the airplane guys seem to love them, so they must be pretty good. are they prone to headgaskets? what usually sends them to the junkyard, mine is full of them.

207k miles and still pulling strong on mine ... I'd say thats reliable.

 

John Wilke

Milwaukee

:wave:

260,700 on my 97 2.2 in Texas heat doing stop and go mail delivery. I have changed crank seal's twice, and the dealer changed cam seals once when it was still in warranty. Also have changed water pump and timing belt. Have not had trouble with any gaskets, so far. (Forgot) did also change valve cover gasket's.

I've got 135,000 miles on my '90 2.2 and its still pulling hard. I've had the water pump, belts and two seals replaced. Everything else on the engine seems to be bulletproof (touch wood).

i saw one in the junkyard today, that had 315k, and it looked to be the original motor. i thought i was reading it wrong or something

The EJ22 might very well be one of Subaru's most reliable engines ever. Mine is just broken in at 123k miles. It runs smoother than most NEW cars I've driven, and still pulls with authority.

 

I have heard of a few instances of blown headgaskets, but that takes some very spirited driving...

 

Trust me, you can't go wrong with an EJ22

91 with 220,000 miles before somthing started "rattling" in the bottom end. Never did pull the case apart to see if it was a rod bearing. Another with 180,000 miles with no problems. Another with 160,000 in the rally car was run with no water when the radiator "blew" apart. Tore it down to rebuild and the piston bores all miked to within .0005 of spec. They certainly have the oiling down correctly. Best motor they ever built. BTW, never heard of or had any head gasket problems.

i think its fair to say that they are the most reliable/proven OHC engines subaru has made to date...they will do 200K+ without missing a beat if you keep up the maintenance, and most often they will still last that long if you dont

Well, my EJ22 blew a head gasket at 120K miles. Just after I bought it

 

That was over two years and 58K miles ago, and I despite a lot of WOT driving I haven't had any problems. I suspect the previous owner may have overlooked a cracked coolant hose and let the car overheat. You need something to provoke the head gaskets on an EJ22 before they go. Even so, the hole was tiny, but it meant that compression gas from cylinder 3 was slipping into the coolant, so I replaced them before it grew bigger.

 

No sign of any piston/bore wear though. Compression is good and oil consumption is low. Between my preffered interval of oil change of 6K miles it will drink about a litre of Mobil's finest. There is some evidence to suggest that most of that is burned off over 4500 rpm, which I think is quite reasonable for such an old engine. It pulls very smoothly and with plenty of vigour - right up to 130mph yesterday!

 

I think rust is going to kill my car before engine failure.

I love the engine in my car, even if it is gutless below 3500 rpms...but hey, its a fourbanger! I have heard about gasket issues, but mine never had them. Maybe the fact that mine's a 94 is crucial there. Dunno. Anyway, Subaru's are probably more likely to have failed driveline parts than engines.

Don't forget that a 2.2 engine just did the Rubicon.