My daughter might get the mentioned car from the people she does child care for. But needs ahead gasket. What would be a reasonable charge to have in Indy shop do the work in upstate NY.
Head gasket for 2007 Subaru Impreza
- Thread starter Donald
- Start date
If you're near Vermont, you can probably find a good Subaru-only shop there 
There’s a huge following for South Main Auto in Avoca, NY. He has done many Subaru head gaskets and has a multi part youtube video too. I believe you‘re in the $1.5K range with 8 hrs of shop time and also depending if you want new timing belts, pulleys, water pump while in there.
I had a rough quote from a Subaru dealer for $2.5K plus and said no thanks. We’ll let it grenade itself as the car is not worth it.
I had a rough quote from a Subaru dealer for $2.5K plus and said no thanks. We’ll let it grenade itself as the car is not worth it.
depends on how deep you want to go. if you just want a single head gasket changed and nothing else it probably a few hundred if its done with the engine in the car. if you want to do the whole hog , both head gaskets , timing belt and water pump and machined heads its probably going to cost $2 -2.5 k .
if its only leaking externally sometimes people jsut live with it for a while. if its internal it should be fixed asap or milkshake will happen
if its only leaking externally sometimes people jsut live with it for a while. if its internal it should be fixed asap or milkshake will happen
Our head gasket package on Subaru involves pulling the engine, disassemble, clean, reseal the engine, have the heads reconditioned by our machine shop. New timing belt & components, water pump, thermostat, accessory belts and any hoses the thing needs as well as new tune up parts. I dont split the case halves but I reseal everything else and use OE/OEM parts. Im a little over 2500 bucks to do the job
I thought this is a straight 4 cylinder with a single head. Why do the replies mention "heads"?
Subarus use a horizontally-opposed engine.
While before my time, it’s lilies an old Chevy Corvair engine.
Think of it as a water cooled 60's volkswagon.
I paid around 2K at a place in Fort Edward, NY. Motor out, mill both heads, T-belt, tensioner, water pump, cam seals, the whole 9 yards. All Subaru parts back in too. It was worth the drive for me. It took him about 3 days.
Why sign up for the hassle? The value of the car needing head gaskets is less than the cost for replacing them. Unless you can diy it, find something else.
A point.
If it is leaking oil from the head(s) it may have been run low on oil, in that case either split the case and do the rods, bearings and pistons/rings at the same time. The parts are not big $$ but a brand new short block is not expensive either.
If the head gasket needs replacing then its likely the engine overheated? Head will need to be resurfaced? Or are the other reasons the head gasket goes on this engine?
I don't believe the root cause for the natural aspirated EJ253 motor and many previous iterations was the simple fact that the design of the head gasket spec'd for this motor was of improper design that ultimately could not handle the requirements to properly seal over time. The aluminum head against the iron block created inherent movement and expansion that over time, failure was inevitable. The amount of surface area was also smaller from all the ports and water jacket channels that thus created a very demanding robust gasket design in which the OEM was not it. The Subaru turbo engines in the same era seemed to have a much much lower failure rate because of the multi layer steel design and this seemed to be the answer to address the courtesy replacements (but I don't think an official recall because it wasn't safety related) and and eventual out of warranty replacements. I'll have to find a reading on the NASIOC forum saying that there was so many head gasket repairs at the dealership that the techs were not machining the heads and just cleaning with wizz wheels to save time and cost and you know how the story ends.
The six-star MLS gaskets was a very popular choice besides the Subaru OEM revised gasket but the one common factor was prepping the head properly and not gasket slapping and "see you later".
I also don't think this was coincidental but in our experience, we elected not to repair the leak as the vehicle was not worth it but the catalytic converter died (P0420) at 120K and against my recommendations, this was replaced with no reoccurring code and I have a strong hunch that not fixing the head gasket over the many years eventually poisoned the catalyst Most of the leaks in our situation is external but just guessing, some of the leaking was also internal and eventually damaged something else that was also expensive namely the cat.
To my knowledge, this chronic failure was like 2+ generations ago so before you know it, it'll be forgotten and not part of the newest Subaru quality issues.
