Speaking of waiting for parts to arrive, here’s the radiator and the A/C condenser straight outta vehicle.
I was told that each one of those black stains in the radiator would have been enough to warrant a replacement.
Now, here’s the sorry looking A/C condenser. I haven’t yet seen the 2002 Outback having a tendency to eat small birds like the 2005 does, but something did make a dent to that condenser.
Oh, and if you are planning to replace the condenser, do yourself a favor and photograph the condenser and measure its width. The input and output port locations matter, and spare part vendors do not always list compatible vehicles correctly. Ask me how I know. Assembly time +1 week.
And the oil cooler is finally there, with a new oil filter and this time also with the hoses as they were intended. Discovered later after filling in the coolant that I actually did also order the genuine rubber hose parts too with their circlips (waiting 6 weeks in total for the parts to arrive tends to do something like this). 
The engine is running smoothly as EZ30 should. No more sproing boing clickety clack going on in the timing case. It’s very closely the same as the EZ30D in the 2005, but in a strange way I think the vehicles have a slightly different purposes. 2002 might be a bit better pulling trailers, while 2005 is probably better for long distance cruising. The reason for this is the automatic gearbox, 4EAT in the 2002 keeps the RPMs higher at the 4th gear than 5EAT does at 5th, making it easier to pull trailers uphill. Lower RPMs at 100 km/h makes the 2005 better for fuel economy.
So let’s have a look at the coolant reservoir and no, no no no nono.
Not ze bubbles!
Folks, I think my car is a glycoholic. No Spill funnel also did have some exhaust smell (mixed with some rust) in it.
Looks like we’re looking at a head gasket job in the future, but it won’t be just now. As it is the leak does not seem to be massive; it sips some millimetres of coolant per 100 km from the reservoir tank. So I think I can use this for hunting through this Autumn and Winter (which is like a 100 km drive one way each time I go), but I’ll try to reduce the cold starts the engine sees and keep a gallon of coolant in the car all the time.
Don’t know about you guys but I’m suddenly feeling kind of thirsty…
