Well, Ive fully pimped out my cooling system including a headgasket job to find out that I have cracked heads... pretty nasty cracks inbetween the intake and exhaust valves...

 

So, what should I do? I hear brand new loaded heads are about 250$? per side... Should I cough up the 500$ plus whatever it costs to get the delta cams or just run this motor until it dies?

 

I guess the question is.. would it be worth it to get some virgin heads with some new cams?

the small crack in between the valves is normal, even with gen 3 heads..

ive seen several cracked with no performance degredation..

could you post a picture of it for further analysis

Nah, I've already reasealed my engine... I still have the bubbles in my coolant which I'm almost sure comes from that dept.

I would seriously doubt that those cracks reach into the water jacket. Generally (speaking non-soob-specific), those cracks bridge the intake and exhaust ports and/or cause issues with the valve seat inserts. Without bandsawing the head apart, I would guess that the nearest that the water jacket gets to the valve seat bridge area is about 1/2 inch... that would be a very deep crack, and the car would show other problems first.

Yes I would suspect cracks somewhere else. Not between the valves like you noticed but rather deep in the exhuast port where they actually can crack into a water jacket. Cracks can be hard to see with the eye. I have heads pressure tested by a machine shop to see if they are realy cracked or not.

When I rebuilt my EA82 I too had the big cracks between the valves on both heads, I then ported the heads out even bigger and had them pressure tested to extreme PSI and they passed with flying colors.

 

 

No problems.

Dang, the things I should have done BEFORE I resealed the motor.. oh well, I was on a timeframe.

BTW, you might want to consider getting rebuilt heads. CCR is an option, as is at least one place in the Seattle/Tacoma area and at least one in Portland, Oregon. The semi-quote that I heard a year ago for turbo heads from a local rebuilder was around US$230-250 a pair. (Don't know about SPFI, but should be nearly the same price.) By the time you pay to pressure-test, surface the head, and do a valve-job, you are probably looking at more than that cost.

I hear brand new loaded heads are about 250$? per side... Should I cough up the 500$ plus whatever it costs to get the delta cams or just run this motor until it dies?

 

I'm not talking about rebuilt.

I'm not talking about rebuilt.

I understood that. I was offering up rebuilts as a very viable option.

OK thanks... :-\

I hear brand new loaded heads are about 250$? per side..

 

Where did you get that quote? All the $200 to $300 heads I found were remands. I paid about $400 for a brand new one from SOA.

This is from a technical service bulletin stating that cracks between the valves are ok

 

Gannon

headcracks.pdf

OO! Thanks ausubaru!! thats the info i needed right there... no spending money for me yay yay yay

Thanks from me too.

OK thanks... :-\

if you do consider going with rebuilt heads i would use retro roo

http://www.retroroo.com/

he specializes in 79 through 95 subarus

 

edit: wow, didnt read the original post date on this one lol at me

For those who are interested.