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Hi. Winter is coming soon. Preparing snowmobiles. We have a lot of snow.
Where do you discuss mountain snowmobiling?
Where do you discuss mountain snowmobiling?
Gentlemen Projects
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The best place will be one of the Mountain Doo sub-forums. Click this link and scroll down to Mountain Doo, then choose the forum that fits the chassis of your sled. If you are not sure of the chassis, post your sled right here and any of us can help you out.
Those are some kind of HIGH END Horse's, I'll tell yea.The boy and I built him a proper workbench/welding bench in his corner of the shop. I have been remodeling a condo at the ski hill and got some decent cabinets to turn into benches for both of us. I scored my bench top on a job where I turned a race car shop into a horse barn this spring so we took that idea and ran with it for 1/8” steel sheets bent into a counter top.![]()
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This is the building the long bench top came out of...![]()
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I was told just to get one that is trainable is $25,000
I was back there a week and a half ago to hang mirrors in the 72x200 riding arena. The horses are all moved in now. The mirrors are 6’ tall and 64’ long (8’ sections)
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Nice setup! Was anything special needed to true the run of mirrors?
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I used my Bosch laser level with the magnetic mount and stuck it on the long wall. It was pushing the limit of it though. You probably wouldn’t want to set your kitchen cabinets with it that far away.
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To give an idea how big it is this is a 312 or 315 cat excavator inside taking out the concrete footings that got poured in the floor to use chain binders to keep the frame of the building from falling over until they got the skin on it.
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Her grandfather has a huge antique car collection and he would come over at least once a week and say “you could put a lot of cars in here”
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Before we had lazers I once trued a log ceiling with strings. I quickly found that it wasn't as easy as I hoped for. I ended up using the stings as baseline and truing by eye. I didn't even think of it when I asked, but that would have been the better question, if you did use your eyes.
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If I didn’t have the laser I would have snapped a line and then had to clean it off after.
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This would be to keep the height for the series of mirrors true. I was thinking of truing the depth. With 8 x 8’ sections, I can only imagine a common wall being fractions of a degree off between every stud would create a bizarre effect in the mirrors. I should have mentioned the question stems from feeling queasy while approaching a mirrored wall on horseback. It had me take a closer look at the install and remark the wavering along the set of panels.
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They are a plastic like film with mirror finish on them for safety. Crazy light weight. They are attached to a horizontal framing in the wall top and bottom. They do have a little distortion to them. You have to blow them off with air they can not be wiped down.
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Vintage two stroke Lawnboy push mower
![Wheel Tire Lawn mower Mower Toy]()
I had the chance to get a 40+ year old Lawnboy push mower running. It was bought in the mid seventies and hadn't run in ~30 years or so, and sitting outside for who knows how long. My first thought was no Ethanol back then, so how hard can it be? It was stored under a pine tree with no direct sunlight, so was thinking maybe even the primer will still work and it did.
First thing was to make sure it wasn't seized. The crank still worked, so I cleaned all of pine needles with a blow gun (compressed air). I removed the air filter and cleaned all the crap with the blow gun and gas in my nifty hair dye bottle which are my two favorite tools working in tandem. Once the intake side was relatively clean for a first start without the air filter, I used my hair die squirt bottle with 45:1 premix to get the engine running which it did within a couple cranks. When it quit after a few seconds, I gave a little more to start and drip fed the carb to keep the engine running for a minute or so. I still find it ridiculously easy to feed an engine gasoline while manually adjusting the air/fuel ratio by how much I squeeze the bottle.
For running the engine without an air filter, as long as it is not a windy day then I not squeamish about doing this. I have done more than my share of endless pulls which put a ridiculous amount of strain on my back that a little dust going into intake for a short period no longer bothers me.
Now that I know it does run, then I can put the time&effort to clean the deck, plastics and carburetor. The gas line was split and I had clear gasoline hose to replace it with. The hose for the primer was stiff, but it was still good enough. The carburetor bowl had junk/black premix gas, but nothing worrisome. I removed the float and needle was nice with no gunk and only needed light cleaning. I remove the screen filter from over the main jet then unscrewed the jet to blow brake cleaner through all of the passages and the MJ. I used my 7X magnifying glass to look through the MJ and it looked good to me. The primer line got cleaned-up the same way by backflushing through the carb passage and it came out clean. Keep in mind there was never any Ethanol in that mower, so this was straightforward cleaning.
Next I cleaned the gas tank having green slime. I kept a sample to show the owner, but didn't bother to take a picture. Surprisingly the gas cap was still venting. The thing is these caps have a somewhat open vent and do not hold the lighter ends of the gasoline, so the gas does not remain good for long. Keep the mower out of the sunlight and in a barn/shed that doesn't see temp swings, then the gas will be somewhat ok to run the next week, but it will have lost a lot of its potential. Keep it under a plastic car shelter and it probably won't start within less than a couple of week if not days.
Once the gas tank was cleaned, I tackled the female spade connectors from the On/Off switch to the ignition coil. I dipped both connectors into a glass jar that I filled with vinegar and table salt, then neutralized them with water and baking soda, blew dry them with the blow gun and applied dielectric grease.
Put it all back together, tested the primer which showed to work from the flow in the gas line intake that I had replaced with a clean hose. I pumped it several times to see if it was working, but too much gas is rarely an issue from my experience. I proved it enough times with small engines and sleds. With a carb or SDI, I have have shown how not enough gas to start can cause a spark plug to wet foul. Then I lightly clean the plug and give it lots of gas for a cold start. By the way, brake/carb cleaner with a tooth brush is enough to clean a relatively clean but otherwise wet fouled spark plug.
It started on the first pull and off I went to mow a couple slices with 40+ year old rusted blades. I found the engine was not turning fast enough, so I wondered about this plastic lever above that I had noted was connected to the governor with a light spring. I was surprised that it raised the engine rpm significantly.
A Lawnboy is not a mower that I am not familiar with other than having seen it being used since the mid 70s and kept seeing them being used for at least two decades until the four strokes took over. I still remember the mowing crew on the McGill University campus using them. This one Lawnboy had no handle, but rather ropes to guide it along the steepest incline and the guy was walking back and forth from the top. The first one I saw was in 74 when when my neighbour Ken had setup his father's self propelled Lawnboy with a couple of wooded sticks to move himself forward and backwards while crouched over the deck. It would become the earliest engineering marvel that I did see.
This was more for a challenge and for my own curiosity to see if I could get a push mower running after sitting a few decades. I would not have cared if it was a four stroke, but this was a vintage two stroke Lawnboy which to me is not too far from working on a vintage two stroke saw or sled.
I had the chance to get a 40+ year old Lawnboy push mower running. It was bought in the mid seventies and hadn't run in ~30 years or so, and sitting outside for who knows how long. My first thought was no Ethanol back then, so how hard can it be? It was stored under a pine tree with no direct sunlight, so was thinking maybe even the primer will still work and it did.
First thing was to make sure it wasn't seized. The crank still worked, so I cleaned all of pine needles with a blow gun (compressed air). I removed the air filter and cleaned all the crap with the blow gun and gas in my nifty hair dye bottle which are my two favorite tools working in tandem. Once the intake side was relatively clean for a first start without the air filter, I used my hair die squirt bottle with 45:1 premix to get the engine running which it did within a couple cranks. When it quit after a few seconds, I gave a little more to start and drip fed the carb to keep the engine running for a minute or so. I still find it ridiculously easy to feed an engine gasoline while manually adjusting the air/fuel ratio by how much I squeeze the bottle.
For running the engine without an air filter, as long as it is not a windy day then I not squeamish about doing this. I have done more than my share of endless pulls which put a ridiculous amount of strain on my back that a little dust going into intake for a short period no longer bothers me.
Now that I know it does run, then I can put the time&effort to clean the deck, plastics and carburetor. The gas line was split and I had clear gasoline hose to replace it with. The hose for the primer was stiff, but it was still good enough. The carburetor bowl had junk/black premix gas, but nothing worrisome. I removed the float and needle was nice with no gunk and only needed light cleaning. I remove the screen filter from over the main jet then unscrewed the jet to blow brake cleaner through all of the passages and the MJ. I used my 7X magnifying glass to look through the MJ and it looked good to me. The primer line got cleaned-up the same way by backflushing through the carb passage and it came out clean. Keep in mind there was never any Ethanol in that mower, so this was straightforward cleaning.
Next I cleaned the gas tank having green slime. I kept a sample to show the owner, but didn't bother to take a picture. Surprisingly the gas cap was still venting. The thing is these caps have a somewhat open vent and do not hold the lighter ends of the gasoline, so the gas does not remain good for long. Keep the mower out of the sunlight and in a barn/shed that doesn't see temp swings, then the gas will be somewhat ok to run the next week, but it will have lost a lot of its potential. Keep it under a plastic car shelter and it probably won't start within less than a couple of week if not days.
Once the gas tank was cleaned, I tackled the female spade connectors from the On/Off switch to the ignition coil. I dipped both connectors into a glass jar that I filled with vinegar and table salt, then neutralized them with water and baking soda, blew dry them with the blow gun and applied dielectric grease.
Put it all back together, tested the primer which showed to work from the flow in the gas line intake that I had replaced with a clean hose. I pumped it several times to see if it was working, but too much gas is rarely an issue from my experience. I proved it enough times with small engines and sleds. With a carb or SDI, I have have shown how not enough gas to start can cause a spark plug to wet foul. Then I lightly clean the plug and give it lots of gas for a cold start. By the way, brake/carb cleaner with a tooth brush is enough to clean a relatively clean but otherwise wet fouled spark plug.
It started on the first pull and off I went to mow a couple slices with 40+ year old rusted blades. I found the engine was not turning fast enough, so I wondered about this plastic lever above that I had noted was connected to the governor with a light spring. I was surprised that it raised the engine rpm significantly.
A Lawnboy is not a mower that I am not familiar with other than having seen it being used since the mid 70s and kept seeing them being used for at least two decades until the four strokes took over. I still remember the mowing crew on the McGill University campus using them. This one Lawnboy had no handle, but rather ropes to guide it along the steepest incline and the guy was walking back and forth from the top. The first one I saw was in 74 when when my neighbour Ken had setup his father's self propelled Lawnboy with a couple of wooded sticks to move himself forward and backwards while crouched over the deck. It would become the earliest engineering marvel that I did see.
This was more for a challenge and for my own curiosity to see if I could get a push mower running after sitting a few decades. I would not have cared if it was a four stroke, but this was a vintage two stroke Lawnboy which to me is not too far from working on a vintage two stroke saw or sled.
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30,892 Posts
Replacing a Subaru Boxer engine
I got done another project. The bolt for the timing belt tensionner had let go and the belt wrapped around the crankshaft pulley. I figure it happened in this order because the bolt thread were welded. It took someone with experienced to weld a nut to the end of the bolt and slowly work it out. It wasn't necessary since I would be replacing the engine, but I did want to know how bad the bolt was in there in effort to find the root cause. On a side note, welding a nut properly to the bolt shank requires a lot of heat. The first welder who tried was not using enough heat and the weld would brake with hardly any torque.
The problem with a timing belt failure is with an interference engine where the valves bend when hitting the pistons.... My Toyota is a non interference engine which would not be a problem, and it uses a timing chain which tends to last the life of the engine. The Subaru Boxer is a interference engine so you can imagine the valves are crooked. The intake valves on cylinder #4 are so crooked that they remain open enough for me to see the exhaust valves through the opening of intake valves..... So I got a replacement engine from a DYI junkyard. Of all the engines I had my pickings from, I ended with a a crazy high mileage with 165,000 miles. If you are shaking your head in disbelief, well I did too and still am lol To make matter worse it a JD251 series Boxer engine that is known for blowing head gaskets on the Naturally Aspirated version due to the graphite coating wearing out. Apparently it is not if, but when it blows a gasket.
Here is how I ended choosing this engine. I had originally thought to have both heads rebuilt which was roughly $1000 plus tax. $400 a head plus $15 per valve that needs replacing. That also meant a hole gasket kit which is pricey for a quality kit, or $150 with tax for a cheap one which probably would not last the winter. So I figured at least $2,000 if not $2,500. While I was debating how much money to put into this car I went to the junkyard to find a good timing belt cover since mine was destroyed by the belt. All the engines that I was seeing had oil leaks or head leaks or damaged covers or whatever. Then I found this old 2005 Legacy like mine, and it was clean with no leaks!!! It was the only one with a Subaru oil filter which I found telling. It doesn't make it a good engine, but it is a good sign. So I get back inside to pay for the $15 cover and ask for the mileage. So ask the clerk about it and remark how clean the engine was and absent of any leaks. He takes a closer look into this database and finds that this was a doner car. Apparently some owners prefer to donate their old cars which goes to a charity instead of going through the trouble of selling on the used market and having to deal with price hagglers or returns. He tells me most often these are cleanest and most well taken care of, and since I confirmed it was clean than I should seriously consider it despite the high mileage.
After humming and hauling about it, I went back to undress it and get the engine ready to pull out. I had already done it to mine so I knew where I was going. Towards the end of the day at 4pm I am ready to split the engine from the transmission which went surprisingly well on mine. This one would not budge no matter how hard I hit the wedge! I get back home discouraged and call my dad for some tips. In explaining the problem it dawn on me that I should use a hacksaw to cut an opening between the engine and transmission to better fit a wedge. My dad answered that is precisely what he does with splitting a hard wood log when he has trouble getting the wedge to enter far enough to begin splitting, so he's liking the idea. He then suggested to use a cold chisel for concrete as opposed to the one I was using. I had one so that worked out great. I sharpened the tip and made sure the angle was good. Armed with a good plan I brought my neighbour with me on Sunday to get the engine out and the plan fortunately worked. I wish that I had taken pictures of the A frame on wheels with a hoist. We had two carts but opted to carry the engine all the way back on the hoist lol To give an idea, it is a 5 min walk all the way to the back end with no carts, so it was a good 15 min of pushing the 10 foot engine lift with the engine swigging lol I am kidding, we purposely left the engine up high so that it would not swing. I had also tied the two carts to the A frame engine which was pretty funny. I was still getting over a crazy second round of cold symptoms so I had everything from water, food to a box a tissues and small garbage lol To give you an idea I had spent all of Saturday sick in bed. I don't know what triggered a second round after a week, but it was not a pleasurable lol
So I go to pay and find it is $100 more expensive than I had thought.... and since I did not have my core I would need to spend the $100 and only get it back as a store credit..... It ended costing $460 for an old engine. Then he tells me the intake plenum is an added cost! Fortunately he waved it. Another good fortune is we had yet to even lift the engine as we lowered it onto a cart and rolled it to my friend's van. They came with a forklift and place it right into the van. Fortunately we had placed a tarp underneath and set the engine over a used tire they gave us. When we got home I rigged the cart that I use for the rear of my sleds which is just a round piece of 5/8 plywood with four wheels. It is 28" in diameter so a perfect size to fit four blocks (two high and criss-cross) and another piece of plywood over top to match the height of the van's floor. With the help of two neighbours we simply pulled on the tarp and slid the engine on the cart then into the garage. We then lifted the engine onto a scaffolding platform that I had set over two sawhorses ready to get cleaned up.
I spent the next couple of days messing around with the engine to reseal the valve covers, clean the injectors and get the timing belt idlers wheels worked out. You are supposed to buy the complete timing belt kit which includes the coolant pump, all idler bearings and timing belt. Instead I took the best bearings of the two engines and repacked them with grease. One of them had an odd plastic cover behind the seals, so I chose the best of the two and left that one alone. Unfortunately it is known to be the first idler bearing to fail.... Obviously I did buy a new timing belt lol The injectors were actually ok, but out of four plugs only one looked to have a good color and the other three were white. I had a lean code on mine after only 4 months of storage, so I wasn't going to chance it. I had used my last can of Seafoam to fix that problem, so I got another with 5L of Castrol GTX Ultraclean 5W30 (high quality mineral oil) and a new cheap compression gauge. By the way I have used the fancy oils, in particular one brand we often see folks believe is better for their sleds than XPS. Obviously I am referring to their 4S oil for automobiles. Within 6 months the low mileage Toyota that had never sipped oil began to drink like a drunken sailor lol I imagine it was good oil, but whatever it did to the seals caused it to consume a lot of it. I would take a year after returning to be standard mineral oil before he quit drinking. I have spoken to others on DooTalk with the same experience. When folks ask me what oil to use, I always say the one that has proven to work for them. Now that you know my own experience, I hope it makes sense why I answer this way. It don't know how good the Castrol oil that I use, but I don't drive hard and I don't tow other than a light trailer, and the engines have no trouble passing 300,000 km.... unless the timing belt breaks first lol
The coolant is the fun part. I had an unopened container of Prestone, the standard stuff in a yellow bottle. I split the content equally into two clean 4L ice cream containers (yes I love ice cream lol), and split 4L of demineralized treated water into both. From having emptied the failed engine I knew that I needed over 4L of coolant. I barely got 3L before the rad was full. I personally find the common procedure to bleed a cooling system to be a PITA and there is no guarantee to eliminate the air pockets! I bought a cooling test cap from BRP in 2013 to work on the 1000 SDI and I have not followed a common cooling bleeding procedure ever since. Plug the test cap, plumb the Mytivac and start siphoning. I unplugged the cap and filled some more which took the remaining 4L and nearly another 2L. I was confident that it was good, but I siphoned the air a third and last time to be sure. I filled the overflow tank to full and after running the engine for a few minutes is went down about 2/3 of the way between the full and low mark. I am not going to siphon again. From my experience I am confident that it is fine.
From what I picked-up of MrSubaru1387 on YouTube who is a connoisseur on the Subaru Boxer engines, one possibility for the head gasket failure is corrosion from old coolant that has not been replaced. I assume that I am like most who do not bother to replace the coolant when it is needed? The way to determine a head gasket leak is from excess pressure in the cooling system, which happens to be an area that I am familiar with Ski-Doo snowmobiles! I have found and measured and diagnosed enough of those to understand that concept well. I don't quite know why some sleds build pressure while others do not, but the point is that I am familiar enough with the subject. The problem is that I have never really looked into the pressure build-up on a car or truck. So I need to figure this out to ensure the replacement engine hasn't blown a head gasket. The plan is to use the comparative method that I learned from working on sleds. When I don't know what to expect from one engine, then I will test a known good working engine such as my Toyota. Once I have a benchmark I will compare and proceed to replace the coolant in the Toyota as well. By the way I haven't figured out how I will proceed with a coolant flush on the Toyota which is the main reason that I keep putting it off. I don't play the chemistry mixing game, so either I perform a complete flush and change for Prestone, or I do the best flush I can and keep using the same Toyota coolant that was in there. My hope is Toyota is not like Ford that has changed types of coolant so many times that it takes a shelf to show each one lol
I have one CVT boot to replace tomorrow before I can return to work which I have been away far too long due to the engine failure and catching a bad cold a day later lol My local garage who has aligned the wheels said to just remove the lower ball joint and I would not have to re-align the wheels. Nothing is ever that easy lol At least the old engine runs and I can get back to pulling my trailer. Tomorrow I will also need to decide the work for the next week. I am going to be cleaning gutters, cutting trees or reshingle a roof? Three weeks ago I was trimming hedges and large trees. Few have their trees trimmed, but it is done. I don't go beyond 20 feet because it gets too high. I get a pleasure watching YouTube videos showing how to setup two sets of scaffolding on their own. Try four! lol And do it safely and securely without falling, and do the work safely without falling lol And it needs to be moved! I ended the month fixing a transmission of a Santa Fé that would no longer engage into park. It was all done in the owner's driveway an a lot easier than trimming trees lol
I have to feed and dress two people, and everyday remind one where there bed is or how to zip their jacket or where the facet is to fill their cup with water and so on. And it only gets worse. A few weeks ago I left my keys out and the next morning my car was gone! Fortunately I only had to walk 10 min to get my car back lol November is getting colder so I have a whole new set of problems to worry about like cold hands and cold feet. I have kept putting off buying heated gloves, and I need to get onto that before December.
Sorry for no pictures, but I will eventually post them. Thanks for reading and taking an interest. Hopefully you have your own projects to share.
I got done another project. The bolt for the timing belt tensionner had let go and the belt wrapped around the crankshaft pulley. I figure it happened in this order because the bolt thread were welded. It took someone with experienced to weld a nut to the end of the bolt and slowly work it out. It wasn't necessary since I would be replacing the engine, but I did want to know how bad the bolt was in there in effort to find the root cause. On a side note, welding a nut properly to the bolt shank requires a lot of heat. The first welder who tried was not using enough heat and the weld would brake with hardly any torque.
The problem with a timing belt failure is with an interference engine where the valves bend when hitting the pistons.... My Toyota is a non interference engine which would not be a problem, and it uses a timing chain which tends to last the life of the engine. The Subaru Boxer is a interference engine so you can imagine the valves are crooked. The intake valves on cylinder #4 are so crooked that they remain open enough for me to see the exhaust valves through the opening of intake valves..... So I got a replacement engine from a DYI junkyard. Of all the engines I had my pickings from, I ended with a a crazy high mileage with 165,000 miles. If you are shaking your head in disbelief, well I did too and still am lol To make matter worse it a JD251 series Boxer engine that is known for blowing head gaskets on the Naturally Aspirated version due to the graphite coating wearing out. Apparently it is not if, but when it blows a gasket.
Here is how I ended choosing this engine. I had originally thought to have both heads rebuilt which was roughly $1000 plus tax. $400 a head plus $15 per valve that needs replacing. That also meant a hole gasket kit which is pricey for a quality kit, or $150 with tax for a cheap one which probably would not last the winter. So I figured at least $2,000 if not $2,500. While I was debating how much money to put into this car I went to the junkyard to find a good timing belt cover since mine was destroyed by the belt. All the engines that I was seeing had oil leaks or head leaks or damaged covers or whatever. Then I found this old 2005 Legacy like mine, and it was clean with no leaks!!! It was the only one with a Subaru oil filter which I found telling. It doesn't make it a good engine, but it is a good sign. So I get back inside to pay for the $15 cover and ask for the mileage. So ask the clerk about it and remark how clean the engine was and absent of any leaks. He takes a closer look into this database and finds that this was a doner car. Apparently some owners prefer to donate their old cars which goes to a charity instead of going through the trouble of selling on the used market and having to deal with price hagglers or returns. He tells me most often these are cleanest and most well taken care of, and since I confirmed it was clean than I should seriously consider it despite the high mileage.
After humming and hauling about it, I went back to undress it and get the engine ready to pull out. I had already done it to mine so I knew where I was going. Towards the end of the day at 4pm I am ready to split the engine from the transmission which went surprisingly well on mine. This one would not budge no matter how hard I hit the wedge! I get back home discouraged and call my dad for some tips. In explaining the problem it dawn on me that I should use a hacksaw to cut an opening between the engine and transmission to better fit a wedge. My dad answered that is precisely what he does with splitting a hard wood log when he has trouble getting the wedge to enter far enough to begin splitting, so he's liking the idea. He then suggested to use a cold chisel for concrete as opposed to the one I was using. I had one so that worked out great. I sharpened the tip and made sure the angle was good. Armed with a good plan I brought my neighbour with me on Sunday to get the engine out and the plan fortunately worked. I wish that I had taken pictures of the A frame on wheels with a hoist. We had two carts but opted to carry the engine all the way back on the hoist lol To give an idea, it is a 5 min walk all the way to the back end with no carts, so it was a good 15 min of pushing the 10 foot engine lift with the engine swigging lol I am kidding, we purposely left the engine up high so that it would not swing. I had also tied the two carts to the A frame engine which was pretty funny. I was still getting over a crazy second round of cold symptoms so I had everything from water, food to a box a tissues and small garbage lol To give you an idea I had spent all of Saturday sick in bed. I don't know what triggered a second round after a week, but it was not a pleasurable lol
So I go to pay and find it is $100 more expensive than I had thought.... and since I did not have my core I would need to spend the $100 and only get it back as a store credit..... It ended costing $460 for an old engine. Then he tells me the intake plenum is an added cost! Fortunately he waved it. Another good fortune is we had yet to even lift the engine as we lowered it onto a cart and rolled it to my friend's van. They came with a forklift and place it right into the van. Fortunately we had placed a tarp underneath and set the engine over a used tire they gave us. When we got home I rigged the cart that I use for the rear of my sleds which is just a round piece of 5/8 plywood with four wheels. It is 28" in diameter so a perfect size to fit four blocks (two high and criss-cross) and another piece of plywood over top to match the height of the van's floor. With the help of two neighbours we simply pulled on the tarp and slid the engine on the cart then into the garage. We then lifted the engine onto a scaffolding platform that I had set over two sawhorses ready to get cleaned up.
I spent the next couple of days messing around with the engine to reseal the valve covers, clean the injectors and get the timing belt idlers wheels worked out. You are supposed to buy the complete timing belt kit which includes the coolant pump, all idler bearings and timing belt. Instead I took the best bearings of the two engines and repacked them with grease. One of them had an odd plastic cover behind the seals, so I chose the best of the two and left that one alone. Unfortunately it is known to be the first idler bearing to fail.... Obviously I did buy a new timing belt lol The injectors were actually ok, but out of four plugs only one looked to have a good color and the other three were white. I had a lean code on mine after only 4 months of storage, so I wasn't going to chance it. I had used my last can of Seafoam to fix that problem, so I got another with 5L of Castrol GTX Ultraclean 5W30 (high quality mineral oil) and a new cheap compression gauge. By the way I have used the fancy oils, in particular one brand we often see folks believe is better for their sleds than XPS. Obviously I am referring to their 4S oil for automobiles. Within 6 months the low mileage Toyota that had never sipped oil began to drink like a drunken sailor lol I imagine it was good oil, but whatever it did to the seals caused it to consume a lot of it. I would take a year after returning to be standard mineral oil before he quit drinking. I have spoken to others on DooTalk with the same experience. When folks ask me what oil to use, I always say the one that has proven to work for them. Now that you know my own experience, I hope it makes sense why I answer this way. It don't know how good the Castrol oil that I use, but I don't drive hard and I don't tow other than a light trailer, and the engines have no trouble passing 300,000 km.... unless the timing belt breaks first lol
The coolant is the fun part. I had an unopened container of Prestone, the standard stuff in a yellow bottle. I split the content equally into two clean 4L ice cream containers (yes I love ice cream lol), and split 4L of demineralized treated water into both. From having emptied the failed engine I knew that I needed over 4L of coolant. I barely got 3L before the rad was full. I personally find the common procedure to bleed a cooling system to be a PITA and there is no guarantee to eliminate the air pockets! I bought a cooling test cap from BRP in 2013 to work on the 1000 SDI and I have not followed a common cooling bleeding procedure ever since. Plug the test cap, plumb the Mytivac and start siphoning. I unplugged the cap and filled some more which took the remaining 4L and nearly another 2L. I was confident that it was good, but I siphoned the air a third and last time to be sure. I filled the overflow tank to full and after running the engine for a few minutes is went down about 2/3 of the way between the full and low mark. I am not going to siphon again. From my experience I am confident that it is fine.
From what I picked-up of MrSubaru1387 on YouTube who is a connoisseur on the Subaru Boxer engines, one possibility for the head gasket failure is corrosion from old coolant that has not been replaced. I assume that I am like most who do not bother to replace the coolant when it is needed? The way to determine a head gasket leak is from excess pressure in the cooling system, which happens to be an area that I am familiar with Ski-Doo snowmobiles! I have found and measured and diagnosed enough of those to understand that concept well. I don't quite know why some sleds build pressure while others do not, but the point is that I am familiar enough with the subject. The problem is that I have never really looked into the pressure build-up on a car or truck. So I need to figure this out to ensure the replacement engine hasn't blown a head gasket. The plan is to use the comparative method that I learned from working on sleds. When I don't know what to expect from one engine, then I will test a known good working engine such as my Toyota. Once I have a benchmark I will compare and proceed to replace the coolant in the Toyota as well. By the way I haven't figured out how I will proceed with a coolant flush on the Toyota which is the main reason that I keep putting it off. I don't play the chemistry mixing game, so either I perform a complete flush and change for Prestone, or I do the best flush I can and keep using the same Toyota coolant that was in there. My hope is Toyota is not like Ford that has changed types of coolant so many times that it takes a shelf to show each one lol
I have one CVT boot to replace tomorrow before I can return to work which I have been away far too long due to the engine failure and catching a bad cold a day later lol My local garage who has aligned the wheels said to just remove the lower ball joint and I would not have to re-align the wheels. Nothing is ever that easy lol At least the old engine runs and I can get back to pulling my trailer. Tomorrow I will also need to decide the work for the next week. I am going to be cleaning gutters, cutting trees or reshingle a roof? Three weeks ago I was trimming hedges and large trees. Few have their trees trimmed, but it is done. I don't go beyond 20 feet because it gets too high. I get a pleasure watching YouTube videos showing how to setup two sets of scaffolding on their own. Try four! lol And do it safely and securely without falling, and do the work safely without falling lol And it needs to be moved! I ended the month fixing a transmission of a Santa Fé that would no longer engage into park. It was all done in the owner's driveway an a lot easier than trimming trees lol
I have to feed and dress two people, and everyday remind one where there bed is or how to zip their jacket or where the facet is to fill their cup with water and so on. And it only gets worse. A few weeks ago I left my keys out and the next morning my car was gone! Fortunately I only had to walk 10 min to get my car back lol November is getting colder so I have a whole new set of problems to worry about like cold hands and cold feet. I have kept putting off buying heated gloves, and I need to get onto that before December.
Sorry for no pictures, but I will eventually post them. Thanks for reading and taking an interest. Hopefully you have your own projects to share.
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30,892 Posts
The A frame with engine hoist and help from the neighbour.
![Sky Cloud Wheel Tire Car]()
![Smile Motor vehicle Vehicle Hat Cap]()
Getting the engine out of the van.
![Land vehicle Car Automotive tail & brake light Tire Automotive tire]()
Scaffolding setup with a Tirefor rope winch.
![Automotive parking light Wheel Tire Sky Building]()
Hoisting the failed engine out of the car. Keep going, a little more! lol
![Motor vehicle Automotive tire Hood Car Automotive design]()
The 240 lb Boxer is finally out.
![Smile Beard Travel Jacket Fun]()
Installing the two engine mount bolts. Keep going, they need to be tight! lol
![Air gun Shotgun Shooting range Shooting Trigger]()
Getting the engine out of the van.
Scaffolding setup with a Tirefor rope winch.
Hoisting the failed engine out of the car. Keep going, a little more! lol
The 240 lb Boxer is finally out.
Installing the two engine mount bolts. Keep going, they need to be tight! lol
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30,892 Posts
CV Boot Replacement
I don't know what got into me to even attempt this.... I normally consider this someone else's job, but I really want the car to work for tomorrow. It is a hell of job that is dirty with grease everywhere, and it is made even worse on a windy day which today happens to windy..... I suspect the bearings will have to suffer rolling through a few fallen leaves lol
First thing was to get the driveshaft free which meant disconnecting the lower arm and clean it up. I tend to clean first because I won't want to when I get tired. The angle grinder is a tool I should of had a long time ago. I have had the straight one for decades, but it does not compare when it comes to getting it to fit in tight places, and it is so much easier to work.
![Automotive tire Motor vehicle Bicycle part Wood Rim]()
![Automotive tire Motor vehicle Fender Wood Gas]()
![Automotive tire Glove Gas Rim Automotive wheel system]()
Here are the parts laying my platform in the garage away for the wind. Now I need to find where I hid the new boot and hope it fits, otherwise it will get a milk bag lol
![Hand tool Wood Tool Gas Metalworking hand tool]()
Unfortunately I have a new out boot and need the inner one which I will get tomorrow morning around 9 AM.
I don't know what got into me to even attempt this.... I normally consider this someone else's job, but I really want the car to work for tomorrow. It is a hell of job that is dirty with grease everywhere, and it is made even worse on a windy day which today happens to windy..... I suspect the bearings will have to suffer rolling through a few fallen leaves lol
First thing was to get the driveshaft free which meant disconnecting the lower arm and clean it up. I tend to clean first because I won't want to when I get tired. The angle grinder is a tool I should of had a long time ago. I have had the straight one for decades, but it does not compare when it comes to getting it to fit in tight places, and it is so much easier to work.
Here are the parts laying my platform in the garage away for the wind. Now I need to find where I hid the new boot and hope it fits, otherwise it will get a milk bag lol
Unfortunately I have a new out boot and need the inner one which I will get tomorrow morning around 9 AM.
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807 Posts
That's one cool project and a great job on your behalf
I had a buddy drop by the other day and he shows me a picture on his phone what he picked up right next door to him not knowing it was even there , a 1957 limited edition gold series lawnboy mower
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30,892 Posts
Junkyard engine woes
I got the Subaru running fine for a couple days until it sprung a coolant leak yesterday...... I found the leak to be in a steel pipe that runs from the coolant pump to the habitat heat exchanger. It has a T that leads to the intake manifold and it leaked in the part of the pipe. I do not believe it was leaking when I got the engine, so it must have been caused by me when I wire wheeled that portion and applied grease to prevent further corrosion.
Since I still had my failed engine in the garage I could see the only way to replace the pipe was to remove the intake manifold, so I ordered a new pipe and two new intake gaskets before the day's end. Later in the evening my buddy came over to take a look, the same one you saw who helped me pull the engine in the junkyard. I explained that not only did I need to remove the intake, I also needed to grind a small portion of the intake on the head to clear the pipe. It was a non essential portion to grind, so a non issue, but I really did not want to remove the intake on this engine since I had already seen the junk that fell into the intake when I removed the one on the failed engine and it all went into the intake valves. So I continued explaining that once the intake was removed that I would need to blow-out the junk and hope to get it all out, then build a block-off plate for the intake prior to grinding. All this time I could see him focused on the pope with no reaction or replies and I soon found out why. He was already 10 steps ahead of me thinking how to re-route that section of the pipe..... Brilliant!
From there it took us well over an hour if not two to work out different possibilities which began with the hope to find a T fitting that would fit two different types of coolant hoses as the one that T'd into the intake was much smaller. The time was well spent as the end result was a plug & play setup using the pipe and coolant hose from my old engine. We did need to cut-out a bend on one hose, but that is splitting hairs. The way it worked out was surreal.
In the middle of the picture you can see the rusted old coolant pipe running from the front of the engine on the left, to the habitat heater on the right. The T is where the large white tie wrap is wrapped to. A half inch further up in the picture is where the other pipe developed a pin hole leak. Ironically the leaky pipe was in far better shape with little rust other than that area, hence how my feeble attempt to clean and grease the area caused a leak. In the middle of the picture note how the pipe runs below the fuel lines and above the plug wires which are spaced about 2 1/4 inch. So there was plenty of room to route the pipe, but somehow it landed perfectly in between the two! It is also not too close to the head nor rubbing against anything, and it clears the spark plugs without hindering their removal! I literally could not ask for a better fit.
Question for you guys:
Do I cancel the order for the new pipe at $100 that includes tax and travel?
I personally hope it can work this way throughout the winter, but I need to consider the possibility of failure. It took us 4 hours from start to finish which includes running the engine long enough to find leaks which we did on the small hose and replaced it with a common worm collar clamp. The replacement of the pipe would take no more than a hour that requires emptying the coolant one more time. However it can be done outdoors at even at -10C which is made possible by having greased all three ends of the pipe where the hoses connect to. Or perhaps it is worth having just in case and knowing that the rusty one is a potential problem. Subaru did tell me that hose is a chronic problem, and the shorter pipe just above was not.
![Automotive fuel system Motor vehicle Auto part Gas Automotive air manifold]()
I got the Subaru running fine for a couple days until it sprung a coolant leak yesterday...... I found the leak to be in a steel pipe that runs from the coolant pump to the habitat heat exchanger. It has a T that leads to the intake manifold and it leaked in the part of the pipe. I do not believe it was leaking when I got the engine, so it must have been caused by me when I wire wheeled that portion and applied grease to prevent further corrosion.
Since I still had my failed engine in the garage I could see the only way to replace the pipe was to remove the intake manifold, so I ordered a new pipe and two new intake gaskets before the day's end. Later in the evening my buddy came over to take a look, the same one you saw who helped me pull the engine in the junkyard. I explained that not only did I need to remove the intake, I also needed to grind a small portion of the intake on the head to clear the pipe. It was a non essential portion to grind, so a non issue, but I really did not want to remove the intake on this engine since I had already seen the junk that fell into the intake when I removed the one on the failed engine and it all went into the intake valves. So I continued explaining that once the intake was removed that I would need to blow-out the junk and hope to get it all out, then build a block-off plate for the intake prior to grinding. All this time I could see him focused on the pope with no reaction or replies and I soon found out why. He was already 10 steps ahead of me thinking how to re-route that section of the pipe..... Brilliant!
From there it took us well over an hour if not two to work out different possibilities which began with the hope to find a T fitting that would fit two different types of coolant hoses as the one that T'd into the intake was much smaller. The time was well spent as the end result was a plug & play setup using the pipe and coolant hose from my old engine. We did need to cut-out a bend on one hose, but that is splitting hairs. The way it worked out was surreal.
In the middle of the picture you can see the rusted old coolant pipe running from the front of the engine on the left, to the habitat heater on the right. The T is where the large white tie wrap is wrapped to. A half inch further up in the picture is where the other pipe developed a pin hole leak. Ironically the leaky pipe was in far better shape with little rust other than that area, hence how my feeble attempt to clean and grease the area caused a leak. In the middle of the picture note how the pipe runs below the fuel lines and above the plug wires which are spaced about 2 1/4 inch. So there was plenty of room to route the pipe, but somehow it landed perfectly in between the two! It is also not too close to the head nor rubbing against anything, and it clears the spark plugs without hindering their removal! I literally could not ask for a better fit.
Question for you guys:
Do I cancel the order for the new pipe at $100 that includes tax and travel?
I personally hope it can work this way throughout the winter, but I need to consider the possibility of failure. It took us 4 hours from start to finish which includes running the engine long enough to find leaks which we did on the small hose and replaced it with a common worm collar clamp. The replacement of the pipe would take no more than a hour that requires emptying the coolant one more time. However it can be done outdoors at even at -10C which is made possible by having greased all three ends of the pipe where the hoses connect to. Or perhaps it is worth having just in case and knowing that the rusty one is a potential problem. Subaru did tell me that hose is a chronic problem, and the shorter pipe just above was not.
Joined
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30,892 Posts
CV Boot Replacement woes
This one actually came prior to the coolant leak. I first got the outer boot when I needed the inner. I got the inner one the next day, but it was too small to fit! I tried to find other models of the Subaru to see if one would fit, but a no go. So I went to Napa and was given the same boot... too small. I wasn't ready to give up because it would mean another trip to the junkyard which is a hit&miss if the part can be removed. After 20 min we found the Legacy and Outback from 2010 to 2014 did have larger boots which seemed to fit. I picked it up the next morning and it did fit!
When I saw the bill I said to the clerk that it was $10 cheaper then what I had bought at the other place. He knew full story and replied that my streak of bad luck would eventually turn, and fortunately it did. The cool part is I can once again haul my trailer!
I have 4 studded ice tires that I ran only one season waiting for snow. Who better than snowmobilers to understand the value of an AWD with studs!
This one actually came prior to the coolant leak. I first got the outer boot when I needed the inner. I got the inner one the next day, but it was too small to fit! I tried to find other models of the Subaru to see if one would fit, but a no go. So I went to Napa and was given the same boot... too small. I wasn't ready to give up because it would mean another trip to the junkyard which is a hit&miss if the part can be removed. After 20 min we found the Legacy and Outback from 2010 to 2014 did have larger boots which seemed to fit. I picked it up the next morning and it did fit!
When I saw the bill I said to the clerk that it was $10 cheaper then what I had bought at the other place. He knew full story and replied that my streak of bad luck would eventually turn, and fortunately it did. The cool part is I can once again haul my trailer!
I have 4 studded ice tires that I ran only one season waiting for snow. Who better than snowmobilers to understand the value of an AWD with studs!
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