My (Oz-built) '99 outback (US Legacy/liberty) is smoking like a chimney. Engine is SOHC (phase-2?)
It seems to be valve stem related.
1) Compression is good and matched, 2) There is no oil in water or water in oil. 3) mechanic says no obvious sign of any one plug fouled.. all look the same (which puzzles me a little)Smoking (blue, oil smelling) is upon first acceleration after periods of compression braking or idling. Car has done about 120k kms; service history is somewhat unknown (we purchased approx 12 months ago.. the smoking problem has been slowly increasing since then).
My questions are: - Are valve stem seals a known failure mode on the ej25? I haven't found any other references to this problem... it is possible the car spent much of its life idle, as the mileage was low for the age (10k/ year) - Is it possible I've dropped an exhaust valve guide, given 3) above? Wouldn't this give me marginal compression on one cylinder? Can this be checked by dropping the exhaust manifolds?
Mechanic wants AU$3k to pull the motor and rebuild the heads (plus $$ if he finds more to do, no doubt) . so I'm looking for a somewhat less costly option.. (other than pumping it full of stop-smoke, 60-weight oil and trading it in at the nearest car dealer, which is what I suspect happened when we bought it)
Given a stem-seal diagnosis: - Can I change the stem seals without removing the engine? I know this is possible in general (compressed air, rope in cylinders etc), but wonder about accessibility on the boxer. I know this will involve removing timing belt, cams etc. I did the timing belt myself not too long ago (100k) and it wasn't a big hassle. - If I can't change seals in-car, can I remove the heads without pulling the engine? I'll send the heads off to a shop to do.
any thoughts appreciated.
duncan