trueforger

For what it's worth, make sure the dealer has replaced the idlers and timing belt with a NEW one. I ended up with a problem Subaru and think the dealer, or pusher man, swapped the timing belt with another used one and called that,"replaced". Also stripped out more than a few bolts in engine, nothing was tightened to spec, actually loose rod cap nuts, leaking from several places from poor assembly, bad HG job.

BTW on the topic of lapping, the machinist rule on progressive fineness of grits, you must vary your angle of attack as you change grit. This will show which marks are from previous grit. This avoids a lot of work polishing out real deep marks that the intermediate grit missed. I personally go with circular with coarse and different angle back and forth for finer grits. The back and forth is where you tend to rock, wobble and ruin, so I save that for the less damaging finer grits. Circular is much more steady and tends to round over the edges less than linear.

Newbie here. So I am doing the head gasket thing. At disassembly/clean up which revealed the fire ring impressions on the block that need removal, I am now facing extraction of four pin/tubes pressed into the block upper surface. Not even sure what they are called, at first I tried to extract with no damage but no go. I then reasoned they are expendable and so have been using progressively greater force, but as yet no wiggle. Next will be a slide hammer after I make a bit to fit. Heat? Since this head has been overheated already...Any comment?