They must have squished quite a bit.  Eventually they will split and break off and get sucked into the oil supply to the Cams.

 

I would get them outta there before it wrecks your cam towers.

Per your PM, I pulled a couple seals from my stash-o-parts.

 

For those who may need to find the part number for these specials seals, the Subaru Part Number and Description are:

 

13089AA010        "O Ring - CMS Case"

 

 

Thanks! Exactly the information for which I came looking!

 

 

Ditto that! local dealer had no clue what I was on about

Per your PM, I pulled a couple seals from my stash-o-parts.

 

For those who may need to find the part number for these specials seals, the Subaru Part Number and Description are:

 

13089AA010        "O Ring - CMS Case"

Thank you for this. I just ordered 4 of them myself.

They must have squished quite a bit.  Eventually they will split and break off and get sucked into the oil supply to the Cams.

 

I would get them outta there before it wrecks your cam towers.

I agree. I've been driving it with my fingers crossed for way too long.

And still is haha..i too just ordered 4 of them.The ebay gasket set had no cam tower seals and the ones for the head gasket were thin o rings.The gasket does have copper inserts around the oil channel...

The oil passage seals in the headgaskets are copper, built in. The aftermarket gasket sets usually give you 2 plain thin (metric) o rings for the cam tower seals.

Update: Question: Why did I buy this ea82 DR wagon back? Answer: Because it's fun in the snow!

It's been over three years since I sold this subaru but now the passenger-side head gasket has failed. Upon examination

I see that combustion gases have been getting into a single coolant passage directly adjacent to a slight dent in the HG's compression ring. The air bubbles coming up out of the radiator while at idle were an obvious indicator of head gasket failure.

The fuel injector seals I'd mistakenly used as cam tower "O" rings are indeed toast. Gloyale's description of what would happen to them was perfect. The cam lobes and cam bearings appear good though. Does anyone know who sell's 220 grit wet or dry sandpaper that come's in square yard's?

Edited October 23, 20169 yr by darsdoug

I haven't seen anything like that. Just the roughly 12 inch square sheets at auto parts stores. Those are what I have used glued to glass.

just use spray contact cement and 2 sheets of the wet/dry ... glue to flat glass or granite slab.   Make sure the surface is flat.

I noticed when I pulled the heads that the head bolts cracked loose fairly easy. Did the HG's shrink over the years? or did I screw up by not giving them a re-torque?

They must have squished quite a bit.  Eventually they will split and break off and get sucked into the oil supply to the Cams.

 

I would get them outta there before it wrecks your cam towers.

You were right. Here it is after three years. That's what can happen when you use a fuel injector seal instead of the proper cam tower O ring.

Edited September 19, 20169 yr by darsdoug

Alright got the new HG's in today. Milled the heads with 220 on glass and WD-40. Cleaned the threads and bolt heads and lightly oiled them before the torque sequence. I went 20-40-60 ft. lbs.  Yes I got the cheap aftermarket HG's on Ebay and I really don't feel like dealing with a re-torque.  Should be interesting to see how it holds up? No silicone copper spray this time around.

Edited October 21, 20169 yr by darsdoug

You were right. Here it is after three years. That's what can happen when you use a fuel injector seal instead of the proper cam tower O ring.

 

You know I have always wondered about that. Glad someone finally did the experiment.

Got it all buttoned up and tried to start it but didn't have any luck. I then gave it a shot of starting fluid and cranked it over. oops! Big mistake! The engine backfired and set the air filter element on fire! I didn't even realize it until I saw smoke coming from the air filter housing. During a controlled panic I managed to unclip the housing and yank out the smoldering filter element. I put my tools away.

I am stuck. It still won't start. Fuel pressure good at 30 lbs going into the SPFI throttle body. Good spark at the plugs confirmed. Tiny hole on passenger side cam pulley was up and driver side cam pulley hole was down with pointer at middle hash mark on flywheel. I turned crank around clockwise 360 degree's until I saw the 0 degree mark on the flywheel and installed the distributor with the rotor pointing at #1 on the cap but still won't start. It won't do nothing. Plugs keep getting gas fouled. What am I missing? 88 subaru wagon SPFI ea82. I just did the HG's on a identical 88 wagon up north and it fired right up and runs fine. Sheesh! 

Edited October 18, 20169 yr by darsdoug

just use spray contact cement and 2 sheets of the wet/dry ... glue to flat glass or granite slab.   Make sure the surface is flat.

 

Be very careful using granite, the stuff you get for counter tops is not flat or even machined to any standard specification. If you were to put a machinists rule on it, you'd see lots of highs and lows. Machinists slabs are granite and would be perfect for this, but are far too expensive. Glass is poured so it naturally flattens out amazingly well and is cheap. I use a piece of 3/8" end table glass I got on Craigslist for $8

 

OP, Every time I have a no start after doing heads its %90 chance its valve timing. I never take the distributor out of the cam tower because there's no need, but since you did, I'd recheck that too. 

 

Josh

Well I finally got it to start and run today. Assuming I had it 180 degree's off I pulled the distributor and removed the passenger side valve cover so I could make sure the cam lobes on  #1 cylinder were not opening either valve. My way of confirming #1 piston was on it's compression stroke while ensuring the zero on the flywheel was lined up with the pointer. I then put the distributor back in with the rotor pointing at #1 on the cap. About the same time I realized I had the wrong electric connector plugged into the front of the throttle body. Today it will barely idle at wide open throttle. I'm assuming the fire damaged the MAF ? Where is MilesFox when you need him? ughh.

Edited October 1, 20169 yr by darsdoug

Anyone got a good pic of the intake manifold wiring harness so I can make sure I have everything where it needs to be? I knew I should have tagged everything before I started removing stuff. There's a solenoid on the front of the throttle body I somehow had plugged into the wrong pigtail. I imagine the color coded wires should match on both the female and male connectors before hooking them together eh? Pretty sure I'm just overlooking something simple? At least I can still remember how to tie my shoe's. ha ha.

If I remember correctly, all of the connectors on the engine harness are different.  You would have to try really hard to cross mate any of them.  The wire colors on the parts vs harness do not always match.

Bumped the timing up a couple teeth at the distributor and it starts right up now but refuses to idle. It just falls off at anything under 2K RPM. Timing must still be off. At least I'm making progress. It never gave me this much trouble during the summer of 2013 when I replaced the HG's the last time. IIRC I never had a fire in the air filter housing or removed the distributor from the cylinder head back then.

Edited October 13, 20169 yr by darsdoug

I bought a new cap and rotor last week and immediately noticed the top of the cap was stamped "1-3-4-2" going counterclockwise. duh? I could have sworn it's "1-3-2-4". I bet they got a huge discount on those. I sure didn't.

Edited October 8, 20169 yr by darsdoug

Alright. Took her for a test drive yesterday and it seems to be getting better the more I drive it. ECU catching up now that it's ambulatory? Dirty throttle body injector? MAF sensor cleaning itself off? I dunno? Sure happy though.

On a hunch I uncclipped the air filter housing and set it over to one side a little and started it up.....and it runs so much better!

I'll be pulling the fender to get a visual on the plenum inside. Possibly a blob of melted plastic from the air filter fire I'm guessing? Restricted airflow?

Edited October 11, 20169 yr by darsdoug

How does it run with the airbox completely removed? I know it sounds stupid, but i sucked up a plastic grocery bag in my 03 pontiac airbox, blocked almost all air from getting in and the car ran horrible. Might look into seeing if there is a passage blockage. Also if it runs good without a box you can narrow down your search

It does have a MAF sensor in the airbox that might be the problem? I doubt it will run good without one. I never did get around to taking the fender off.

I did remove and replace the timing belts and distributor per the MilesFox instructional video. I put a timing light on it and it's idling around 40 degrees BTDC which is well past the desired 20 BTDC. It has a persistant misfire too. It bucks until I give it full throttle. I'm at a loss tonight because I've had the distributor in and out about six times and it's still reading in the neighborhood of 40 BTDC and not completely burning the fuel. cough cough. I'm going to pull the spark plugs tomorrow and read them.