2002 H6 - no compression!

[cardoc]

That is interesting. Never had it happen.

It's always a what if. In this case on this thread he had tried sever times to start it, had the plugs out, turned it over several times. This should have blown it out. Given the time lapse between shop 1 and 2 in the above referenced post, the fuel most likely evaporated while sitting via the open valves. Along with the tech running into it before.

[1 Lucky Texan]

I admit, ffr may not have had 'cylinder wash-down' or w'ever it's called - but it seems possible, particularly with some of his other 'black smoke' issues.

But, he didn't mention seeing/smelling fuel soaked plugs and, as you say, seems like there was opportunity for evaporation.

[grossgary]

dude that's crazy. nice job figuring it out.

that being said - i've actually seen a lot of Subaru EJ heads that leak some small amount. when filled with fluid, they leak some out, even on engines that ran fine.....so some bit of "hanging" happens, but at the kind of RPM's, insanely short durations, and pressures they have I guess it's not noticeable until a certain threshhold...which i suppose you reached.

very interesting, thanks for sharing.

[grossgary]

head jobs get expensive quick. you can generally get a price, it's semi-standard, enough that you can get an estimate online or over the phone. shops i've used always have a "per valve" price for lapping....24 valves times $10 each is $240 for instance.

lapping valves, new valve stem seals, and adjusting the valves.

you can resurface the heads yourself if you want. it's actually really easy, fantastic write up on USMB about it. search "apocalyptic head resurface" or something and it comes up. of course that's generally not that expensive anyway. i do it because the closest shops to me are really far away and inconvenient. now that i've done a few it's unbelievably simple. if you pulled a motor you can resurface your heads in a couple minutes easily.

$50 clean, $250 for lapping valves, valve stem seals, resurface, they'll want to pressure test but i'd decline that myself.....pushing $500 in machine shop work unless you have unusually cheap prices.

[FFR5445]

The root of the problem was the bad the valve seals. There were bad since 125k and created the oil contamination and carbon buildup that you see here. It never ran low on oil and was never overheated. It certainly could have gotten worse at the end. It's not my car and so I rarely drive it. I can guarantee if it did get worse and mass quantities of blue (yes it has always been blue) smoke are pouring out the exhaust, my wife never would have noticed it.

The machine shop wanted $505 to do the valve job. That includes a valve adjustment and resurfacing. He said he does subaru heads all the time although mostly the 4 cylinder variety.

So I decided to go with the JDM engine. I was really worried after googling JDM Engine Depot Reviews. There are some bad experiences out there. But it is a used engine so there has to be some. The sales guy seemed nice enough. He took pictures of the actual engine I was going to buy and sent me a video of them doing a compression test on it. I got the engine yesterday. It seems ok. Only some minor seepage at the bottom of the timing cover. Valve covers are nice and clean. Lots of aluminum surface corrosion but that seems completely normal for its age. My biggest disappointment so far is the engine wire harness was all cut up. Not sure if they need to do that in Japan for some law because it was cut in several places. It's Friday evening, I don't have intake gaskets or fuel injector o-rings and won't be able to get them for several days so I'm trying like heck to swap the harness without pulling the intake manifold. It's not easy but I think I'm going to get it!

[DAS]

This same thing has happened to my mother's 2001 LL Bean H6, twice. Each time the engine was suspect, timing chain was checked, etc. interestingly, each time the oil was low, it was topped up, the engine was cranked for 30 seconds or so, then it came back to life. Somehow (don't ask me how) when the oil is low,and of the car is parked for a while, the hydraulic lifters collapse and the valves cease to function.

[cardoc]

Originally Posted by FFR5445

The root of the problem was the bad the valve seals. There were bad since 125k and created the oil contamination and carbon buildup that you see here. It never ran low on oil and was never overheated. It certainly could have gotten worse at the end. It's not my car and so I rarely drive it. I can guarantee if it did get worse and mass quantities of blue (yes it has always been blue) smoke are pouring out the exhaust, my wife never would have noticed it.

The machine shop wanted $505 to do the valve job. That includes a valve adjustment and resurfacing. He said he does subaru heads all the time although mostly the 4 cylinder variety.

So I decided to go with the JDM engine. I was really worried after googling JDM Engine Depot Reviews. There are some bad experiences out there. But it is a used engine so there has to be some. The sales guy seemed nice enough. He took pictures of the actual engine I was going to buy and sent me a video of them doing a compression test on it. I got the engine yesterday. It seems ok. Only some minor seepage at the bottom of the timing cover. Valve covers are nice and clean. Lots of aluminum surface corrosion but that seems completely normal for its age. My biggest disappointment so far is the engine wire harness was all cut up. Not sure if they need to do that in Japan for some law because it was cut in several places. It's Friday evening, I don't have intake gaskets or fuel injector o-rings and won't be able to get them for several days so I'm trying like heck to swap the harness without pulling the intake manifold. It's not easy but I think I'm going to get it!

Are you sure they just didn't cut the wires on the "car" side of the plugs? When a company strips a car, the harnesses are cut to expedite removal but all the harness plugs remain in tact so all you need do is plug your car into the engine harness.

[FFR5445]

Another issue with the JDM engine (besides the engine harness being hacked to bits) was a dented oil pan; it was shipped resting on the pan. It probably would have worked but I decided to play it safe and swap oil pans.

Got it all back together. The torque converter bolts are tricky, but everything else is pretty straightforward. Only 1 trip to the parts store for exhaust bolts and some RTV. Filled it with fresh fluids and she fired right up. No leaks, no drive-ability issues so far. That 6 cylinder is a smooth engine.

Thanks to all that helped me. I'm off to relax with a cold beer.

[cardoc]

Originally Posted by ffr5445

another issue with the jdm engine (besides the engine harness being hacked to bits) was a dented oil pan; it was shipped resting on the pan. It probably would have worked but i decided to play it safe and swap oil pans.

Got it all back together. The torque converter bolts are tricky, but everything else is pretty straightforward. Only 1 trip to the parts store for exhaust bolts and some rtv. Filled it with fresh fluids and she fired right up. No leaks, no drive-ability issues so far. That 6 cylinder is a smooth engine.

Thanks to all that helped me. I'm off to relax with a cold beer.

road trip!!!!!

[Novablue]