Why Subarus Don't Suck

Subarus actually don't suck and it might just be you the truth hurts sometimes but this one had to be said in today's video we're talking about where the hate started and why it's not true figure out if Subarus are actually unreliable what is known to go wrong and how you could fix it and end the video off with some modification tips so you can have more confidence while building your Subaru that it won't blow up now to address the elephant in the room the head gasket issue that Subarus are known for I say that in quotations because the truth is the head gasket failure actually started from the 2.5 L naturally aspirated version of this this is the ej255 a WX engine a turbo engine never had this issue they came with MLS gaskets like multi-layer steel gaskets which never had an issue never were prone to issues it was only the 2.5 L non-turbo that's where the issue stem from and then the joke went across everywhere and said subers just blown head gas left and right it's not true I've never blown one don't ask where I got this okay the truth is why I even have this cuz someone's going to make that joke I have cusworth head gas kits I upgraded to that this came with my comedic kit and I just use this as a prop now I've joked about it too but the joke literally stems from the non-turbo version turbo ones they don't have that problem anyway moving on the real problem is probably you it's kind of a joke but it's kind of not if you know someone or if you personally have had a problem with a head gasket issue on a turbo model which I say don't have problems it might be a u problem meaning taking care of it properly right and we'll get into that later but keep in mind it might be a you problem this is a boxer engine obviously it's different and that's why we like them but because they are different it's going to take a little bit different care to make them 100% one of the biggest reasons that Subaru went to a boxer style engine is because the low center of gravity you just can't mimic it all the weight is down down low keeping this thing balanced making it feel pretty substantial in the turns it's a good thing of course there's going to be downsides to having a boxer engine like serviceability of certain things spark plugs are kind of difficult if you're new to them you got to have a couple little tools little maybe 15° little angle of an extension all these kinds of stuff but you get used to it spark plugs is honestly no big deal now valve cover gaskets a little bit harder everything's just on the side and the other thing is when you compare to just a normal four cylinder that's in line if you think about this it's almost like having a V6 there's two of everything because there's two banks that means there's going to be two int cams two exhaust cams it's just two of everything two cylinder heads four four cylinder it's pretty rare so technically there is more parts to go wrong but they're pretty dang reliable now of course I obviously love Subarus and I'm going to defend them till I go out but let's be honest here there is some problems that they do have which I'll address now when I was building at my Subaru this was like the first thing that I came across right and that's one of the good things about having an engine around for so long right people may complain that the EJ's been around forever but with that there's so much research and development and aftermarket parts to make it more reliable and address the issues that every engine probably comes to and those two issues are the baffling inside the oil pan and also the oil pickup tube if you've been in the Subaru game for a while you already know about this that little pickup tube can crack because it's not welded it's actually like brazed I believe is what it's called and if that thing cracks it can pull up some air and well there goes your engine it's such a simple thing to replace and I honestly it's not really even that expensive it does take some time to get it done right but those two things can seriously save your engine instead of freaking putting on a new turbo you've got to address the basics and have a super solid foundation just like with anything before you build on top of it you install the new turbo the injectors the intake if you don't address add the little things that need to be addressed on EJ engines of course you're going to run into problems now if you don't know what baffling even is and why you would actually need it if you just have a daily Subaru might not be that big of a deal it's once you take the Subaru to the track is where the baffling is going to come super into hand when you're on the track your car is going to see a bunch of G's right if you're going super fast you're freaking hooning or even in the mountains and what's going to happen to your oil inside the oil pan it's going to be sosing around left and right and what the baffling will do is kind of keep it in place for lack of better terms and allow oil to always stay where it should be so the oil pickup tube or the oil pump to the oil pickup tube can suck up only oil and not air and that's why you may see a lot of Subaru blowing up at the track because they don't have those necessary modifications the basic ones that you need if you plan on tracking it just like if you maybe have seen probably like 8 months to a year ago donut media did a series on it where they blew up like four or five engines and that's when a bunch of hate was coming in my last video kind of addressed a little bit of it where a lot of the internet loves to hate on the Subaru where I think they did address where they didn't have a lot of experience with Subarus right they didn't know about those basic things and that's why they were blowing up there's also another really in-depth video by Mr Subaru he has a YouTube channel he went fully in-depth on what problems they were having and how he they should have addressed it and how they should have fixed all those problems it's a great video shout out to Mr sharu if you ever see this but if you like Subaru you probably know who that is already now just like I said in the beginning of the video the problem may be you now this is not directed just at you guys if you watch this video then you know you're probably pretty chill but you got to think a Subaru could be someone's first car right and if it's someone's first car and they're just getting into the scene they might not know to do the research to do the proper supporting mods before they start modifying it they're like you know what I'm throwing on a downpipe I'm throwing in injectors I'm going to do an intake and they don't don't even tune it I swear this happens I know it sounds crazy inexperienced with a car that you know is pretty complicated pretty complex all-wheel drive boxer engine those two things together there's going to be some problems now I don't want to sound like a broken record and me being a mechanic kind of you know maintenance freaking maintenance do the regular maintenance change your oil do the spark plugs flush the coolant system get all the fresh stuff in there before you freaking start modifying it's just as simple as that you got to think you have to have a solid base that's really what I say and this will be a perfect segue into the modifications tips for modifying Subaru and having confidence that it won't blow up what I like to do and just to make it simple is start with a power goal in mind if you could drive a car that has that amount of power and you really like it and you're set on that start with a power goal and work backwards you got to figure out what are the actual modifications that are needed to support that power it's literally when I say supporting mods you're really going to need all the modifications to support whatever power level you want 350 400 500 700 whatever you want you need to know the higher power you go the more supporting mods you're going to need in certain stages of the Subaru and if you don't have those problems are going to arise when you think of someone getting their car tuned or I've spoke with a few tuners typically what they'll do is they'll always kind of back off about what let's just say 10 to 15% of whatever the maximum holding capacity is you always want to have that you never want to have one specific aspect of that build being 100% maxed out because when something's 100% maxed out the lifespan on that it's not going to be too long just like if you try to do 600 horsepower on a 5-speed transmission on awx we all know what's going to happen it's not going to hold now if you're thinking about adding some power to your WX and you do want to take it to the track or some pretty aggressive spirited driving I already mentioned it you want to get the pickup you want to do the pan with a baffle or you could put a baffle in your stock pan I believe too so those are two options those are things right out the gate aggressive driving you want to get those done also great things to do flush the cooling system and while you're at it upgrade the radiator get some better fans cooling is always a big thing always great because with big power comes big heat you want to keep things cool also Al another great thing to think about is modifying in batches of modifications I know it's pretty exciting when you get like a Down Pike for example you want to install it and just drive your car you want to freaking hear the turbo spool I know how amazing it is but when I say modify in batches of of Parts meaning if you can you save up you buy a part you put it to the side you want to get like an intake an exhaust a downpipe a turbo inlet maybe you want to go E8 5 do everything at the same time if you can and in the long run it's going to be better for your car and it's going to be better for your wallet believe it or not because you can get the tune once all those are in all at the same time what a lot of people will do is they be like oh I got a downpipe I think it will be fine if I just drive it without the tune I'll wait for the intake if you're going to be changing major components without tuning the car properly it's not going to be a good time now as you can tell I am super passionate about this subject I got to defend the Subaru gang uh as long as I'm here and as long as I'm making videos so hope you guys enjoyed this one I want to hear all your guys' experiences with your personal Subaru tell me if you had reliability issues or tell me if you had some problems when you were modifying your car it did something I say kind of spark your interest I want to hear it all I want to hear the experiences I want to hear if your if your car blew up what happened was it your fault or was it the car's fault I don't know I like I said I could be going crazy but I'm going to say it subers are reliable

Channel: Alexander Vargas

Views: 30,276

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Id: 7SC7pkIujaU

Length: 9min 58sec (598 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 07 2023