Haha.... They are not that bad!!!!
Between my fiancé and I we own 4
1 being my circuit racecar. (Rs turbo legacy)
All jdm models..
So you could say I know a thing or two about boxer motors...

 

That's the problem. It's a real dog and it runs ruff until it warms up. I'm sure the valves need to be adjusted but the engine needs to come out just to adjust the valves. I'd rather pull a Ducati engine to do valves than this hunk of lemon.

I made a mock attempt to remove the heads, in car as pulling the engine is not an option. I can't get to the EGR tube nor can I get to the valve cover bolts. The engine HAS TO COME OUT. I can't do the job here so I am driving it until I can trade it.

 

Thats a good call...
All Subaru's over here are JDM so we dont tend to get the Poo spec models that you guys have to deal with.

 

I'm away from home and just got a message from my son. He tried to start my car and it was dead. When he popped the hood the battery was blown up. This is a stupid, stupid car.

 

My route was to buy something that was not just reliable but had a reputation for being easy to work on. When I'm on four wheels I'm in my Toyota p/u with that wonderful 22RE engine! I did the head gasket and timing chain on it a couple years ago and it's been great ever since.

In fact I just picked up an '88 yesterday w/ the same engine... towed it 100 miles home w/ my '94!

Oh, and for what it's worth, I hate Subarus too! Total pos's in my opinion.

 

Madmiknz is correct you need to check both the head and block for warpage......if you don't it will cost you, unfortunately you will need to drop the motor......but it's worth it long term.....
Cheers

 

Find a steep cliff preferably in an old flooded quarry

- let it roll, pay no attention to your broken ignition lock ! lol

 

I'm sorry, I have a dirty dirty mind.



It sucks to hear that you are having a bad experience with subis, I loved my 98 impreza and it did its job saving my wife in an accident. Now I'm on a high mileage ford truck and its a nail biter, its been great so far but I just don't trust fords.

 

On the way to the airport last week, I was talking to my cab driver. We somehow started talking about Subarus, he's the one that brought it up. He said he has a cousin in Vermont that has 3 of them and loves them. The cousin lost one last year when the head was weeping oil like mine is doing. With the exhaust header under the head, oil ran down and the car caught fire.

Maybe if I get some good fire insurance, I'll keep driving it.

 

Yeah, I didn't find out about the whole "headgaskets are just normal maintenance" bullsh*% until I bought mine.

It's showing beginning signs of failure, but no leakage or overheating yet. It goes down the road OK and handles really well, now that I have put springs and sways in it. It's pretty unsophisticated. I'm not in love with it, that's for sure and will send it down the road in a couple of years, if it lasts that long (bought it with 100k on it).

Subarus are ridiculous cars. I have no idea why they are so highly valued. They feel as cheap and tinny as Toyotas. I can only imagine that mine will be as big a headache as owning an Audi or something.

Just cheaper.