I'm finally updating my mosquito fogging problem. I pulled the head, on the passenger side, PITA. I bought a pop-up canapy, so I could work out in the rain and in snowed! Well, sure enough, it's cracked in the exhaust port, about 2 inches, in the siamese twins. I could see the water coming out of it, when I pulled the exhaust pipe. There's also a crack between each of the exhaust valves and intake valves. So,would it be better to find another head or have this one fixed? Will the cracks between the two valves get bigger? Keep in mind, this is a EA82t. I haven't had the gumption to pull the other head and probably won't, this time around. I ran a dye in the coolant, before I pulled the head, and found the cracks in the right head, using a black light. I didn't see any in the left head. All advice is welcomed.

~Myles~

Get new heads. Do both to because that way you know for sure you wont have the same problem again.

Sourcing a good used head is an option. However I think most used EA82T heads have the same cracks. The cracks between the valves are common on all EA82s turbo or not. Generally they are no big deal, espescially if there still fairly small. I've never seen those cracks cause trouble.

 

Now the exhaust cracks. Personnally I have more piece of mind after having them ground out and welded up. Just grabbing a used head with no cracks, is fine. But what if it is one hard pull away from cracking? If there is a good race motor builder in your area, talk to them. They will be able to point you to a good welder. Junkyards ussually want to sell a whole motor, not just heads, let alone one head. Having it wleded will almost surely be cheaper than buying a whole motor. Maybe if someone has a set here you could score one cheap. But then you still have a used head that's gonna crack when?

 

I would pull the other head and at least replace the HG. I'll bet that head has the valve cracks too. Nearly all of them do. But that's no worry. You should always do the HG pairs. Headgaskets are ussually sold as a pair anyways.

Caboobaroo has several turbo motors and heads. Also talk to CrawlerDan. If you really just want to get one head or a used set maybe they've got em.

If you decide to get it repaired, check with your local motorcycle machine shops..lots of experience in welding up exotic alloys at these places.

I have a good set of gen 2 turbo heads with new valve seals and with small cracks between the valves but none in the ports. PM me and we can work something out.

Or here is another option. this looks pretty nice. I wonder is the lister on here? Maybe he's been reading you're post

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Subaru-1800-cylinder-head-right-sd-loyale-engine-86-94_W0QQitemZ140095484423QQihZ004QQcategoryZ33617QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

the cracks between the valve seats are no big deal. with maybe one or two exceptions, every single head i've pulled has the cracks between the valves. they are repairable, but can be beyond repair of course too. a good machine shop should know about this. find someone familiar with Subaru's. my machine shop repairs them with Stitch pins and knows subaru heads.

 

the other crack sounds like it's trashed though. have a machine shop look at it, but probably easier just to get another head.

 

a used head will probably have the valve seat cracks, but they should be repairable. all of the ones i've pulled were repairable. i'd suspect turbo motors are more prone to having worse cracks.

around 80$ for a CCR head! THAT would be your best bet