Leaking head gasket?

I recently found out my car is leaking oil, about 3 or 4 drops overnight, and a lot of it is getting burned on the exhaust. I took it to shop today and they told me it was the head gasket and gave me a price quote for the job.

 

My question is, Can the head gasket be leaking oil? I thought the head gasket could only leak coolant.

 

What else could it be? it leaks out of the right side of the engine.

I've done two headgasket jobs in the past 2 months leaking oil off the rear corners of the head. Both were 120K plus cars.

Subies? how much $$$?

I just did heads on a legacy. Kid paid me 300 bucks to do the job, along w/ timing belt etc. he paid 800 for new reman heads.

 

double check to make sure its not the valve cover or the oil seals leaking.

 

is it motor oil for sure? could be diff or tranny fluid. i had both leaking after i swapped trannies. the junkyard opened the tranny up to take pictures before the sale and redid the pan gasket but overtorqued it so it leaked after i got it on. so my car 'smoked' for a while till i got it fixed. diff needed new seals.

 

btw, my advice if i were you, well.... i'd just keep an eye on your oil level. top off as you need it and drive it till it dies. i paid 700 for a motor w/ 45k on it from an 07 legacy and put it in myself. took about 2 hours of labor (i am pretty experienced and have the right tools). 25 minutes to pull the motor, 25 minutes to do the t-belt/waterpump, 25 minutes for beer, 45 to put it back and it get it all bolted up.

I had it confirmed by another shop, it is motor oil and it is the head gasket. They are charging me between 700 and 800 dollars for the job including timing belt and water pump.

 

Maybe time to trade in and upgrade to a GT?

Depends on car payments/paid off etc. If the car still drives fine and you like not having extra bills then I say drive it. Don't waste money getting it fixed if its only a slight leak butsave the money for a motor.

 

Now u could always trade it up but me personally love not having a car payment.

I still owe a little under 4 grand. The car does drive fine but last time I took it to get the oil changed they said it was missing 2 quarts of oil. maybe i'll just have to keep an eye on the oil and drive it till it dies.

700-800 dollars is a small investment to get it running in top shape again and not having to constantly worry about oil levels. the car should be good to go for a long while still after this.

 

how many miles do you have on the car now?

700-800 dollars a lot of money for a college kid.

 

Im going to start saving up for the job though. I don't want to deal with having to swap an engine.

 

The car currently has 120k miles on it but I suspect that it has been leaking since I bought it because the car always smelt like burnt oil after driving it.

 

It had 85k when I bought it about a year ago.

How many times did you change the coolant in the car? Did you follow the maintenance schedule? If so I would call SOA and complain, maybe they will give you something?

Subies? how much $$$?

 

 

$650.00 parts and labor.

700-800 dollars a lot of money for a college kid.

 

Im going to start saving up for the job though. I don't want to deal with having to swap an engine.

 

The car currently has 120k miles on it but I suspect that it has been leaking since I bought it because the car always smelt like burnt oil after driving it.

 

It had 85k when I bought it about a year ago.

 

that is pretty tough. maybe there's a recommended local shop or some local forum members that can help you out with the replacement? check your regional forum out. GTTuner has been great for the MA/RI members.

How many times did you change the coolant in the car? Did you follow the maintenance schedule? If so I would call SOA and complain, maybe they will give you something?

Right after I purchased it I did a tune up with coolant, spark plugs, wires and oil. the coolant hasn't been changed since then but the oil has been changed every 3k miles.

$650.00 parts and labor.

That's still a little high.

that is pretty tough. maybe there's a recommended local shop or some local forum members that can help you out with the replacement? check your regional forum out. GTTuner has been great for the MA/RI members.

there are only 2 local shops but thanks thats a good idea, ill post in the regional section.

YOu need to be checking you oil more often also. subaru does recommend this.

I have started checking the oil almost everyday.

Not to preach, but If you can't afford $650 to repair an older car then you might want to look into alternative transportation. It is not unexpected to pay that much or more to maintain an automobile and should be factored into total cost of ownership.

Little bit of a threadjack here, but same problem. I've got a 2001 legacy wagon (EJ251 engine) that's loosing coolant, and the oil is going up and its dripping motor oil off the head... so bad head gasket. I'm planning on doing the work myself, are there any things I should look for as I work, any common problem areas? Compression seems to still be OK, so hopefully the heads aren't warped (it has never overheated as far as I know). If its leaking on only one side is it OK to just do one head gasket? and is a kit like this: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/00-03-SUBARU-OUTBACK-2-5-16V-HEAD-GASKET-BOLTS-SET-EJ25-_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQhashZitem20b3095159QQitemZ140442685785QQptZMotorsQ5fCarQ5fTruckQ5fPartsQ5fAccessories#ht_2166wt_752

an OK choice, it includes more than I'll use, gasket wise, and the price is fairly reasonable for including head bolts.

About how much time should a head job take for one side? I'm a decent mechanic, but no air tools.

TIA!

hey guys, do the heads need to be resurfaced if the gaskets are replaced?

Generally, unless the head is warped they don't need to be resurfaced/planed just carefully clean off all the old gasket material with an aluminum approved abrasive. Don't sand it or anything or you'll damage the metal.

ok any more opinions?

 

mcmancuso, changing only one head gasket wont hurt anything. i would stay away from ebay for something like a head gasket. And the shop im going to have do my work is saying somewhere around 7.5 hrs so that should give you an idea what yours will take.

If you are going through the effort of having the HG replaced, do it the right way and have the head checked and/or resurfaced to make sure it isn't warped. No point in doing the work and spending the money only to have the new HG start to leak again.

Thought I'd share my work for those interested:

It took me 4 hours to pull it all apart. Not too difficult, it did take a bit of finagling to pull the heads off, there was about 1/2" less clearance than necessary for the rear most lower head bolts to clear the frame.

Start 9am:

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1312/5162441380_d4536febe2.jpg

intake and exhaust off:

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4001/5162441958_b3316c767b.jpg

To get the crank bolt off, I used the AC belt with a pair of vise grips wedged under a bolt to hold the pulley:

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1420/5161846863_c97cc67572.jpg

heads pulled by 1pm:

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4044/5162442628_c57e37e65f.jpg

On the exhaust, I disconnected it from the heads, and lowered the whole system on a jack, left it attached at the back, there is enough slack in the O2 sensor to allow this:

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1405/5162479454_b654d7fc71.jpg

It took me 4.5 hours to get it back together.

I got torque specs for the head bolts here:

http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1062633

Timing lineup here:

http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1707976

Only 2 problems:

I accidentally swapped the fuel pump/return lines(cranked but wouldn't start) I referenced the photos I took before I started, and noticed they were switched.

The top radiator hose is dead, dry and leaking where it attached to the engine, got to pick up a new one.

This car had a timing belt/tensioner put on 25K ago so I didn't change those out.

I got a gasket set(head, intake,exhaust,valve cover gaskets), head bolts, and a new AC belt, oil&filter, coolant. Total job price was ~$200-$225 USD parts and 8.5 hours. I could have done it in a day if I had the gaskets on hand when I started, I used all hand tools(no air).

Thats good info, i'd imagine that would be a bit different than my 06.

Yours wouldnt be much different at all. The EJ251 vs EJ253's only big difference is drive by wire vs drive by cable. Either way, its cake. Although, i personally would rather pull the motor out to do the heads. lol. It is pretty easy. Then again it only takes me about 30 minutes to get the motor out and mounted onto the engine stand.

 

The head job in the car is a pain, and i personally would hate to do it like that, just cause of clearance issues. But hey props for doing it yourself!

 

was the 250 just for the crap to go w/ it or did u get a deal on some heads too?