Getting there! 👍 Machine shop did a great job cleaning those heads up! To quote my substitute power mechanics teacher from high school, who said this regardless of the actual problem, in his thick SC accent, " I THINK IT'S YER VAAAALVES!" I still laugh out loud whenever we say that around here ... 😂

Top notch video Ivan, thank you so much for uploading and enlightening. You've done a great job and I was also very impressed with the machine shop's work.

You do very precise work and that's exactly what is needed at this point. The owner should be very happy with how his car runs.

Awesome job Ivan. I wish I had your courage and patience to tackle this job.

Excellent series, thanks for all the tips and tricks. I’m planning on doing the head gasket job on my wife’s 2006 Forester and was convinced it involved removal of engine. I like your trick of jacking engine and moving slightly left or right👍🏻

Thanks bud, just what I need. My outback had a leaky head gasket so I sent the heads away for skimming. The last time I sent a head to a machine shop it came back complete, so I just bolted it on with no dramas. This time they've come back in 3 parts and multiple boxes!

I dont understand why Subaru didnt engineer the valvetrain support cradle to accept a recessed gasket or extended square edge o- ring. That has to be a more efficient process than releying on sealant in such a critical area but sealant technology now exceeds gasket technology. Great educational vid Ivan. Till next time bro...👍👍

Cam seals- if you look at the front of the head where the seal goes you can see it has a bevelled inner edge, indicating the seal needs to be pit in a little past flush with the cylinder head. I've seen guys saying not to put them in further than flush but they are supposed to go in a little further than flush or they can pop back out

Nice! Sunday afternoon video 👍 thanks for sharing. Time to kick back

Very well done. Valve adjustment is much easier with SnapOn YA8895 and YA8890. I don’t need them every day, but they are well appreciated when I do.

Crisp,nice video.Full of mechanical information.Good work Ivan!

been looking forward to another one

good job Ivan !

Loverly job :-D, you took your time and were carefull, gotta be a winner. Such a relief to assemble everything and no problems, or parts left over LOL :-D. Sorry, silly mind had to say that :)

They look so pretty when they're clean.

The camshaft bell sounds to tell you when the correct valve clearance has been reached!! ;)

Didn't see you clean the oil residue from the the mating surface before applying the Ultra Gray. When doing head work I use liberal applications of brake cleaner spray, Eric O would approve. Also I have one work table that is covered with carpet, nice to help hold the clean heads when assembling and adjusting valves.

Senor ivan you have great patience,excellent learning videos followed it all. I have sti engine ej257 definitely do able. Machas gracias

Soon be startup time :-) do like the cam plate recess for sealant, some other designs have no recess and some use specific liquid sealers . Is a ballache if that joint or rear blanking cap leaks though . Subarus pretty leak free in general though . looks like you having fun with this one, not a bad job once get into them . easier than a 8pot chevy :-)

I just did this job again myself on a dual overhead. Probably the 7th or 8th one over my lifetime. I found out after years of doing these that the composite gaskets seem to do better than the metal on this engine. Metal gaskets are always better but for some reason the composite gaskets on this engine seem to hold up longer.

Maybe I already said Thanks, but Thanks again. Great videos

Great video

Would like to have seen you rotate the cam to check for smooth rotation after installing the saddle

I think an anaerobic sealant should been used as opposed to the ultra gray. My theory is that sometimes a cam cover leak is actually misdiagnosed as a leaky hg, they both end up covering the bottom of the engine with oil, but only a leaky cam plug will cause oil near the cam plug. I really dont think that area is sealed correctly from some videos I've seen. In this video I saw how the gunk left over in cam cover channels block the return path of oil. In the fsm, Subaru calls for a 3mm bead riding on the outer lip of those oil channels. I think it's a very subtle reason. They dont want the bead to squeeze out excessively or at all into those channels. In my interpretation, I think the important thing is the sealant forms a barrier around the oily areas. When the oil inevitably seeps to the front and rear cam seals, it fills up behind the seal and must drain back through tiny channels, look under cam shaft, however if that channel is somewhat blocked or not flowing quick oil can force itself between the metal and find its way into another channel, and if that is blocked, the oil will have nowhere to go except out the front and rear cam seals. From TDs of anaerobic sealants, another benefit in this regard is it only cures in areas of no oxygen, the rest will wash out with the oil. So even if the installer is not careful those oil channels wont get gunked up. I feel I'm right on this, and I'm about to need to do this job so I just want to see what people think. Thx

At 7.5 ftlbs torque I would have just done it by feel. As you are most likely aware, you get a feel for those lower torque specs. I got good at doing 28 ftlbs by feel.

nice job at the machine shop....I got burned a couple times from them with checking heads and valves

Excellence !! Thanks

Nice job Ivan man what a mess of bolts in those heads, in my experience you can leave the exhaust valves a little loose on the feeler gauge because exhaust valves tighten over time and intake loosens over time

i often wondered about the 10 dollar torque wrench form harbor freight? tool time review video???

Nice video Ivan. I hate those new fangled thing with those many bolts etc. Who came up with that silly design lol....? Nice job on adjusting valves! 😃

Great video Series. Got a question. What Reference Manual Tech Sheet are you using? Any way to get a copy of the Torque Specs and Sequence? Thank for any help. John

Had to have my 2007 Forester head re-milled at just over 60K. Was not happy.

Cool!!!!

nice doing clearance off the car on bench!

Does the subaru manual tell you to wait an hour to let that gasket setup with the four end bolts in before adding the rockers and additional fasteners? I saw that somewhere.

I would not be surprised if the problem with this car started from lack of periodic valve lash adjustment. If the exhaust valves were tight and not seating correctly - they would overheat and start burning the edges eventually leading to crack of the top. This is why it would be good to check clearances on the other head

I've only every had one modern Volvo with a cylinder head issue.

1:02 If the engine is turbo changed (it's unlikely to be since that's a SOHC head) you'd actually have to get it tuned because the engine now has an increased compression ratio.

Did the machine shop press out the head warp before milling?

Ivan what are your thoughts about using New Bolts on a new install?

when you have two valves on one arm like those exhaust valves you need to back both off then adjust one at a time if you dont and have temsion on the second one and when you set that one the first will end up loose. also although its just on of my pet peeves i break all of them loose and back them off before torquing down cam caps . then run the torque a second time. with that many bolts the first ones you do may end up loose.

And you should reheat those copper seal washers till they glow red and them leave them be to cool down = copper is soft after this and makes seal again when crushed. When you crush twice, copper becomes hard.

volkswagen flashback, when the 10mm and flathead came out for valve lash adjustment lol

Getting it knocked out!

The only thing is I did not see you verify the cam still turns freely as you are starting to torque things down could be a mistake?

sweet

were is your head stands ivan

I got my ej253 heads from the machine shop and I paid them extra to put in the cams and retainer housings, cam seal and plugs in. plus adjust the valves. They must not have sealed it correctly cause I have an oil leak out the back of the head around the cam cap on one of the heads. They charged me $650. Iam so pissed at them. Now I have to pull the head off in the winter with no heat in the garage! And hope they fix it correctly the second time. A refund would be good too. Any thoughts?

Ivan i noticed that you mentioned that the head is the drivers side. So the passenger side head didn't need any machining. Also i didn't know that those 4 cylinder subarus had 2 heads.

YOU'D BETTER BE A PERFECTIONIST

You released tension on several springs when removing valve assembly, I didn't see you rotate those back to an intension position??

I told you that I envisioned PART 5- now "might" be PART 6 !! BOXER engines NOT easy -only Porsche and Subaru use these horizontally opposed mills -even DAS AUTO LOOONG ago abandoned horizontal mills

Too much sealant is better than not enough? Well, bad news, someone rebuilt a manual transmission in a Ford ranger I bought. It made terrible noises so I tore it down to find out someone used way too much sealant on the front bearing retainer and it clogged up the oil galley in the input shaft which stopped oil from getting to the input bearing.

Why would Subaru not put a flange on the end of the valve guide to,prevent them from dropping? I'm not that experienced but the few heads I've worked on have all had a flange under the valve spring that would prevent this.

tighten until they strip and back'em off a 1/4 turn :))

Just asking.., Are the valve lash specs with the engine cold,or are the specs for an engine at normal operating temp? You might want to check. Also, you might want to recheck torque on all those bolts when the head is back on the block. whatever you think, your going through too much work to have something go astray.

I used to be a truck mechanic and most of my experience was with Cummins. But I alwayys ran over head on valves to where the feeler gauge was snug and if you ran it under it would drag and not be tight and the adage was a little loose was better then too tight. Is that not true with foreign cars when adjusting valves? Not being an as* just curious. Always owned domestic cars and you don't ever have to adjust the valves unless doing a rebuild.

Another great lesson never own a Subaru. I know no vehicle is perfect they all have problem trends but come on!

Ivan, what's the difference between a t40 and a tp40 torx socket? I've never heard of that I'm interested now :)

"SHEESH"

Good job Ivan those hf torque wrenches are notoriously inaccurate

What year car is this ej25 out of

Wonder how much of a new type engine is Engineered by Computers and how much by Computer, have we gotten that far that a computer can do it without a human, or I guess as human as a engineer can be. Could they tell if the warping came from the factory, or from normal heating through the heat cycles. And Time

Hey, how much was your machine shop charge per head?

the grey rtv is good stuff....they copied gms general motors sealer

Ivan, Take the extension bar off the torque wrench

Hey hey hey, I think I'm first.

Or second. Lol

1st

Tbh to much sealant is as bad as to little