I just spent a couple weeks taking the motor out of my Outback [by myself] and changing the head gaskets. My story starts like all the rest, it was overheating so I replaced the thermostat and water pump, still overheated, so I decided to do the head gaskets. The old gaskets seemed to have failed in exactly the same spot as is common, so I knew that was the problem. My real problem is now that I've gotten the car back together and everything hooked up, it doesn't want to run. It'll start and surge to a high rpm but it won't idle and won't stay running. I've already solved some minor issues like having the fuel injector wires switched on #2 and #4. I made sure all the spark plugs were screwed in all the way and the plug wires are connected. It has coolant and oil in it, and it's not leaking anything [sans p/s fluid, but that's another job]. I tried making the car prime its fuel before starting, but that doesn't seem to be doing anything. I used the Felpro kit with the MLS head gaskets. I did not replace the valve stem seals because the machinist told me they were fine. I did have them machine the deck surface of the heads.
I searched for an hour for a thread similar to this and couldn't find one. Now that I've finished the job and the car won't run correctly, what kinds of things should I double check? :help:
vacuum hose somewhere on the intake, or the airbox snorkus?
the bigger one on the bottom of the throttle intake tubing, will cause that if it is not connected.
Yeah, I'll need to check that one. I don't remember spending a lot of time near the throttle.
This is another question. I didn't know exactly how to put the throttle cable back in. I put it in and took all of the slack out without it pulling at all. Is that correct or should I have left some slack in it?
Update:
When I start the car it will surge to 3k revs, then want to die. I can make it stay running if i give it gas, but as soon as I don't it dies. I just took it around the block, giving it gas to make it run. when I'm at like 2500+ rpm it runs just fine, but if I'm trying to just roll at 2000 rpm in any gear it kinda lurches and doesn't run quite right, presumably because it's trying to die. Acceleration also feels "chunky," in that it will hesitate and then go again.
I'm not sure if it's a timing issue or something wrong with the idle air control valve or what. Any ideas?
Yeah it sounds like vacuum to me. I had the same problem with mind and it ended up being the throttle body wasn't seated well enough once i got it seated the car ran perfect.
Could be. Check the IACV hose where it connects to the underside of the air intake ... this is the vacuum hose connection most often missed when putting things back together.
I'd like to change my name to one I use on other Subie boards, so if anyone can point me to a direction I could get that done, that would be appreciated.
I suspect these air intake hoses are the cause of my problems. On your picture, the hose that goes down from the Y between #1 and #2 is badly cracked. When I first removed it, it snapped when it finally came off. It created a 1 inch long crack starting at the opening. My #3 hose is too short to reach the intake [for some reason] so it doesn't seal. I'll look into replacing those and post back here.
I had an anomaly earlier when I started the car and it ran just fine, idling with no issue, revved and returned to idle, but I couldn't reproduce that. Got my hopes up too!
:iam:
"When I start the car it will surge to 3k revs, then want to die. I can make it stay running if i give it gas, but as soon as I don't it dies. I just took it around the block, giving it gas to make it run. when I'm at like 2500+ rpm it runs just fine, but if I'm trying to just roll at 2000 rpm in any gear it kinda lurches and doesn't run quite right, presumably because it's trying to die. Acceleration also feels "chunky," in that it will hesitate and then go again."
Exactly what happened when to my '96 2.5 when I dislodged my IAVC hose while checking the air filter! I was about to take it to the shop, when I decided to look it over one more time and found the dis-connection.
AWWWW yyyyyyyeeeeeeeahhhhhhh! That was the exact problem. It was exactly what you thought it was, the IACV hose that connects to the intake. I just loosened the intake, rolled it over to reach the hose, plugged it in and the motor purrs like new. Thanks for everyone's help. You've been awesome!
Kudos for letting us know. Way too often we never hear back about what worked or not. After taking the trouble to share advice/tips/knowledge/experience, it is frustrating not to hear the results. It's how we learn and feel good about our contributions.