June 24, 200619 yr I posted few weeks ago about my suspected headgasket leak. Took it to the dealer and they warrantied the head gaskets with 90000 miles as long as I would pay for the 90000 mile service. So I ended up with new timing belt, water pump, serp. belts, thermostat, coolant, brake fluid flush, trans. change, diff. change, air filter spark plugs etc. for just shy of $900. Anyway head gaskets appear to still be an issue even on the SOHC engines!,
June 25, 200619 yr So was the headgasket busted? Did they use an updated part, or anything like that?
June 26, 200619 yr Author Head gasket part number is 11044AA632. Not sure if it's updated. So now I have had to do head gaskets on my 97 Legacy Outback wagon EJ25 DOHC at 108,000-did it myself (combustion leak into cooling system areating the coolant) and my 03 Impreza EJ25 SOHC at 90,000 (external leak). I thought maybe they would have figured out how to seal this engine by now. Love the AWD but am loosing my confidence in their engineering. Cars were not driven hard and were maintained. Does Subaru make an engine where the head gaskets last for 200,000 miles? Thanx for your feedback.
June 26, 200619 yr Does Subaru make an engine where the head gaskets last for 200,000 miles? No. But they used to!
June 26, 200619 yr i have 112k on my 2001 EJ251.... no headgasket issues. no sign of hg issues... *shrug* sorry to hear of your problems Jamie
June 26, 200619 yr No. But they used to! Okay, okay! Not true. But I just couldn't resist one more shameless plug for the good old pre-'97 2.2!
June 26, 200619 yr The fix seems to be do it once and its fine. If it helps at all, GM has had HG problems, along with toyota, and a few others over the years. Gm is denying any such thing, toyota is fixing them and subaru you have to throw a hissey fit depending upon the dealer. Chrysler its the neon, vw golf, ford v6, puegot, nissan pathfinder to name a few. Gm has a huge problem with leaking manifold gaskets (plastic manifolds suck). Chrysler is tellng its people to take a walk. ALmots every mfg has one engine with an issue, with the exception of the high end, which doesnt care about weight. The problem isnt so much the head gaskets, its the engines. Having entire aluminum engines makes it difficult to make a good HG. Back when it was a steel block and an aluminum head, it was better, and best with cast iron engines and heads. Aluminum expands and contracts a great deal, twice as much as cast iron to be exact.. Over many millions of cycles, head gaskets blow. HGs are made of a copper alloy, and crush to make a seal, hence why over torquing or wrong pattern is very bad. Some engines do it more then others because the engines have thin walls due to weight savings. There is a pattern of this on engines (if you know the engineering end of them). Its really hard to design a head gasket. When the big 5 have a problem, its hard not to imagine sooby to have one. nipper
June 26, 200619 yr No. But they used to! The ea engines ahd a possible crack between valve in the head. I would rathe have a bad HG then a carcked head. thats not fair. Any Hg that lasts over 130,000 miles is a success. Nothing lasts for ever, no one complain about a waterpump going at 120,000 miles. It wasnt that long ago that 80,000 miles was considered amazing. My sooby has 185,000 miles on the original drivetrain. Only 15% of the HG are bad. The rest of the car seems to last 200,000 miles or more. Also you need to change your radiator fluid regularly on an aluminum engione, that helps (and dont use tap water) I think everyone is just spoiled. :-p nipper nipper
June 26, 200619 yr thats not fair. nipper I hear you, nipper, and by-and-large agree. But I think you'll have to agree that Subaru had an excellent piece of engineering in the original 2.2, then pushed it a little too close to the edge. By the way, the 15% figure is just a guess on our part (and it's for sure SOA won't release any official numbers!)
June 26, 200619 yr I hear you, nipper, and by-and-large agree. But I think you'll have to agree that Subaru had an excellent piece of engineering in the original 2.2, then pushed it a little too close to the edge. By the way, the 15% figure is just a guess on our part (and it's for sure SOA won't release any official numbers!) :clap: :clap: true, but it seems to be about right. There are many many more that have not had a HG issue that can be traced to design fault as opposed to age. i dont think HG issues across the board are going to be solved any time soon nipper
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