97 Subaru teardown - Dino 200k miles.

[saberz]

Figure you would all appreciate it this. 200k on Dino, service history shows Jiffy Lube was used. He tore it down to fix a gasket issue as coolant was leaking into the engine. Pretty clean.

http://www.fixedbygary.com/SubaruDOHC/SubaruDOHC.html

 

[sw99]

Gotta love the Boxer engines! Thanks for the link.

 

[Audi Junkie]

"It was treated to conventional "Jiffy Lube" motor oil at 7200 mile intervals on average. Clearly dino oil is good enough to go 200k miles easily with no top end sludge and virtually no wear to the cylinder bores."

...but they use synthetic oil in jet engines and it pours at -33f

 

[Bill in Utah]

Looks great. 7,200 miles OCIs with conventional.

Works for me. Thanks for the link!

Bill

 

[jeepman]

Originally Posted By: Audi Junkie
...but they use synthetic oil in jet engines and it pours at -33f

He said he was done posting here, but you trying to draw him out?

But your post did make me laugh, after the battle in that other thread....

FWIW, the data sheet on my beloved PYB shows that it pours at -39, so I think I'm covered.

Back on topic, good example of the power of modern dino's. Thanks for the link, and great pics of a well maintained engine.

 

[Burt]

Interesting. I always wonder what engines look like inside at the end of life. Do you intend to clean off the carbon on the valves and tops of pistons? How much money and time will you have in the overhaul? Not worried about the tranny going next? People criticize me for working on my old car to keep it going rather than just selling or scrapping it, but there is something about a job well done and waste not want not.

 

[Scienceman]

+1

 

[Eddie]

Thanks for the effort Anies. Engine looks great for 200K. You mentioned leaving the rings and bores alone. Not sure I would do this myself. I probably would do a re-hone on bores and put in a new set of piston rings. Difficult to believe that is Jiffy lube bulk oil for all or most of the time.

 

[demarpaint]

I agree with Eddie, if I had the engine taken apart to that degree I'd re-ring it too. Unless the OP plans on selling the car shortly, but after tearing it down I think he'd want to keep it.

 

[zulu]

Couple of comments... the heads look so clean from varnish because they mount vertically on each side of the engine, away from radiant heat. So the oil drained off the head vs sitting on it and cooking after shutdown like in a typical vertical inline engine. The piston rings definitely could have benefited from a better detergent pack. So score one for dino, but definitely highlights the points where a synthetic would provide an advantage. I'm not so sure the bearing wear could simply be addressed with a thicker oil vs a synthetic.

 

[Truckedup]

Most 97 ish to about 2002 Subaru's had a headgasket problem.Combustion gases leak into the cooling system and cause the usual problems,overheating,even blowing up the radiator.If ignored,the engine becomes toast.This usually happens at 70,000 to 100,000 miles.Subaru won't fess up to the problem,there's is/was a class action law suit by 1000's of Subaru owners who had expensive repairs.

 

[modularv8]

Thanks for posting these pics. Wondering, did you run any particular fuel in this engine (Chevron w/ Techron) or do any injector cleaners? The backside of the valves look clean.

 

[ottotheclown]

Look at the bottom end the pan with baffels etc. looks very clean to me. WC FIELDS said it is morally wrong to let a sucker keep his money.

 

[KrisZ]

Nice pics, thanks

 

[wander2039]

Clean yes but it looks like alot of wear. Bearings already showing cooper and oil rings filled with crud... I bet shorter oci's would of helped.

 

[Audi Junkie]

Originally Posted By: jeepman
Originally Posted By: Audi Junkie
...but they use synthetic oil in jet engines and it pours at -33f

He said he was done posting here, but you trying to draw him out?

Back on topic, good example of the power of modern dino's.


People get hung up on "what's the best oil", rather than "what oil works best". To me, what "works best" is what's most cost-effective, because that process also includes the act of changing it. Most of us don't mind changing oil every 4-6 months AND want "the best" RESULT, so that usually means dino oil and normal change intervals.


Originally Posted By: Eddie
Engine looks great for 200K. You mentioned leaving the rings and bores alone. Not sure I would do this myself.


A lot depends on the condition of the rest of the car. Why polish the brass on the Titanic?

My cousin blew the engine her in her turbo Passat. The car was rough, never had a wheel bearing, suspension part, trans flush, original turbo and was a base model approaching 200k. At $3500 to repair/replace the engine, she could have just replaced the car for the same or a little more money, but her and her husband never asked me for advice, and they went on to blow 2 more engines in the car, that now sits in their back yard.

Had the car been a clean Audi Avant turbo with quattro and some nice features, imo, a totally different equation.

 

[ekpolk]

Originally Posted By: Eric Smith
Clean yes but it looks like alot of wear. Bearings already showing cooper and oil rings filled with crud... I bet shorter oci's would of helped.


I also wonder (though I don't dispute the overall good dino results) whether a good syn might not have left the oil rings un-plugged with burned oil crud. And then there are those excessively worn bearings. I'd love to be able to see an identical engine, that had been run on solid syn oil, for the same miles, side-by-side with this one.

Would I be happy with this end result, ~200k miles, things looking this good, sure. Could he have done better? I won't rule that out either.

 

[GOPHER FREAK]

Originally Posted By: ekpolk
Originally Posted By: Eric Smith
Clean yes but it looks like alot of wear. Bearings already showing cooper and oil rings filled with crud... I bet shorter oci's would of helped.


I also wonder (though I don't dispute the overall good dino results) whether a good syn might not have left the oil rings un-plugged with burned oil crud. And then there are those excessively worn bearings. I'd love to be able to see an identical engine, that had been run on solid syn oil, for the same miles, side-by-side with this one.

Would I be happy with this end result, ~200k miles, things looking this good, sure. Could he have done better? I won't rule that out either.

Of course you could have done better. Imagine how little bearing wear there would be with 5K intervals or even 7.5K intervals with a good syn. But that motor looks very good for the mileage and the service history.

 

[Bumpside 427]

Exactly. Is OK good enough? For some, I wager yes.
For me, I'd like mine to look better at 200k. 200k is not big mileage these days. And maybe that's "polishing the brass" and it doesn't matter, but fine. I like mine that way.
I'm shooting for 100's of k's of miles AND lookin' good too.

 

[Bill in Utah]

Originally Posted By: PurplePride
Exactly. Is OK good enough? For some, I wager yes.
For me, I'd like mine to look better at 200k. 200k is not big mileage these days. And maybe that's "polishing the brass" and it doesn't matter, but fine. I like mine that way.
I'm shooting for 100's of k's of miles AND lookin' good too.


The PROBLEM is that you don't KNOW *IF* the engine would look ANY different using "Syn" oil.

You can justify wasting spending the "little" extra per oil change but for a FACT you can not say until we take more than a few engines and operate all of them the SAME and then take them apart. ANYTHING LESS is just a GUESS.

All of the Subarus out there with more than 200k miles are PROVING that if something else does not go wrong (and PLEASE don't suggest that a syn oil would prevent a head gasket leak (NOT directed towards PP)) that conventional oil works perfectly.

If this engine had the recommended OCIs with conventional oils, it WOULD be better.

SLIGHTLY better.

Bill