blown subie head gasket

RodneyWright · **Posted:** Mon Nov 08, 2010 7:09 pm

had to rescue my son once again for a downed subaru. As far as I can tell, the head gasket is blown on the drivers side. Whole left side under the hood was coated in oil along w/ everything under the car. Once I got the battery charged up again, I tried to crank it. I'm getting 2 compression hits and then a partial turn w/ no resistance. Also low in antifreeze, so I'm assuming that's my problem.

How hard is it to pull the heads on a 2.2 liter motor? Do I need any special tools to take this apart and reassemble? This may be a little easier than replacing the whole motor. This is a 98 Legacy L AWD automatic.

KouroshNeshat · **Posted:** Mon Nov 08, 2010 7:46 pm

your best bet is to pull the motor. those heads (assuming you'll probably swap both headgaskets?) will be a pain to take off and on with the motor in the car, especially if its your first time. its possible, but ive read online that a lot of folks just pull the motor. plus, at the same time you can do a timing belt job on it and rear main seal if there's any leaks.

heck, i hated taking the valve covers off with the motor in the car.

sucks about the car though. how many miles? thats a common subaru issue.

Rays subaru is having issues, and the subaru i bought a while back had same headgasket problem too. im in the process of rebuilding it though as we speak. real simple motors to work on.

not sure how much time you have to do this, but if it can sit, take the motor out and refresh it a bit. if not, then you can get the head off quick.
just take the radiator off to give you room to take the crank/timing belt and such off. ive heard of people taking the head off easily, but putting it on is a little harder since its vertical and you've got a gasket that needs to seat.

buy a 6 pack. and get to work!

RodneyWright · **Posted:** Mon Nov 08, 2010 8:47 pm

wow, pulling the motor would be easier said than done. No lift and no room. Sucks the best way to do this is pull the motor. Not really an option. If I'm going to pull a motor, I'd rather replace it. This one has 226k miles on it.

gunna have to think on this one....

KouroshNeshat · **Posted:** Mon Nov 08, 2010 8:54 pm

226k. Hmmm. If it was me, I'd just swap motors.

If it's the same 2.2 that's in some imprezas then theyre pretty common around some of the forums. Check rs25.com or nasioc to see what's out there.

Arthur McDonald · **Joined:** Fri Aug 29, 2003 1:54 am **Posts:** 2052

Check with Bob Kendrick. Maybe he can figure out how to squeeze an LT1 in there. Of course, some other minor mods may be necessary

MikeWhitney · **Joined:** Wed Aug 20, 2003 9:15 pm **Posts:** 4724

I'm gonna go ahead and guess that there won't even be enough room to take the headbolts out with the engine in place. So it would be a half-assed job, and you don't want to do a half-assed job on head gaskets....

If you decide to pull the motor, it would probably be about the easiest one around. Lift not required, just a hoist. I'm sure that someone practiced could have it out in 2 hours or so.

Steven Carter · **Posted:** Mon Nov 08, 2010 11:50 pm

I have a hoist you're welcome to borrow if it comes to it. And a spare set of hands...and tools...and beer.

jus sayin'

JamesMilko · **Posted:** Mon Nov 08, 2010 11:54 pm

Same here, I also have a stand you could use. Hopefully the motors can stay in my cars till next winter.

George Bright · **Posted:** Thu Nov 11, 2010 2:31 pm

I pulled the 1600 wet sleve motor out of Jim Anderson's Subie by leaning over and grabbing it by the valve covers. I was also 25 years younger too then.

Art I think Bob would try to do a Northstar transplant on the Subie.

RodneyWright · **Posted:** Thu Nov 11, 2010 3:03 pm

ok, I've decided to go the cheap route on this and only replace the head gaskets. Need some advice as to anything else I need to buy gasket wise when I start digging into this beast.

I'm assuming the following in respect to pulling the motor.

> lift car and secure on jack stands
> remove radiator and associated hoses
> decouple all connectors and label liberally
> remove tires, brakes and axles as needed
> decouple rear drive shaft
> lift out engine and tranny as one unit
> drain all old oil
> secure motor and pull valve covers & heads
> clean and reassemble
> reinstall

Anything else I'm missing? Any gotchas I need to look our for? I'd appreciate any advice. Anyone know the torque values I need to use on the head bolts?

Vincent Keene · **Posted:** Thu Nov 11, 2010 3:17 pm

First question:

Why did the headgasket blow?

Second question:

What happens when the head is warped and you put in a new gasket?

A blown headgasket is like a blown fuse. If you just replace it with a new one you haven't really fixed anything.

JamesMilko · **Posted:** Thu Nov 11, 2010 3:24 pm

Drain your trans fluid before you pull out the driveshaft. I'd also drain the oil pre-pull in case something happens to the oil pan.

Aaron Buckley · **Posted:** Thu Nov 11, 2010 3:27 pm

For most cars I've worked on, re-using head bolts is like re-using a condom... - AB

RodneyWright · **Posted:** Thu Nov 11, 2010 3:48 pm

Vincent Keene wrote:

First question:

Why did the headgasket blow?

Second question:

What happens when the head is warped and you put in a new gasket?

A blown headgasket is like a blown fuse. If you just replace it with a new one you haven't really fixed anything.

It's my understanding that head gaskets are common failure points on these engines. But that does bring up a good point. Do I have to get these heads redecked or can I just put it back on. I really don't want to dump a ton of bucks into this car.

RodneyWright · **Posted:** Thu Nov 11, 2010 3:54 pm

Aaron Buckley wrote:

For most cars I've worked on, re-using head bolts is like re-using a condom... - AB

understand, but I have reused head bolts w/ no issues on the few head gasket jobs I've worked on in the past.

THSCC Forums

blown subie head gasket

Who is online