kuw4subie

Hey Fairtax4me, et al.. Thanks for the congrats. I just wanted to make sure I was/am worthy of such before taking it to heart! And factor in the holidays & 1st road trip. So 550 miles and all is well. It's surreal but soaking in, nonetheless. I'll trust my work better when I pass the 5K mark. Only concern is not having cleaned out the head bolts' threads in the blocks well enough and currently operating on an inaccurate torque spec. Time will tell. Still have a flush to do on the coolant system, new motor mounts, and new gray RTV gasket for the oil pan. But engine, tranny, etc. is good to go. Thank you again. There's no way I could have done this without the collective advice. Happy New Year all!

And Fairtax4me... Lol! I imagine tractors are lots of fun! No doubt I'd need my steel pipe cheater bar to turn most bolts.

After over 2 months of work in my friend's driveway, on (clear) nights & weekends, my engine-in head gasket change has been a success!!! Burped the air, changed the oil (which came out like hot cocoa), bled the air for my power steering system, as I changed the o-ring for the reservoir which the after market rebuild kit did not include, and all is well!! Ticking that I did not have before this job has already diminished considerably, which is reassuring, and all is well. Better engine power with lower RPMs under load and no more exhaust displacement of the coolant and consistent heat again. I am sooo relieved. So... 250K miles & counting on this old 94 2.2. Thank again, everyone!! I could not have done this without all your incredibly invaluable feedback & suggestions. Will be signing up for a full paid membership to this forum in the next few days and I hope to give back to others here, as you all have done. Great community. Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays to all. Now I'm heading to NJ& PA to catch up with family. 1st road trip in over 2 months.

Good news is seals are fine. And there was no leaking before all thisn so I'm good on the injectors & their o-rings. But getting it together? Uhg! Agreed, Adventure Subaru. I trust my idle will be good toon after getting the fuel rail re-situated. Being a lay-person mechanic for such a job has been grueling. And getting this fuel rail reseated properly has been the most difficult part so far is maddening! It's a matter of keeping pressure in having them flush & seated before being able torquing down the bolts at all. I'm looking at C-clamps now. If I could do it all over again, I would pull the engine. Moot point now though. So close too.

Good news is seals are fine. And there was no leaking before all thisn so I'm good on the injectors & their o-rings. But getting it together? Uhg! Agreed, Adventure Subaru. I trust my idle will be good toon after getting the fuel rail re-situated. Being a lay-person mechanic for such a job has been grueling. And getting this fuel rail reseated properly has been the most difficult part so far is maddening! It's a matter of keeping pressure in having them flush & seated before being able torquing down the bolts at all. I'm looking at C-clamps now. If I could do it all over again, I would pull the engine. Moot point now though. So close too.

Good news is seals are fine. And there was no leaking before all thisn so I'm good on the injectors & their o-rings. But getting it together? Uhg! Agreed, Adventure Subaru. I trust my idle will be good toon after getting the fuel rail re-situated. Being a lay-person mechanic for such a job has been grueling. And getting this fuel rail reseated properly has been the most difficult part so far is maddening! It's a matter of keeping pressure in having them flush & seated before being able torquing down the bolts at all. I'm looking at C-clamps now. If I could do it all over again, I would pull the engine. Moot point now though. So close too.

I will do exactly what you're suggesting Fairtax4me. Agreedn hopefully seals are still good.

Primed it, oil wise, with crankshaft sensor, coil pack, and fuel pump disconnected. Oil light went off. Idled at 3K at 1st start. Turned it off immediately. Started again a few more minutes. Again and let it drop to 1.75K. Ran rough and cut it. Gave it a few minutes break between each start up. Finally started a 4th time and had some smoking from the tailpipe, which I understand initially so is normal from the head cleaning & rocker assembly adjustment & cleaning. But... Only fallout it seems is the passenger side fuel rail wasn't seated properly, as I accidentally removed the bolts that connect it to the manifold. That was first side of the intake I started removing bolts on, as I was doing the tear-down, and realized the error as I worked the other side. Nonetheless, both injectors in this side are unseated as fuel rail is lifted up about .5". Just enough to wreak havok. Fixable but more research. Hopefully just need to replace seals? Any ideas?

I'm good with the heads back on, properly torqued, intake, etc. Last possible snafu. I took the crankshaft pulley off at TDC and ended up turning it 2 full revolutions before having all timing idler pulleys and camshafts lined up. Got all marks and put on timing belt; released tensioner adjustor to the left and realized I may have not had the crank at TDC afterall, before having everything seemingly situated. Now doing a compression test on Cylinder 1 and getting no build up turning crankshaft with tachet & cheater bar. Does this mean I was at the wrong end of the compression stroke, when I thought I was at TDC? Do I need to do the belt all over again, first getting compression at Cylinder 1 before even being concerned about camshaft oulley timing marks? I hope not but... Thanks again. So close but~

Not to highjack this thread.. But are TTY bolts to be torqued the same exact way as orginal head bolts? And if I need to start over, should I start fresh with new TTY head bolts and follow Haynes torquing procedure, regardless of head bolts are TTY or orginal re-used? Thanks for clarifying...

I feel I may be totally messed up on this. The Haynes manual has the torque specs spelled out but is it taking into consideration TTY bolts or the original, which are not TTY?? Now I'm ready to toss the replacement (TTY) bolts I bought and put in the original, except for the 2 that are rusty. How do the newer TTY head bolts get torqued properly, if they're only designed to be torqued/stretched once?? I've loosened everything up on the 1st & only side I'm working on until I understand this torquing procedure and how it relates to TTY bolts. Also, to further complicate matters, the Haynes manual on the last steps jumps over to inch lbs, vs ft lbs.

Realized my motor mount is ripped in half on passenger side. And used red scotchbrite pad, by hand, to clean block surface. Two $crew ups. Didn't do my homework about scotch brite & aluminum oxide issue but since I did it by hand, hopefully I dodged a bullet with no debris in the cylinders! And add $140 for a new set of motor mounts. Uhg. This last stretch is kicking my butt.

Thanks! It was indeed the rusty retainer dowels holding things up. They came out with the head and I have new ones, along with freshly cleaned & resurfaced heads now too! Now onto the block cleaning. Not enough hours in the day to do this stuff and work full-time as a IT nerd. :-P So... Lots of carbon build-up on the top of the pistons. Cylinders look good and the block HG mating surface cleaning seems straight forward. But about getting the pistons clean..? I have break cleaner, lacquer thinner, some fine wet/dry sandpaper, etc. But I don't want anything getting past the pistons and messing with things more so. Any ideas or posts anyone could refer me too? The engine is in vehicle still, so more awkwardness ahead. But so far, so good, even while soooo slow!

Hey NopeNope.. Thanks for the msg'd inquiry. To answer your question, my symptoms were due to a couple of issues. My timing belt being not properly installed was the big thing. I have the non-interference EJ22, thankfully, and while I did an intial count of the teeth for each zone, the belt must've crept just enough to throw the timing way off. I re-did the install with mini c-clamps to hold the cam pulleys in place, the 2nd time around, and meticulously counted teeth as needed. Also replaced the hydraulic tensioner adjuster, as I had milder yet similar symptoms before I even replaced the timing belt after a water pump failure. If you have a high mileage subaru, I'd take a close look at your adjuster as well. The beginnings of a hydraulic fluid leak are barely discernable, as I had just a bit of sheen on the gasket seal that surrounds the piston for such- but not like an obvious wet leak. But you gotta figure that any leakage can compromise the strength of the piston's pushing power. When I took the old one off and it wasn't under load, the piston came out a bit further. So I got it all back together and it ran smoother than it had in over 6 months! Then I was able to figure out I still had leaky head gaskets from the resulting over-heating from the water pump failure (on the highway). So I'll be putting it all back together again this weekend and trust I have the timing belt install process down-pat now! And also shiney resurfaced heads too... But that adventure is noted in another post. I love this forum. Y'all rock!!!

Thank you, again! Will get back to it in the morning, feeling a bit more courageous.

Thanks for the feedback, mikaleda!Unbelievable how labor intensive this has been. I finally got the cam sprokets off, the head from the driver's side and the head bolts on the passenger side. But now another snafu... Turns out the top front head bolt, closest to the pwr steering pump, is very rusty. I had a PS leak for too long and I wonder if this eventually compromised the HG on that side too. But even with getting the bolts gracefully removed, the head seems seized to the block. I've tried the rubber mallet approach & lots of muscle help to no avail. Any tricks anyone can offer in this case, that I can be assured won't damage the head, such as prying might do? Or is there a safe spot to do a bit of prying?

And yes, doing this with engine in car. Uhg. But I don't have the resourses for doing it any other way, even though I see it is not the easiest approach.

Thanks again for the invaluable feedback! I finally got past the engine jacking procedure to where head bolts could clear and lowered it back down with everything lined up & motor mounts seated correctly to get my comfort level established. Next question is cam sprockets. From my research, it seems such a chore to get these pulleys removed and I've read where it is not actually necessary, for the 2.2 SOHC engine, though I see the rear TB cover would still be between the pulley and the head. Can one carefully and successfully still perform the DIY resurfacing with the cam sprockets attached? I am 98% sure the heads won't be damaged and the DIY resurfacing with a follow up check will confirm less than .002" of warpage.

Thanks Fairtax... I've got a 4x3" 11" long block on a floor jack. Jacking right beside the dvr side of the oil pan at the block. Cleared the motor mount. And I can jack it up to where the exhaust manifold clears and engine rises. But about 2" shy of clearing that bottom rear head bolt still and oil begins leaking from the rear of the pan. This is in a driveway w/no engine hoist. I let the jack back down and leaking ceases but... OMG. I'm afraid of breaking something in jacking it up another 2" needed. How does one "tilt" the engine w/out raising further & w/out a hoist over the top? At all possible? Will I break anything on my 2.2 or AT? ATF pan is fine still. Comfort level is null..

Thanks,Gary! I didn't mention when I did this 15 years ago, my buddy did all the prep work for me with pulling the engine out and heads removed. So this is a whole new adventure. One I've procrastinated on starting. Got to the point of analysis paralysis finally and diving in today. Figured out where the 2 14mm bolts on the motor mounts to remove and figured out the pitch stop. Got the fuel pressure relieved & crank bolt loosened. Air intake/vaccum hoses removed. Accessories & intake manifold is next. Figure the intake can come of with fuel rails attached. Pwr str pump off to one side, AC off its mount but still connected & shifted to where the battery lives... Lingering question on "support trans and unbolt the rear so it'll rotate more." Can you please elaborate with spoon-feeding details? This is admittedly daunting, more so than changing my water pump & timing belt components. Water pump failed on the highway, which is what got me to this place of needing the change the HGs. After all is said & done, I'll have an awesome smooth running senior subie. It actually runs so smoothly now, at 250Kn that I can balance a glass of water on the engine at idle and go up a steep hill at well less than half-throttle. 150lbs in all cylinders and I'm a bit paranoid of messing anything up. Being a military veteran, I have the 6 P's echoing in my head: "Prior planning prevents pi$$ poor performance!" Yup... Thanks again all. Again, more details on support of the tranny without fully diconnecting is greatly appreciated.

Thanks Mikaleda et al.. Does this mean I need to disconnect my AT to raise the engine with loosened motor mount bolts? Will the engine move vertically upwards w/the AT connected, an inch or 2 or 3, versus needing to swivel the engine away, in an upwards arc fashion, like I recall doing with my GL-10? Any other threads on this I should refer to? I figure if I have to disconnect the tranny, then I should just pull the engine altogether. Uhg.

Thanks for the insights, all. I've decided I'm doing this on my own. I've had good success with doing the same on an '88 GL-10 Turbo about 15 yrs ago, albeit with new heads, so I'm figuring why not do this with existing. I've checked out GD's post on DIY head resurfacing and will be doing this as well. Remaining question is, can this be performed with engine in? I changed valve cvr gaskets, no prob, but realize head bolts are longer (will they clear?). And I want to leave valve cvrs on for obvious reasons. But what are my odds of getting proper torque wrenching that's needed? Again, I understand it will take longer in some respects to do this with engine in, but I want to change my intake manifold and TB gaskets, so I figure why not.. Thanks, gents. -Kellee

GD, thanks for this post. I'm about to dive into resurfacing my EJ22 heads. You mentioned granite. I found a couple of high-gloss-finish granite tiles. 12"x12". Seems it would work in lieu of plate glass but what are your thoughts? Also, I have a small feeler gauge but no calibrated straight edge and I'm not finding a write-up on DIY measuring for >.002" imperfections. Ideas? Thanks..

1994 Legacy Ls non-turbo: Currently have leaky head gaskets, confirmed by exhaust gasses in coolant. Beginning phases of HG failure and no signs of coolant in the oil after 2 very recent changes and constant dip-stick/filler cap checks. But snot in the coolant, esp expansion tank. Any recommendations for best choice of HG brand and type would be greatly appreciated! For instance, I understand Fel-pro is as good as Subaru OEM. Confirmations of this? And what about MLS versus the normal OEM composite type? I see MLS being standard for turbo engines and in the 2.5 but what about the 2.2? Lastly, the nice guy I am paying to lead this not-so-much DIY job has suggested that Felpro makes a specific head gasket that's best for such repair jobs that include the task of the heads being resurfaced. But I'm not seeing this called out anywhere in my research. Thanks for any recommendations you all can offer. I want to get this done rightn using best possible materials (to include new head bolts of course), as the labor alone is obviously expensive.

Good thought though. I only know this because of going down the same road with researching these symptoms and having Subaru parts dept confirm the lack thereof.