H6 Head gasket replacement

[driveby]

Please please post some pictures!!!

fyi, you can get the manual for your specific 2003 H6 on techinfo.subaru.com for about $35 plus patience.

So hey, did you diagnose which cylinder was leaking before you pulled the engine? That would be valuable information both for this repair, and for future reference.


-Jeff

[SteveB]

I did not check which cylinder was leaking prior to tearing it down, as I did not want to deal with getting at the plugs to check compression or to do a leakdown test, although I could still do the leakdown with the engine out. I do have lots of photo's, I will have to check out what is the accepted method for posting them.

Originally Posted by driveby

Please please post some pictures!!!

fyi, you can get the manual for your specific 2003 H6 on techinfo.subaru.com for about $35 plus patience.

So hey, did you diagnose which cylinder was leaking before you pulled the engine? That would be valuable information both for this repair, and for future reference.


-Jeff

[dbullen]

I have a 2003 Outback H6 LL Bean, 180,000 Miles with an overheating issue.

Initial Symptoms were after a long (15 hour drive) after getting off highway heat gauge started to go up when idling for more then 30 seconds and would go back down once moving forward, woshing (Like watery noise) coming from dash, coolant had leaked out of top of resovoir tank.

Had my subaru guy (Certified subaru master tech who works at the dealer) look at it.

He discovered a very small pin hole in bottom of rad and in one of the coolant hoses. We replaced both with brand new Subaru OEM, as well Subaru OEM thermostat. He also replaced Coolant Temp Sensor (as there was a slight leak around that as well) and all clamps on the remaining hoses. He put a vacuum on the system and everything seemed good with no more leaks, and he put a pressure test on it overnight and after replacing everything it was no longer losing pressure overnight. He test drove car 60-70 KM and it worked great.

I picked car up wooshing noise was also gone. Got it on the highway and drove it home, about 1 hr drive. When I got off the highway and started to idle in traffic heat gauge was going up again. This time AT Oil temp light started to blink as well (this never happened before) and after shutting off car noticed a small amount of coolant had come out of resovoir again. Also wooshing noise (Like water running through dash is back). Car was also stalling when leaving it in park and reving it up a small amount and letting off gas (Although battery was just replaced and ECU was probably still in learning mode, so dunno if this has anything to do with it, was also idling lower then normal it seemed).

He said he checked everything for HG issue, did all the proper tests for the H6 and everything seemed fine (He did this before doing the above). He's never seen an H6 Headgasket though, although he's never worked on one with as many miles as mine (180,000).

Any thoughts? Could this be Head Gasket?

[CNY_Dave]

The definitive test is a chemical test on the coolant.

Anything is possible, was fan operation checked?


dave

[dbullen]

Originally Posted by CNY_Dave

The definitive test is a chemical test on the coolant.

Anything is possible, was fan operation checked?


dave

Yep Fans cycle fine. The water moving / wooshing noise in the dash I'm thinking is telling me there is air getting in the system again somewhere.

[dbullen]

I also remember my subaru guy saying that doing a chemical test on a 2.5 is useless because it will always show up positive whether there is a head gasket issue or not. He said there was a subaru bulletin sent out about that.

Although I'm not sure what the story is on the H6 and this test, whether it will always show up positive like the 2.5?

[CNY_Dave]

Originally Posted by dbullen

I also remember my subaru guy saying that doing a chemical test on a 2.5 is useless because it will always show up positive whether there is a head gasket issue or not. He said there was a subaru bulletin sent out about that.

Although I'm not sure what the story is on the H6 and this test, whether it will always show up positive like the 2.5?

I gotta be skeptical about that- although maybe there are some chemical tests that are more prone to a false positive.


Dave

[driveby]

Originally Posted by SteveB

I do have lots of photo's, I will have to check out what is the accepted method for posting them.

imageshack.us is very easy. It uploads a bunch of images all at once, resizes them if you want, and generates the forum IMG tags so you can just copy & paste into your post here.

If you create an account there, it also keeps track of your photos so you can edit or delete them in the future.

Check it out. I'd love to see some of your photos of this job.

-Jeff

[SteveB]

This should be a link to 40 photo's. I have 100 more still on the computer if anyone wants to see more.

ImageShack Album - 39 images

[driveby]

Steve, you tease!

So...did you take any pictures of the head gasket job? You know...removing the sprockets, inner cover, cams, heads; etc...?

I'd love to see that stuff. This forum already has plenty of pictures of the engine-in-compartment & pulled and of the timing chain assembly...yawn. Where's the head gasket job?!


-Jeff