Head Replacement Help

Hey guys I bought a 05 LGT with a burnt motor. Well I have ran into a couple surprises 1 being the heads are damaged. They have some scaring on the camshaft ______ Don't know what the word is but where the cams rotate in the heads!

Heads seem to be a bit harder to find than I would have thought! I did find a set of non turbo heads will those work? I assume I would just need to swap over the cams. My cams are ok and usable.

The rest of the motor is at the machine shop getting bored and having the crank welded/ground.

Come on! Somebody must know the answer. i really need to know the machine shop is going to be done with the crank and bore soon and i want to get this car on the road....

I assume that you have the same problem(s) as me, here's what mine look like....


This (in my case) was caused by a failing rod bearing, sending metal flakes through the oil system. Before you restart your motor, be sure that you clean everything out - and replace/delete the oil cooler as it's too difficult to clean.

I'm trying to figure out the most practical way forward. The main issue is that the LGT uses a AVCS intake cam, so the heads must support that or you will get CEL light.

It may be possible to rework a non-AVCS head, but I don't think anyone has tried that (yet).
http://legacygt.com/forums/showthrea....html?t=207726

Yep that's what I'm dealing with. The PO ran the car out of oil. My machine shop told me i could clean the guides or bearings whatever they are called with some 400 grit just to remove the high spots and polish the cams and run them but said it would be best to replace the heads. I can't afford to do that. i found the non turbo heads but wanted to ask if they are the same before i drive out to see them.

the non-turbo heads are SOHC and so totally different than the DOHC turbo heads...

I guess it would be possible to bore/hone out the saddles, and install new cams that fit whatever dimensions come out of the machine work. But I couldn't say for sure who does that or who makes oversized cams - I'm not in the know. It's basic machine work though, lots of shops do lathe/hone work and could polish the resulting saddle.

Or, are there bearing inserts that can be fitted after some machine work, and work with the stock cams? (if they are good, of course)

I'm in a similar boat, fixing a trashed 06 LGT motor that broke the #3 rod and destroyed the short block. The heads look good somehow, prob cause the car didn't run long after the metal got into the oil (except the #3 valves got some shrapnel damage). But, I have yet to look at the cams and saddles under magnification.

Originally Posted by jp233

the non-turbo heads are SOHC and so totally different than the DOHC turbo heads...

I don't think this us very accurate the heads I'm looking at are non turbo dohc

The heads will have a code number on them, B25 or something like that, There are some DXX heads talked about.

But unless you know what your doing, your better off to keep the same serise heads.

Do a web search for used heads for a _______ There will be junk yards that will ship them to you.

If your machine shop is great, they can weld material in the bad area's and remachine the journal.

Originally Posted by jp233

the non-turbo heads are SOHC and so totally different than the DOHC turbo heads...

Originally Posted by Juicehall

I don't think this us very accurate the heads I'm looking at are non turbo dohc

you are probably looking at the EJ25D heads. Those were for the N/A engines back in the day (96-99?), mostly known for bad head gaskets over 100K. I'm not sure those heads would work in a turbo car at all, let alone with AVCS, but maybe.

What I meant by my post was that in the EJ251-EJ254 motors that have been used in the N/A Impreza/Legacy/Outback/Baja/Foresters since year 2000, those were SOHC... since then, only the turbo engines were DOHC.

Since I'm assuming you currently have scored B25 heads, your best bet is to find new/used B25 heads or to have your current heads fixed. All depends on the cost and expertise of any local machine shops really.

I think Advance auto parts has them on there site. $325.00 or something...

If it's an 05 GT, it is most likely the B25 heads. In any case, you can usually buy the heads without any internals:

http://www.subarupartsforyou.com/cp_...hp?partid=7664

http://www.subarupartsforyou.com/cp_...hp?partid=7673

Yikes... just a new bare head piece of aluminum, without any guts.... nearly $600 each.

If you can't get local machine work done at a price that is worth it, look at exchanging the heads out. I'm seeing about $600 each and that means all cleaning, resurfacing, valve job, seals/guides, etc is all done for you.

Depending on how bad the scoring is, you could fix it yourself. The cam caps take most of the beating, those can be replaced. Then just smooth/polish up the head journal side and see what your cam-to-journal clearance is.... if it's within spec, it's usable. Machine shops can align-hone it too, otherwise.

But you will want to look at the buckets and everything else, to see what is scarred or burned or both... valves get pricey when they add up. it none are bent and they can be machined, that's a good thing.

The heads I looked at are from an 07 legacy. I only looked at the left it said b003 mine us a b002. The cam position sensor was on a different angle. The heads did have the variable valve timing but not being sure if they would work or not I passed them up.

http://shop.advanceautoparts.com/web...hedFrom=header

What's that ?

I already looked them up. 550 a head seems a little expensive.

So what is your plan then?