Subaru oil puking, JDM swap, yo?

My 2003 Subaru Legacy is acting British. I can see oil seeping at the head gaskets, and I'm at the point where I have to add a quart of oil every 100 miles or so. I leave great puddles wherever I park. It's great!

I know at the very least I need to do head gaskets, but I'm a worried that maybe I have another seal that's gone bad somewhere. The sea of oil makes it tough to figure out egg-zachary what's going on.

This is my daily driver and I really can't afford to have it down for more than a day or two max, and my usual "free rental" (dad's F350 KING RANCH POWERSTROKE DIESEL CREW CAB DUALLY 4X4) isn't available as his Jetta is headed for the body shop (again) after his attempts to play rally driver ended with a stop sign against two doors and the rear bumper cover.

I know I could replace the engine in less than a day even if Murphy's legal team showed up in my yard. But junkyard EJ25s are stupid money, $1,500 to $2,000 for something that is actually tested as running and good and not 200k miles and/or blown head gaskets.

But I see these EJ20 SOHC normally aspirated engines on evilBay and other JDM yo! sites for $800-1,000, allegedly with under 50k miles, some only a few hours away, so I could check the gas and fill the oil and haul the thing home. But despite several hours of semi-inebriated Googling, I have yet to figure out if this would be as plug-and-play as some suggest, or if I'm looking at world of hurt.

I know the cheapskate always pays the most, so just tell me I'm being stupid, rent a car for a few days, pull the engine, take the heads to get machined, and slap new MLS head gaskets on your current engine and run the POS until the body completely oxidizes. If it happens to need a rear main, so be it, not that hard.

But I'm still curious if a JDM EJ20 is plug-and-play.

---

Andrew Steere
Lyndeborough, NH
KB1PJY

Pull your motor, only takes a little effort, then pull the heads. Replace rear main, front seals including oil pump gasket and you're done. The 2.0 can be put in there but you're losing a bunch of power. How many miles on your 2.5 ?

I've seen a few 2.5s that looked like the head gaskets were leaking at the rear corner, but it was the wristpin access plugs that were seeping oil out.

So, another vote for just pulling the engine and resealing everything, these engines seem to have all sorts of places for fluids to escape. It'll cost less than one of those EJ20s too, for not much more effort.

---

Pete Remner
Cleveland, Ohio

1984 RX-7 (rallycross thing)
1978
Silence is golden, but duct tape is silver.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/16/2013 06:20AM by Pete.

OK, you've convinced me. If I need to, I'll just get a rental car for a couple days.

Thanks!

---

Andrew Steere
Lyndeborough, NH
KB1PJY

Buy the whole engine gasket kit at your dealer, or a close by online dealer for under $250. Make sure it comes with valve cover gaskets, as some do not.

Google things like jdmfsm subaru and score some .info

If you need anything else send me a PM. Do not let that lanky lad who plays with XRattys and has a funny Canuck sounding last name help you.

Oh, I did the other gaskets and oil pan 5,000 miles ago. Apparently stopping all those little leaks forced the oil to find another way to escape.

Hmmm, should probably change the PCV valve while I'm at it, been 60k since that was done last.

---

Andrew Steere
Lyndeborough, NH
KB1PJY

Of course if I eliminate the oil leaks, the damn thing's just going to rust out faster.

---

Andrew Steere
Lyndeborough, NH
KB1PJY

You might want to look into the catastrophic converter plugging and causing crankcase pressure scenario while you're there.

Don't forget oil pump high pressure o ring.

---

Grant Hughes

STOP ADDING WORK! Or I'm just gonna torch the thing!

---

Andrew Steere
Lyndeborough, NH
KB1PJY

Although you might want to pull the engine for other reasons (don't necessairly need to to do rear main. just pull it forward in engine bay). I don't think you need to pull it to remove heads. I've never tried with a 2.5 but you certainly don't need to with a 2.2. Others experiences with this?
BTW, my 2003 Legacy with 102,000 miles on it just started leaking oil out of apparently the drivers side head. Not enough to add any but enough to drip on the driveway periodically.

---

Don Kennedy



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/16/2013 11:53AM by imnotcrazy.

Quote
fiasco
STOP ADDING WORK! Or I'm just gonna torch the thing!

---

John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

If you have the tools and facilities to yank the motor to do the work...DO IT!

If you try, you can have a Subaru N/A motor out of the car in under an hour. Seriously, yank the rad, pull the fuel lines and wiring connectors, pull the intake plumbing, undo the starter and the rest of the bell housing bolts, the pitch rod, and the 2 motor mount bolts beneath. Pull off the p/s pump and yank it over to the passangers side fender well, and the a/c compressor over to the battery.

The work to replace the head gaskets, and anything else on the motor is 100 times easier and faster on an engine stand. Leaning into the engine bay over the fenders sucks ass, and you end up with alot of busted knuckles.

---

Chris

Yeah, I pull the engine to do DOHC timing belts, even on a turbo model it's almost easier than blinking to get the engine out.

---

Pete Remner
Cleveland, Ohio

1984 RX-7 (rallycross thing)
1978
Silence is golden, but duct tape is silver.

Quote
Do It Sidewayz
If you have the tools and facilities to yank the motor to do the work...DO IT!

If you try, you can have a Subaru N/A motor out of the car in under an hour. Seriously, yank the rad, pull the fuel lines and wiring connectors, pull the intake plumbing, undo the starter and the rest of the bell housing bolts, the pitch rod, and the 2 motor mount bolts beneath. Pull off the p/s pump and yank it over to the passangers side fender well, and the a/c compressor over to the battery.

The work to replace the head gaskets, and anything else on the motor is 100 times easier and faster on an engine stand. Leaning into the engine bay over the fenders sucks ass, and you end up with alot of busted knuckles.

And since the OEM head gaskets are MLS, it probably hain't them, right?

By the way, Congratulations on your new Oafish-al CARS Position...
Did you have a badge now?
Show us your badge...

---

John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.