[tomlitch]

Something troubling is happening with my 99 forester EJ25 SOHC. I just changed spark plugs, water pump, HG, misc seals, oil sep plate. Before doing this repair the car wasn't eating oil.

After the changes I am eating about a quart every 500 miles and am spraying sooty water out the tail pipe. There are NO leaks and there is no smoke out of the tailpipe (unless its cold then it appears to be steam). When I had the deads off cylinder #3 had pretty heavy carbon build up but the sleeves didn't seem to be excessively worn.

The car runs fine and has no power loss or anything so I am wondering what is going on here. I did some searches here but my oil consumption combined with the soot issue doesn't seem to be covered.

Any ideas??

 

[guroove]

What seals were replaced? With all the work that was done, a lot could be wrong. My first guess based on the soot in the tailpipe would be that the HGs aren't sealing right, and you are losing compression in one or more of the cylinders. Who did the HG job?

 

[tomlitch]

I did all of the work myself. I am not seeing cross contamination of coolant with oil visibly so I am hesitant to think this is it. Also it wouldn't explain the amount of oil loss without showing up in the coolant.

Would a compression test help?

 

[Subie 2003]

We had one of our other vehicles exhibit the same issue regarding moisture and soot out the tail pipe. It was so bad it would leave a soot mark on the driveway and payment during the winter when warming up the car. Car ran fine too.

Anyway, it was a HG leak.

 

[funkymonkey1002]

You sure you didn't get the HG's on backward?

 

[tomlitch]

We had one of our other vehicles exhibit the same issue regarding moisture and soot out the tail pipe. It was so bad it would leave a soot mark on the driveway and payment during the winter when warming up the car. Car ran fine too.

Anyway, it was a HG leak.

Did it chew through alot of oil?

And funkymokey, no I checked it out and HG weren't on backwards. I never got the heads resurfaced though so I wonder if they just didn't seal properly. Might have to do it again. Not a HUGE deal now that I know how to do it.

 

[Subie 2003]

Did it chew through alot of oil?

Not nearly at the rate of yours but I did have to add oil every month or so. Vehicle was only driven 50-100 miles per week