On Saturday Spotty and I got stuck into reassembling the Subaru H6 engine after having the heads skimmed. Considering that Subaru's engine problems are centred mostly around blown head gaskets, we cleaned the gasket faces on the block with a razor scraper, emery paper, a green 3M scouring pad, and lots of brake cleaner. It was good to see that the bores all looked good with the hone marks still visible.
Subaru H6 Saturday 4 November 2023 by
Terry Prendergast, on Flickr
Subaru H6 Saturday 4 November 2023 2 by
Terry Prendergast, on Flickr
The engine stand is a beaut, made it very easy to turn the engine one way or the other to install either head. We watched several Youtube video's and googled the factory manual for the torque procedure, which is kind of weird, but as long as the heads don't leak for another 120,000 miles or so, it doesn't matter. I sprayed the new MLS gaskets with some copper spray first up so they were dry by the time we installed the heads, I don't really think it was necessary, just like I don't think the new stretch bolts were all that necessary either, but I really don't want to do this job again, so I figured it wouldn't hurt.
Tomorrow we'll continue, installing the cams, new water pump, various gaskets and O rings, the two cam chains, oil pump, and all the other gubbins required to make it run again, then install the cam chain cover and it's 59(!) screws, before we shove it back into the car. It'll be nice to get the car back on the road, and reliable again.
Subaru H6 Saturday 4 November 2023 3 by
Terry Prendergast, on Flickr