China head gaskets

[montana tom]

Hi all;

Picked up an 01 limited 5 speed to flip this week.  The seller claimed new head gaskets, new oe timing set , new factory thermostat. heads sent off to machine shop.  All done in Jan 18. I was shown the bill.

Car ran good until may then started overheating. Would run apx 25 miles before heating up.  Putting pressure into the radiator just like a 25 D engine...  having never come across a cyl. leaking head gasket on a 2.5 1 I went under the assumption that I would find a cracked head.  Inspection of the spark plugs after bringing it home showed #1 plug water stained.

While pulling the motor I saw that indeed a new timing set was on the car, not OE but not junk.  The "new" thermostat had 1/4" holes drilled into it ,no doubt by the seller hoping to fix his heating up problem.

My thought at that point was a low rent machine shop swapping out heads instead of rebuilding what was brought to them. Seller claimed he had the head gaskets done because they were oil dripping & he wanted to get another 100,00 out of his car...

When  removing the first head I could see that factory gaskets were not used ...  after head was off, the problem was glaringly apparent,  total crap quality head gasket !!!  

I have never seen a gasket deteriorate like this one had!  In only 5 months !  No name left on the gasket if it ever had one. I pulled the other head and it would have been leaking any day! No proof but I have no doubt they were china gaskets.... 

The seller paid almost $1800 for this work,  $200 alone for head gaskets and bolts! 

Moral of the story...   Factory original parts !  If you can not do the work yourself... find a real Subaru shop. You usually get what you pay for... sometimes you get even less. He sold me the car for $800...  costly little fix by a non subaru shop for him...  nice clean car for me.

 

[lmdew]

Thanks for the info.  Yep it pays to have a quality shop you know and a relationship with them.  If not, do the work yourself.

[el_freddo]

Also, no need to replace the head bolts unless there’s something wrong with the thread.

Cheers 

Bennie