Subaru head gasket concerns

[meep]

Idk about the newer ones but the 90s and 2000s models had a lot of low end torque that made them fun to me to drive. Didn’t have to rev the snot out of them to get them to play. I only knew MT versions and don’t know if that translates well today. I found them to be solid cars once they moved away from the GL/Loyale cars into the newer legacy/Impreza variants. I beat the snot out of a 2.2L legacy wagon, both on, off, and over the road and it never let me down. if you desire AWD, they’ve got well-sorted and capable systems.

regarding HGs, even with mine they could be quirky. Subaru‘s character of quirky was as unique to Subaru as Volvo’s type of quirky is unique to Volvo. one of mine did consume some oil and it was not consistent and I never figured out it’s rhythm. Both of mine had unique characters that I’m not sure I could complain. I liked them while I had them. I’d chalk potential HG issues as a real possibility, but if you like the rest of the car, it can be fixed. And idk as much about the newer ones, but mine were very easy to get good wrench angles on once you learned how to get the other layers off the engine. I could do a timing belt with water pump and oil pump inspection (tighten bolts and replace front seal) in 2.5 hours (the second time).

 

[Andrew1972]

There are no fun non turbo 2.5 Subarus. They are alll slow pigs. An upside of the fun 2.5 Subarus with turbo were head gasket failure is extremely rare.

Subarus with 2.5 were either almost adequate non turbo or blazing quick with turbo. My wife had the 2005 Legacy GT wagon with manual. Absolute joy to drive and mechanical bliss.

 

[dblshock]

fun is driving by a Subaru smoking on the shoulder.

 

[SSerian]

As far as HG go, the issue is in the prep of the heads vs the block. A lot of shops don’t put in the prep work. And they also use cheap generic head gaskets. Look up Six Star Subaru Gaskets. This is the gasket you want. Find a shop that will put in the time to prep the heads and the block to get a good seal. Just because a shop works on foreign cars, doesn’t necessarily mean they know their way around Subaru’s. There are some Subaru dealerships that I won’t allow to touch my cars because their mechanics roll through like revolving doors from other dealerships such as Toyota or Hyundai.

 

[AutoMechanic]

I agree with the post above. I’ve done a Subaru head gasket once it was done at an Indy shop and they slathered the thing with RTV as well it was a mess having to clean all of that stuff off. I didn’t use those gaskets I used Fel Pro as my friend needed his car back as soon as possible and that was all that was available. When my friend asked the shop the reason for the RTV they said you can’t use a gasket without it because it will dry out that shop didn’t last too long after that.

 

[92saturnsl2]

Subaru should really consider using pushrods again. That would make the engines much narrower. A wide engine in a narrow car is no good. You may have seen a pushrod vs DOHC picture, article, or video showing the difference in size between a pushrod V8 vs DOHC. Well, same thing for the width of a boxer.

Even SOHC would be an improvement. At least SOHC spark plugs are easier to do than a DOHC boxer.

I'm not sure a V8 is a good comparison for OHV vs DOHC packaging. DOHC heads are always going to be wider. In a head with chain driven cams, they can still be made pretty compact in terms of height.

On a V engine the wider heads make the whole package bigger-- that extra width increases both width an height in a V configuration because they are tilted.

On a flat engine the extra width of a DOHC head translates into height as the head is turned 90 degrees.

Pushrod engines make it impossible to alter the intake and exhaust cam profiles independently which is key to maximizing performance and efficiency.

 

[MrPlow]

There are no fun non turbo 2.5 Subarus. They are alll slow pigs. An upside of the fun 2.5 Subarus with turbo were head gasket failure is extremely rare.

Subarus with 2.5 were either almost adequate non turbo or blazing quick with turbo. My wife had the 2005 Legacy GT wagon with manual. Absolute joy to drive and mechanical bliss.

1998 Impreza 2.5 RS with tuned suspension. It's the funnest Subaru ever made, IMO. And I've been in some very high HP modded newer ones.

It had decent low-end grunt and was outrageously easy to just chuck into high speed corners and feel your brain pushing out one ear. Newer ones started getting heavier and worse in weight distribution.

The other secret for older 2.5 NA Subarus was the ground wire cleaning mod. A few years in late 90's into early 2000's Subaru mount ground wires in a way that left lots of paint under them and weakened the ground connection. This in turn messed with all sorts of electronics on the cars including loss of power and dim headlights. I fixed a bunch of Subarus in this era that ran WAY harder through the whole rev range after cleaning the grounds down to bare metal. Most of them felt like dogs before the fix. Just enough power, but always with that little bit of pull-back and hesitation.

 

[CR94]

Sub's back in the late 70's were awsome and easy to work on . Non OHC back then , owned 2 of them that gave many miles of trouble free driving . I could pull the engine in 45 minutes .

Same for ones of the early 70s, one of which I had (see below). It was nearly trouble-free (except for the rust that soon ate it). However, the ones of the mid-70s commonly had head-gasket (and rocker arm) troubles.

 

[slacktide_bitog]

1998 Impreza 2.5 RS with tuned suspension. It's the funnest Subaru ever made, IMO. And I've been in some very high HP modded newer ones.

It had decent low-end grunt and was outrageously easy to just chuck into high speed corners and feel your brain pushing out one ear. Newer ones started getting heavier and worse in weight distribution.

The other secret for older 2.5 NA Subarus was the ground wire cleaning mod. A few years in late 90's into early 2000's Subaru mount ground wires in a way that left lots of paint under them and weakened the ground connection. This in turn messed with all sorts of electronics on the cars including loss of power and dim headlights. I fixed a bunch of Subarus in this era that ran WAY harder through the whole rev range after cleaning the grounds down to bare metal. Most of them felt like dogs before the fix. Just enough power, but always with that little bit of pull-back and hesitation.

The Forester is an Impreza 2.5 RS wagon

Same for ones of the early 70s, one of which I had (see below). It was nearly trouble-free (except for the rust that soon ate it). However, the ones of the mid-70s commonly had head-gasket (and rocker arm) troubles.

They had head gasket problems back then? So it's not just the EJ

 

[MrPlow]

It always bothered me for some reason as to how they placed the spare tire on top of the engine in the older Subarus.

 

[PimTac]

It always bothered me for some reason as to how they placed the spare tire on top of the engine in the older Subarus.

That still bothers you?

 

[slacktide_bitog]

It always bothered me for some reason as to how they placed the spare tire on top of the engine in the older Subarus.

It wasn't really over the engine, was it?

The engine is way up front, in front of the front axle, and isn't very long. The spare tire is by the firewall, behind the front axle.

The Loyale (last Subaru to have the spare under the hood):

The previous gen Subaru, tire also behind engine, not on top of it:

 

[Trav]

Citroen also did this, no problem at all it saved some trunk space. Remove the spare and have all sorts of working room.

 

[IveBeenRued]

The big thing with Subarus is to make sure you add the “Subaru Coolant Conditioner” anytime you change the coolant. If you don’t, the engine will consume coolant. This applies for even the newer FB series engines. It’s part of the standard procedure now but a lot of dealers skip it.

 

[Zee09]

He's looking for a fun car, not some old lady grocery getter.

I'm not a fan of either but if they buy a Toyota at least they can afford groceries....lol

 

[zzyzzx]

 

[Oro_O]

I did a lot of (internet) research into this this past spring and summer. This was the most definitive answer I could find, by a recognized expert (Justin Stobb at All Wheel Drive in Seattle).

https://allwheeldriveauto.com/subaru-head-gasket-problems-explained/

My observations support his conclusions (few observations, but consistent). I did a pre-purchase inspection on a 70k 2017 Crosstrek this summer that lit every warning sign he mentioned. Problem is no where near solved as far as I can tell.

BTW, the ppi was on a dealer CPO car. it was a grenade. Apparently dealerships have no honest technical concept of this issue, either.

 

[JT20]

2012 Outback EJ253 non turbo, 44K. The owner was 94 years old and drives it easy and has had religious dealer maintenance, blown HG and rod knock. Doing a rebuild.

Is it a thing to go EJ20 JDM to replace these **** EJ25s?

 

[JT20]

it’s not that hard.....

99% of cars aren’t designed for ease of service, they’re designed for function. subaru isn’t gonna make performance compromises to satisfy some random tech

The spark plugs don't seem *impossible* to get to but it does seem... Precarious.

Disclaimer: I've never changed the spark plugs on a Subaru and my previous one was an H6 not an H4 anything.

The H6 was most likely a JDM and ran like a dream... Better than new cars. My present EJ25 has to go and I'm debating between either a JDM EJ20...

Or this. Your thoughts?

https://go.skimresources.com/?id=13...e062964bea9&xjsf=other_click__contextmenu [0]

 

[SSerian]

The spark plugs don't seem *impossible* to get to but it does seem... Precarious.

Disclaimer: I've never changed the spark plugs on a Subaru and my previous one was an H6 not an H4 anything.

The H6 was most likely a JDM and ran like a dream... Better than new cars. My present EJ25 has to go and I'm debating between either a JDM EJ20...

Or this. Your thoughts?

https://go.skimresources.com/?id=13...e062964bea9&xjsf=other_click__contextmenu [0]

FYI,
Swapping engines in a Subaru can be done but it is a labor intensive process. The ecu wiring is integrated into the wiring throughout the dash. You have to pull the wiring from your car and pull the wiring from the donor. Then pin out and tag each wire to match them up. It can be done. Most speed shops charge up to 2 days labor just to pin out and tag the wiring.

See example.
https://images.app.goo.gl/Rk1m62CHp5QDtcQy8I would be more inclined to build the 2.5 with upgraded internals. I’ve seen turbo Subaru rally cars and built na Subaru rally cars. The difference is that the boosted cars need rebuilds every couple of events. The na cars last for years. There was a late 90’s Impreza that had a swapped built h6 engine in it that had been through 3 or 4 owners. Because it was the 2 door model and was lighter, it would hold its own even against the newer subarus.