'92 Legacy Wagon Head Gasket.

[BiggiePauls]

I have a '92 Legacy Wagon and was wondering how I can tell if I blew the head gasket. One reason I think this happened is that I have oil in my coolant. I've heard this is pretty good sign that this has happened. If my head gasket did go out, how do you replace? Thanks in advance.

[tris91ricer]

Get the manual, for one. We recommend Haynes.
Since you're in Seattle, you can even call or visit some folks like meself, who are more than happy to meet up with you and help you work on the car and/or diagnose problems.
Oil in the coolant is a very good sign of a blown head gasket.

Welcome to the board! We're glad you're here. BTW, I like your handle.

[tris91ricer]

Oh,
What does it feel like when you drive it? Did it have a blown head when you bought it?
You should notice some power loss all the way thru your rev-band, if that be the case.

[BiggiePauls]

Thanks for the info. What I did start to notice, before my car just wouldn't start at all, is that at about 1,000 rpm my car felt jerky, and seemed to be having some power loss. Also, I noticed that I was burning oil, there was smoke coming out of the passengers side of the engine compartment. Not a lot of smoke, but I could definatly smell the burning oil. So does this still sound like a head gasket issue?

I would greatly appreciate any help I could get in working on or diagnosing the problem, thank you for the offer.

[BiggiePauls]

When replacing the head gasket, does it require pulling the engine?

[evolutionmovement]

I don't know if I'd trust Hanes on the torque specs for the head gasket replacement. The specs and order from the factory service manual are posted somewhere. I remember doing it at least once. The HG can be replaced with the engine in the car, but it might be easier to loosen the bolts, then lift the engine a little for better access. You could just unbolt the motor mounts and use a jack to lift the engine a little. You might want to remove the radiator to clean it anyway.

As for your smoke - that's a different issue. Either cam seal or valve covers. It's an easy job to do both at the time of the HG. A bad HG won't cause any driveability issues until it gets to the point where it causes overheating. You could go a while before that happens, but you never know.

As for driveability, I think you should replace the fuel filter and plugs and wires if you haven't recently. With not starting, it could be many things, but could be a temp sensor (if it does eventually start) or cam or crank sensor. Do you get a CEL? Does the engine turn over? Hell, the timing belt could be gone even. Oil in the coolant usually means HG, but sometimes an old radiator will corrode and cause a black film on top of the coolant that looks like oil. Does it look like chocolate milk or is it just a thin layer on top? Occasionally you can detect a bad HG by doing a compression test and comparing adjacent cylinders, but that's unreliable at best.

If you do the HGs, I recommend doing both sides as the labor's nearly the same. I'd also do a T-belt, water pump, oil pump, crank seal, cam seals, and clean out the combustion chambers while I was there. Cheapest place to order factory stuff is www.subaruparts.com.

Steve