The trouble with my GT

[Ian Black]

If you want a car with a turbo, sell yours and get one with a turbo.

It's a lot of work, and it'll never be worth what you have into a turbo swap. Do it if you love the car and it's your passion, it's that kind of swap.

Or if you have a lot of turbo parts laying around your garage.

I just want to get back to driving my favorite. It pains me to see it sit there, out of commission.

 

[Chris]

I just want to get back to driving my favorite. It pains me to see it sit there, out of commission.

Been there, done that. I've replaced almost every part on my GL, including spending a week of welding up rotted out body and rockers.

 

[Ian Black]

I know the feeling, did rotted floors on a Jetta a while back. It's no fun aha.

 

[Maxxguy25RS]

So I'm kinda backtracking when I ask this, but any 2.5 na that you do head gaskets on will spin a rod bearing? I ask this because we have at the shop I work at an 02 legacy wagon with an EJ251 that we did the head gaskets and oil pan gasket on back in September that has a really bad engine knock and oil spewing out of the front and rear main seals. We know that the motor is bad, so it's getting a new one.

Chris, was your case a specific one brough on by the head swap?

 

[Matt]

It's not the case.

 

[Chris]

An ej25D (first gen DOHC 2.5) has weak rod bearings. When it's overheated for extended periods of time it weakens and ruins the bearings and they tend to fail.

Maxx, you're talking about the SOHC motor up there. If the head gaskets were done, and now it's leaking oil and knocking, whomever did the gaskets didn't do them properly.

 

[Maxxguy25RS]

see that's the thing. the car in question was running just fine before. I guess what happened is the oil got changed at prompto (surprise there), then the knocking started. id have to say a drive down to Connecticut wasnt the best thing for that engine. since we didnt do the last oil change, its hard to say if they overfilled it and it blew out the seals due to too much pressure, or the knock is a bearing that went bad and caused the oil pressure to spike and blow out the seals. but that dosent matter because a new motor is going in it.

but yes, this one is a sohc. and it wasnt overheating when it came in for the head gaskets. but I want to see if the old motor needs to be returned for a core or not. I would like the heads for the cams and more.

 

[Chris]

I don't want to sound like a dick, but it would be best if you started your own thread for it.

 

[Nigel Prodrive]

guys, somebody is missing the obvious here...motors pooch after h/g failure not so much because the "new h/gs weren't done right" but because of other bad things that happened after the original h/g failure: repeated and severe overheating, coolant mixed with oil (this combo eats bearings, BAD) or oil in coolant, etc. If a tech knows what's happened, he can advise owner what will work and what won't.

the long trip this car took while the h/gs were already gone is what cooked the motor. if ppl were more aware of impending h/g probs and more observant and PARKED the cart immediately, there would be far less of this kind of issue. fix things earlier rather than later people!

 

[2point5RS_Dan]

Driving a DOHC on a bad headgasket is a recipe for failure.

DOHC's leak internally and ruin the oil, which makes your bearings very very sad bearings. If it were my car, and the HG leaks on a DOHC, I would stop driving it immediately. Then again, I would never buy a DOHC (NA) subaru because I don't want to deal with them.

SOHC's leak externally (for the most part). I drove my RS to bangor and back a few times just topping off my coolant, never overheating the car before I had them done. Done 45k heavily abusive miles on the car since then.

At the same time, I've seen nightmare SOHC's that when you pull the drain plug chocolate pudding comes out, YMMV.

 

[Chris]

DOHC leak combustion into the coolant. Which not only puts a lot of pressure on the cooling system that can blow the gasket worse and screw up your heater core, it makes hot spots in the engine. And that also blows things up worse.

The blow uppage potential on DOHC is pretty good.

 

[IBratmanI]

On the other hand, there are MANY DOHC 2.5's that go over 300k. Yes, the head gaskets were replaced, but the motor still lived. There is no doubt the 2.5's are a weak point in Subaru history, BUT, if you pay attention to your fluid levels, and overall general maintenance of your vehicle, then it shouldn't be a problem, even if you have a DOHC that gets a leaky head gasket.

 

[Chris]

Oh yea, they'll last a long time if you don't chronically overheat them and run them low on oil from bad head gaskets.

 

[IBratmanI]

Right, it all comes down to PAYING ATTENTION!

 

[Ian Black]

So guys what do you think my best route would be?

Chris you said you did a 2.2 swap in your GT. How's it drive? Compared to the 2.5?

I'd like to keep the car, but I'm short on funds. What would be my best bet?

I'm not too sure about how many LGT wagons are left out there but I want this one to stand out. To make people love the wagon.

Go Team Wagon!

 

[Chris]

I never drove it with the stock 2.5 with stock heads, only the 2.5 with 2.2 heads. The 2.2 is a little anemic compared to other newer subarus, I think.

But I have an 80 hp GL as my other car to compare it to. And compared to that, it's fast as hell.

 

[2point5RS_Dan]

Your best bet is to ge the car up and running as cheaply as possible. Drop in 2.2 or find a good DOHC 2.5. What ever you can find for le cheap. Yeah the 2.2 is gonna be slower, but it should last as long as you get a good one.

 

[IBratmanI]

I think that dropping a 2.2 will be the cheapest and easiest by far. They are usually far cheaper than the 2.5's, and like stated above, will be very dependable.

 

[wrangler25]

If it helps any I know someone with a 2.5 dual cam ( bent valves ) for real cheap ( prob 150) poss even less , I'd be willing to ask him if ur interested ... understand its not a running bolt in but cheaps cheap . just trying to help .

 

[Chris]

If it helps any I know someone with a 2.5 dual cam ( bent valves ) for real cheap ( prob 150) poss even less , I'd be willing to ask him if ur interested ... understand its not a running bolt in but cheaps cheap . just trying to help .

I'm interested. What year, how many miles. Bent valves means the belt went, not head gaskets. So it probably hasn't been cooked.If you could please PM me more info as to not shit up this thread, that would be great. Thanks.