idosubaru

my passengers side head gasket lasted 30,000 miles through my ignition problems. the current drivers side has 37,000 miles on it and it's leaking about a gallon every 100 miles internally. it's getting replaced this weekend. they still lasted awhile. but i drive over 30,000 miles a year, i don't want to be changing head gaskets once a year....grrrrr..... lots of variables involved....i just know in my situation there are too many coincidental things going on more than once for it not to be something wrong. i'm HOPING it's ignition related so i can keep this from happening again.

your car is not strange or different or experiencing anything non-typical. the problem will often come and go. is it tapping on one side in particular or all over the place? can you narrow it down to one or more particular cylinders (using one of those mechanics stethoscopes maybe?). if you can narrow it down to one or two cylinders, that would indicate a HLA (or multiple ones) is sticking. if it's across the board affecting them all then it's more likely oil supply related. i mentioned it before, you may want to try some ATF or MMO (not as good in my oppinion, but probably more *acceptable*). your lifters could very well be dirty, sticky...etc. so no amount of work on your oil flow will fix that. you can reseal the entire motor if you'd like, rebuild it if you wish, if you don't address sticky HLA's none of that will matter.....it will still tick. and it will run poorly when they are tapping, the valve train isn't working properly. it could be your cam tower o-ring as you mentioned. or the springs. in my experience i think it's more often the oil pump seals or sticky/dirty HLA's. did you clean the mating surface between pump and block? did you put a small amount of sealant on the zig-zag line where the two halves of the block come together? i have 200,000 miles...about 350,000 km or something and i use 10w-30 all year long with zero ticking.

those head gaskets should hold 10 psi just fine. you could try corteco gaskets, roughly the same price and i've heard good things about them. i'm installing them on my XT6.

i had the same thing happen to my XT6. installed new headgaskets. motor out of car, cleaned up everything, cleaned bolt holes, cleaned head bolt threads.....30,000 miles later my pass side HG leaked and looked EXACTLY the same as yours when i pulled it. now my drivers side is doing the same thing as the pass side did....i'm pulling it in the next couple days and i can promise it'll look the same, failure in the same exact spot. the same relative cylinder....front of motor has the leak. i read through a good bit of material trying to figure this out and i did read in two places that ignition problems can cause premature head gasket failure. one site even claimed "poor ignition timing is the leading cause of head gasket damage"....? i'd guess overheating, but whatever that's not the point. i had mad ignition timing problems with mine and kept driving it like that for a long time. maybe that caused it, maybe not. i still never addressed that timing issue, so who knows. i was never able to get the distributor lined up properly....long story with no end yet. anyway, i should go address that distributor. have you had any timing issues?

the correct spelling is w, h, e, e, l, b, a, r...**** that's a weird word. i like them s, e, a, t's though. what the freak? those are RX seats, never seen that before, they are really nice. but i've never really seen or been in an RX or really much of anything other than XT's really. i don't know that i could care any less what my car looks like, but i'd pick those up for 30 dollars. what kind of material is the checkered part? and what makes/models/years can they be found in? nice hit.

i'm not real familiar with the rear defrost, so pardon the lack of details. can you test continuity between the relay and the rear wiring? or test for voltage at the rear when the defrost is turned on? (i know i already said that, just trying to consolidate). is it possible for a relay to be compromised in some way that it still clicks but doesn't actually transfer power properly? have another relay you can swap in? if you verify voltage at the rear, then this suggestion is pointless obviously.

be patient - a break, like this sleep you're getting right now is probably all you really needed. getting the manual trans in is annoying at times. you sound calm so far, i'd be cussing the subaru engineers telling them that i'm flying over there and taking over their jobs cause they're idiots. i don't think you need to do this, but it is a last resort if you have a lift and get pissed. you could eventually say screw it and lay the motor and transmission on the ground and do it that way. then use the lift to install the entire thing. it's super easy to install that way, no hassles at all. good luck,

can you check for continuity between the wires at the glass and the relay or fuse box or wiring harness up front? i'd like to know if any power is even getting to the rear window. can you trace the wires to the window and give them 12 volts, see what happens? do you have a defroster light in the dash? if so, does it come on when you turn the rear defroster on?

other car manufacturers have the CE light flash the codes, not soobs though. does it always do it? did you try disconnecting the battery? is everything that you worked on hooked up and wired properly? it never had this problem before right? or has it always done this since the engine swap?

female connectors.....nice one, i get it! i feel so in the loop!

starter is a good place to look. i'd probably check the grounds first because it's easier and quicker. i've seen this exact problem (like this summer even) with a bad ground wire as well. Actually i still have a heavy gauge wire wrapped around my negative battery cable going to one of the ground points....need to clean that up and use some actual connections. since i added that wire it starts right up.

he put it in 4wd once and said it *seemed* to stop, i wouldn't rule out anything just yet. easy things to check are always nice to start the process of elimination.

i'd check the driveshaft. they can also seize, meaning the ujoints are almost stuck in place and will feel tight by grabbing it. you can visually see damage or pull it out and the joint won't budge....actually it might even be hard to get out because the joint is so stiff. does this thing have hub caps or a center cap? lug studs/nuts could shear off and rattle/clunk around inside as well.

that's good to know that the pick up tube oring is accessible. like i said, noone in the XT6 world has attempted it that i know of. jacking the front of the motor up and lowering the rear of the transmission is the way i do the oil pan gasket. cam carrier gasket is silicone based as you now know. that's OEM. i've seen those gaskets distorted just as you mentioned. someone made small metal inserts (our of muffler tape i think), to install inside the mickey mouse oil pump o-rings to prevent them from being sucked into the ports like that. your felpro kit included the two cam carrier reinforced orings? the XT6 fel pro kits i received did not have those. and they didn't come with the RTV sealant for the cam carrier either. that's an expensive kit to not be complete! the XT6 kit retails over 200, local place cut me a deal at 150 fortunately.

just realized it's manual steering. sounds like normal non-assisted power steering. 2 - sometimes 4wd can be stubborn to disengage. i wouldn't immediately call it a problem (except that you shouldn't drive on pavement like that as everyone else has said).

change oil like a champ. soob's have HLA's (hydraulic valve lash adjustors), nice because they never need adjusting, they can't be adjusted. but they don't like being dirty. they stick, the seize and they make lots o' noise when they do. clean oil = clean HLA's, which is good for you. tigthen your valve cover bolts (don't strip them or go nuts, just make sure they aren't loose), the grommets under the bolts degrade over time and allow the valve cover bolts to loose their hold on the covers. lots of oil can come out of these things. takes 5 minutes to snug up the 10mm bolts around the covers. pay particular attention to the bottom bolts. if you're lucky, might help some of your leaking. of course old subaru's can leak from anywhere, but this is quick enough it's worth doing. can also tighten oil pan bolts if you like. check wiring - make sure battery, alternator wires and cables are all good, clean and tight. this will save headaches down the road. also check your ground wires, not sure where they are on your car. basic tune up is a good idea - plugs, wires, cap, rotor, coil, air filter. do it all at once so you're not trouble shooting weird problems next year. tranny fluid, so i guess it's an automatic? transmission coolers are an excellent 30 dollars spent if you don't like replacing transmissions. inspect your radiator - so you have an idea how good/bad it is. replace your thermostat, it's cheap. old headgaskets don't like overheating. other than trans cooler and tune up, everything else is essentially free or very cheap.

i concur, you can generally pick up a few used transmissions for the cost of a rebuild (for an XT6 anyway). if you have space, grab an extra one when you see a good deal. i do it myself, but if you don't a transmission shop should swap them out and replace the filter for you for 150-200 bucks. it's a very easy job with the right equipment. 250 for a used trans plus 250 for install = 500. i'd rather pay that twice (which isn't likely if you shop smart) than 3,000 for a quality rebuild. don't forget to drain and fill the diff fluid in the trans. i installed a used one i traded parts for 50,000 miles ago.

"up" sounds right, but i didn't want to say that without actually seeing it.

arrow points in the direction of the airflow. imagine you were a molecule and wanted to find the way INTO the engine, follow the arrow.

how about a fuse?

tighten your valve cover bolts. the grommets get worn, sometimes snugging them up will drastically reduce oil leakage. it's very easy to do with a 10mm wrench and takes very little time. 5 minutes maybe, it's worth a try.

it's debatable, maybe or maybe not. MMO is probably less impactful in those terms than ATF or synthetic motor oil. also depends on oil leaks. we were working on kevins (myphalyx) XT6 and his crank seal was about to come off, it was cocked in place and wobbled by touching it and leaked. that kind of leak is not going to get any worse by adding MMO. but on cars of this age, usually it's the gaskets that are leaking. valve covers, heads, cam carrier/head junction. whatever you do, keep changing your oil. it's easy to think you're adding new, fresh oil so why change it. not so - keep your eye on your oil color. change it when it starts getting dirty. you can add two quarts of *fresh* oil and the oil in the pan will still look black and dirty. get it out of there. these motors (the HLA's) do not like dirty oil. they will seize, they will get stuck, they will tick.

tied as the most lowered XT6 ever since nearly every AWD XT6 on the road has been like that at some point. i've driven like that for extended periods, it is no fun and unsafe. it may handle well in autox...IF the track is smooth...any bumps and the car becomes highly unstable. when you hit a bump, it *bounces* and you have no weight, no traction and tires (front or rear or both) can easily slide out from under you. someone destroyed their rear drive train (axles and diff) driving around like this, though i never had any problems like that. in college i was driving from atlanta to auburn, AL on a daily basis (100 miles one way) like this about a dozen times. the bridge joints were killers, brace yourself for those...

in the XT6 world it is recommended to never touch this pick up tube. they do not come out very easily at all. i would wonder if the o-ring was distorted by the process of getting it out. i have been *told*, though not by what i consider reliable resources because i can't remember who told me this, that the oil pump pick up tube is essentially pressed in place on an XT6. best to have a machine shop do it. like i said, i have no actual experience with removing it myself. of all the XT6 guru's that i know, i don't know of any that have removed this pick up tube, so you are now considered a legend. i did attempt to remove it a few years ago and when i got this advice i decided to just put the oil pan back and leave it alone. that was 50,000 miles ago and i haven't had a problem with it, i'm at 203,000 miles now. definetly post more info on how the reinstall goes with the pick up tube. i was always curious about it since it stumped me a few years ago.

when HLA's first start getting noisy an immediate oil change regardless of brand, weight or type will often quiet them down. i've also seen instances where changing the oil weight will help as well.