Subaru Outback does Swan River Middle Fork

It works until you have the shortest and steepest ramp ever merging into the fast lane on I-70 in a brick on wheels. I would love to have a chat with the fucktard who designed that whole section of I-70.

I done that in a loaded big truck. Very fun.
 
Well, she's still going, but it's taken a lot more work/maintenance than I’d be willing to put into it. I had heard that Subarus were rather expensive and high maintenance. Your experience seems to fall in line with what I've been told. Either way you've come this far so keep going.

I originally bought that 98 Impreza Outback Sport with 125,000 miles on it for a measly $4k. It had a lot of the damage you see today because it had a hard life in the extreme north country, which is where I lived at the time. Not counting all my labor hours (admittedly a substantial amount), that car is the cheapest per mile I've ever owned. Before the engine rebuild, I'd calculated total cost of ownership to be 6 cents per mile, all in - ALL in. That's incredibly cheap. I resolved to keep it going, just to see how cheap it would be even with more major work. It's an "experiment!"

One problem with it - it's widely known in these parts who owns the beat-up green Subaru, so I have to be on my best behavior when driving it because I'm anything but anonymous in it.
 
The neighbor's wife has a Subaru. He had it lifted 2" and put on bigger tires so they could use it on some remote property.

It looks sort of like this.

01.webp
 
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Yes, it feels impressive to me. No, not without major work. It does have a manual transmission, and they are fragile. I'm on #3, and I'm gonna have to pull it again because it's popping out of fifth when the load changes directions (accelerating and let off mainly) currently. I'm on the third transmission and fourth clutch. I completely rebuilt the engine (down to split cases) back in fall of 2021 at 363k. Everything looked beautiful inside, but the head gasket had failed. Failure mode was external oil leaks initially (just kept adding oil and drove it for thousands of miles because I had too many other projects at the time).

Finally, it started pressurizing the cooling system. I drive about 30 miles one way to work and then back every day. For a few months, I just kept adding coolant, and then finally decided to rebuild it when I was adding coolant twice a day. There was one bad deal with driving it with the bad head gasket so long. One of the heads was "welded" to the block via corrosion around the head bolts. I ended up getting a little western pulling it off, cracking the block in the process. I ended up having my rural neighbor, who builds hopped-up V8s in his home shop full-time, weld-repair and deck the block, as well as do a valve job on the heads. I replaced all the bearings in the engine. I replaced wrist pins and bearings, but I couldn't find new OEM or aftermarket pistons anywhere, so I cleaned them up and they are still in there! I have 27k on it since the rebuild now.

The engine seems very well-designed, and durable, sans the head gasket issue. That's a tough one to solve because it's due to the vertical head gaskets. Oil, slightly acidic from combustion by-products, sits in the head and slowly eats away at the gaskets and the block and head surfaces. The pooling of the oil in that area drives it in between. Subaru has tried at least three different head gaskets over the years. One of them (I think the 2nd one they tried) was horrible. The other two are about the same. They work, but only for so long.

The manual transmission in mine has definitely been fragile. Clutches aren't weak. The reason I've had four of them is I put new clutches in every time I change transmissions, even though they didn't need to be replaced, with one exception. I had one aftermarket clutch fail, but it may have been my fault. Assembly didn't go well...

Other than the manual transmission problems, and the head gasket problem, I've had no major issues. Everything else is pretty bomber on the thing.

Porsches would also have vertical head gaskets, I wonder if they're prone to that as well.

My brother and dad are big on the Subaru thing. My brother keeps having to get new ones after taking major damage to what seems like minor accidents though. He hit a curb in one and bent the subframe, really close to totaling it (only months old) and the dealer never could get it right again. Next one his girlfriend had a minor front end accident (not her fault) and it's been iffy ever since.
 
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Well, she's still going, but it's taken a lot more work/maintenance than I’d be willing to put into it. I had heard that Subarus were rather expensive and high maintenance. Your experience seems to fall in line with what I've been told. Either way you've come this far so keep going.
^ THIS^ I have to chuckle when I read the Subie maintenance history. I drank the Subaru Kool-Aid and we bought a 05 Forester 5 spd. It was OK until it wasn't.
6 years old , fully maintained with 58.000 miles and the EJ 25 start to sign off. I checked into buying a new long block from Subie and they didn't offer any.
They only made short blocks and raw head castings. I was never in love with the Forester , just another soulless Late model piece of shit. We started looking at other used cars and decided on another TJ since the first one was good for our application. We traded the Forester off and bought a 04 TJ with 51,000 miles in 2011. We have added another 103,000 miles with zero issues. The Subie would get 28 MPG highway , my wifes totally stock 4.0 , 5 spd. , 3.73 only gets 26 MPG.
After driving a used TJ for twice the years and mileage with no issues compared to the new Forester , my opinion is fuck Subaru.
Although I did actually really like the weather band on the forester radio. :p
 
Porsches would also have vertical head gaskets, I wonder if they're prone to that as well.

I wouldn’t know. Won’t afford a Porsche, even though the 959 was my dream car back in college.

My brother and dad are big on the Subaru thing. My brother keeps having to get new ones after taking major damage to what seems like minor accidents though. He hit a curb in one and bent the subframe, really close to totaling it (only months old) and the dealer never could get it right again. Next one his girlfriend had a minor front end accident (not her fault) and it's been iffy ever since.

My wife and I had a pretty bad wreck in her ’02 Legacy about 5-6 years ago. Hit black ice at 2am coming back from Colorado near Cuba, NM. Two wheels were badly bent, and the body was crinkled. After extracting it from the ditch, I put the spare on the worst corner and re-seated the bead on the other and drove it home 12 hours at 50 MPH max. Got home, replaced wheels, re-aligned it, and drove it for several years before replacing it with her ‘21 Impreza. I’ve been pretty happy with how they survive.

^ THIS^ I have to chuckle when I read the Subie maintenance history. I drank the Subaru Kool-Aid and we bought a 05 Forester 5 spd. It was OK until it wasn't.
6 years old , fully maintained with 58.000 miles and the EJ 25 start to sign off. I checked into buying a new long block from Subie and they didn't offer any.
They only made short blocks and raw head castings. I was never in love with the Forester , just another soulless Late model piece of shit. We started looking at other used cars and decided on another TJ since the first one was good for our application. We traded the Forester off and bought a 04 TJ with 51,000 miles in 2011. We have added another 103,000 miles with zero issues. The Subie would get 28 MPG highway , my wifes totally stock 4.0 , 5 spd. , 3.73 only gets 26 MPG.
After driving a used TJ for twice the years and mileage with no issues compared to the new Forester , my opinion is fuck Subaru.
Although I did actually really like the weather band on the forester radio. :p

To each his own. Keep in mind that the maintenance history you‘re chuckling about runs almost two decades and 265k miles (starting at 125k miles). ;) I’ve always driven cars way past the point others would do so because I like rebuilding stuff (and saving money). Our Subarus have not been any more, or less, reliable than any other vehicle I’ve owned in the four decades I’ve been driving. They are just another brand, but they do AWD very well, and I’m not a 2WD guy.
 
I wouldn’t know. Won’t afford a Porsche, even though the 959 was my dream car back in college.



My wife and I had a pretty bad wreck in her ’02 Legacy about 5-6 years ago. Hit black ice at 2am coming back from Colorado near Cuba, NM. Two wheels were badly bent, and the body was crinkled. After extracting it from the ditch, I put the spare on the worst corner and re-seated the bead on the other and drove it home 12 hours at 50 MPH max. Got home, replaced wheels, re-aligned it, and drove it for several years before replacing it with her ‘21 Impreza. I’ve been pretty happy with how they survive.



To each his own. Keep in mind that the maintenance history you‘re chuckling about runs almost two decades and 265k miles (starting at 125k miles). ;) I’ve always driven cars way past the point others would do so because I like rebuilding stuff (and saving money). Our Subarus have not been any more, or less, reliable than any other vehicle I’ve owned in the four decades I’ve been driving. They are just another brand, but they do AWD very well, and I’m not a 2WD guy.

Glad they work for you , in AWD cars you're pretty limited in reasonably priced cars . We both agree on the 959 being a cool badass car that together we couldn't afford. ;)
 
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For what it's worth , air cooled VW opposed four cylinders have vertical mounting surfaces and they don't use ANY head gasket between the head and cylinder !

Subaru = apple
Volkswagen (low compression ratio with no water jacket) = orange

:)
 
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I sold my winter driver truck unexpectedly when someone made me an offer I couldn’t refuse and almost bought a WRX STI to get me through the winter. But, it didn’t materialize and I got a killer deal on a new truck.

@BlueC can you forgive me?
 
I sold my winter driver truck unexpectedly when someone made me an offer I couldn’t refuse and almost bought a WRX STI to get me through the winter. But, it didn’t materialize and I got a killer deal on a new truck.

@BlueC can you forgive me?

For an STI, yes, but for any other Subaru only if you dress-the-part including boots. :LOL:
1689001102192.webp
 
Before the engine rebuild, I'd calculated total cost of ownership to be 6 cents per mile, all in - ALL in. That's incredibly cheap.

Have you ever hear of a little company named Honda? ;) I currently have 3. 1 at 90K, 1 at 190k, and 1 at 265k. I've had to replace the struts once on the two highest mileage cars, and now the 265k car needs its starter rebuilt. Other than fluid changes, spark plugs and brakes every 100K, that's all I've had to do to these cars. I'm considering checking the valve adjustments and replacing the water pump for the first time on the 265 car while she's down for the starter. Preventive maintenance and whatnot.

I kind of enjoy seeing how far I can push these cars. I'm guessing you do as well, seeing how far you've kept your wagon going. (y)
 
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Have you ever hear of a little company named Honda? ;) I currently have 3. 1 at 90K, 1 at 190k, and 1 at 265k. I've had to replace the struts once on the two highest mileage cars, and now the 265k car needs its starter rebuilt. Other than fluid changes, spark plugs and brakes every 100K, that's all I've had to do to these cars. I'm considering checking the valve adjustments and replacing the water pump for the first time on the 265 car while she's down for the starter. Preventive maintenance and whatnot.

I kind of enjoy seeing how far I can push these cars. I'm guessing you do as well, seeing how far you've kept your wagon going. (y)

No doubt, Honda has built stuff that stays together. We've owned three over the years (86 CRX, 90 Civic 3-door, and 98 CRV) but only the CRV was AWD, and that one did not stay together. The others were great, but again, I want AWD. In my experience, when it comes to AWD cars, Subarus are as good as it gets with regards to cost and reliability, but they do require some upkeep. I've not found a perfect AWD car...
 
pretty sure there's an AWD transfer case that will swap in place of a 231 and there are CV axles that will go into a TJ Dana 30. ;)

Maybe, but to me (and hopefully this doesn't derail this thread), a Jeep is not a car. I like my LJ for off-road pursuits and getting to the off-road pursuits. For a daily driver, I prefer a small wagon with AWD because my day job requires moderate off-roading on job sites where traction is iffy and one can get stuck in flat muddy fields with RWD cars. I also have a heavy foot, and fuel economy with my LJ is 10-12, but with my 98 Impreza it's double that. I've heard TJ owners brag about high fuel economy, but that's not realistic for me. Plus, most of those are stock. I have no urge to modify a shit-box Subaru, but the urge to modify a stock TJ would be unbearable, and before I knew it, I'd have a gas-guzzling TJ overbuilt for a daily driver. I'm not a one-vehicle feller - I have vehicles for every occasion!;)