So this is my first post, and I have never owned a Subaru.
A little background on me, im a Senior Master Tech with Ford. Ive never owned a Subaru but had a girlfriend that had one and always enjoyed that little car. We have a friend of a friend with this 2007 Tribeca that has a major headgasket failure on the engine (i believe they are all the same 3.0l). Car has approx 180k on it but appears to have otherwise been maintained well from what i can tell. Body is clean and interior shows normal wear from a grandmother of 4 but not major defects like tears in the seats or anything. Overall pretty clean looking car.
The engine obviously has a headgasket failure. It immediately pressurizes the cooling system when started and also runs rough (as well as cranks like it has a dead hole). Oil appears maybe just a little milky, but not really bad. I have no clue how hot it got when overheated or for sure how many times it got hot.
So my question is this from people that have experience with these little airplane motors when they dont have issues, what kind of life would be expected out of one (engine and trans) that did not see this overheat issue.
And then how durable is this particular engine when you see them get hot and how often do you see other issues when they get hot. I understand that this will just be opinions and nothing will be known for certain until after teardown, but if they are prone to hot spotting cylinders or scoring cylinders its not worth me buying. If for the most part this is seen and i just need to tear it down and machine the heads and put it back together with new gaskets, it would totally be worth picking up for my wife to run around town in, and for our occasional trips to the snow in the winter. If fixing it is going to involve a motor, it just really isnt worth putting the money in as this particular engine seems a little on the expensive side even for a used on for a vehicle thats probably only worth $4500 as it sits according to KBB.
All help is appreciated!! Thank you in advance.
