Subaru H6 EZ30 conversion

[Smiffo]

Pure guesswork on my part here - but perhaps doing it when warm allows for expansion of metal components?

[Shaundon]

yeah should do - but not sure how much difference it makes
kinda guessing at the moment it's ok

was too difficult to get at spark plugs when engine was in car and too difficult to start on bench now to heat up as no exhasut / radiator even if i did rewire up all the ecu etc.

anyone know if looking at those figures I should be worried?

[Shaundon]

Well my lack of mechanical knowledge is starting to show -

the rjes bellhousing kit and input shaft all look easy enough to assemble if the engine was 100% ok but the oil leak has got me worried (hence the compression tests). Ive decided to get a better look at them so i have to get it on an engine stand so i can rotate it through 360 degrees. However i've never mounted an engine on an engine stand before and these four bellhousing bolts do not look enough to hold it up to my untrained eye....



I have seen images of other people mounting them like this though so i guess i just have to trust its gonna work.

Fingers crossed....

[Shaundon]

gallows have been built...

[Shaundon]

and its on



one of those jobs that is quite scary the first time you do it - feeling happier now
will get some pics of the oil leaks and see what the experts think

[Shaundon]

ok - load of pictures of oil leaks

https://www.dropbox.com/sc/pspjimhzutbc ... Dga4KwtPOa

front cover is leaking quiet bad - cam covers are leaking too by the look of things

its not looking good

am hoping i can get away with not doing the head gaskets but unsure if thats foolish looking at this. Can someone give me some advice?

S.

[silverbullet]

Dont worry about the engine stand or the bolts. I have had an all-iron 3.5 litre pushrod straight six on a Draper stand, all held up by four 5/16 BSF bolts (~8mm)
Thats over 200kg...

[silverbullet]

PS you can't compare compression with a 4-pot EJ if the compression ratios and valve timing aren't the same.
Testing it hot means better ring sealing and a slower rate of leak-down.
Why not check the mot history of the car and see what's on its record?

[Shaundon]

checked the mot history - all good , nothing more than the odd tyre/bulb replacement etc.

its got 105K miles on the clock (year 2002) which looks genuine from the mot history
and was running nice when i bought it.

but the oil leaks have got me worried - is this normal for this age of engine?

i'll seal up the cam covers with a new gasket and the front cover looks to just use a liquid sealant .

I guess i should check valve clearances when in there too

[Shaundon]

so decided to reseal all the covers

Well getting that front cover off was a job and a half

first the crank bolt wouldnt budge and any force spun the crank backwards ( i guess youd expect that) . had to fashion a plate on the back to hold it to the block


even then it required some force to get it off


the plate only just held


then there was all those bolts!


got a bit gung ho half way round and nearly rounded one off so slowed down and used a bit of wire as a mini wire brush to clean out the heads first


even then prising the front cover off the dowels and sealant was really hard to do without damaging it, eventually jumped off after lotsa carefull effort

The chains , guides and tensioners all look good inside and rotated it through a couple of rotations to make sure all as should be. Very nice bit of engineering these engines


cam covers come off easy by comparison


got some new gaskets on order - although perhaps better just with rtv silicone?
guess i need to check the valve gaps first though.

cleaned up the mess round the oil cooler




and found a suspect looking oil pressure switch in the process



wonder if this was leaking and causing all that mess

anyway all clean now so i can see where any future leak is coming from



in all that i haven't seen any evidence of leaking coolant so i think im gonna assume the heads are ok for now.

[Dazco]

You're doing a great job on this, watching with interest. I drove my doner legacy home at the weekend, looking forward to starting the change over.

[Shaundon]

you going ez30 H6 as well?

one thing i didnt factor in when deciding on this engine is the cost of spares - they are quiet rare in this country and as a result there isn't much in the way of aftermarket spares and so its subaru dealer for almost everything. As a result its expensive.

i did consider replacing all the timing chains and tensioners etc when in there until i saw the price!
http://www.importcarparts.co.uk/parts-i ... earchPart=

[Shaundon]

Valve clearances

just done the left bank (looking at engine from timing chain end) and all are in tolerance bar 1 (very last one i measured and hardest to get at!)

exhaust valve nearest the timing chain end is between 0.15 and 0.2 mm, should be 0.25mm +- 0.05mm or between 0.2 and 0.3mm


interestingly i would have assumed (and i'm a novice when it comes to valve clearances) that wear would have meant the gap got bigger not smaller!?

also subaru uses a special tool to replace the shims , can this be done without it?

[Aidan]

I think on the quad cam scoobies it's cam shaft out if you haven't got the tool, which means chains off for you; on the 2.5 quad cam belt removal is frought with potential for f up - mine had so suffered and had a couple of bent valves so ended up changing the heads
do you have the big very fine metric/imperial feeler gauge set or just the basic metric set ? with the finer set it's possible to feel the 0.01mm differences and the condition of the lobe on the cam does affect the readings a little if it's more like 0.19 then I wouldn't worry too much - you ran the engine in the car didn't you, unless it was tappety sounding ?
the gap reduces because the springs are pulling valves up tight against the wearing seat so tip of valve stem pushes bucket and shim towards cam

[Shaundon]

just the metric so not sure how close to 0.2 it is , 1.5 goes through ok

chains off is a pain , why dont they drill a little hole (during manufacture ) to stick a pin in to hold the bucket down and make changing shims easy?

then again i guess they cant charge $500 for a simple tool if they did that

there is this option but im not sure it would work?
http://www.lasertools.co.uk/product/4422