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Home "machine" Subaru 2.5 heads

challenger

Stainless
Joined
Mar 6, 2003
Location
Hampstead, NC-S.E. Coast
I plan on getting the head gaskets on my 04 outback replaced. The shop said the turn around time is going to depend on the time the machine shop can turn around the heads. Im thinking they plan to check the heads for flatness? If this is the case it seems like I can do this myself. First check them on a surface plate and mill flat if needed? I don't think a complete valve job is something I need.
 
I don't think a complete valve job is something I need

IIRC loose guides are not uncommon?

Either way, if head has been in service long enough for the typical gasket failure interval, it would seem short sighted not to do "everything" while the heads are off. Unless the idea is just get it running with no leaks and sell it?

smt
 
Probably 15 years ago my wifes car had a head issue. Chevy quad four was known for warping or blowing gasket with no head warping. To get head magna fluxed and checked for flatness was like $150 +50 for gasket set. To get a rebuilt, new valves, and checked head was only 100 more.
BilL D
 
In a semi-related note....I've found when dealing with automotive machine shops there is a secret.

I walk in and there are piles of cylinder heads, blocks, etc. Many are new or freshly cleaned and waiting their turn to be machined/assembled.

I ask the big boss what their leadtime is, and he tells me 'Oh, we are running several weeks to a couple months or more....'

I tell him, 'I am not dying to get my stuff done, but I'm also not looking to stick my thumb up my ass for 2 months while these parts get done. By the way, I will be paying you in cash and won't need a receipt and I have the cash in my pocket....'

The big boss almost always tells me, 'Oh. I thought you were like all these other jackasses who drop shit off and never come back for it until they have money and want to pay me for it in installments with food stamps, treasury bonds, and random coins. I'll have it done next week.'
 
You can't even surface a head properly without knowing a lot of stuff. Engine rebuilders don't surface heads with a mill.

I've surfaced heads without doing any other work, but I knew what I was doing and what I would get and I was good with that.

The fact you took a Subaru to a shop for a one banana job and then are asking this question here suggests you shouldn't be involved in the process.
 
In a semi-related note....I've found when dealing with automotive machine shops there is a secret.

I walk in and there are piles of cylinder heads, blocks, etc. Many are new or freshly cleaned and waiting their turn to be machined/assembled.

I ask the big boss what their leadtime is, and he tells me 'Oh, we are running several weeks to a couple months or more....'

I tell him, 'I am not dying to get my stuff done, but I'm also not looking to stick my thumb up my ass for 2 months while these parts get done. By the way, I will be paying you in cash and won't need a receipt and I have the cash in my pocket....'

The big boss almost always tells me, 'Oh. I thought you were like all these other jackasses who drop shit off and never come back for it until they have money and want to pay me for it in installments with food stamps, treasury bonds, and random coins. I'll have it done next week.'

My friends and family run all their engine machinework through me. The local shop always has my stuff ready same or next day. My FIL tried dropping a block off by himself to get machined a month ago. It's still sitting there. I took a different block of his down and they had it bored, honed, decked and cleaned by the next day. He doesn't question it anymore.
 
" Sounds like you have your mind made up.

Not at all. I said, "I don't think a complete valve job....". Read what I wrote. Not what YOU want to read.

Your post is right there. You have no basis for saying yes or no to a complete valve job until you tear into it. Take it to a reputable shop and do what they say. I have no dog in the hunt sir, you do. Either do it or don't, no skin off my nose.
 
I resurfaced a 3rz Toyota Tacoma head on a Bridgeport, had to take .006" off to get to the bottom of a crater left behind by the prior owner changing the head gasket without doing any machine work, at least twice. I used some random hhs about 3" diameter fly cutter. i doubt its going to blow, given that i bought arp head studs.

couldn't fit a .002" feeler gauge under it, anywhere on the surface plate, and it definitely had weight on a .001" feeler gauge everywhere, even if it didn't hinge on a .001" shim, everywhere around the perimeter of the head.

given how easy it was to warp the head with very mild clamping force, i am not convinced that the overall flatness of the head has anything to do with blowing gaskets. rather, its localized warpage within the same cylinder.
 
Suby heads are surface ground. As well as flatness, the surface finish is very important for sealing. Ask for MLM had gaskets on subarus.
 
FWIW, most all Subies blow head gaskets around 75kMi. My partner has a relationship with the local repair shop. Customer brings in his POS in the morning, they pull the heads and bring them to our shop. He mills them flat without removing the valves, washes them. They pick them up, have them back on the car and if the customer has $1800, he can drive home that night.

jack viens
 
Subaru's are a sorta the Mercedes of Japan. They have this (sort of) reputation as being super-rugged when in fact they are far below the norm in terms of reliability. Somewhere, someplace, a marketing genius must be rolling in the dough.

I wonder how the Japanese populous views Subaru. How they would rank Subaru compared to Toyota, Honda, Nissan.

Subaru's have always struck me as the Japanese continuous improvement mindset applied to an econo-shitbox car, but I'm not that familiar with them. I've helped friends do lots of Subaru head gaskets, timing belts, brake jobs, clutches and CV axles. Been around a couple wicked fast WRX's, but I've never had the urge to own one. Always seemed to me like if you think you need a Subaru you could buy an AWD Toyota or Honda for a few more bucks and get a considerably better vehicle.

I do kinda have this twisted desire to put a V8 in a Subaru wagon. I make some parts for Dodge Hemi engines and needed a 5.7 hemi car to test some stuff. I almost bought a Chrysler AWD wagon with the Hemi. My plan if I had bought it was to pick up one of the many blown engine Subaru wagons and stuff the Hemi/auto/t-case/front diff in the Subaru. I chose a different path and didn't waste a few months of my life. That's as close I came to own a subaru.
 
Subaru's are a sorta the Mercedes of Japan. They have this (sort of) reputation as being super-rugged when in fact they are far below the norm in terms of reliability. Somewhere, someplace, a marketing genius must be rolling in the dough.
Couldn’t agree more. My car was a garage queen, as was others owned by friends. Very happy with our two Mazdas now.

My impression is the company spends more on advertising than engineering.
 
I briefly glanced over Subarus when I needed a small car....at least at the time they were every bit as expensive as a Toyota or Honda. I have 2 Mazdas also now...a 2021 ans the old 2012. I wish I could have the newness of the 2021 with the honesty of the 2012. Mazda as of late has decided to try to be the sensible man's Infiniti....and has strayed from their roots.
 
I wonder how the Japanese populous views Subaru. How they would rank Subaru compared to Toyota, Honda, Nissan.

Goofy, I would think ... but they are willing to try weird stuff, which I kind of like. They had a flat-six diesel that I was looking at for marine use, could have been cool. Another project that never got off the ground, of course, but still ...
 








 
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