, except for them happening at the same time. Conrod bearing failures are rare in this engine to the best of my knowledge. If you really like the car and plan to keep it, the safest bet would probably be a rebuilt engine from CCR Inc. Commuter

I dealt with P0400 for about a year in total on my 97 OB. Royal PITA... They first replaced the little diaphram device that sits right up top. The diaphram was torn they said. Still got the code. Next, they bypassed the little vacuum tubes under the throttle cable, but that was not the problem. Then, they changed some solenoid (I don't even know where the thing is, I wasn't able to readily spot it). Now my code is finally gone. During all this time (I was clearing the code almost daily), I did get P0304 once. Not sure why. It never reappeared. But the EGR is hooked up to the intake runner that feeds cylinder 4, right? (I hadn't thought of that before...) Oh... one other thing. When I first got this code a couple of years ago, it had nothing to do with the EGR system itself. There is a small pressure sensor mounted on the passenger strut tower. It has some input to the auto tranny shift algorithm. In addition, it "checks" the EGR function. This sensor had failed on my car. I had noticed slighty delayed sloppy shifts at times. After this sensor was changed, the shifting returned to normal. I see yours is a 5 speed, so I don't know if this sensor exists or not on your car. Commuter

This happened to me as well. 97 OB. I have a very lengthy post on here about my experience. Your symptoms are "classic" Phase I 2.5L internal head gasket failure. I'm surprised that you didn't see bubbles. I'd look closer. You may not see them unless you have (just) had the engine under load. Eg, up a hill, towing, or highway driving. Just warming it up in your driveway may not create bubbles. I had the "oil" in the coolant expansion bottle. In hindsight, it don't think it was really oil. That is, it was not engine oil. Rather, it is a sludge formed from the exhaust gases pushing/moving thru the coolant. Anti-freeze and engine oil are about 1/3 the same "stuff" after all. The oily sludge is a byproduct of the internal head gasket leak. Sorry... You have a decision to make now. Commuter

I have a 97 OB. No keyless entry. I think the Limited had it, but not the base model. In fact, they are not even prewired (as I recall), so adding "factory" keyless entry is expensive. For the same money, I added a Viper Remote Start / Alarm / Keyless entry. (I had a shop do the work. I'm glad I didn't tackle it myself after seeing the mess of wires under the dash.) Commuter

I have a 97 OB as well. Mostly highway miles; now at 410,000 km. Yes, these engines are prone to carbon. I've gone thru the issue a couple of times. It takes something like a MotorVac to properly deal with it. After that, you can keep things in check with premium fuel, or cleaners. The sympton I got was low rpm hesitation. (eg 600 to 1000 rpm.) I don't know if this is related to your misfire problem, but it could be as has been pointed out. Have you ever changed the O2 sensor? My carbon issue slowly went away the last time after I changed mine out (about a year or so ago). They said it was ok (but a bit slow) and I wasn't getting any CEL, but I decided to do it anyway. It saved me having to do a MotorVac again. My last e-test looked better too. Commuter

Do a search for a topic titled "Climate Control Backlight" (I think). CincyBuckeye and I gave some very good instructions in that topic on this very issue. Commuter

I've heard of the coolant temp sensor creating hard starting. The ECU isn't getting the right temp reading, thereby using the wrong fuel maps. It could be your problem. You will want to fix it, as it will reduce gas milage and increase pollutants. Another common probem is contacts in the starter. Your car is of that age where it seems to happen. Good luck. Commuter

Just a wild guess, but is the knob broken? The 'guts' in behind that grip the stem of the actual control may be busted. This happened on my ex's 99 Honda Odyssey recently (rear climate control knob). Pop the knob off and take a look at the backside. Turn the stem by hand and see if it works that way. Commuter

97 OB 2.5L Auto as well. I consistently get 24 / 25 mpg, mostly highway driving at 70 mph. A little better in the summer, a bit worse in the winter. The best I ever saw was about 27. Commuter

Everything is conspiring against you here. The year of car, the age, the 2.5L Phase I engine, the milage. I have a 97 OB with the same engine. The head gaskets went 2.5 yrs ago at 160k miles. I found a sludge in the coolant expansion tank, and bubbles. That is one thing you didn't mention. Bubbles. I never saw the temp gauge move, and I was watching it like a hawk with all the reports around that time. Everything seems to be pointing that way (HG). Commuter

Do "look" for the rear differential and half shafts. A tailgate could have been changed. Did these years have the emblem on the side windows as well? You shouldn't have to get dirty. Just look in under the rear bumper. Commuter

This has been discussed before. I was even in the midst of a 'debate' on tire circumference a couple years back. What matters is effective circumference, or rolling diameter. And yes, it does change with tire pressure. One guy proved it to himself by rolling his mountain bike a certain distance (5 revs of the tire as indicated by the tire valve position). When he let most of the air out of one tire and then repeated the test (with him on for weight), he found a noticable difference. I know that radial tires do not 'sag' the way the old bias ply tires did (who remembers those ). On the old bias ply tires, even just a few psi drop would show up as a noticable 'bulge' at the pavement. With todays tires, I find that I usually won't notice it (by eye) unless there has been a 10 psi or more drop. And I'm quite sure that that would be enough to create the 1/4" circumference difference. So... Why don't we have a slew of failures on the Subaru center differentials? A number of reasons. Most of this is just my own thoughts from my engineering background, knowing how companies spec things and from hanging around boards like this for a few years. First of all, the center diff (whether clutch pack or VC) has to tolerate "something" or it would never work. Every time you turn a corner, it has to allow slippage. Second, manufacturers are going to rate things conservatively. 1/4" variance translates into about 0.3% difference. With liability laws and lawyers being as they are, I'm sure the real number that can be tolerated is higher. Third, all of this is "for real". I can quote a couple of examples I've read over the years. It's generally accepted that the VC is more forgiving than the clutch pack. That certainly seems true from my message board travels. However, I recall reading of one person who had 2 VC's fail and a 3rd one was showing heat damage. I'm not sure of the time frame, but I think this was over several months, perhaps a year. They discovered that he had a pair of tires with a 1.5" difference in circumference from the other pair! Even at that (6 times Subaru's spec), it took a while for the damage to occur. On the other hand, I've read a couple of times of people blowing a tire with an automatic and just throwing something on, and then frying the clutch pack. One guy was coming back from a trip. He blew a tire. He got a used tire from some junk yard as a quick fix and continued on his way home. 2 or 3 hours of driving as I recall. The following week, he discovers that his clutch pack is shot. (I don't know how different the tire was, or how many miles, etc. Eg, the clutch pack might have been on it's last legs for example.) I just changed my clutch pack on my 97 OB, but I have 410,000 km. I can't complain. I did have a tire get down to about 15 or 20 psi a couple of times as I had picked up a nail and had a slow leak and didn't realize it. I probably drove a few thousand kms as the air slowly leaked. (I use to put on 5,000 km a month.) I had 2 nails in the same tire within a 3 week period. Did it do any damage? Not that I could tell. If it hadn't happened, would I have gotten to 420,000 km, or 450,000 km? I have no way to know. One needs to be aware of the "potential for damage" to the Subaru center differential. It's rather expensive to find out the hard way. With the autos (mine anyway), I'm surprised that there isn't some placard right there with the spare tire. I honestly didn't know about the FWD fuse for about 2 years until I got onto some of the message boards. And I HAD looked over the manual. I found it buried at the 'end' of the "how to change a tire" section. D'oh! I never read that far. I've changed many a tire in my day and nothing in the diagrams or my quick skim of the material suggested that this car was any different. I'm just glad that I didn't "find out the hard way". Commuter

It's a donut spare. (At least it is in my 97 OB Auto.) The odds are that you have an Automatic. In this case, the donut spare is to go on the back and the all important fuse is to be put into the FWD holder under the hood near the passenger side strut tower. This puts the car into FWD mode, thereby ensuring that you don't fry your center differential (clutch pack). It doesn't take much to do damage to it! And they are a little fragile on this particular year (I forget the exact detail) usually failing in the order of 120k miles. If you have a manual transmission, then you can drive on the donut spare for a brief time. The VC (viscous coupling) center differential can only take so much though. In either case, get the full sized tire fixed and back on the car ASAP. If you need a different tire, it must match other other 3 to within 1/4" on the circumference. Oops... I see that you said you had to order a tire. I hope it matches. With my current set of tires, I had to replace one after a relatively short time. Even at that, there was already close to 1/4" difference. Note that 1/4" on the circumference is only 1 mm (millimeter) difference in tread depth! (Sorry for mixed units, but it just works out nicely that way.) I jacked my car up and wrapped a tape measure around the tires to check before I pulled the fuse back out. Commuter

I think (but don't quote me) that Subaru started "prewiring" the cars in 98 for keyless entry. My 97 OB did not even have that. I don't think it was a standard item on the base OB for 98. It was probably standard for the OB Limited. Check www.cars101.com. You can probably find the answer there. You may need a different "black box". Just a guess. Commuter

Check out www.cars101.com. You should find your answers there. Commuter