nipper

i wasnt picking on you. Just to give everyone an idea how a gasket works. I was designing and making gaskets by hand for a long time (fuel cell company). I learned a lot. Almost all the selaing a gasket does is on the edge of the gasket. Once this edge is compromised, gasket failure will soon follow. A head GAsket is one of the hardest gaskets (if not the hardest) to design. On one side it has 18,000 psi gasses at a ludicrous tempertiur it has to seal against an open chamber with much cooler liquids on the other side. Then you need something that will survive Antifreeze, deionized water, and engine oil. You also need something that will deal with the expnasion and contraction of aluminum, while being helod in place with steel bolts. Since the steel bolts do not expand and contract as quickly as the aluminum, you have additional varrying compression forces. With a closed deck, you had the assitance of the metal deck to help counter some of these forces. With an open or "hybrid" deck, this assitance is removed. Now add in steel piston sleeves. This makes for a very very very complicated system. A open or hybrid deck does not fully support the piston sleeves as well as a closed deck. I think someplace in here is the key to the problem. I dont know if the 6cyl and H6 is a hybrid or closed deck design. I feel that they dont fail because you have a much more even application of clamping forces (3 Cylinders as opposed to two and the applicable bolts) All the forces are more spread out. In the past 10 years HG development and design have grown leaps and bounds. IS the pronblem solved, most likely. Will it ever appear again in another design (generically speaking - other mfgs) probably, as emission laws change, so do the design requirements of this gasket. nipper PS if you over heat don't forget to get an oil change, as the oil gets hot too.

MEMEMEMEME SIGN ME UP! nipper

There is some solice in the fact that subaru isnt the only one with this issue. nipper

oops i missed that. We all know cuba is going to be the 51st state, they have to get in line. (still say look at the coolant temp sensor) Which leads to the next question, do they even have emission controls? nipper

I can actually see it on the temp gauge by the slight movement of the needle in heavy traffic. nipper

So who did the conversion of the car in the first place. Also i am a bit surprised the dealer was willing to look at the twin turbo, as it wasnt sold in this country. I would investigate the coolant temp senor of the ecu first. Pulling codes means you hook a a scanner up to the car and see if there are any error codes from the cars computer. Its used as a diagnostic tool but not the end all of problem solving. nipper

YAY we are on to something. I think ill wait for it to get warmer then 17 degrees to try it on mine too. nipper

But doing that raises the cost of the vehical substaintially. Also (please dont stone me) if a forester was available in 2wd there would be other things i would look at first. Its much cheaper to make one product then two with one drive line then with two. nipper

Sometimes, what problems are you having? nipper

NO! after seeing many of these posts, this is the best explanation i can come up with. I dont understand what the problem is. NVH is a engineering specalty all on its own. IF you have a long peice of steel (steel rule comes to mind) thats fleaxable, move your hand up and down holding it in the center. It will move equally and smoothly. Now Start adding weight to one side and slowly move it out (even a penny will do). You will see that it doesnt have to move out very far from where your holding it to see a major difference. This is the best example i can think of off hand right now. Mass of equal weight can dampen oscilations and vibrations, unequal weights can cause unpleasant vibrations, and can shake things loose Its simple physics to describe it and shoe it, complicated to solve sometimes. Next time somone changes a half shaft, amuse me and weigh it. nipper Anyone else have a better theory?

i love when they do things like that .... considering the upper end of the engine life is not known, they will move a bearing, but not address the head gasket. :-\ nipper

ok ill go back to the bullpen ..... nipper

Your tranny is shot. When its cold, the fluid is thick, so it can operate the clutches. As the fluid thins out, it leaks around the seals, and no more reverse. nipper

You cant clean an o2 sensor. The degrade over time from erosion, being in a very hostile atmosphere. you just replace them. nipper

arent the turbos SOHC engines? they would have a totally differnt HG. nipper

Check the voltage. A jump may give it enough boost to activate the solenoid. The cel light is a little odd, but the ABS light is indicative of a charging issue. nipper

Sounds like a charge issue. you may have a dying battery or a dying altenator. There is a sort of easy way to get it out of park, look at the owners manual. nipper

Subaru suggests premium. When we asked subaru about this, they said you can use regular, but if you have any undesirable drivability issues you should go back to premium. Unlike other engines that require premium, suggested premium means you wont hurt the engine by using regular, but may have performance issues. nipper

http://www.drivetrain.com/subaru_dt.htm#XT%20XT6%204EAT nipper

Simply put (from a dryer mfg site) Air has the ability to hold water in exactly the same way that a sponge can hold water, also the air around us contains water - in the form of vapor. When air is compressed, water drips out in the same way as squeezing (compressing) a wet sponge. If you listen to the weather forecasts, they talk about low pressure fronts. When saturated low pressure air moves towards a high pressure front, the low pressure air gets squeezed (compressed) a little bit - it's going to rain. If you let go of the sponge it expands back to its original size and now has the ability to absorb some more water. Air does the same when you expand it, it becomes drier and will readily absorb water from its surroundings. And------- (condenstaion) An example is a window in a warm living room on a cold winter night. When the warm air inside the living room touches the cold glass, the temperature of the air in contact with the glass drops and water condenses out of the air on to the window. The bigger the temperature differential, the greater the condensation. nipper

The problem is on the atmospheric side of the booster, and there is no place for dessicant. nipper

[/url] 10 % of 180 is 18, so that puts your lowest number 162. All in all, I would say that your numbers are fine, especially for that mileage. 170-180 is considered compression for a new engine. I was trying to find you a nice chart on the net, but man ive seen sites saying anywhere from 5% to 25 % is ok. http://www.motorage.com/motorage/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=16170 i wouldnt worry about 2psi differnce, as that can be human error in the way its done. you have a realtivly solid engine. nipper

Damnit there goes my reputation ... nipper

neither did i the first time From having rebuilt a few boosetrs, what looks like a small motion on the animation is even a much smaller motion in real life. So I can see how it would freeze. This still isnt right, but now that we are aware of it, we can make sure we dont mve the car untill the brakes work in bitter cold weather. Besides the engine will thank you for waiting a few minutes. nipper

http://www.howstuffworks.com/power-brake2.htm check out the animation. You can almost see how donesation in the wonrg spot can kill the boost. nipper