91 legacy valve cover gaskets?

[jazzmandolin]

The legacy I am considering is leaking oil onto the exhaust and stinking! The owner says his mechanic said its leaking from the valve cover gaskets and the motor has to be pulled to replace them and told him cost wise he should let it ride! This does not sound right to me but I really do not know. SO cant valve cover gaskets be replaced with the motor in and if its leaking onto the exhaust would there be another leak? I didnt think valve covers leaked onto the exhaust? Anyway thanks for all input

[MilesFox]

The valve covers are close to the framerails, making it more difficult to get tools in there. A box end ratcheting wrench works best.

 

You can unbolt the motor mounts from the crossmember, remove the pitch bar at the top of the motor, and jack up the engine a few inches to get more clearance above the framerails, without having to disconnect anything.

[Fairtax4me]

On the old ones it's not that bad, entirely doable inside the car. The only two seals that require the engine to be removed from the car are the Oil separator plate, and the rear main.

But every oil leak on a Subaru eventually winds on on the exhaust, so it could be coming from anywhere.

With a car that old it's probably a good idea to just pull the engine and reseal the whole thing but the majority of the seals can be done with the engine in the car.

[Rooster2]

a bandaid fix is to add a bottle of "stop oil leak" available at any auto parts store. It won't cure the problem, but adding this to my 99 OBW at every oil change has stopped leakage by about 75% over the past year. The product swells the gaskets for a better seal. I don't smell oil burning off my exhaust any more, and have few new oil spots on my driveway.

 

IMHO, I have trouble justifying a lot of major work, and $ spent on any car over 10 years old, just to stop oil leakage.

[jazzmandolin]

Thanks great input! Pretty much what I expected! Just wish a motor pull and total seal didnt seem like a MONSTER job! Im sure its not so bad once you have done one or two? Thinking I should buy the car and do the work myself! Seeing I think this is pretty much the car I would like to have for the next many years! Thanks again, Peace out

[SchwarzeEwigkt]

Replacing the valve cover gaskets isn't nearly as bad as people make it out to be. I did mine on my '97 Outback when I did my whole timing-belt-and-everything-else thing.

 

I can say that those ratcheting box wrenches are absolutely required. There's no room for sockets on either two or four of the bolts. It can be done with a regular box wrench, but i'll take your entire life.

 

To give you an idea, it took me an hour to take one side off. After that, I found my ratcheting box wrench set and the second one took about 15min.