Ben F

Tru dat, the plugs do go through the valve covers. So I guess I do have a phase two. Thanks for clearing that up! Well, it looks like I'll be doing an HG job in the near future. Thanks for the help fellas!

I've read that mine should be the last of the phase I 2.2L motors. This article says: Is 150K miles a reasonable HG service time for a phase I motor? I think at least one of the PO's abused the car. I have rebuilt an engine before (an AMC 360 V8), do you think I could do the HG's on this car in a week or so? I'll start researching, but is it a very hard job? Thanks!

Thats a good idea on the mileage. I was going on that the speedo was off about 10-20% of the time and it was probably happening for a while. Just a rough guesstimate. It's actually reading 140k right now. I just replaced the valve cover gaskets and spark plug tube seals (due to oil in the plug tubes), no leaks there. Thanks for the help!

Sorry it took so long to reply. Cold startup this morning-no smoke. In fact, I've never seen it smoke. It idles great and apart from what I think is likely a bad knock sensor, it has power too. It was leaking since before I overheated and it hasn't gotten any worse as far as I can tell. It doesn't leak much at all either, except when I overheated it and it generated a good amount of smoke. Any idea of how long I can go till I need to replace the head gaskets if they're the problem? Should I do a compression test? How bout some of that coolant stop leak stuff? Thanks!

Ya, I wasn't watching the temp gauge enough and it got into the tiny hot zone on the top of the gauge But hey, now I've learned to watch the gauge religiously. The engine needs to be pulled to replace the oil separator, right? I doubt it's ever been pulled. So even though the wet spot is located just around the HG/exhaust flange the oil could be coming from the back of the engine? Thanks!

Hello everyone, I bought a 2.2L 99 Legacy L sedan with about 150k miles recently (not sure exactly because until I fixed it the odometer/speedometer would stop working intermittently :-\ ) Anyway, there is an oil leak that looks like it might be coming from the head gasket. It drips onto the exhaust on the passenger side exhaust. I don't know if this is relevant, but it also bogs under load at high speeds, i.e. up hill or on highways, and I overheated it once and the leak got a lot worse for a while. However, it idles great but I haven't done a compression test yet to confirm that the HG isn't blown. From what I've read, this 2.2 should be the last of the ones with the good HG before the problem period with the leaks etc. However, I can't seem to track this one down. I replaced the valve cover gaskets, which didn't appear to be the problem anyway, and washed the suspected areas with engine degreaser. Anyway, here are some pics. Let me know what you think. TIA! Back of head and timing cover are clean, so I don't think anything is dripping down?

Hello everyone, you guys rock! Tons of great info here. I recently picked up a 99 Legacy L sedan for $2700, including having the PO put in new pads and rotors and having the wheels balanced. I like it a lot, but it has some problems which will hopefully be solved with help from you all. And for giggles here's my last car, a little less practical