Subaru

Uniberp got me started with his post about replacing the valve cover gaskets on his Subaru. This video gives you pretty good idea of the pain involved. It's a little long but he doesn't waste any of your time.


How To Subaru Valve Cover Gasket Replacement part 1
Uniberp needed a wrench to get the job done:

1/4" sliding t-handle

I need one of these to get a valve cover bolt off, in a very tight position. Seems I should have one somewhere but no.

Sears has one, $8.48 plus shipping

Grainger has one, $134.50

Nope at Ace or NAPA or Advance Auto

I will check Harbor Freight on the way home

Grainger probably has to order it anyhow.

Success. I found a 1/4 breaker bar $9, by Crescent, at Menards. Drilled a relief hole sideways into the aluminum threaded boss to relieve the stuck pig bolt before it twisted off and I would have had to remove the engine which would have been necessary because it would have leaked oil like a sieve.

Yes this preventative maintenance needed to be done. There are seals around the spark plug holes that harden and leak and fill the spark plug tube with oil.

I'm impressed with Grainger's price. I suppose having a supply chain that can deliver whatever you need has its benefits, but I am still surprised by the premium they charge.


1969 Subaru FF-1 station wagon

A long time ago I had a Subaru. I think it was a '69 model, give or take a year or two. It had 80 HP and got 30 MPG. Gas only cost a quarter, but minimum wage was only $2.25. If memory serves, the car cost $1400 used. I got my parents to buy it for me on the premise that I wasn't never going to college. I suffered through high school and I was thoroughly sick of school. I drove the shit out of that car, from Ohio to Florida, California, up and down the West Coast, back to Ohio and eventually to Texas where, after being crunched twice and two major engine repairs, I sold it for parts. It was a little tin box, but it went fast enough to keep up on the freeway.

Subaru's are very popular here in Oregon. They are especially handy if you go to, or over, the mountains in the winter time. I don't like them because I suspect the viscous coupling they use to connect the front and rear drive axles is some kind of Japanese bullshit, i.e. a very expensive component that you can't repair yourself. If it fails the least you can expect is you'll have to buy a new one from the dealer for half the price of a new car. Of course if it never fails, it's not a problem. I have no evidence to support any of this, just my feelings on the subject. I suspect that the only cars that use this technology are Subaru and  some overpriced German snobmobiles, and being as Chuck rhymes with Cheap, I ain't spending any money on these kind of gimcracks.

If anyone who spends considerable time driving on snow covered roads asked me what kind of car to buy I would recommend Subaru without hesitation. The odds of having to make an expensive repair are so low that it doesn't merit consideration. But emotions are not logical. The pain of having to fight for traction on snow covered roads is something you will carry with you long after you have forgotten how much you paid for anything as mundane as a car repair.

A friend of a friend makes a little extra money during the summer by buying Subarus in Florida and driving them to Oregon, which strikes me as pretty weird, but then we did score a deal on my daughter's Mazda in Florida. That was the one bright spot in our ill-fated adventure to Miami.