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What gasket?


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If your doing work with paper or felt gaskets I use copper spray. Stuff keeps the gasket in place and isn't a mess. If your using straight permatex (making your own gasket) clean the surfaces real good, then wipe it down w/ paint thinner or de-natured alcohol to get every bit of grease and grime off. a gasket is only as good as the surface it is bonding to.

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They came with sealer from the factory, use an anaerobic sealer and NOT red, orange, or blue RTV. Black and grey will get you a couple years service, the correct sealer is best though.

Use the factory style reinforced o-rings, not regular rubber o-rings. Those will die a quick death, then you will lay awake at night hearing the guy you sold the car to a thousand miles away cursing you.

Not that I ever did that while replacing inferior o-rings less than two weeks after changing timing belts............... :lol:

Edited by 4x4_Welder
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Lol thanks for all the help now I know exactly what to get :]

I'm gonna try an be a mechanic some day and all this helps I thought I was suppose to use RTV on it haha

Thanks a lot everyone!

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best thing to have is a Subaru FSM. many are available for free if you do some searching. the subaruxt.com site has the FSM's available for the Subaru XT - which has the EA82 motor which is what i think you're working on.

 

The appropriate sealant is Anaerobic sealant, though some folks substitute other things.

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FWIW, the Felpro gasket sets that I have seen use black RTV. I have used both the black RTV and the (expensive!!!) anaerobic sealant and have, in the short run, had better luck with the RTV. Time will tell...

 

The anaerobic sealer that I have used is a 2 part system, with a "primer"/activator applied to one surface and the sealant applied to the other surface. IIRC, it cost around $40-50 for the two components in the smallest size that NAPA stocks.

 

Also, something to consider/plan-for/decide-upon is that the Subaru headgaskets specify a retorque after the engine has been run awhile. (FelPro does not specify it for their headgaskets.) This means, typically, removing those cam cases again, which also means sealing them. Some people don't seal it the first time and just live with the oil leak prior to retorque. Some others don't bother with the retorque.

 

And... (unsolicited advice)...I still have never heard of an EA82 HG leaking coolant externally. There are plenty of other causes of external coolant leaks, and all seem to "show up" someplace other than where they started. Blown HGs leak coolant into the oil passages, and/or they leak coolant into the cylinder; external leakage is just not a likely failure mode. Lots of work might be postponed (these old HGs will eventually let go) by looking for other sources of the leak.

Edited by NorthWet
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I think I might go with the RTV sealer then.

I have a picture but its kinda crappy

But if you look on the left side the gasket around the cylinder is mostly gone compared to the right side.

I dont know if it's a good Idea but a gasket set is a lot cheaper on ebay then like autozone would it be bad to shop on ebay?

post-29299-136027633104_thumb.jpg

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I haven't had much experience with anything other than OEM and FelPro.

 

However, general sentiment is that when it comes to the intake gaskets, do NOT go cheap. Most seem to prefer genuine Subaru OE intake gaskets, others think that FelPro are OK. Offbrands don't seem to seal well, and you end up with coolant sucked into the intake tract, possibly blowing out the HG.

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Go to Subaru anyways and buy the intake gaskets. While you are there, you will probably need to buy the cam case "o-rings" (which are really metal covered in rubber) since most aftermarket HG sets do not include them. As others have written, do not use regular o-rings as a substitute; I can guarantee that you will be sorry and need to tear the cam cases off again... and maybe more.

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I find it odd that not once does he mention the gasket brand-

To add to what others have said, OEM intake gaskets, and anti-seize the crap out of the bolts. While the MPFI engines don't have the same coolant passage configuration as the single-port engines, it's still a steel bolt from one piece of aluminum to another that does carry current at times.

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if you're needing head gaskets, buy Fel Pro permatorque gaskets.

 

if you don't, they need to be retorqued. that is a total pain, do the headgaskets, run the motor, then tear the engine down and do it all over again = totally annoying.

 

with the Fel Pro's, you just torque them a few pounds over final torque spec's and you're done. they're great, most of us on here use them.

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I still have never heard of an EA82 HG leaking coolant externally.
not an EA82 - but similar engine in many ways - i had an XT6 that ran and drove perfectly fine, never overheated, and had a very slow seap at the rear of the engine. very much like the newer Phase II EJ25 head gasket leaks. i replaced those and it was good to go.
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