**Crossposted on Facebook**
So I recently acquired a high-mileage (186K) 2010 Legacy GT in hopes it would make a decent daily driver for me (about 100mi mostly highway round trip 3x/week). I’m enjoying the car more and more every day, so I’m looking into the future with it. The exterior is good, the interior is excellent, and it’s a surprisingly tight ride for it’s miles; no rattles or squeeks anywhere. It runs great and pulls strong.
I’ve found, however, that it’s eating oil to the tune of about a quart every 3 tanks. It leaks a little around the valve cover, but not enough for anything to hit the ground. I know these EJ255’s were notorious for having ring problems that could have been replaced under warranty, but I have no idea if this one had anything done.
So here’s the dilemma; do I just feed it the oil and keep driving? If I buy bulk oil at Costco or Sams, it’s not that much extra expense to top it off as needed. Eventually it’s going to get worse though, right? Do I pull the motor and rebuild it? Or do I get a short block and swap everything over? And when I pull the motor, what other repairs/replacement should be done?
I’m thinking seriously about just starting to collect the parts I need over the next 6 months or so, then getting a short block and doing everything at once. Motor, clutch, whatever else I need to do at the time. Should I do a stock short block, a low-mileage JDM, or some sort of Stage 1 block? I’d like to get more HP with a tune and maybe a few other mods, but I’m not trying to build something crazy. I can’t imagine I’d ever go more than 450hp.
Yeah, I know this is a lot of questions, but I’m just looking for opinions and suggestions. I’m new to the Subaru world, so I don’t know who the trusted sellers are. Just keep in mind this is going to be a daily driver, I won’t be racing anyone but myself.I just enjoy sporty driving (my other ride is a highly modded MINI Cooper S). I'm just trying to have fun for another 100K miles.