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My dads Liberty is having some big issues. Series 2 GX AWD Auto.
What it is doing is when you drive it up a steep hill under a bit of load (for those who know the Gap mountain) it dies. As in motor completely stops. If you try & start it again straight away it cranks over & sounds like there is no compression, like the valves are still open. It ONLY does it on hills. i have never had it die on straight roads even with the boat behind it.

I thought it could be hydraulic lock, but we have flushed the motor 2 times now with Worth engine flush (great stuff for the EA82's) the Subaru shop thought the same thing as me & said this should fix the problem.
But it hasn't. - There is NO lifter tic.

Could it be a stretched timing belt? Could it be a clogged lifter? Or could it be something more sinister???

Thanks in advance.

I may know what it is. I have had someone bugging me about his car doing the same thing. Its the tube the rockers are on. Its gunged up and needs a clean out. It expensive. His got better but never totally fixed it. So his next step was to put in new rods.

Fuel pump/ no fuel pressure perhaps?

Fuel pump checks out ok.

Very common these days on EJ22's. I have been working on solving it for a year or so off and on and am 99% sure I know what the problem is.
Fitting solid lifters is the fix, although my preference is to fit a turbo engine. The problem with fitting solids is that they are noisy unless you redo the valve tips and if you go to this extent you may as well get to the root cause which I believe is weak valve springs.

Your Dad needs a turbo, end of story.

Hey I got some stuff to check...
Oil pump backing plate screws come loose.
Also, if non Genuine head gaskets are fitted sometime the oil delivery washer collapses and distorts more under high temp/load...
What grade of Eng oil are you using? If it had done 60Kmiles and is EJ22SOHC put 15-20/40 in it, (unless you are sub zero?). Do all this, ,(starting with the eng oil:D), BEFORE you tell your dad his car is cactus, (on second thought, tell him it IS cactus, we'll slap a 2.5 Turbo in it after you buy it from him for an appropriatly deflated amount )

cheers
HTH
Sixpack Subaru, (man is it hard to log in here or what!?!?!)

to check if it is fuel delivery not good on hills, go up a hill in reverse at high revs....lol

I've heard a dodgy fuel pressure regulator can cause this problem. but it does fire up again eventually?

yes it fires up fine if you leave it for 5 seconds or so....

I have had this problem a couple of times. Run oil flush for about 20min, replace oil and filter use 10-30w SL ie Shell ECO 10.
The lifters are pumping up. Tell dad to relax. Subaru recommend 10-30 oil cheap junk oil just makes it worse.
Steve