Radiator end tank exploded about 2 months ago and it overheated. It then blew the head gasket a month after that, likely cause by the radiator failure. Yanked it all apart in one weekend, putting it back together this weekend. All new top end gaskets. For 230k miles the inside of this engine is spotless.
Except O’Reilly gave us a head bolt kit that only had 7 out of 10 bolts…
HOLY FUCK IT’S SO SHINY I’ve got an 01 Forester EJ251 that I just did gaskets on. It was a lot of brakleen and a lot of cussing lol
Yeah. Having a professional machine shop deck your head and hot tank it makes reassembly so, so much easier. No more smearing grease everywhere. And guaranteed head gasket seal.
I can smell this comment
Beautiful, my parent’s 2001 is still kicking too at probably somewhere around 190k. Still a fan of how much vertical interior space there is. Pull out the seats or tumble them forward and bam! Midsize crossover interior space!
(maybe not actually but for its relatively tiny footprint, yea!)
Oh yeah, it’s a fantastic little car. Driving it around almost makes me want one, although I have no need of another AWD compact suv.
