My friends GL had 360,000 miles on it. That EA82 non-turbo finally bit the dust. Probably had the usual reseals and perhaps head gaskets along the way. Not sure. He sent me audio of when it really turned for the worse.  Sounds like could be bad piston and bad rods? Here is an audio mp3. Look for audio file attachment to hear.

 

 

 

Bad EA82 GL non turbo.mp3

IT does have lifter tick.  The other sound, it's not high quality enough audio for me to tell, might just be 1 cylinder misfiring?  Chjeck for exhaust leaks, they can mask other sounds also.
If it was run really low on oil or coolant, it's going to need at least head gaskets up reseal.  But it might also need rings, and  bearings.

The owner said the oil was not showing on the stick. The oil leaks had quickly escalated beyond what was the norm the past year or so. And after he added a quart an a half of oil the stick then read a whole inch ABOVE FULL. So seems like there would have been enough oil in there to protect the bearings. Assuming no overheating or low oil, do EA82 ever have pistons or rods just fail after 250k or 300k miles?

Random Clacking sound is not like from ELAs . Piston or rod?

Random clacking.mp3

That sound is not lifter tick.

The oil levels, no it didn't run out of oil.

By this age and miles, the oil leaks should be pretty obnoxious.  I resealed them by 150K miles typically.

These engines have a few quirks, but if kept lubed and not overheated, they run for a LONG time.  But keeping these going is a project.  Many parts are NLA, from dealer or aftermarket.  You have to be prepared to be collecting parts when you find them, doing your own work, because most garages won't touch them , or will wreck them if they are not old model Subaru specialists.

I have 2 nearly identical 4WD wagons, I use as daily drivers - but they are backup for each other - if one has a problem, the other is available to cover while parts are found / made / adapted / re conditioned.

 

 

We think it was that the oil was too low. But just for statistics, what is the highest mileage that you have seen from original crank bearings and rods?

Oil leaks got worse over the past YEAR ?!

Even a Subaru will go pop eventually with that level of TLC

 

Personally, I have one that got to 200K+.  It had also been badly overheated, and after I resealed it, it burned oil like mad.  Like a quart per 10 gallons of gas bad.   I figure the oil rings got cooked.   Never had a sign of rod  / bearing problems.  I ran it on waste oil from other cars alternated with whatever cheap oil I came across for a good few years before the head cracked, a while after it passed 200K.  I have a few that are over 150K by a good bit, with no signs of problems with that sort of thing.  Here, rust has killed the bodies before I could get much over 200K.  But I have read about more than a few that made it into the 300 -400K range without major rebuilding.  The engines I have now, I figure are my lifetime supply.  My work changed to mostly work from home a couple years ago, so my driving miles have dropped by half, and with it split between 2 cars, the miles don't rack up as fast as they did for me 10 or more years ago.