Replaced head gaskets... Diagnosing a cracked head...

[bean]

Hey guys...

After finally replacing the head gaskets on my Legacy I'm concerned that the heads might be cracked after all. I could be overly cautious and it *could* be fine, but I need to make sure!

I did a tremendous amount of work to the car to get it into shape only to find the head gasket (s) were gone. (Like over $4000 CDN in parts!)

Car was blowing out coolant into the resevoir when the engine was rev'd - bubbles in the overflow tank - the whole nine yards. Hoping that the head wasn't cracked - I pulled the engine and redid the gaskets. (I was really tired of the car and basically left it all winter dissassembled.)

I now have the car back together, and it runs and sounds AWESOME, and there are no bubbles in the overflow bottle, but when I rev the engine the upper rad hose feels like it gets pressurized with the high revs.

It did the same thing with the head gaskets gone only it blew into the overflow bottle at the same time.

Can someone PLEASE check their EJ22 to see if the upper rad hose pressurizes with revs? I need to know if this is normal pressure from the flow of coolant - or if I indeed have a cracked head.

I've driven the car very hard to see if I can get the coolant to blow out the rad and fill the overflow bottle - but nothing so far.

If I can confirm all is good I'll finish bringing the car up to snuff cosmetically - if the head is cracked I'll likely need to get another Legacy just to salvage all the new parts!!

Thanks very much!

Rabin

[petridish38]

My upper coolant hose gets pressurized as well... As far as I can tell, its normal since the radiator cap keeps the cooling system at a certain pressure. As long as there is no coolant blowing into the reservoir or anything else acting up, I think it should be fine since the system is supposed to be under some pressure...

I have replaced my head gaskets on the car before. That was like two or three years ago, and it still runs great, pressurized hose and all!

Andrew

[bean]

Thanks for the confirmation!

I'm going to make sure the Rad is in good shape and not plugged (It sat all winter empty) It also occured to me to check the lower hose as well.

If my thinking is right, the upper should pressurize while the lower rad hose should have a vacuum of sorts.

If the head is cracked the entire system should be pressurizing. I checked the heater hoses - but I couldn't feel eny expansion - which made me a little happier.

Any other ideas are still welcome!

[Gurfus]

Was it difficult replacing the gaskets? did you have to remove the engine, or can it be done with the engine still installed in the car?
I may find myself a lucky owner of a -90 Legacy 2.2, but one or both the gaskets are in really bad shape, a lot of coolant disappears..
I'm not new to working with suby's, as i work every day with cars, and also have replaced the engine in my current suby...

Just curious =)

[dzx]

Technically its possible with the engine in the car. I just pulled the heads the other day to switch them out. The head bolts have little enough thread that you can just back them out of the block and then remove the whole head. It's kinda a pain tho and the intake and exhaust manifolds need to be unbolted from them. Took me about an hr.

[Gurfus]

Ok. Looks like i'll be driving a Saab for a while anyways..
Have a nice week-end =)

[bean]

Well - after some serious doubts about the fix, I bit the bullet and drove the car on the highway fully loaded with my tools AND pulling a small utility trailer loaded up...

Car seemed to be downshifting a lot and having some problems even in 3rd. (it's an auto - I'm brave!). I tried different techniques and found it ran the best at 4000 rpm in 3rd.

Coolant was perfect when I arrived and the car ran great - but was pretty hard on fuel naturally...

Unfortunately on the way back I discovered the car wasn't having trouble with the trailer - the engine is hesitating on the highway at constant throtte. When on cruise was on it was contantly down shifting to maintain speed... Se my new post for details!

As for the difficulty of the head gasket change - I'm a stickler for details, so I pulled the engine and did the rear seal at the same time. That means EVERY gasket and seal was done to OEM spec. I also spent a lot of time cleaning everything including removing all traces of carbon from the head and piston tops.

It took be about 12 hours all told - but like I said - I'm a stickler for the details. The engine is SPOTLESS! I also had broken up timing covers and a lot of that time was spent using 3M's rigid plastic adhesive/filler to fix them. Worked well and i was able to reuse the badly broken timing covers for the cost of the adhesive. (Much better than $300 CDN for new ones!)

[Gurfus]

how on earth do you damage the timing-belt covers...?? :-S
Is it as easy removing the engine on a legacy as in an old L18? (<2 hours work)

[tris91ricer]

sure is.. there's a loop behind/around the bellhousing, (IIRC) and one for sure near the alt mounting bracket. unbolt your engine mts, and grab and go!

[bean]

I'm not sure how they got broken - but they were trashed when I got the car. The first few times I just put them on as is but they weren't held on very well and the crank shaft pulley was hitting the center cover.

I had wanted to get new ones, but the $300 cdn was too much. A friend suggested the 3m rigid plastic repair so I gave it a shot - worked awesome.

Pulling the engine is cake - one of the easiest motors I've ever pulled. Easily a 2 hr job from when you first pop the hood to setting the motor on a milk crate. (Milk crate made a decent engine stand BTW.)

[Gurfus]

hehe, ok, it's not that different from an old L18 then =)
If i actually become the lucky owner of this legacy, i'll probably remove the engine to change the gaskets...
And about that milk-crate, that was a new version *lol*
Well, of to a mini-vacation! Have a nice week-end

[Tleg93]

It sounds like a front end collision.