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Major oil leak has me stumped


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9 hours ago, john in KY said:

Got all the bolts out today.  Discovered a special socket set given to me years ago designed to grip rounded off nuts/bolts also worked on the stripped  bolts, except for 3.  Got them out with Vicegrips.  Can't work on it tomorrow.  Will sleep well tonight. Those stripped bolts had me stressed out. 

Hood to hear John!  Those are stressful.

I guess it’s too late to remind you there’s like 5 different length bolts and it’s good to keep track where they go.

How did you get vice grips to work? They always want to slide or “walk” off the edges/slopes and angles for me as soon as pressure is applied.

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All I know is that set of special sockets is/was a Craftsman.  I'll do a photo tomorrow.  As for the Vicegrips, I guess I still have a strong grip. 

Last week I found the torque setting for the cover bolts and the sequence.  Did I print them out?  Nah, I'll come back and get them when needed.  Well now I can't find either on the internet.  Need help.  

I need sort of segregate the different bolt lengths.  

The more I think about this leak the more I think it is the back cover with the problem.  Going to take a chance and just do the front and keep my fingers crossed.

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Just about to remove the front cover and stopped and backed off.  Thought about what i was doing and the problem and concluded removing the front cover would accomplish nothing.  The oil leak is behind the back cover and opening up that can of worms I decided above my pay grade.  Decision was made to just replace the engine.  Started on that this afternoon and stopped when I thought about that security system in newer cars.  

 

Can the engine be swapped without having the security system/ignition/whatever reprogrammed? Would really hate to go through the expense/labor installing another engine only to have it not be able to start.  

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23 hours ago, john in KY said:

All I know is that set of special sockets is/was a Craftsman.  I'll do a photo tomorrow.  As for the Vicegrips, I guess I still have a strong grip. 

Last week I found the torque setting for the cover bolts and the sequence.  Did I print them out?  Nah, I'll come back and get them when needed.  Well now I can't find either on the internet.  Need help.  

I need sort of segregate the different bolt lengths.  

The more I think about this leak the more I think it is the back cover with the problem.  Going to take a chance and just do the front and keep my fingers crossed.

did you try Ctrl + h on your pc to pull up the entire web search/visit history?

you can search for key words or just scroll through the dates you might recall

BTW, it's called OldTimer's Disease for a reason...

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17 hours ago, john in KY said:

Just about to remove the front cover and stopped and backed off.  Thought about what i was doing and the problem and concluded removing the front cover would accomplish nothing.  The oil leak is behind the back cover and opening up that can of worms I decided above my pay grade.  Decision was made to just replace the engine.  Started on that this afternoon and stopped when I thought about that security system in newer cars.

Can the engine be swapped without having the security system/ignition/whatever reprogrammed? Would really hate to go through the expense/labor installing another engine only to have it not be able to start.  

 

You’re good to go John. I’ve done those years. The electronics don’t care about removing and installing the same type engine.  

Its only installing different engines that cant be done.  Like Huck’s EZ30 into an XT6, that’s no longer possible starting in 2005+.

You can swap the long block and retain original existing intake manifold if there are any small differences of the intake hose, vacuum or brackets, etc.  

I’ve seen how your cars are kept, I’d want to keep that engine!  I’m sure you took care of it, and that’s a good motor.  It is a lot of parts but it’s not hard to do the rear cover.

The only tricky part is running the long bead of sealant, placing the orings, and setting the cover in place without disturbing the bead and orings. A helper would be useful but I’ve only done it myself, so it’s totally doable. 

Ive got one of those engines and a new set of headgaskets to put on it but it had blown gaskets when I got the car so I wouldn’t want to send it your way.  

But I might have some extra parts if you need any.

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No trips to Ohio this year or even in the bear future.  The county I go to has been a virus hotspot from the get go.  Several nieces and nephews have contracted the virus but all have recovered.  Getting the virus at my age would probably do me in.  Should finish having the engine out tomorrow.  

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Engine is out and front cover removed.  Can't find the gold links and how to remove the cam sprockets have us stumped.  I'll post a photo of the sprockets tomorrow.  

 

For anyone in the future undertaking pulling this engine, there is a small inspection plate bottom of the bell housing. Forgetting to remove it and you will have a world of problems.  The cover has a small lip that will snag the convertor and pull it for the transmission. 

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19 hours ago, john in KY said:

Engine is out and front cover removed.  Can't find the gold links and how to remove the cam sprockets have us stumped.  I'll post a photo of the sprockets tomorrow.  

 

For anyone in the future undertaking pulling this engine, there is a small inspection plate bottom of the bell housing. Forgetting to remove it and you will have a world of problems.  The cover has a small lip that will snag the convertor and pull it for the transmission. 

I can’t find your email address, send it to me so I can send you timing stuff. 

Edited by idosubaru
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Got it all apart today.  The O ring for the lower tensioner on the left side had failed.  Had ordered parts a few days ago all what we needed.  Instead of a water pump, dealer shipped an oil pump and one O ring was the wrong side so we are in a holding pattern until those items arrive.

 

I need a break from this anyways.

 

Hope everyone has a decent T-day.  

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23 minutes ago, john in KY said:

Got it all apart today.  The O ring for the lower tensioner on the left side had failed.  Had ordered parts a few days ago all what we needed.  Instead of a water pump, dealer shipped an oil pump and one O ring was the wrong side so we are in a holding pattern until those items arrive.

 

I need a break from this anyways.

 

Hope everyone has a decent T-day.  

Good job confirming the leak. That’s great. I hate doing a big job and not seeing a clear sign of failure like I thought I would. 

Smart to replace the water pump with oem while you’re in there.  I’d guess  you or the dealer saw the water pump had a couple of orings associated with it? I always replace those too. 

You got that 2 miles of sealant ready to run a bead?   The Right Stuff is a nice product for the covers. 

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I’m not sure what you did with timing cover bolts.

Its been awhile but I order new high grade bolts with normal bolt heads. Here’s my list of quantity and measurements:

im assuming “6” means M6x1.00 thread, a common Subaru size.  The first number is the quantity “22A” - so there’s 22 of that size. I think the FSM might have some bolt info which is where I got the letters from. I’m unsure what the last (B?) means:

 

22 A 6x45
13 B 6x16
21 C 6x30
1 D 6x50
2 ? (B?)  
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58 minutes ago, Rampage said:

On November 19 I posted a pdf file for the outer cover. Here is the Inner cover. Bolt length, location and torque sequence.

Rear Chain Cover.pdf

John, I can print and mail it or post/send the images to you.  We live in the mountains with no internet/no cable/no TV options (which is totally fine by me!) so I totally understand having hard copies verses digital.

Edited by idosubaru
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