it was a guarantee. sucks, but inevitable in the suby world :shifty
Well we didn’t spend much, yet. My parents are deciding if they want to swap engines (and give his guy $400 to do it), or tackle the cylinder head swap ourself (more tedious/more work). We’ll see…
Swap engine out for a running core…you’ll likely find more damage than just bent valves in there(aka piston and sleeve damage)
what year is the car? depending on age/ mileage on chassis it might just be more cost efficient over time to just get a new car. you know, something NOT a subaru 
It’s a 2002 Legacy L with like 105kmi. My brother-in-law is a car dealer and has found a couple that will be going on auctions for dirt cheap, so we’ll see. One way or another, it’s going to get fixed.
No one other than me in this thread knows how to use the starter to break a crank bolt loose:ponder
I tried that once…
Lets just say it dident go good for me and i never tried it again
My dad actually did that after we had to take it apart again. That’s probably how we’ll do it from now on.
Works fantastic, only way to do it.
It worked great… I’d do it if i had to but an impact gun works just fine…
But My hand became a causualty the wrench slipped off what it was pressing against and bashed my hand
I would never use a wrench to hold the crank bolt if I use the starter, I mean seriously? Breaker bar with a pipe would be enough to hold it by hand if you use the starter to break the bolt free.
Negative on breaker bar and pipe. We couldn’t break it lose doing it ‘by hand’. I actually pulled half the muscles in my back giving it my all, without success. They still hurt.
My dad rested the breaker bar against the frame of the car, used the starter, and it broke lose right away.
That’s what I mean.
I used a 3 ft long torque wrench :thumbup
did not feel good when it hit my hand
but it did break the bolt loose :lol
Steve cmon. I know im not master mechanic but you should know im not going to use some dinky little wrench on something like that
your not?!?!:ahh
FUUU Jon :lol
Just a little update.
Car is in Philly because my brother in-law is doing the engine rebuild (has a guy that does it for him).
All the valves were shot, pistons were okay, and I guess the crankshaft itself was ‘melted’ (according to my dad, maybe he didn’t explain it good?).
So let me get this strait…
You are telling me that you used a torque wrench to break a fastener (esp one that is that tight) free?
An old torque wrench yes… As far as I know its not differnt then a ratchet other than it is designed to click at a certain torque spec…
I use an old one to break bolts loose all the time because its big and heavy and allows lots of leverage
Yeah what’s wrong with that?