97 Legacy Brighton cold start/misfire issues

Ive only had the car a few months, so far I've replaced the knock sensor for engine code, plugs, wires, fuel filter, timing belt and water pump for leak, and crank and cam position sensors for engine code, in that order. I'm reading a misfire in #2, scanner claiming either faulty injector or circuit, faulty fuel press regulator, or faulty fuel return line. The car has been hard to start since day one, and needs to warm up a little before giving it any gas or it tries to stall. This is my first Subaru and I'm unfamiliar with their particular quirks. Anyone have any info or ideas on how I can narrow this down? Don't have a fuel pressure gauge, nor a paddle tester for the injectors, tho based on how the car runs above 1500rpm I think the injector is probably fine. Also, if anyone can tell me where the pressure regulator is it would help, been all through the service manual online here and cant find it.

First thing is check the fuel pressure you can rent them at auto parts stores. Well our injectors are easy to remove so take the fuel rail off for the #2&4 cylinders and swap the injectors around. So swap #2 injector to the #4 spot. Reinstall everything and drive the car normally util the CEL comes back on and see if the cylinder misfire changes cylinders. If it does then the injector is faulty if not then next step. If you had a bad fuel pump you would have more than just one cylinder misfire. The fuel pressure regulator is located on the backside of the right side fuel rail. While the cars running take a can of carb spray and spray the intake manifold where it meets the heads. If the car wants to die out when you spray at the intake manifold gasket then the gaskets bad. You can do this at other places to check for vacuum leaks if you don't have a smoke machine. Other things could be a bent Valve, a dropped valve guide, misaligned timing belt or a bad coil or wiring.

thanx spool.. ill give that a try and report back

How many miles on the car? Have the valves been adjusted? If the car is high miles and the valves were never adjusted you might have some stuck open and possible burnt valves.. Typical for causing misfires on these engines when starting up.

139k on the odometer.. unknown if the valves were ever adjusted.. switched the injectors on bank 2.. waiting for the cel to come back.. am starting to become concerned this might be the issue.. i may be hosed as i have nowhere to pull the engine and take care of this

Hopefully it's just the injector. On my 96 L 2.2 I had the #1 cylinders exhaust valve guides drop down and cause a cylinder misfire but the misfire mostly occurred on the freeway. I couldn't figure out why it was misfiring and then I found out from a fellow mechanic who is a Subaru tech tell me that dropped valve guides are fairly common, so much Subaru had updated the valve guides with larger ones so the process doesn't repeat. What happens is when the engine gets up to temp the guides will work loose and drop down and then the valves will hit them and not fully close thus causing a misfire. Then YeH valve will push back up the guide and the misfire goes away. The easiest way to tell if that's your problem would be to drop the exhaust header and look into the exhaust ports on the heads. If the guides are sticking out a 1/8 inch your good but if they are further out and you have marks on the valves then your heads need to be removed.