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avg_joe

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  • Location
    Pennock, MN
  • Referral
    google
  • Biography
    I Googled some questions, and found some good information on the board.
  • Vehicles
    1999 Forester

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  1. Can the height be measured with the heads installed? What happens if they are too short? And what kind of revs are these engines happy with? With the red area starting at 6, and the tach reading up to 8 grand, it makes me wonder what these engines are supposed to be able to do....without grenading. It always feels like there should be another gear, on the highway. And on the freeway it feels like I'm flogging it to go 70. I'm that slow guy in the right lane....getting passed by semi trucks. I've always had bigger vehicles, with V8 engines that are barely awake to go down the highway. I still can't get used to how my Goldwings like to rev, either. The '77 loves the RPMs, the '82 favors the bottom end of the tach, but will still use the whole thing, without complaining. I foul plugs on the 77, because I tend to under-rev.
  2. I'm curious to know how many times a set of heads can be resurfaced before it starts bumping compression up enough to warrant higher octane fuel? I would think that the machinest would take off the minimum amount to make it flat, but it's still taking off material. I know that the heads on my newly transplanted 2.5 have been machined twice in the recent past, and unknown if it had been done in the previous 190,000 miles(I would guess at least once, but just guessing). The engine sounds good, seems to pull solid, and revs smooth...as far as I rev. I've gotten up to 5 grand a couple of times, but I usually don't like to use that many revs, when there's another gear...I'd rather shift. I just got it running, I don't wanna blow it up right away.
  3. Issue has been solved! I ended up getting a different engine from CL...then discovered that the seller of said engine lied about it's condition. I found another engine on car-part.com that had broken it's timing belt due to idler pully bearing malfunction. I asked the seller to pull the heads off before I got there so I could see the cylinder walls, and they looked good enough. I put my freshly surfaced heads on it, with Six Star head gaskets, new water pump, timing belt, and idlers. I FINALLY got everything in/on/filled/tightened, etc....I get in, turn the key from off to run a couple of times to verify that fuel pump is working, and to get fuel up to the engine.....I take a deep breath, and turn the key to start and crank the engine.....It cranks fine....I repeat several times, cranks fine, but no attempt to start......!!!! I get out and stand there scratching my head, thinking......,........,........(kind of a slow thinker) Then I think 'I don't remember hooking up the coil', so I hooked up the coil to the wiring harness, and it fired right up. I made sure the coolant was properly burped, and have driven it 50-75 miles in a couple of trips. Had I been a little bit more willing to listen to reason in the beginning, I could have saved myself a whole bunch of grief! I had put over $1700 into that engine, and was having a hard time with 'throwing away' what I hoped were good parts. You guys were right, and I should have heeded the good advice.
  4. O.K. I will check into the O-ring. And coolant hoses were gonna get replaced anyway, for the reason you stated. I'm wondering why the automatics got an oil cooler, while the manuals didn't.
  5. I ended up finding a decent(hopefully) short block for my 99 Forester, from a donor that suffered from a broken timing belt. It has a cute little oil cooler that the oil filter screws in to, so apparantly it's from an automatic trans. car. Do I have to take it off to put this engine in my manual trans. car? Thanks. avg_joe
  6. I have 2 junk 2.5 engines, and wonder if any of the innards are re-usable. One engine has stripped head bolt holes, and the other one has some cylinder wall scoring. Pistons seem o.k. on both engines, are they usable in another engine. I haven't split either engine, but I'm assuming the crank, and rods would be good too. I hate the idea of junking parts that are still serviceable, and I seem to be gathering quite the collection.
  7. From bad to worse!! I finally got thread repair stuff, and did the two holes that were known bad...Only to discover that it must be 1.25 pitch, because my head bolts won't thread into the inserts. Can't see how to fix this one, now. I guess it's back to engine shopping again. The really sad, ironic part about this whole debacle is, I got the Subaru so that I could SAVE some money by not driving my 1/2 ton 4X4 pickup all the time.....Now I'm in so deep on this thing, I can't justify not fixing it.
  8. Engines are OUTRAGEOUS!!! I don't understand why they are so expensive. I found out that the head bolts are 11mm with 1.5 pitch....Absolutely no hope of finding thread repair locally. I guess I will order a set of helicoils from Amazon, and see if it will hold. Secret parts, egg-shell head gaskets, snake oil in the water, NO aftermarket support, assembled with unavailable tools........Who wouldn't love a Subaru?
  9. A regular torx bit fits about as well as a no.2 phillips bit fits into a no.3 screw. A mute point now, anyway. As I discovered that at least one of the bolt holes for the heads is stripped. I made a quick trip into town, and couldn't even identify the size/thread pitch of the head bolt. Which makes finding thread repair difficult...... I guess I'm looking for a different engine.
  10. I have heard of people using an unlit propane torch to search for vacuum leak, instead of spraying carb cleaner all over. Just 'spray' the propane on the suspect area, and it should react the same as if you sprayed carb cleaner.
  11. The bolts that hold the cam caps on. I was going to replace the plugs at the end of the cams, and the oil seals.
  12. I ordered gaskets from Six Star. I got the whole set, with all of the other gaskets and seals as well. Figuring that I might as well do it 'right', since I have it all apart. Torx plus....... WTF?!?!? I went to Fastenal, Home Depot, Menards, O'Reilly auto parts, Advance auto parts, and Napa auto parts........ Out of all those places, NOBODY even knows what they are. Fastenal could order them, but not one other place could even order them in. All I can say about the whole situation, is.....Good thing I still have my Ford.
  13. I've got the heads off. Looks like my mechanic is off the hook for this one, as it was the side he didn't do. When I took the head bolts off, the middle 2 bolts were only hand tight on the passenger side, and it was pretty obvious that it had been leaking. All bolts were tight on the side that I had my mechanic work on. Looking at gaskets online, are Fel-Pro a good choice?
  14. Do I need to take the cams, and rocker shafts out of the head? Or can I leave all that stuff intact? At this point, the engine has been opened up almost as many times as the passenger side door, so I'm thinking that cams, rockers, and valves have been inspected, and are in good shape, and wouldn't need to be disturbed. I'm trying to follow the steps in the manual, but am unsure what is actually needed for a HG replacement, as the manual goes through step by step removing every bolt, from every hole, and seperating every part from it's assembly.... After a good night's sleep, and a good cup of coffee, I am leaning more towards fixing, and less towards making it a cube. I really do like the car, and want it back on the road.....sloppy shifter, and all. I am in WAY over my head on this project, and I get frustrated.
  15. A 100-200 dollar job?....... Possibly forgot to mention some of the special tools needed? Apparantly there is a special wrench for each pulley, and a whole host of goofy hardware to hold all the timing stuff together whilst it's apart...... And who knows what else. This has begun to turn into a fiasco, and I'm starting to lose what little faith I had. I have the engine out of the car, and in the garage, but now am stuck without having any of the special crap, and don't know if I should proceed with dis-assembly, or just hoist the engine over the engine bay, cut the chains and let it drop and send the whole works off to the crusher.
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