You can clearly see the cams in one pic…These are really next to the valve cover photos, not under
Under the valve cover - 2002 Outback H6
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Yep, that's my opinion. It was always considered a lower quality oil, certainly not of the same caliber as an XOM or Pennzoil offering. And if you read my post I also said the 10K OCIs after the Trop Arctic was not used didn't help. The pictures aren't lying either. Searching the site reveals engines with similar mileage looking better. Don't get me wrong it isn't horrible, but this is Bitog and the pictures were posted for discussion. Others commented about the sludge and varnish as well.
If it makes you feel any better, I did a few valve cover gasket jobs on those when I worked in a dealer. At only 5-10 years old they looked like that inside too.
The engine looks great for twenty year old, varnish or not.
Not refuting your post !
i tend to think the prior 65k may be the issue.
Trop Arctic is a syn blend from a big enough company which tested out fairly well on pqia when he was using it really no worse than the big companies.
I’ll look up the service history in the first 60k miles tomorrow. We bought it from her uncle and I think his note book is still in the console.
He was an electrical engineer for Boeing and is fastidious by nature, so I would expect very frequent changes. I also know he lived quite a ways from his work as he was always hyper conscious if fuel mileage. To the point Of irritation quite honestly. But he was single his whole life so he never had someone to help him throttle his own odd tendencies.
If I had to guess, the little bit on the valve covers is just a byproduct of them being cooler than the head. And running 10k miles on oil is bound to leave some deposits somewhere IMO.
Maybe I’ll post up some pictures of the valve covers in the wounded Chevy small block I’m tearing apart. The valve covers look a lot like this Subaru, but the inside of the engine is perfectly spotless.
I’ve enjoyed the comments and banter. The responses are about what I suspected. As I said, I am completely satisfied with what I saw and don’t intend to change a thing. Cars don’t need to go to the junkyard with spotless engines. Around here they rot out before they wear out and this car is no exception. It’s starting to show its age everywhere else. The engine is not going to be what ends this cars life.
He was an electrical engineer for Boeing and is fastidious by nature, so I would expect very frequent changes. I also know he lived quite a ways from his work as he was always hyper conscious if fuel mileage. To the point Of irritation quite honestly. But he was single his whole life so he never had someone to help him throttle his own odd tendencies.
If I had to guess, the little bit on the valve covers is just a byproduct of them being cooler than the head. And running 10k miles on oil is bound to leave some deposits somewhere IMO.
Maybe I’ll post up some pictures of the valve covers in the wounded Chevy small block I’m tearing apart. The valve covers look a lot like this Subaru, but the inside of the engine is perfectly spotless.
I’ve enjoyed the comments and banter. The responses are about what I suspected. As I said, I am completely satisfied with what I saw and don’t intend to change a thing. Cars don’t need to go to the junkyard with spotless engines. Around here they rot out before they wear out and this car is no exception. It’s starting to show its age everywhere else. The engine is not going to be what ends this cars life.
I think it looks great for the miles and the use case. I ran my little EJ22 hard with 10k oci on mobile 1 back in the day. It consumed less when I moved to 10-30 instead of 5-30. It stayed slightly cleaner with that, but frankly, the engine is near spotless; only the valve cover has stuff on it. I’m not seeing any real cause for concern. If the arctic brand isn’t great, we can move to a better one….
Ok, either way there's an issue. Regarding Trop Arctic, I still think XOM and Pennzoil offerings are better. Super Tech is considered by many a very good oil, it is. But IMO there are better choices than that too. As far as the first 65K miles, that's unknown history which could very well be a contributing factor too, so we agree on that. That's something we will never know though. As always opinions vary.
Switch to HPL from now on, and in 100k pull the covers off again to see how spotless the entire thing is 😉
If I used oil that was $16/qt I would have to run it 25,000 miles for it to make sense.
I'm not pulling the valve covers ever again..... they weren't fun. I'm going to do the other one, but only because I'm afraid it is about to do the same thing the first one did.
I'm not pulling the valve covers ever again..... they weren't fun. I'm going to do the other one, but only because I'm afraid it is about to do the same thing the first one did.
I've done the EJ255 spark plug change out. Once I figured out one cylinder the rest were easy. No lifting of the engine off the mount or removal. Granted that was 4 in the same space as 6 now. 😅
looks good
It was a joke. As in not many know what real sludging looks like. And I call it very clean, that is nothing abnormal at all.
wwillson
Staff member
I know that, I was joking back.
Here’s the other side. It was leaking as well. Spark plugs were NGK irridum with about 60k on them. Probably had quite a bit of life in them but changed them out with some NGK g-power while I was in there.
drivers side is harder than the passenger side. The bottom bolt is a nightmare. Spent 30 minutes getting it out 1/60th of a turn at a time and another 30 minutes getting it back in 1/60th of a turn at a time.
drivers side is harder than the passenger side. The bottom bolt is a nightmare. Spent 30 minutes getting it out 1/60th of a turn at a time and another 30 minutes getting it back in 1/60th of a turn at a time.
Good work! Plugs look good. Looks like the engine is running well. Button it back up and drive it. Thanks for the photos.
Why would you use G-Powers?
They are inferior to the OE iridiums and won't last as long. 60k is probably the upper limit for G-Power, while iridium should be able to exceed 100k. Better yet, ruthenium might have been worth it, too, especially considering how difficult the job is on that car
The blue gaskets look cool
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