Possible Head Gasket? Need opinions!

I have a 2005 Legacy GT with roughly 188,000 miles. I bought the car at 185,000 and don't know much about it besides the oil lines got clogged and the turbo caught on fire. They replaced the oil lines and put a new turbo in it. Paperwork included so I knew everything was trustworthy.

 

I have been experiencing some oil loss and it's dropping down onto exhaust causing it to smoke up as soon as I turn my car off. The thing is it only does it the first time I drive the car for the day and it doesn't happen again for the remainder of the day. Subaru said radiator had crack and was shooting coolant out onto motor causing smoke so I replaced radiator (I did see crack some idiot basically put silly puddy to cover the hole). It still continues to smoke and its a sweet smell so I stick to my opinion that its oil.

 

Now a couple days ago I started to smell gasoline through my vents after a handful of miles the smell goes away. Tonight I changed my oil and had oil all over the side of my oil filter. I also noticed a strong gasoline smell coming from my oil cap and a bit of white smoke when I shinned a light against it, but there is no milky substance in the oil cap. I changed my oil with 3.6 quarts of synthetic 5w-30 and 1 quart of lucas stabilizer since my motor is running lean causing oil to be "watery".

 

My question to everyone is if I'm leaking oil onto exhaust and I notice a gas smell coming from oil cap what should I expect? A good friend of mine who owns 2 STI's suggested it was my head gasket. Looking for other opinions.

 

If I need to rebuild my motor because its rings then I honestly don't feel its worth it an I'm buying something new off the lot. If it's head gasket and a private shop is whilling to charge me under $2,000 I will fix head gasket IF, and thats a big if, I should expect the car to run fine without any more future problems. I honestly need the car to last me another 12-15 months. Also need to replace both front wheel bearings for $500, but it's got a lot of miles I can reason with that. Not that I shouldn't expect a rebuild at this mileage I just can't justify spending $5,000 for a rebuild or be without a car for X amount of days.

If you need a inexpensive reliable car for the next 12-18 months you should sell this car for what you can and get something simple like a Civic / Accord / Camry / Mazda 6 or similar. Even if you just need head gaskets I bet a fair amount of other little stuff will pop up. Axle boots, worn bushings and a million other things.

 

The LGT has a high performance engine and is under a lot of stress even in stock form. Think about it for a moment.....this car has 2.5 liters with 250 HP. If you double the size and output of the engine you are looking at a 5.0 liter 8 cylinder car with 500 HP!! Would you consider that high performance? Of course!! Will stuff start wearing out at 188,000 miles? YES!! These cars are pushing about 63 HP per cylinder. Compare that to 53 HP per cylinder on the modern 5.0 V8 from the Ford Mustang (420 HP).

 

If you want to keep this car for the long run, the best thing to do is start with a new short block and go from there. Yes it can run $2K - $5K depending on if you do the work yourself your take it to a shop, but you will have a nice car with a high performance pedigree when it's all said and done.

 

Best of luck!

I tend to agree-- if cost is a significant factor and you need reliability, the lgt is not the car for you. At 188k, if you're not going to straight up rebuild, you'll be chasing down little things that require more labor (and subsequent teardown of the parts just rebuilt) for longer than you care to pay.

 

Smoking from the oil fill tube is a sure sign of ring failure. That motor is not long for this world, regardless of whether or not you do the head gaskets. Turbo motors really aren't supposed to live more than 150k.

 

Rebuild will run you at least 5k if you do it yourself; expect to see quotes at $6500-8800 to have someone do it for you.

 

Rebuild or sell.

you can do the bearings yourself. If you opt to replace the bearings only, stick them in the freeze the night prior

 

it is one of the easier cars to do in this regard if you have an impact tool

 

loosen lugs

 

raise front of car and support with jack stands

 

remove lugs and wheels

 

remove brake caliper and bracket, suspend caliper from front spring

brake axle nut loose with impact. if you do not have an impact you can break it loose by one of the following

 

a. with a cheater by removing center cap on wheel and doing it while the car is on the ground before you raise it up.

 

or

 

b. have someone press and hold the brakes before you remove the caliper and break it loose

 

vibrate axle part way out of hub with impact hammer

 

losen 4 bub bolts about half way

 

finish vibrating axle out of hub

 

unplug ABS sensor

 

finish removing 4 hub bolts and remove hub

 

repeat process to get the other side

 

If you are going to replace bearings then:

 

pound out bearing from each hub

 

clean inside of hub where the bearing sits

 

you can place the hub assembly in the oven at 200F for a few hours to make it expand and then you can just drop bearing in most cases or it will be significantly easier to press in.

 

reverse above hub removal procedure to install

 

Step 1: Trade with African tribe for 2 poisonous tipped darts.

Step 2: hit friend in the neck with dart

Step 3: SWP engines with one of his STIs

Step 4: tell friend that was a nasty fall he had.

 

If he finds out and his neck is all twisted and can't laugh about the situation then he's not a real friend.

 

Possible step 5: insert one more dart and do with as you please

LMAO! i like the way you think keenster

 

Instead I decided to buy an e46 M3 and hold onto the Legacy while looking for a used motor and swap out

 

Then I have my winter/daily legacy gt and can finally do my M3 build I've been dying to do

Where in CT are you ?

 

The gas smell is the fuel leak from the gas line clamp behind the AC compressor, it happens when it around 20F.

 

You'll need to replace the right valve cover gasket, another common issue.

 

If you only drive for short distances the oil will not get hot enough to boil the moisture out of the oil, that moisture will stick on the oil fill cap when it's cold, that tube sticks up in the cold air.

 

Here's how I fixed my gas leak for a while.

http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x40/92Si/DSCN4678_zps8b9100aa.jpg

It's that time of the year for cold start fuel leaks.

GT did you hear I had to tighten that clamp again last Sunday after skiing, first time since my rebuild over 2 years ago. That clamp needed two turns of the screw.

Max Capacity, I am located in Waterbury half the time and the other half Farmington

What oil are you using and how long is your commute to work?

I'm from Torrington haha

What oil are you using and how long is your commute to work?

He already said 5w30 which he should be running a thicker weight if the oil is thinning in the motor

 

Btw if you wanted a reliable car you definitely shouldn't have bought one that has a history involving a fire... you're definitely looking at more than 2k of work

He already said 5w30 which he should be running a thicker weight if the oil is thinning in the motor

 

Btw if you wanted a reliable car you definitely shouldn't have bought one that has a history involving a fire... you're definitely looking at more than 2k of work

 

whoa sorry lol.....

Commute to work is about 30 minutes. Gas smell was the gas line due to cold tempatures of 20 degrees or lower.

 

I had totaled my VW GLI and school was starting in a few days. I didn't have much time to find a car and the fire thing wasn't a big issue since everything related was replaced with paper work to show. Only caught on fire because of oil lines clogging, which is typical in these cars and I had researched possible outcomes from the fire that I will face in the future and none of the problems I'm seeing relate. That being said insurance gave me 6,800 I bought the legacy gt for 4,500 and it seemed like a great offer. the car didn't give me any problems for a year and the problems I'm facing are due to high mileage and typical subaru gasket malfunction.

 

My mechanic cleaned my motor then put a dye in it we found out my leak was coming from the head gasket and he said my cylinders are fine no ring issues from the tests and I'll be replacing the head gasket within the next week as well as new plugs.

Commute to work is about 30 minutes. Gas smell was the gas line due to cold tempatures of 20 degrees or lower.

 

I had totaled my VW GLI and school was starting in a few days. I didn't have much time to find a car and the fire thing wasn't a big issue since everything related was replaced with paper work to show. Only caught on fire because of oil lines clogging, which is typical in these cars and I had researched possible outcomes from the fire that I will face in the future and none of the problems I'm seeing relate. That being said insurance gave me 6,800 I bought the legacy gt for 4,500 and it seemed like a great offer. the car didn't give me any problems for a year and the problems I'm facing are due to high mileage and typical subaru gasket malfunction.

 

My mechanic cleaned my motor then put a dye in it we found out my leak was coming from the head gasket and he said my cylinders are fine no ring issues from the tests and I'll be replacing the head gasket within the next week as well as new plugs.

 

Make sure you take the heads to a shop that knows what they're doing! If you need a list for what should be done, see my rebuild thread. At the very least, though, you need to have the heads decked, though I suggest you have them fully reconditioned. Also, spring for the ARP head studs. They're less than $200 on Amazon, best insurance you can buy against future hg failure. Plus, way easier to install than OEM head bolts. See my shopping list, too!