There’s an engineer somewhere who’s crowning achievement is that wrist pin access hole. And a whole herd of mechanics that would love to drive him through that hole
Well, removing crankshaft and piston assembly is not exactly part of regular maintenance. It's not like you're likely to do that on your vehicle. I sure never had to, and I typically do 250-350k km on my cars before selling them.
I have owned a few Foresters, which means I have done my share of timing belt replacements and head gaskets. I’ve done the head gaskets with the engine both in and out of the vehicle. It’s definitely worth taking the time to pull the engine, as the tolerances from the fender wells make it almost impossible to pull and replace the heads. Heck, even replacing the spark plugs is a royal pain.
You should change the name of your channel to "Engine Mortician". It may seem morbid but you could come up with some awesome graphic designs and merchandise. With the niche you have fallen in to, your ability to diagnose what went wrong with a vehicle, and just enabling people to see inside engines they may have in a video only 20 minutes long, you could gain a huge following.
Head gasket issues are with the graphite coated gaskets almost exclusively. The multi-layer steel head gaskets from the turbo models almost never have any problems. Therefore, any time we overhaul one of these whether turbo or not, we always use the turbo head gaskets on the re-build.
I have watched a number of these wonderful videos. You subtle humor is great, so up beat. The filming and editing is first class. These videos should be a required class for mechanical design engineers however far into their careers, I'm 50+ years into mine and still learning. Thank you for taking the time to present the stories so well.
@@joskd8491 I think this engine was well maintained. Look at how clean it is under the valve cover. Not even the slightest varnish whatsoever. Must have had regular oil changes with good oils. EJ's tend to develop bearing problems and selfdestruct for unknown reasons. The Subaru community debates the mystery blaming modifications, split block engine design causing minute misalignments, engine abuse, many other reasons, for example leftover sand following castin processes in the EJ turbo engines. It is a mystery.
@@sezwo5774 He showed at the 3:30 mark that there was axle grease on both sides of the engine so it wasn't well maintained. The bearing issue could have been caused by low oil (either from a leak or burnt off without being topped up), or a failed cooling system and continuing to drive while it was overheating. Also EJ engines should really be on Xw-40 oil, if a thinner oil is used and the oil is too hot and/or low then all the oil will be on one side of the engine when going around a corner. Most people with a spun bearing are using Xw-30 or thinner. Unfortunately a lot of people are too lazy to even check the oil level in their car, maybe not realizing that they can burn oil. The coolant should be changed every 5 years as well or it can start to clog up.
@@Tim._.. I meant the engine specifically not the car. 7:11 shows very clean engine internals. A leaky axle boot is easy to miss if you park your car outside and do oil changes at fast oil change places where nobody does any inspections of engine surroundings or cares to alert the owner to any problems. I discovered my axle boot leaking very fast because of bad smell in the garage. The grease would splash over the hot engine and produce a horrid smell. I would probably not notice it if the car was parked outside. What I am saying is it is fairly easy nowadays for someone to maintain the engine, do frequent oil changes but yet miss a destroyed axle boot. Regarding oil viscosity a slightly thicker oil is indeed good for these engines, but not necessarily for the turbo versions! These have silver plated rod bearings that corrode in presence of zinc and acid. Turbo Subarus since around 2008 have silver plated rod bearings. They are stronger but require low zinc oil as zinc in presence of acid corrodes silver. At the same time, Subaru changed its oil requirement to synthetic 5w-30 RC only. This particular viscosity is Resource Conserving and has a restricted content of zinc or ZDDP. Unfortunately, the first thing the WRX/STI/XT Subaru crowd does when they get their hands on a new turbo Subaru is change the oil to a thicker more zinc'y one like the famous Rotella T6 5w-40. Engine modifications, abuse and corrosion of silver bearing soon begins, ...and with it the dreaded rod bearing failures. Locomotive engines that have silver rod bearings require totally zinc free oils! Subaru probably should have explained things better, I guess, but it would only scare people even more. They've had enough problems with the their engines. As long as the oil is changed frequently and is of synthetic quality- is pure and does not become acidic too fast, and has a low zinc content (like any RC 5w-30) there is no problem with silver corrosion. The average WRX owner modifies and abuses the car and pours thick zinc loaded oils and fails to do frequent oil changes as stated in the manual. The recipe is an engine disaster. I personally use a mixture of 5w-30 RC and some NAPA 15w-50 in my 2013 Forester XT. The Napa oil is Valvoline but with a weaker add pack and contrary to many other thick oils has low levels of zinc as if it were a RC oil. Despite the mixture being synthetic I change it frequently so it does not become acidic in the slightest. The average WRX/XT owner pours synthetic oil and immediately extends the oil change interval. Many popular practices of turbo Subaru owners are just detrimental to their car's engines.
@@Tim._.. So you are saying thin 5w-30 oil splashes around the oil pan too much and starves bearings of oil when going around corners aggressively. Might be. Definitively another suspect to the long list. This would impact all cars, both turbo and non-turbo. Newer engines have improved baffles in the oil pan so it looks like this got Subaru's attention. Likely there are multiple contributing causes.
My first car was a used 88 Subaru sedan with a 1.6L sohc. Was a tough as heck engine and learned lots of basic mechanical work. Not sure about newer engines but my 88 was a non interference design.
That was the older EA engine. They went to the EJ in the 90s like this engine. They were non interference through the 1996 model year. The old EJ18 and EJ22 were bulletproof!
@@johngulbunny7456 Yeah nothing beats the EJ22 for daily bulletproof reliability and ease to work on IMO. Def need it with AWD though. EJ18 just as reliable, but not quite as quick.
There you go again sir , creating RUclipss best engine tear down content hands down, no lie about 2 hours ago I sat down and looked to see if you had any new videos I haven't seen, and I was like damet nothing new , and then low and behold you came threw just an hour later !!! Your the man , keep up the good work , best on RUclips
It’s easy to see why the Chevy/GM LS motors are so popular replacement engines for all kind of cars. I have watched you breakdown all kinds of engines on RUclips, and the LS style engines are so much simpler than the rest. I have a 4.8l in a 2000 Sierra w/ 180k and it runs perfect! One set of plugs & wires, and one serpentine belt, and change oil and air filter. That’s it!
I bought an EJ253 from PMP. It was very well protected for shipping from the east coast to Colorado. Put it in, started up, no odd noises. Very happy. Thanks for the link to his shop. You made him some money too.
Worked for a Subaru dealer for years. Used to see this all the time because NA Subaru owners are too lazy to change their oil. #1 rod bearing EVERY TIME. Usually left a nice hole in the top of the block.
Wow, it was 25 years ago, that “baby Cessna engine “ was the first engine I rebuilt. It disturbs me to this day knowing I had no clue what I was doing, but I learned.
The axles being split is another Subaru nightmare. These car LOVE ripping CV boots lol. Mine went through FIVE CV boots in the four years I owned it! I would always know when one ripped because the grease would get on the converter and exhaust. The cabin would fill up with that nice burnt grease smell.
You have a niche channel that no one else has. You've got a real shot to go real big if you begin buying a few popular engines that may have little value regarding your business. But it does give you free advertising for your primary business so you could think of investing in these types of engines as a marketing expense. I personally would like to see a 5.4 3V. Considering F-150's have been the highest selling trucks for...a long time...and many people own trucks still with the 5.4, there would be some value in providing a teardown of one I believe.
Same exact failure happened on my 2000 Forester. It's the last noise you want to hear during a 5:30 am commute to work. Got it rebuilt and put back in just in time for the underbody to rust through. I don't regret doing it though, I learned a lot and am learning more from your channel. Keep up the good work dude.
@@jimrossabrena7955 The what was a bearing giving out. As to the how and why I’m not sure… it was only about 2 months after I got the car and I changed the oil upon buying it. The oil looked fresh coming out… but who knows how it was taken care of over those ~19 years.
I had a 97 Legacy Outback with a EJ25 that had that same cylinder do the same thing. Only mine made an inspection window in the block, right where it says "EJ25." I paid 300 bucks for a motor and it still runs like a top 4 years later.
Thanks for doing this video. I've never seen one of these engines up close let alone apart. I always wondered how they solved the problem of installing the rotating assembly into the middle of the block. Now I know. Very cool how there's no main caps, just two engine blocks with the mains bolted to each other.
The ej motor is notorious for the cylinder 1 or 4 having bearing failure. Its because of the oil system design. If u take a hard turn all the oil shifts to one side of the pan and the pick up tube can reach it to pump it properly. Depending on the turn u make will depend on which cylinder goes down because they’re opposite of each other because its a horizontal engine. Happened to mine and many of my friends who have them. Great fun cars but like anything else it has its issues
My guess is this engine was well maintained at one time looking at the timing belt setup didn't look worn out which is common when people let them go. The heads looked clean inside and the head gaskets looked OK. Someone probably bought this and just never changed the oil and the engine gave up.
Ya no kid, l thought it looked like the heads or at least the timing belt was done recently. Figure it got low on oil that's a common problem, human error.
The oil pickup has issues too if they were taking corners at high speed or high revving getting onto the highway. Not a problem if you don’t drive it like a maniac but that’s the first recommended upgrade anytime you’re going to build an EJ for a track car.
Yachtze! Go for it. My old Forester was a victim of that head gasket the proceeded to ruin everything Thanks for your time on this one. Bill from Rhinelander.
Actually Subaru visited Germany, specifically The Borgward Group, and came away with the details/knowledge of a car called Lloyd Arabella, brought that knowledge back to Japan, and started making cars with "boxer" engines in 1965. I had an early one, a '69, it gave 45mpg, and was a mountain goat.
I have owned 4 Legacies one outback and one impreza. The outback had the ej251 and the rest all had the ej22. One was turbo charged. They are good engines and pretty easy to work on. One thing to note about the 253 is they leak oil from the head gasket after a while and that's when your on borrowed time. Once coolant starts leaking out that's when you need to do the heads. EJ22 however, never had that problem. The issue came because when the phase one EJ25 came out in the first gen outback from 95 till 99 they changed the head gasket thickness and also made it single layer. They later changed it again to a multi layer steel gasket and fixed it for the most part. 99% the cause of this spun bearing was lack of lubrication. Owner probably drove with the red oil light on and Boxer engines are very sensitive to oil starvation. The rest of the engine looked pretty good.
@@RobertNES816 You have a solution for the low bulbs burning out every 4-6 months give or take. New ground straps on motor to body and headlamp harnesses both sides.
@@alreed2434 No lol but that brings me to another issue I had with my Subaru. I replaced the battery in mine and over the course of a month literally EVERY bulb in the car started to burn out. The headlights, fog lights, tail lights, interior lights lol. I swear those cars are lemons. 05 to 14 Subarus are lemons!
I'm not saying they all did it but leaking inner front axle boots was a common Subaru owner's complaint. The boots didn't fail, they leaked through the clamps. I think whoever was the inner axle boot installer had a long career. The problem persisted for years.
TBH never really seen that, but I see the front boots split all the time on the older cars, especially the passenger side due to its closer proximity to the exhaust. The outers also liked to go by about 100-150K just from use and abuse. Winter hard on the rubber too I'm sure. Very easy to swap at least!
My brothers 2000 model Subaru Forester runs the Subaru EJ20J engine in it which has done over 413,000 kilometres (256,626 miles) & it's had the cylinder heads rebuilt twice on it. The previous owner had them rebuilt after not being able to afford to get the timing belt replaced as they cost a minimum of $1000 AUD just for the belt & tensioner kit so it snapped & they bent the valves in it. They got the cylinder heads rebuilt on it & they sold the car to my brother,a valve dropped out in it after he got the car converted to run on LP gas when they were 600 kilometres (360 miles) away from home with my dad when visiting my grandmother. So it happens my cousins husband is a Subaru trained mechanic & he had to drop the engine out to remove the cylinder heads & he resealed the engine, replaced the clutch, etc while the engine was out. So,at a cost of $3,500 AUD he got the cylinder heads rebuilt with new valves, valve seats, springs,stem seals,etc & he told my brother not to run it on LPG which he still does. So parts such as the timing belt & tensioner kits aren't cheap,my brother got a timing belt kit for $600 AUD at "mates rates" but they're normally $1000+ AUD. I've worked on it twice now as it had problems Such as an air leak at the throttle body butterfly shaft which required me to replace the throttle body & I had to unstick an LP gas injector last time. Cylinder number 3 wasn't firing on LP gas because AEB who makes the injectors applies grease to the internals of the injector which dried up so I Just cleaned up the injector parts, regreased it & reassembled it. It clogged up the spring which didn't enable the Metal disc to lift up against spring pressure off the LP gas nozzle !
Well I am thankful that I'm getting older . If I wasn't I would be missing watching I do cars. Just love watching your abilities . Waiting for the Duramax. Thanks again.
This man knows what we like. Thank you for sharing. I learned I can carry the short block. I carried it into a car and onto a bench at a car wash to clean it.
@@wafflesnfalafel1 I remember seeing somewhere that only like 30% of these get head gasket failures, still pretty high but it made me feel a lot better about my 251
@@johngulbunny7456 My ej253 must have been lucky then, it happened to me twice! It got new gaskets the first time, and on the second, I fixed it by buying a WRX.
Having built a few of these engines I have to say that I am absolutely grateful for not owning a Subaru any longer. They are adequate for daily driving around town but freeways are not a friend of the Subaru engine.
You found the carnage alright! It's amazing what happens to engines and what owners are saddled with which is why manufacturers must give lengthy warranties, back up your products or don't make them at all. The intake manifold is a fascinating work of art, I'd like to see it cast. As usual it's sad in a way that the engine is scrap after all the effort gone into making it. Thank God for recycling ☺️
@@Batboy_idiot I'll take your word for it. A lady colleague swore by Subaru, wouldn't buy another brand, said they were super reliable and then I found out why. They require 6 monthly servicing and this lady had every issue attended to, it cost her plenty and she couldn't see the forest for the trees.
Tons of Subarus here where I live in Colorado. Subarus typically display lots of crunchy/granola rear window stickerage, and are often found blocking the left lane on the freeway, with general traffic passing them on their right. For whatever reason, a lot of Subaru drivers believe it is their civic duty to enforce the speed limit. Subaru is also the official car of female public school teachers and over educated and inevitably unemployed Trustafarian pot smokers of any gender who live in Boulder, CO. Such people as a group tend to not be too detailed when it comes to vehicle maintenance. I am shocked that the heads showed no sign of leakage though. A teacher (female of course) friend's '09 Subaru developed the head gasket leak and pressurized cooling system issue right on schedule at 115K miles. Another friend has the flat six version. As a full blooded Trumplican and a rageaholic impatient, fast and aggressive driver, my friend is a Subaru anomaly. He also uses Apple phone and computer products. I don't dare to tell my Trumplican friend he is using "commie" transportation and computer/phone products - LMFAO...
Interesting video. These engines can go 200K miles with zero mechanical issues or they can have catastrophic problems before they even hit 100K. In this case it likely ran out of oil. Some Subaru EJs use little oil between changes and some use a lot. Subaru added an oil level sensor and warning light years ago because of this issue but some owners might ignore it or run the car out of oil on a long trip. The sensor only works on start up on level ground. Another issue are cheap aftermarket oil filters like they use at local quick lube establishments. Subaru’s OEM filters are made differently. Basically if you own a Subaru you should use high quality synthetic oil, OEM filters, change it at least every 5K, and check it regularly until you know your car’s oil consumption. It’s not like owning a Honda which could probably go 20K on an oil change without needing to add any oil. Boxers generally use more oil and that includes Porsche boxers. South main auto did a video on a Subaru the owner ran out of oil that still ran but barely. It’s just sad when owners neglect their cars to the point of destruction. Subaru stopped making their head gaskets out of beer cartons a long time ago. They still sometimes rarely fail but it’s far less of an issue on newer normally aspirated engines. One downside of the newer motor is the inverted oil filter on the top of the engine drains and has to refill on start up causing more engine wear on start up. It’s really a brain dead design but even the new motors typically go 140K without any issues with decent maintenance. And at least they still generally use way less oil than your Mazda rotary.
This and most other later EJ25 engines used MLM head gaskets unlike the earlier failure-prone ones that had the composite types. The theory goes that the coating on the composite gaskets breaks down over time, causing failure. Some say it's primarily because of owner neglect (Americans are notorious for neglecting maintenance and piling on the miles whereas the Japanese generally take care of their stuff and/or scrap their cars after only a few years and before they get anywhere close to 100k miles), others say it's just what happens because of the composition of the gaskets and no amount of preventative maintenance would help. Another failure point on these (especially DOHC models) is timing belt idler/tensioner bearings: they may seize, destroying the belt and the rest of the engine. Happily the bearings usually start making noise before total failure so it can be caught well before it becomes catastrophic. This was a supplier fault (NOK or Koyo, I think), not inherent to the engine's design, same as with Hondas and their not-uncommon distributor bearing failures that have also led to a few engines' sudden destruction.
I *think* there was 2 factors came into play. Up until Subaru "birthed" the 2.5 engine their engines were closed block designs with next to no head gasket troubles. The bore size on the 2.5 seems to allow the cylinders to move around a bit eating the head gaskets. A popular mod was to close the block (by filling the spaces at the head gasket surfaces, and milling the deck smooth again) and the head gasket troubles became a thing of the past. Of course, now, in pursuit of fuel mileage (that was never a Subaru strong point, and still isn't), their engines have become smaller, and the cylinder does not seem to move around.
You can tell right away if a cylinder has had a gasket breach into the coolant line. The cylinder will be absolutely clean and sparkling from being steam cleaned. That’s what I found when I tore down the dohc version of this same engine. You have to pull the cams out of the head to access all of the head bolts. Kinda sucks.
From what I’ve seen those Subaru boxer engines are totally undeserving of their status as a good motor. The don’t seem to run very long, lots of low mileage failures. And many of them start chugging oil after 50k.
When I was a machinist, there was a Subaru dealer down the road that would have us mill the heads when the gaskets failed. I would do several sets a week. Some I could tell we had already done once before.
Subaru has a cult following. It doesn’t matter how bad of a product they put out, these customers just keep buying. Over a decade of head gasket issues, then on to the oil consumption issues, then cvt transmissions and those issues..... not to mention all the other tidbits with cv’s and wheel bearings. There is zero reason for Subaru to change when their customers just keep buying.
@@framekixrr came here to say this lol. I've never owned one since I don't trust open deck layouts and the horror stories have swayed me to stay away from them. If Subaru made them more reliable, easier to work on, and tuner friendly I'd consider one.
Thanks for doin a Subbie, these are so popular where I live (Sierras). I think this particular engine was well maintained. Look at how clean it is under the valve cover. Not even the slightest varnish whatsoever. Must have had regular oil changes with good oils. EJ's tend to develop bearing problems and selfdestruct for unknown reasons. The Subaru community debates the issue blaming modifications, split block engine design causing minute mis-alignments, engine abuse, many other reasons, for example leftover sand following casting processes of the EJ turbo engines. Also inadequate oil passages to bearings resuting in poor lubrication at higher rpm's. It remains a mystery why bearings fail in EJ engines.
What a monster. I have a 2.3 l 4 cylinder in my Suzuki Arrow. And it's half the size of that thing with the transmission. I didn't appreciate it until now
Disagree. I had a 2002 Subaru Outback with a 3.0. I went over 230,000 miles before selling the car. I had zero problems with it. Prior to that I had a 1980 with a 1.8. Zero problems. Then a 1990 with a 2.4. Zero problems. All these engines ran fine with only regular maintenence being necessary. Yes, the 2.4 engines had a head gasket problem but that's been long fixed.
Comparing the reliability of Subaru to a rotary is laughable. Only someone who has no experience with them would say so. I personally own 7 Subarus with over 200K miles on original engines and my family has owned probably 30+ total in the 200-300K range.
A suggestion for an engine teardown: A Volkswagen TDI. I imagine it is a pretty thin market. But, I ran a 2005 Jetta for 275k miles with very few issues. Regularly got 55+ mpg, 4 tanks over 60 mpg. Unfortunately, the injectors eventually start rocking in their boss in the head.
Taking a guess right off the bat, I'm only at 1:25 in the video so far, but I'm guessing this engine overheated and has failed head gaskets. That's the "pattern failure" you'll find in most of these NA H4 2.5l Subaru engines (the 2.0 turbos have their fair share of it too). Subaru itself figured out what was happening, turns out the head gasket they were using wasn't quite up to the task. Easy fix, just replace the head gaskets with the updated ones (they're MLS like everyone else uses now, instead of the fiber ones they had from the factory), get the heads machined, and make sure the block didn't warp. As for why I know this, I'm an auto mechanic that lives and works in New York state (not the big city tho, I'm upstate), and since Subarus are all-wheel-drive, they're quite popular on the roads due to the winter weather we get. EDIT: Now at 11:15 in the video, you just discovered the bad rod bearing. That also tracks well with these Subaru engines, they last for about 300k miles and then the bearings start to go, even if you keep up on the oil changes. Not sure why that is, to be honest. The transmission gives out at around the same time, so overall I'd say the vehicle as a whole is relatively well-engineered (if everything wears out all at once, they engineered it well, if it's something new breaking every other week, not so much).
Yes, I think I see the problem. Someone confused the oil pickup for the super secret extra bearing compartment in the oil pan. Hate when that happens..
The exhaust runs right under the front axles, so it's ridiculously common to find a blown boot on a Subaru. The older turbos had the downpipe cat like 3/4" from the front right cv boot, so replacing the passenger side axle twice a year wasn't uncommon.
I can say my modded STI with large bellmouth aftermarket Cobb downpipe didnt have an issue with that boot until well over 100k of hard driving and track use. Id say twice a year is a bit of stretch.
I've bought two brand new cars in my life. One I swapped an EJ253 into, and the other came with an EJ255 that needed rebuilding once. It's a poor man's Porsche. Problem is, if you want the motor fixed right, you need someone who's good with Porsches to do it right. Very few Subaru dealers can overhaul these engines successfully.
I have only had Subaru's for over 20 years. I have very few problems if you do the maintenance, the problems I usually see is from poor maintenance, or no maintenance. If you do what it says when it says in the manual, it should easily last over 200k. Head gaskets, yeah can be a problem especially on engines that get the crap beat of of them.
@@brialdridge I've changed my oil every 3k miles with Mobil Synthetic, I rarely ever rev beyond 4k RPM (I have a 5 speed so that's easy to control), every time something goes wrong I take a look at it, and yet it still burns over a quart in just 2k miles. Head gaskets still haven't failed but who knows how much longer they have as my Subaru nears 100k miles. Definitely going to be selling it for something else soon so I don't have to worry about that.
For the record, love my whip; I will be pulling engine and doing heads if/when. Thinking I may do a timing belt and gaskets with studs coming up here soon (I'm at 80k). Love, it's what make Subaru a Subaru.
0:51 "reasons as to why it's no longer in the vehicle it came from" As a Subaru owner in the past and future, It's a head gasket. It's always a head gasket. Ok, I lied, it could be a timing belt. But it's probably a head gasket.
Thank you for the Scubby tear down. I wished you could have made a profit. Because next time, a air cooled VW or a Model T engine would greatly appreciated.
I'm pretty ignorant, and I'm probably wrong here, but are you quite sure that's an EJ253 SOHC? The reason I ask is that (according to my understanding) the 253 SOHC has two valves per cylinder and in this engine I see four. I think the turbocharged version has four valves/cylinder. I enjoyed this video a lot and appreciate the time you put in to it - Thank you!
The crank road and bearing journals can be repaired with a thermal spray gun and alloy powder spray and then fused to the bearing journals... I used to do from air compressors to locomotive engines, it is a common process... Just look for a shop that says Plasma spray shop or Metal spray shop, after this process they can be ground to specs!... The process is very fast and the crank won't even det to 100 C of temperature, less than the operating temperature of the crank....
I need to pull my 97 outback engine out and fix a pretty bad oil leak and change all the seals/gaskets. Never did something like that before but I’m confident. Wondering how many rusted or seized bolts I’m going to run into though, and how to put the timing all back together right. I might just buy a newer engine and tear that one down and make it even better and throw it in
"I wouldn't do this on an engine I care about"... If you think you're going to split many more crankcases, maybe a polymer splitting wedge used by lumberjacks would work well.
bad crank and a rod, not too shabby, considering. lack of oil or dirty oil caused that. pretty rare to see spun bearings that lead to this kind of cooking in well kept ej's. i mean, it happens... but given the rest of the engine.. i'd say it was just ran dry.
Looks like it would take twice as long to assemble or disassemble a Subaru flat 4 vs. a similar sized inline 4 from anybody else. I get it in a Porsche, you know mid-engine, or rear engine, spare no expense, but what's the point in a company that most makes crossover SUV's? Seems like a lot of complexity for no reason. Anyway, always love the videos.
Yeah Subaru is a bit daft. There’s no point of a “quirky” design in grocery getters. At least with German engines you get generally better performance for these kinds of problems. Subaru gives you Corolla output with Boxster (or worse) problems.
Luckily only the 2.5L non turbo is known for and has headgasket issues, The EJ2.0 has no known headgasket issues and the multilayer gasket used on the 2.5L TURBO models has rarely any issues. Except when people put water in the cooling system.
My dad has a 16 Forester with this engine. Apparently the engine life is about 150k miles, which is pretty low considering we like to keep our cars for longer. He maintains it well tho and hopefully it can go past 150k with a timing belt replacement in the future.
A 2016 Forester has the FB25 engine which is completely different. Timing chain and no shared components as far as I know. That said, they definitely go well more than 150K. I have seen an FB20 Impreza with 340K on it already because it was used as a hospital supply transport vehicle in New York. Nothing done to it except regular maintenance. MrSubaru1387 also has an extremely high mileage FB engine car. Not sure who told you they only go 150K, but that's definitely not true. Even the EJ25 in this video is good for hundreds of thousands no problem, but generally you will have to change the head gaskets once to the updated design.
I'm halfway through the video, Amazing work And walk through. I will be watching this a few more times. I own 2 ej255 wrx's. And i would like to have them both running perfect. 2006 wrx hatch running rough, 2008 wrx hatch with a deers ass pressed into the hood. My current 2006 wrx hatch makes winding noises on a coast down hill, down shift trans braking, with also posibble a stuck open waste gate. And head gasket on the water side blown. I have a lot of work ahead of me.
I’m currently troubleshooting my 2007 SOHC EJ253 Impreza w/ 165k praying that it’s anything but the head gaskets… It runs rough and stalls as soon as the temp reaches normal operating temp. So as a part of my sorrow and stubborn denial that I have the “inevitable”…… I REPEAT…… “INEVITABLE-head gasket issue”, I talked myself outta buying the parts I NEEDED and instead, purchased a new radiator, thermostat, upper and lower radiator hoses, Trans coolant lines, fluid and filter, Flush kits for both systems, and OF COARSE, I got me some “SUBARU COOLANT CONDITIONER” b/c Subaru coolant system is known to have the majority of their head gasket failures on Drivers side Cylinder4 due to their bad design so when any compression gasses build up behind the thermostat preventing it from opening and eventually overheating, The Subaru Secret Sauce will save the day. NOT REALLY! It just saves them from any liability so I got the Cylinder4 cooling mod to balance and stabilize the temp of the whole cooling system … Trans filter and expensive fluid plus additive and new coolant lines for the 4EAT issues I neglected that were caused by a slow leak under battery box so it’s hard to spot. New Special SUBARU factory oil filter and fluid…. I haven’t put the parts on the car yet or attempted to work on the problem but I was just curious if anybody reading this as any other ideas of what could be causing my cars issues or any better solutions I might try before wasting $200 in just fluid that didn’t need changed.
Fun fact they actually fixed the head gasket issues in 2003 onwards so yesh you're right a 2007 ej25 isn't known for its head gasket issues pretty common misconception if you don't work on subarus
EJ253? If you can stand the piston slap, it'll rust out before it wears out... The ticking begins around 120-140k, and gets louder as the miles add up. You've got another timing belt job due @200k, and this time you'll need to replace everything that turns, along with the oil and water pumps. Most people just run them til they get splodey or dissolve into a red crumbly pile between 220-250k. By that time, cold starts are Cummins level noise fests.
The block and heads are aluminum, they don't rust. Can't count the number of 200-300K Subarus I still see around, including multiple on my lawn. ;) They don't tend to get much noisier over time in my experience, if you actually do your maintenance. The piston slap is normal and does not cause damage. Head gaskets were the worst issue, but with only the EJ25 specifically.
@@802Garage - well sure, the three colored Subie in its molting coat of bondo is your state bird. Over here in 315 they use even MORE salt an' folks prefer to buy 'Murcan.
@@floydblandston108 @@floydblandston108 😂 All cars rust. But I rarely see anything rust out as fast as an American economy car or Domestic truck. Subaru rust is 99% cosmetic for the first 15-20 years. I have a car with no rockers, quarters, or fenders left, but every suspension point is fine and it still goes down the road! Also I've spent plenty of time in that are of New York and there are countless Subies. Including the one my niece drives. Never been in an American car with AWD as capable as a Subaru. By the way, most Subaru models are made in Indiana, but a ton of American cars are now made in Mexico and Canada. 🤭
@@802Garage - 70% trucks here; the beauty of body on frame is that even after the frame rusts, the cab and bed pitch in together to keep you on the road. Not my daughter though, she has a Swedish car, made in the midwest by a Japanese company back when they were owned by Americans- now ask me why I know EJ's... ; )
@@floydblandston108 Ah yes. American trucks where the cab rockets and corners rust out within 5-10 years up here. 😂 Also a unibody car does exactly the same thing you just described. Meanwhile I've watched entire control arm and suspension mount points fall off the frames of GM SUVs. But again, all cars have their rust issues up here. Just a matter of time and how they decide to fail. But yeah that particular Saab isn't a Swedish car at all, just has a Swedish badge. Completely a Subaru. Can't count how many EJ cars my family has had.
EJ25 Phase 2 (SOHC) seep externally after ~150k kms no matter how well you maintain them but usually never leak internally even if you ignore the external seep (and provided you don't overheat them), the EJ25 Phase 1 (DOHC, mostly first generation outbacks and some late gen 2 legacys) usually leak internally. Ignoring the external seeping the engines are pretty damn reliable provided you dont over-rev them or run them dry.
Yeah most people don't seem to realize that it's only a select few engine's with the composite head gaskets that failed. All of the other ones are no more susceptible then any other car to head gasket failure.
The 2.2l sold under Liberty or Legacy was a good bottom end grunt naturally aspirated engine. The 2l was gutless in an auto. The latest 2.5l performed ok. Turbo variants add one sided heat with uneven oil cooking issues. Center headbolts were the first ones to lose torque. The symmetrical drive layout gave them cars good off road traction laying good groundwork to what has later become the compact SUV poor family car. Low center of gravity offered safe highway driving too. CV boots were the first issue. Their diesel variant failed to address inlet carbonation. Rear oil leaks even got some female technicians rise to speedy engine removal and re installations. Forgot to mention: First 1.6l series was the cheap fun machine. Their design was of course Volkswagen inspired. So simple to maintain they are even used on flying machines!
Getting old is funny. I used to party every Saturday night. Now I watch engine tear down videos.
Lol you’re not the only one!
So true it sucks
If im 17 and watching engine teardowns, what will i do when im older
Same here
Yeah, funny how fast time goes once you have kids
There’s an engineer somewhere who’s crowning achievement is that wrist pin access hole. And a whole herd of mechanics that would love to drive him through that hole
Well, removing crankshaft and piston assembly is not exactly part of regular maintenance. It's not like you're likely to do that on your vehicle. I sure never had to, and I typically do 250-350k km on my cars before selling them.
@@wtfiswiththosehandles True. Though I think more engineers should live by the "just because you can doesn't mean you should" mantra.
@@Birds-Garage all the best engineers actually work on things. most of them just made it through school
Amen!!!
Truth!!!
"I'm not proud of how this bolt looks but it's coming out whether it likes it or not"
man you just summed up my life
Too relatable 😞
Two tear down videos I enjoy watching , " I do cars " , and " Precision transmission " with Richard . I like it when things come apart .
I think the RUclips algorithm agrees with you, I think thats what
Sent me here.
Same here.
Can you post link to trans channel please???
@@adamlewellen5081 ruclips.net/channel/UCYAAY7V9ifGS7Q8S35EFVnw
@@DetectingArizona thanks. From a o.g. Sequoia institute/ wyotech fremont student/ employee. Ran auto department between 05 and 11
I have owned a few Foresters, which means I have done my share of timing belt replacements and head gaskets. I’ve done the head gaskets with the engine both in and out of the vehicle. It’s definitely worth taking the time to pull the engine, as the tolerances from the fender wells make it almost impossible to pull and replace the heads. Heck, even replacing the spark plugs is a royal pain.
It's doable but your not kidding its a royal pita
The spark plugs are definitely a royal pain in the a**.
You should change the name of your channel to "Engine Mortician". It may seem morbid but you could come up with some awesome graphic designs and merchandise. With the niche you have fallen in to, your ability to diagnose what went wrong with a vehicle, and just enabling people to see inside engines they may have in a video only 20 minutes long, you could gain a huge following.
0:45 "Hopefully we find some carnage..."
Yep, that's why I watch these tear-downs, lol...
Thanks for the Shout out Eric!
This is probably Adam Sandler's best Movie since Big Daddy
Happy Gilmore does cars
😁😁
Oh my god that's funny! (Quote from Billy Madison)
😂😂😂😂😂
"But I wipe my own ass!"
Head gasket issues are with the graphite coated gaskets almost exclusively. The multi-layer steel head gaskets from the turbo models almost never have any problems. Therefore, any time we overhaul one of these whether turbo or not, we always use the turbo head gaskets on the re-build.
I have watched a number of these wonderful videos. You subtle humor is great, so up beat. The filming and editing is first class. These videos should be a required class for mechanical design engineers however far into their careers, I'm 50+ years into mine and still learning. Thank you for taking the time to present the stories so well.
Don't change the oil and when the motor starts making noise just turn up the radio! 👍
when the motor starts making noise it's too late to change the oil...
@@joskd8491 I think this engine was well maintained. Look at how clean it is under the valve cover. Not even the slightest varnish whatsoever. Must have had regular oil changes with good oils. EJ's tend to develop bearing problems and selfdestruct for unknown reasons. The Subaru community debates the mystery blaming modifications, split block engine design causing minute misalignments, engine abuse, many other reasons, for example leftover sand following castin processes in the EJ turbo engines. It is a mystery.
@@sezwo5774 He showed at the 3:30 mark that there was axle grease on both sides of the engine so it wasn't well maintained. The bearing issue could have been caused by low oil (either from a leak or burnt off without being topped up), or a failed cooling system and continuing to drive while it was overheating.
Also EJ engines should really be on Xw-40 oil, if a thinner oil is used and the oil is too hot and/or low then all the oil will be on one side of the engine when going around a corner. Most people with a spun bearing are using Xw-30 or thinner. Unfortunately a lot of people are too lazy to even check the oil level in their car, maybe not realizing that they can burn oil. The coolant should be changed every 5 years as well or it can start to clog up.
@@Tim._.. I meant the engine specifically not the car. 7:11 shows very clean engine internals. A leaky axle boot is easy to miss if you park your car outside and do oil changes at fast oil change places where nobody does any inspections of engine surroundings or cares to alert the owner to any problems. I discovered my axle boot leaking very fast because of bad smell in the garage. The grease would splash over the hot engine and produce a horrid smell. I would probably not notice it if the car was parked outside. What I am saying is it is fairly easy nowadays for someone to maintain the engine, do frequent oil changes but yet miss a destroyed axle boot. Regarding oil viscosity a slightly thicker oil is indeed good for these engines, but not necessarily for the turbo versions! These have silver plated rod bearings that corrode in presence of zinc and acid. Turbo Subarus since around 2008 have silver plated rod bearings. They are stronger but require low zinc oil as zinc in presence of acid corrodes silver. At the same time, Subaru changed its oil requirement to synthetic 5w-30 RC only. This particular viscosity is Resource Conserving and has a restricted content of zinc or ZDDP. Unfortunately, the first thing the WRX/STI/XT Subaru crowd does when they get their hands on a new turbo Subaru is change the oil to a thicker more zinc'y one like the famous Rotella T6 5w-40. Engine modifications, abuse and corrosion of silver bearing soon begins, ...and with it the dreaded rod bearing failures. Locomotive engines that have silver rod bearings require totally zinc free oils! Subaru probably should have explained things better, I guess, but it would only scare people even more. They've had enough problems with the their engines. As long as the oil is changed frequently and is of synthetic quality- is pure and does not become acidic too fast, and has a low zinc content (like any RC 5w-30) there is no problem with silver corrosion. The average WRX owner modifies and abuses the car and pours thick zinc loaded oils and fails to do frequent oil changes as stated in the manual. The recipe is an engine disaster. I personally use a mixture of 5w-30 RC and some NAPA 15w-50 in my 2013 Forester XT. The Napa oil is Valvoline but with a weaker add pack and contrary to many other thick oils has low levels of zinc as if it were a RC oil. Despite the mixture being synthetic I change it frequently so it does not become acidic in the slightest. The average WRX/XT owner pours synthetic oil and immediately extends the oil change interval. Many popular practices of turbo Subaru owners are just detrimental to their car's engines.
@@Tim._.. So you are saying thin 5w-30 oil splashes around the oil pan too much and starves bearings of oil when going around corners aggressively. Might be. Definitively another suspect to the long list. This would impact all cars, both turbo and non-turbo. Newer engines have improved baffles in the oil pan so it looks like this got Subaru's attention. Likely there are multiple contributing causes.
Cool. I've always wanted to see a boxer engine torn down.
Check out Subi Performance channel. He does a killer job rebuilding boxer engines. A few videos in English
My first car was a used 88 Subaru sedan with a 1.6L sohc. Was a tough as heck engine and learned lots of basic mechanical work.
Not sure about newer engines but my 88 was a non interference design.
That was the older EA engine. They went to the EJ in the 90s like this engine. They were non interference through the 1996 model year. The old EJ18 and EJ22 were bulletproof!
@@802Garage I miss my old ej22, I had a fwd 91 legacy though and wanted awd so I got a 03 forester x
@@johngulbunny7456 Yeah nothing beats the EJ22 for daily bulletproof reliability and ease to work on IMO. Def need it with AWD though. EJ18 just as reliable, but not quite as quick.
There you go again sir , creating RUclipss best engine tear down content hands down, no lie about 2 hours ago I sat down and looked to see if you had any new videos I haven't seen, and I was like damet nothing new , and then low and behold you came threw just an hour later !!! Your the man , keep up the good work , best on RUclips
It’s easy to see why the Chevy/GM LS motors are so popular replacement engines for all kind of cars. I have watched you breakdown all kinds of engines on RUclips, and the LS style engines are so much simpler than the rest. I have a 4.8l in a 2000 Sierra w/ 180k and it runs perfect! One set of plugs & wires, and one serpentine belt, and change oil and air filter. That’s it!
I bought an EJ253 from PMP. It was very well protected for shipping from the east coast to Colorado. Put it in, started up, no odd noises. Very happy. Thanks for the link to his shop. You made him some money too.
I really like how you not only do a teardown, but find the root cause. Great videos, thanks for sharing!
Worked for a Subaru dealer for years. Used to see this all the time because NA Subaru owners are too lazy to change their oil.
#1 rod bearing EVERY TIME. Usually left a nice hole in the top of the block.
Maintenance is KEY!
Wow, it was 25 years ago, that “baby Cessna engine “ was the first engine I rebuilt. It disturbs me to this day knowing I had no clue what I was doing, but I learned.
Heck yeah! Finally something different awesome!
The axles being split is another Subaru nightmare. These car LOVE ripping CV boots lol. Mine went through FIVE CV boots in the four years I owned it! I would always know when one ripped because the grease would get on the converter and exhaust. The cabin would fill up with that nice burnt grease smell.
Thanks for this! I have a Subaru and it's good to get a better understanding of the engine
Thanks for all the awesome videos Eric. As a 21 yr old entering the automotive world, these tear down videos are very educational to me.
Your viewership is growing. Not sure what value RUclips provides butore engine teardowns of popular brands wouldn't hurt.
You have a niche channel that no one else has. You've got a real shot to go real big if you begin buying a few popular engines that may have little value regarding your business. But it does give you free advertising for your primary business so you could think of investing in these types of engines as a marketing expense.
I personally would like to see a 5.4 3V. Considering F-150's have been the highest selling trucks for...a long time...and many people own trucks still with the 5.4, there would be some value in providing a teardown of one I believe.
I really enjoy seeing less common engine teardowns like this and the rotary engine. Thanks for sharing!
Same exact failure happened on my 2000 Forester. It's the last noise you want to hear during a 5:30 am commute to work. Got it rebuilt and put back in just in time for the underbody to rust through. I don't regret doing it though, I learned a lot and am learning more from your channel. Keep up the good work dude.
How did it fail? Did it just decide it was it's time to go? I have a 1999 Forester myself. I love my car 😋
@@jimrossabrena7955 The what was a bearing giving out. As to the how and why I’m not sure… it was only about 2 months after I got the car and I changed the oil upon buying it. The oil looked fresh coming out… but who knows how it was taken care of over those ~19 years.
I had a 97 Legacy Outback with a EJ25 that had that same cylinder do the same thing. Only mine made an inspection window in the block, right where it says "EJ25." I paid 300 bucks for a motor and it still runs like a top 4 years later.
Thanks for doing this video. I've never seen one of these engines up close let alone apart. I always wondered how they solved the problem of installing the rotating assembly into the middle of the block. Now I know. Very cool how there's no main caps, just two engine blocks with the mains bolted to each other.
The ej motor is notorious for the cylinder 1 or 4 having bearing failure. Its because of the oil system design. If u take a hard turn all the oil shifts to one side of the pan and the pick up tube can reach it to pump it properly. Depending on the turn u make will depend on which cylinder goes down because they’re opposite of each other because its a horizontal engine. Happened to mine and many of my friends who have them. Great fun cars but like anything else it has its issues
Lol subie trash
Eric: It's...it's beautiful
Me: Like a well made and directed horror film, yeah.
My guess is this engine was well maintained at one time looking at the timing belt setup didn't look worn out which is common when people let them go. The heads looked clean inside and the head gaskets looked OK. Someone probably bought this and just never changed the oil and the engine gave up.
Ya no kid, l thought it looked like the heads or at least the timing belt was done recently. Figure it got low on oil that's a common problem, human error.
The oil pickup has issues too if they were taking corners at high speed or high revving getting onto the highway. Not a problem if you don’t drive it like a maniac but that’s the first recommended upgrade anytime you’re going to build an EJ for a track car.
My guess as well probably beat the crap out of it. Not babied for sure.
i am amazed how clean the head is after you removed the cover at7:18. I was expecting to see gunk like on my EJ
Yachtze! Go for it. My old Forester was a victim of that head gasket the proceeded to ruin everything
Thanks for your time on this one.
Bill from Rhinelander.
Ive been waiting a week. MOARRRRRRRRR
I've worked on old VW engines and it was cool to see a more modern version.
Actually Subaru visited Germany, specifically The Borgward Group, and came away with the details/knowledge of a car called Lloyd Arabella, brought that knowledge back to Japan, and started making cars with "boxer" engines in 1965. I had an early one, a '69, it gave 45mpg, and was a mountain goat.
I see the maintenance stand is listed in the book under part number 2x4.
😀 With the price of 2x4’s that might be the reason he bought the engine and stand.
I have owned 4 Legacies one outback and one impreza. The outback had the ej251 and the rest all had the ej22. One was turbo charged. They are good engines and pretty easy to work on. One thing to note about the 253 is they leak oil from the head gasket after a while and that's when your on borrowed time. Once coolant starts leaking out that's when you need to do the heads. EJ22 however, never had that problem. The issue came because when the phase one EJ25 came out in the first gen outback from 95 till 99 they changed the head gasket thickness and also made it single layer. They later changed it again to a multi layer steel gasket and fixed it for the most part. 99% the cause of this spun bearing was lack of lubrication. Owner probably drove with the red oil light on and Boxer engines are very sensitive to oil starvation. The rest of the engine looked pretty good.
Key sound/phrase, "clunk." "Oh, I think we've found our problem here." Thanks so much for another great video. That rod has the wiggles.
Probably run low on oil. These engines drink oil like no tomorrow lol. With mine at 70k miles I was dumping a quart in every month.
@@RobertNES816 I haven't had a problem with oil on either that I owned. 251&253 versions.
@@alreed2434 I have and I know a bunch of people who have. I started to ask other people who owned these cars.
@@RobertNES816 You have a solution for the low bulbs burning out every 4-6 months give or take. New ground straps on motor to body and headlamp harnesses both sides.
@@alreed2434 No lol but that brings me to another issue I had with my Subaru. I replaced the battery in mine and over the course of a month literally EVERY bulb in the car started to burn out. The headlights, fog lights, tail lights, interior lights lol. I swear those cars are lemons. 05 to 14 Subarus are lemons!
You deliver sarcasm so smoothly that it often goes unnoticed. Makes me listen harder ( - :
I'm not saying they all did it but leaking inner front axle boots was a common Subaru owner's complaint. The boots didn't fail, they leaked through the clamps. I think whoever was the inner axle boot installer had a long career. The problem persisted for years.
TBH never really seen that, but I see the front boots split all the time on the older cars, especially the passenger side due to its closer proximity to the exhaust. The outers also liked to go by about 100-150K just from use and abuse. Winter hard on the rubber too I'm sure. Very easy to swap at least!
The eureka moment when you found the rod bearing was gone was neat
That was cool. Never seen a boxer tear down before. Tiny engine. Might fit in my lawn zamboni.
They are very WIDE. They are super compact height and length wise though.
My brothers 2000 model Subaru Forester runs the Subaru EJ20J engine in it which has done over 413,000 kilometres (256,626 miles) & it's had the cylinder heads rebuilt twice on it.
The previous owner had them rebuilt after not being able to afford to get the timing belt replaced as they cost a minimum of $1000 AUD just for the belt & tensioner kit so it snapped & they bent the valves in it.
They got the cylinder heads rebuilt on it & they sold the car to my brother,a valve dropped out in it after he got the car converted to run on LP gas when they were 600 kilometres (360 miles) away from home with my dad when visiting my grandmother.
So it happens my cousins husband is a Subaru trained mechanic & he had to drop the engine out to remove the cylinder heads & he resealed the engine, replaced the clutch, etc while the engine was out.
So,at a cost of $3,500 AUD he got the cylinder heads rebuilt with new valves, valve seats, springs,stem seals,etc & he told my brother not to run it on LPG which he still does.
So parts such as the timing belt & tensioner kits aren't cheap,my brother got a timing belt kit for $600 AUD at "mates rates" but they're normally $1000+ AUD.
I've worked on it twice now as it had problems Such as an air leak at the throttle body butterfly shaft which required me to replace the throttle body & I had to unstick an LP gas injector last time.
Cylinder number 3 wasn't firing on LP gas because AEB who makes the injectors applies grease to the internals of the injector which dried up so I Just cleaned up the injector parts, regreased it & reassembled it.
It clogged up the spring which didn't enable the Metal disc to lift up against spring pressure off the LP gas nozzle !
Dang I love these videos!!!
To think I was watching whistling diesel before this… what a transformation for me 😋
Well I am thankful that I'm getting older . If I wasn't I would be missing watching I do cars. Just love watching your abilities . Waiting for the Duramax. Thanks again.
This man knows what we like. Thank you for sharing.
I learned I can carry the short block. I carried it into a car and onto a bench at a car wash to clean it.
Love watching Adam Sandler to these tear downs, really informative
I didn't see a ton of sludge, someone just ran it low on oil. I like the variety, it keeps things even more interesting
subaru are known for rod bearing failure
@@benjamintoms-lucy9339 yeah, interesting this plain jane (non-turbo) version had just the rod bearing failure and no sign of head gasket issues
@@wafflesnfalafel1 I remember seeing somewhere that only like 30% of these get head gasket failures, still pretty high but it made me feel a lot better about my 251
@@johngulbunny7456 My ej253 must have been lucky then, it happened to me twice! It got new gaskets the first time, and on the second, I fixed it by buying a WRX.
Having built a few of these engines I have to say that I am absolutely grateful for not owning a Subaru any longer.
They are adequate for daily driving around town but freeways are not a friend of the Subaru engine.
You found the carnage alright! It's amazing what happens to engines and what owners are saddled with which is
why manufacturers must give lengthy warranties, back up your products or don't make them at all. The intake manifold is a
fascinating work of art, I'd like to see it cast. As usual it's sad in a way that the engine is scrap after all the effort gone into making it.
Thank God for recycling ☺️
Oh come on you can baby the crap out of these and they still leak from the gaskets. Horrible engines that always need rework before 100k.
@@Batboy_idiot I'll take your word for it. A lady colleague swore by Subaru, wouldn't buy another brand, said they were super reliable and then I found out why. They require 6 monthly servicing and this lady had every issue attended to, it cost her plenty and she couldn't see the forest for the trees.
I work at a machine shop, and i get a TON of Subaru heads. very simple and easy for me to pressure check and media blast and all that stuff.
Tons of Subarus here where I live in Colorado.
Subarus typically display lots of crunchy/granola rear window stickerage, and are often found blocking the left lane on the freeway, with general traffic passing them on their right. For whatever reason, a lot of Subaru drivers believe it is their civic duty to enforce the speed limit.
Subaru is also the official car of female public school teachers and over educated and inevitably unemployed Trustafarian pot smokers of any gender who live in Boulder, CO. Such people as a group tend to not be too detailed when it comes to vehicle maintenance.
I am shocked that the heads showed no sign of leakage though. A teacher (female of course) friend's '09 Subaru developed the head gasket leak and pressurized cooling system issue right on schedule at 115K miles.
Another friend has the flat six version. As a full blooded Trumplican and a rageaholic impatient, fast and aggressive driver, my friend is a Subaru anomaly. He also uses Apple phone and computer products. I don't dare to tell my Trumplican friend he is using "commie" transportation and computer/phone products - LMFAO...
Interesting video. These engines can go 200K miles with zero mechanical issues or they can have catastrophic problems before they even hit 100K. In this case it likely ran out of oil. Some Subaru EJs use little oil between changes and some use a lot. Subaru added an oil level sensor and warning light years ago because of this issue but some owners might ignore it or run the car out of oil on a long trip. The sensor only works on start up on level ground. Another issue are cheap aftermarket oil filters like they use at local quick lube establishments. Subaru’s OEM filters are made differently. Basically if you own a Subaru you should use high quality synthetic oil, OEM filters, change it at least every 5K, and check it regularly until you know your car’s oil consumption. It’s not like owning a Honda which could probably go 20K on an oil change without needing to add any oil. Boxers generally use more oil and that includes Porsche boxers. South main auto did a video on a Subaru the owner ran out of oil that still ran but barely. It’s just sad when owners neglect their cars to the point of destruction. Subaru stopped making their head gaskets out of beer cartons a long time ago. They still sometimes rarely fail but it’s far less of an issue on newer normally aspirated engines. One downside of the newer motor is the inverted oil filter on the top of the engine drains and has to refill on start up causing more engine wear on start up. It’s really a brain dead design but even the new motors typically go 140K without any issues with decent maintenance. And at least they still generally use way less oil than your Mazda rotary.
A Mazda rotary is a 2 cycle.
There is a cure for the common engine EJ25 maladies. It is very simple, and I did it myself on my first Subaru, a 2001 Outback:
EZ30D!
12:49 it made its own anti-sieze! Shame it couldn't have applied some to that valve cover bolt.
When you first started to tear it down, my first guess was a spun bearing because boxer engines are notorious for spun bearings.
Rick Rucker I’ve had 3 no issues weird how that works
@@tyhyhh I loved my wrx when I had it
This and most other later EJ25 engines used MLM head gaskets unlike the earlier failure-prone ones that had the composite types. The theory goes that the coating on the composite gaskets breaks down over time, causing failure. Some say it's primarily because of owner neglect (Americans are notorious for neglecting maintenance and piling on the miles whereas the Japanese generally take care of their stuff and/or scrap their cars after only a few years and before they get anywhere close to 100k miles), others say it's just what happens because of the composition of the gaskets and no amount of preventative maintenance would help. Another failure point on these (especially DOHC models) is timing belt idler/tensioner bearings: they may seize, destroying the belt and the rest of the engine. Happily the bearings usually start making noise before total failure so it can be caught well before it becomes catastrophic. This was a supplier fault (NOK or Koyo, I think), not inherent to the engine's design, same as with Hondas and their not-uncommon distributor bearing failures that have also led to a few engines' sudden destruction.
I *think* there was 2 factors came into play. Up until Subaru "birthed" the 2.5 engine their engines were closed block designs with next to no head gasket troubles. The bore size on the 2.5 seems to allow the cylinders to move around a bit eating the head gaskets. A popular mod was to close the block (by filling the spaces at the head gasket surfaces, and milling the deck smooth again) and the head gasket troubles became a thing of the past. Of course, now, in pursuit of fuel mileage (that was never a Subaru strong point, and still isn't), their engines have become smaller, and the cylinder does not seem to move around.
You can tell right away if a cylinder has had a gasket breach into the coolant line. The cylinder will be absolutely clean and sparkling from being steam cleaned. That’s what I found when I tore down the dohc version of this same engine. You have to pull the cams out of the head to access all of the head bolts. Kinda sucks.
Always interesting. I’ve never seen a boxer engine torn down..
From what I’ve seen those Subaru boxer engines are totally undeserving of their status as a good motor. The don’t seem to run very long, lots of low mileage failures. And many of them start chugging oil after 50k.
When I was a machinist, there was a Subaru dealer down the road that would have us mill the heads when the gaskets failed. I would do several sets a week. Some I could tell we had already done once before.
Subaru has a cult following. It doesn’t matter how bad of a product they put out, these customers just keep buying. Over a decade of head gasket issues, then on to the oil consumption issues, then cvt transmissions and those issues..... not to mention all the other tidbits with cv’s and wheel bearings.
There is zero reason for Subaru to change when their customers just keep buying.
@@AJourneyOfYourSoul But, but - it has symmetrical AWD! Unfortunately almost no Subaru owners could tell you what that means.
@@AJourneyOfYourSoul I just like the sound they make
@@framekixrr came here to say this lol. I've never owned one since I don't trust open deck layouts and the horror stories have swayed me to stay away from them. If Subaru made them more reliable, easier to work on, and tuner friendly I'd consider one.
Thanks for doin a Subbie, these are so popular where I live (Sierras). I think this particular engine was well maintained. Look at how clean it is under the valve cover. Not even the slightest varnish whatsoever. Must have had regular oil changes with good oils. EJ's tend to develop bearing problems and selfdestruct for unknown reasons. The Subaru community debates the issue blaming modifications, split block engine design causing minute mis-alignments, engine abuse, many other reasons, for example leftover sand following casting processes of the EJ turbo engines. Also inadequate oil passages to bearings resuting in poor lubrication at higher rpm's. It remains a mystery why bearings fail in EJ engines.
What a monster. I have a 2.3 l 4 cylinder in my Suzuki Arrow. And it's half the size of that thing with the transmission. I didn't appreciate it until now
Can you imagine putting that thing back together? Damn…those wrist pins
It's actually...pretty easy if you follow the shop manual procedure
The only engine that makes a rotary engine seem reliable!
Disagree. I had a 2002 Subaru Outback with a 3.0. I went over 230,000 miles before selling the car. I had zero problems with it. Prior to that I had a 1980 with a 1.8. Zero problems. Then a 1990 with a 2.4. Zero problems. All these engines ran fine with only regular maintenence being necessary. Yes, the 2.4 engines had a head gasket problem but that's been long fixed.
@@JohnMason8183 that's nice
Comparing the reliability of Subaru to a rotary is laughable. Only someone who has no experience with them would say so. I personally own 7 Subarus with over 200K miles on original engines and my family has owned probably 30+ total in the 200-300K range.
That was a fun watch, I was amazed at you're knowledge of those boat anchors, guess we found out.
Cool to see something out of the ordinary, but we still want to see your table of destroyed engine parts.
A suggestion for an engine teardown: A Volkswagen TDI.
I imagine it is a pretty thin market. But, I ran a 2005 Jetta for 275k miles with very few issues. Regularly got 55+ mpg, 4 tanks over 60 mpg.
Unfortunately, the injectors eventually start rocking in their boss in the head.
Love the vids! I own a 3.5 Ecoboost equipped truck and I’d love to see one torn down like you do!
I like the different.
We've all seen hundreds of various LS builds and tear downs.
Taking a guess right off the bat, I'm only at 1:25 in the video so far, but I'm guessing this engine overheated and has failed head gaskets.
That's the "pattern failure" you'll find in most of these NA H4 2.5l Subaru engines (the 2.0 turbos have their fair share of it too).
Subaru itself figured out what was happening, turns out the head gasket they were using wasn't quite up to the task.
Easy fix, just replace the head gaskets with the updated ones (they're MLS like everyone else uses now, instead of the fiber ones they had from the factory), get the heads machined, and make sure the block didn't warp.
As for why I know this, I'm an auto mechanic that lives and works in New York state (not the big city tho, I'm upstate), and since Subarus are all-wheel-drive, they're quite popular on the roads due to the winter weather we get.
EDIT: Now at 11:15 in the video, you just discovered the bad rod bearing. That also tracks well with these Subaru engines, they last for about 300k miles and then the bearings start to go, even if you keep up on the oil changes. Not sure why that is, to be honest.
The transmission gives out at around the same time, so overall I'd say the vehicle as a whole is relatively well-engineered (if everything wears out all at once, they engineered it well, if it's something new breaking every other week, not so much).
It looks like they had just done heads on that before it lost the bearing.
Also glad to see someone who uses the same spark plug removal method.
This video is a great demonstration as to why I would only buy inline 4 cylinder engines.
Cool to see this. I've owned 4 Subarus and still drive one. Never tore one down to this level.
Very interesting! The furthest I’ve been into a Subaru engine is head gaskets. Great video as always.
Yes, I think I see the problem. Someone confused the oil pickup for the super secret extra bearing compartment in the oil pan. Hate when that happens..
As soon as I saw the title 'blown head gasket'...ingrained Subaru hatred coming out
EXCELLENT VIDEO !!! thanks for the tear down !!
The exhaust runs right under the front axles, so it's ridiculously common to find a blown boot on a Subaru. The older turbos had the downpipe cat like 3/4" from the front right cv boot, so replacing the passenger side axle twice a year wasn't uncommon.
I can say my modded
STI with large bellmouth aftermarket Cobb downpipe didnt have an issue with that boot until well over 100k of hard driving and track use. Id say twice a year is a bit of stretch.
I've bought two brand new cars in my life. One I swapped an EJ253 into, and the other came with an EJ255 that needed rebuilding once. It's a poor man's Porsche. Problem is, if you want the motor fixed right, you need someone who's good with Porsches to do it right. Very few Subaru dealers can overhaul these engines successfully.
Ah the EJ25... The bane of my existence... This engine gives me anxiety every day I start the thing.
Subies are pretty popular up here in Washington state. Can I ask why you choose to keep it if the engine is a worry?
@@Dollsofgod b/c it still a Subaru brah, all us in the 2.5 nation waiting on that head leak. 06FXT
I have only had Subaru's for over 20 years. I have very few problems if you do the maintenance, the problems I usually see is from poor maintenance, or no maintenance. If you do what it says when it says in the manual, it should easily last over 200k. Head gaskets, yeah can be a problem especially on engines that get the crap beat of of them.
@@brialdridge I've changed my oil every 3k miles with Mobil Synthetic, I rarely ever rev beyond 4k RPM (I have a 5 speed so that's easy to control), every time something goes wrong I take a look at it, and yet it still burns over a quart in just 2k miles. Head gaskets still haven't failed but who knows how much longer they have as my Subaru nears 100k miles. Definitely going to be selling it for something else soon so I don't have to worry about that.
For the record, love my whip; I will be pulling engine and doing heads if/when. Thinking I may do a timing belt and gaskets with studs coming up here soon (I'm at 80k). Love, it's what make Subaru a Subaru.
0:51 "reasons as to why it's no longer in the vehicle it came from" As a Subaru owner in the past and future, It's a head gasket. It's always a head gasket.
Ok, I lied, it could be a timing belt. But it's probably a head gasket.
"...but it's coming out whether it likes it or not"
Can't be stuck if it's liquid!
I can't wait for this channel to take off.
Thank you for the Scubby tear down.
I wished you could have made a profit.
Because next time, a air cooled VW or a Model T engine would greatly appreciated.
I'm pretty ignorant, and I'm probably wrong here, but are you quite sure that's an EJ253 SOHC? The reason I ask is that (according to my understanding) the 253 SOHC has two valves per cylinder and in this engine I see four. I think the turbocharged version has four valves/cylinder. I enjoyed this video a lot and appreciate the time you put in to it - Thank you!
The crank road and bearing journals can be repaired with a thermal spray gun and alloy powder spray and then fused to the bearing journals... I used to do from air compressors to locomotive engines, it is a common process... Just look for a shop that says Plasma spray shop or Metal spray shop, after this process they can be ground to specs!... The process is very fast and the crank won't even det to 100 C of temperature, less than the operating temperature of the crank....
I need to pull my 97 outback engine out and fix a pretty bad oil leak and change all the seals/gaskets. Never did something like that before but I’m confident. Wondering how many rusted or seized bolts I’m going to run into though, and how to put the timing all back together right. I might just buy a newer engine and tear that one down and make it even better and throw it in
"I wouldn't do this on an engine I care about"... If you think you're going to split many more crankcases, maybe a polymer splitting wedge used by lumberjacks would work well.
bad crank and a rod, not too shabby, considering. lack of oil or dirty oil caused that. pretty rare to see spun bearings that lead to this kind of cooking in well kept ej's. i mean, it happens... but given the rest of the engine.. i'd say it was just ran dry.
Looks like it would take twice as long to assemble or disassemble a Subaru flat 4 vs. a similar sized inline 4 from anybody else. I get it in a Porsche, you know mid-engine, or rear engine, spare no expense, but what's the point in a company that most makes crossover SUV's? Seems like a lot of complexity for no reason. Anyway, always love the videos.
Yeah Subaru is a bit daft. There’s no point of a “quirky” design in grocery getters. At least with German engines you get generally better performance for these kinds of problems. Subaru gives you Corolla output with Boxster (or worse) problems.
Very informative videos. You pick up little tricks on lots of engines this way. Thanks for taking time to post them.
Luckily only the 2.5L non turbo is known for and has headgasket issues,
The EJ2.0 has no known headgasket issues and the multilayer gasket used on the 2.5L TURBO models has rarely any issues.
Except when people put water in the cooling system.
My dad has a 16 Forester with this engine. Apparently the engine life is about 150k miles, which is pretty low considering we like to keep our cars for longer. He maintains it well tho and hopefully it can go past 150k with a timing belt replacement in the future.
If it makes you feel better you could have had a Mazda rotary engine with 60-90k expected lifespan
With proper maintenance you can double that. Unfortunately most Subaru owners are not big fans of maintenance
Think it has a timing chain.
A 2016 Forester has the FB25 engine which is completely different. Timing chain and no shared components as far as I know. That said, they definitely go well more than 150K. I have seen an FB20 Impreza with 340K on it already because it was used as a hospital supply transport vehicle in New York. Nothing done to it except regular maintenance. MrSubaru1387 also has an extremely high mileage FB engine car. Not sure who told you they only go 150K, but that's definitely not true. Even the EJ25 in this video is good for hundreds of thousands no problem, but generally you will have to change the head gaskets once to the updated design.
I'm halfway through the video, Amazing work And walk through. I will be watching this a few more times. I own 2 ej255 wrx's. And i would like to have them both running perfect.
2006 wrx hatch running rough, 2008 wrx hatch with a deers ass pressed into the hood.
My current 2006 wrx hatch makes winding noises on a coast down hill, down shift trans braking, with also posibble a stuck open waste gate. And head gasket on the water side blown.
I have a lot of work ahead of me.
I’m currently troubleshooting my 2007 SOHC EJ253 Impreza w/ 165k praying that it’s anything but the head gaskets… It runs rough and stalls as soon as the temp reaches normal operating temp. So as a part of my sorrow and stubborn denial that I have the “inevitable”…… I REPEAT…… “INEVITABLE-head gasket issue”, I talked myself outta buying the parts I NEEDED and instead, purchased a new radiator, thermostat, upper and lower radiator hoses, Trans coolant lines, fluid and filter, Flush kits for both systems, and OF COARSE, I got me some “SUBARU COOLANT CONDITIONER” b/c Subaru coolant system is known to have the majority of their head gasket failures on Drivers side Cylinder4 due to their bad design so when any compression gasses build up behind the thermostat preventing it from opening and eventually overheating, The Subaru Secret Sauce will save the day. NOT REALLY! It just saves them from any liability so I got the Cylinder4 cooling mod to balance and stabilize the temp of the whole cooling system … Trans filter and expensive fluid plus additive and new coolant lines for the 4EAT issues I neglected that were caused by a slow leak under battery box so it’s hard to spot. New Special SUBARU factory oil filter and fluid…. I haven’t put the parts on the car yet or attempted to work on the problem but I was just curious if anybody reading this as any other ideas of what could be causing my cars issues or any better solutions I might try before wasting $200 in just fluid that didn’t need changed.
Fun fact they actually fixed the head gasket issues in 2003 onwards so yesh you're right a 2007 ej25 isn't known for its head gasket issues pretty common misconception if you don't work on subarus
EJ253? If you can stand the piston slap, it'll rust out before it wears out...
The ticking begins around 120-140k, and gets louder as the miles add up. You've got another timing belt job due @200k, and this time you'll need to replace everything that turns, along with the oil and water pumps. Most people just run them til they get splodey or dissolve into a red crumbly pile between 220-250k. By that time, cold starts are Cummins level noise fests.
The block and heads are aluminum, they don't rust. Can't count the number of 200-300K Subarus I still see around, including multiple on my lawn. ;) They don't tend to get much noisier over time in my experience, if you actually do your maintenance. The piston slap is normal and does not cause damage. Head gaskets were the worst issue, but with only the EJ25 specifically.
@@802Garage - well sure, the three colored Subie in its molting coat of bondo is your state bird. Over here in 315 they use even MORE salt an' folks prefer to buy 'Murcan.
@@floydblandston108 @@floydblandston108 😂 All cars rust. But I rarely see anything rust out as fast as an American economy car or Domestic truck. Subaru rust is 99% cosmetic for the first 15-20 years. I have a car with no rockers, quarters, or fenders left, but every suspension point is fine and it still goes down the road! Also I've spent plenty of time in that are of New York and there are countless Subies. Including the one my niece drives. Never been in an American car with AWD as capable as a Subaru. By the way, most Subaru models are made in Indiana, but a ton of American cars are now made in Mexico and Canada. 🤭
@@802Garage - 70% trucks here; the beauty of body on frame is that even after the frame rusts, the cab and bed pitch in together to keep you on the road. Not my daughter though, she has a Swedish car, made in the midwest by a Japanese company back when they were owned by Americans- now ask me why I know EJ's... ; )
@@floydblandston108 Ah yes. American trucks where the cab rockets and corners rust out within 5-10 years up here. 😂 Also a unibody car does exactly the same thing you just described. Meanwhile I've watched entire control arm and suspension mount points fall off the frames of GM SUVs. But again, all cars have their rust issues up here. Just a matter of time and how they decide to fail. But yeah that particular Saab isn't a Swedish car at all, just has a Swedish badge. Completely a Subaru. Can't count how many EJ cars my family has had.
EJ25 Phase 2 (SOHC) seep externally after ~150k kms no matter how well you maintain them but usually never leak internally even if you ignore the external seep (and provided you don't overheat them), the EJ25 Phase 1 (DOHC, mostly first generation outbacks and some late gen 2 legacys) usually leak internally.
Ignoring the external seeping the engines are pretty damn reliable provided you dont over-rev them or run them dry.
Yeah most people don't seem to realize that it's only a select few engine's with the composite head gaskets that failed. All of the other ones are no more susceptible then any other car to head gasket failure.
The 2.2l sold under Liberty or Legacy was a good bottom end grunt naturally aspirated engine. The 2l was gutless in an auto. The latest 2.5l performed ok. Turbo variants add one sided heat with uneven oil cooking issues. Center headbolts were the first ones to lose torque. The symmetrical drive layout gave them cars good off road traction laying good groundwork to what has later become the compact SUV poor family car. Low center of gravity offered safe highway driving too. CV boots were the first issue. Their diesel variant failed to address inlet carbonation.
Rear oil leaks even got some female technicians rise to speedy engine removal and re installations. Forgot to mention: First 1.6l series was the cheap fun machine. Their design was of course Volkswagen inspired. So simple to maintain they are even used on flying machines!