johnette93 Posted February 18, 2009 Share Posted February 18, 2009 Ok, I realize I forgot to mention that it is a 99 Legacy Outback with 81k miles on it. It's the DOHC. It is not currently overheating (knock on wood) so driving to PDX may be possible. I am having it hooked up to a little tester doodad to see if it is leaking anything that would indicate head gasket failure is imminent. My timing belt needs replacement soon so I am considering replacing the head gaskets while they're in there already to somewhat save money. Not sure if this is a good idea either. The $2500 included the timing belt, machining and replacing head gaskets, front and rear seals, valve intake and exhaust seals, valve adjustment, thermostat and a coolant flush. It comes with a 12k warantee. This would be at Smart Service Subaru here in Seattle. I got another quote at All Wheel Drive Auto in Kirkland of $1600, not including timing belt. They only offer a 1k warantee. My concern here is trying to balance saving money with quality work. I would prefer to deal with someone who knows Subs well. Frankly we cannot afford to have this done twice so we want to make sure it is done well. I am a female who is not very car savvy so I just don't want to get screwed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
torxxx Posted February 21, 2009 Share Posted February 21, 2009 (edited) Cylinder Head Gasket Replace One Bank 6.7 Notes Both Banks 10.2 Notes most shops are about 90 dollars an hr. so there is close to 1 grand just in labor resurfacing and testing the heads is around 200-250 dollars head gaskets - 80 dollars a piece head bolts -100.00 intake and exhaust - 30.00 spark plugs - 25.00 timing belt - 100.00 water pump - 80.00 Always have it replaced with head gaskets 1 hr labor so + 90.00 Flush - 200.00 Coolant - 40.00 Rear main seal - 25.00 Front Main - 18.00 Thermostat - 10.00 Valve Cover Gaskets - 20.00 Labor to do the intake and exhaust valve seals - 2 hrs (180.00) so said and done its probably around 2000-2200 dollars. I say go with the ones with 12k mile warranty. This is just a rough estimate Make sure when they are doing the test with the "little doodad" that they are doing a Block Test, and a cooling system Pressure test. These motors are known to leak coolant out of the headgaskets on the back of the block. The block test will test for exhaust fumes in the coolant. Make sure which ever company you have do the work is known for doing subaru work. It is an interference engine and if they mess up putting the timing belt on, You will be looking at replacing valves Edited February 21, 2009 by torxxx Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idosubaru Posted February 21, 2009 Share Posted February 21, 2009 have you tried the Subaru dealer? the one here in town charges $1,500 for a head gasket job. add a couple hundred for a new timing belt and pulleys. you are much more likely to have timing component failure than any sort of valve or head problems in the future so i'd put the money there instead of in rebuilding and testing the heads. i wouldn't put $2,500 in that vehicle. these engines easily make 200,000 miles. that being said, i wouldn't do a complete head rebuild on them. most shops don't, just replace the head gaskets. whoever does it, i'd go for an ebay kit if they allow you to supply the parts, $200 for all new timing pulleys and tensioners, you can let them use a Subaru belt. pointless to spend all of this money and leave the timing pulleys and tensioner in there. the belt isn't due again until 185,000 miles, you don't want to depend on all the pulleys/tensioner to last that long. get the ebay kits (subaru is waaay too expensive to replace them all). as to the list above - you don't replace the head bolts on this motor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edrach Posted February 21, 2009 Share Posted February 21, 2009 (edited) Ok, I realize I forgot to mention that it is a 99 Legacy Outback with 81k miles on it. It's the DOHC. It is not currently overheating (knock on wood) so driving to PDX may be possible. I am having it hooked up to a little tester doodad to see if it is leaking anything that would indicate head gasket failure is imminent. My timing belt needs replacement soon so I am considering replacing the head gaskets while they're in there already to somewhat save money. Not sure if this is a good idea either. The $2500 included the timing belt, machining and replacing head gaskets, front and rear seals, valve intake and exhaust seals, valve adjustment, thermostat and a coolant flush. It comes with a 12k warantee. This would be at Smart Service Subaru here in Seattle. I got another quote at All Wheel Drive Auto in Kirkland of $1600, not including timing belt. They only offer a 1k warantee. My concern here is trying to balance saving money with quality work. I would prefer to deal with someone who knows Subs well. Frankly we cannot afford to have this done twice so we want to make sure it is done well. I am a female who is not very car savvy so I just don't want to get screwed. Firstly, Smart Service is one of the best independent service shops around. Higher priced than most independents but quality work every time. I would trust them more than any dealer in the area. That said, I don't understand your concern about head gaskets. When they fail they usually give ample notice of imminent failure. I have a close friend in the rallycross group with a '99 Legacy GT where the head gaskets finally gave "notice" last year while in Portland. He had 156K miles on the car at that time. After cooling off and topping up the coolant he drove it north to Olympia without issue and had the work done at his local independent shop. I think your timing belt service is due at 105K so I don't understand why you're concerned with it at 81K. It's possible that timing belt service was due at 60K but I think that was earlier models. As to thinking about cost saving, I think you have reversed logic here. If you need to do the timing belt, doing the head gaskets at the same time involves significant additional labor and cost. On the other hand, if you were doing the headgaskets, timing belts would not add any significant time to the labor cost of the work. I don't know if there is any significant information that was the cause of your feeling that you want to combine costs and do all the work at once, but I think you're being un-necessarily conservative in your approach. If Smart finds that there is leakage around the headgaskets, then I would go for the whole repair. But if the head gaskets are fine, the timing belt service should be sufficient for the time being. Edited February 21, 2009 by edrach Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JGromada Posted September 29, 2009 Share Posted September 29, 2009 i know this is a little late of a response, but i find this interesting since i encountered it as well (head gasket). I got a range of prices from about $1300 up to $3500! I went with the independent mechanic who true to his word only charged around $1300. I was very unhappy with my local dealer ($2400) and the most unhappy with the high end import service place that quoted $3500 (the car was only worth $5000 at the time) as he obviously wanted my money but not my long term business. So what happened? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idosubaru Posted January 20, 2010 Share Posted January 20, 2010 the most unhappy with the high end import service place that quoted $3500 (the car was only worth $5000 at the time) as he obviously wanted my money but not my long term business. So what happened? I'm from Westminster. Don't know what high end import you went too but in my experience they are not the place to get work done around the baltimore metro area. I've never been impressed with any of them, but that's totally not my style either. They need your money to help pay for the $15,000 paint job and $13,000 stereo in their "show car" on display. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bheinen74 Posted January 20, 2010 Share Posted January 20, 2010 Its fine and dandy to replace the headgaskets before they do in fact go bad. I would NOT resurface those heads tho in that type of case. Inspect the heads and if within tolerance (measured with a straight edge and feeler guage) leave them well alone. Resurfacing them when not needed is a HUGE waste of money and time. Do: T belt, and ALL associated pulleys and tensioners that go with the Tbelt, use ONLY Subaru Branded headgaskets, replace water pump and gasket, fresh coolant, front cam seals, etc. that 2500 quote will decrease considerable if the heads arent needing machining, which i dont think they do right now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2.5GL Posted January 20, 2010 Share Posted January 20, 2010 have you tried the Subaru dealer? the one here in town charges $1,500 for a head gasket job. add a couple hundred for a new timing belt and pulleys. you are much more likely to have timing component failure than any sort of valve or head problems in the future so i'd put the money there instead of in rebuilding and testing the heads. i wouldn't put $2,500 in that vehicle. these engines easily make 200,000 miles. that being said, i wouldn't do a complete head rebuild on them. most shops don't, just replace the head gaskets. whoever does it, i'd go for an ebay kit if they allow you to supply the parts, $200 for all new timing pulleys and tensioners, you can let them use a Subaru belt. pointless to spend all of this money and leave the timing pulleys and tensioner in there. the belt isn't due again until 185,000 miles, you don't want to depend on all the pulleys/tensioner to last that long. get the ebay kits (subaru is waaay too expensive to replace them all). as to the list above - you don't replace the head bolts on this motor. Ditto for sure. I have worked on these for over 11 years now, and agree completely. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.