Subaru Outbacks

[Rot Box]

I’m in and curious as to what’s involved.

Sweet stay tuned! We’re gonna clean the interior today it’s beyond filthy! Thinking thanksgiving break I’ll start to pull the engine.

They’re really good cars imo. The Awd design is very good compared to the competition. 4 cylinders these years had poor head gaskets (upgrade to multi-layer steel is the only way to go) so that’s a big red flag when buying used. My 03 Legacy doesn’t get great mileage it’s in the mid 20’s but it’s a fair trade off especially on snow days.

This H6 is gonna be interesting 🤨. I’ll try to make it entertaining for you guys haha.

 

[Tonkaman]

Soo…. My daughter is going to have her learners permit in a few months (wow time flies doesn’t it!) and I have been wanting to get a project to work on though out the winter.

My first car was a 1986 Subaru GL hatchback. I figure my daughter should probably have a Subaru as her first car 😁

Yesterday I found a 2004 Subaru Outback LL Bean edition—loaded with a engine knock for $800 (dude probably got the better end of that deal! Haha). Earlier in this thread years ago I rebuilt the flat 4 in my wife’s car and although it was time consuming it was not bad at all actually kinda fun looking back.

Well this one has the flat 6 and I know nothing about them other than they’re a claimed 300k mile motor if cared for—this one was not.

I guess my question is would anyone be interested in following along as I rebuild this engine? The H6 is kinda cool it uses a timing chain, it’s quad cam-ed and puts out just over 200hp. I have no idea what I’m getting into!!

I would Definitely like to follow along 👍

 

[Rot Box]

Do you guys have any tips for bringing back dry and stained leather? Drivers seat had a huge tear but I’d like to save the other seats if possible 🤔

 

[Rot Box]

Winnie approves!

 

[Rot Box]

Not the greatest pics but here she is. That’s a tight fit for the H6 just getting the spark plugs out would be a nightmare. I’ll replace those when the engine is out!

 

[TRD270]

Do you guys have any tips for bringing back dry and stained leather? Drivers seat had a huge tear but I’d like to save the other seats if possible 🤔

We used this stuff on an older leather couch we bought. Worked pretty well.

Leather Master Strong Leather Cleaning Bundle - 250ml https://a.co/d/cP7I6Z1

 

[Rot Box]

Haven’t named the car yet but she went under the knife this morning!

Pretty straight forward at this point. Remove all the intake components. Remove alternator—unbolt power steering pump and move it to the side. Unbolt AC compressor and set it to the side. By setting them to the side the engine should (will on the 4cyl anyway) pull out without loosing any power steering fluid or R134a. That said I’ll flush the power steering anyway I’m sure it’s well overdue.

Look at this air filter! I don’t understand people maybe they just don’t know any better haha.

 

[Rot Box]

I kinda wish I would have done a little more research on the H6. Most everyone on the scooby board are telling me to just go the JDM route and be done with it. There’s almost no aftermarket support for the internals of this engine and going through Subaru is going to be expensive. I dunno yet right now I’m focusing on getting the engine out and onto a stand. I’ll pull it down and see what bearing(s) let loose and weigh my options.

 

[nnnnnate]

Going the jdm route means what? Do an engine swap for a Japanese motor?

 

[Rot Box]

Going the jdm route means what? Do an engine swap for a Japanese motor?

Yep so in Japan you have to pay high tax for a motor that has “high mileage”…. High mileage is anything over 30k if I understand correctly and it gets more expensive the higher it gets. Sooo I can get a used JDM (Japanese Domestic Market) engine from an importer with 30-60k miles for somewhere around $1000-$1400 and it’s complete with all the accessories.

I could be into it $1k alone for machine work on my current engine. So I really need to pull it down and see exactly what’s going on. Might be an easy fix might be a total bust.

The car is clean enough—being a Bean it’s full loaded—it’ll be worth putting a little money into even if I go the JDM route.

 

[Tonkaman]

Good to know JDMs can still be found that cheap

 

[nnnnnate]

I guess there are adapters out there to get a jdm motor attached to your tranny then too. What is the jdm motor out of that most are swapping in?

 

[Rot Box]

I guess there are adapters out there to get a jdm motor attached to your tranny then too. What is the jdm motor out of that most are swapping in?

They’re like for like. It’ll be the same 3.0 H6 that’s in there now—well minus the rod knock hopefully 😂 There are some minor differences but overall it’ll swap right in.

 

[Rot Box]

Finally got the intake manifold off! That was a bigger job than I was expecting. Not terrible just time consuming.

Now I can get to the torque converter/flex plate bolts much easier.

With Subarus all the accessories are piled on top of the engine. The only time I have to get under the car is to unbolt the exhaust manifolds and motor mounts for the most part.

 

[Rot Box]

Bell housing bolts are out,
Motor mounts undone—the mighty H6 is ready to come out! Well except these stupid things haha. I don’t have the tool to separate the fuel line I’m hoping hobo freight is open today maybe they’ll have something that’ll work. Any other ideas for separating these? Thanks again fellas.

 

[DAA]

I saw @bryson make a tool for that out of a ball point pen on the trail once. Worked great!

- DAA

 

[Hickey]

Bell housing bolts are out,
Motor mounts undone—the mighty H6 is ready to come out! Well except these stupid things haha. I don’t have the tool to separate the fuel line I’m hoping hobo freight is open today maybe they’ll have something that’ll work. Any other ideas for separating these? Thanks again fellas.

View attachment 154368

They have the tool sets at any parts store as well.

 

[Trate D]

Subaru has a very specific one it takes. This is the Astro option… If you get really desperate I am down in Spanish fork.

 

[Rot Box]

Sweet thanks guys! My buddy had one that he let me borrow so it worked out great 😊


Engine is out. I had a hell of a time getting it to separate from the transmission. When it finally let loose the torque converter pulled out with it…. Bad—bad news on a Subaru. Rookie mistake they make a tab that holds the torque converter so this is less likely to happen but me being me I was in a hurry and thought I could do without it. Lesson learned.

So what does that mean? I dunno. Stay tuned 😂

 

[mbryson]

Connecticut has some impressive mountains