please help!

[resko1]

I have a 05 outback xt. Its my first subaru and i bought it last december. Since then i have had a ton of issues with this car and have maybe been able to drive it 7mo since owning it. The problems started right away after purchase. Hood latch wouldnt lock. Sprayed with penetrating fluid and it went away till recently (seems to be a cold weather thing). A week later, loud clunking from front suspension. Lower control arm bushings to frame were shot. PO tried to silicone them. Lasted a week. Had those replaced along with whiteline bushings in the control arm to subframe location. Two weeks later what sounds like a can of gravel under acceleration; especially on the freeway. Turned out being the passenger side cv axle. A month later sputtering and dying while drivng. Could barely get anywhere. Turned out to be the intercooler split at the seam. This happened 2 more times over the next 6 months. Replaced with oem. Ive had the crank pulley eat into the timng cover. Replaced with a grimspeed pulley, new oem covers and gates timing kit. Turbocharger oil seals go. Replaced with rebuilt turbocharger from turbos direct. Bucking on the freeway again was a cam position sensor. Misfire cylinder 4 turned out to be bad coilpack. And on to the recent. Large consumption of coolant. Coolant occasionally spraying out of reservoir all over engine bay. Misfire codes on 4 again and 1.It got to the point where i was adding coolant every day. Did a coolant gas test and found combusion gasses really strong. Decided time for head gaskets.

 

Mind you i purchased a 99 honda accord for $800 3 months after owning it because of the issues and im glad i did. I have 3 kids. And i need transportation for them. The honda transmission has since died so the car is driveable under very short distances under a lot of coercion. My wife owns a 2003 wrx sedan and hasnt had a single issue in the 3 years we have owned it. And it has 196k on it now!

Mine was bought at 160k and currently has 171k.

 

Anyways. After pulling the engine and the heads, I decided just to rebuild the block also while it was out. Im not new to engine building also. Block was split and sent to local shop for hot tank, check, hone, and deck. Crank was polished and King xpg bearings used in mains and rods. All mains were between .0018 and .002, while all rods were between .001 and .0014. NPR piston rings were used with a piston to wall clearance of .0017. A little loose but expected with a rebuild like this. An OEM gasket kit was used. In the process i found 3 burnt exhaust valves. One on cyl 1 and 2 on cyl 4. The heads were sent to the shop for full cleaning, check, new GSC exhaust valves cut in and intake valves recut, and resurfacing. Valve lash was set at the shop. I had the engine reassembled and installed back in 3 weeks ago. Everything else was reused except timing belt and water pump. The water pump made a weird noise from the bearing so i didnt trust it.

It has 268 miles on the rebuild. 30w non detergent was used for the first 50 and now castrol gtx 5w30 till now.

Problems im having started right away. Next day coolant reservoir was empty. No big deal. Thought maybe i didnt get everything burped. But ive been filling that reservoir everyday and some in the radiator. No leaks mind you. Even checked with a sheet of cardboard over night and during a 20 min idle. Wheres the coolant going? Checked the oil level at change and was right at the full mark. after 150 miles checked it again and it was over full. Thought maybe residual from first 30w oil. Checked it again yesterday and its almost double full! At this point im getting nervous and not driving the car, hoping something can get figured out before damage happens. Funny thing is i drained some oil and theres no milkyness to it; on the dipstick or filler cap. Compression test turned out good.

Two other symptoms ive been having are the horrible fuel consumption. About 8-10 mpg city. And the fact that if the car goes into boost above 6psi, it starts to shutter like crazy. I managed to get a cyl 1 misfire and 2 pffee codes, (es i do have an accessport v2 with a stage 1 tune installed) but they go away on next start up. Vacuum sits at 20 inches at idle and 25 inches during de-acceleration ( it is a 5 speed). Otherwise the car drivers perfectly fine under no boost to low boost.

I really need some help in figuring this one out. As of now i dont have a means of transportation for me or my kids until i either have enough cash to buy a transmission for the honda, or get this outback fixed. I love the car and living in wisconsin its very handy, but it needs to be reliable. I have suspected the head gaskets again but both surfaces were ground and head torqued to angle in the fsm. I have suspected the turbo maybe? I will be doing a boost leak test if it would ever stop snowing. Maybe the misfire issue and poor gas mileage are from a leak, although vacuum looked good ( i have an omori gauge mounted in a oem sti pod on the column. line was hooked up with a tee by the map sensor).

I know its kind of a winded post but i really could use some help or suggestions here. Maybe some subaru techs or guru's?

[xt2005bonbon]

Since you have an AP, what are your learned fuel trims A B C D? They should stay between +/-5%.

 

You can also view misfire per cylinder with it. It is called cylinder roughness or something similar.

 

Regarding your coolant issue, I am not sure. I would think head gasket issue. Maybe it is getting burned mostly, instead of getting mixed with the oil?