Subaru Head Gaskets - Part 4: Reassemble, Valve Clearance

[@andrewhallett-patterson9778]

I dont understand why Subaru didnt engineer the valvetrain support cradle to accept a recessed gasket or extended square edge o- ring. That has to be a more efficient process than releying on sealant in such a critical area but sealant technology now exceeds gasket technology. Great educational vid Ivan. Till next time bro...👍👍

[@jeffreygoss8109]

Andrew Hallett-Patterson an automotive engineer told me it's cheaper. A sealant is more forgiving so cheaper with a c and c type machine to apply it. We have to have a surgeons hand, I tend to slap it on with a brush

[@sumpyman]

Thanks bud, just what I need. My outback had a leaky head gasket so I sent the heads away for skimming. The last time I sent a head to a machine shop it came back complete, so I just bolted it on with no dramas. This time they've come back in 3 parts and multiple boxes!

[@G3516dude]

Excellent series, thanks for all the tips and tricks. I’m planning on doing the head gasket job on my wife’s 2006 Forester and was convinced it involved removal of engine. I like your trick of jacking engine and moving slightly left or right👍🏻

[@wyattoneable]

You do very precise work and that's exactly what is needed at this point. The owner should be very happy with how his car runs.

[@HollomanUFOLanding]

Top notch video Ivan, thank you so much for uploading and enlightening. You've done a great job and I was also very impressed with the machine shop's work.

[@kellyspeppers]

Didn't see you clean the oil residue from the the mating surface before applying the Ultra Gray. When doing head work I use liberal applications of brake cleaner spray, Eric O would approve. Also I have one work table that is covered with carpet, nice to help hold the clean heads when assembling and adjusting valves.

[@gregory891]

Very well done. Valve adjustment is much easier with SnapOn YA8895 and YA8890. I don’t need them every day, but they are well appreciated when I do.

[@SmittySmithsonite]

Getting there! 👍 Machine shop did a great job cleaning those heads up! To quote my substitute power mechanics teacher from high school, who said this regardless of the actual problem, in his thick SC accent, " I THINK IT'S YER VAAAALVES!" I still laugh out loud whenever we say that around here ... 😂

[@stack.that.cheese]

Cam seals- if you look at the front of the head where the seal goes you can see it has a bevelled inner edge, indicating the seal needs to be pit in a little past flush with the cylinder head. I've seen guys saying not to put them in further than flush but they are supposed to go in a little further than flush or they can pop back out

[@jamespn]

Awesome job Ivan. I wish I had your courage and patience to tackle this job.

[@andrewscott820]

Nice job Ivan man what a mess of bolts in those heads, in my experience you can leave the exhaust valves a little loose on the feeler gauge because exhaust valves tighten over time and intake loosens over time

[@bryanlatimer-davies1222]

I completely agree with that I always set exhaust valves like that I would rather a little tappet noise than burn a valve seat

[@natefigueroa]

I just did this job again myself on a dual overhead. Probably the 7th or 8th one over my lifetime. I found out after years of doing these that the composite gaskets seem to do better than the metal on this engine. Metal gaskets are always better but for some reason the composite gaskets on this engine seem to hold up longer.

[@michaelhui7545]

I think an anaerobic sealant should been used as opposed to the ultra gray. My theory is that sometimes a cam cover leak is actually misdiagnosed as a leaky hg, they both end up covering the bottom of the engine with oil, but only a leaky cam plug will cause oil near the cam plug. I really dont think that area is sealed correctly from some videos I've seen. In this video I saw how the gunk left over in cam cover channels block the return path of oil. In the fsm, Subaru calls for a 3mm bead riding on the outer lip of those oil channels. I think it's a very subtle reason. They dont want the bead to squeeze out excessively or at all into those channels. In my interpretation, I think the important thing is the sealant forms a barrier around the oily areas. When the oil inevitably seeps to the front and rear cam seals, it fills up behind the seal and must drain back through tiny channels, look under cam shaft, however if that channel is somewhat blocked or not flowing quick oil can force itself between the metal and find its way into another channel, and if that is blocked, the oil will have nowhere to go except out the front and rear cam seals. From TDs of anaerobic sealants, another benefit in this regard is it only cures in areas of no oxygen, the rest will wash out with the oil. So even if the installer is not careful those oil channels wont get gunked up. I feel I'm right on this, and I'm about to need to do this job so I just want to see what people think. Thx

[@mrb1864]

Soon be startup time :-) do like the cam plate recess for sealant, some other designs have no recess and some use specific liquid sealers . Is a ballache if that joint or rear blanking cap leaks though . Subarus pretty leak free in general though . looks like you having fun with this one, not a bad job once get into them . easier than a 8pot chevy :-)

[@nijloveanugelu]

Crisp,nice video.Full of mechanical information.Good work Ivan!

[@PineHollowAutoDiagnostics]

Glad you enjoyed it! Just a lot of bolts lol

[@nijloveanugelu]

And not only!

[@zx8401ztv]

Loverly job :-D, you took your time and were carefull, gotta be a winner. Such a relief to assemble everything and no problems, or parts left over LOL :-D. Sorry, silly mind had to say that :)

[@noelgriffin645]

A job is not complete if there's nothing left over.

[@richardcranium5839]

when you have two valves on one arm like those exhaust valves you need to back both off then adjust one at a time if you dont and have temsion on the second one and when you set that one the first will end up loose. also although its just on of my pet peeves i break all of them loose and back them off before torquing down cam caps . then run the torque a second time. with that many bolts the first ones you do may end up loose.

[@PineHollowAutoDiagnostics]

As long as the end product is good, more than one way to do things right :)

[@richardcranium5839]

couldn't agree more but with my luck..........

[@mrb1864]

Way I do them is 2 blades at a time, do same on 54C sr20's to get better measures .

[@throttlebottle5906]

that's about the best way @ Mr B.

[@robinsonsauto]

Nice! Sunday afternoon video 👍 thanks for sharing. Time to kick back

[@PineHollowAutoDiagnostics]

Have a nice cold one for me Will ;)

[@rlbatch5193]

Would like to have seen you rotate the cam to check for smooth rotation after installing the saddle

[@HollomanUFOLanding]

The camshaft bell sounds to tell you when the correct valve clearance has been reached!! ;)

[@dianasworldoffixingthings4090]

They look so pretty when they're clean.

[@bodgitandleggitgarage]

been looking forward to another one

[@pirihern9329]

Senor ivan you have great patience,excellent learning videos followed it all. I have sti engine ej257 definitely do able. Machas gracias

[@PineHollowAutoDiagnostics]

De nada :)

[@williamallen7836]

At 7.5 ftlbs torque I would have just done it by feel. As you are most likely aware, you get a feel for those lower torque specs. I got good at doing 28 ftlbs by feel.

[@scuba422123]

nice job at the machine shop....I got burned a couple times from them with checking heads and valves

[@PineHollowAutoDiagnostics]

Yeah it's not the cheapest shop, but Dennis at DL Automotive does high quality work :)

[@Goodsnout]

Did the machine shop press out the head warp before milling?

[@SGDeGalvez]

i often wondered about the 10 dollar torque wrench form harbor freight? tool time review video???

[@occamsrazor1285]

1:02 If the engine is turbo changed (it's unlikely to be since that's a SOHC head) you'd actually have to get it tuned because the engine now has an increased compression ratio.

[@DoneWaiting]

Does the subaru manual tell you to wait an hour to let that gasket setup with the four end bolts in before adding the rockers and additional fasteners? I saw that somewhere.

[@jeffleach2668]

Why would Subaru not put a flange on the end of the valve guide to,prevent them from dropping? I'm not that experienced but the few heads I've worked on have all had a flange under the valve spring that would prevent this.

[@PineHollowAutoDiagnostics]

Fantastic question, Jeff. We should ask Subaru! I was actually wondering the same thing lol

[@pirihern9329]

Sometimes great engineering other ti es not so much

[@throttlebottle5906]

that shouldn't happen unless there was other issues, like blown gaskets, overheating ( likely both) overheating as we all know does nasty things, like lets seats and guides come lose/out

[@ghettojohnny]

Great video Series. Got a question. What Reference Manual Tech Sheet are you using? Any way to get a copy of the Torque Specs and Sequence? Thank for any help. John

[@bairfamilyfarm1336]

Too much sealant is better than not enough? Well, bad news, someone rebuilt a manual transmission in a Ford ranger I bought. It made terrible noises so I tore it down to find out someone used way too much sealant on the front bearing retainer and it clogged up the oil galley in the input shaft which stopped oil from getting to the input bearing.

[@PineHollowAutoDiagnostics]

Sounds like WAYYY too much sealant used to cause that!

[@bairfamilyfarm1336]

@@PineHollowAutoDiagnostics Indeed, I do believe the Ford ranger forums said to only use a thin layer. My dad always taught me to spread the sealant before putting the other half on to ensure there isn't too much, it's worked for him for the past 35 years and for me since I started working on my own toys 10 years ago.

[@fredberfal1246]

good job Ivan !

[@Jesus4KungFu]

Maybe I already said Thanks, but Thanks again. Great videos

[@wacio]

I would not be surprised if the problem with this car started from lack of periodic valve lash adjustment. If the exhaust valves were tight and not seating correctly - they would overheat and start burning the edges eventually leading to crack of the top. This is why it would be good to check clearances on the other head

[@AP9311]

Nice video Ivan. I hate those new fangled thing with those many bolts etc. Who came up with that silly design lol....? Nice job on adjusting valves! 😃

[@vincentmaynard1903]

The only thing is I did not see you verify the cam still turns freely as you are starting to torque things down could be a mistake?

[@beaviskornholio2754]

Ivan i noticed that you mentioned that the head is the drivers side. So the passenger side head didn't need any machining. Also i didn't know that those 4 cylinder subarus had 2 heads.

[@jeffreygoss8109]

Beavis Kornholio yup, Google boxer or flat four

[@colomtnbiker]

You released tension on several springs when removing valve assembly, I didn't see you rotate those back to an intension position??

[@SGDeGalvez]

20:30

[@sportman4000]

I got my ej253 heads from the machine shop and I paid them extra to put in the cams and retainer housings, cam seal and plugs in. plus adjust the valves. They must not have sealed it correctly cause I have an oil leak out the back of the head around the cam cap on one of the heads. They charged me $650. Iam so pissed at them. Now I have to pull the head off in the winter with no heat in the garage! And hope they fix it correctly the second time. A refund would be good too. Any thoughts?

[@patrickmockalis6013]

I used to be a truck mechanic and most of my experience was with Cummins. But I alwayys ran over head on valves to where the feeler gauge was snug and if you ran it under it would drag and not be tight and the adage was a little loose was better then too tight. Is that not true with foreign cars when adjusting valves? Not being an as* just curious. Always owned domestic cars and you don't ever have to adjust the valves unless doing a rebuild.

[@PineHollowAutoDiagnostics]

It's a mechanic's feel sort of thing. If it drags a bit then call her good ;)

[@alburns2728]

Great video

[@samrugtiv3839]

were is your head stands ivan

[@JW-ce4lx]

Just asking.., Are the valve lash specs with the engine cold,or are the specs for an engine at normal operating temp? You might want to check. Also, you might want to recheck torque on all those bolts when the head is back on the block. whatever you think, your going through too much work to have something go astray.

[@PineHollowAutoDiagnostics]

Valve clearances are always set on a COLD engine. Thank goodness, because it would really suck setting them on hot engine LOL!

[@JW-ce4lx]

Best to set them to the high end of the spec, things do grow when hot, and you might end up burning valves

[@condensermike]

Had to have my 2007 Forester head re-milled at just over 60K. Was not happy.

[@alleycatvietnam]

Ivan what are your thoughts about using New Bolts on a new install?

[@tbas1972]

Ivan, what's the difference between a t40 and a tp40 torx socket? I've never heard of that I'm interested now :)

[@satamanschmidt3428]

When the patent expired on Torx Camcar Textron came up with TORX PLUS. It is a higher cam out system than Torx but primarily was a marketing invention designed to preserve a monopoly. The amount of contact is much greater with Torx Plus than with conventional Torx so it is in fact technically superior but it's doubtful that the world really needed it.

[@tbas1972]

Thank you for the great explanation, appreciate it

[@GoldenGun-Florida]

I've only every had one modern Volvo with a cylinder head issue.

[@aldomassa7473]

Excellence !! Thanks

[@throttlebottle5906]

volkswagen flashback, when the 10mm and flathead came out for valve lash adjustment lol

[@scuba422123]

nice doing clearance off the car on bench!

[@jackshimano1994]

I told you that I envisioned PART 5- now "might" be PART 6 !! BOXER engines NOT easy -only Porsche and Subaru use these horizontally opposed mills -even DAS AUTO LOOONG ago abandoned horizontal mills

[@JonathanLopez-zm1rv]

What year car is this ej25 out of

[@mikeholt3545]

Good job Ivan those hf torque wrenches are notoriously inaccurate

[@PineHollowAutoDiagnostics]

Great bang for the buck! And it doesn't need batteries haha

[@ozzstars_cars]

Getting it knocked out!

[@charlesmiller5078]

Wonder how much of a new type engine is Engineered by Computers and how much by Computer, have we gotten that far that a computer can do it without a human, or I guess as human as a engineer can be. Could they tell if the warping came from the factory, or from normal heating through the heat cycles. And Time

[@PineHollowAutoDiagnostics]

Great question about the warping. Hard to say if this particular engine had been overheated to drop that exhaust valve guide and warp the heads...

[@satamanschmidt3428]

Very common with aluminum heads in general and extremely common when you've got overheated aluminum heads. Almost automatic to need the head decks surfaced. The blocks normally don't share this problem likely due to their greater mass.

[@charlesmiller5078]

I knew the longer alum 6 cyl heads suffered from warping, on my F54 straight 6 Datsun Z engine , I find it wants to break the exhaust header, around the bolt area, if it dosent break the header then it gets the bolt. But that Subaru head is rather short and stout, dosent seem like it would warp, maybe a bad design not allowing it to cool off fast enough, maybe just heat soak when shut off

[@throttlebottle5906]

overheat and not being torqued properly is the most common cause of warp. followed by adding huge power with lack of clamping force lol! which will push gasket out and of course burn them

[@throttlebottle5906]

tighten until they strip and back'em off a 1/4 turn :))

[@stevemazzarella9259]

Cool!!!!

[@HUBBABUBBADOOPYDOOP]

YOU'D BETTER BE A PERFECTIONIST

[@stephenlmckeown1439]

sweet

[@tomwalma4762]

Hey, how much was your machine shop charge per head?

[@PineHollowAutoDiagnostics]

It was over $500 for both heads, including pressing in all new exhaust valve guides, cutting the valve seats, machining the surface to MLS gasket smoothness...the whole bit.

[@wysetech2000]

"SHEESH"

[@drivewasher]

Ivan, Take the extension bar off the torque wrench

[@PineHollowAutoDiagnostics]

why?

[@drivewasher]

You are wrestling the head with your left hand on the bench against the torque you are applying with your right hand, without the ext bar your hans will be closer together, plus with an ext bar it tends to try and pull the socket off the nut sideways if you see what I mean. Thats the best way I can explain it, I'm shure there's a beter explanation somewhere lol

[@PineHollowAutoDiagnostics]

Good point Steve! Some of the bolts were inset a bit so I just left the extension on there for all of them... Maybe I should improvise a bench "parts holder" :)

[@satamanschmidt3428]

You've got a decent MIG welder in that Hobart 140 just head down to the local steel store and get yourself some angle iron and plate and make up some head holders. These make working on heads a lot easier especially if you need to take out the valves as they lift the head off of the table. Personally, I'm killer with MIG (HTP Propulse 200) good at stick (AHP AlphaTig 200X) and sort of suck at TIG (also AHP AlphaTig 200X - which is a very nice AC/DC TIG machine for very little cash by the way).

[@throttlebottle5906]

if you torque one with an extension, leave it on to torque them all, if not the actual torque value will vary. don't forget and extension or any adapters/wobbles will change the torque value by "X%" depending on how many joints, etc. should also say, you should fasten the head/object in place so you can use both hands on the torque wrench.

[@esmith836]

Another great lesson never own a Subaru. I know no vehicle is perfect they all have problem trends but come on!

[@gregmccarter5386]

Iv got news for you, it doesn't matter what you buy..problems will occur..subarus,are great easy to work on cars

[@scuba422123]

the grey rtv is good stuff....they copied gms general motors sealer

[@wysetech2000]

No.......They copied Honda sealer.

[@scuba422123]

yes gms was black in the early 90s and the import stuff was gray...was at the dealer at the time and gm changed to the gray. but who makes the gm sealer ?? its ac delco but I'm sure a company makes it for then

[@satamanschmidt3428]

Not actually. There are perhaps only five true manufacturers of RTV in the world. In America you've got Dow Corning, which invented it, and Momentive Performance Materials a spin off of General Electric. In Japan you've got Three Bond. There likely are a couple in Europe, but all in all very few true manufacturers. Everybody like Permatex buys their stuff from one of these guys.

[@robertweir9034]

Hey hey hey, I think I'm first.

[@robertweir9034]

Or second. Lol

[@PineHollowAutoDiagnostics]

Hey Robert, you are still safely on the PHAD Podium ;)

[@robertweir9034]

+Pine Hollow Auto Diagnostics thanks Ivan. Clean job so far. Thanks for sharing.

[@Audigiant]

Hi, do you have a link to the sealant you are using. I have a leaking valve cover... Replacing only the gasket did not fix the leak...

[@bodgitandleggitgarage]

1st

[@PineHollowAutoDiagnostics]

BOOM you got it Leon! You must be excited by the Subarus :D

[@Gediminas735]

Tbh to much sealant is as bad as to little

[@PineHollowAutoDiagnostics]

Well I meant a *little* too much is better than an oil leak xD

[@defendermender4959]

I love you Ivan, but i agree sorry its basically just a skimming amount on the cam carriers, a lot of manufactures even use an Anaerobic Sealant because its a machined tolerance fit at the end of the day. Less is more on the cam carriers :) Permatex make one. Enjoyed the Good videos though!

[@PineHollowAutoDiagnostics]

Fair enough...but please explain the drawback of being a bit generous with the sealant. It's not like it's going to plug some oil gallery or cause any harm...

[@defendermender4959]

Pine Hollow Auto Diagnostics I just think you have to be careful promoting using copious amounts, as I’m sure there’s people watching this that might think you use it like sealing up a bath tub haha It can plug up things, I’ve seen it cause failures in oil controlled solenoids, clog up pickup screens and oil ways. Safer to use an anaerobic sealant that won’t cure in those circumstances. It’s also better for a tolerance machined surface application like this which most likely line bored? and a matched housing for the camshaft. It would also aid in separation in the future. Just like Mrs O’s worry with Eric getting an ice cream machine...unfortunately all that excess splurging has to go somewhere if you know what I mean? P.S. not enough tops off action in this series...disappointing 😜

[@PineHollowAutoDiagnostics]

Don't worry summer is almost here xD

[@MrHimer12]

And you should reheat those copper seal washers till they glow red and them leave them be to cool down = copper is soft after this and makes seal again when crushed. When you crush twice, copper becomes hard.

[@throttlebottle5906]

in reality, copper doesn't work harden nowhere near that easily. although new copper gasket/washers would have been best