If you get a remanufactured or rebuilt engine let me add this. After putting about a 1000 miles on the new engine you should have the cylinder head bolts retorqued and the valve lash reinspected.
According to the factory et al, retorquing of the cylinder head bolts is not necessary.
In the real world it may be quite necessary. Retorquing the bolts may very well prevent any future head gasket faults.
If you go with a used engine I would recommend the same thing. Retorque the head bolts and check valve lash before installing the motor.
OK4450 you can’t retorque headbolts if they are the non reusable type, in theory anyway. But then, they are not torqued in the first place, they use that torque angle thing.
I’m in the fix-it crowd. Unfortunately, Subaru engines going all the way up to I think it was '08 (can’t remember off the top of my head) that were notorious for leaking head gaskets. My shop made a lot of money looking for them before the customer even knew their car was prone to this failure. 90% of the Subarus that came in, you could shine a light right on the seam and show the customer that it had begun, and that they should put it in their 3-6 month radar depending on funds.
We used an aftermarket gasket set from Fel-Pro that was absolutely fantastic-- never had a single comeback on them. We would have gone with a factory one but the dealer in town never stocked them and took forever to get them at twice the price.
Unfortunately you’re not in the market for head gaskets, but for another engine. Considering that it’s a Subaru with low miles on the rest of the car (they really are fantastic cars), I’m of the inclination that you should fix it because:
You got the car for free. If you had bought this car back in the day off the lot, or even used, this repair would have arisen regardless, and 4 grand to fix an otherwise good car is chump change to tossing down good money on something else and getting a payment.
It’s an '03 Subaru. These vehicles are otherwise (aside from head gaskets) almost indestructible. I can’t even BEGIN to tell you the ABUSE that I put a rental '03ish Subaru through in my military days. All of the guys in my unit thought it would be fun to REALLY see Montana on our downtime when we weren’t training, and we put EVERY claim from that Australian fellow on the commercials to the test. Needless to say, 40 miles outside of town OFF road, it performed like a champ. All small logs driven over stood testament to the excellent ground clearance.
ANY car you buy, new or used, is in the course of its life going to require several big-ticket maintenance repairs as part of its normal maintenance. Timing belt, suspension/steering, flushes (VERY important to keep up on Subarus), etc are all going to add up to MORE than 4 grand on your way to 200K if you rely upon retail establishments for maintenance. GETTING A NEW ENGINE RESETS THE CLOCK ON A GOOD DEAL OF THE MAINTENANCE YOU WERE COMING UP ON ANYWAY!
You couldn’t even BEGIN to buy a car that kickass for anywhere near 4 grand. Get a loan, do the repair, and manage a small payment for 18 months, as opposed to three times that payment for 48 months for a new(er) vehicle.
I understand the principle behind TTY and torque angle head bolts, etc, etc but the reality is that they will loosen up over time and especially so if any overheating at all is involved.
For some odd reason, Subaru heads are also prone to warpage even though logic would dictate that a cylinder head only a couple of hands wide should not warp that easily. Subaru allows .002 maximum warpage and my non-scientific estimate would be that about 75-80% of the heads I’ve inspected have exceeded that .002. Some were obscenely warped, as in .010-.015 of an inch.
I’ve done far more Subaru head gaskets than all other makes combined and not only do I retorque head bolts I also coat all head gaskets with CopperCoat. This was a Subaru recommended practice although instead of CC Subaru recommended their overpriced product, FujiBond. I’ve never had one comeback yet on any Subaru head gasket job. (Comeback being mechanic lingo for screwup.)
OK4450: Did you guys re-use the previously overheated head? We sent them out to a machine shop to check the head over completely. If everything checked out, the deck was machined to eliminate warpage. We did head gasket jobs on Subarus that had never overheated, and like you said, we found some with pretty severe warpage.
Do you think that after this “heat cycling” thermal warping is completed, and the deck machined back to flat, that eliminates the problem? We had several cars go more than 50-60K after our repair, and the leaks never returned.
I feel the $4500 is a generous number, doubt you will see the cash. Can you verify how much cash they will give you for this car? If it is close to that number, count me as a vote for take the money and move on. I just see too much potential with things going wrong on installing the engine, from electrical to other components.