So I bought a 1996 Subaru Outback 3 months ago, thought I needed something for the snow. Car had the head gasket and water pump and timing chain changed last year guy showed me the paper work on it. Get in the car this morning and boom white smoke everywhere. Coolant tank was empty and the car is overheating like crazy. Blown headgasket!

I strayed from my Mercedes Diesel's and now am paying the price. Lesson learned. Now I am low on money and can't fix it and its all my fault. I haven't felt this stupid in a long long time.

Also I now have an incredibly poor opinion of Subaru cars now.......

Tough luck helpplease - I hope you get the cash to get it fixed so you can trade back to a Mercedes (if you want)

Thanks for listening to the rant guys. I don't think I will get the Head Gasket replaced I really think it will be 1,500 dollars wasted. I would rather put that money towards an old diesel...

sorry for your pain, before you throw in the towel it might be a good time to learn how to change a head gasket. the parts are cheap and a sears tool set will get you through it, then you will have the tools too.

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1982 300CD Turbo (Otis, "ups & downs") parts for sale
2003 TJ with Hemi (to go anywhere, quickly) sold
2001 Excursion Powerstroke (to go dependably)
1970 Mustang 428SCJ (to go fast)
1962 Corvette LS1 (to go in style)
2001 Schwinn Grape Krate 10spd (if all else fails)

It was changed a year ago and blew this soon. No, I don't think it would be worth fixing at all not even the 280 dollars for the head gaskets. I just think this says what kind of cr#p Subaru made.

It sounds to me like there was some defect in materials or workmanship in the head gasket change last year. I used to work in a junk yard and when we got Subarus in they usually had well over 200,000 miles on them, sometimes over 300,000. I generally have a high opinion of these cars, except when you get into the new ones which seem to have a much tighter engine bay and are more difficult to service.

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Whoever said there's nothing more expensive than a cheap Mercedes never had a cheap Jaguar.

83 300D Turbo with manual conversion, early W126 vented front rotors and H4 headlights 400,xxx miles
08 Suzuki GSX-R600 M4 Slip-on 22,xxx miles
88 Jaguar XJS V12 94,xxx miles. Work in progress.

What kind of engines to Subaru's have in them nowadays? Used to have flat fours. If the engine is flat or V it could be the opposite headgasket that has failed.

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1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

before you spend the money, pull off the head and put a straight edge on it. If they didnt do the head correct it wont last more than a year. head and deck need to be flat and true. if they didnt do it right it wont last, but if you do it right theres no reason it shouldnt last a lot longer

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1982 300CD Turbo (Otis, "ups & downs") parts for sale
2003 TJ with Hemi (to go anywhere, quickly) sold
2001 Excursion Powerstroke (to go dependably)
1970 Mustang 428SCJ (to go fast)
1962 Corvette LS1 (to go in style)
2001 Schwinn Grape Krate 10spd (if all else fails)

Mine has the H-4. On the Subaru outback forums they generally say anything with over 150,000 miles on it the Head Gaskets might continue to fail even if the head is true and straight and the Head Gaskets are installed properly. Damn do I feel dumb.

Direct quote "My cutoff for repairing a sooby HG is 160,000 miles. Anything above that (some have done it with mixed results) may lead to blowby from the piston rings. The rings have been there for all those miles. As engines get older, they do loose a little compression (alot if mistreated). When replacing a HG the heads get machined (sometimes a little sometimes more). That raises compression and adds stress to the rings"

Mine is at 170,000 miles.....

Damn, that sucks. If you're up for it, you could probably make back most of the money by selling parts, assuming the rest of the car is good.

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1983 240D 3.0T 4-speed manual, now sold

1989 Subaru GL Wagon 5-speed Touring Edition

That is interesting. Do they know why? Are the people having the repeat head gasket failures reusing the old head bolts/studs?

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Whoever said there's nothing more expensive than a cheap Mercedes never had a cheap Jaguar.

83 300D Turbo with manual conversion, early W126 vented front rotors and H4 headlights 400,xxx miles
08 Suzuki GSX-R600 M4 Slip-on 22,xxx miles
88 Jaguar XJS V12 94,xxx miles. Work in progress.

bummer, but dont be too hard on yourself, how could you know to research it. hopefully the bodys in good enough shape to get some of your money back

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1982 300CD Turbo (Otis, "ups & downs") parts for sale
2003 TJ with Hemi (to go anywhere, quickly) sold
2001 Excursion Powerstroke (to go dependably)
1970 Mustang 428SCJ (to go fast)
1962 Corvette LS1 (to go in style)
2001 Schwinn Grape Krate 10spd (if all else fails)

Those early 2.5s had problems, but I just put a 270k EJ22 into an 89 GL wagon turbo. I may also throw a turbo on this thing, not sure. It's still running very strong, the 2.2 was a great engine.
You can pull the EJ25 and replace it with a used EJ22 for under $1k if you do the work. In some cases, you can even use the stock computer.
Check out ultimatesubaru.org for info.

Water-cooled VW vans have a similar head gasket problem. The flat fours used during the 1980's went from air cooled to water cooled and the head gaskets, which were little more than large O-rings, were good for about 20,000 miles.

But, $200 for parts and about 15 hours of labor later they were as good as new! That is, until another 20,000 miles rolled around.

There is a reason you don't see too many of these on the road anymore.