What did you do to your Outback today? V3

[xt2005bonbon]

Yeah. They are replacing the Geolandar G015 I had. Done after 45k miles with homemade alignment, and lots of dirt drifting, light offroad etc.. I want to try something different.

I still have a set of Hakkapeliitta studded tires for when we get snow storms. Car is unstoppable with these!

Edited December 15, 2022 by xt2005bonbon

[s2baru]

I'm a firm believe in snow tires of any kind in general because of the softer compounds and siping. I've ran the Michelin iceX, Bridgestone Blizzaks, and Hankook Icept, and Uniroyal tiger paw.

Sounds silly but the last 2 are the cheapest and have performed the best for me. The Hankooks do really really well in the slushy wet mucky stuff. The tirepaws I ran with studs so naturally they performed better on ice. The Blizzaks we're the most quiet and did best in turning input and feel. Lastly the Michelins we're just kinda mehhh. Imo they didn't have much bite to them and wore the fastest.

[xt2005bonbon]

I agree. You just can't beat the performance of snow tires. Obviously, still have to be careful and not go too fast. I only got stuck once when I was doing donuts in a parking lot: car drifted a little too much and the wheels on the driver side got stuck on a snow bank. Open diff = wheels with traction (passenger side) not moving . Luckily, I was carrying a snow shovel and other stuff. So I 'unstucked' myself. Still fun times though.

Edited December 15, 2022 by xt2005bonbon

[s2baru]

The first red ss I had with the snow in the background had 2in strut spacers and then oversized snow tires. I could bomb into a barrow put with 4+ft of snow and then pop back up on the road like it was no big deal. You see all the social media posts of wrxs/STIs pulling out trucks when in reality they're just getting them some momentum and then they're fine. I had pulled a f350 that went of the the road. A newer f150 was hooked up to it and was having a hard time. I keep kinetic ropes in my cars so used that and got both guys out in just a few minutes. The guy with the f350 laughed when I stopped in 2+ft of snow thinking I was going to be stuck with them. I then drove around to pack down some snow and had them out fairly quick. I think the only time I got that car stuck was when it turtled and became high centered 

[xt2005bonbon]

Yeah. When I got stuck, it was a high center situation on one side of the car, but it was easy to get unstuck. I also pulled a comcast econovan once in a neighborhood who could not make up the hill. Used my kinetic rope, like you, which I also carry at all times and pulled that guy out. He wanted to pay me. Last year, pulled a woman in a Chrysler van who was stuck as well. It was a pretty good and slippery incline too. She cried. People underestimate our lil Subies

K. Need more snow storms now! It's getting me excited.

Edited December 16, 2022 by xt2005bonbon

[s2baru]

The debate I'm having now is do I go for a mildly aggressive all terrain type tire or a slightly more performance all season on those new sparcos. 

Continental DWS seem to be up there or the BFG trail terrain, toyo Celsius, nitto nomad grappler. Miles are mostly highway so idk if I should go that route because they're probably heavier too. 

[kzr750r1]

Did a ATF pan drop Saturday morning. Was able to rotate 1 gallon out of the system. I may have been running it low? Added a little more than I pulled out. Ran it for an hour sneaking up to the hot full line.

Also added a bottle of Lucas stop slip.

Helps to have all of the fluid in there and the stop slip is a product Dave "hexmod" suggested during one of our conversations. Mileage average improved. 

Next Oil change will do another pan drop and add some more.

255K on the same 5EAT. So were limping it into the summer. Will see if there is a competent shop still around for a rebuild.

Last estimate in the car was 4K, three or more years ago.

Should have replaced the torque converter while the motor was out.

Did have a nice run back from Livermore over Patterson pass Saturday night. Always fun leaving people riding your ass when the rode gets twisty. 

[xt2005bonbon]

 

4 minutes ago, kzr750r1 said:

Did have a nice run back from Livermore over Patterson pass Saturday night. Always fun leaving people riding your ass when the rode gets twisty. 

I am guessing the car is running good now?

14 hours ago, s2baru said:

The debate I'm having now is do I go for a mildly aggressive all terrain type tire or a slightly more performance all season on those new sparcos. 

Continental DWS seem to be up there or the BFG trail terrain, toyo Celsius, nitto nomad grappler. Miles are mostly highway so idk if I should go that route because they're probably heavier too. 

That's a tough one. I also try to find a balance between road performance, tire weight, and offroad performance. Can't have it all :(. I am curious to see how these Falken Wildpeak will perform when driven aggressively on the road, compared to the Geolandar.

[kzr750r1]

No motor issues lately no. Tune is holding well.

Next on the list is a discussion with the local dealer for a solid discount so I can order some parts that I don't want to ship. Namely the dash board. I thought they were discontinued but posting found they are still available... For now.

[xt2005bonbon]

Good to hear about the car.

Ah the dashboard... I have one in the attic waiting to be installed. I hate this thing because I am pretty sure 'new' ones are built exactly the same as the original ones. Meaning same crap will happen down the road (cracks and/or shiny sticky mess). Absolutely do not use any chemical on this thing when it is time to clean it and stuff.

[kzr750r1]

Still creeping up to the full line. Checked cold last night. Still at the low cold mark. Added some more and ran some errands. I may have been running it on the low side since the motor install... Bad move.

Needed to get to Costco and also the parts store for another set of low beam bulbs. Shame the only option seems to be Sylvania. Put the gold set in again but keeping the receipt in the glove box because I thought these were pretty new.

Going to take it up to the foothills again this weekend. May take an excursion out to see the fire damage out by Forrest Hill Ca from this summer. See if the fire roads are open at all.

Edited December 20, 2022 by kzr750r1

[s2baru]

Couple things within the past week.

First oil change since getting the car home last month. Oil still looked good but did it anyways. Used a Valvoline subbrand I can't remember what it was, I'll post again once I find out. Car seems to like it and is running quieter.

Also installed a grimmspeed intake and flashed on the tune for it from Snail performance. Knowing the guys at my local place I had him do a few logs and said he felt good about it and we left everything as is. The intake sounds are awesome now that's for sure.

Also scored some 15wrx+ axle backs. My back bumper is already melted from the stromung that was on it before. I chose not to buy it with it since was pretty rough looking. So we'll see what modifications need down for these to tuck back there.

Last item I picked up this evening were a set of 225/55 Blizzaks on some OEM wheels for a really great. So I figured what the heck, let's get em.

[kzr750r1]

On the first we took a 11 hour loop from the house thru highway 36 to the coast and home.

Daughter rode shotgun.

In total 650+ miles.

Best part is 36. No stop intersections for 153 miles of fantastic roads. Wanted to scout the area for a long while.

For sure this Tans is hurt, planning options to pull and rebuild now. The gas mileage is terrible. Could only muster 20mpg average on the way back and that is only because of it mostly being down hill from Humboldt. It still drives but lockup slipping is making it costly for the long trips this car normally takes.

https://www.relive.cc/view/vXOnKoJpYB6

Edited January 3, 2023 by kzr750r1

[Febreze Mee]

Sounds like a blast! I'll be moving to Monterrey sometime between July and Dec of this year. Not many ppl are willing to just go on an 11hr spirited drive in a single day, but I am down! 
 

Looking forward to meeting some y'all from the boards when I get down that way. 

[Febreze Mee]

So I've been experiencing a misfire in Cylinder #3 (P0303) intermittently the last week and half now. It's been a pending trouble code until yesterday. Yesterday it was regularly reoccurring, and my OBD2 scan gauge displayed it as a trouble code, and the CEL came on. I literally just finished swapping Cyl #3 spark plug with Cyl #1 to see if the misfire follows. Here are some pics of the plugs: 

Cyl #3 plug is on the left in both photos, under my thumb. Cyl #1 plug is in the socket for both photos. 
 

While typing this, I cleared the CEL and in the scan gauge is spitting another pending trouble code for Cyl #3 still. Additionally, the idle is still slightly rough, so it's probably accurate. I'll be clearing it once more and putting miles on the car to confirm as I go out to grab ice cream and grab a spark plug gap tool before re-attacking. 
 

I'll be referencing the FSM for spark plug diagnosis when I get back, but meanwhile I was hoping for a second opinion.

How do y'all think the plugs look? And where should I re-attack next? I was planning on taking a multimeter to plug wires, and or the coil pack that sits behind Cyl #3. 

[xt2005bonbon]

well, next step should be swap coil packs and see if misfire follows. If not, then swap injectors and check if misfire follows. If not, then next could be leakdown test and possibly valve clearance check. You could have a tight valve. I had that twice. But you have a different engine right?

 

 

[Febreze Mee]

Whoops, totally skipped ahead in my head. Yes, swapping plug wires, then injectors would have been next. 
 

I forgot to mention I do have a different motor. This is all being performed on an my 2.5i (EJ253). 
 

As of rn, the misfire has ceased after swapping plugs. I have put about 54mi on the car since clearing the code, but even the rough idle is gone telling me that the misfire is no longer happening. The car has been happy to idle smoothly between 650-700rpm between lights and parking lots. Continuing to rack up miles this evening in hopes that it comes back, only bc it's weird to me that swapping plugs has caused it to completely disappear —for now. 

[xt2005bonbon]

So your engine does not use coil packs for the plugs?

[Febreze Mee]

Correct. The car has a distributor-less ignition system.

The misfire code has not come back either, and I've put 300mi on the car since Friday. I do feel a slight stutter though and have a P0420 code. Heading to the junkyard tomorrow to grab some injectors and send them off to get flow tested and cleaned as I suspect the inject could be the cause of the P0420 and intermittent P0303. I'll be testing the coil pack and plug wires as well before I decide to buy them all new.

[kzr750r1]

Frustrating. If the wires have not been replaced try that first. Plugs are getting a different burn for sure. One looks fat and other looks lean to me.

As for the P0420... Yikes. When was the last time you replaced the O2 sensors?

Regarding my car, dropped it off to a local transmission shop to diagnose and get the repair/replacement over with.

Well see how they do as I have no facility to pull that lump myself.

Was bummed to see they will take zero responsibility for cars left in the parking lot if the Cat is stolen. Great!

This will take a couple weeks worst case.

Looking forward to having full chooch back.

[Febreze Mee]

Crossing fingers your cats remain with the car. 
 

Coil pack resistance was within spec. Wires were a little tougher to get an accurate reading on without gator clamps, for my multimeter, handy. I found new OEM wires on Ebay for $45. I'll go and pick them up tomorrow. The O2 sensors have between 20-30K miles on them. I can't remember off the top of my head.

Re-attacking diagnosis upon install of new wires. Looking to injectors and sensors next, if not resolved. 

[KZJonny]

Do NA Outback count too? (FebreezeMee set the precedent here, so I'm saying heck yeah.)

Put the OB up on ramps in the back storage area at work, becuase there is a bit of space there right now. Trying to find the source of a rando quiet thunking noise I've been hearing. Might be cold-related? Don't know.

Realized my resonator is not far from parting ways with the rear pipe, and I am leaking oil all over the damn place around the rack pinion, but none of it seems to be hitting the ground and causing a stain, so it can't be that bad?? I've been topping up about a litre per OCI, so I figured most of that was just getting comsumed.

Going to pick up some UV dye and see if I can clean up the area and find out where it's coming from. It's not important enough to deal with now, given the weather, but might be a summer project when the GT is back on the road.

[xt2005bonbon]

I did not report, but I cranked the boost up on my 05 last week. So far, no explosion

[Febreze Mee]

Welp! After testing the coil pack, swapping, plugs, swapping injectors, brand new plug wires, and lastly a compression check last night that read 120psi in Cyl #3 and 180psi in Cyl #1. I am starting to suspect a bad valve guide, and oil consumption would would agree.
 

Evaluating my options now, as I have only just began to start preparations for 200K miles (currently at 177K) which is when I wanted to put in a replacement motor. I bought a blown motor from a friend a couple days ago to start the tear down and reassembly, pending how salvageable it was.  I have a spare 5spd, and tons of other parts. My goal has been to have a separate car, in parts, in the case anything ever went wrong.

As it stands, I'm considering:

1. Taking the heads off of one of my spare motors, and replacing the current ones. This the best money-saver in the short run. Not ideal. Bandaid solution.

2. Purchasing a JDM drop in replacement. This is most cost effective. Not as bandaid-y. Fastest way to get back on the road.

3. Purchasing a rebuilt long block. Least cost effective. Best peace of mind. New. 

4. Suggestions?

 

[kzr750r1]

Rebuild the blown unit and stuff it in there. That way your 100% on the internals.

I got lucky when buying the new head castings from Infamous years ago. I picked up new guides as well for good measure. Those sat in the horde until this last rebuild since the new castings had fresh guides in them. Was happy to use them finally.

I've had one JDM swap in my life. On a honda civic. Not sure I'd do that on a Subaru.

Now time to call the transmission shop again for ETA. They keep stalling. Giving me grief about it running rough. As I told them... Group N motor mounts are going to give some NVH until they heat soak. Stop talking to me about the motor and get this Trans rebuilt! It has 257K on it, Dammit! Thursday last week he promised a job estimate... Here we are afternoon the following week and still nothing.