Confirm/Deny my blown head gasket suspision

[RallyLegacy]

So here is the story:

Three weeks ago I checked the oil level and it was in between low and full. A week after that I checked the oil to get ready for a rallyx, and the level didn't even register on the dipstick. I put 1 quart in to get the level in between the two marks again. Drove 45 miles to the rallyx, checked the oil again, and once again it didn't register on the dipstick. I added 1.5 quarts to get it to the full mark. I ran the rallyx, checked the oil and it was fine. Then I drove home and checked the oil a week later to find it registering way above the hot full mark. I looked at the coolant reservoir and it was low. I topped that off, and over the course of a couple of days the reservoir was once again below the empty mark and the oil still registered way above the full mark. With the exception of the rallyx and a backroads run this past weekend I have been barely driving the car since it isn't my daily (and for fear of the engine self destructing before I figure out whats wrong with it).

There are no noticeable leaks external to the engine, and the oil looks pretty black now. The coolant in the bottom of the reservoir (whats left of it) is cloudy, although I don't know how meaningful that is since all thats left is below the pickup hose. The original oil only has ~1k miles on it and it is Castrol Syntec 5w-40. I have a cold air intake with all hoses attached to it and no catch-can/air-oil separator.

I haven't seen any abnormal smoke coming out of the exhaust either. The car has 161k miles on it and has the EJ22.

I sent in a request to Blackstone to get a kit to do an OA so I can see if there is coolant in the oil, but in the meantime I would like to see if my theory is sound or not.

CN: Car drinks oil, lots of "oil" reapers a week later and coolant is low after being topped off recently. No external leaks & oil is now black after 1k miles. 161k miles on EJ22. Blown hg?

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[RallyLegacy]

bump for info

[williaty]

Subscribed to see what I'm going to be doing at work next week

[RallyLegacy]

Originally Posted by williaty

Subscribed to see what I'm going to be doing at work next week

Well if its a hg, I won't be paying anyone to do it since I can't afford it...plus I will be on winter break soon and will have a garage (parents) and time to do it if need be.

[only1agam]

does the coolant look like a chocolate milk shake?

[RallyLegacy]

Originally Posted by only1agam

does the coolant look like a chocolate milk shake?

Not as far as I can tell, although the overflow reservoir has almost completely emptied itself so I can't really tell and the coolant in the radiator looks fine.

[Charlie-III]

Bad Subaru HG's usually show up as:

Loss of heat inside the car
Low coolant level, even if you top it off
Jumpy temperature gauge

Try doing a good refil and burp on the cooling system. Ignore suggestions of checking for mixed coolant & oil or steam out of the exhaust, these almost NEVER show up in a Subaru.

[rick-l]

My oil level is radically affected by the slope the car sits on. A slope like you have to look at it a while to say it slopes to the back.

Edit: I guess not by 2 quarts.

[Legacy_H6TT]

Start by doing a compression test. 160-180psi per cylinder is normal. Anything less than 120 signals a problem. Follow that with a leak down test (your local garage can perform this as it requires special tools and a compressor). You may want to ask them to do a TeeKay check while you're there. This involves another special kit with a blue liquid and a glass tube with a rubber bowl at the top. When you put the tube in the radiator neck and squeeze the bowl, it sucks up air from the radiator through the blue liquid. If the liquid turns green its a sign of hydrocarbons in the cooling system, another indicator of a combustion leak.

Next, get a soft drink bottle and cut the bottom off. Wrap some insulation tape around the cap thread so its a snug fit inside the radiator neck on your car. This creates a good head of water for refilling and bleeding the cooling system.

Add some water to the bottle, so its about half way. Start the engine and keep adding water until it remains about halfway up the bottle and won't drink anymore and there are no more air bubbles coming out the head of water. Rev the engine at about 2500rpm, adding more water if it drops low. When the fans come on you know the thermostat is open and coolant is circulating through the radiator. This is the proper way to bleed a cooling system out (albeit with a crude but effective header bottle...)

Let the engine idle for a minute and see if there are anymore air bubbles coming out. If a fountain of water is constant that gets higher out the header bottle when you rev the engine this is a sure sign of a blown head gasket. If the engine takes the water nicely, doesn't spit it back out and you get a gentle fountain in the header bottle only when you rev the engine then this is ok.

Now get in the car and rev the engine quickly; is there a gurgling sound from behind the dashboard? If so, this is a sign of a partially blocked heater core. EJ motors rely on full flow through this core for effective cooling. Any blockage reduces the efficiency of the cooling system and can result in overheating. Many garages that replace head gaskets often overlook the heater core because they do not understand how the system works. Whenever I replace head gaskets I always tell the customer the core should be checked and replaced. This does add a significant amount to the time/cost of the repair, but in the grand scheme of things its a small part of what is already a large bill, and if its left it won't be long before they are back again with the same issue.

[Legacy_H6TT]

In addition, oil level should be checked hot, after a run, on a level surface. Most non-turbo EJ motors take 4.5 metric litres. Sorry, I don't know what the US equivalent in quarts would be (is a quart just under a litre? If so, about 5.5 quarts should be correct).

[CKxx]

Originally Posted by Charlie-III

Bad Subaru HG's usually show up as:

Loss of heat inside the car
Low coolant level, even if you top it off
Jumpy temperature gauge

Try doing a good refil and burp on the cooling system. Ignore suggestions of checking for mixed coolant & oil or steam out of the exhaust, these almost NEVER show up in a Subaru.

How about Sprite bubbles in the coolant tank?

...I've had that for 2 months w/no apparent loss of coolant, or loss of heat at idle.

I put UV dye in the coolant and will be pulling the motor soon.

[Charlie-III]

Originally Posted by CKxx

How about Sprite bubbles in the coolant tank?

...I've had that for 2 months w/no apparent loss of coolant, or loss of heat at idle.

I put UV dye in the coolant and will be pulling the motor soon.

It could be. When I say "loss of heat", I did not state at what engine speed. What happens, when a HG goes, is that combustion pressure escapes into the water jacket. This over pressurizes the cooling system driving coolant out into the overflow which gets too full and spills out.
When you shut the car down, it has air bubbles that make it worse the next heating cycle.
This also prevents the system from getting topped off from the overflow.
The heat inside tha car disappears because there is not enough coolant to heat the heater core, it's just full of hot air/steam.

With the car running & warm, you can look to see if there are little bubbles in the overflow tank. Squeezing the upper radiator hose, while the engine is running, may help show more bubbles.

[RallyLegacy]

Originally Posted by Legacy_H6TT

Start by doing a compression test. 160-180psi per cylinder is normal. Anything less than 120 signals a problem. Follow that with a leak down test (your local garage can perform this as it requires special tools and a compressor). You may want to ask them to do a TeeKay check while you're there. This involves another special kit with a blue liquid and a glass tube with a rubber bowl at the top. When you put the tube in the radiator neck and squeeze the bowl, it sucks up air from the radiator through the blue liquid. If the liquid turns green its a sign of hydrocarbons in the cooling system, another indicator of a combustion leak.

Next, get a soft drink bottle and cut the bottom off. Wrap some insulation tape around the cap thread so its a snug fit inside the radiator neck on your car. This creates a good head of water for refilling and bleeding the cooling system.

Add some water to the bottle, so its about half way. Start the engine and keep adding water until it remains about halfway up the bottle and won't drink anymore and there are no more air bubbles coming out the head of water. Rev the engine at about 2500rpm, adding more water if it drops low. When the fans come on you know the thermostat is open and coolant is circulating through the radiator. This is the proper way to bleed a cooling system out (albeit with a crude but effective header bottle...)

Let the engine idle for a minute and see if there are anymore air bubbles coming out. If a fountain of water is constant that gets higher out the header bottle when you rev the engine this is a sure sign of a blown head gasket. If the engine takes the water nicely, doesn't spit it back out and you get a gentle fountain in the header bottle only when you rev the engine then this is ok.

Now get in the car and rev the engine quickly; is there a gurgling sound from behind the dashboard? If so, this is a sign of a partially blocked heater core. EJ motors rely on full flow through this core for effective cooling. Any blockage reduces the efficiency of the cooling system and can result in overheating. Many garages that replace head gaskets often overlook the heater core because they do not understand how the system works. Whenever I replace head gaskets I always tell the customer the core should be checked and replaced. This does add a significant amount to the time/cost of the repair, but in the grand scheme of things its a small part of what is already a large bill, and if its left it won't be long before they are back again with the same issue.

Are you sure that an NA EJ22 should only be 160-180psi in a compression test? I got mine tested about 6 months ago and each cylinder was ~210psi. I will definitely try to do that test you talked about to see what happens. Thanks for the info!

Originally Posted by Charlie-III

It could be. When I say "loss of heat", I did not state at what engine speed. What happens, when a HG goes, is that combustion pressure escapes into the water jacket. This over pressurizes the cooling system driving coolant out into the overflow which gets too full and spills out.
When you shut the car down, it has air bubbles that make it worse the next heating cycle.
This also prevents the system from getting topped off from the overflow.
The heat inside tha car disappears because there is not enough coolant to heat the heater core, it's just full of hot air/steam.

With the car running & warm, you can look to see if there are little bubbles in the overflow tank. Squeezing the upper radiator hose, while the engine is running, may help show more bubbles.

My heater doesn't work very well until the engine is really warmed up, although that happened last winter as well and I think is due to my lower temp thermostat (160F I think). I will check for bubbles once I top off the overflow reservoir to see if I can see any. Thanks for the info as well.