Bad News on Subie

"commander warsstar is smitten with subaru legacy outbacks (and redheads)" (warsstar) 10/02/2014 at 20:37 • Filed to: Subaru

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As some of you know, this is my second Subaru, silver Subie. She was preceded by green Subie, who I found out after a few months of ownership, had bad head gaskets. I started looking for a replacement car, as I knew I didn't have the time to fix her right away and wasn't sure if it would be worth it. I found silver Subie, who had just had the head gaskets changed. I bought her, thinking I'd have 100K worry free miles ahead of me. I sold green Subie after a year of kicking around the idea of fixing her before deciding I didn't have the time. Well, just this week, I ran into the office to get something and left Subie idling. When I came back a couple minutes later, the temp needle was pegged. It went down as soon as I started driving though. When I got home, I check the overflow tank. The coolant was murky and smelled of oil and exhaust. So now I have another Subie with bad head gaskets, after maybe 20K miles on the new gaskets. Overall, this one is in much better shape than green Subie was at this point. The plan is to preemptively yank the thermostat, allowing me to keep driving without worrying about overheating. I am going to save money, either for a new car, (SVX, a Baja, or a post head gaskets Subaru) or for a bulletproof EJ22 swap. I will probably end up doing the swap, as it will be around $1000 to do it right, including the engine and parts that I will replace before putting it in.

Arben72 > commander warsstar is smitten with subaru legacy outbacks (and redheads) 10/02/2014 at 20:44

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You can pull and repair that engine in a day with basic tools for much cheaper than $1000. Just an idea. Sometimes new gaskets are a dud, go oem or a higher end aftermarket.

commander warsstar is smitten with subaru legacy outbacks (and redheads) > Arben72 10/02/2014 at 20:50

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After two head gasket adventures, I'm kind of leery of the EJ25. A 1995 EJ22, which is a straight swap, can be bought and shipped to me for $500 I haven't priced out parts precisely yet, so it still could be less than what I estimate. I'll take the peace of mind of having an engine with no problems for a $1000.

1337HPMustang > commander warsstar is smitten with subaru legacy outbacks (and redheads) 10/02/2014 at 20:51

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Jeeze those damned open decks huh? I'm assuming that's the main reason for head gasket problems in outbacks as well. I just began looking at importing a gc/gf8 from japan but making sure you're getting a car without impending head gasket problems is hard. Personally I don't trust anything except a few of the ej20s if I'm honest. Sorry to hear about yours... Good luck fixing her up.

Arben72 > commander warsstar is smitten with subaru legacy outbacks (and redheads) 10/02/2014 at 20:55

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I've had good luck with my ej25 (I wish I could say the same about my ej20). Gl with the ej22 though.

desertdog5051 > commander warsstar is smitten with subaru legacy outbacks (and redheads) 10/02/2014 at 21:34

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Can we have a couple of pretty red heads like before?

commander warsstar is smitten with subaru legacy outbacks (and redheads) > desertdog5051 10/02/2014 at 23:04

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Tomorrow.

John Bulzacchelli > commander warsstar is smitten with subaru legacy outbacks (and redheads) 10/03/2014 at 07:11

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EJ22 also had head gasket issues. Repeated blown head gaskets on these engines is usually because of warped heads - and if the engine really overheated - warped blocks. If the heads are resurfaced and the block is still flat OE head gaskets will last a long time.

commander warsstar is smitten with subaru legacy outbacks (and redheads) > John Bulzacchelli 10/03/2014 at 12:30

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That may be true, but overall, the worst head gasket eater is the EJ25. It's less likely for head gaskets to go on an EJ22. You have to really screw something up for a head gasket to fail on a EJ22.

If I have to spend money on an engine repair, I'd rather swap in the EJ22 that has way fewer issues recorded.