Why Free Subaru Was Leaking Oil So Bad SOLVED Part 2 of 6

This Subaru was left behind as a loss because the oil leak was SO BAD that it would cost more than the car is worth according to local shops. Here's WHY it was leaking from the top side of the engine.
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[@ED-ti5tc]

We need more technicians like you. Ones that really care.

[@asdeaff]

There`s that sinking feeling & the "what the hell moment " & then the air turns blue !!

[@spelunkerd]

Wonderful demo, ha ha. Always nice to see what can go wrong, and to see how a pro gets himself out of a jam.

[@TryAdaptLearn]

Good detailed run through. There’s a lot of great mechanics that can do things without books or specs but thIs shows a lot of issues can multiply when critical parts are not reinstalled to match standard specs.

[@jltrack]

Hey Brian I just want to thank you for the Subaru head gasket videos you posted years ago. In 2017 I replaced all my timing components and head-gaskets by following your instruction. Still driving my Forester today with zero issues. Thank for providing priceless life lessons.

[@briansmobile1]

WAY TO GO!!! That makes my day!

[@48ROG48]

My 2012 legacy had the same happen. I replaced gaskets 3 years ago myself. Thought everything felt right putting back together, oiled the bolts going in, followed the torque sequence. Recently noticed an oil leak. 3 years later…Pulled everything out again and saw the thread inserts came out, that bolt was loose as well. Block is at the machine shop now. $250 for them to do insert. The engine did overheat 3 years ago with the blown gaskets. Thanks for all the videos. I’ve learned so much from watching.

[@mike4796]

Great explanation, it’s what we’ve come to expect from you.

[@rickrogers2649]

Great video Brian. Still laughing over the ventriloquist segment. Classic stuff there. Merry Christmas and thanks for posting.

[@briansmobile1]

Thanks Rick. Merry Christmas! You're welcome.

[@Chris-Fennimore]

Wow, thats the most expensive Time-Cert Kit I have seen. It almost to the point of buying a used engine, rather than fixing 1 stripped out head bolt

[@briansmobile1]

If you're only doing 1 engine it would be. Unless you sell the kit used and recuperate some of that expense. Or do more of them for hire. It's less expensive to take it to a machine shop and have them do it. You do have to remove the engine and there's some wait time involved as well. In my case the guy who does this was on vacation for a week or so and backed up when he got back. I thought it would make a good video and I think I'll likely run into this again.

[@HouseCallAutoRepair]

@@briansmobile1 As many Subarus as you work on, it's a wise investment. Time-certs do seem a bit expensive... Heli-coil inserts are less expensive. How about DEPTH? those time-certs seem kinda shallow. While I KNOW you can handle this one, no problem.... is it really worth it?

[@mikegillam1000]

That’s a terrible feeling when righty tighty becomes righty loosy. I’ve used helicoil on a Chevy small block with good results. I look forward to your next video

[@robertgwinn8406]

Wow I bought 2001 subaru from family member was wrecked and leaks oil. I assumed a rubber seal leak. After seeing your problem I thinking 🤔 praying leaking oil doesn't catch on fire. I do love subaru forester tho. Kicks butt in ohios winter. I actually got permission to see what it takes to lose control in winter weather. Was like 👍 😳 being 16 again. Lol 😆

[@davidperry7271]

After 40 years in this business yes we all can make a mistake but some just don’t care

[@AdirondackNY]

For a quick not as accurate check on bolts and so on I use my wrenches, 11mm 7/16 and so on. Also works good checking various pins like 3/4 7/8 thicknesses

[@sambitar8448]

Hi Brian, You are the best of the best. Your thinking are beyond the top of the line. Thank you.

[@ChallengerDood]

Wow what a mess! Good thing it was free 😬

[@scrapmetal100]

Enjoying this. Keep them coming.

[@2secondslater]

Will give you a tip on finding hard to spot oil leaks, clean down the area thoroughly with a solvent like brake clean, spray the area with crack test developer, then try to find the leak, it will show up just like the red dye does on a crack test.

[@DavyOneness]

Last summer I did my headgaskets late one night when too tired. Ended up putting the passenger side head gasket on backwards. I installed engine a couple days later, hooked it all back up, and started it. Had a fountain of fluid shooting like 3 or 4 inches up. Thought it was coolent, figured I missed a hose connection, decided to pick it up again in morning since I was working in a driveway at night. Tried it again in morning, realized it wasn't coolent, and now I had a huge puddle of new oil under my car with the oil spewing like a fountain from the port because it had absolutely no headgasket material around it because it was in backwards, dooooh! Had to do the old headgasket fix in the car this time, but luckily was only one side. Also used a new gasket to be sure it wasn't damaged from being backwards. Also learned baking powder soaks up oil pretty well from pavement when its soaked in,lol

[@nata911]

love you brian been watching you for years really appreciate you!

[@garypheng909]

Thanks for showing me the time-sert I was able to repair my nephews WRX !!!

[@William1866]

Note to self: Buy all 7/16 thread repair kits online and repackage as 11m kits. Sell for $479.99

[@mph5896]

No way in He** I would be spending that much. A couple helicoil inserts stacked and I would run it. Maybe use head studs on that head if I could get them cheap enough.

[@Tedybear315]

Almost like what some idiots are doing with the PS5's. Can't believe the number of people that are spending over a grand for a $500ish system due to impatience

[@TytoMobile]

Do you see what I see? A bolt, a bolt, chewing out the threads It will bring us malice and dread, it will bring us malice and dread 🎶

[@briansmobile1]

Man, that was really good! You had me singing it and everything in my head as I read it! "It will bring US, malice and dreeeeeeaaaad!"

[@jasonp410]

Great video Brian! You have been a huge help in me doing the heads on my 07 Forester with 209k miles on it, especially reinstalling the cams and the i-avls system components. Can't wait to see what happens with this one next....hoping we torqued down our bolts right!! Merry Christmas to you and yours!

[@jamesu]

Thanks for the video Brian. Have a Merry Christmas.

[@windycitystevo]

Might be a lot more fun just to play with the spider than fix that...lol

[@amir-khanengineer]

Nice work

[@danob8968]

I'm sure time sert has a fix for this, but as you said SO much work

[@bonperal]

Is it just me or are Subarus difficult to work on? I've got a 2006 outback xt and dealing with valve cover gaskets, spark plugs, etc...is just a pain. BTW...I love this channel. Thanks.

[@wim0104]

no worse than working on the back cylinder heads of most V6 engines. Or the rear row of heads on Euro cars.

[@ZiggyTheHamster]

I think Subarus are among the easiest to work on. There's only like 3 sizes of bolt heads used, and plenty of room to work in the engine bay. The service manuals also have data for pretty much everything so they can be diagnosed with a multimeter.

[@jltrack]

Nope Subaru’s are so easy to work on. I’ve worked on my families Toyota, Lexus and Volvo. Subaru has the most accessible space and ease of service of any vehicle I’ve seen.

[@dksix1905]

I've seen a lot of threads pulled out of cast aluminum plate but I've never seen them do the slinky thing like that, are you sure that's not some kind of heli-coil? I've made a lot of thread inserts, it's just a matter of having the right taps and a means to drill and tap the hole for the insert. Granted, having a proper machine shop helps but I've fixed transmission housings with just a 1/2 drill and a drill guide block.

[@octurbojoe]

That pitch stop (dog bone) was also installed backwards.

[@briansmobile1]

Nice catch!

[@octurbojoe]

@@briansmobile1 🧐😁🤙🏽

[@TheThreeLeggedChair]

Thanks for sharing, I really enjoyed this video. GL.

[@AntonioClaudioMichael]

Wow at how it was sucking so much with the compressed air intriguing 😳 🤔

[@jschaddock9]

I've done timeserts on a toyota ar block before that had a same issue, threads just pulled out of the block. I felt sketchy doing that whole repair, but it worked out good. I couldn't imagine doing that in car with engine pointing at the fender.

[@don7406]

For a salvage car, would it be wrong to just rethread to say 12mm and put a new bolt in? Maybe use a hex head bolt so the next guy could see something was “different”. I know this isn’t factory correct but how much time and money is it feasible to put in this car? I’m not a trained Subaru tech, just a DIY driveway screw-up.

[@jhbryaniv]

Watching you do this I feel like I could manage to remove my own heads and replace them. But also feel like I'd end up torquing the head bolts to 23 ft/LB instead of 22 and ne in a worse position. Lol. In the mean time I'll just deal with the drip drip out of the bottom of the motor. Thanks for the great videos. They are always helpful, and entertaining.

[@briansmobile1]

Thanks John!

[@mitchm5883]

Enjoy the videos, but I find the background music distracting.

[@briansmobile1]

Thanks for the feedback Mitch. I took great care to get it quiet so you could hear over it. By tracking analytics people watch longer if there's music. My average watch time on a video is 3 minutes without it regardless of video length. And with it, around 80% of the video. It's maddening to work on a 20 minute video for four days and people only watch the first 3 minutes and Beuler out.

[@boots7859]

@@briansmobile1 A lot of the music they used to use on Top Gear was the electronic/ambiant style, which suited me fine.

[@The_Original_Default_Username]

Big ole' wolf spider!

[@ycmdill]

In my youth I used an impact to remove the head bolts on an old Nash flat head 6 and apparently the previous mechanic broke a head bolt and just tack welded the bolt head onto the cylinder head. Would have noticed if I had used a pull bar to remove the head bolts. As it worked out, did not find it till almost finished torquing the head.

[@kenkobylka8172]

Awh man! That's the worst feeling to find it stripped out. Ran into something similiar when pulling my sons wrx engine. Not so severe, just a bell housing bolt into the block. Snapped the bolt trying to remove it. Can just imagine the mechanics sick feeling, if he suspected he'd done it.

[@Zak6959]

I think I see an oversize bolt in someone’s future if it’s viable. Can’t wait to see the other side.

[@briansmobile1]

I'm going to get it edited hopefully by Wednesday.

[@Zak6959]

like we used to say back in Cape Breton, “We the willing, led by the unknowing, have been doing the impossible, for so long, with so little, we are now qualified to do anything, with nothing.”

[@AntonioClaudioMichael]

Good video brian

[@aboutmyfathersbusiness8324]

This always happened on my vw's. No more flat motors for me. I love my SBChevys.

[@ZiggyTheHamster]

0.4331 (11mm) vs 0.4375 ... Does the timesert kit have less than a 44 thou tolerance (1.01% difference)? The bolt doesn't appear to (wasn't it 11.1mm / 0.4370in?). I'd have gone with the 7/16 kit.

[@mr.nobody4900]

This Subaru should've stayed at the salvage yard after all.

[@alward9901]

Hi Brian. Am I right in thinking if you change a head gasket you must use new head bolts . Because the threads are stretched on the old ones . Thanks Al

[@briansmobile1]

Great question! Aftermarket head bolts tend to be unacceptable in terms of stretch/yield and exacerbate the head gasket issue further. So I will either get a new Fuji set or re-use the old ones. Most all of them I've ever done- I re use the pre stretched bolts and have better results for longevity over using new aftermarket ones. I will often feel them bind down to spec 8°-15° BEFORE the 90° on one or both final two steps, but they hold up so much better/longer when they're pre stretched and pre heat cycled.

[@2secondslater]

Oh, btw, stripping down an engine to that degree to remove the heads in the car, I spend the extra half an hour and pull the engine, makes repairs easier.

[@lukelea8007]

Is there any chance you could make a video on why a 2010 legacy is over heating. I’ve brought it to a mechanic who looked over the entire cooling system and found no leaks or cracks in the radiator. The car also has no symptoms of a head gasket issue besides over heating. I had the thermostat replaced just in case that was the issue but it still over heats and the coolant is boiling over the reservoir. Also when my car over heats the heat coming through the air vents turns cold. I’ve done so much research and can’t find any reason for it to be happening. Any info will help if you have the time🙏

[@torifan1976]

Brian, Use your calipers and measure the od of the bolt (major dia) also, nobody would make a bolt using metric pitch, and inch diameters. you can also use a simple conversion 11mm / 25.4 = .433" 7/16 is .4375" in decimals this explains why it slips right through the 7/16 hole. And, yes there are metric bolts that will appear to thread into a larger inch thread hole, but the pitch is different, your bolt sizing set-up probably only has about 3 or 4 full threads, the helixs would bind together if it had very many more threads than that

[@briansmobile1]

Yeah, I expected the same. So I bought the right one. The blue setup has legit full nuts cast into plastic. It's an old busted NAPA display a buddy gave me when he ordered new fixtures.

[@wyattoneable]

A mini slinky. But wow, that's some detective work. Too bad it became so costly.

[@lonwillis783]

Brian. Joe's Auto Electric is facing some challenges. Jim the car guy is asking everyone to donate to his PayPal account for assistance. On his KZbin page. Happy Holidays to you and your family!

[@rheidtech]

Wow. Thats what nightmares are made of. Full armor of God. 🌄 I think i would have tried going with a bigger bolt in 1 hole. But im not the smartest. Ive got a whole running 2.5 in my shed recently rebuilt by me with 5 star mls head gaskets on it. I woulda given it to you if i wasnt 2000 miles away🤷‍♂️ . Take Care Brian💪🏼😎

[@briansmobile1]

Wow! Thanks. It's all good. I built some new skills and some character on this one. It turned out awesome. That hole and the one next to it are far stronger than all the rest now.

[@garryhatchett775]

Fuuuuuuuudge! I had to replace head gaskets on a 6 cylinder tribeca and I had to pull the engine.

[@DavyOneness]

I bet they mixed up the headbolts and didn't know about the ones with the dot that go in the middle?

[@briansmobile1]

Maybe more than that. The dot head ones have bigger washers on them, but the length is the same.

[@briansmobile1]

Kudos to you though, not too many people know that off the top of their head.

[@rawfarms2790]

Nice. Do you have a video on Subaru neutral position sensor replace wondering if you have to pull motor and transmission to change it.

[@grjr]

I'd take it to the machine shop for them to fix for the price of that time-sert kit

[@briansmobile1]

Actually much cheaper if you only have one hole and don't plan to do it again. On the other side of the mountain I could get it done for $50 if I took in the block... and waited a week for the guy to get back from vacation.... and he caught up on everyone else' stuff ahead of mine... etc. etc. so I bought the kit and made a video on it coming Wednesday. Talk about nerve racking and then SUPER satisfying!

[@mostlymoparih5682]

It's Slinky, it's Slinky, it's fun it's wonderful toy. That's an expensive way to make a slinky.

[@briansmobile1]

LOL

[@driveitlikeitsmine]

Just a little wolf spider

[@SeanBZA]

My me that is a medium small, they get a bit bigger than that.

[@sharg0]

As a machinist I doubt it's a metric thread. Two reasons: 1. The outside diameter should be a bit under the nominal 11 mm (roughly 10.85).* 2. It's a non standard thread and very odd at that (I've never seen any 11 mm thread personally). Carefully clean and measure several bolts if you haven't done so already. Pay extra good attention to the pitch gauge, does a metric or imperial fit? (Light might pass at top and bottom of the threads but the shoulders should be perfectly seated all the way over the whole gauge). Most common metric threads: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_metric_screw_thread#Preferred_sizes I'm not very used to imperial threads so I wont comment on the fit as such. *Reason for this is that the nominal diameter refers to the theoretical top point of the threads but since the thread peaks (and valleys) are trimmed the real external thread is a touch smaller then nominal diameter (roughly 1/10 of the pitch so an M10x1.5 will measure about 9.85).

[@Blazer02LS]

You will find a lot of uncommon threads on vehicles due to the bean counters. The engineers will design an engine, then the bean counting starts and the engineers are told, " You know that you have 12 MM head bolts in there, you could go to a smaller size and get the same clamping power for XXX less money per vehicle" Then the engineers do a bunch of work and decide to go with a non-standard bolt because it barely does the job, but hey they were .0004 cents cheaper each, and they should make it through the warranty. Plus it has the "advantage" of allowing for high parts mark-ups because nobody else uses that size bolt.

[@sharg0]

@@Blazer02LS Opposite way. Manufacturing special threads is significantly more expensive and reduces the amounts of vehicles a specific part can be used on. Also costs for spare parts inventory increases if a component only can be used on a few models compared to many. Realizing this and the need for tolerances was key to the initiation of mass production with the Model-T.

[@Blazer02LS]

@@sharg0 Then you might want to talk to all of the brands who use non-standardized parts these days and that is pretty much every carmaker. There are a lot in use. In this case with Subaru, those head bolts fit many of their engines and they do not want parts that interchange with any other brand. Then there is the minor item that there hasn't been an imperial sized part used on any cars since the very early 90's. They are entirely designed and built in metric and those 11X1.25 threads are actually common these days.

[@willhikearizona]

Nice work!

[@Monkeywrenchmotorcycles]

I love time-sert kits. I have a dozen of them at work to fix screwups like this...

[@briansmobile1]

Once you use them, they tickle your inner OCD and it's over. The "take my money!" effect takes hold from there.

[@mikej1389]

Wow never seen the entire threads come out as a spring, I have used timeserts in the past with my jeep CRD- expensive but a good set of tools for repair in aluminum oil pan and glow plug holes in a VW

[@jhbryaniv]

So that spring was the threads from the block? That's wicked.

[@AntonioClaudioMichael]

Wow at the amount of missing thread on that head bolt

[@Mayamax3]

It's always expensive coming in behind a hack that has little skill & no ethic. If you think a proper repair is expensive, it's nothing compared to fixing it twice.

[@flipr7]

JB Weld fixes everything..

[@FJ80Coop]

Looking at the valves in the 2 cylinders says that the foremost cylinder was running good.fairly dystolic while the 2 different colors on the 2 exhaust valves tells me there was a leak between them and looking at the land around the head shows a darker patch where comoression was blowing or leaking out hence the darker swath atthe head gaskets metal ring area on the 12 o clock side in the videi...lightly mill the head and use a new head gasket ratgsr than spraying gasket sealer on the used gasket as small shops or an owner would do... Tap the head bolt hole up to either the next size up in sae or metric and replace all the other head bolts with oem.. Some bad stealerships have been known to do this level of repair work..not gonna mention any names in here...

[@FJ80Coop]

Stoichiometric ratio...stupid so called smart phones..

[@AntonioClaudioMichael]

Whoever put that engine together didn't care @briansmobile1

[@BigDaddysGarage]

I HAAAAAAATE those spiders!!!!

[@toddnelson2182]

You probably already have it fixed but you could get a used running engine for $500. I'm scared to think what else you're going to find on this one.

[@gianfrancoa]

An used EJ25 for $500???

[@2secondslater]

Not likely getting a used EJ25 that is in good condition and that has no leaks for $500, you are kidding yourself.

[@nestrac]

Dang... That just added a ton of extra work on the job before it can be decleared a somewhat healthy engine. What a shame... 😑

[@SeanBZA]

Yes, otherwise reasonable work let down by Bubba and his ham fists being in there. So they are almost the same, just that you have to send a few inserts down the hole for the head, unless you get an extra long one. At least with the thread being stripped out drilling out the hole is now a lot easier, you just have to clean up the diameter and you will be perfect.

[@jimmylee8027]

Replace oil cooler gasket ring to the oil filter

[@joeblowunlimited]

Great video for the skill development value, but to be practical I would drop $2k on a good 50k mile JDM 2.5 and just stuff it in. My guess is that it would save a lot of future headaches from the other shoddy work you haven't discovered yet.

[@totalyep]

Would you oil the threads on the head bolts or use a good anti seize?

[@stans5270]

I would have checked the "Good" head bolts instead of the one that was ailing. Someone might have replaced the 11mm with the 7/16 for the same reason there were different motor mount washers.

[@ZiggyTheHamster]

I doubt it, nobody has Subaru-esque head bolts in stock that are only 44 thou larger. If it looked like a hardware store bolt, I'd buy that.

[@stans5270]

@@ZiggyTheHamster Your doubt proves nothing. My statement stands as fact. Replacing a bolt that failed with the same type as the one that failed is just asking for a repeat of failure.

[@ZiggyTheHamster]

A bolt of the same length and head style that Subaru uses but isn't the proper size probably exists, but do you think it's going to be in a spare parts bin like those random O rings? No, it's not common enough for that. And if the previous guy were to order one, he'd order the right part. This is the 11mm head bolt Subaru shipped which measures quite close to 7/16 stock.

[@AdirondackNY]

I just noticed at 6:47 is that crankshaft bent?

[@briansmobile1]

Good eye! That's my cobbled together socket + dead harmonic balancer center = crank tool. I wasn't centered very well when I welded it on the floor and in a hurry.

[@AWD_T]

Evidence that Hacks were involved

[@kesu90]

Take block to machine shop. Have them helicoil it.

[@briansmobile1]

For most people that's a good idea. You can expect to pay between $50.00 a hole to $125.00 a hole. Depending on if it's in or out of the car, local economics and availability etc. The block took two serts. The ripped out one, and the one next to it. Now I have the kit for future ones I'll likely run into and I was able to make this coming Wednesday's video on it too. Stay tuned!

[@joachimsandgaard]

Time for some 14mm ARP headstuds!

[@briansmobile1]

That's not a bad idea. My instinct to restore things and make it so no one can tell I've been there won the day on this one.

[@TheNeal666]

The music is distracting. Good work

[@moekhn]

use the new torch specs

[@greasyhandsauto-shaunbutte9726]

Sad that someone would leave that stripped out.

[@kchanguito]

What’s year is this ?

[@briansmobile1]

2009 on paper and by VIN. 8/2008 in reallity and on the door jamb.

[@SmudgyContent]

Be aware of who you bring your Engine to.... I feel for the person who maybe brought it to a licensed shop.... 😑 probably hustled the owner as well on the repairs too most likely wasn’t even cheaper work

[@briansmobile1]

Absolutely. I hate to say it, but I know. It's not enough to have an honest mechanic or a skilled mechanic. It has to be both.

[@williammusgrove3337]

Is this the B is for Build Guy or a relative?

[@AntonioClaudioMichael]

Massive price difference @briansmobile1

[@artyberkhoff8878]

When you make engines out of poor grade metal like Subaru does stuff like this happens.

[@screamneagle8420]

Are you still collecting license plates?

[@AntonioClaudioMichael]

Wow 11 by 1.25 matches 7/16 x 20 interesting 🤔 @briansmobile1

[@warwickscram5925]

Paco strikes again.

[@MrRobert1603]

That sucks ! Walk from that block, my suggestion! Good luck!

[@briansmobile1]

It's fixed already and turned out awesome! Had to helicoil one of the valve cover holes in the drivers side head too. I'm "paying tuition" on this project because it can help others & I recoup the investment of my time over time through the videos. Check out how it went on Wednesday!

[@bgehret3141]

Why not use a helicoil? Much more reasonably priced.

[@briansmobile1]

You'll see why on Wednesday.

[@stevebucuris8420]

it was leaking because it is Subaru

[@moekhn]

you could of bought a new head for 500 bux lol

[@carabela125]

FIRST !

[@jordans.2665]

Seven years cc since I’ve seen one of your vids... same shaking voice, same accent that cannot be placed...