Has anyone had a head gasket failure in a 2.2 liter? I have a '99 OBS with 222,000 miles- funny smell (like a head gasket going; had a '00 OB with 2.5 & head gasket went and it had similar smell), but no oil leak that I can see and coolant level hasn't gone down much. Smell it especially in cold weather or in high elevations in summer. Could oil be leaking out of head gasket and burning itself off on engine? Would the Subaru Coolant Add On affiliated with the 2.5 liter recall help? Just changed the coolant last summer before going to Colorado. I know with the miles it just may be the life expectancy of the engine, but I don't know. Any ideas?
Head Gasket Failure in 2.2 liter models?
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there's no reason to suspect headgasket. if you suspect leaking coolant due to smell - the first logical step is to check for coolant loss - are you loosing any coolant? if it's leaking then your level is going to drop. start there.
if you're loosing coolant you need to find out where it's going. after a quarter million miles (traveling to the moon) it's not hard to envision a hose or clamp needing replaced or a leak in a radiator, etc. those are far more common than HG's.
it's only the later Phase II (99 or 00+) EJ25's that leak externally and create the smell. the earlier EJ25's...and your EJ22 are unlikely to fail in that way. no need to borrow grief from another motor and experience - if you suspect a leak, verify it first, then find it. as for the additive, i doubt you'll need it or that it'll work on this motor. but if you did have the bizarre case of an external leaking gasket then try it if you're not willing to replace the gasket.
if it ends up being a headgasket, that's not too surprising on a 10+ year old car with that many miles. if all the miles weren't all under your belt then the car was probably overheated at some point in it's life as EJ22 headgaskets don't fail without provocation.
so yes - headgaskets fail in EJ22's, they are *caused*, not random occurrences like the EJ25.
if you're loosing coolant you need to find out where it's going. after a quarter million miles (traveling to the moon) it's not hard to envision a hose or clamp needing replaced or a leak in a radiator, etc. those are far more common than HG's.
it's only the later Phase II (99 or 00+) EJ25's that leak externally and create the smell. the earlier EJ25's...and your EJ22 are unlikely to fail in that way. no need to borrow grief from another motor and experience - if you suspect a leak, verify it first, then find it. as for the additive, i doubt you'll need it or that it'll work on this motor. but if you did have the bizarre case of an external leaking gasket then try it if you're not willing to replace the gasket.
if it ends up being a headgasket, that's not too surprising on a 10+ year old car with that many miles. if all the miles weren't all under your belt then the car was probably overheated at some point in it's life as EJ22 headgaskets don't fail without provocation.
so yes - headgaskets fail in EJ22's, they are *caused*, not random occurrences like the EJ25.
2005 Subaru Outback Wgn Automatic, Air, Cold Climate Pkg, CD, 2 Tone Grey, 107000 miles right now
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I just replaced my headgasket on my 05 Outback. Did not have any antifreeze smell, but the oil was leaking on the exhaust and when I was going slow I could smell it in the car. Did not have any showing up on the ground.
that's not relevant to this guy, different engine. yours has a history of headgasket issues, including Subaru redesigning the gaskets, offering an extended 100,000 mile headgasket warranty from 2000-2002, a required coolant additive due to the issue in 2000+ EJ25's...et.al. - this motor this poster is referencing does not.
2000+ EJ25 headgasket failures are common, you're describing well known symptoms.
i beg to differ. The phase II 2.2's are suspect as well for HG issues due to the changing of the material used to make the HG. The 2.5 Turbos and 2.0 Turbo's did NOT have this issue because they made the gasket out of different material to be able to handle the increase in pressure.
The only 2.2L motor that has no self caused HG issue is the earlier 1996 and lower ones.
The only 2.2L motor that has no self caused HG issue is the earlier 1996 and lower ones.
what is beautiful about this discussion is that you can quantitatively verify this nearly any day or week of the year. if you search all of ebay and craiglist (best) and the subaru forums - you will find tons of blown EJ25 headgaskets. a zillion Ej25 adds or threads...and few EJ22's. you can find webpages dedicated to 2.5 liter head gasket failures (skips page comes to mind), and Subaru never offered the extended headgasket warranty on Phase II Ej22's - only EJ25's...the Ej22 will remain eerily silent except for very anecdotal occurrences and no trends to speak of.
and that's the experience of folks like me and other people that do this every day or week of the year - we see EJ25's all the time, not a week goes buy that i couldn't buy a (or few) blown headgasket EJ25's. i have a blown EJ25 in my driveway right now, another in my garage, and i know two guys within 10 minutes of my house each with one as well.
i'm not trying to change your mind. you can have your opinion. all i'm saying is that anyone that wants statistically significant and verifiable evidence can verify just what i said in a matter of minutes via all the resources above, i recommend craigslist, it's very obvious if you use that. the online resources that scour all of craigslist for you are really nice.
I recently learned about how corrosive conventional green coolant becomes if it isn't changed regularly. Mechanics and experts always say to replace it regularly but they never tell you why. I also hear ******** say it doesn't matter all the time. I never use to change my coolant regularly until I did some research on OATs, now I think I've lost multiple subi gaskets to coolant over the years and I advocate changing conventional coolant regularly myself.
This is the owner's fault, but not necessarily an overheating issue. If the coolant is old it will also freeze/boil at lower temperatures, thus overheating. For whatever reason on the 2.2 sounds like it's usually the driver's side that goes first. The only other comment I have is that to do it right it's important to replace the Head Bolts, because they stretch and are not reusable, probably worth a few $. I'm sure other threads have more on coolant.
I've got one (cyl 1 confirmed with lower compression) I've been putting off since last year. I've heard I can do it without removing the engine, does anyone know if that's true?
This is the owner's fault, but not necessarily an overheating issue. If the coolant is old it will also freeze/boil at lower temperatures, thus overheating. For whatever reason on the 2.2 sounds like it's usually the driver's side that goes first. The only other comment I have is that to do it right it's important to replace the Head Bolts, because they stretch and are not reusable, probably worth a few $. I'm sure other threads have more on coolant.
I've got one (cyl 1 confirmed with lower compression) I've been putting off since last year. I've heard I can do it without removing the engine, does anyone know if that's true?
when people ask about doing head gaskets without removing the engine, or see videos about doing it that way.
maybe a little 2.2 SOHC is easier then a EJ25 SOHC,.... but for aggravation saving purpose
I would suggest buying a engine crane from harbor freight, and a steel milk crate if you don't have something to strap the block down to.
when you are done sell the crane on craigslist.
this is cheaper on time, money, gas etc. then renting, hauling, using, hauling, renting, hauling, using, hauling. one from a rental place.
maybe a little 2.2 SOHC is easier then a EJ25 SOHC,.... but for aggravation saving purpose
I would suggest buying a engine crane from harbor freight, and a steel milk crate if you don't have something to strap the block down to.
when you are done sell the crane on craigslist.
this is cheaper on time, money, gas etc. then renting, hauling, using, hauling, renting, hauling, using, hauling. one from a rental place.
no need to reuse subaru headbolts. reusable and it's routinely done by everyone that knows a lot about Subarus - including dealers, Rick's (General Disorder) well known shop in Oregon, Ivan of IvansImports doing dozens of EJ25's every month who resurfaces the heads and resurfaces the block surfaces, Gloyale...these guys are doing significant volume and beeen into Subarus for years - replacing headbolts is pointless. I mean you can replace them - there's just no added value. It's glorious, since it doesn't matter - we are all right!
There are two people who replaced headbolts and had repeat failures on this forum and another Subaru forum. So i think it unwise to talk about headbolts because it might encourage others who aren't very familiar to think it matters. I don't think the aftermarket headbolts caused it - but i think an improper approach to focusing on "headbolts" over other wildly known avenues like which gaskets, resurface heads, resurface the block....skipping those key steps to fancy a philosophy borrowed from other platforms (where headbolts should be replaced) is a step in the wrong direction.
whether headbolts are replaced is a platform specific question dependent on the type of headbolt used. Since 1980's (and I presume earlier) Subaru has never used headbolts that need to be replaced like other manufacturers have.
There are two people who replaced headbolts and had repeat failures on this forum and another Subaru forum. So i think it unwise to talk about headbolts because it might encourage others who aren't very familiar to think it matters. I don't think the aftermarket headbolts caused it - but i think an improper approach to focusing on "headbolts" over other wildly known avenues like which gaskets, resurface heads, resurface the block....skipping those key steps to fancy a philosophy borrowed from other platforms (where headbolts should be replaced) is a step in the wrong direction.
whether headbolts are replaced is a platform specific question dependent on the type of headbolt used. Since 1980's (and I presume earlier) Subaru has never used headbolts that need to be replaced like other manufacturers have.
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