The AUSubaru.com.au Forums

I bought a new toy, Gen1 Outback, with a blown headgaskets, the motor had been fitted 25kkm ago, after the original DOHC motor blew its head gaskets.

The replacement motor that was fitted, was an import motor. Low km of course.
As the motor had been sitting for 6 months with coolant/water in the bores, they had rust pits.

I had the bottom end of the motor rebuilt, but they could not exactly match the piston dome shape, and fitted Aussie EJ25 DOHC pistons.
Also found out during this rebuild that EJ25 DOHC came out with 2 different sized big end sets and 2 different valve shim set sizes.

From the manuals I have, it appears that sometime in 1999, the change happened. Pre/early 99 had smaller big end and thinner shims.

Does anybody know of any other differences or if both were released in Aus and if the performance figures are any different.

Just FYI : Even though yours is the first generation of Outbacks they are still called Gen 2 Outbacks since they are a Gen 2 Liberty body shape .

As for any real information - I have nothing to add to this thread - sorry

Yea I've had many discussions about OB gens vs lib gens, unfortunately, it depends who you talk to and their interpretation.

I tried to get parts from a wrecker, they described it as Gen1, until then I called a gen2, so I give up, 98 model 2.5 DOHC seems to cover it as well.

Lucky we have one basic language around Australia, so we can understand each other

No point knowing what you had there, now you've altered things pistonwise