willwright

Front crank seal is very easy there Texan and always a food idea to remove the boil pump and doubly check / tighten those screws on the back side. New o'ring while your there and reseal it to the block with anaerobic sealant. That seal is very easy to do ! I totally agree to the fact age plays more hurt to seals more than a seal that's in use and constantly being oiled and kept limber so to speak. I know I say this constantly, but its so much better to do everything there is to do to anything accessible when on a certain part, on the other hand you have some say, if it isn't broke , don't fix it. I take the approach of being proactive, preventive maintenance means more to me. Old saying right, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure

1/2 qaurt in my outback crankcase is plenty, I figure since its only a 4.2 quart system the last thing I want is to thin it out too much and soon a bearing. If your using 10-40 then not as big a chance but 5-20 I would err on the side of caution , these motors run very clean anyways so unless you've bought a car severely neglected , doing this every 3 or 4 oil changes just helps insure those oil drain holes at the oil control rings don't get carboned up and plugged. In gas tank I run 1/2 qtevery fill up without fail. I'm not advertising here lol, I just stick to what I know has worked as long as my dad has showed me what a wrench was. Would get an old tractor or car back in the day and that thing would be smoking like a tar kettle. After a good flushing with mmo and he usually would let it sit overnight , after running it a but, then he would start it the next morning and let it warm up and then drain change it all out. 9 times out of ten the oil rings would clean up and not smoke or use oil near as bad. Run through the gas would clean up those carbs just like you had soaked them in carb cleaner after a few tanks of gas. I'm sure there are many products as good and some may claim better, but for a gallon of MMO for 12 bucks at Walmart I can treat 8 tanks compared to the same 12 bucks for a can of seafoam.

I run a half quart in every tank of gas in my subie, I run full quart in my duramax since the day I drove it off the lot brand new in 2005. It will not harm anything at all , evey 3rd or 4th oil change I do a half quart in the oil and let it run 15 - 30 minutes depending on how I'm feeling I guess. If u want to see how well it works, find an old carboned up piston and let it soak in it an hr or so, it will turn all that crap loose.

Good morning Pete, lots of films do it differently but if you goto YouTube.com there are lots of good videos by good Subaru techs that have put up videos on just about everything on subies. I am always glad to see someone as yourself take the bill by the horns and learn to do things on their own. My number is 719-238-0917 and anyone can call me anytime and if I can help I surely will. I'm not a mechanic by trade but been to school and been working on cars and tractors since I was old enough to know what a screwdriver is. Another thing I've always done is by a Haynes manual from tjw auto parts store for every car I've ever owned. For 20 bucks and the excellent help from forums like this one, a person would be hard pressed to screw anything up that couldn't be fixed. My dad always said, the only dumb question is the one you don't ask lol, man , how true was that I have come to learn. I tell you another product I swear by is MMO ( marvel mystery oil) I run it in my gas as well every tank , in my subie and in my diesels. Knock on wood , I have never had injector problems. Before every 3rd oil change, I pour a at in engine oil and let it run 10 minutes, keeps everything nice and clean inside engine.

I would check the pull and pays for the sprocket, yes , a lit of people use thread lock on those and the crankshaft bolt. As far as a tool, I seen a photo somewhere that a guy took a 2x4 or maybe was a 2x6 and drilled holes to match the holes in the sprocket and put bolts through board just like the tool would be. For loosening the bolts, I wouldn't hesitate to use an impact to remove them, do NOT use it to tighten as I'm sure you have enough sense not to.

Sea foam is a brand of injector / carburetor cleaner. It is good stuff for sure about 12 bucks a can. I run a can every 4 or 6 tanks of gas which is probably overkill to some folks , but sort of figure its like insurance lol, better to have and not need rather than not have and need

Mass air flow, idle air control, Exaughst gas recirculator.

Make sure you relieve pressure, I dib this usually by removing the fuel pump relay and starting it up or cranking it over for 20 seconds to relieve the pressure., mine is an 03 so I remove furwl rail and then retaining clips to get injectors of it. Again , I'm not real keen on the 98 so I'm assuming pretty much the same.

Never hurts to change a fuel filter but man I hate changing parts to fund a problem, I am old school I guess. You can check for vaccum leaks by spraying carb cleaner around intake and check all the vac lunes for cracks . Also I believe the temp senser can cause these issues, however a few posts further down there a thread and it was his injectors needed a good cleaning. Believe it was a thread started by Sir Robert.

OEM wire and NGK plugs I hope and make very sure the wires are snapped onto the plugs, I just went through this myself last week.

Totally agree and please don't take me wrong, not arguing here lol. But to drain power out of system it would be positive cable to ground, otherwise you would be trying to drain all power from battery doing it neg to positive, if that makes better sense.

Going out on a limb here but I believe the crank shaft and cam shaft work in conjunction telling it when to fire, I need to go back and read to make sure but I'm pretty certain they do.

Positive to negative not negative to positive, grounding positive cable to neg drains power from them, putting ground to the positive terminal creates an direct short.

Touching negative to the positive????? Asking for serious trouble there!! Unhook it and let it sit a couple of hrs or overnight but don't touch negative to positive, your creating a direct short to everything electrical when your doing that ,

Same disassembly as doing the timing belt, if that hasn't been done then I would greatly suggest doing it while your in there and I second the advice on the oil pump while your there. Anaerobic sealant on that oil pump I suggest and hopefully they did cam seals on the heads when they did head gaskets.

This is one of those deals where another 100 bucks could save you thousands BT replacing / resealung everything there while your there. Could cost you thousands by not doing it, so I consider it very cheap insurance. Full timing set and new seals all the way , the labor to get there again is 3 times the costs of the parts to get there again to do it.

Very glad to hear you got it figured out.

This is a just a few notes to maybe help others who may be experiencing issues with their subies. This is a 2003 Subaru Outback wagon with the 2.5 sohc no turbo. I got the car for 400 bucks with a thrown rod. I picked up a 2.5 block and did a full rebuild on this car, the only thing I didn't buy new was the pistons. Crank was turned, heads milled, valve job , new seals throughout the heads. Biggest lessons learned is to absolutely use subie OEM parts and seals all the way down to plug wires and NGK spark plugs. I tried saving a few bucks by going cheaper plug wires and autolite plugs only to do them again 17,000 miles later. I had to redo head gaskets for same reason. Went with an off brand gasket set from the machine shop and it was a huge mistake. Make sure those spark plug wires definitely snap onto the plugs or your going to have hesitation, bucking and coughing under a load at low rpm. You may or may not get a misfire code when it does this. If your replacing the rear main seal , make sure you get it from Subaru and it sets flush with the block. Do NOT put it as far as it will go or its going to pour oil. While your there, re seal those access plates on the back of the block, if yours are plastic, replace them with the solid aluminum ones. Timing set, again , spend the extra money and get them from Subaru, I got a set from Los parts store and the tensioner was weepung a bit after 10,000 miles. No money saved there and it could have cost me an engine ! When putting them in time, use the marks on the can sprockets and the crank sprocket, not the arrows. The left sprocket aligns with the head gasket and the right aligns with the notch on the timing cover. The crank sprocket mark is located on the back part of the crank sprocket , the part that passes by the cps, there is a mark on the housing of the cps to align it with. The most important thing I will say is take your time folks! These subies don't like anything to not be correct. You will end up paying for it in the long run. I hope my experience will help someone out as much as this forum has helped me by reading past post. There is a GREAT wealth of knowledge on this board and I would like to personally thank every one of you that dedicate your time to answer things over and over again foe the most part.

OK, my last thought is ... is he referring to oil in the spark plug tube itself , that is the only other o'ring seal and that would not be a major problem requiring immediate attention unless it pouring in to the point its fill I g the spark plug tube. The way you said he described it as being in the bottom of the cylinder is what has set me off so to speak lol. I will shut up now and let your respond.

Sorry, another thought I have is maybe he could be talking about coolant pipe crossover o'ring ??? Forgive me for being really cautious, most mechanics are very honest but this one doesn't sit well with me. Are you losing any coolant or having to add any? Is it burning oil, I.e. having to add any every couple tanks of gas?

I believe this guy is about to take you for a ride you're not going to like. If there is any moisture and again I say IF, it could only be coolant , if there was enough he could see it in the cylinder, your oil would look milky because that would be a major head gasket failure to be able to see actual liquid. That much would be evident either as steam ( smeeling of antifreeze) out the exhaust or into the engine block resulting in milky looking oil. Major problem I have with his statement is, there is no way he can see down inside that cylinder, its possible to see evidence of liquid on the plug but again, it would have issues like I described above. Plugs don't fail that often unless not the proper brand plugs or there is another more serious issue. I'm sure more people will respond to this but my advice is please get a second opinion unless you're experiencing the issues I mentioned.

If you do heli coil it, its honestly not that hard at all. The tap will tell say on it what size drill bit to drill it with first. Do NOT drill it deeper that the hole already is. Keep your drill level of course. Then you will use the tap, takes a second to get it started but it will start fairly easily, turn 1/4 turn and back it off , keep repeating that until you go about 1 turn deeper than the bolt needs to go. Back the tap out carefully every turn or so to keep the cuttings out. After your deep enough blow the shavings out of the hole( wear safety glasses please) and the you use the tool that comes with the helicoil to insert the helic9ild into the hole, it will be a little tight going in but not like fighting it tight. Screw the helicoil in just enough so the last thread of it is right below the surface of the hole, note some use locktite in the helicoil but I never have. Once its in there whereby want it, back the tool out and use a punch or something to stick in the hole knock off the tab on the back of helicoil and you're done. Its not as intimidating as it looks or sounds.

I meant plug wires were down as far as they would go, it basically was getting some fire which made it idle fine and above 2200 rpm it was fine, no codes no misfire nothing, but under a load at low rpm it was bucking slightly is only way I know how to describe it. Sounds absolutely identical to your issue, push them until you physically hear them snap onto the plug. If they don't then they aren't on there. I am going to watch your post and man I hope yours is that simple. I am a very decent wrench and no one would have convinced me those wires weren't on right.

I found the problem , my plugs were down as far as they would go, however, my number 3 wire was not ( snapped onto then plug itself. The spark was jumping / arcing against the head basically hit and miss . Under a load it was sputtering and all that jazz but not under a load above 2200 rpm it was fine. I beat my head against the wall 2 days to figure this out. If u do not hear that snap when it goes on finally, then its NOT on and causes this to happen.

OK guys, I feel like an idiot. I have double and triple checked plug wires, however, my number 3 plug wire was on and completely down but it was not snapped onto then plug . It was sparking against the head apparently. It is totally solved now. One thing for sure, if you don't hear that ( snap) then it is NOT on.