KZJonny

In case you do not/can not ready oily cardboard... I am calling this good. Exhaust lash is all set at about as high as I could without going over spec. Since I did a little grind and polish on all the exhaust valves, I expect them to close up a little, and I was always taught to set exhausts loose since as everything heats up, the lash closes up anyway. Although I suspect this is also why the gap is 0.30 to 0.40mm from factory. I do not care about the train being loud, so lots of lash is fine by me. Without buying more shims, this is as good as it gets. I feel okay about all the intake as well, since they are at very least uniform and within 0.02mm of each other. That is not a lot. As always, open to comment or other opinions, but this means I can call this done today and start closing up the valve covers, etc.... which is nice, if only for me.

Surely I’m not the only person to set valve lashes like this?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.... Not in the midwest, but I DID live in Oregon for a while as well as British Colombia. Being a car nerd in a big way, it was hard seeing how well everything survived out there, then having to come back home and look around at all the 10-12 year old cars that show rust all over sills + fenders. Enjoy that lovely clean wagon dude!

Got you. It wasn't mentioned in the original post, so I it seemed like the most obvious solution. It's probably something you can do yourself, rather than having it inspected by someone else, but IF the rad it pretty new then it likely isn't a problem. Was this done with a rad flush compound before replacing the coolant with new? Sometimes this is good, and other times it can free up scale and deposits and jam them in the radiator, causing a new rad to act like it has failed. Unlikely, but possible. Maybe the most obvious one is that these engines are pretty picky about thermostats. It is generally accepted that they are on the list of items that you really NEED to get from OEM Subaru. Other brands do not seem to do well. Also, just to say it, the little burp valve (hole) in the thermostat has to install on the top side. Probably done that way, but just in case.... might be worth checking?

Smoke screen? Machine guns?!

You’ve already done the peripheral work, how about the radiator itself. Often the welds between the cooling fins and coolant passages cab begin to degrade and separate without appearing to be bad. Might be worth a very close inspection to ensure they are still good. If the rad is original 2008, there is a good chance it is at the end of it’s life and just isn’t doing a good job of rejecting heat anymore.

Yet another person doing a head refresh + some valve lapping and now (of course) need some thinner lifter buckets. Is PM the best method? I am still working through exactly what I will need, but have a pretty good idea, and I am sure I can get away with what it on the spreadsheet, but that's going on a few years old now, so just figured I'd ask and keep my fingers crossed before either raiding a scrapyard, or going to the dealership and melting my wallet. Cheers!

100% not stock, whatever it does. Careful with that perhaps!

Lots of advice that will not work…. Get a haircut. Get a real job. Replace all rad hoses +turbo coolant lines + thermostat. If one was so old and rotten that it just burst under normal use, it’s not worth the gamble the others won’t follow along and leave you stranded or warp a head before you can get help, etc…. Probably a very good idea to consider replacing the turbo oil drain hose as well. They see lots of hot oil, and get fairly hard and leaky. Vacuum hoses, pcv hoses etc… all in order of descending importance. Most likely anything under the hood that is rubber should be replaced for a 05MY car.

Huh. So the reason I always though it was a dash-out thing was the supply hoses, becuase you need to pull them through the firewall. I won't discount this method, but i would be a little hesistant, just because if you bugger it up and can't get that seal again on the "new" core, you've ruined some expensive parts, but.... this is why JB weld is a thing, right?

Please let me/everyone know if that IS indeed possible when you get around to the install attempt. I was under the impression that the only way to get ours (BP/BL) out was essentially removing the dash and the HVAC box. I don't get heat on the passenger side of my OBW, and I know this is because of the heater core "far side" getting jammed up with who knows what. Backflushing was minimally successful. I don't care all that much right now, since I got another winter beater for the moment, but when I get around to selling eithe the Yaris or the Outback, that stuff has to work. Or maybe I don't care by then, we shall see, but I don't like things being broken, even if they aren't things I use much.

I don't remember how stickler you are for things being OEM, but I will say that the Spectra fuel tank I got from Rock Auto was totally fine. Well put together and a perfect fit. Significantly less expensive than getting the OE version of the same thing. I buy OE parts where I think they are warranted, but in this case, I couldn't justify the extra spend.

If your heater core ever goes bad/gets gunked, this is a pretty good deal. By the time you've dug THAT out of the car, you might just as well get a new everything. Replacing just the actuators requires tiny hands and all, but is possible without taking out the entire dash. Heater core, not so much luck...

VERY clean for the age and miles. I bet that's hardly a project and just a general maintenance car, but you never know. I see things like that come up around here (tho never as clean) from time to time, and price would be similar. Reasonable for what you're gettting. No matter how nice and clean a car is tho, I can never convince myself to pull the trigger on an automatic. I'm actively looking for a manual bug eye/hawkeye Impreze or Outback/Legacy in manual so I can finally move on my AT Outback... Haha! I like that car for being reliable and non-turbo and being able to fit all sorts of junk into it, but every time I move the gear selector to "D" and.... that's it. It really takes some wind our of my sails.

The air oil separator takes the place of the PCV more or less, but I'll clean the existing one anyway if it is not removed. Good idea. I should flush the new fuel lines as well anyway. No idea what might be in them after removal and being shipped across the continent. Nope, there was an IAG pickup/windage tray combo on sale around black Friday. Been sitting on a shelf for a while, but it is already installed and just waiting for me to clean up the mating surfaces on the oil pal and block to reinstall. (with stainless steel bolts and lock washers, so they will never corrode again....) Thanks for reading through and commenting man! I really do want to know if there are things I should be doing that I'm not. Added to the list of "to do's". That one is at least an easy win.

Yeah man! I know you do most things DIY as well, so in this particular case, I figured maybe you can learn from my recent experience. If I were to do it again, I might go the full monty and have the seats cut or replaced and the valves matched. At least if I were doing a new SB, I definitely would. I spent hours going over the pros and cons of home grinding an lapping, and decided that for what at worst would be having to either A) readjust lash sooner than normal because hand lapped valved seem to bed in faster and a little more than machine cut valves and/or B) get a shorter life out of the headwork and have to pull it again at some point down the road becuase the seat surfaces aren't perfect, etc.... These are consequemces I am willing to live with, given that my bench testing suggets that the valves are sealing better now than when I removed the heads, and I did not grind the seat area to wider than specs. Lots of people have been doing worse things to engines for a long time and running trouble free without having everything done at a machine shop. I have 1 x set of spare heads, but I am now a little paranoid and think they are going to be my basis for a longer term project to get them back to like-new condition, new seats + seals + valve matching etc... So that when the day does come I need to do anything further with my current ones, I will have a fully dressed set sitting on the shelf totally ready for install. There is another EJ255 in the bone yard just across town from me. If you decide you DO want a set of heads as spares, reach out, DM, whatever. If there is nothing closer to you, or nobody coming to the ECM has some they can spare, I would be willing to go pull them and pass them along at cost. + maybe some beer from your neck of the woods or whatever. Pricing in CAD: (+tax etc...) NAME PRICE (STARTING AT) CORE Console - Overhead (no electronics) / Console - Plafond (pas d'electroniques) $34.99 $0.00 Cylinder Head / Culasse $121.79 $23.50

SO, having just kind of done a head refresh on mine (maching shop decked the mating surface) I did a valve lap + polish, valve seals, general cleanup, carbon removal and will have to adjust at least all exhaust valve buckets, upon reassembly. Intakes all measure up fine etc.... All that to say, for an experienced DIY'er but not someone who has done much work on heads, that was a solid 3-4 evenings, all night to get that done. Since you've been burning heaps of oil for quite a long time, I would expect (based on what I just learned) that a DIY job for you is going to be a maximum effort kind of thing, assuming the carbon buildup is pretty bad. The possibility of damaged seats and burned valves from carbon deposits is most likely a real thing. You won't know until you open things up, but it might not hurt to get those compression/leakdown numbers sooner than later and if they don't look good, consider keeping your eyes open for a spare set of heads. Either as parts donors, or potentially to get rebuilt in advance of the refresh project, just so you have them ready to go, and are not waiting on a maching shop to assess and repair your current ones. Or, one worse, to find they are not easily salvaged and then have to go looking for another set when you'd rather be putting your engine back together....

Weather is decent, and I am alone at home for the weekend. I think it is reasonable to say that I can start putting the thing back together soon. Maybe even have a (mainly) intact engine by the end of the weekend. Since I am already neck deep in this thing, I figure I might as well ask if there is anything else that comes to mind that needs doing... I have already done, or will do the following with this "refresh" turned everything but bottom end rebuild... -studs and OE head gaskets -heads are machined and flat -valve stem seals -valve lap and polish, which will mean going back through all the valve lashes upon reassembly -TGV cleanup & removal of butterfly flaps -cam seals + rear cam bore caps (half moon seals) -oil pickup & windage tray -general replacement of rusted and corroded bolts/fasteners -installed electrical oil pressure adaptor bung at rear oil galley; actual pickup will be installed towards the end of everything to avoid damaging someting expensive during install -any vacuum lines not replaced last year will get replaced now -heat wrap tube for front/lower coolant crossover pipe -same heat wrap applied to front O2 sensor wiring, which runs scarily close to the EL headers -new plugs, one step cooler, since they are a better price, and it doesn't matter -new valve cover gaskets -pretty sure I have a rear main seal kicking around somewhere.... probably install that -Spec Stage 1 clutch kit + resurfaced Exedy lightened flywheel -new OEM clutch fork -Verus clutch fork SS pivot -group N engine mounts -throttle body coolant warming loop delete -IAG OAS install (yeah, yeah, yeah... I drank the koolaid okay? I already have it, and it isn't going to hurt anything.) -new exhaust studs -new/used OE fuel rails + injector o-rings + fuel hose to connect them all up + @jaylew fastener delete under the manifold + point all clamps in a direction that can be reached while the engine is installed, etc... I am thinking that perhaps I should/could do some of the following -remove and clean throttle body butterfly? I have no idea what the backside looks like.... need to get a new gasket... meh. -sand paint coolant metal tube while they are off (POR 15 and done...) -flush and top up clutch system fluid while it is easy to get at? -IF the pinions seals on the rack can be replaced IN CAR, I may do this while the bay is empty? Probably doable, and easier than doing it from below later? Very slow leak, which is ignorable, but you know..... So, since I've already get enough work to keep me busy for a month of weekends, anyone that's been following along care to tell me what I am missing? Anything glaring that I am overlooking?

Awesome. Maybe just needs the grounding points cleaned up? Fingers crossed!

Kinda looks missing, but maybe this will help?

Bad timing since my engine got itself exploded all over my garage, but +1 to the above. Super easy to see/find. If the above described little aluminium arm isn’t there with two burly wires attached, something is very wrong. I’ll see if I can find the parts and at least get a photo of them as parts….

Last set. My frikkin hands are about to fall off, hah! Final touch up on the LHS then on to the last one. Having done alL of this, I now understand better why people specifically just get the seats cut by a machinist. Or, just drop off the heads entirely and just pick them up once done. Still, I would do this again. It’s the kind of thing I find rewarding, even if very time consuming.

Sounds like the perfect time to install the Deutschwerks (or take your pick of brands... or make your own...) heavy duty fuel pump wiring + relay kit. It deletes the factory location (annoying!) relay and provides a high quality Bosch relay in it's place, plus 10 gauge wiring all the way from the battery to the pump. Since it still uses the stock fuel controller, you still have pump voltage stepping, and are not running at 100% pump all the time, but you will get better voltage to the pump without it going through all the 12/14 gauge wiring it normally does.....

Bottom is lapped, and top is clearly not. Did both for that one cylinder, and surprise surprise, it doesn’t leak at all. Great seal. So, I guess I know what I’m doing the rest of this evening, and probably the next….. coz you know I’m going to pull apart the other head and do those as well, right? *le sigh* ….. just gonna slap in studs and new head gaskets right? Right.

Head is fine, yeah. It's just a little weeping. In all seriousness, the heads are already probably better than they were when I removed them from the engine, and the mating surface is definitely flat now. It's one of those, "I'm already in here and doing work, I'm going to do it right while I have it apart" sort of things. Decent chance the valves and seats would mate up tight at they heat and hammer into each other while running normally, but for the sake of a few more hours of work. I'll just make them super clean now and forget about it. Of course, all of the intakes look perfect and seal just fine. I do really appreciate that about port injection. Being able to adapt some GR86 D45 heads to our cars would be the cats ass, but I doubt anyone is going to bother doing something at all like that any time soon. Hah!