Guys,

As we found some pressure on the cooling circuit by pressing the hose while boost and felt some sort of inflation on it, a friend said... "forget it, head gasket gone and probably u will have to chance piston rings and rod bearing"..

Well, took the engine out during the week and today few friends from subaru club argentina came home to help me open it... And they say "Gasket doesnt look that bad"... What u guys think? is it worth to keep on open the engine or stop there, set a new gasket and thats it? Here pics.

Car has like 150k miles

 

 

Closed deck engine!! Keep that.

Take the engine and get the block faces checked to see if they are flat, and if needed get them skimmed.
The heads again check for flatness (skimmed if needed), and then get them hot pressure tested.

I know as when my head gaskets went a mate of mine said to ge the block checked, and lucky I did as the block was slightly warped, so had both halves skimmed to match, and then the heads skimmed. Was only a tiny tiny bit out but, but would have been enough.
Yes it did mean new bearing shells, but I did the building myself with some help.

Or you could get yours built by someone, bit more costly, but you could go forged then too

 

I think it's blown but pictures aren't clear enough. You are looking for any signs of black carbon between water ways & combustion chambour you'll need to look very carefully but I think I can see where it's gone. It's usually more obvious on the block & head faces or on the gasket sealing ring.

 

Since you got engine out you can change bearings (ACL race are cheap) and as mentioned above check entire block

Also consider doing "big service".....belt,pumps,tensioners,clutch (if needed).

 

The siptom that took us to say "head gasket" was the pressure we felt (notorious) in the water hose... But when i did the test of filling the water waste bottle looking after bubbles on it... there wasnt any, even under boost...

I kinda feel like if i go deeper im raping it maybe with no sense.... I already bought standar meassure rings and rod bearings but i would preffer not to set them if no need.

Here a pic of the pistons under the sun.

 

How can you put the turbo under boost with the car stationary just by raising the revs?

 

The head gasket on Number 4 cylinder looks suspect,plus it seems to have the carbon washed off the lower edge of the piston crown.
Is there any coolant staining in the bore of that cylinder ?
The carbon composite head gaskets are prone to fail in this area ( lower coolant gallery).
Cooling system is also lacking coolant inhibitor/anti freeze judging by the corrosion in the coolant gallerys.





Regards, Mick

 

I would assume people of Argentina are advanced enough to know what a rolling road is.

 

Check the rad cap. I have chucked 2 which leak past the refill valve (blowing outwards) and 1 which does not release pressure early enough (way higher than 0.9 bar).

 

ive just done head gaskets, I changed the rod and main bearings and I think it was the right choice. a lot more work though. check out my thread.

 

As above defiantly change the bearing at the same have just done mine as head gasket had gone and bearings were very worn (car was on 97k)

 

got any pics of your bearings scoobyman?

 

Actually, a hose blew when tested it in straight line... fiexed it, bleed it and again.