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Serious advice needed on these Heads... from a 97 GT


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Hi, first post long time learner...

 

I decided to take on a head gasket job on my '97 Legacy GT and it's been okay so far. It's been one thing after the other, but that was expected. I have the heads off and had them surfaced today got home and started cleaning up the exhaust part where the gasket was. It seems to have pitted out and after cleaning it to this point it is clear that I would have to have that surfaced as well. I need some advise on that, how much can you surface that and if I can, can't I just sand it with a block and 220 paper and then some wet sanding? Check it to make sure it's within .008 - .011 clearance.

 

http://www.kevincreedy.com/subaru/exhaustpic.jpg

 

So here's where I'm second guessing the surface job. You can see one has been surfaced a lot more than the other, but I measured the clearance by the valves on both and they seem to be the same, or very close at least. What is the max surfacing that can be done and how can I measure that. Is this something to worry about? The heads weren't warped, but had enought surface wear to were the guy wanted to take a little bit off... He seemed very competent and I don't want to think he did a bad job, but I also don't want to put the heads on if they are no good and would like to confirm that they are.

 

http://www.kevincreedy.com/subaru/surface1.jpg

 

http://www.kevincreedy.com/subaru/surface2.jpg

 

So much for buying a car where the carfax shows it's a FL car, but then you find out it was their summer car in WI.

 

There's a guy at the subaru dealer who has a couple used heads he wants to sell for $100... Should I take a look at those or continue with these or just write it off since I can't sell this thing for more than $1500 fixed. Which I plan to do since the gas mileage is terrible. Perhaps I'm venting little...

 

I appreciate your input.

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That's what I thought and told the guy. Allthough, I was there with the Haynes manual and could not find where they mention that. They do give those specs for the crank case, but nothing for the heads... only the .002 clearance. I should have just cleaned the heads up myself. They were off by .0005 and that made me decide to let him surface it. I don't know, they should really check their work since heads aren't cheap. What to do, what to do...
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Found a good thread with similar problem and found help... measured the heads and they are both the same thickness, which doesn't make sense. I'll continue installation in the morning and hope for the best I suppose.

 

i'm guessing that it's because: the heads are castings, by their nature they vary. but the machined parts in the heads are to spec. so regardless of how they look, the machined parts are in the correct specific positions.

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