Subaru: '96 Outback 2.5 lifter problems???

A. & G. Reiswig wrote: 

I have a '99 OB Legacy with a 2.5L engine. Whether it
is the same engine as yours, I do not know.

Speaking from experience, it is possible to remove the
valve covers and camshafts in your driveway with the
engine in place. You have to remove lots of other things
first though and it isn't a job for the timid.

I'm a bit confused about what you're calling "lifters".
My engine does not have hydraulic lifters in the normal
sense. There are cups with shims that are used to set
valve clearance. These appear to fill with oil to
dampen the tapping noise.

If this is the same design as your engine, have you
considered getting the valve clearances set? That
may fix your problem.

Thanks for the reply, Jim. Nope...mine are hydraulic. There is probably a
reason that Subaru went back to solid lifters after this year, and I suspect
I'm running into that reason. ;-)

George Reiswig

"Jim Stewart" <com> wrote in message
news:bpthom$airnews.net... 
wanted, 
amount 
of 

"A. & G. Reiswig" wrote: 

Hi,

As I'm sure you found in your googling, noisy lifters are a "family
trait" with Subies of most years. I suspect a friend who ran Corvairs
years ago (first flat engine with hydraulic lifters either of us
remember) was right when he said flat engines with hydraulics are an
invitation for trouble. Probably has something to do with the oil
draining out of them at rest?

Anyway, if MMO seemed to help, you might want to step up a notch to
Rislone. It's a bit more aggressive cleaner than MMO, but not so bad as
to knock loose big chunks of stuff like those five minute cleaners can
do, unless, of course, the engine's been badly neglected WRT oil
changes. I run Rislone about every 4th oil change (using 3,000 mile
intervals most of the time) and started using MMO in between. It's made
a difference in my engine. Noise is still there (but there are 340k
miles on the clock, too!) though nothing like when I got the car: the
previous owner seemed to be less than religious about some maintenance.
(As an aside on MMO, Bill Putney planted the bug in my ear about MMO,
and IIRC he says it's taken up to a year to really clean out some of his
engines, depending somewhat on initial mileage and how much the car is
driven. Moral of the story--be patient?)

HTH,

Rick

A. & G. Reiswig wrote: 
You may want to try running synthetic oil as it has a tendancy to clean
out the engine over time.