I really don't think it's a thermostat issue in my 96 Legacy 2.2

I was waiting for this issue to come up. 273,000 miles with no documentation of the HG's ever being replaced seal's it. Are Six Star headgasket's the best?

An EJ22 that's not been abused/overheated will usually go 3 to 400k and die of something else long before the head gaskets fail. Head gaskets were simply not a problem on the 2.2, unless the engine overheated for other reasons and something warped. At this point you should probably have the heads machined and possibly the block too. Given the amount of work involved, you'd probably be better off getting a used motor from a wreck or a JDM motor and dropping it in.

Edited February 5, 201313 yr by chaz345