98 Subaru Legacy Outback 2.5 - any experience?

[drcustom]

My cousin just picked one of these up and wants to do some maintenance...belts (serpentine and timing)/hoses/plugs/valve cover gaskets, etc.

He used to build/race Chevy's on an oval track but doesn't really have time to dig in right now...and he doesn't have tools at the house. I'd like to help him out but don't have a ton of time myself and I don't want to promise anything if it turns out that it's a nightmare job.

If it's easy, I'm just looking for confirmation that I'm not going to need special tools or a ton of support to work on this.

If it is a bear, can anyone walk me through if I have questions, or would you be interested in doing the work if there was some cash involved?

[magikgsx]

ive done a couple of these when i worked at north denver automotive. the timming belt is pretty simple. its been a year since i did one but if you he gets a manual its a sinch. there are really no speacial tools you need just patience.

[Toybreaker]

Dan, is this a quad cam?

They can be bad for head gaskets. (compression into the cooling system)

Keep an eye on the coolant reservoir.

When you have coolant getting pushed out when the car is under load (like climbing I-70) or it starts to get coffee ground looking schmeg in the reservoir, that's a bad sign. The fix isn't too bad, just expensive, and much more time consuming than a 4g63.

The sohc motors are pretty good.

Overall, they are good cars, if not somewhat...agricultural...

My wife called ours the "John Deere" of wagons, and flogged it mercilessly, hoping it would break.

It never did.

[matthewdesigns]

I've been told the same thing about the HG's on these motors as Toybreaker stated, by the local Subaru gurus. I was told to be prepared to do them soon if buying a used 1998+ 2.5L Legacy, if I couldn't confirm from the seller that they were new.