tdelker

Totally! I'm not suggesting do it with the $100 smoke machine and a separate home-made pressure test is going to give the same ease of results and I understand shop rates have a lot wrapped up it in. I don't begrudge it at all. A good shop is worth the money!

No-go on the rebuilt. He doesn't have any housings for the VF-54.

There are smoke machines on amazon for $100. I plan on doing this as if I find something, I need to probably get a gasket, then retest. Pretty soon you are over the cost of the machine. If you want the shop to do the work, probably easier to just let them find AND fix the leaks. For full pressure, I am going to try to build something that attaches do the turbo (I have a gen 5 GT so front mounting makes this easier) and pressurize to 14 psi and look for a leak slower than 1 psi/sec. If its higher, try to listen to find it and plug it. To be fair, I've never done either, but I also had never pulled an engine or installed a head until a few weeks ago, and that went well!

Cost free solution to check this is to remove the thermostat all together and see how it does. You can just catch the coolant and put it right back in (try to keep it clean). I've never actually had a stuck thermostat but it is possible. So I'll downgrade to 99% sure its head gaskets

Drive it as little as possible for as short of distances as possible. Top off coolant before starting. Best if you squeeze the top hose to make sure you work out any large air pockets. No additive is going to help. The compression chamber is leaking in to the coolant passages hence the puking of coolant. Nothing will be able to handle plugging that much pressure. Tom

100% head gaskets. You will definitely need to get the heads resurfaced. I would guess about $200/head, but that's just a guess. I had my heads rebuilt for $700 ea on the DOHC. The SOHC will be less. You can do the work yourself if you know your way around a wrench. Either pull the engine or not. It's about 5 days worth of work with a break in after day 2 to take the heads somewhere. About $500 in parts for seals, gaskets, timing belt kit, etc. You might be able to get away with less if you really want to. About $200 in tools as you will find a few things you want to buy.

I didn't. The system is very good at telling you when one of them isn't working through codes and it's not that hard to get to any of them. You might have to remove the intake to get to the intake cam position sensor. All the rest are very easy to get to. (I think the knock is fairly easy to get to, but I didn't look that closely at it. It's under the intercooler at the rear though.)

The passenger side has the valves closed when the timing marks are aligned, so there is nothing pushing them. On the driver's side the valves are partially open so the spring wants to push the cams around. Read the long timing belt thread, good stuff in there. A few quick notes: 1) Removing the cam pulley to get to the seal is *very* challenging. 1000 ftlb electric impact failed for me. My suggestion - only do it if they are leaking. If they are, be prepared to drill the head off or use an extractor that fits on the outside of the head. 2) Water pump isn't necessary to change and can lead to more problems so I would leave it. 3) gates N kits are the 'good' bearings. On amazon and or rock auto for best price. 4) Get the factory service manual and follow the steps. They are good. 5) Some of the lines on the belt are on a 'tooth' and some are on a 'valley'. This is by design. The factory service manual will call out how many teeth or 1/2 teeth between lines. Count to be sure. They you can just line up the belt lines with the cam lines and not worry too much about the time cover lines. 6) Have a way to bleed the tensioner identified. I held it in my vice and used a c-clamp with a razor blade between the shaft and the c-clamp to keep it from spinning with the c-clamp. 7) The bottom roller goes on last. 100% make sure it is lined up with the hole. If you try to leverage it on with the bolt you will cross thread in the aluminum and have a challenge on your hands. I had my son come out and I got the roller lined up and he started the bolt. 8. Don't stress too much about rotating the cams. When the crank is lined up at 'TDC' all 4 cylinders are in mid-stroke, so you won't hit a piston by opening the valves. You just don't want to have both exhaust and intake fully open or they *might* hit. So as long as you are only moving one at a time, you won't cause damage.

Valley Subaru in Colorado got me my PCV valve assembly to block hose. Mine was cracked and might have been part of the issue. I was nervous because I thought it would be hard to find, but they had one in 3 days. Buy the clic or clic-r tool to undo those hose clamps. They are odd. Much easier to do the replacement with the intake off, but you can do it with the intake on.

I assume the kit is for the model of the vehicle? That would mean the turbos always get MLS. Having just done this on my 2010 LGT, I didn't have any 1/2 moon seals on my cams. It was valve cover gasket, spark plug hole gasket, cam seals and some ultra gray where the manual called for it (cam covers and scavenger pump where they mate to the head and then also around the valve cover seal on the curves. I guess as a 'backup'). Must be different on different heads. I have 25E on my castings? Hmmm... Maybe I missed this. I didn't notice them, but they likely where there. Hope they don't start leaking! Looking at the parts diagram for the head, it appears 2010GTs don't have 1/2 moons but rather a full plug that screws in/out and can be replaced without going in to the valve cover. I wonder what the 2008XTs have... Ah, parts diagram clearly shows 1/2 moons there. Phew, glad I didn't miss something!

Good job! Those things are always what seem to slow the main work down!

Finished putting it back together after a burnt #4 exhaust valve. Started up - P0345, but just a loose connector (can't believe I did that!). All lights off now and no obvious leaks. To do: 1) Get injectors sent out for cleaning and testing to ensure they weren't the cause. 2) Smoke test (gotta buy a machine) to ensure not large leaks 3) Pressure test intake to ensure it's not related to that

Engine runs, no codes! (now) Finished putting it all back together today. Forgot to put the heat shield on the drivers side on before installing the exhaust manifold so fought to get 2 screws in out of the three. Should have paid closer attention to the FSM, it clearly said to install it earlier. I didn't want to pull it as there are numerous crush seals in there (to the heads and to the turbo oil catch can). But it's on there good. First start I got P0345. Dang it! Bank 2 (Drivers) sensor A (Intake). A check of the connector, and it wasn't on tight. I swore I wouldn't do that! But after that it was fine. Drove it about 10 miles, no codes, no problems. Still want to do injector cleaning, a smoke test and finally a pressure test to make sure that whatever caused the issue in the first case isn't still there. I'm not sure about the turbo. THere was a small amount of shaft play (not sure how much is too much - it wasn't hitting anything) and some oil in the intake and exhaust. $1200 for a new one. I think I'll play close attention and if I hear and sound, I'll jump on replacing it.

There is always the $75 1000 ft-lb electric impact wrench from harbor freight. Worked for my pulley but not the cams. when you put the cams on the torque is 45 degrees after 50 ft-lbs or something like that. Super hard to get the full 45!

You can get a key cut for cheap to unlock the door. The chip in the key for the immobilizer is the expensive part and if you don't have another key already programmed, you will have to pay a lock smith to program one for you. Call and ask how much. You can buy them on ebay. It sounds like all you need though is the mechanical key cut to open the door when you get to your takeout if the key is inside the vehicle that will be used for starting the car. You can even buy the FOB on ebay and program it to the car youself, so you have a key and fob. But it can't start the car without the immoblizer chip. Watch this to get an idea of what the chip in the key is:

I believe the most common cause of that noise is the large hose between the intercooler and the intake have a small gap in it and at high boost it causes a noise. Might want to look there and refit and retighten that interface.

PS The pin in my cam came out with my cam gear and the cam gear hole was rounded out so I needed to get a new cam gear. Make sure to inspect them. The cam gear was $200. The new one fit tight, the old one moved back and forth when installed (it should be a good tight pin to set timing).

That will work for the crank. I just use a large gorilla pry bar against 2 3/8" racket extension put in the holes of the OEM crank pully. The other option is to use the 'starter bump' technique if its still in the car. It's scary but works great. I've done that a few times. You are right to tackle those cam's right away. Wow, they are tough! Most people who can't get it out with a long pry bar and some way to hold the cam (timing belt trick or the company 23 tool) will drill the bolt head off. That's the easy way. The bolts are cheap from the dealer to buy as replacements.

Well done! If I had seen this before I did my heads, I might have gone this route! I don't have a local JDM option here in Colorado, so would have to rely on shipping. Did you swap over the Cams sprockets and all sensors as well? Or just use the JDM ones? Any differences in valve covers? I've heard they are different and you need JDM seals, not USDM. Tom

Thanks Silverton. I saw some old threads about witch hunter and them being expensive. But given today's pricing, that's less than a single injector. Do you have to pull the intake off or can you get to them with the intake on?

What are people doing to figure out if they have a 'weak' injector? I can't seem to find a troubleshoot step to do this short of sending the injector off for test. Any hints? I want to make sure I don't end up with a burnt exhaust valve again... Tom

I got a service manual, that part is cheap and easy. The info on the web is really scattered, but it seems there are so many difference with the JDM, that it's not as easy as swapping on harnessing. Given my failure (Burnt #4), the cost of a head rebuild was close enough to the JDM, that I decided to go with the head rebuild and avoid a research project on the JDM. I never saw anyone that has done a direct swap for a 2010-2012 LGT with a JDM. I'm super curious if anyone has done it. The rest of my engine work is captured here:

Well after more research, it appears people were correct, the JDM isn't a drop in replacement. It's hard to find that information, as it's all scattered around. But from what I have been told there are so many difference, and given my failure (exhaust valve burnt on #4) I opted to rebuild the heads for about the same price as the JDM replacement. Yes, the short block is still older, but at least I don't have all the headaches of an engine that I can't get parts for and having to get it tuned, and who know what else I would have stumbled on. Both heads rebuilt = $1400 by super rupair in Boulder, CO. I should have shopped around more, but they could do them in the week, and they are very local, which made it easy. Parts were about $500 for gaskets, etc that are needed. New timing belt (I have about 55k on mine) TCK328N from amazon at $200 (I was going to reuse it but I reconsidered, but needed to get it in a rush so paid a premium. Cheap options on there for the same gates kit). I have a leak in the small 3-way hose that connects the PCV valve to the engine so I need to replace that. Local shop was thinking that a PCV leak could cause the burnt exhaust valve. Not sure I understand that, but it make me look closer as to why there was so much oil by the PCV and found that. Engine back in the car but waiting on that hose and didn't have enough time to finish this weekend. Total time so far is 4 pretty full days. Probably have 1 day left assuming it goes as planned. This was my first time pulling an engine and taking heads off, so a lot of learning for me. I am anxious to see if I did it right! I probably should get a smoke test done to ensure I don't have any other issues that could cause #4 to run lean and while I'm at it a conservative tune. I'll work on that once it's back up . Tom

Phew, big job! My number 4 just came up with no compression (2010 GT). Was going to put in a JDM, but got scared off by all the take about AVCS not matching etc. So now thinking head rebuild. Shop suggestion? Not sure where you are, I'm in Colorado, boulder area. Thanks! Tom

Starting a new thread. My old engine has no compression on cyc 4 so I'm going to swap in a JDM engine. Anyone have a tutorial? Parts list for gaskets or anything new? Preferred JDM supplier? Thanks! Tom