[coyotehuntr]

i have a 1999 2.5 that I'm replacing the head gaskets on and I've ran into an issue. I'm not sure if i have enough shoulder bolts to hold the valve covers on. does every bolt hole get shoulder bolts or does some of the holes get regular bolts? i feel like every hole should get shoulder bolts with the exception of the bolt hole beside the spark plug holes. that being said i don't have enough shoulder bolts for both sides. i kept the heads/valvecover parts separate from the rest of the parts from the engine and didn't pay enough attention as to where particular bolts came from. I have had other subaru's in the past but none I've pulled apart to this degree. just replaced timing belts/waterpumps and brakes on previous vehicles. i dont feel I'm in over my head just running into something new here. id appreciate any help. thanks

 

[idosubaru]

the easiest thing to do is to just simply look at the cover and understand what the mechanical function of the shoulder/non-shoulder bolts are. they are different because they're different on the engine side - find those diferences and it'll be clear.

use google if both covers are already installed and you can't tell. wouldnt' surprise me if there's good pictures somewhere.

in general shoulder bolts have the valve cover grommets and go through areas where oil could leak through. the non-shoulder bolts are installed in areas where they dont' pass through oil saturated areas, they're "external" so to speak while the shoulder bolts are "internal".

 

[coyotehuntr]

THanks for the reply. That is sort of what I was thinking as oil won't be up to the top of the valve cover. I had searched before here but I found more info using rocker cover. Found what I was looking for. All should be shoulder bolts. Thanks again

 

[1 Lucky Texan]

careful torqueing the shoulder bolts - they break easily on some of our cars.