camroncamera Posted December 23, 2010 Author Share Posted December 23, 2010 Thanks for the info. Although I have a great selection of quality metric tools, I do not have an impact wrench... yet. We'll see what Santa brings tomorrow night Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vicdeng Posted December 24, 2010 Share Posted December 24, 2010 crap, My HG is also going away on my 96 LGT, but i keep driving it to work for 1 week. How bad does it do to the engine? I checked one day, the oil is almost out, since i just purchased the vehicle, i am not sure when is the last time the previous owner change it. however, i feel like i don't have time to do an oil change very soon. So i bought oil to refill it...well common sense, it's no good to run the engine without oil. Now, the car will be in the shop next wed for HG repair, it makes me worried that if my engine is toasted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stang70Fastback Posted December 24, 2010 Share Posted December 24, 2010 crap, My HG is also going away on my 96 LGT, but i keep driving it to work for 1 week. How bad does it do to the engine? For what it's worth, while it's not good, and you risk damaging the block/warping heads/etc... it's not NECESSARILY going to do much damage as long as you're careful. How do I know this? Because our headgaskets went at 170k miles and the car was used for at least a year after this happened. The temperature gauge was regularly pinned and the car basically went through hell. Make no mistake, we planned to just replace the entire engine when we could, but when we finally brought it to the shop, everything was checked out, the heads were shipped out and nothing was warped or damaged. Now at 240k and running fine! That being said, this is NOT what you should do, lol, but if the car overheats a few times, it's no reason to believe that the whole engine is trashed. Hell, the first time it overheated the temp gauge was pinned for god knows how long. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
camroncamera Posted December 30, 2010 Author Share Posted December 30, 2010 (edited) Tuesday was coolant flush day and the beginning of tearing things out of the engine compartment. http://legacygt.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=796&pictureid=4307 L to R: Initial coolant, coolant flush, and rinse results. I believe the coolant had the Subaru Cooling System Additive, here is some of the dark, pasty residue: http://legacygt.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=796&pictureid=4310 This car was babied for the first ten years of its life, regular Subaru Dealership Service including coolant flush and fill every two years or so. Yesterday was further disassembly. Labeling even the obvious stuff. http://legacygt.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=796&pictureid=4308 Edited December 30, 2010 by camroncamera Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
camroncamera Posted December 30, 2010 Author Share Posted December 30, 2010 Santa was good to me this year http://legacygt.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=796&pictureid=4309 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
camroncamera Posted December 30, 2010 Author Share Posted December 30, 2010 (edited) Starter bump method to remove the crank bolt FTW. Even though I had already removed the battery from the car, I was able to use my Battery Booster Pack with jumper cable-style leads for an easy 12V power source. I also used sort of an inverse of this technique to loosen the camshaft bolts; by temporarily replacing the crank pulley & bolt and locking it up with a socket wrench against the car frame, I was able to *carefully* crack loose the camshaft sprocket bolts with my breaker bar, all the while keeping things very near TDC. But, uh, no starter required. BTW, the Haynes manual advises against using the timing belt as a resisting force for breaking free these bolts so don't try this at home ...but no slipped teeth or broken belts, and I'll be replacing the belt with a new one when things get put back together. Edited December 30, 2010 by camroncamera Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kaz98gt Posted December 31, 2010 Share Posted December 31, 2010 Very glad to hear everything is moving along nicely, you seem to know your way around working on a car. Keep at it! You're replacing the HGs in this job, right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
I Donated broknindarkagain Posted December 31, 2010 I Donated Share Posted December 31, 2010 I'm spoiled and have the luxury of air tools to do all this stuff with I'm glad things are working out so far -broknindarkagain My Current Project - Click Here COME AND TAKE IT "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
camroncamera Posted December 31, 2010 Author Share Posted December 31, 2010 Headgaskets are the primary reason for this overhaul but I'll be doing plenty of other while-I'm-in-there preventive maintenance as well. The need for new headgaskets is possibly borderline but is a good idea in the long run. The second owner had all of the dealer maintenance records from the first owners, and I could not be more pleased with how well it has been taken care of until the second owner overheated. The next hurdle is to get the driver's side lower bellhousing bolts off with no room for anything but a small 14mm combination wrench with far too little leverage, then get the drive plate unbolted from the torque converter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
I Donated broknindarkagain Posted December 31, 2010 I Donated Share Posted December 31, 2010 Headgaskets are the primary reason for this overhaul but I'll be doing plenty of other while-I'm-in-there preventive maintenance as well. The need for new headgaskets is possibly borderline but is a good idea in the long run. The second owner had all of the dealer maintenance records from the first owners, and I could not be more pleased with how well it has been taken care of until the second owner overheated. The next hurdle is to get the driver's side lower bellhousing bolts off with no room for anything but a small 14mm combination wrench with far too little leverage, then get the drive plate unbolted from the torque converter. socket / ratchet set up like this: ratchet - extension - swivel - extension - socket long extensions work best. Thats how I did mine -broknindarkagain My Current Project - Click Here COME AND TAKE IT "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
camroncamera Posted January 3, 2011 Author Share Posted January 3, 2011 http://legacygt.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=796&pictureid=4324 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kaz98gt Posted January 4, 2011 Share Posted January 4, 2011 Yay! Moar pictures, and keep doing work on that puppy. Motivates me to do more with mine haha. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
camroncamera Posted January 4, 2011 Author Share Posted January 4, 2011 (edited) http://legacygt.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=796&pictureid=4329 http://legacygt.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=796&pictureid=4327 http://legacygt.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=796&pictureid=4328 .....I used ratcheting come-along straps to hoist the engine up. This technique was not ideal, as the ratcheting action is one-way; once the engine went up, I had no way to safely hoist it downwards until I had a couple neighbors lend a hand. The long block - despite it's aluminum construction - is flippin' heavy! But thirty seconds later it was on the engine stand. I have been slowly disassembling, taking care to keep my parts strictly organized. Edited January 16, 2011 by camroncamera layout Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
camroncamera Posted January 5, 2011 Author Share Posted January 5, 2011 (edited) Heads are off! I'm seeing the common peeling away of the coating from the old headgaskets, also described here: http://allwheeldriveauto.com/subaru-head-gasket-problems-explained/ http://legacygt.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=796&pictureid=4334 http://legacygt.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=796&pictureid=4335 Edited January 16, 2011 by camroncamera layout Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
camroncamera Posted January 5, 2011 Author Share Posted January 5, 2011 (edited) Brought the heads to Bearing Service Company in downtown Portland. They are the machine shop recommended by my local service/parts shop and they did good work on my Scirocco 16V head in October 2009. Will hear from them in a couple days. Edited January 6, 2011 by camroncamera Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
camroncamera Posted January 9, 2011 Author Share Posted January 9, 2011 (edited) Still haven't heard about the heads yet, but I got the block mating surfaces cleaned up: http://legacygt.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=796&pictureid=4377 New waterpump, new oil pump and front seal (found a loose screw on the back of the old oil pump): http://legacygt.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=796&pictureid=4375 Got the oil separator plate removed (pretty gunky): http://legacygt.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=796&pictureid=4376 Cleaned up the engine compartment somewhat: http://legacygt.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=796&pictureid=4373 Removed and resealed oil pan: http://legacygt.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=796&pictureid=4374 There was no engine sludge in the bottom of the pan thanks to regular oil changes. Oil pan resealing had already been done in the car's history, and it didn't look like it had been done that well; there was even a chunk of threaded metal where an oil pan bolt hole had broken and was swimming around in the oil pan for years! : http://legacygt.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=796&pictureid=4378 Edited January 9, 2011 by camroncamera Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
camroncamera Posted January 11, 2011 Author Share Posted January 11, 2011 Picked up my heads from the machine shop today. Everything is nice and sparkly. Pretty extensive service, it wasn't cheap. There were no cracks or warps, but the mating faces were resurfaced. Picked up lower and upper radiator hoses, water pipe O-rings, fuel filter, NGK plugs and wires, and radiator cap from my local FLAPS, and the oil separator plate and fasteners from the local Subaru dealer (I also have two heater hoses on order, they should be in in a couple days). After running around town all day, I cleaned the back of the block at the oil separator area and the intake manifold with plenty of carb cleaner. Things are quite a bit less dingy now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
subikid90 Posted January 11, 2011 Share Posted January 11, 2011 What did you have them do in the machine shop? A complete rebuild or just clean them up and resurface? -Subikid90 1997 Legacy GT 5spd & EJ251 w/EJ25D heads ~10.5CR 1998 Legacy GT Limited waiting for EJ22T hybrid swap Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
camroncamera Posted January 11, 2011 Author Share Posted January 11, 2011 Fairly thorough rebuild. Dismantle and clean (including valve covers), valve job (no new valves needed), grind seats, new bronze valve guides, pressure test, resurface, new valve stem seals, valve adjust. I don't know that they did everything in the book, but I doubt that we skipped over anything that might have required attention. No port & polish or fancy cams or anything like that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
subikid90 Posted January 11, 2011 Share Posted January 11, 2011 Was it over $200? My dads friend who has a machine shop charges $200 for a complete head rebuild on subis, including all new parts. -Subikid90 1997 Legacy GT 5spd & EJ251 w/EJ25D heads ~10.5CR 1998 Legacy GT Limited waiting for EJ22T hybrid swap Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
camroncamera Posted January 11, 2011 Author Share Posted January 11, 2011 It was much higher than $200. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
subikid90 Posted January 11, 2011 Share Posted January 11, 2011 Per head? -Subikid90 1997 Legacy GT 5spd & EJ251 w/EJ25D heads ~10.5CR 1998 Legacy GT Limited waiting for EJ22T hybrid swap Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
camroncamera Posted January 11, 2011 Author Share Posted January 11, 2011 Yes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
subikid90 Posted January 11, 2011 Share Posted January 11, 2011 Oh wow I should have given you the guys number, he is in Forest Grove, OR.\ Sounds like they did a good job though. -Subikid90 1997 Legacy GT 5spd & EJ251 w/EJ25D heads ~10.5CR 1998 Legacy GT Limited waiting for EJ22T hybrid swap Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
camroncamera Posted January 13, 2011 Author Share Posted January 13, 2011 These guys do a lot of dealership work and have been around since 1929. It's the one machine shop that my local import repair shop uses, so I trust their word. Your guy sounds great but Forest Grove is about an hour from me up here in da 'Couve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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