[SubiAficionado]

Overhauling the engine in my very first Subaru and more..

Hello everyone!
My name is Mike, I'm from Miami Florida. Back in December last year, I bought my very first Subaru ever, an Aspen White 2001 Forester L
In the past, I've always had Honda vehicles, but I've always kept an eye on Subarus and always wanted to own one. So after a long time and much search online, I was able to find what imo was a Forester in great condition for its year, with only 114K miles. However, the car would not be without its faults as it had been intermittently overheating by what seemed to be an issue with its Achilles' hill: the infamous head gasket problem. Even though, I had done quiet a few aesthetic mods and mostly suspension work on my previous cars, I had never embarked a job as big as a partial/total engine overhaul. I must admit at first I was a little intimidated.. So I started reading the shop manual a lot and learning about the car, researching here and there, asking others and watching a whole lot of YouTube videos. I went ahead and bought an engine lift, an engine stand and some specialty tools needed for the job along with many other tools which would serve later. And with the help of my father in law, we started taking the engine apart. I am a Radiologic Technologist. At work they were going to throw away a sturdy frame which was originally holding brand new X-Ray equipment which came from Germany. It occurred to me I could turn it into a sturdy work bench and decided to keep it.

I will try to be as thorough as possible showing all my work details and also asking questions as I go along. After all, this is the first time I'm doing this. Hopefully those thinking of doing a similar job can benefit from this thread as well.

I apologize for some of the tilted pics..

The day it arrived home

X-Ray table frame I took home

Most of the equipment the frame was holding

The future work bench

Then I built a table top for it

Added a sheet of zinc on top

Harbor Freight holidays specials

Tools I used..

let the disassembly begin

Since I've never done this before and there are so many connections, we marked all hoses, connectors, sensors, etc with the same numbers for male/female connections

Engine bay as it was before being removed. All male/female connectors/pipes and hoses were labeled each other with the same number in order to make engine rebuild much easier

 

[adc]

Good luck with the rebuild.

 

[SubiAficionado]

Good luck with the rebuild.

Thanks, I wish I could figure out why the images don’t post

 

[NinoS]

Good luck. Canr think of a better way to bond with a father in law!

 

[bobk25]

Good luck!
The images are now visible 👍

Sent from my SM-J700F using Tapatalk

 

[SubiAficionado]

Good luck!
The images are now visible 👍

Sent from my SM-J700F using Tapatalk

Hey thanks man. Yeah I decided to take the engine apart after all.


But it's weird, I still don't see any of the images..

 

[SubiAficionado]

Posted some pics on the OP, some are flipped I apologize

Next steps: Take out starter motor, exhaust pipes, separate torque converter, jack under tranny, take out the 8 bolts attaching engine to tranny and engine comes out

 

[bobk25]

Don't forget to disconnect the O2 sensors from the exhaust.

Sent from my SM-J700F using Tapatalk

 

[SubiAficionado]

@bobk25 Yes of course, thanks

 

[SubiAficionado]

While I'm at it and while everything is out, I plan on:

Cleaning everything real good with degreaser
cleaning the Throttle Body
flush/clean the Fuel Injectors
replace both torn CV Axle boots by the gear box
and car's got some rust where the battery was resting, it appears broken battery acid poured on the fender.. need to clean that area real good with a wheel grinder and weld a piece of sheet metal there..

Waiting for some goodies next week
To be continued..

 

[SubiAficionado]

Update..

Finally took the engine out yesterday. Wow, for someone that’s never done this kind of job before it’s quite a lot of work, but it’s done!
I wish the Subaru manual indicated or mentioned something about transmission lines held on the bottm left(driver side) of the engine. Anyone attempting this job must be very careful and remember those lines, almost ended up pulling them. Also, there’a a nut and a bolt right above the the left axle, which need to be removed to desengage the engine from the tranny, VERY VERY difficult to remove as there’s barely any space there.. almost considered removing the left axle to take them out.. but it worked. I ended up placing a wrench on the nut and hitting it with a pipe from above, not even a swivel sicket would help, but they both came out thank God.

 

[SubiAficionado]

 

[badtlc]

I hope you are able to do regular updates of your project! Thanks for sharing.

 

[SubiAficionado]

Good luck. Canr think of a better way to bond with a father in law!

Honestly, I couldn’t have done it without him. He’s a great guy

 

[SubiAficionado]

I hope you are able to do regular updates of your project! Thanks for sharing.

Will do, planning on taking lots of pics og the build. I’m sure I’m going to have some questions as well

 

[SubiAficionado]

Engine is out!

Almost pulled out the transmission lines underneath the left side of the motor.. Even though we followed the manual step by step, it was no where mentioned to remove the two little 8mm bolts holding the tranny lines and since I was doing this for the first time I had no idea. It was almost dark when we pulled the motor, but we noticed it was tilting when lifting it.. needless to say, brought the engine down again and disconnected the lines.. we got real lucky..

Some more pics..

This right here was imo the toughest part of this whole engine removal
Crazy tough time removing the bolt and bottom nut here, barely any space at all to work down there between the cross member frame, the left axle and the steering column, not even a swivel socket would help, almost stripped the nut trying.. Thank God it loosened up.. it was even mentioned on YouTube video sometimes people having to remove the left axle to take out that bottom nut, it was that difficult. If you are attempting this job, since the bottom nut is mounted behind the transmission housing, imo the best way to get it lose is to have a buddy help you holding the nut with a wrench from under the car and hitting the wrench from up top with a pipe(can't be too big a pipe either as it won't fit in there either), we used the jack pipe to hit the wrench and it worked perfectly

Bag'm and tag'm

The Culprit.. what appears to be a Left HG leak

possible rear main seal leak? unsure it was in part from the left HG

left side and rear of transmission pan covered in oil as well, maybe due to HG leak, will fix this as well

Former owner battery acid leak Only area on the car with rust.. need to clean with grinder very well and weld a piece of sheet metal

 

[Cooktruck]

Good catch on the tranny Lines! I've pulled the engine 3 times now and forgot the last time, thank goodness I have a donor car for replacing the bent ones, I think they did finally move them to the frame rail in 2003. good luck with the rebuild, watch youtube video on how to split the block. it'll help.
I Like the bag idea for the bolts, I use plastic cups
You may want to visit Company23 and get a crank pully tool. very handy to have.

 

[bobk25]

Progress!!

Sent from my SM-J700F using Tapatalk

 

[SubiAficionado]

Good catch on the tranny Lines! I've pulled the engine 3 times now and forgot the last time, thank goodness I have a donor car for replacing the bent ones, I think they did finally move them to the frame rail in 2003. good luck with the rebuild, watch youtube video on how to split the block. it'll help.
I Like the bag idea for the bolts, I use plastic cups
You may want to visit Company23 and get a crank pully tool. very handy to have.

Yeah man, those transmission lines hanging down there was a big scare, but now I know..
Company 23 tools arriving soon, the right tools fot the job. Before I started all this, I watched quite a fewYouTube videos, they help tremendously, a lot of people have done a great job at filming their progress with these engines and that helps A LOT. Can’t wait to take those heads appart and see what’s up..

I need to see where I can get a TorkPlus TP40 tool, been to a few places and no one has it.. maybe the Subaru dealer?

 

[soobcrazy]

Can’t wait to take those heads appart and see what’s up.

Don't need to disassemble heads for a HG job...