kuw4subie

Hey Fairtax4me, et al.. Thanks for the congrats. I just wanted to make sure I was/am worthy of such before taking it to heart! And factor in the holidays & 1st road trip. So 550 miles and all is well. It's surreal but soaking in, nonetheless. I'll trust my work better when I pass the 5K mark. Only concern is not having cleaned out the head bolts' threads in the blocks well enough and currently operating on an inaccurate torque spec. Time will tell. Still have a flush to do on the coolant system, new motor mounts, and new gray RTV gasket for the oil pan. But engine, tranny, etc. is good to go. Thank you again. There's no way I could have done this without the collective advice. Happy New Year all!

And Fairtax4me... Lol! I imagine tractors are lots of fun! No doubt I'd need my steel pipe cheater bar to turn most bolts.

After over 2 months of work in my friend's driveway, on (clear) nights & weekends, my engine-in head gasket change has been a success!!! Burped the air, changed the oil (which came out like hot cocoa), bled the air for my power steering system, as I changed the o-ring for the reservoir which the after market rebuild kit did not include, and all is well!! Ticking that I did not have before this job has already diminished considerably, which is reassuring, and all is well. Better engine power with lower RPMs under load and no more exhaust displacement of the coolant and consistent heat again. I am sooo relieved. So... 250K miles & counting on this old 94 2.2. Thank again, everyone!! I could not have done this without all your incredibly invaluable feedback & suggestions. Will be signing up for a full paid membership to this forum in the next few days and I hope to give back to others here, as you all have done. Great community. Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays to all. Now I'm heading to NJ& PA to catch up with family. 1st road trip in over 2 months.

Good news is seals are fine. And there was no leaking before all thisn so I'm good on the injectors & their o-rings. But getting it together? Uhg! Agreed, Adventure Subaru. I trust my idle will be good toon after getting the fuel rail re-situated. Being a lay-person mechanic for such a job has been grueling. And getting this fuel rail reseated properly has been the most difficult part so far is maddening! It's a matter of keeping pressure in having them flush & seated before being able torquing down the bolts at all. I'm looking at C-clamps now. If I could do it all over again, I would pull the engine. Moot point now though. So close too.

Good news is seals are fine. And there was no leaking before all thisn so I'm good on the injectors & their o-rings. But getting it together? Uhg! Agreed, Adventure Subaru. I trust my idle will be good toon after getting the fuel rail re-situated. Being a lay-person mechanic for such a job has been grueling. And getting this fuel rail reseated properly has been the most difficult part so far is maddening! It's a matter of keeping pressure in having them flush & seated before being able torquing down the bolts at all. I'm looking at C-clamps now. If I could do it all over again, I would pull the engine. Moot point now though. So close too.

Good news is seals are fine. And there was no leaking before all thisn so I'm good on the injectors & their o-rings. But getting it together? Uhg! Agreed, Adventure Subaru. I trust my idle will be good toon after getting the fuel rail re-situated. Being a lay-person mechanic for such a job has been grueling. And getting this fuel rail reseated properly has been the most difficult part so far is maddening! It's a matter of keeping pressure in having them flush & seated before being able torquing down the bolts at all. I'm looking at C-clamps now. If I could do it all over again, I would pull the engine. Moot point now though. So close too.

I will do exactly what you're suggesting Fairtax4me. Agreedn hopefully seals are still good.

Primed it, oil wise, with crankshaft sensor, coil pack, and fuel pump disconnected. Oil light went off. Idled at 3K at 1st start. Turned it off immediately. Started again a few more minutes. Again and let it drop to 1.75K. Ran rough and cut it. Gave it a few minutes break between each start up. Finally started a 4th time and had some smoking from the tailpipe, which I understand initially so is normal from the head cleaning & rocker assembly adjustment & cleaning. But... Only fallout it seems is the passenger side fuel rail wasn't seated properly, as I accidentally removed the bolts that connect it to the manifold. That was first side of the intake I started removing bolts on, as I was doing the tear-down, and realized the error as I worked the other side. Nonetheless, both injectors in this side are unseated as fuel rail is lifted up about .5". Just enough to wreak havok. Fixable but more research. Hopefully just need to replace seals? Any ideas?

I'm good with the heads back on, properly torqued, intake, etc. Last possible snafu. I took the crankshaft pulley off at TDC and ended up turning it 2 full revolutions before having all timing idler pulleys and camshafts lined up. Got all marks and put on timing belt; released tensioner adjustor to the left and realized I may have not had the crank at TDC afterall, before having everything seemingly situated. Now doing a compression test on Cylinder 1 and getting no build up turning crankshaft with tachet & cheater bar. Does this mean I was at the wrong end of the compression stroke, when I thought I was at TDC? Do I need to do the belt all over again, first getting compression at Cylinder 1 before even being concerned about camshaft oulley timing marks? I hope not but... Thanks again. So close but~

Not to highjack this thread.. But are TTY bolts to be torqued the same exact way as orginal head bolts? And if I need to start over, should I start fresh with new TTY head bolts and follow Haynes torquing procedure, regardless of head bolts are TTY or orginal re-used? Thanks for clarifying...

I feel I may be totally messed up on this. The Haynes manual has the torque specs spelled out but is it taking into consideration TTY bolts or the original, which are not TTY?? Now I'm ready to toss the replacement (TTY) bolts I bought and put in the original, except for the 2 that are rusty. How do the newer TTY head bolts get torqued properly, if they're only designed to be torqued/stretched once?? I've loosened everything up on the 1st & only side I'm working on until I understand this torquing procedure and how it relates to TTY bolts. Also, to further complicate matters, the Haynes manual on the last steps jumps over to inch lbs, vs ft lbs.

Realized my motor mount is ripped in half on passenger side. And used red scotchbrite pad, by hand, to clean block surface. Two $crew ups. Didn't do my homework about scotch brite & aluminum oxide issue but since I did it by hand, hopefully I dodged a bullet with no debris in the cylinders! And add $140 for a new set of motor mounts. Uhg. This last stretch is kicking my butt.

Thanks! It was indeed the rusty retainer dowels holding things up. They came out with the head and I have new ones, along with freshly cleaned & resurfaced heads now too! Now onto the block cleaning. Not enough hours in the day to do this stuff and work full-time as a IT nerd. :-P So... Lots of carbon build-up on the top of the pistons. Cylinders look good and the block HG mating surface cleaning seems straight forward. But about getting the pistons clean..? I have break cleaner, lacquer thinner, some fine wet/dry sandpaper, etc. But I don't want anything getting past the pistons and messing with things more so. Any ideas or posts anyone could refer me too? The engine is in vehicle still, so more awkwardness ahead. But so far, so good, even while soooo slow!

Hey NopeNope.. Thanks for the msg'd inquiry. To answer your question, my symptoms were due to a couple of issues. My timing belt being not properly installed was the big thing. I have the non-interference EJ22, thankfully, and while I did an intial count of the teeth for each zone, the belt must've crept just enough to throw the timing way off. I re-did the install with mini c-clamps to hold the cam pulleys in place, the 2nd time around, and meticulously counted teeth as needed. Also replaced the hydraulic tensioner adjuster, as I had milder yet similar symptoms before I even replaced the timing belt after a water pump failure. If you have a high mileage subaru, I'd take a close look at your adjuster as well. The beginnings of a hydraulic fluid leak are barely discernable, as I had just a bit of sheen on the gasket seal that surrounds the piston for such- but not like an obvious wet leak. But you gotta figure that any leakage can compromise the strength of the piston's pushing power. When I took the old one off and it wasn't under load, the piston came out a bit further. So I got it all back together and it ran smoother than it had in over 6 months! Then I was able to figure out I still had leaky head gaskets from the resulting over-heating from the water pump failure (on the highway). So I'll be putting it all back together again this weekend and trust I have the timing belt install process down-pat now! And also shiney resurfaced heads too... But that adventure is noted in another post. I love this forum. Y'all rock!!!

Thank you, again! Will get back to it in the morning, feeling a bit more courageous.