o5ubaru_5mt_GT

Thanks for the advice guys. You have given me the motivation to put in some work and freshen up the ol' gal. I'm really not ready to part with this car. And thankfully I have a good friend who owns a lift and all the fixins. Yea, lately I've been pushing the OCI a bit further ... the "old" oil coming out almost looks like new these days lol. I suppose I could theoretically just add the drained oil back in after changing the filter. :o Glad to hear my block is "nicely seasoned"... I like that. Like grandma's old cast iron pan. The bright side of all the oil leaking is some "free" rust proofing! But seriously yea, road salt blows. I probably spend way more money on car washes in the winter because of it.

I currently sit at 185k miles. Long time lurker here. Love how helpful the subaru community is, I've never needed to post my own questions as I can always find the answer with searching I bought my 05 SWP LGT 5mt back in 2011 with 110K miles, and stock condition at the time. Since then, I've done some minor mods/replacements, including: -BNR 16G turbo, Catless uppipe, E-tune, filtered turbo oil feed line, grimmspeed electric boost controller, grimmspeed A/O separator, new spark plugs, new injectors (fixed rough idle), new struts, new radiator, new A/C condenser, bullet proof TMIC mod, new LCA bushings, new front calipers. Also regular oil changes every 3500 miles with Rotella T6 and always 93 premium gas. It's really been a fun and reliable car, and I like that I rarely see another one on the road. But when I do, there's that immediate recognition. BUT, this car has some issues that really need to be addressed soon. Firstly, it leaks oil seemingly everywhere. The underside is very oily, and I can identify at least two leak sources. I need to add almost 4 qt of oil every OCI. Good for the engine I suppose, bad for my wallet and the environment. I'm not certain how much of that is leaked out vs burned, but I would guess it's mostly from leaks. I got a compression and leak down performed almost 10k miles ago, and it was very acceptable: 130-135 psi, and highest leak down was 5%. To fix all the oil leaks, I would need to pull the engine and if I'm doing that, should I just go ahead and replace the short block? Second noticeable issue is the sloppy drivetrain. There is a hard vibration at highway speeds and upon accelerating that shakes the shifter around. I'm guessing bad U-joints, and probably worn out engine and transmission mounts. I'd really appreciate some outside perspective here. Would I be crazy to drop $3-5k to rejuvenate the motor, drivetrain, and chassis? Thanks, Kevin

Hey Jazzy, just placed my order thru paypal. Really looking forward to receiving this new mod! Thanks! -Kevin