legacycentral bbs

Hello all,

I have been posting recently about how my leggy wagon has been sick and is not running, tested the rings and i think they need to be replaced.



** update for anyone who needs to hear exactly how sick it is, it can be found here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JgT9DYKNwo

note the sound is off by about 1 -2 seconds it will sound like the car revs on its own after i left but i blip the throttle twice

anyone have 2 rings they would like to sell?

I think if you are going to do this, you would want to purchase a new ring set (which are not that expensive) and rehone the cylinders and install new rings on all 4 pistons; at the very least

well to put it simply doing it right is just out of the question, there is no time and no money. besides compression is only bad on one bank of cylinders and i just want to get the beast running again.

$56 out of the question? FTL!
First off, to replace the fucking pistons rings, you need to pull the motor.....


If you spend the time to pull the fucking motor, you need to pulll the fucking heads offl..... If you pull the fucking heads off, you might as well pull the damn head off the other side and pistons out....

Did I use the fucking word fucking enough?

As well as head gaskets, exhausts gaskets, and possible other gaskets, your gonna spend over $200 minimum.....

too much, obviously you understand the annoyance one feels working on that engine with it in car, mind you this though Vincent i have the new head gasket on no other gaskets exhaust or otherwise, and was in horrible disrepair, thus bolting it all back on
should work.

all I am looking for is anyone that may have started a rebuild and has extra rings, that’s it.

there is really no reason trying to school me in procedure, so unless you have something
constructive to input, I suggest you take your ranting to another page.

Mr. Vincent has probably done this job more times than your cold heart beats in a minute. He has great fun with, and is passionate about Subaru motor vehicles. He is probably amused by your great desire to avoid doing the job properly and completely, given the fact that you are going to have most of the work completed just to get two pistons done. The printed word of a post reply does not always convey emotion, feelings or intent. He certainly was not mad at you. I know he only wanted to help you. Rather intensely, most would agree. Good luck on your repair, work safely.

I just wanted to swear.

Replacing piston rings = pullng the motor, removing the intake manifold, removing the flywheel and more.....

what say you to dropping the oil pan and sump, then with the crankshaft right above you, just disconnecting the rods for one bank and sliding the pistons out? possible or has it been tried?

Possible - yes
Feasable - no

I think the rear #4 rod cant be done this way.

You can't get the rods off the crank without splitting the block. However you don't need to do that to get the pistons out.

With how the access holes are situated on the block, I don't see a feasible way to get the piston wrist pins out.

this sucks
i just want to get the engine running again, its just sitting there low on compression....

still looking for those rings if you got um

If you want to buy something, put a thread in the Parts Shed forum, entitled "WTB: Piston Rings"

95LegacyLsi wrote:well to put it simply doing it right is just out of the question, there is no time and no money. besides compression is only bad on one bank of cylinders and i just want to get the beast running again.

If you don't have time or money to do it right now, will you have time or money to do it AGAIN?

If the car is not running, how did you check compression?

Why is the car not running? Cars will run with seriously terrible compression.

You could pull pistons without pulling the motor, but that is NOT the way anyone who has a clue would do it. Further, if you did get the pistons out, how would you hone the damn cylinders? All the metal you rub off would go into your bottom end, way bad idea!

Trying not to rant here, but seriously man, everyone on here is just trying to help you avoid complications and based on your so called "simple request" it is clear you are not as knowledgable about motors in general, and more specifically, the complications with working on Subaru's boxer layout.

hahahah lol funny post made me giggle thanks guys lol.

mr soul wrote:

If the car is not running, how did you check compression?

The car doesnt have to be running to check compression


I undestand what you are going through with the whole money thing, as I am a brokeass college student, so I can sympathize...

But Keith is right...you can fix the rings that are bad in this case with some other ones, and hopefully that will be a "band aid" and keep the car running at least as long as it takes to get the time and finances together to fix it properly...


I wish I had some rings I couldgive you, but I unfortunately don't...but I am sure that Blackbart does, and his prices are more than fair!

Best of luck!!

555BCTurbo wrote:

mr soul wrote:

If the car is not running, how did you check compression?

The car doesnt have to be running to check compression


I undestand what you are going through with the whole money thing, as I am a brokeass college student, so I can sympathize...

But Keith is right...you can fix the rings that are bad in this case with some other ones, and hopefully that will be a "band aid" and keep the car running at least as long as it takes to get the time and finances together to fix it properly...


I wish I had some rings I couldgive you, but I unfortunately don't...but I am sure that Blackbart does, and his prices are more than fair!

Best of luck!!

I appreciate that everyone is trying in their own and sometimes fully charged way to help and I'm really glad my idea made sense to at least one other,

it will crank and run if i am heavy on the modulation of the gas, where 2 cyls are trying to pick up the slack.

one more question while i got everyones attention, whats a good final torque for the head bolts, FSM says 22 then 51 ft/lb back off 360 degrees, and only 25 and 27 before a 180 turn.... seems light to me.... will it change if useing the old bolts?

A 180 turn = a lot of lbs of tq


Just do what the FSM says...

2 bad pistons? Non turbo?,?,?,?,

I doubt your rings are bad. I thing you have something else wrong. maybe the coil, plugs, plug wires or something ignigtion based.

Seriously...unless your NA engine is horribly abused...or has a million miles on it I am doubtful that your rings are bad as well. I've seen valves shit the bed but not a ring (at least not on a maintained NA). Lets not forget that most of these engines still have the cross hatching in the cylinders at 150K (my ej22t even did). The bottom end is built like a brick shit house.

Just listen to doug..he knows more than most.

Can you describe in more detail what the car is doing that makes you think the rings are bad?

yes the car is turbo and seriously bucks if tryied to be cranked, so i stopped disconnected the fuel injectors and the coil and checked my compression, it was normal around 170 on the drivers side bank but the passesngers side bank of cylinders put only 90-110 i added some oil to the cylinder and boom the copression lept to damn near 130 but thats the best i have seen.
And yeah i saw the piston honeing but that but i also left it uncovered for a day and some mean surface rust took over... thats what i think may have done it....though the bucking did start happening before i took the head off

This is where this conversation should have gone to start with...what is wrong and the cheap ideas to diagnose/fix before jumping to the worst case conclustion....

And sorry, I could have been more clear regarding my comment on compression test.... Compression tests should be done with a hot engine... you can get wide variation with results on a cold motor which has not run in a while vs hot, making people believe they have low compression and in reality it is something else.

cant get a hot engine if the engine wont run, i just changed the oil on it and found coolant to be in the oil as well... trying to trace where that came from but i am going to try and crank it here in a moment


alright cranked it and it runs...sorta it is between a clacking and a thud noise but if i hold the gas down it will stay alive till i let go then it slowly kills itself