I liked the 3.6 H6 that I had. Decent power and torque, and very smooth. That engine looks like it spent about 3 years at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico before this video was recorded.
- That's not how the buckets work. The oil pressure *locks* the outer part to the inner part, the inner part is directly linked to the valve. - You missed the 'thats actually a Porsche part' marker on the back of the buckets. - The engine was probably overheating due to a clogged heater core, and yes, citric acid would have cleaned it... those bolts were yikes though. - EZs do not have offset crank pins. The EZ36 has offset *rods*, the EZ30 does not. - To make those hex bolts on the front cover play nice, use a short breaker bar, and strike it with the back of a hammer to seat it before trying to move it. Makes for much less of a battle. - Fuel rails and fuel lines go with the manifold, but I guess you figured that out as you took it off. - You remove the wrist pins, but leave the pistons in the block until you have the block split normally, less painful that way. Otherwise, pretty accurate.
So the inner part of the bucket pops up due to contact with the valve stem when tightened down? How exactly does oil pressure lock them together internally, it fills it up with oil and then ...
@@speedkar99 the inner part does not pop up. It is solid. There is an internal pin the oil pressure pushes into place that locks the outside to the centre part when high lift is commanded. Take one of the buckets apart to see if you want. Just beware, the spring inside is fairly powerful. It is the Porsche Variocam II system, not like it, it is it. There's some videos out there on its operation.
This engine is probably the most reliable one in Subaru family....still breaks but far less than the notorious 4 banger with blown head gasket or the cracked ringlands
what are you talking about, I have a boxer 4 2.0 with 430,000, never taken apart and never had any major problems, and I have this exact engine with 335,000, the same problem was the radiator cap. and the head gasket applies only to the 2.5 first generation EJ engine. look at mrsubaru's channel on yt about that topic and don't listen to forums and all kinds of mechanics
Aside from the head gasket problems which have been long since fixed, Subarus are quite reliable. The reason people think otherwise is because of either lack of maintenance by most drivers on the road and the young kids that drive the snot out of the engines. Between this there is a lot of failures... We have Subie's in the family and all are high milers with 0 problems.
@@enemyspotted2467 Similar experiences with ours... The only one that was a problem was my aunt and she didn't check the oil. As it got up in miles it used a bit of oil and it ran low and she seized the engine but it had almost 300K KM (187K Miles)
And youtubers, honestly 99% of the youtube comments are the same clowns who don't know anything about cars at all going in the comments "but but headgaskets". They have no idea that issue was USA only. F*** fast and furious created some dickheads.
Lots of good internal parts that can be sold. The corrosion level means zero preventative maintenance was done. I have an H6 in a 2017 Outback. Great little engine. Runs like a top. I do all scheduled maintenance items.
I think this and the other 4 cyl Subaru boxer engines have a decent long life provided one follows the service procedure, uses a good quality lubricant, coolant and stick to the service interval. This plus allow the engine to warm up on cold days and a gentle driving habit would give these engines a very long and trouble free life.
@@speedkar99 and even then, its a limited run of one engine, exacerbated by poor maintenance. I do think it fair to say that Subarus are... less tolerant of lax/poor maintenance than a toyota or a honda.
@@themadmallard subarus have had that thing for decades and no macig coolant going to fix bad engine block and head design and yes i have subaru too but no need to hide the fact that they have build decent ammount of time bombs.
@@themadmallard Limited run? It was literally all EJ25 naturally aspirated engines meaning 1996 to 2012 lol. They improved a bit over the years but they never truly fixed the problem. The FA/FB 4 cylinder engines do not have this problem.
I've seen this scale build up before, where someone had a worn out radiator cap, and kept refilling with tap water. The the calcium from the hard water clog the water passages and radiator, exacerbating the cooling problem. Oh wait, that was my ignorant teenage self! Very fascinating video. The engineering that goes into today's cars is utterly amazing. It does though make me appreciative of the simplicity of the old 4-cylinder Mazda / Ford engines.
theres something about these motors. I had an outback with a EZ30 motor was a trooper. Overheating all the time, Valve covers shaking off. Head gaskets going, timing chain guides went. It was limping hard. Still ran for about 50k miles like that until I scrapped the whole car. I miss it and I thank it for being a reliable car when I needed it the most
Interesting to finally see inside one of these. One thing to note is that that lower profile center cam lobe on the intake cam is actually the one that is used most of the time. One of the two center cams has less lift than the other to increase turbulence and improve mixing of the air and fuel at low rpms for better low end torque and fuel economy. Then at high rpms the bucket will collapse to allow both intake valves to follow the higher lift cams for more air flow and thus more power. It's definitely an interesting design.
@@speedkar99I would assume it has oil pressure by default which engages the plunger on the smaller cam profile. On power demand the “VTEC” closes the oil supply, the spring pushes the plunger flush to engage on the outer profile camshaft lobes for more power. Just a guess though.
@@speedkar99 Yeah, like the other guy said, I'm pretty sure there's a spring holding it in the collapsed position and oil pressure extends the center part of the bucket follower below a certain rpm threshold. Above that rpm the oil pressure is removed and the valves follow the high lift profile.
Ain't it the other way round? The more "pointy" cam is, the shorter the time of valve being fully open. It'll open more/higher, but for shorter amount of time. But the better air mixing between 2 unequaly opened valves during low rpms sounds convincing. Another "but" - during startup, there's no oil pressure for some time (neglectable?) and cams for high rpms are used then? I can't find a good source of info on the actual behavior in Subaru ;( Another related topic - how to measure valve clearance? Use just the outer cams? //edit Got a reply from an engine repair shop - they say that valve clearance is measured using the external lobes and those are the ones used during low rpms.
Indeed, utilizing con rod journals for cylinder walls lubrication is the age-old method from Subaru. The top two holes are used to lubricate the wrist pin when the oil control ring scrapes the oil back into the bottom of the piston.
Correct - oil mist exiting the rod bearings provides piston lubrication - Hyundai Alpha is another example - holes or jets are more common nowadays though for added cooling
@@speedkar99 Roger Clark Motorsport has their close deck EJ20/EJ22 equipped with oil jets. Historically speaking, Subaru doesn't have a bad history with cylinder walls wear. Subaru not going that route can mean a lot of things. But the #1 reason I can think of is not to rob the already inadequate Subaru engine oil pressure of more oil; using oil oil jets might work better than just shooting oil off the con rods, but the oil jets might take away some oil pressure else where. So I assume Subaru has thought about it. But I will say, having oil jets can def help with reducing pistons' surface temperature. And Subaru can use that.
@@speedkar99 Not necessarily - jets provide a directed stream at the piston bottom as opposed to a wide spray - they often use a checkball to only activate once a threshold oil pressure is reached at higher rpm - some misting will always occur also - too much oiling of the piston/cylinder area can cause more oil consumption, so it's a trade-off
The intake and exhaust side of things are easier than a lot of cars. Alternator, A/C and starter motor also very easy to do. Honestly these are easily 300,000km + engines (aside from oil leaks and sometimes headgasket problems ha ha)
@@2strokeFOReverwell a i4 isn’t really a fair comparison. But to be fair not many v6 fwd transversely mounted engines are exactly fun to work on , even a Toyota rav 4. I’m not a subru fan or anything
06 Tribeca..overheating ....blown head gasket...pulled it,went through everything but rod bearings and mains...still going strong ......but MAN, that was tough.....
Wow this engine seems a lot better than I expected. Mostly because of the lack of head gasket issues. Didn't know they had an implementation of VVL either! Never seen coolant corrosion like that before. Thanks for the teardown!
The video title should really say that it's an EZ30. Subaru have done quite a few sixes over the years - ER27, EG33 as well as EZ30 / EZ36 (and the EZ30/36 are different enough that they really should almost be considered different generations) Oh and for the M5 hex nuts, get an impact driver. Not the electric ones - the manual ones you tension and then hit with a hammer.
@@speedkar99 it helps more than you think, I used to disassemble alternators and starter motors that had screws that were stuck fast. Impact driver, torque it and whack it with the hammer, worked like a charm no matter how rusty the head was. It stops the tool camming out.
@speedkar99 i can concur with the impact, they magically just work with these bolts. I got almost all 59 of them off of my mark 1 ez30d in the rust belt just using the impact, and i think i used vice grips for 2 of them
Excellent presentation! There's not enough EZ30 content. I, too, have the EZ30 in my Tribeca. Technically, what we have is known as the EZ30 Phase II aka "R" engine. You can tell because it has AVCS and the plastic intake. The first varient of the engine was simply called the EZ30. The engine offers reasonable torque and is quite capable in snow and mud (assuming decent tires, of course). Where 4x4 trucks get stuck, the EZ gets me through confidently. Maintaining the oil and coolant is very important with these (any Subaru, really). They are very picky. I've had to replace the timing set due to the tensioners failing. I also lost all my oil through the rocker cover gaskets, resulting in a knock. I have about 10k of work into it already in the three years I've owned it. People keep telling me to buy something different or get another car. However, there is just something about this engine that I like. The cargo space in the Tribeca is also nice for my many random adventures. All around a great engine -when maintained properly. The only real downside IMO is finding parts, and needing any work done at a shop or the dealership. That enormous 2-piece timing cover adds to the expense as well. There's something like 109 different fasteners on there. There's also a shortage of people who know their way around this particular engine. The guys at the dealership hadn't ever seen an EZ30, or a Tribeca!
a lot of similarities to horizontally opposed piston engines used in aircraft, this was sick. one interesting and huge difference, most aircraft engines would just have one camshaft for all of the cylinders intake and exhaust, 12 lobes in a 6 cyl example. Its inside the crankcase, above the crankshaft, and has long push rods to rocker arms, to valves. 1 exh, 1 int valve per cyl, and 2 spark plugs per cyl
i have a 05' 3.0R Outback sedan and im in love, it passed 100k miles about 160k km . the sound is INSANE, especially with the cat back exhaust it has. i simply wish the electrics were better as so many things start to fail as it nears 20 years old its running lean and has a cam timing issue. ill be sure to avoid that stop leak, and hopefully when i get major work done it doesnt need to be broken when opened.
I had a timing issue occur that was a PIA to narrow down. Long story short, have the shop verify the connections and signal from the ecu to the injectors, and hopefully they don't need to open to timing cover.. It'll be at least 3k if they have to go in there. I had a tensioner go out, which made the timing jump a tooth or two, AND the solder on the ECU cracked around the same time, resulting in bad compression and almost random misfire. It took a month of troubleshooting to repair. The dealership couldn't solve it.
@@shalopez420 I have that camshaft over advanced error so I’m hoping it’s just a bad VVT solenoid and not that, right now she’s got a huge misfire that’s fairly random. I need to check the plugs to make sure it may just be an electrical issue but they are a pain to reach and I haven’t had the energy to work on it, at least it runs better above idle so I can wait to take it to a shop soon.
The best tool I used for cracking stubborn bolts is the impact screwdriver (the one that you need to hit with a hammer). Also, when loosening these bolts you may retighten them before moving to the next one, this lessens the tension on the next bolt for thick parts (wouldn't worry about it on a stamped oil pan). Curios thing (I checked) is the head gasket, it had only tiny passages for coolant except for two large ones on the side (completely blocking off most of the coolant passages in the head) I wonder why Subaru did this. The Subaru SVX (EG33 H6 engine) had a gasket with lots of openings. I guess they knew what they are doing, but it surely smells like some cylinders running hotter than others by design.
The small coolant openings on the HG is an EZ specific thing, they have to have had a reason, but I'll admit the first time I saw it I was confused as hell. That said, the EZ is designed to run hotter than an EJ, I guess we can blame its German origins. (It has no commonality with the EG, which is an EJ with two extra holes)
Yeah an impact driver may have helped. It was hectic hammering sockets onto them to get it out. At one point my neighbor came out and cursed at the racket lol
Great video as always! Bought 05 Ram 5.7, 115 k miles replaced all fluids as no maintenance history with truck. Car Fax vague on history. Noticed white sugar coating where old existing radiator fluid had splashed. Being summer, kept running/flush distilled water through engine/radiator for two months. Replaced radiator cap, new 50/50 antifreeze. 2 days later saw Ram had taken a leak on the garage floor. Traced leak to water pump. Seems instead of flat gasket, water pump now has machined groove using o-ring which seems about 2/32" in diameter (real smart on dissimilar aluminium metals). Garage now cold so I unfortunately had to put back in a half of bottle of stop leak. No more pissing coolant on floor but now have stop leak remorse 🙄. When sunshine prevails once again will change, radiator, H2O pump (steel impeller), hoses (had job planned but that old hag (wallet) said no way Gramp's). Also went through crank, O2 sensor hell, replaced all, fingers crossed on cam sensors. Trunk now runs very well pushing 15.5 mpg from 11. "In my case" just flushing with distilled water every two weeks seemed to stop the sugar coating. Who knows. Was told some manufacturers putting stop leak in brand spanking new factory cars. We your viewers, have learned much from your time and effort. Been trying some of the Mrs recipes, must be a challenge coming back to a tear down after her dinners. Thank you Bro! Happy Holidays to your whole family however they may be observed .
I love my H6 engine it’s in a 2005 legacy it’s so smooth whenever I have a passenger they tell me how smooth the car is with the opposing cylinders making the engine so smooth like had to get a new engine because of a head gasket couldn’t find anybody to do the gasket but got a engine swap was worth it
I believe at 23:38, that's not actually how the valve lift system works but instead, under "low lift" condition, the outer part of the cap travels down freely as relation to the movement of the valve whereas only the center part actuates the valve, hence you see the center part protudes upward. And when in "high lift" the two parts are locked together and the valve will be pushed down further. The two sides of oil pressure acts as engage and disengage pressure to push small piston/pin inside the cap, to 'locks' and 'unlocks' the a outer part to the center part(similar to the pistons in a VTEC rocker arm).
I DID watch it to the bitter end.😂 I was wondering too how it could have been cleaned. Great point CLR!!! I wonder also! Not a big fan of direct injection here. I wonder if "Guaranteed to Pass Emissions" would clean those piston heads.👍
All EZ30 and EZ36 motors have forged cranks. My 2011 Outback 3.6R with the 5EAT is still running great at 172k miles. But I followed the severe service schedule for all maintenance.
@@speedkar99 Trans is solid. I have been doing 3qt-3.5qt drain/fills every 15k miles. Full fluid replacement (just using buckets via the cooler lines) every 60k miles, on top of the drain and fills. The 5EAT is made by JATCO and, apparently, was also used in the first gen Nissan Titan. The way Subaru has calibrated the clutches, the 5EAT is very sensitive to fluid cleanliness. It **loves** clean fluid. I always used Idemitsu ATF-HP, Subaru ATF-HP, with some Lubegard Platinum at about half the treat rate.
Can't remember if I already commented this out, pardon me if I did.. Nevertheless, it would be fascinating to see one of these type of videos, in detail engine analysis / breakdowns, resurrected. I'm assuming most of them are just dead and it's impossible to 'fix' them or bring them back to life, but maybe some single digit percentage can be hah(couple of projects per year). I'm still blown away how much you know about the engines and how nicely you are commenting along the way. 🙂 Cheers
Thanks! I learn just as you do while doing these teardowns. It sure is interesting to see the different takes manufacturers take especially when it comes to engines.
I think the piston spritzers you were looking for are the piston coolers that are used on high output and especially turbocharged engines. Otherwise cylinders are just lubricated by the outwash from the rod bearings and the oil mist that fills the crankcase area when the engine is running.
All that crust buildup on the water pump where it O-ring seals into the inner cover/block is what caused the overheating I'm sure. That's what killed my first one, though mine was a lot crustier. Looked like it had never seen a coolant flush. I was on a road trip when it started overheating. Coolant was coming out of the weep hole in the cover. By the time I was able to limp it (stopping every so often to let it cool/refill with water) to a safe place, the head gasket had already made it's sacrifice.
Amazing how much this motor has in common with the water-cooled flat six Porsche engines. Even the dual lobe intake lifters look identical to the M96 3.6L. That lower sump / cooling girdle is interesting. I'm guessing you could you have split the case without removing the wrist pins?
My 2013 Subaru Tribeca with the 3.6 liter H6 engine with about 70,000 miles with most of the miles accumulated in short trip driving (severe driving conditions). The motor oil gets changed once a year with about 5,000 to 8,000 miles with 5W-30 100% synthetic Amsoil Signature Series Motor Oil (a synthetic combination of a PAO Class IV and an Ester Class V); my transmission and power steering has the 100% synthetic Amsoil ATF fluid (changed around 40,000 miles); my two differentials have the 100% synthetic 75W-90 Amsoil Gear Lube (changed around 40,000 miles); my brake lines and master brake cylinder are filled with synthetic Amsoil Brake Fluid (changed every 30,000 miles); and finally my radiator is filled with Amsoil Antifreeze & Coolant (changed around 45,000 miles), making my vehicle running like a top (without enduring any repairs, other than maintenance)! After trying every conceivable “full” synthetic oil in the marketplace and after testing the “100%” synthetic Amsoil motor oil, I instantly became hooked with the extra power, increased gas mileage, quieter, smoother and cooler running engine.
The oil spray nozzle in the block is not used for lubricating the cylinders but for piston cooling, it sprays the oil on the piston from the bottom and cools ultimately the piston top as well. The lubrication of the cylinders is done through the excess of oil from the connecting rod bearing and through the turning motion of the crankshaft it splashes the oil on the cylinders on almost all engines. On the other side it's also done through the oil mist when the engine is warm. Also that cooling failure is usually caused from using the normal tap water as a coolant instead of distilled water. The tap water has a lot of limescale inside of it and that's the white stuff you see everywhere in your engine, please use distilled water. 😁🤣
been waiting on this vid! I have a '16 legacy 3.6R and I've been wanting to see this engine taken apart and explained. Great video! Edit: Can confirm, the space under the intake does have room for leaves and chipmunk nests 😂
At around 100,000 Subaru recommends some special Subaru conditioner which I believe is basically bar stop like I never put it in my 13 H6 However I do change the coolant every 3 to 4 years now after the first interval at 80,000 miles Subaru says you can go six years and your first hundred thousand before you need to change it
do not do it. that stuff was introduced by Subaru US only, and only as an emg response to the earlier. 2.5s hg issues .. Just do what youre doing .. i.e just change coolant . You really don't have to do it that often though. also bleed as per factory manual when you do flush it
So instead of just getting a new radiator cap since it had no spring and wasn't sealing, they used stop leak because they thought it was leaking, and ended up ruining the engine?
I had an oil leak behind the rear timing cover and had to remove the entire front of the engine to replace just a few o rings. Took me ages but I discovered a faulty chain tensioner and ended up replacing the chains and water pump too. Engine runs like new again.
@@speedkar99 yeah, it took me days in my garage. Most mechanics didn't even want to do the job as it was such a huge task. But I watched TH-cam videos and managed to work it out.
The design of the cylinder heads were a collaboration with Porsche. They could've used studs and flanged nuts for fastening the timing cover on the engine.
You're gifted to understand such a complicated engine! (waiting for the video to assemble it) An entertaining educational compact video respect! Thanks for the efforts for sharing this much appreciated! Is there a video with your wife?
Oil circulation... The problem with oil path in a boxer engine isn't getting oil into the cylinders. It's getting oil back out. They do it by the scraper ring flinging it back and forth between opposing cylinders, and gravity back into the oil pan.
I waited for this video for a long time. I have this engine on my car, it doesn't overheat but it over pressurize the cooling system. It passed the compression test, leak down test and actually has good gas mileage too, no missfire or anything. I'm really confused what to do? Do I change the gasket or tighten the headbolts or get a replacement engine. I feel like coolant pipes might explode at any time.
@@speedkar99 True. Porsche is not just a car manufacturer, they are an engineering consulting business as well, and their touch is seen in many cars and even airplanes.
I have an ez30r, same as the one in the video. Its my backup engine for a turbo'd ej22e. I know it has vvl but its hard to find info on exactly how it works. Ty for posting the video.
just cause the water pump still spins doesn't mean its not bad ive took off so many that still spin but have a bad bearing that you cant tell just when it moves water doesn't move it fast enough or one of the inner seals go bad and when water and coolant gets in the bearing they lock up. they also can just blow seals out and still have good bearing and free spin but cant hold enough pressure to circulate the water enough.
The 3.0 H6 engine in the Outback was extremely robust. The weak point to all Subarus vehicles after 2005 was the sheet-metal the Subaru used to build their cars. Even minor pressure against the body sheet-metal while waxing or pollshing the car would warp the body's sheetmetal. Engine and mechanical-wise the Subarus would rival that of Toyota and Honda!
Yeah I've seen similar buildup in other aluminum engines that had tap water added to the system. I have no idea what the chemical process is there, or why it's not always guaranteed happen (I think it's a lot of variables, too many actually), but I see it happen when tap water gets dumped into the cooling system. I'm sure chlorine, fluoride, aluminum oxide and whatever other bouquet of nonsense is in there, all mixed together with old and possibly incompatible coolants ane heat cycling, just doesn't play nice 😂 Don't do that shit folks.. if you got a leak, fix it, add the right coolant or at least distilled water until you get where you're going and can address the problem, keep up with it, and don't do this to your poor mechanic!
You got it! Water quality varies from city to city. Michigan had lead problems plus the metals all vary through out engine even if they are all aluminium. Best to change fluids as frequently as possible if you plan on keeping it.
I've been using this for a while but the vice grips or double nut technique always slips. I usually end up using a chisel and hammering it out but this time it was a good excuse to buy more tools 🙂
Some areas with bad well water will clog up the coolant passages. That looks like calcium. I learned long ago new radiators and pumps and hoses are cheaper than engines. Always use distilled water with your coolant
This is my current motor, at 307,000 miles, 2004 outback Colorado car with little to no rust. Car runs/shifts really well, like surprisingly well, aside from a problem on the road side with a increasingly growling, or buzz that corresponds with speed. It sounds like an additional motor that throttles up after 20 mph, with no gear. Shifting, revving the motor, swerving the car while driving have no effect on it. New wheel hubs on all four, new tires, new front cv axles, new shocks all around, new oil in trans, motor, including filters, dropped trans pan and cleaned it( never had been done, was a bit gross), new driveshaft with ujoints and carrier bearing... I have no clue what it can be, and it seems to be getting louder; got it parked which really, really sucks. Need to get back to work. Any ideas? Sound seems to be centralized, with a small uniform vibration. I notice it because I've been driving it for eight years. Always used either mobile1 synthetic or amsoil, and still did oil/filter changes between 3-5 thousand miles. Checked plugs and gap, they were all dry, with the back passenger(6?)having a little collection of dry deposit. Took it to a local mechanic, put it on the lift as a favor, and he also had no further clues.
wolfgangb: It is either the O-ring in the power streering return line flange or one or more of the polyvee belt idler (bearings). The O-ring gets hard, vibrates and sounds like failing front diff.
Looks like someone was using extremely hard water to cut their concentrated coolant. Maybe that was compounded with some form of liquid stopleak at some point, but that looks like a lot of calcification. 2 rounds of distilled with a quality rapid-flush agent (BG Universal Cooling System Cleaner was my goto back when I still worked automotive, remember to follow the instructions for time- leaving this type of cleaner in too long is asking for trouble), followed by 2 rounds of distilled with ~20% concentrated coolant driven for a couple days each (for water pump protection- add more if the environmental temperatures call for it, but the lower the better to let the mix have more "capacity" to reabsorb some of those minerals) would have gotten most of that gunk out. If you wanted to backflush the system, you can use a garden hose BUT remember that your plumbing can be at 30-110psi, and if you try and spank all of that pressure into the system, you can blow cores apart, blow out seals, etc. Use caution, and don't let that non-distilled water stay in that system- I don't care if you have "soft water", use distilled/deionized. CLR, vinegar, etc have given me too many water pump seal issues in the past- along with the super-cheapo flush agents. The Citric Acid based ones, like Prestone, can be affective, but be aware that they can also take a water pump seal that was already marginal and kill it off. User beware, not responsible, etc etc yadda yadda
Holy shit. Compare this to ANY v6 timing setup and it actually looks more complicated. I seriously don't know who thought this engine design was a good idea. I have heard of people getting quoted "no thanks" for this job. Shops won't even accept it.
I had the same problem and the problem was a crack in the block of the engine... This happened in a trip that a water hose came off and for about 5 minutes the engine had high temperature but unfortunately I was on a road that I couldn't stop.
Some areas with bad well water can clog coolant passges. That looks like calcium. I found a new radiator, pump, hoses, thermostat and belts are cheaper than an engine. I always use distilled water with my coolant.
Speedkar99, when you shoot your close-up views, the camera is focusing on the background, resulting in a blurry view of what you’re trying to show. By the way, love your videos.
I will just say I did find a chemical water system cleaner that was meant for a oil contaminated cooler system and it did dissolve the leak stop I did it twice and it seemed to fix the problem I was having with my daughters Holden commadore v6.
I wonder if it would have helped if he put on a new radiator cap and flushed the cooling system. I’m sure actually he must have done that. I wonder if the owner had a leak in the radiator and tried to “fix” it with stop leak rather than putting a new radiator and pooched the engine.
I liked the 3.6 H6 that I had. Decent power and torque, and very smooth. That engine looks like it spent about 3 years at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico before this video was recorded.
Canadian winters.
Canadian roads have about as much salt as the Gulf of Mexico.
@@user-cs9ix3lw3j I’m in the upper Midwest, so I can relate
The 3.6 was what the 3.0 should have been.
@@LabiaLickerez36 is weaker than the ez30. The cylinder walls are too thin to make power with.
I wish they still made these.
- That's not how the buckets work. The oil pressure *locks* the outer part to the inner part, the inner part is directly linked to the valve.
- You missed the 'thats actually a Porsche part' marker on the back of the buckets.
- The engine was probably overheating due to a clogged heater core, and yes, citric acid would have cleaned it... those bolts were yikes though.
- EZs do not have offset crank pins. The EZ36 has offset *rods*, the EZ30 does not.
- To make those hex bolts on the front cover play nice, use a short breaker bar, and strike it with the back of a hammer to seat it before trying to move it. Makes for much less of a battle.
- Fuel rails and fuel lines go with the manifold, but I guess you figured that out as you took it off.
- You remove the wrist pins, but leave the pistons in the block until you have the block split normally, less painful that way.
Otherwise, pretty accurate.
So the inner part of the bucket pops up due to contact with the valve stem when tightened down?
How exactly does oil pressure lock them together internally, it fills it up with oil and then ...
@@speedkar99 the inner part does not pop up. It is solid. There is an internal pin the oil pressure pushes into place that locks the outside to the centre part when high lift is commanded. Take one of the buckets apart to see if you want. Just beware, the spring inside is fairly powerful.
It is the Porsche Variocam II system, not like it, it is it. There's some videos out there on its operation.
This engine is probably the most reliable one in Subaru family....still breaks but far less than the notorious 4 banger with blown head gasket or the cracked ringlands
I agree. This one made it to 300,000km.
@speedkar99 and it only stopped because the owner thrown stopleak in it and clogged everything. 25:24 Pretty cool
EA 81 engine is bulletproof, had one on my microlight aircraft, had 366 hours on it when sold and still going strong.
I have a 2011 2.5 4 cylinder in a Liberty at 322,000km and has had no work done to it apart from servicing, am I lucky?
what are you talking about, I have a boxer 4 2.0 with 430,000, never taken apart and never had any major problems, and I have this exact engine with 335,000, the same problem was the radiator cap. and the head gasket applies only to the 2.5 first generation EJ engine. look at mrsubaru's channel on yt about that topic and don't listen to forums and all kinds of mechanics
Aside from the head gasket problems which have been long since fixed, Subarus are quite reliable. The reason people think otherwise is because of either lack of maintenance by most drivers on the road and the young kids that drive the snot out of the engines. Between this there is a lot of failures... We have Subie's in the family and all are high milers with 0 problems.
I’ve had 5 at this point and the only one I’ve ever blown up, i beat the piss out of. It was an 05 with 220k miles.
@@enemyspotted2467 Similar experiences with ours... The only one that was a problem was my aunt and she didn't check the oil. As it got up in miles it used a bit of oil and it ran low and she seized the engine but it had almost 300K KM (187K Miles)
son malos
And youtubers, honestly 99% of the youtube comments are the same clowns who don't know anything about cars at all going in the comments "but but headgaskets". They have no idea that issue was USA only. F*** fast and furious created some dickheads.
Lots of good internal parts that can be sold. The corrosion level means zero preventative maintenance was done. I have an H6 in a 2017 Outback. Great little engine. Runs like a top. I do all scheduled maintenance items.
Now that they no longer have a boxer 6 as an engine optionI will not be buying Subaru in the future.
I think this and the other 4 cyl Subaru boxer engines have a decent long life provided one follows the service procedure, uses a good quality lubricant, coolant and stick to the service interval. This plus allow the engine to warm up on cold days and a gentle driving habit would give these engines a very long and trouble free life.
I think that can be said for many other engines too. The 4 cylinder Subaru's are just more prone to the headgasket failure than H6
@@speedkar99 and even then, its a limited run of one engine, exacerbated by poor maintenance. I do think it fair to say that Subarus are... less tolerant of lax/poor maintenance than a toyota or a honda.
@@themadmallard subarus have had that thing for decades and no macig coolant going to fix bad engine block and head design and yes i have subaru too but no need to hide the fact that they have build decent ammount of time bombs.
@@themadmallard Limited run? It was literally all EJ25 naturally aspirated engines meaning 1996 to 2012 lol. They improved a bit over the years but they never truly fixed the problem. The FA/FB 4 cylinder engines do not have this problem.
I love the power of the EZ36, but working on it is a pain.
True.
I have a 12 year old BMW that runs like new thanks to proper maintenance… a lot of the times it’s not the cars that are a problem but the owners!
I've seen this scale build up before, where someone had a worn out radiator cap, and kept refilling with tap water. The the calcium from the hard water clog the water passages and radiator, exacerbating the cooling problem.
Oh wait, that was my ignorant teenage self!
Very fascinating video. The engineering that goes into today's cars is utterly amazing. It does though make me appreciative of the simplicity of the old 4-cylinder Mazda / Ford engines.
Recently did my timing and water pump on my 02 outback. Doing it in the car was kinda rough but not impossible, patience was key haha
I have a 05 Outback 3.0L with the same engine. My car has 235K miles and has never overheated, nor does it burn oil. It’s an awesome car! I love it!
Love your jokes 😂, I own four Subarus currently 96 SVX, 92 SVX, 94 Impreza, 04 Forester XT. Let’s just say I’m very nice to the local Subaru mechanic.
This is one of the best engines Subaru made
If this is their best then I cant imagine how the lesser ones are hahahaha
theres something about these motors. I had an outback with a EZ30 motor was a trooper. Overheating all the time, Valve covers shaking off. Head gaskets going, timing chain guides went. It was limping hard. Still ran for about 50k miles like that until I scrapped the whole car. I miss it and I thank it for being a reliable car when I needed it the most
Sounds reliable yeah
Interesting to finally see inside one of these. One thing to note is that that lower profile center cam lobe on the intake cam is actually the one that is used most of the time. One of the two center cams has less lift than the other to increase turbulence and improve mixing of the air and fuel at low rpms for better low end torque and fuel economy. Then at high rpms the bucket will collapse to allow both intake valves to follow the higher lift cams for more air flow and thus more power. It's definitely an interesting design.
That makes sense now, how does the bucket collapse with oil pressure applied?
@@speedkar99I would assume it has oil pressure by default which engages the plunger on the smaller cam profile. On power demand the “VTEC” closes the oil supply, the spring pushes the plunger flush to engage on the outer profile camshaft lobes for more power.
Just a guess though.
@@speedkar99 Yeah, like the other guy said, I'm pretty sure there's a spring holding it in the collapsed position and oil pressure extends the center part of the bucket follower below a certain rpm threshold. Above that rpm the oil pressure is removed and the valves follow the high lift profile.
Ain't it the other way round? The more "pointy" cam is, the shorter the time of valve being fully open. It'll open more/higher, but for shorter amount of time. But the better air mixing between 2 unequaly opened valves during low rpms sounds convincing. Another "but" - during startup, there's no oil pressure for some time (neglectable?) and cams for high rpms are used then?
I can't find a good source of info on the actual behavior in Subaru ;(
Another related topic - how to measure valve clearance? Use just the outer cams?
//edit
Got a reply from an engine repair shop - they say that valve clearance is measured using the external lobes and those are the ones used during low rpms.
Indeed, utilizing con rod journals for cylinder walls lubrication is the age-old method from Subaru. The top two holes are used to lubricate the wrist pin when the oil control ring scrapes the oil back into the bottom of the piston.
Correct - oil mist exiting the rod bearings provides piston lubrication - Hyundai Alpha is another example - holes or jets are more common nowadays though for added cooling
Good to know!
I feel like the jets are a more guaranteed way of evenly coating the piston walls.
@@speedkar99 Roger Clark Motorsport has their close deck EJ20/EJ22 equipped with oil jets. Historically speaking, Subaru doesn't have a bad history with cylinder walls wear.
Subaru not going that route can mean a lot of things. But the #1 reason I can think of is not to rob the already inadequate Subaru engine oil pressure of more oil; using oil oil jets might work better than just shooting oil off the con rods, but the oil jets might take away some oil pressure else where. So I assume Subaru has thought about it.
But I will say, having oil jets can def help with reducing pistons' surface temperature. And Subaru can use that.
@@speedkar99 Not necessarily - jets provide a directed stream at the piston bottom as opposed to a wide spray - they often use a checkball to only activate once a threshold oil pressure is reached at higher rpm - some misting will always occur also - too much oiling of the piston/cylinder area can cause more oil consumption, so it's a trade-off
Fascinating breakdown of this unusual engine design. So complex. It's amazing that it lasted 300K km. Nice work.
It sure is interesting and the reason why I bought this car.
That water pump position 😵💫
I hate it.
my god, that engine seems to be a pain in the ass to repair.
The intake and exhaust side of things are easier than a lot of cars. Alternator, A/C and starter motor also very easy to do.
Honestly these are easily 300,000km + engines (aside from oil leaks and sometimes headgasket problems ha ha)
@@Jack-qn4vtI get you like these engines but easier than an average i4 or V6. You're crazy haha
Been there, done that. Never again!
@@2strokeFOReverwell a i4 isn’t really a fair comparison. But to be fair not many v6 fwd transversely mounted engines are exactly fun to work on , even a Toyota rav 4. I’m not a subru fan or anything
06 Tribeca..overheating ....blown head gasket...pulled it,went through everything but rod bearings and mains...still going strong ......but MAN, that was tough.....
Wow this engine seems a lot better than I expected. Mostly because of the lack of head gasket issues. Didn't know they had an implementation of VVL either! Never seen coolant corrosion like that before. Thanks for the teardown!
You are welcome. Those were my surprises too! Pretty interesting engine!
The earlier ez30d mk2, or the "30R", had both intake vvt and vvl with heads designed by porsche. It's the same system as variocam
Ive been waiting for you to tear down the H6! More complex than I expected, but now i feel justified in wanting an outback with one!
I think the rule is to do a coolant flush before using any sort of stop leak in the cooling system.
Yes
And replace a broken/worn out radiator cap.
The video title should really say that it's an EZ30. Subaru have done quite a few sixes over the years - ER27, EG33 as well as EZ30 / EZ36 (and the EZ30/36 are different enough that they really should almost be considered different generations)
Oh and for the M5 hex nuts, get an impact driver. Not the electric ones - the manual ones you tension and then hit with a hammer.
Yeah an impact driver would help but if it's already rusty it won't grip much.
@@speedkar99 it helps more than you think, I used to disassemble alternators and starter motors that had screws that were stuck fast. Impact driver, torque it and whack it with the hammer, worked like a charm no matter how rusty the head was. It stops the tool camming out.
@speedkar99 i can concur with the impact, they magically just work with these bolts. I got almost all 59 of them off of my mark 1 ez30d in the rust belt just using the impact, and i think i used vice grips for 2 of them
3/8" extractor socket pounds over the M5 heads and they zip right out.
Excellent presentation! There's not enough EZ30 content.
I, too, have the EZ30 in my Tribeca. Technically, what we have is known as the EZ30 Phase II aka "R" engine. You can tell because it has AVCS and the plastic intake. The first varient of the engine was simply called the EZ30. The engine offers reasonable torque and is quite capable in snow and mud (assuming decent tires, of course). Where 4x4 trucks get stuck, the EZ gets me through confidently.
Maintaining the oil and coolant is very important with these (any Subaru, really). They are very picky. I've had to replace the timing set due to the tensioners failing. I also lost all my oil through the rocker cover gaskets, resulting in a knock.
I have about 10k of work into it already in the three years I've owned it. People keep telling me to buy something different or get another car. However, there is just something about this engine that I like. The cargo space in the Tribeca is also nice for my many random adventures.
All around a great engine -when maintained properly. The only real downside IMO is finding parts, and needing any work done at a shop or the dealership. That enormous 2-piece timing cover adds to the expense as well. There's something like 109 different fasteners on there.
There's also a shortage of people who know their way around this particular engine. The guys at the dealership hadn't ever seen an EZ30, or a Tribeca!
a lot of similarities to horizontally opposed piston engines used in aircraft, this was sick. one interesting and huge difference, most aircraft engines would just have one camshaft for all of the cylinders intake and exhaust, 12 lobes in a 6 cyl example. Its inside the crankcase, above the crankshaft, and has long push rods to rocker arms, to valves. 1 exh, 1 int valve per cyl, and 2 spark plugs per cyl
This sure was an interesting teardown!
i have a 05' 3.0R Outback sedan and im in love, it passed 100k miles about 160k km . the sound is INSANE, especially with the cat back exhaust it has. i simply wish the electrics were better as so many things start to fail as it nears 20 years old its running lean and has a cam timing issue. ill be sure to avoid that stop leak, and hopefully when i get major work done it doesnt need to be broken when opened.
I had a timing issue occur that was a PIA to narrow down. Long story short, have the shop verify the connections and signal from the ecu to the injectors, and hopefully they don't need to open to timing cover.. It'll be at least 3k if they have to go in there. I had a tensioner go out, which made the timing jump a tooth or two, AND the solder on the ECU cracked around the same time, resulting in bad compression and almost random misfire. It took a month of troubleshooting to repair. The dealership couldn't solve it.
@@shalopez420 I have that camshaft over advanced error so I’m hoping it’s just a bad VVT solenoid and not that, right now she’s got a huge misfire that’s fairly random. I need to check the plugs to make sure it may just be an electrical issue but they are a pain to reach and I haven’t had the energy to work on it, at least it runs better above idle so I can wait to take it to a shop soon.
The best tool I used for cracking stubborn bolts is the impact screwdriver (the one that you need to hit with a hammer). Also, when loosening these bolts you may retighten them before moving to the next one, this lessens the tension on the next bolt for thick parts (wouldn't worry about it on a stamped oil pan).
Curios thing (I checked) is the head gasket, it had only tiny passages for coolant except for two large ones on the side (completely blocking off most of the coolant passages in the head) I wonder why Subaru did this. The Subaru SVX (EG33 H6 engine) had a gasket with lots of openings. I guess they knew what they are doing, but it surely smells like some cylinders running hotter than others by design.
The small coolant openings on the HG is an EZ specific thing, they have to have had a reason, but I'll admit the first time I saw it I was confused as hell. That said, the EZ is designed to run hotter than an EJ, I guess we can blame its German origins. (It has no commonality with the EG, which is an EJ with two extra holes)
Yeah an impact driver may have helped. It was hectic hammering sockets onto them to get it out. At one point my neighbor came out and cursed at the racket lol
Great video as always! Bought 05 Ram 5.7, 115 k miles replaced all fluids as no maintenance history with truck. Car Fax vague on history. Noticed white sugar coating where old existing radiator fluid had splashed. Being summer, kept running/flush distilled water through engine/radiator for two months. Replaced radiator cap, new 50/50 antifreeze. 2 days later saw Ram had taken a leak on the garage floor. Traced leak to water pump.
Seems instead of flat gasket, water pump now has machined groove using o-ring which seems about 2/32" in diameter (real smart on dissimilar aluminium metals). Garage now cold so I unfortunately had to put back in a half of bottle of stop leak. No more pissing coolant on floor but now have stop leak remorse 🙄. When sunshine prevails once again will change, radiator, H2O pump (steel impeller), hoses (had job planned but that old hag (wallet) said no way Gramp's). Also went through crank, O2 sensor hell, replaced all, fingers crossed on cam sensors. Trunk now runs very well pushing 15.5 mpg from 11.
"In my case" just flushing with distilled water every two weeks seemed to stop the sugar coating. Who knows. Was told some manufacturers putting stop leak in brand spanking new factory cars. We your viewers, have learned much from your time and effort.
Been trying some of the Mrs recipes, must be a challenge coming back to a tear down after her dinners.
Thank you Bro! Happy Holidays to your whole family however they may be observed .
You are welcome. Enjoy your holidays
I dig these engines. I would love to build one and do something stupid like mid-engine an original Baja or something
Rocking a 3.6r and love the thing. Most reliable subaru boxer engine!
I love my H6 engine it’s in a 2005 legacy it’s so smooth whenever I have a passenger they tell me how smooth the car is with the opposing cylinders making the engine so smooth like had to get a new engine because of a head gasket couldn’t find anybody to do the gasket but got a engine swap was worth it
I believe at 23:38, that's not actually how the valve lift system works but instead, under "low lift" condition, the outer part of the cap travels down freely as relation to the movement of the valve whereas only the center part actuates the valve, hence you see the center part protudes upward. And when in "high lift" the two parts are locked together and the valve will be pushed down further. The two sides of oil pressure acts as engage and disengage pressure to push small piston/pin inside the cap, to 'locks' and 'unlocks' the a outer part to the center part(similar to the pistons in a VTEC rocker arm).
I DID watch it to the bitter end.😂 I was wondering too how it could have been cleaned. Great point CLR!!! I wonder also! Not a big fan of direct injection here. I wonder if "Guaranteed to Pass Emissions" would clean those piston heads.👍
CLR is amazing.
All EZ30 and EZ36 motors have forged cranks. My 2011 Outback 3.6R with the 5EAT is still running great at 172k miles. But I followed the severe service schedule for all maintenance.
How about the transmission?
@@speedkar99 Trans is solid. I have been doing 3qt-3.5qt drain/fills every 15k miles. Full fluid replacement (just using buckets via the cooler lines) every 60k miles, on top of the drain and fills. The 5EAT is made by JATCO and, apparently, was also used in the first gen Nissan Titan. The way Subaru has calibrated the clutches, the 5EAT is very sensitive to fluid cleanliness. It **loves** clean fluid. I always used Idemitsu ATF-HP, Subaru ATF-HP, with some Lubegard Platinum at about half the treat rate.
Can't remember if I already commented this out, pardon me if I did.. Nevertheless, it would be fascinating to see one of these type of videos, in detail engine analysis / breakdowns, resurrected. I'm assuming most of them are just dead and it's impossible to 'fix' them or bring them back to life, but maybe some single digit percentage can be hah(couple of projects per year).
I'm still blown away how much you know about the engines and how nicely you are commenting along the way. 🙂
Cheers
Thanks!
I learn just as you do while doing these teardowns. It sure is interesting to see the different takes manufacturers take especially when it comes to engines.
I think the piston spritzers you were looking for are the piston coolers that are used on high output and especially turbocharged engines. Otherwise cylinders are just lubricated by the outwash from the rod bearings and the oil mist that fills the crankcase area when the engine is running.
3:10 Manual hand impact, remember the kind you twist by hand and hit with a hammer? They work amazing for this problem.
Yep! That could have helped I suppose
Agreed. I have one just for rusty stuff because I live in the Northeast where too much salt and brine are used.
Love my EZ36
All that crust buildup on the water pump where it O-ring seals into the inner cover/block is what caused the overheating I'm sure. That's what killed my first one, though mine was a lot crustier. Looked like it had never seen a coolant flush. I was on a road trip when it started overheating. Coolant was coming out of the weep hole in the cover. By the time I was able to limp it (stopping every so often to let it cool/refill with water) to a safe place, the head gasket had already made it's sacrifice.
Ouch. I'm sure this was due to the blockage since the coolant pressure and compression tests were good
Amazing how much this motor has in common with the water-cooled flat six Porsche engines. Even the dual lobe intake lifters look identical to the M96 3.6L.
That lower sump / cooling girdle is interesting.
I'm guessing you could you have split the case without removing the wrist pins?
That's because they licenced Porsche's system for the VVL
I'd really want to teardown a porsche engine one day!
My 2013 Subaru Tribeca with the 3.6 liter H6 engine with about 70,000 miles with most of the miles accumulated in short trip driving (severe driving conditions). The motor oil gets changed once a year with about 5,000 to 8,000 miles with 5W-30 100% synthetic Amsoil Signature Series Motor Oil (a synthetic combination of a PAO Class IV and an Ester Class V); my transmission and power steering has the 100% synthetic Amsoil ATF fluid (changed around 40,000 miles); my two differentials have the 100% synthetic 75W-90 Amsoil Gear Lube (changed around 40,000 miles); my brake lines and master brake cylinder are filled with synthetic Amsoil Brake Fluid (changed every 30,000 miles); and finally my radiator is filled with Amsoil Antifreeze & Coolant (changed around 45,000 miles), making my vehicle running like a top (without enduring any repairs, other than maintenance)! After trying every conceivable “full” synthetic oil in the marketplace and after testing the “100%” synthetic Amsoil motor oil, I instantly became hooked with the extra power, increased gas mileage, quieter, smoother and cooler running engine.
Nice
x2
The oil spray nozzle in the block is not used for lubricating the cylinders but for piston cooling, it sprays the oil on the piston from the bottom and cools ultimately the piston top as well. The lubrication of the cylinders is done through the excess of oil from the connecting rod bearing and through the turning motion of the crankshaft it splashes the oil on the cylinders on almost all engines. On the other side it's also done through the oil mist when the engine is warm. Also that cooling failure is usually caused from using the normal tap water as a coolant instead of distilled water. The tap water has a lot of limescale inside of it and that's the white stuff you see everywhere in your engine, please use distilled water. 😁🤣
That timing chain setup sure looks complicated. BTW....I am missing a toothbrush same color as the on in your video.
been waiting on this vid! I have a '16 legacy 3.6R and I've been wanting to see this engine taken apart and explained. Great video!
Edit: Can confirm, the space under the intake does have room for leaves and chipmunk nests 😂
so do the 4 cylinder variants. a rats nest took down one i bought, had to redo some of the loom and got a good deal in buying it :)
HA! I feel the same. I love my '15 Legacy Limited 3.6R.
@@daviddempster3520 such a fun car, and i personally don’t have any complaints about the CVT, as disliked as they are.
Yeah mine had alot of junk under the intake.
Are there no oil sprayers because it is a boxer and pistons move horizontally? Oil doesn't need to be sprayed upwards ? Just wondering.
I'm guessing the slots in the rods were the squirters
I've always wanted an H6 swapped WRX STI. Heard it sounds like a Porsche
I have a 2011 3.6 outback And owned an M96 3.4L 996 Porsche 911 for several years. I can confirm that they feel and sound oddly similar.
At around 100,000 Subaru recommends some special Subaru conditioner which I believe is basically bar stop like I never put it in my 13 H6 However I do change the coolant every 3 to 4 years now after the first interval at 80,000 miles Subaru says you can go six years and your first hundred thousand before you need to change it
do not do it. that stuff was introduced by Subaru US only, and only as an emg response to the earlier. 2.5s hg issues .. Just do what youre doing .. i.e just change coolant . You really don't have to do it that often though. also bleed as per factory manual when you do flush it
Yeah it sounds sketchy
So instead of just getting a new radiator cap since it had no spring and wasn't sealing, they used stop leak because they thought it was leaking, and ended up ruining the engine?
the EG33 has dual throttle body, and a bigger intake manifold.
I had an oil leak behind the rear timing cover and had to remove the entire front of the engine to replace just a few o rings. Took me ages but I discovered a faulty chain tensioner and ended up replacing the chains and water pump too. Engine runs like new again.
Awesome but man that must have been alot of work.
@@speedkar99 yeah, it took me days in my garage. Most mechanics didn't even want to do the job as it was such a huge task. But I watched TH-cam videos and managed to work it out.
All this and it was the radiator cap.
A lot of features not found in other manufacturers I've seen. It would seem Subaru is a spicier version of its close friend Toyota.
The design of the cylinder heads were a collaboration with Porsche. They could've used studs and flanged nuts for fastening the timing cover on the engine.
Notification Squad!🔥🔥🔥 Happy holidays, hope y'all doing good!🎅🎁🎄
Love the way you took care of those crusty valve cover bolts!
You're gifted to understand such a complicated engine! (waiting for the video to assemble it) An entertaining educational compact video respect! Thanks for the efforts for sharing this much appreciated! Is there a video with your wife?
a set of bolt extractor sockets are worth their weight in gold when you need them. in the rust belt we need them often.
Oil circulation...
The problem with oil path in a boxer engine isn't getting oil into the cylinders. It's getting oil back out. They do it by the scraper ring flinging it back and forth between opposing cylinders, and gravity back into the oil pan.
Yes, gravity doesn't work very well when horizontally opposed
We need a speedkar99 vs I_Do_Cars crossover episode. Maybe a teardown race
Haha
Eric does good work.
I take my time and work. Teardowns take days because I enjoy and ponder upon them.
I waited for this video for a long time. I have this engine on my car, it doesn't overheat but it over pressurize the cooling system. It passed the compression test, leak down test and actually has good gas mileage too, no missfire or anything. I'm really confused what to do? Do I change the gasket or tighten the headbolts or get a replacement engine. I feel like coolant pipes might explode at any time.
I believe the Variable valve lift and timing systems on this engine were designed by Porsche. Some say the heads were too.
Thats why the have a problem then.
@@kris8742 Bozo.
It sure is a unique system compared to Honda's mess of rocker arms.
@@speedkar99 True. Porsche is not just a car manufacturer, they are an engineering consulting business as well, and their touch is seen in many cars and even airplanes.
@@Flies2FLL unfortunately the H6 did not inherit Porsche`s fuel efficiency.
I have an ez30r, same as the one in the video. Its my backup engine for a turbo'd ej22e.
I know it has vvl but its hard to find info on exactly how it works. Ty for posting the video.
I don’t know I daily drive this motor it’s been great 150 thousand miles I change the oil every 5K with a good synthetic
Nice! They are reliable engines when working right.
just cause the water pump still spins doesn't mean its not bad ive took off so many that still spin but have a bad bearing that you cant tell just when it moves water doesn't move it fast enough or one of the inner seals go bad and when water and coolant gets in the bearing they lock up. they also can just blow seals out and still have good bearing and free spin but cant hold enough pressure to circulate the water enough.
The 3.0 H6 engine in the Outback was extremely robust. The weak point to all Subarus vehicles after 2005 was the sheet-metal the Subaru used to build their cars. Even minor pressure against the body sheet-metal while waxing or pollshing the car would warp the body's sheetmetal. Engine and mechanical-wise the Subarus would rival that of Toyota and Honda!
Yeah I've seen similar buildup in other aluminum engines that had tap water added to the system. I have no idea what the chemical process is there, or why it's not always guaranteed happen (I think it's a lot of variables, too many actually), but I see it happen when tap water gets dumped into the cooling system. I'm sure chlorine, fluoride, aluminum oxide and whatever other bouquet of nonsense is in there, all mixed together with old and possibly incompatible coolants ane heat cycling, just doesn't play nice 😂
Don't do that shit folks.. if you got a leak, fix it, add the right coolant or at least distilled water until you get where you're going and can address the problem, keep up with it, and don't do this to your poor mechanic!
You got it! Water quality varies from city to city. Michigan had lead problems plus the metals all vary through out engine even if they are all aluminium. Best to change fluids as frequently as possible if you plan on keeping it.
I agree....get the leak fixed. Stop leak isn't the correct way to go.
Use distilled water.
Definitely don't pee in the radiator
Bro! A 12mm head bolt can be used as a hex socket in a pinch. Just use vice grips or double nut it to make a wrench
I've been using this for a while but the vice grips or double nut technique always slips. I usually end up using a chisel and hammering it out but this time it was a good excuse to buy more tools 🙂
Pros and Cons to every engine
Pros: it works
Holy crap, these boxers use a ton of fasteners!
Some areas with bad well water will clog up the coolant passages. That looks like calcium. I learned long ago new radiators and pumps and hoses are cheaper than engines. Always use distilled water with your coolant
Sebuah enjin yg paling rumit nak di baiki.
Looking forward to the new coffee table!
Me too. I wish I could get around to doing it but it's winter now and I can't clean or paint the pieces.
This is my current motor, at 307,000 miles, 2004 outback Colorado car with little to no rust.
Car runs/shifts really well, like surprisingly well, aside from a problem on the road side with a increasingly growling, or buzz that corresponds with speed.
It sounds like an additional motor that throttles up after 20 mph, with no gear. Shifting, revving the motor, swerving the car while driving have no effect on it.
New wheel hubs on all four, new tires, new front cv axles, new shocks all around, new oil in trans, motor, including filters, dropped trans pan and cleaned it( never had been done, was a bit gross), new driveshaft with ujoints and carrier bearing...
I have no clue what it can be, and it seems to be getting louder; got it parked which really, really sucks. Need to get back to work.
Any ideas?
Sound seems to be centralized, with a small uniform vibration. I notice it because I've been driving it for eight years. Always used either mobile1 synthetic or amsoil, and still did oil/filter changes between 3-5 thousand miles.
Checked plugs and gap, they were all dry, with the back passenger(6?)having a little collection of dry deposit.
Took it to a local mechanic, put it on the lift as a favor, and he also had no further clues.
Front diff is my suspicion.
@@DBravo29er
They call me D.B too.
Thanks D.B.
@@Dustin_the_wind 🤌💯😎 B is my middle name, but right on, bro!
wolfgangb: It is either the O-ring in the power streering return line flange or one or more of the polyvee belt idler (bearings). The O-ring gets hard, vibrates and sounds like failing front diff.
Nice new video
Merry Christmas
🙂👍
And Good 2024
🙏
😇
Thanks. I'm working on one for Christmas day for ya
Excellent presentation and explanation!
Glad it was helpful!
Thanks man, very instructive.
Thanks
Please tear down a 1uz or 3uz 🙏
Looks like someone was using extremely hard water to cut their concentrated coolant. Maybe that was compounded with some form of liquid stopleak at some point, but that looks like a lot of calcification.
2 rounds of distilled with a quality rapid-flush agent (BG Universal Cooling System Cleaner was my goto back when I still worked automotive, remember to follow the instructions for time- leaving this type of cleaner in too long is asking for trouble), followed by 2 rounds of distilled with ~20% concentrated coolant driven for a couple days each (for water pump protection- add more if the environmental temperatures call for it, but the lower the better to let the mix have more "capacity" to reabsorb some of those minerals) would have gotten most of that gunk out. If you wanted to backflush the system, you can use a garden hose BUT remember that your plumbing can be at 30-110psi, and if you try and spank all of that pressure into the system, you can blow cores apart, blow out seals, etc. Use caution, and don't let that non-distilled water stay in that system- I don't care if you have "soft water", use distilled/deionized.
CLR, vinegar, etc have given me too many water pump seal issues in the past- along with the super-cheapo flush agents. The Citric Acid based ones, like Prestone, can be affective, but be aware that they can also take a water pump seal that was already marginal and kill it off.
User beware, not responsible, etc etc yadda yadda
It literally sounds just like a Porsche!!!!
Very similar. I'd love to teardown a porsche engine one day.
@@speedkar99 sweet
Great video as always. Thanks.
You are welcome
Holy shit. Compare this to ANY v6 timing setup and it actually looks more complicated.
I seriously don't know who thought this engine design was a good idea.
I have heard of people getting quoted "no thanks" for this job. Shops won't even accept it.
Yep it is quite the task.
08:10 you can use 12mm long nut to put in hole and then use wrench for 12mm
Great vid
Thanks
Mac RBRT sockets or Grip Edge sockets work great for those rounded Hex and Torx fasteners!
Good to know
your videos are very satisfying to watch. Nice editing.
Thanks
I had the same problem and the problem was a crack in the block of the engine... This happened in a trip that a water hose came off and for about 5 minutes the engine had high temperature but unfortunately I was on a road that I couldn't stop.
great video
Thanks!
Interesting engine, probably takes the cake for the number of fasteners used in assembly. lol
I agree! Lots of bolts. And this was a tough one to edit all those bolts zipping off
wolfgangb: wait till you open a AUDI Vee-block - junk
Some areas with bad well water can clog coolant passges. That looks like calcium. I found a new radiator, pump, hoses, thermostat and belts are cheaper than an engine. I always use distilled water with my coolant.
I clicked immediately! I love this engine. Can’t say I’d own one tho
thanks anyway for the content, i appreciate your efforts
You are welcome
Oh man your humor is just so dry it gets me so good haha
Great engine
Speedkar99, when you shoot your close-up views, the camera is focusing on the background, resulting in a blurry view of what you’re trying to show. By the way, love your videos.
Thanks. Sorry I noticed that only when editing the piston scene.
Thanks for this vid, you did a fantastic job.
There is not a single Subaru product that sparks my interest these days all because they decided to kill the Flat-6.
Yeah these days it's just all fours...
@@speedkar99the sound of the flat 6 though with a good exhaust minus the raspiness sounds mint.. kinda like a Porsche 😉
I will just say I did find a chemical water system cleaner that was meant for a oil contaminated cooler system and it did dissolve the leak stop I did it twice and it seemed to fix the problem I was having with my daughters Holden commadore v6.
I wonder if it would have helped if he put on a new radiator cap and flushed the cooling system. I’m sure actually he must have done that.
I wonder if the owner had a leak in the radiator and tried to “fix” it with stop leak rather than putting a new radiator and pooched the engine.
Yep I tried everything. See my shorts I linked in the video of my diagnosis.
186,000 miles ain't nothin. Should've went way beyond that.