Thursday, June 2, 2011

Subaru impreza, changing head gasket?

i bought a pre facelift subaru impreza as a project, it has been off the road about a year. but turns over and runs ok. until it blew a hole in the radiator, fitted a new one as i needed to move the car. im 16 and im an aprentice mechanic, and was wondering how easy it is to change the headgasket as its obv blown and pressurising the rad, when i take the top cooling hose off the exhaust gasses come out the hose, so the gasket it obv well n truley gone. is there any other things i should do to insure the car will be reliable once the engine is out? and is it to difficult to take the engine out? i want to up the power in the future but its more of a project car at the mo. im plannin on fitting new gaskets, cam belt and tenioners, and get the heads cleaned and refaced. but was wondering if its a difficult job to do and is there anything i should be aware of? ive change head gaskets on smaller striaght 4 engines like peugeots and fiats, and had no problem. any advice would be great :) thanksSubaru impreza, changing head gasket?if your going to pull the motor its not that hard. i can pull out my sti engine in about 3 hours. helps that i have just about every tool known to man.Subaru impreza, changing head gasket?If it's and N/A Impreza, you don't need to pull the motor to do the head gaskets. There is plenty of room to pull the heads with the motor in the car. I've done it. Not that hard really. Buy a shop manual for your car and it should be pretty easy. Now if you are talking about the WRX then yes you should pull the motor.Subaru impreza, changing head gasket?I would suggest getting a compression and leakdown test done to ensure the HG Is blown but from the looks of It you have that pretty much figured out.

Obviously the Engine does have to be pulled but It doesn't have to be stripped down completely as there Isn't much for lines and breathers on the covers, Heads definitely need to be decked along with the Block, Id go with OEM Gaskets when you do put It back together, I'm running OEM on my 2.5 and running 25 PSI no problem :D Pick up a set of ARP head studs and have at it. It wouldn't be a bad time to have the block honed and machined for some 99.5mm pistons as long as you have the funds.

Good luck with the tear down!