club.liberty.asn.au

This weekend we have enjoyed removing the engine from Junior's MY09 2.5i wagon.

Sadly after less than 115,000kms the engine is out to service what are arguably Subaru's inferior head gaskets in the EJ25 NA engines.
http://imgur.com/a/7bwXM

Up to and including the Gen4 Subaru continued with a single layer coated head gasket, The coating on the gasket brakes down and external oil leaks are usually the first sign the head gasket "cancer" has started.
Our local garage man has decided that a road worthy was not going to be given with the external oil leak.

The last photos in the series show the head gasket removed today and show the coating on the gasket breaking down, coming off and the bright base shim commencing to show through.
In our case, the oil was leaking directly onto the (hot) exhaust, so I guess Mr Garage Man is justified in his opinion?

We installed the Multi Layered Shim (MLS) head gasket from the 2.5T STI engine which is one of the recommended PERMANENT fix from the USA based Subaru forums.

According to the USA forums, Subaru finally introduced these MLS head gaskets on the GEN5 2.5i engines
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZbPlHnistA
In this video you may also see the "standard" head gaskets with deteriorating coating and a candid opinion from Justin Stobb regarding Subaru's head gaskets.

If you own a Gen4 or earlier EJ25 NA vehicle, it is not a case of "IF" you will experience oil leak failure head gasket, it is a case of "WHEN" it will be experienced.
If you have a Gen5, then these vehicles are reported to have the better MLS gasket fitted.

can join to this.
done 2 head gasket replacements, one on a gen 3 outback with 230k kms, and my daily liberty at 210k kms.
not a tough job to do, just time consuming, just motor out, machined heads and back in with some MLS gaskets.
from memory subaru also created radiator conditioner with stop leak to also help endure the problem, there was also a recall in USA, but not in aus... stupid subaru aus

BillyCorgi wrote:We installed the Multi Layered Shim (MLS) head gasket from the 2.5T STI engine which is one of the recommended PERMANENT fix from the USA based Subaru forums.

If you own a Gen4 or earlier EJ25 NA vehicle, it is not a case of "IF" you will experience oil leak failure head gasket, it is a case of "WHEN" it will be experienced.
If you have a Gen5, then these vehicles are reported to have the better MLS gasket fitted.

Good advice - just to clarify though, there's no special STi gaskets - The EJ20/25 MLS turbo gaskets are the same for the STi as they are for the other cars in the range.

I've got a set of OEM MLS gaskets waiting to go on to my EJ207.

HardwareBoB wrote:- just to clarify though, there's no special STi gaskets -

Correct.
The 11044AA642 head gaskets were first used on the 2.5 litre STI engines at a time when WRXs and Liberty Turbos were still running 2.0 litre engines.
As a fix for the issues with the degenerating head gaskets of the Phase 2 EJ25 NA engines, they were referred to as the "STI head gaskets".
Sorry for any confusion that may have been caused by importing a terminology used in the Americas.
Cheers!

EDIT:
By the way, there are three (3) types of MLS head gaskets used on the 2.5Litre Turbo engines.
They evolve through from the original STI engines through to the present day.
there are
11044AA642; the first 2.5T used on STI engines
11044AA670; the first non-sodium filled valve heads with improved cooling
11044AA770; the present day improved cooling heads.

642 are a perfect silhouette of the up-to-Gen4 EJ25 NA engines
770 fit the semi closed deck Gen5 EJ25 NA engines.
670? would not line up with the cooling ports in the heads of an up-to-Gen4 EJ25 NA engine.

Peter, very informative and helpful as always.

Yep, very helpful.
About to do this on the wife's MY02 RX.


Looking at the pics, how was the head-bolt tension when you pulled it apart?

RX25SE wrote:Looking at the pics, how was the head-bolt tension when you pulled it apart?

They are "tight as" to break torque and loosen.
Here is a link to when I first did No.1 Junior's MY02 Outback a couple of years ago.
http://www.subaruforester.org/vbulletin ... nd-130417/

You need a very good quality 14mm 12Point socket to get the head bolts loose and use a long breaker bar.
I have a set of 3/8inch drive 12 point sockets that I use for the head bolts and for the crankcase clamping bolts.
A 1/2 drive socket is reluctant to get into the internals of the block.

If you have any questions about doing the head gaskets, send me a PM.
Cheers!

Thanks for the links here Peter.
When the time does come to replace my head gasket, what sort of money would a garage charge?

markzec wrote:what sort of money would a garage charge?

I really do not know.
I would expect (maybe) eight to ten hour labour for head gaskets and reassemble.
A lot of money was saved purchasing the parts and components when they were cheap and available, for example we bought the things knowing we would need them.....
we bought the genuine Subaru MLS 2.5T head gaskets when they popped up on ebay when someone was selling them cheap
we bought the full timing belt/idler/water pump kit of a vendor from ebay when they were at a low price.
the clutch came at a good price purchased through Northern Brake & Clutch - Melbourne. (ordered at 9.00am and delivered out of Excedy Sydney by lunchtime)

If you supply the parts to the workshop, you should be able to save money.

I had a quote done in canberra for just headgasket and it was $1800.

I imagine if you do the clutch at the same time and the timing belt youd only need to pay for the extra parts since It wouldn't requite much work to fit them while doing the head gaskets.

Hi Surge,

Can I ask where you got a quote for $1800 in Canberra for head gasket?

You can PM if you like?

Thanks so much

You could try researching Techworkz, I believe they have a good reputation. My car was serviced there by the previous owner and he was happy with them.

Did you happen to notice the previous post was over 5 years old?

My quote was in fact from Techworkz (for my 09 2.5i), not sure what their pricing is like these days but they were a friendly repair shop.

Though in the past 5 years my skills have improved and I have successfully replaced headgaskets in my current gen V GT myself (took the heads to mitchell engine rebuilders for machining). Upgraded cams at the same time.