CNY_Dave

Check for green crunge on the bottoms of the head gaskets.

Yes, makes it front-wheel-drive only.

paying $75 twice to recover basically nothing (1st time) and testably absolutely nothing (2nd time) was my gripe.

I was a full supporter of bringing the car to a shop that could recover, and then later pull a vacuum for me. But- $75 disposal charge to recover, then another $75 disposal charge to pull a vacuum, on a system already vacuumed out? Bulllll-loney!

I did it axle in place, piece of sheet metal above protecting the axle boot, biggest torch tip to heat as fast as possible. I heated the threaded end. With a big tip you can heat quickly turn the bolt and cool before it all heak soaks.

Since the injectors shut off the moment the key is turned off, it shouldn't diesel one tiny bit. Could be a leaky injector causing both, or maybe it just has a bad motor or trans mount.

Still not forcing more than a trace out of the overflow tank, and temp as stable as ever. I'm not ever flooring it now, though. On the replacement- plan is still to buy the wife something newer and I get her '05 forester, but it's looking like subaru's are popular enough that we literally can't afford another one, it'll have to be some other AWD.

When I did mine on my '03, there is no way they would have come out without my acetylene-oxygen torch. When I did get them out (after heat to cherry red, rotate 1/2 or 3/4 turn, douse to keep heat from soaking the wheel bearing and CV joint, repeat) significant portions of the bolt were missing.

If the thermostat maxxes out in flow, from there the coolant temp has to start going higher, maybe when there are unpurged (and replenishing) gas pockets the cooling is slightly impeded- and the metal touching gas gets a little hotter. Maybe even hot enough for local boiling? If the coolant gets hotter, the heat transfer from the metal block/head must slow down as the difference is smaller, all it takes is for a few factors to avalanche the whole thing into overheat territory. Probably not a lot of built-in spare capacity.

I'm wondering if the stuff would actually work better if the leak were worse...

It's not overheating at all now, and not burning any coolant. If I didn't know it had a blown head gasket (blip, blip, blip of bubbles out the overflow hose), I'd never suspect it. I have been using the subaru additive for many years.

1LT, I'm on the fence about trying the magic schmutz, I plan on actually calling them this week. Gary, haven't actually tried them yet, just fishing to see if they have a 'rep'.

It's been behaving well so far, just leaving the new cap on, any bets after not touching the thermostat for 200 to 260,000 miles the bolts will come out vs snap?

Gen2 H6 thermostat removal, problem with bolts check H6'ers out there, my #1 worry about trying some magic head-gasket elixir is pulling the thermostat, are the bolts gonna snap? They have been untouched for probably 200,000 miles. Dave

My thought is if I pull the thermostat to put in the blue devil schmutz, then the bolts will break, the coolant elbow will finally rust through, etc etc.

I'll give that a try- although having pressure in the cooling system might slow the gas transfer a little. Everything's a tradeoff... What has been surprising is I can dump the pressure, it's always mostly fluid with some gas, then come back to it and fluid is still up to the top. There's gotta be a bubble in there somewhere.

What has changed is the manufacturer has already run the engine enough that it's all done already... or too late to do it! They worked for years, I'm sure, on the metal properties, fit, and finish such that a good seal would occur just with the startup etc at the factory. What happened with these is a metal blend or a finish or a fit has changed ever... so... slightly... and they haven't gotten the magic recipe back reliably yet.

I wanted 300k! Right now if I drive easy it pressurizes darn quick but doesn't spew or overflow, and I release the pressure when I park so there's less chance of filling a cylinder. Has anyone ever hydrolocked an H6? It'd be nice to stop marking my parking spots! If I didn't check the overflow for bubbles right now you wouldn't even know it had a bad head gasket. I wish I had the time to install gas-traps with bleeds on the 2 return radiator hoses, it would be a fun project. It'd be cool to see how long it ran.

0% for how long (full loan term? what term loan?) is the Q... key for us is getting the payment as close to $250/month as possible.

Looking at a used 2014 Impreza hatch (at a subaru dealer), 33,000 miles, 2.0L base model, CVT. Anything critical I should know- known problems, etc? Subject to excessive oil consumption? Any head gasket issues? "Don't pull the wrong drainplug and drain the CVT" is the only thing I know about 'em. No cruise control, looks like a $250-300 kit fixes that with just a little work. background- my '03 LL bean H6 with 260000 miles just blew a head gasket, wife will get the newer car, I will get her '05 forester with 160 or 180k on it... Dealer looking for 16.9 for it, doesn't seem likely to move from that.

http://www.mototuneusa.com/break_in_secrets.htm

Would take more time than I can do without a car;. H6 head gasket jobs are complicated, and don't have a great success rate. It's really just a matter of all the other work required, and then a few more brake lines will rust, then the subframe, I'll always be messing with it.

Drove this LL bean for a bit over 200,000 miles, gonna miss it. Body isn't worth it for me to put in a used motor, it needs brakes, struts, pretty much every bushing. Runs great though! Keep to someday fix? Sell outright with proper disclosure? Part it out? Gotta think on it.

Almost has to be a power or ground issue with that scattering of codes! Probably connectors or harness that go right into the trans.

I swapped our forester drivers side window out, not as hair-raising as some windows I've dealt with. I marked the positions of all the adjustable bits with fine magic marker.