Hello

[2.5GT]

hi and new here. and i just brought a '98 Subaru Legacy 2.5 GT this weekend for $4995. and i have no clue on subarus and their engines. so do educate me on what type of engine i have and horsepower output :)

[shazapple]

Welcome!

You have a 2.5L horizontally opposed "boxer" engine. Called a boxer because the pistons move in the way a boxer would punch Like this
https://sl-i.net/FORUM/images/imported/2006/03/engineflat4gif-1.jpg

Its rated at 165HP, you can find a lot of info about your car here
http://www.cars101.com/subaru_legacy_archive98_99.html

More importantly you have AWD, which will be great fun come wintertime (if you get snow wherever you are!) Your car weights around 3000 pounds so its not going to be the quickest thing around.

Any other information dont be afraid to ask or read around the forum!

[Wiscon_Mark]

You have a 2.5 liter Horozontally opposed (flat) four cylinder engine. It has 165 HP at the crank, 167 torque at the crank. Because your car is AWD, it suffers from a lot of power loss to the drivetrain (3 differentials will do that) and probably only makes around 115 HP at the wheels.

the standard code phrase for your engine is EJ25, the model code for your car is BD. Congrats on the purchase, it looks like you got a good deal (depending on miles). What transmission?

Nice Avatar btw, and welcome to the site! :)

dammit Lee, you beat me to it! :lol:

[2.5GT]

thanks guys. i really dont know much about subarus and i want even planing on buying a subaru. but my backyard neighbor was selling theirs, so i jump on it and got it for $4995. kelleys blue book valued it for $6200, but the seller gave me a discount since we're neighbors and she used to went to my highschool :o

so i was pretty much happy with the purchase :P

its a auto with power everything and pretty much all the options, ie leather seats, sunroof, ect. and it has about 108k on it, original owner :P

and one more question. i need to change the car's oil. its running on conventional oil right now. and i want to switch to synthetic oil, most likely mobil 1. so my question is, will be there any leaks? since its over miles. and im concern the seals in the engine will break lose and oil leaks.

[Wiscon_Mark]

leaks caused by switching to synthetic? Probably not. I'd reccomend it, my car has been running on Castrol Syntech / Mobil 1 (whichever has a better sale :P).

However, a word of warning...you may have headgasket failure soon, save a few pennys for that (headgasket work isn't cheap), it's notorious on the EJ25. Unless it's already been taken care of? Then the Subaru dealer put the updated headgaskets in (as well as coolant conditioner) and you should be fine. You're right about at the mileage where HG failure is an issue.

[2.5GT]

hm..im so tempting to do it. but thats the thing thats a problem.

i know its not easy replacing the headgasket. but where exactly is it? and is there 2 head gaskets or what?

[ivwarrior]

Yes, there's 2 headgaskets, 1 where each head meets the engine block. While reading online forums tends to make one think every Subaru 2.5 on the road either already had a headgasket failure, or soon will, I don't think that's really the case. I used to work in a Subaru dealership, and it was rare to have to do anything like that on a Subaru. I've been to the dealer recently and talked with one of the guys I used to work with (now the shop foreman) and he said they've seen a couple, but not to the level where one should be paranoid and avoid the engine. I think it seems worse in the forums, because people who have problems tend to complain, whereas people who DON'T have problems tend to remain quiet. Also, people having a problem tend to search online about it, and find the forums, and then complain about it in the forum. Still, it wouldn't hurt to set aside some money just in case. In my mind if it does go, that's a great time to upgrade some stuff. :) Maybe new cams, or similar work to pick up a few HP.

[Plays_with_Toys]

A guy on awdpirates that works for Superupair in Boulder, CO (subaru capital of the world, statistically proven) says that if they aren't stacked with brake jobs, they're doing headgaskets. I think the number of subarus in a given area will determine how many failures you see coming in.

Anyway, nice purchase, don't be super paranoid about it, just make sure to check your temp. gauge from time to time, especially if you're taxing the engine or you feel it running funny.

Anyway, they're not super fast, but decent enough, and sound really cool with an exhaust. Their handling and snow manners are where its at.

[dropdfocus]

From the sounds of it, your car is a Legacy GT Limited (leather interior package).

I love my 2.5GT!!! I have a shorty Injen intake & Perrin light weight crank pulley installed. Ivwarrior has seen my car run in person & knows it's not a slug. They are peppy and handle rather well for their weight class. Of course I drive mine hard too. Drifting through corners on loose dirt roads & snow covered roads is the bomb with these cars too! Treat her well with synthetic oil & she'll love ya for it! I've been running Mobil 1 5w30 for some time with great results.
You should definitely keep an eye on your power steering fluid level. I work at an oil change shop and every 2.5GT I've seen (including mine) has a leaky power steering container. It's a common Subaru issue I believe. You do not want the pump to run low or dry, since it will cause severe damage.
As for the head gasket issue, don't worry about it. I've ran mine hard and it's just fine. It rarely needs added to. If it goes, then worry about it.

If you need any info, just drop me a PM and I'll be glad to help out where I can.

[2.5GT]

thanks for the warm welcome and the info :wink:

and i might just go ahead and do the synthetic oil change this weekend. we'll see how it goes :o

and dropdfocus, you're right about the power steering. mine does leak, is there any recalls on that? and normally is it just the container leaking ?

[dropdfocus]

dropdfocus, you're right about the power steering. mine does leak, is there any recalls on that? and normally is it just the container leaking ?
I don't think they have done such, but you can always contact a local dealer to see if it became a recall. I do think it's the container since the possibility of that many cars having leaky power steering pumps is not too likely vs. an issue with the seal on the bottom of the container.

You will definitely be happy with switching over to full synthetic oil. Just put this into your head for thought processing: Why do high end cars (Corvette, Lancer Evo VIII, Golf 1.8T, etc.) recommend only using full synthetic oil & nothing less? Yes they are high horsepower engines, but they need to work very cool & efficiently and only that type of oil will provide you with that.

[2.5GT]

yeah, full synthetic is great for engines, but on the other hand its expensive. but hell, get my moneys worth :P

[dropdfocus]

It's cheaper to purchase Mobil 1 Synthetic in the bulk bottle (5 quarts) and a filter than to purchase 5 bottles & a filter. I end up spending around $22 at Wal-Mart each oil change.

[gil_ong81]

at Wal-Mart each oil change.

psst. don't feed teh monster. ;)

[dropdfocus]

at Wal-Mart each oil change.

psst. don't feed teh monster. ;)
I don't have them change it, I just purchase the products from them. They're good for just about everything but electronics. They won't match the pricing or sales they have on their own corp. website. Their excuse is because it's not an in store price & also because everything from the website ships out of TX. Makes no freakin' sence, so I no longer purchase any electronics from them or music CD's because they support editing music content.

I do a good amount of business with Advance Autoparts because they take care of us at work when we need stuff we run out of. I also get a business discount there too. :-D

[gil_ong81]

WAAAAYYYYY offf topic, but.

great article. long read, but worth it.
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/77/walmart.html

www.walmartwatch.com (http://www.walmartwatch.com)


proud to say i haven't done biz with them in a long time.

[2.5GT]

i usually dont buy oil or parts from walmart. just there wax :o

[dropdfocus]

i usually dont buy oil or parts from walmart. just there wax :oTheir wax?? For what?


Wal-Mart is not just the world's largest retailer. It's the world's largest company--bigger than ExxonMobil, General Motors, and General Electric. The scale can be hard to absorb. Wal-Mart sold $244.5 billion worth of goods last year. It sells in three months what number-two retailer Home Depot sells in a year. And in its own category of general merchandise and groceries, Wal-Mart no longer has any real rivals. It does more business than Target, Sears, Kmart, J.C. Penney, Safeway, and Kroger combined.BTW Gil, VERY interesting aticle on Wal-Mart. I honestly never had a clue to the overly large purchasing power they had on the market. Nor did I know how financially large they are compared to the other large companies in the US.

[gil_ong81]

BTW Gil, VERY interesting aticle on Wal-Mart. I honestly never had a clue to the overly large purchasing power they had on the market. Nor did I know how financially large they are compared to the other large companies in the US.
that is simply the tip of the iceberg. there's a book, and a DVD out (avaible from NetFlix) called Wal-mart: the high cost of low prices. it's a human interest piece.

there are also a load of biz papaers written about how walmart is not only unethical, but also fnancially irrespnosible in a lot of ways.

[Wiscon_Mark]

synthetic can be had for a lot cheaper if you look for sales and stock up, don't just go from oil change to oil change.

We usually buy from the auto-part chains; most notably, Advance Auto has been good to us :)

[dropdfocus]

I apologize for getting this post headed off topic. :(

Like Mark mentioned, getting a good amount ahead of time at a good price is a very good thing (if you have the extra cash to drop at that time).

2.5GT, the only other thing I can mention that would be an issue but nothing major would be the motorized antenna. After quite a bit of use, the motor or plastic gears the drive the antenna up & down will begin to wear out. If yours does ever break, I know of a guy on eBay who has them for sale for around $35 shipped. Many people just replace them with a solid mast antenna, but the car looks much nicer with it down & out of side as provided by the factory.

[2.5GT]

hm..sounds good, i'll keep that in mind. but i dont often listen to music that much :P. but thanks tho.

stock up on oil? nah, i dont have the money and time to look for oil on sale lol. i'll just go with oil to oil change.

[Wiscon_Mark]

money and time? We're talking about saving a lot of money here. You can get synthetic for cheaper than regular if you bargain hunt (ie: look through the ads). And it can save you time and gas if you don't need to shop for oil every time you need it too.

Jason- don't worry about getting off topic, this is an intro thread, we can talk about anything really :)

[2.5GT]

yeah, true. but im too lazy to search for cheap oil.

anywho, i got the oil change done today, went with synthetic oil but with a regular fram oil filter.

brought some gas, matter fact alot of it. ever since the day i brought the car, its already empty. then i took it for a spin, amazing how this AWD is. compare to the FWD corolla i had, this legacy is a big upgrade :P
and it doesnt hesitate when going uphill! :o :P

[Wiscon_Mark]

Yes, it will be faster than a corolla for sure :lol:

Don't use FRAM anymore. There's a little thing in most oil filters that stop the oil from draining out of the engine, that fram doesn't have. Leads to hard starts and more wear on the engine. I switched to K&N and noticed that it ran a lot easier when cold, and knocking went away. Fram has been cheaping out a lot lately. I'd reccomend Purolator if you don't want to spring for K&N.

[2.5GT]

is K&N filters expensive? might wanna get one next oil change.

but is there a special kind of filter that goes with synthetic oil? or just any plain filters?

[Wiscon_Mark]

well, you can change synthetic oil less often, so you would want a higher mileage filter too...there's really no concern about that though.

K&Ns are pretty pricey for oil filters, but they're good stuff too.

Try Purolator.

[dropdfocus]

No special filter needed w/ synthetic. K&N run about $6-8 vs. $2-3 for a normal filter.

[2.5GT]

gotcha. i paid like $5 for some kind of generic filter at Advance. the lady told me it was the best filter they had there.

[dropdfocus]

That's odd because all 3 Advance Auto Parts stores in my area carry K&N oil filters. Hmmm...

[Wiscon_Mark]

the one in my area does too.