Subaru Crosstrek - 600,000 miles

buster

buster

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Nov 16, 2002
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Ok guys, I finally got off my butt and disassembled the old engine. I was actually very surprised at the results. If you've been following along, you know that I've been using Mobile1 extended performance 0W-20 along with Fram synthetic oil filters at 12,000 mile intervals for the full 600,000 miles. Ignoring the oil leaks, this engine looks great. The cylinder walls show no wear and don't even have a wear ridge at the top of the cylinder. The piston tops have a bit of carbon build up but nothing unusual. In the last days I was using a significant amount of oil and I can only contribute that to excessive wear on the oil rings. All of the bearings look great and the camshafts show very little scoring. Compression was fairly consistent with all cylinders with the exception of cylinder #3. After disassembly of the heads I found the the valves on #3 had more wear than the others and we're definitely burned resulting in cylinder #3 occassionally misfiring. My take on this is that if it weren't for the burned valves on #3 cylinder and the oil rings wearing out, this engine would have easily reached a million miles. So maybe if someone at Subaru is listening, you might take a very hard look at what oil rings you are using. As for me, I'm sticking with 12,000 mile oil changes using Mobile1 extended performance and Fram synthetic oil filters. Hopefully I can get another 600,000 miles on this next engine.
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Valve and piston carbon build up was actually far less than I actually expected. Apart from the burn't valve and normal Subi oil leaks, this engine doesn't look like it has more than 100k on it. This was even cleaner than I expected.
Engines like to be run. Run them often and they will last. The guy is a medical courier and drives 800 miles a day. That's insane.
 
We had a Volkswagen Beetle growing. Bought new in 1970 and sold in the mid 1990's. It had at least 600,000 miles on it using straight grade 30weight QS. Of course that was over the course of 4 or 5 engine replacements. I got to where I could drop the old engine swap over the engine accessories/shroud etc into the new longblock and reinstall in about 6-8 hours. Boxer motor, love it! Those engines looked decent except for the the bent/broken valves. Looked like 100-150k innards.
 
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So maybe if someone at Subaru is listening, you might take a very hard look at what oil rings you are using. As for me, I'm sticking with 12,000 mile oil changes using Mobile1 extended performance and Fram synthetic oil filters. Hopefully I can get another 600,000 miles on this next engine.
600,000 mi?!? If I were the Subaru engineer, I'd take a very hard look at it, congratulate myself, and not change a darn thing.
 
Originally Posted by dareo
How many CVT transmissions is what we all wanna know
Bingo! I'm curious about this too.
 
Originally Posted by dareo
How many CVT transmissions is what we all wanna know
Yes, this! Though any transmission lives a pretty life on the highway.
 
Originally Posted by buster
Link
Quote
Ok guys, I finally got off my butt and disassembled the old engine. I was actually very surprised at the results. If you've been following along, you know that I've been using Mobile1 extended performance 0W-20 along with Fram synthetic oil filters at 12,000 mile intervals for the full 600,000 miles. Ignoring the oil leaks, this engine looks great. The cylinder walls show no wear and don't even have a wear ridge at the top of the cylinder. The piston tops have a bit of carbon build up but nothing unusual. In the last days I was using a significant amount of oil and I can only contribute that to excessive wear on the oil rings. All of the bearings look great and the camshafts show very little scoring. Compression was fairly consistent with all cylinders with the exception of cylinder #3. After disassembly of the heads I found the the valves on #3 had more wear than the others and we're definitely burned resulting in cylinder #3 occassionally misfiring. My take on this is that if it weren't for the burned valves on #3 cylinder and the oil rings wearing out, this engine would have easily reached a million miles. So maybe if someone at Subaru is listening, you might take a very hard look at what oil rings you are using. As for me, I'm sticking with 12,000 mile oil changes using Mobile1 extended performance and Fram synthetic oil filters. Hopefully I can get another 600,000 miles on this next engine.
Quote
Valve and piston carbon build up was actually far less than I actually expected. Apart from the burn't valve and normal Subi oil leaks, this engine doesn't look like it has more than 100k on it. This was even cleaner than I expected.
Engines like to be run. Run them often and they will last. The guy is a medical courier and drives 800 miles a day. That's insane.
Wow! And I thought my 30-35k mi per year was a lot! My dad used to drive nearly as much as that guy. His engines made it 250-350k miles. 1980s and 1990s Ford SB v8s, and some 460s.
 
that 11.42 hours of driving *IF* he can average 70 mph.....not saying that it cannot be done, but how in the world could anyone drive that much?
 
Originally Posted by Barkleymut
that 11.42 hours of driving *IF* he can average 70 mph.....not saying that it cannot be done, but how in the world could anyone drive that much?
I'm guessing it's a bit like those people who go into pre-med. Only some can hack the long hours of study followed by a few years of residency. It's not for everyone.
 
Originally Posted by Imp4
Quote
So maybe if someone at Subaru is listening, you might take a very hard look at what oil rings you are using. As for me, I'm sticking with 12,000 mile oil changes using Mobile1 extended performance and Fram synthetic oil filters. Hopefully I can get another 600,000 miles on this next engine.
600,000 mi?!? If I were the Subaru engineer, I'd take a very hard look at it, congratulate myself, and not change a darn thing.
This
 
There has to be a better metric for vehicle wear than miles. I would think, at the very least, going by engine revolutions would make more sense than miles. Add other variables from there and maybe get a standardized metric that takes more than mile into account?

Or is there already something like this? I know some new cars have oil life meters which do this exact thing based on load and RPMs, etc, and not just miles alone.
 
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