2006 Legacy GT Head Gasket

I'm working with Ubersport Performance on my 06 LGT Wagon. They're a good bunch and long story short one of the owners mentioned I will need to have my head gaskets done in the short term. Well about a week after that i'm throwing a P2097 code. Spark Plugs and Radiator recently done along with a new Cat. Just want to see if anyone has had this work done if this could be a symptom and time for me to pull the trigger on an expensive repair. They mentioned that because the gasket is bad my O2 sensor could be getting sprayed with coolant causing it to malfunction.

 

Other symptoms include a rough idle, smelly exhaust, poor MPG and coolant appears to be leaking from freshly changed radiator hoses and laggy performance.

 

Thanks for any advice.

coolant leaking after a fresh change speaks of take it back. perhaps they didn't burp it right?

get a leak down check as well as compression check.

GT's are not known to have HG issues like the 2.5i's do.

 

Do what boxkita recommended. plus may be a pressure test of the coolant system.

okay keeping that in mind. It seems like previous owner has been trying to chase down the true issue for a few years. When I say recently- new Cat and new Radiator/hoses were done a little over a year ago, along with plugs etc. I'll have compression check/leak down done before anything major

Alright so compression test ordered- Shop has told me after 1st cylinder showed we need a rebuild. Compression was 130PSI? being told this motor should be closer to 200 by the shop? I'm not well versed in this level of the mechanics. Long story short they want to put an STI short block in and machine out the head.. roughly $6K, not really sure if I have any other options here. I've attached what the invoice would be for reference if anyone has any tips or follow up questions I can try to ask to see if I can get a better understanding i'll appreciate it.

Erik.pdf

Edited July 2, 2020 by TorqueLegend

I think 165psi is what the manual say's.

 

http://people.csail.mit.edu/ilh/vacation/

 

You can check in there.

 

130 is not bad, if the others are all in the same area. we need to know all 4 cylinder #'s.

 

You can look through my click here link in my sig to see what's involved.

 

I did the ej257 and gasket set for the year car.

Edited July 2, 2020 by Max Capacity

I think it sounds like you might need to find another shop. 130psi isn’t all that bad and depending on your altitude could even be good. Higher altitude usually yields lower compression tests. What are the other cylinders at? They should all be within 10% of each other.

 

Edit: didn’t notice you lived in ca but still.

Edited July 3, 2020 by blackobxt
Fixed info

Also the thing needs a leak down test.

well i picked the car up. They didn't do a leak down or a full compression test, only driver side which both came out at 130. will update once I've had a chance to retest and have the leak down done as well.

Something I don't see addressed. P2097 is an o2 sensor. If you're o2 sensor is blown you'd have everything described above except a coolant leak.

 

If they tested just the driver side, so cylinder 2 and 4, with them being the same that sounds like good news since cylinder 4 tends to be a problem. None of what you've described makes me think you'd need head gaskets or a block replacement. And if you're getting low, but even compression numbers, I wouldn't rush to drop 6k in the car unless you're itching for a rebuild.

 

What did you take the car in for in the first place? The cel code? Running poorly? Something else?

 

 

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I for whatever reason thought they replaced the o2 but after reading the thread again I realized they just told you that a bad headgasket was throwing o2 codes. What I don’t like is how they seem so quick to tell you it needs expensive repairs with no evidence as to why. These cars very rarely have headgasket issues and when they do it always seems to be the typical combustion into coolant, this can be diagnosed with a leak down test. Leaking coolant out of the motor is almost always a bad hose or a relatively easy to replace seal or gasket. Then they compression test one cylinder (which imo wasn’t that bad) and say “yep this motors bad it’s going to cost $6,000 to fix your $6,000 car”. Again they didn’t provide any reason why besides “its 130psi these motors are supposed to be 200” which is not correct. 130 isn’t new motor compression but also isn’t worn out needs a new motor bad either. What’s more important is that all four cylinders are within 10% of eachother.