willwright

I did have cps off to do head gaskets a. Couple weeks back. No oil in plug tunes at all.I was thinking bad gas maybe at first because wife had just filled up. I have some sea come in it right now. This morning the issue was almost non existent but this afternoon its back. Going to double check spark plug wires for leakage and start there

If your decent with tools at all , the head gaskets aren't that hard at all IMHO. I did a full rebuild on my 03 obw 2.5 sohc. I did have a problem because machine shop convinced me to order their head gasket kit ( huge mistake) and they were not the updated mls gaskets so 17k miles later I just redid them again . Start to finish took me 6 hrs. Full rebuild I did myself foe 1400 bucks. Included crank turned , cylinders honed, head resurfaces and full valve job, new rings and whole nine yards. These little motors really isn't much to them but are a little picky ( low tolerances) but if you take your time and attention to detail you could have a motor that will last you many many more miles.

Well this is sounding exactly what my 03 is starting to do except I have no codes. Same engine with 5 speed manual tranny. If I figure it out before you do I will post what I found here. Good luck to both of us, we will figure it out. I am dedicating the next 3 days solid working on it.

used the search and nothing definate so here goes the new issue. 03 outback wagon, 2.5l 5 speed. it has started bucking, spitting slightly ( like a missing) sort of when in a higher gear under load. after you get above 2200 to 2500 rpm it will stop the nonsense and drive fine. Timing is spot on as i just pulled it all down today to fix a stripped water pump bolt that started leaking on me. this was going on before doing all this so no its not anything resulting from todays stripped bolt repair. the motor is new, the head gaskets i just replaced again , beings of my luck i somehow got a non upgraded gasket set from an old machine shop that did the machine work 17k miles ago. Anywho, everything motor wise is new, only thing i have not replaced on this car is the electrical components. I have no codes or CEL as of yet , tachometer is steady and it actually runs excellent other than this bucking crap its started doing now. this car may start nickeling and diming me to death but i refuse to give up on it. Any advice on this bucking sputtering is greatly appreciated.

Leak down failed miserably. Started pulling motor at 12:30. Had it back in and running at 6:30 this evening. I used Subaru gaskets and used copper seal on them as well. Hopefully they will hold up this time.

03 outback wagon 2.5 sohc is the car, sorry I didn't say before. Already put new cap and tstat both when new and on Tuesday when all this started. Haven't had a single issue for these first 13k miles since I rebuilt it. 26-28 on hwy , no water in oil, no Exaughst steam. I've filled cold, hot , warm, even jacked feint end up and filled it to no avail to get it to stop. I will try the leak down tomorrow before I pull it and replace head gaskets. I did not use OEM head gaskets when I rebut it, I used what the machine shop said were upgraded gaskets but I known they weren't 6 star Nor OEM. The t stat, timing set and water pump I did get from Subaru when I rebuilt it.

OK films here's the deal, I did a full rebuild 13,000 miles ago. New be very thing except pistons. Heads milled, valves replaced and ground, crank turned the while nine yards. Last week, wife came home and you probably guessed it. Overflow bottle was overflowing. Car has not gotten hot yet!! But every day it does same thing. I replaced thermostat hoping that was problem and it does same thing. I did dye test and detected no hydrocarbons . I do realize that isn't as accurate as the sniffer but all I have access to. Very few bubbles in radiator but there are bubbles every 30-45 seconds at idle. It pushes antifreeze out at 2k rpm with cap off. Bottoms radiator hose stays ice cold however, heater works extremely well. I picked up new head gaskets from Subaru today and another new water pump and timing kit. I replaced cap already hoping that was it as well. Wanting your thoughts in this before I pull motor out tomorrow. Please help or tell me I'm nuts because I'm at my wits end here.