idosubaru

Yes they hold up better in H6s. the labor to replace is extensive and cumbersome to do inside the engine bay - so it’s much easier to do now. I do H6 water pumps only if I’m already taking the timing covers off. If the covers are dry and I’m not removing them I don’t replace the water pump. Disclaimer - That was my approach 10 years ago when I did a lot of H6 engine work and swaps. I haven’t done many recently so it’s getting more prudent to consider replacing based on age. I’d still do the same today outside of any significant additional info like if the engine was suspected of sitting for a very long period of time or other gaskets seem deteriorated more than normal. Their only, rare, failure mode is leaking at the weep hole slowly so it’s not typically a dangerous or a stranding event. While I’m not a shop or mechanic so I’ve only been around a couple dozen H6s, I’ve never seen a failed H6 water pump. But of course it does happen.

I've towed with 80's, 90's, 2000's Subaru's well over capacity. Most commonly towing another Subaru and very large (for a Subaru) boats with Subaru's in all those decades. Usually short, safe trips except taking the boat on vacation. The limit I hit with all of them has been running hot. Drive up a mountain grade in summer and they've all started to run above normal temps or overheat.

Oh wow, well that certainly paints an interesting picture of events. It sounds like they were over their head trying to diagnosis and repair something they really weren't capable of doing in the first place. Sorry you're in that mess. Yes, they usually will settle before going to court. It's just not always a fun process but good grief yeah you've already spent the entire value of the car on repairs they couldnt' do and now a dead engine. What a mess.

Good list. That is exactly what I would do to it. Maybe radiator hoses depending on visual check. A new radiator and hoses isn't a bad idea at some point particularly considering the lower availability of H6 parts.

1. You’re first strategy is already loosing a court battle by showing your bias - you are assuming “no metal showed up in the oil when they changed the gasket”. There very well could have been metal in the oil they just didn’t look or see it. 2. Less than year old vehicle, unknown history, 24 years old, copiously leaking oil, worst engine Subaru ever made - it’s not surprising for an EJ25 under those conditions to loose a bearing EJ25s frequently fail after purchase like this because the former owner had hints of issues. Those hints prompted them to sell. That’s why I asked “how long have you owned this car” - because it’s an EJ25 prone to MASSIVE headgasket issues and overheating which compromises the bearings. You’re not thr first person to buy an EJ25 and have it blow a bearing in less than a year. Lots of online threads of the same experience 3. The only way it could be “proven” to be their fault is if you find a bent sump. So the good news is you don’t have to be a sluth or engineer here to figure this out. The chief issue will be pulling that pan and inspecting the sump in a way that verifies legitimacy to all sides, including Midas and thr court who will have to weigh one professional business “Midas” against a second professional business “Whoever you pay to pull the engine apart” Best to let Midas pull the pan and see and let you be there when they do. They probably have insurance if they see an obvious flaw. Not that they want to abuse it and have rates go up They can’t be liable for unsavory people who pull the pan, bend the sump themselves in order to try to blame Midas and get a free engine. I know of a Subaru dealer in an economically blighted urban area that quit working on Subarus more than 15 or 20 years old due to issues like this. I’m not saying you will do this but you have to be prepared for this reality if you think you’re going to prove this to anyone other than yourself. All of that said - I guess you’re in good shape because the judge will be mechanically, and Subaru, illiterate and knows none of this. So they will just roll the dice and guess or force a settlement that’s not great for both parties probably. Id put the money and time into getting an EJ22 instead - they’re plug and play interchangeable for the EJ25 in that engine and incredibly reliable.

Cracked glass that's so frustrating! Good work !

No, it's not. Research shows a 50% molecular degradation after 100,000 miles in radiator plastics. Replace or leave it be, but I wouldn't try "building it up" or repairing it. What you saw is very common, the outlets do this all the time. I've never worked at a shop and still seen it a bunch of times.

Got it. Failed timing components can't introduce visible, demonstrable amounts of metal into the oil. Metallic sauce in the oil is usually caused by oil starvation to the affected parts.

"Power" is relative. No one can tell you what you'll be doing with the car, how much weight you'll be carrying, or what your expectations are. It works fine for many people. Tires aren't permanent and can be changed. Go buy cheaper used larger tires. If you don't like them, just drive them until they're ready to be replaced. Then replace with the same size if you liked them, or smaller if they didn't scratch your itch. If you're worried about it - load it with a ton of weight and drive it up some road or trail and see how it does on the current tires. If it's intolerable to you then you probably won't like larger tires. Your previous thread is here:

Absolutely, it was a great idea to post here. I've been all around these engines for decades, so my questions and comments are aiming for clarity to help you.

It wasn't tampered with. The speedometer is off because the transmission was swapped to another gear ratio transmission. It's common. It's impossible for the timing belt to cause metal shavings in the oil like you're describing. You never told us what you meant by "timing slip". You never said it was fixed - just that you had it looked at, they said it was fine to drive, and you drove 400 miles. That doesn't sound like a problematic timing slip. It doesn't matter what happened, we know it's unrelated because when a compromised timing belt damages the engine it can't in anyway introduce metal to the oil. So they are unrelated. Also, if it slipped enough to cause damage - it would have needed repaired the moment it happened. If timing belts slip on an interference engine (which yours is), the pistons bend the valves, rendering the car undrivable, or it drives terribly, or no damage at all. It wasn't undrivable and you didn't say any severe performance issues. So there was no damage. The moment the belt "slips" (ambiguity notwithstading) it's either damaged or not. It can't cause issues later.

Nope. I wouldn't do it unless you're ready for an engine swap. H6's swap exactly like H4's if you've ever done a subaru. Cooling system anomalies like you're describing are classic H6 headgasket sypmptoms. They can also be intermittent, so I wouldn't trust one week of it running with no symptoms/coolant loss. It ran hot or smelled funny...someone topped the coolant level off...and thought it was "fixed"...it prompted them to sell when they're getting a whiff of looming potential issues/costs...but still think it's "fixed" because they topped it off or someone (a shop/friend) told them it was. But it's not. Proceed cautiously

Yes - i've done it. You're exactly right - just swap the matching rear diff. TCU doesn't care. You can swap it but I've never noticed a difference.

For all practical swap purposes it's interchangeable with all 1996-1998 EJ25's and 99 Legacy/Outback EJ25's. The better option for reliability. 1995 Ej22 from an automatic is the best option for reliability and ease of swapping. Plug and play, bolts right up. 1996-1998 Ej22 is the same as the 1995 but you'll need an EJ22 exhaust manifold and to make sure it has EGR or work around the EGR. It's very easy and a non-issue for anyone that knows these engines.

Good feedback. Unfortunately there’s no way to tell what caused it without definitive tangible evidence. Oil leaks are a predominant and ubiquitous cause of lower end failure exactly like you’re seeing. Oil gets low, then the oil overheats, degrades, localized overheating comprises the bearing surfaces, which take awhile to actually fail. Like days weeks or months depending how bad the initial damage was. So you’d need quantitative proof they caused this. Not just guesses. The easiest way it’s their fault is if the sump is bent or it was low on oil. But if they already drained the oil there’s no way to verify how much came out. So the sump is the item to inspect. But that requires pulling or cutting the pan off to look at. How do you know the mileage was tampered with? If you’ve been “chasing oil leaks” either this car may have been in rough shape with many leaks or the shop didn’t do a great job of diagnosing what was causing the leaks to begin with.

How long have you owned this car? If it’s a recent purchase number 2 is more likely. It sounds like you’re chasing oil leaks. “cam seal replaced”….not long after….”oil pan seal replaced”. This makes number 2 sound likely. Other than that missing info: 1. The pan doesn’t easily drop out like it looks like. It looks like it does but the sump won’t clear the pan baffles so the engine needs lifted. So if they’re used to some other easy cars/truck manufacturers that just unbolt and come off they could have wrestled the pan and damaged the sump. Pull the pan and check the sump. If it’s damaged then they wrestled it off. Given it a Midas that sees all makes and models it would be very easy to look at a Subaru and think it’s easy and try to rip the pan off and damage the sump. 2. If the cam seal, pan (and maybe other items) were leaking then it could have previously been run very low on oil which frequently comprises the lower end bearings. 3. They forgot to add oil. How much came out when they drained it?

If I had to do this I’d look into cutting the metal pipes or core access area and to avoid pulling the dash If it was a rust bucket good for two years or less I’d consider a bottle of subarus coolant conditioner but maybe a bad option if the engine heating/cooling are suspect. Maybe to help someone limp it to summer. Yes I know you said no diagnosis and this will irritate you, and yet this probably isn’t the heater core.

Right on beast, good luck and hope you have a garage to do this in, it was 4 degrees at my house!

Ask for one for a 1992 legacy or 1994 impreza - those shouldn't have any additional gaskets to confuse someone reading a computer screen. And all 1990-1998 legacy/impreza 2.2 and 1.8 valve cover gaskets are the same. The guy doesn't know anything about Subarus and is just clicking a screen and reading it to you. There's only one gasket it can be, this one, which as you can see is listed for all 1990-1998 ej22 and ej18: https://www.subaruparts.com/oem-parts/subaru-valve-cover-gasket-13294aa012

FWD auto, 4WD Auto, 4WD manual available here. Some of them from there were part of subaruxt forums so I know of them from there. Have you ever seen one in person or know any of the owners? I get Aus and NZ owners confused but I think Dima was in NZ. I shipped him some parts 20 years ago. Lol

OEM converters are worth hundreds, aftermarket $25 on a good day, happy scrapper, if he rounds up. If aftermarket converters had more value in them the market would find a way to extract it and entice people to sell them. This isn't just twice as much...no way they're comparable when there are orders of magnitude difference in value to scrap yards. More anecdotally you'll see it on forums - aftermarket converters throwing codes, being problematic. I've bought cheap aftermarket exhaust and it'll be rusty in a year. Which is fine for a car not long for this world anyway. But they're not going to use cheap materials everywhere else and top shelf precious metals for the catalysts.

Nah, it's a FWD.

Ignore shifting clunking (for now and probably for a long time). Bushings or delayed engagement which are both usually benign with no risk of breaking down yes the cooling system needs to not leak. aftermarket radiators Subaru hoses like GD said what made this car go to pasture for 2 years and not get used?

https://shop.advanceautoparts.com/p/prestone-all-vehicles-50-50-antifreeze-coolant-gallon-af2100/7020013-P?navigationPath=L1*14922|L2*15020|L3*15924 Ask the auto parts store. It’s the half a century old ubiquitous generic green coolant available anywhere. Prestone or other brands. but the full strength snd mix yourself 50/50 with distilled water. If you don’t have an owners manual get one - it lists all the fluids and weights. Old radiators fail, I’m not a shop/mechanic and I’ve lost count of how many radiators I’ve replaced. The area you mentioned is a frequent fail point. When it cracked is immaterial, it was bent, sat for years and old. Install a new one.

Oh right on. I know you get it. I was thinking about the op, didn’t want op to think the shop is completely off base or dishonest.