Troubleshooting after head gaskets

[Stphnhrrng]

Hey guys, I have an 08 legacy EJ253 SOHC that had bad head gaskets. I pulled the engine myself, tore it down and changed head gaskets, sent heads into a machine shop and he did a pressure test, vac test, made sure valves sealed correctly, resurfaced them for the gaskets, and pulled and redid cam seals. I changed all gaskets I came across during teardown. Intake mani, exhaust mani, valve cover, etc, etc. I got it all put back together last night and turned it to the on position a couple times to get fuel back to the injectors, and heard a little hiss, started it anyway. It started up and runs fine and smooth. Except there’s a few problems, two of the injectors are leaking fuel now, which I realized later I didn’t put oil on the o rings as I slid them in the fuel rail, so I’m going to have to pull them, clean them and try again. Or if I can find out what size the o rings for the fuel rail and the lower rings are I’ll buy new ones. Second problem, from maybe one of the pumps/pulleys on the belts or maybe the belts themselves there is a suuuper shitty rattling noise, can’t really describe it very well. I’m hoping it’s not something hitting the timing cover, maybe the belts are too tight and the pulleys are having a hard time, I’m not sure (Also, A/C system is empty, haven’t filed it yet but I’ve never heard an A/C compressor sound like that from being empty). But most importantly for me, when I step on the clutch to start the car, it feels nothing like it used to. It’s really soft, and goes down really easily, and the only pressure I really feel much of is at the very bottom. I replaced the throwout bearing, the clutch and the pressure plate (Sachs from rock auto) but I’m really scared I’m going to have to get back in the bell housing. I don’t believe we bled or opened any of the clutch lines, is there anything you guys can think of that I should check for the clutch just shy of pulling the engine back out? I’m super bummed out that it’s like this after all the time and money spent fixing it. Thank you. Edited April 24, 2021 by Stphnhrrng

[apexi]

Have you tried driving, does it shift okay and drive normally? For me personally, a really soft clutch pedal doesn't scream problem if the car shifts and drives normal, but I don't know if you've driven it yet. I'm also curious to hear what the others say.

 

Did you pull the clutch fork off the pivot ball, and feel it snap back over the pivot ball when you put it back? I feel your pain in a way after pulling my engine to replace my clutch a few weeks ago, and I don't think I cleaned the new flywheel or pressure plate well enough because it was slipping and shuddering, so I really thought I'd have to pull it again to redo it, but things are looking up and smoothing out. You did a lot more work than me though, so I know I can't complain. Anyway, back on topic..

 

For those reading this, I recommended the SACHS KF73804 in the link below, which I stand by 100% for his non-turbo. The kit comes with the oversized release bearing and repair sleeve that he was looking for, and at a reasonable price. I have pictures from that kit that I purchased myself and returned (bought just in case my input shaft was worn, and it wasn't), I've been meaning to cross reference the pressure plate and friction disc part numbers with the regular SACHS KF73802 kit, but the sachs websites are horrible..

https://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog/subaru,2008,legacy,2.5l+h4,1440455,transmission-manual,clutch+kit,1993

 

Rattling noise, I would make sure that the AC pulley in my first attached picture is not rubbing against the timing belt cover. It will be very close to the cover, but it should not be touching. In the second picture, you can see the AC pulley bracket, and the bolt that goes though the pulley. The bolt has a funny shape, the rectangle must be vertically aligned so that it fits through that bracket. On the front of the bolt there is a line, if the line is going up and down, you're good there.

 

Lastly, just out of curiosity, I wonder if your slave cylinder looks the same as mine, as seen in picture 3. I wonder if you have roughly the same amount of pin visible and stuff.

Edit: Wonder if you installed a new timing belt tensioner, and if it's knocking a little bit. That sits right under the AC compressor. I think gates recommends bleeding their aftermarket ones to prevent knocking after installation, but I forget. found it, link

Edited April 24, 2021 by apexi

[Stphnhrrng]

Tbh I haven’t tried actually driving it yet, it was smoking, (probably because a number of fluids leaked onto the exhaust manifold when pulling the engine) and the injectors were spraying fuel out, didn’t want it to catch fire or anything so I shut it off after a few seconds. And I only pushed the top of clutch fork towards the firewall enough to slide the throwout bearing off the input shaft, but it went right back in place afterwards. The throwout bearing was sitting a little closer to the engine than before so I pulled the top of the fork forward to make sure it went back smoothly, (In doing so the slave cylinder piston got compressed), and I was later told by a friend of mine that he’s had a slave cylinder go out simply from the throwout bearing being pushed in when putting the engine back in his car, so I’m hoping I didn’t break it when I did that. Going to go take a look at it here in a little bit, I’ll check to see how it looks, and see if it moves right away when I press the clutch, maybe try and bleed it or something. And I did not install a new tensioner, (Should I have?) it was working fine before, so I slowly compressed the tensioner with a C-clamp, pushed a drill bit in the pin hole by hand, and re-installed it, then got the timing lined up with the belt on, re-installed a couple little pulleys and then pulled the drill bit out. I was wondering if the rattling or knocking was a timing pulley, or any pulley hitting the timing cover, cause that’s kinda what I imagine it would sound like. But I’ll try looking at that stuff when I head down there after I eat. Thank you for the help!!

 

Edit, I did order the Sachs kit with the sleeve and oversized bearing, but the old sleeve on there had the tiniest allen set screws I’ve ever seen, didn’t have one small enough to remove it. (At least I think it was an allen, was covered in grease and couldn’t see it very well). The old sleeve was still smooth and not worn or anything so I left it on there, cleaned all the grease off and use some copper anti-seize on the sleeve and on the fork where the slave cylinder pushes. Don’t think that’s really important but figured I’d let you know anyways.

Edited April 25, 2021 by Stphnhrrng

[apexi]

My upper radiator hose was leaking after reinstall, and a bunch of coolant spilled onto my exhaust manifold. I was surprised by just how much coolant could smoke, so I hear you there. I didn't comment on the injectors because I don't know anything about them at all.

 

A new tensioner is not necessary, it sounds like what you did should be fine.

 

Here's a picture of what my old throw out bearing looked like, where it was sitting

https://legacygt.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=291501&d=1619364680

 

Keep us posted

[Stphnhrrng]

So I drove it, clutch works fine aside from the weird travel. Push the clutch pedal down the first 75% and it moves the slave cylinder about 1/2”, push the pedal down the other 25% and it moves the slave cylinder another 1”~, but it seems to work fine aside from that. The leaky injectors were deformed O-rings. The rattle is still there though, sounds almost like a loose nut/bolt rolling/rattling around under the timing cover. I popped the small section of timing cover off but couldn’t see much, the noise did get louder though. I’m going to see if I can upload a video to youtube and link it here real quick

 

Here:

Edited April 26, 2021 by Stphnhrrng

[apexi]

You weren't kidding, it does sound exactly like a nut or bolt rattling around in there. I hate to say it, but I'd probably want to take off the rest of the timing belt cover to make sure nothing is in there, and possibly bouncing off the smooth idler on the bottom left side. Maybe just double check to make sure all the pulleys are tight too. I know it's a pain since you have to take off the crank pulley, but it beats something kicking up into your timing belt and ruining the engine. There are a lot of people much smarter than me on here though, so I'm curious to hear what they say.

[Stphnhrrng]

You weren't kidding, it does sound exactly like a nut or bolt rattling around in there. I hate to say it, but I'd probably want to take off the rest of the timing belt cover to make sure nothing is in there, and possibly bouncing off the smooth idler on the bottom left side. Maybe just double check to make sure all the pulleys are tight too. I know it's a pain since you have to take off the crank pulley, but it beats something kicking up into your timing belt and ruining the engine. There are a lot of people much smarter than me on here though, so I'm curious to hear what they say.

 

Well I followed your advice and I bit the bullet and redid the timing. Much more of a pain in the ass when it’s in the car. But turns out I forgot to bolt down the guard that bolts on above the crank. Little curved metal piece that’s supposed to guard the belt and prevent it from skipping was just floating there bouncing around. So I’m glad I did. Everything seems to work fine now, after I asked you those questions about the A/C on another post I did mine, and it works good but sometimes the A/C will cycle between blowing super cold air and just below room temp air, cycles maybe once per minute or so. As far as I can tell it doesn’t change depending on my RPM’s, maybe (MAYBE) blows a little colder while driving at highway speeds but not sure what could be causing it. I didn’t wanna overfill so I put a 12oz can of 134a in, so it’s about an oz. short, don’t know if that’s enough to do it or not. Also the clutch travel seems to have broken in and gone back to normal so that’s good. Idk if you saw my thread about the cylinder 2 misfire, but after changing everything in that thread, changing head gaskets, and after the machine shop cleaned the carbon that was holding cylinder 2 exhaust valves open, I thought for sure the misfire would go away. But lo and behold, my check engine light came back on for the cylinder 2 misfire. Including the $1,000~ for changing the head gaskets, I’m about $2,500 in trying to figure it out. Unless anybody has any bright ideas I’ve basically given up, it drives and sounds good, I just want the CEL to go away

[apexi]

That's really strange, I missed some of the things you mentioned, really crummy that the cel came back. I'm stumped on the misfire

 

About the AC, unfortunately I'm not really sure about that. My AC performance stinks and my compressor will cycle between cold and room temp air too. I remember having subaru recharge the system a couple years ago with no change.

 

A manifold gauge set is really a great tool to really see what is going on with your AC system, how high and low the pressures are going. I have noticed with my ac system that green dye seems to be puking out from the front of my AC compressor, the shaft seal maybe? So that may be to blame for my poor ac performance, maybe yours too with the age of our cars.

 

I also forgot to mention one thing in the other thread, but I didn't want to bump it again and possibly annoy people just for this. Another advantage to using a vacuum pump, in addition to getting out moisture, is to get any air out of the system, so that there is only refrigerant in the system. I guess regular air doesn't compress well or something, and can mess with your AC performance. The good news is, I think (again, ac newbie here) it is very hard to hurt the system with too much refrigerant, there is a pressure relief valve that should kick in if the pressure gets too high, I think the system can tolerate a lot of pressure.

 

It was a pain in the butt, but it's good to hear that you found what was rattling around under the timing belt cover. It would not be good if one of the two bolts, or if the metal belt guide had come off, and gone into your timing belt or something, or if that could damage your belt bouncing up and down. (Edit: I wouldn't be worried at all about the short time you heard it, I meant damage over time if it had gone unchecked)

Edited April 29, 2021 by apexi

[Stphnhrrng]

That's really strange, I missed some of the things you mentioned, really crummy that the cel came back. I'm stumped on the misfire

 

About the AC, unfortunately I'm not really sure about that. My AC performance stinks and my compressor will cycle between cold and room temp air too. I remember having subaru recharge the system a couple years ago with no change.

 

A manifold gauge set is really a great tool to really see what is going on with your AC system, how high and low the pressures are going. I have noticed with my ac system that green dye seems to be puking out from the front of my AC compressor, the shaft seal maybe? So that may be to blame for my poor ac performance, maybe yours too with the age of our cars.

 

I also forgot to mention one thing in the other thread, but I didn't want to bump it again and possibly annoy people just for this. Another advantage to using a vacuum pump, in addition to getting out moisture, is to get any air out of the system, so that there is only refrigerant in the system. I guess regular air doesn't compress well or something, and can mess with your AC performance. The good news is, I think (again, ac newbie here) it is very hard to hurt the system with too much refrigerant, there is a pressure relief valve that should kick in if the pressure gets too high, I think the system can tolerate a lot of pressure.

 

It was a pain in the butt, but it's good to hear that you found what was rattling around under the timing belt cover. It would not be good if one of the two bolts, or if the metal belt guide had come off, and gone into your timing belt or something, or if that could damage your belt bouncing up and down. (Edit: I wouldn't be worried at all about the short time you heard it, I meant damage over time if it had gone unchecked)

 

Yeah I bought an A/C manifold gauge set from Harbor Freight, and rented a vac pump from autozone. Worked pretty good. I saw on a youtube video that ‘05-‘09 subaru’s have a lot smaller A/C compressor and less refrigerant capacity so they aren’t as strong. I’ll just keep an eye on it. Is there a way to get like a tuner or something to turn off the misfire code? At this point I’m not sure what it could possibly be besides a glitchy ECU or bad EGR or something. Or maybe is there a way to turn up the idle a little? Mine usually idles around 600-700 which I don’t mind but it usually only misfires at idle and when I press the gas to get it to 800~ it runs noticeably smoother

Edited May 1, 2021 by Stphnhrrng

[apexi]

Where are you from? Wonder if there's a good indie mechanic that someone knows nearby.

 

I'm still very suspicious of the plug wires, as mentioned with the pic in the link below, and since they don't snap into the coil pack, and since the metal part sits back further on the coil end. I would try to visualize where the metal part sits in relation to the coil pack, to get an idea of how far the spark has to go. I also remember when I tried ngk wires back in 2014, they kept sliding off the coil pack. I know what you might be thinkin, but why a misfire on just one cylinder, I'm not sure. I think from your other posts, I remember reading it bounced between cylinders 2 and 3? It wasn't always cylinder 2?

https://legacygt.com/forums/showpost.php?p=6011305&postcount=24

 

I actually took off my 3 year old oem wires and put back on the older oem ones that I still had which are like 7 years old, they're two different brands. The older packard r15 aps wires snap in really nicely. I wasn't getting a misfire, but I had a little stumble on cold starts that I thought might be from a wire that didn't snap onto a plug nicely.

 

Here's a pic of how my recently replaced, 3 year old oem wires sit on my old subaru coil pack. They don't snap into the coil pack like I like, but they don't shimmy off the coil pack, and the metal sticks out farther than the ngk's. The blue paint pen marks are where the bottom of the coil is, which is also where there's a step in the plastic coil body.

 

I'm rambling a bit, sorry. Long story short, in your shoes I'd try new wires, till I find ones that snap into the coil.

Edited May 2, 2021 by apexi

[Stphnhrrng]

Where are you from? Wonder if there's a good indie mechanic that someone knows nearby.

 

I'm still very suspicious of the plug wires, as mentioned with the pic in the link below, and since they don't snap into the coil pack, and since the metal part sits back further on the coil end. I would try to visualize where the metal part sits in relation to the coil pack, to get an idea of how far the spark has to go. I also remember when I tried ngk wires back in 2014, they kept sliding off the coil pack. I know what you might be thinkin, but why a misfire on just one cylinder, I'm not sure. I think from your other posts, I remember reading it bounced between cylinders 2 and 3? It wasn't always cylinder 2?

https://legacygt.com/forums/showpost.php?p=6011305&postcount=24

 

I actually took off my 3 year old oem wires and put back on the older oem ones that I still had which are like 7 years old, they're two different brands. The older packard r15 aps wires snap in really nicely. I wasn't getting a misfire, but I had a little stumble on cold starts that I thought might be from a wire that didn't snap onto a plug nicely.

 

Here's a pic of how my recently replaced, 3 year old oem wires sit on my old subaru coil pack. They don't snap into the coil pack like I like, but they don't shimmy off the coil pack, and the metal sticks out farther than the ngk's. The blue paint pen marks are where the bottom of the coil is, which is also where there's a step in the plastic coil body.

 

I'm rambling a bit, sorry. Long story short, in your shoes I'd try new wires, till I find ones that snap into the coil.

 

Actually it has always been cylinder 2, I’ve never seen it throw a code for any other cylinder, even when I swapped plugs, wires, injectors. The misfire has gotten a little worse recently, but it still runs pretty well 99% of the time so I’m not sure if I’m going to keep throwing money at it. Especially because I’m worried the new head gasket job isn’t doing what it should be.

[Stphnhrrng]

I was wondering if anybody could answer something for me. After the head gasket job I smoothed out all the troubleshooting problems, (aside from slight misfire at idle). When I did the job, I just pulled the hoses off the radiator, I didn’t bother flushing the system or anything. But now that it’s all back together I’ve driven close to 3000 miles. I had the radiator overflow filled up to the “full” mark, and just now when changing the oil I saw that the overflow was empty again. I pulled the rad cap and it had a bunch of slurry under it again almost identical to the picture I posted before. Is the lack of coolant just the bubbles working their way out of my radiator? And what are the chances the slurry is from residual oil in the radiator since I didn’t flush it? Should I be worried that the head gasket job I just did, didn’t work? I’m scared, and contemplating selling it at the moment. I can’t afford the do the head gaskets all over again. If it is the head gaskets, has anybody heard good things about Subaru coolant system conditioner or Blue Devil head gasket fix stuff? Was talking to a customer last week while wiring his house and he said he used blue devil before on a bad head gasket and it fixed it for over 2 years. I need to find out for sure if it’s a head gasket, so I can get rid of it before I end up broke and carless. Thank you

[apexi]

I forgot what the pic you posted before looked like, I think this is what you're referring to (so others can see here).

[apexi]

Since no one has replied yet..

-I wouldn't do any type of head gasket additives, at least not yet.

- I know you've probably looked for coolant leaks, but I wonder about some of the places that are harder to see. There's the big coolant crossover pipe under the intake manifold, I wonder if it's leaking a little from one of the two large o-rings for that? Heater core hoses?

 

I would image that if coolant and oil are mixing to create the slurry, you should be able to test your used oil for coolant or sodium.

 

-I wonder if you see bubbles in your coolant overflow tank when the engine is running, I think that can be a sign of combustion chamber gases getting into the coolant? They also have

if it detects combustion chamber gases.

 

-You could maybe do a few flushes with some kind of cooling system flush to clean out the radiator and see if the slurry comes back, I have no experience with the stuff though.

https://www.amazon.com/Prestone-AS105-Radiator-Flush-Cleaner/dp/B00B99U088/

That would also help get any gunk out of the heater core or engine. It would stink to drain out your new coolant, but I think napa still has their house brand blue coolant on sale for $15 a jug, if you used blue, I think you discussed which coolant to use in another thread but I can't remember what you went with.

 

Either way, I wouldn't panic too much since you're using the same radiator. I'd probably take a chance and do the cooling system flush and go from there.

[apexi]

Sorry to bump this again, but I forgot this totally reminds me of this video after they replaced the head gaskets in a porsche. They used dawn dish soap and water in the cooling system to clear everything out, seems ghetto, but.. The dude without the beard johnny is super smart, and I can't really see it doing any harm as long as you run clean water through a few times after. Still doesn't explain why you're losing coolant though.

[Stphnhrrng]

Since no one has replied yet..

-I wouldn't do any type of head gasket additives, at least not yet.

- I know you've probably looked for coolant leaks, but I wonder about some of the places that are harder to see. There's the big coolant crossover pipe under the intake manifold, I wonder if it's leaking a little from one of the two large o-rings for that? Heater core hoses?

 

I would image that if coolant and oil are mixing to create the slurry, you should be able to test your used oil for coolant or sodium.

 

-I wonder if you see bubbles in your coolant overflow tank when the engine is running, I think that can be a sign of combustion chamber gases getting into the coolant? They also have

if it detects combustion chamber gases.

 

-You could maybe do a few flushes with some kind of cooling system flush to clean out the radiator and see if the slurry comes back, I have no experience with the stuff though.

https://www.amazon.com/Prestone-AS105-Radiator-Flush-Cleaner/dp/B00B99U088/

That would also help get any gunk out of the heater core or engine. It would stink to drain out your new coolant, but I think napa still has their house brand blue coolant on sale for $15 a jug, if you used blue, I think you discussed which coolant to use in another thread but I can't remember what you went with.

 

Either way, I wouldn't panic too much since you're using the same radiator. I'd probably take a chance and do the cooling system flush and go from there.

 

Yeah that’s the picture. As far as coolant types go, I’m pretty sure I used the green Peak coolant. I was going to put some dye in the radiator and check it that way, unless you think one of the other options would be better. The only thing I did to get rid of air in the coolant system after putting the engine back was filling it up, and starting the car with the rad cap off, and then when it went down I added more a couple times till it was full. So I’m not really sure if I just didn’t do a good enough job and there was still air, or if it is actually leaking. But the slurry under the cap is what really scared me. I know that straight water/coolant isn’t going to do a good job cleaning oil without some sort of de-greaser, so it kinda wouldn’t surprise me in there was some stuck in all the little fins of the radiator, but I just wasn’t sure how likely that is or if it would’ve been enough to cause the slurry. Was thinking about flushing it and maybe dying it and seeing what happens. Thank you a ton for the help though, it’s nice to have a little re-assurance when you’re in this kinda situation, I was really starting to panic lol

[apexi]

This is what I've done in my car after watching his vid, bought a spill free funnel and waited until the bubbles went away

 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01A2CQSU6/

[Stphnhrrng]

Sorry to bump this again, but I forgot this totally reminds me of this video after they replaced the head gaskets in a porsche. They used dawn dish soap and water in the cooling system to clear everything out, seems ghetto, but.. The dude without the beard johnny is super smart, and I can't really see it doing any harm as long as you run clean water through a few times after. Still doesn't explain why you're losing coolant though.

 

Well tbh I haven’t actually flushed it yet. I’ve been swamped at work. But from what I can tell it’s not losing coolant anymore, still drinks oil but very little compared to before I did the head gaskets and had the heads machined. I just drove back from work, took about 2 hours. Got to an appointment and sat in my car with it idling for about 5 minutes, maybe a little less. I got a whiff of some hot coolant, looked at my dash and the coolant temp was just under the redline, so I turned my car off real quick and looked under the hood, the overflow was at the proper level, but it was boiling. I’ve seen people saying it’s just air coming out of the radiator but I’m pretty sure it was actually boiling. The other thing I read about that is possibly a bad head gasket allowing combustion gasses through. Sooo not feeling too positive about my chances rn

[apexi]

I'm thinkin that there is just gunk in your cooling system, radiator might be plugged up, coolant can't flow through the system properly and the coolant is just sitting in the engine baking/boiling. Just don't let things get too hot and warp your heads/block or somethin, would really suck after all that work you did. Keep us posted

[Stphnhrrng]

I'm thinkin that there is just gunk in your cooling system, radiator might be plugged up, coolant can't flow through the system properly and the coolant is just sitting in the engine baking/boiling. Just don't let things get too hot and warp your heads/block or somethin, would really suck after all that work you did. Keep us posted

 

Well I guess it had lost a lot of coolant within a couple days, after it was boiling I let it cool down and looked again and the overflow was empty. I added maybe 5 cups of 50/50 to the radiator and then filled the overflow, no more overheating. I drove a different car and it sat there for 2 days without being driven, and then I started it back up, and when it started after sitting there it puffed out some blue looking smoke out of the tailpipes, not a ton, but enough to be pretty obvious. I haven’t seen smoke since then, but just now I turned it on to sit in the A/C while I took a break from working and now it has a pretty loud knock. Honestly I’m pretty much over it. I’m not going to take it back apart to redo the head gasket a second time and have to rebuild the short block. I figured if I try and sell it as is, I’m just going to lose a ton of money. So I’m considering buying either a long block, or just a full engine with low miles that was pulled from another car. Anybody know where I should look to find a good quality long block with low miles, that isn’t going to cost me a ton? Hoping I can find one around $1,500 but not sure how realistic that is. I’m pretty broke, but I’d also rather pay a couple hundred more and get an engine that doesn’t have any problems. Thank you. Rip to this engine.

 

On side note, I’ll probably keep this engine after I pull it and just slowly rebuild it over time, maybe a couple years down the road have a nice built engine with some performance upgrades to swap out

[apexi]

Unfortunately I can't answer some of your questions, but I just want to post a few additional thoughts. I don't blame you for being over it with all the work you did, and it still having issues. I don't think it was anything you did that caused these problems, I think there was probably some sort of underlying condition (the misfire issue which wouldn't go away) that may have contributed to the current knock in some way.

 

Is the engine oil level okay? These cars drink oil, especially with hot weather.

 

In your shoes, I'd also spend an extra $80 on a new radiator in case that's gunked up as mentioned earlier. AT rads are fine, I have one in my car

https://www.amazon.com/Denso-221-3604-Radiator/dp/B004J316YI

[Stphnhrrng]

Unfortunately I can't answer some of your questions, but I just want to post a few additional thoughts. I don't blame you for being over it with all the work you did, and it still having issues. I don't think it was anything you did that caused these problems, I think there was probably some sort of underlying condition (the misfire issue which wouldn't go away) that may have contributed to the current knock in some way.

 

Is the engine oil level okay? These cars drink oil, especially with hot weather.

 

In your shoes, I'd also spend an extra $80 on a new radiator in case that's gunked up as mentioned earlier. AT rads are fine, I have one in my car

https://www.amazon.com/Denso-221-3604-Radiator/dp/B004J316YI

 

Yeah that’s probably a wise choice, I’ll do that. I called around, and everybody I talked to said usually they don’t rebuilt the lower end since you have to pull the block apart. I called Subaru and I can get a new short block for just under $2,000, I think it was like $300 for fluids and gaskets, and Subaru said $2,600 to have them pull my engine, move everything to the new short block, and re-install and it’ll have a 3 year/36k warranty. Right now I’m looking to see if there’s any cheaper options as far as labor goes. Looking at $5,000 for a new short block, and that’s not even with rebuilt heads. I doubt I’d be lucky enough, but nobody on here happens to have experience with shops doing their engine rebuild in Oregon would they?

[apexi]

Somethin else to think about, since this gave me a scare recently.. After 255k I got a check engine light, p0420. With that, it's usually either the catalytic converter, or rear o2 sensor that monitors the cat. Thankfully for me, it was the rear o2 which is fairly cheap, $55 or so online.

 

That prompted me to think, what if it were the cat. When I looked a few years ago, cat prices weren't bad, and there were aftermarket options, so I wasn't too concerned.

 

Things have changed.. Currently $3300 for an oem subaru cat for my car, pzev california emissions.

 

When looking at aftermarket options, I noticed that they mentioned engine family numbers, like this..

"WALKER 84389 C.A.R.B. Compliant Info

Front; Engine Family Number (EFN) 9FJXJ02.5MXG"

 

My engine family number didn't match that at the end (my car 5NVD). So I contacted a couple aftermarket cat companies. Walker said they don't make one for my car. I have a feeling Bosal/BRE will say the same. So if my cat goes, I'm basically SOL. I attached a pic of the label under my hood where it shows emission info. It would really suck if you go deeper into this, and your cat goes, unless your car has different emissions from mine.

 

I thought about the possibility of getting a carb cat, but I bet I wouldn't have any warranty with the different EFN, and I've heard aftermarket cats are crap. Not smart to take a risk on one without a warranty

[boxkita]

did you burp the cooling system using the upper tank or the lower one? Also if you lift the passenger front corner higher than the rest of the car, it helps with the burping assuming you doing it in the upper tank.

 

If you want to be absolutely sure the bubbles are out, you can do a pressurized fill. Tool trucks sell the units and its a couple hundred dollars or more. Kind of a last ditch solution.

[boxkita]

Yeah that’s probably a wise choice, I’ll do that. I called around, and everybody I talked to said usually they don’t rebuilt the lower end since you have to pull the block apart. I called Subaru and I can get a new short block for just under $2,000, I think it was like $300 for fluids and gaskets, and Subaru said $2,600 to have them pull my engine, move everything to the new short block, and re-install and it’ll have a 3 year/36k warranty. Right now I’m looking to see if there’s any cheaper options as far as labor goes. Looking at $5,000 for a new short block, and that’s not even with rebuilt heads. I doubt I’d be lucky enough, but nobody on here happens to have experience with shops doing their engine rebuild in Oregon would they?

 

contact arcflash in bend. they have a good rep.