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I think I must have bought myself one of the rarest OBWs out there. I thought it had a blown head gasket because the compression read 28psi in one hole, which would make it very common. But this one's special. I tore the heads off today and the gaskets, factory original at that, looked great. It was only when I looked closer that I realized what the problem was. See anything wrong here? No? What about here? Busted exhaust valve. The gasket looked perfect. How's that for freaky? But since I'm in here already, the other head is coming off, both are going in for a quicky valve job. Should have this bad boy back on the road by next weekend, all for less than $1500 including the purchase price. Yeeeeeehaw!:cool:

Riiiiiight, duck tape. I hadn't thought of that. You're pretty good.

I see what you're saying. It makes perfect sense. But when I tried to blow that theory out of the water by running my compressor up to the max, it didn't make a damned bit of difference. Go figure. How the hell am I supposed to sleep tonight with this great mystery sitting out in my garage? Hmmm, might have to call in sick tomorrow!

OK, I just came out of the garage after doing a leak down test on this 2.5 DOHC in my '97 OBW and I have got some funky results. I've seen bubbles in the coolant before with the engine running and up to operating temp. The compression test looked good (172-180) on all but #3, which had all of 28psi. I put the crank damper timing mark on zero, dead-nuts-on TDC for #3 and I got an 50% reading on the leak down. No surprise there, given the compression test result. I ran around the car and found air moving fast out the tail pipe AND the #1 spark plug hole, but don't feel anything worth mentioning on the intake, dipstick tube, or the opposite bank of spark plug holes. Sounds like a blown head gasket right between the 1 & 3 cylinder, right? Here's where you earn your beer for the night: when I swap the leak down test to the #1 cylinder after rotating the crank 360*, I get 8% loss and can hear just a wee bit of air moving through the intake and exhaust. I'm guessing the #1 valves aren't sealing up perfectly. But if the head gasket is shot so badly that it allows enough air to leave the #3 cylinder that it empties my 30 gallon compressor tank in 75 seconds, how in the #$^*#$@#@ can the #1 cylinder be sealed up as tight as a ducks rump roast? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

freakin' double post

I've got the compressor running in the garage right now, getting ready for the big leakdown test. Meeky, what sort of compression did you have on that dead hole in your car? Did you also have any sort of ticking sounds going on? I've got something that doesn't sound metallic, it's more like a pinhole exhaust leak (but without any exhaust leaks apparent). Also, what happened to your fuel economy when you swapped out motors? Anything noticeable? I hear what you're saying about swapping out the engine, but I'd really like to avoid that if I can. Are there other issues besides the head gaskets that make these 2.5s anchor material?

The external insulator was the one that was cracked on the plug. There wasn't any mechanical damage to the combustion chamber end of the plugs. The lousy thing about doing this work is that I have every tool I need to do leak down, compression testing, an engine crane and stand...all in Portland, Oregon, while I'm now living in DC. I'm just an impatient bastard, so I end up buying new tools because I don't want to wait for shipping. As it stands, I've got a compressor on both coasts, so I'll just set the regulator at 100psi and then use the quick disconnect hose from my new, east coast compression tester to hook each cylinder up. If the line pressure drops to 90psi, I'll know my leakdown is 10%. I'll be able to confirm the blown HG this way by looking for bubbles in the coolant, too.

I bought a '97 OBW that was running rough a week ago. The previous owner said it had been diagnosed by an indie mechanic and the dealer as having a "blown cylinder." I found a broken spark plug on the #2 cylinder and figured that the mechanics were just lazy. The car doesn't overheat (yet), even with the AC cranked up in steamy hot Washington, DC. After replacing the spark plugs, checking the wires, and resetting the CEL, I thought I might have fixed it. It certainly ran better, but there was still a persistent ticking sound that seemed to come from the right side of the engine. And then the blasted CEL came on again after about 2 miles of driving. I went out and picked up a compression tester yesterday and found #2 had 180, #4 had 172, #1 had 175 (I was getting really excited by this point), then #3 came in with 28! HA! Houston, I may have found the problem! It looks like "blown cylinder" means blown cylinder head gasket. The oil is as clean as can be. I pulled the valve cover yesterday and it looks like new inside--it looks like the original owner was religious about oil changes. When I checked the coolant originally, I didn't let the car fully warm up before looking for bubbles, which lead to my misdiagnosis. I'm pretty sure that the thermostat hadn't opened and was holding the air back. When I let it fully heat up yesterday there were obvious bubbles in the coolant. Here's the wierd part--there's no steam out the tail pipe. The thing is, I don't want to replace the HGs and then find out that the ticking sound is coming from something else deep in the engine. I found a thread on the early Subi forum where the guy's overheating and ticking problem went away when he replaced the head gaskets. I have two questions: A) If combustion gases are going past the gasket and entering the coolant passages, why isn't coolant showing up as steam at the tailpipe? 2) How in the world could a blown head gasket be related to a ticking sound? As always, thanks for your thoughts and opinions in advance.

Not trying to be an eco-nazi or anything, but 134A, while not as bad as R-12 in some respects, should be recovered, not just released to atmosphere. Gotta go hug a tree now. Buh-bye.

Yeah, but then you have to deal with dents from all the dead birds kamikaze'ing your Subi!

HA! Are there any parts on these damned Subis that don't make ticking noises?

I'm with you on that, n16ht5. I'm pretty much game for anything mechanical except auto trans problems, AC system evac & recharge, and alignment. The latter two I don't do because it's not worth investing in the equipment. I've done a couple of broomstick, string, and measuring tape alignments and the results weren't too bad, but I could never get the steering wheel centered. I guess auto trannies are the only things that really scare me. I usually ride my bike into work, but storms are on the way this afternoon (@#$%&*@ east coast summers) so I drove the Subi. Halfway in, the CEL came back on! D'oh! I spoke too soon! The car performs a ton better than it did. It drives nice and has plenty of power, but something in there isn't working 100%. I'll toss it on a scanner and see what codes pop up later today. I seem to remember life being easier in the days of points, carbs, and leaded gas.

Silverstars are one of the standard upgrades I do with my cars. They're awesome. I had XtraVisions on my Jeep (sealed beam, but same bulb technology I think), but found that Silverstars put a lot more light out on the road. The difference is most obvious on wet streets. With Silverstars you can actually see.

I've posted here recently about a '97 OBW I picked up for $1200. It has 140k on it and was not running well at all, the CEL was on all the time, sometimes flashing. The previous owner took it to an indie shop as well as a dealer. Both places diagnosed the problem as "blown cylinder." I checked around online, found you good people here, and also found references to bad plug wires causing similar problems. I pulled the plugs this morning--one of them had a seriously broken insulator and all of the wires had evidence of carbon tracking in the boot. The resistance was well within tolerance and the parts store nearby didn't have replacement wires, so I cleaned out the carbon and tossed them back on the car. After pulling the battery cables to zero the CEL, the results are: No more CEL No more engine shaking around like a pissed off rodeo bull For the price of a spark plug, I seem to have fixed the problem. I also discovered that the whistling sound I was hearing came from the air cleaner housing. The ace mechanics who replaced the air filter who knows when lost one of the two clips that holds the housing together. They just left it loose, so unfiltered air had a direct route into the engine. The whistling sound was just the sound of the intake. How the hell can mechanics and dealers charge money for this crappy service? How the hell could a guy diagnose a problem as "blown cylinder" when the more immediate problem is a broken spark plug? One thing does remain, though. There is a ticking sound that sounds like it's coming from deep within the engine. It could be coming from under the timing covers, but it absolutely is not from valves out of adjustment. The heads are quiet. I can't see any evidence of an exhaust leak, but need to spend some more time under the car to be sure. I've heard about a piston slap problem with these 2.5 liter DOHC engines. Anybody know how that manifests itself? Is it a terminal problem or just one of those wacky Subi things that everybody suffers through and tolerates because otherwise the cars are just freakin' awesome? Cheers.

Imdew, I have a '97 that might need an engine. You lookin' to sell yours?

Kewl. Thanks.

My favorite Subi of all time was our '88 GL-10 with the hi-lo transfer case and glass headlights. It was gutless, but what a champ! This '97 OBW I just bought has plastic headlight lenses that have yellowed. They also feel rough, like they've been sandblasted (duh!). Light seems to get through them and out onto the road, but I'd be happier if they were clear. Aftermarket new HL assemblies go for about $100 a pop, plus overly expensive shipping. Wrecking yards are no help in the DC metro area. On my '94 Honda Accord there are about a bazillion aftermarket suppliers of everything from stock replacements to projector-type blingbling, and they're relatively cheap, but I haven't been able to find the same stuff for Subis. Anybody know of any solutions to this problem? Ever tried polishing the plastic? Know of any aftermarket suppliers? I'm a cheap bastard from the era of $8 universal round halogen lights, so $500 JDM units are not in my lexicon. Cheers.

A key point on my post was the "minus labor" part. If you aren't willing or able to dig into the job yourself, $1500 might be a very fair price for head gaskets and other related parts. I've gotten price quotes for $1000-1650 for used engines from 2002 and up USDM cars with less than 50k miles on them. I haven't been able to find any JDM engine suppliers nearby who carry Subi. But I recently replaced the engine in my '94 Honda Accord with a JDM unit. It was $795 for the engine only. I do my own work.

Any opinions? Haynes used to rock, but now it seems as if they're written for dolts who never saw the inside of a transmission. I've read terrible reviews on the Legacy/OBW Chilton's manual, and never was much of an FSM man, mostly because of the cost. I've found free online FSMs for my Jeep, but never for any other vehicle I've owned. What do you all use?

I've been looking around. Figure somewhere between $1700-$2500 for an engine swap, unless you know somebody in the biz. If you do it yourself, figure $1000, minimum. Head gasket sets run $150 and up for everything you need to freshen up the top end, minus labor. Google Rock Auto for parts.

HA! Yeah, I tried walking that idea past the wife yesterday. She just doesn't understand how much utility there would be in an OBW with 300hp of oomph. I saw an sti on ebay that sold for something like $4k. That's just a bit out of my price range. btw, where do you source Subi used parts around the beltway? The girl who owned this thing wasn't in the habit of hosing off winter salt and quite a few trinket parts have rust started on them. I've never been in a place that had such a sparse selection of wrecking yards.

Cool. Will do. I'm also going on a hunt for vacuum leaks, but it would have to be one massive leak to cause the engine shake this thing's got going on. Just wondering--how do you apply oil to the entire circumference of the rings on an H4 engine for the wet test?

Thanks! Here's the latest scoop: This Subi...it's supposed to have a "blown cylinder." The Internet is full of head gasket horror stories. But I got the rig here now and I'm tellin' ya, there's no water in the oil. I haven't seen any bubbles in the coolant. I stood on the gas and the bastard got on it pretty well. But the idle sucks donkey balls--the engine bucks all over hell at idle. If I manage a smooth launch on the flat or downhill, it accelerates away pretty good. If it needs power right from the get-go, fugetaboutit. You remember how it was when you first drove a car with a manual tranny? You may have dumped the clutch just a bit too fast. The car bucked and heaved off the line, wumpawumpawumpawumpa-style. This ringin' any bells? Well, that's what this freakin' Subi does if there's any power needed right from the start. And it will keep that wumpawumpawumpawumpa thing going until hell freezes over or I shift into second, at which point it does what any good Subi is supposed to do. It also performs very well when it doesn't need much power right from the start. In a word, I would hate to head-to-head with a Yugo in a 0-20 drag race, but I would kick his rump roast from 10-??? if I don't lug the engine in the least off the start. It's wierd. This does not sound like head gaskets. It does not sound like holed pistons or broken valve heads or any other kind of "blown cylinder." There's no smoke of any kind and it actually sounds pretty good under full throttle. Any thoughts, aside from "just stand on the gas all the time?" Cheers.

Just got a '97 OBW, myself, w/the 2.5l motor. What's the benefit of using the smaller engine?

Hmmm, now wouldn't that just be grand if all it needed was a head gasket?