Oil Leaking??

[Ethereal]

Originally Posted by AndyB

First post here. I have a FRS with 6500 miles (manual) 2000 of which are track day miles. (I'm a driving instructor) My car started with the burning oil smell after my first track day. I pulled the plate, cleaned and re-sealed it with Permatex RTV taking care to do the one hour set time with the bolts finger tight before torquing them properly and allowing a 24 hour cure. This works until the next track time.

My theory is 2-fold The steel plate expands and contracts at a different rate than the aluminum head it is attached to thus causing tiny stress crack in the silicone sealant. The very thin 0w20 oil when hot finds its way through and it only takes one drop on the hot exhaust to make a whole lot of smell.

Second problem is when tracking, I think hard left hand turns puts/holds more oil in the heads, essentially filling up the void behind the plate to dribble out on the hot exhaust over the next few hundred miles.

I finally got tired of the re-sealing thing so I picked up a sheet of FelPro cork 1/16" gasket material and made a custom gasket. The cork swells when oil is in contact with it and allows the plate to move ever so independently from the aluminum head.

I have flogged the car for around 500 miles and not been able to cause the leak again.

Hope this helps.

a rubber gasket is definitely the better solution for this. cant believe they cheaped out on this so much. hopefully they fix it when they retool for the 2014's...

[Marrk]

@AndyB: This stuff?

http://www.autozone.com/autozone/acc...ier=67679_0_0_


BTW, thanks for your good post.

[AndyB]

Originally Posted by Marrk

@AndyB: This stuff?

http://www.autozone.com/autozone/acc...ier=67679_0_0_


BTW, thanks for your good post.

That's the stuff.

RE the rubber gasket. I thought about that but the flange on the head is only about 3/16" wide. I worried about it "squirming" out.
If I ever had the head off I would have a groove machined in the flange for a rubber o-ring. That would be an absolute bulletproof fix.

[Clipdat]

Do you have any pictures you could share of the gasket that you created?

[jimbobrand]

Update: After having my car in their shop for three days they finally notify me that after scanning my ECU and sending the info to the Subaru Tech Lines they said that my ECU seems to not have the tune that was supposed to come on the car from the factory. This would be news to me since I've never had a tune done or even had anything plugged into the OBDII port. They said that due to this, the AFE intake, and Nameless axelback they have flagged my VIN with SoA as "modded" and will not repair the botched attempt to repair my car. On top of that, they said I have to drop of the loaner andcome pick up my leaking car from the dealership tomorrow (Saturday) morning. I'm so pissed off right now.

[Foobar]

Originally Posted by jimbobrand

Update: After having my car in their shop for three days they finally notify me that after scanning my ECU and sending the info to the Subaru Tech Lines they said that my ECU seems to not have the tune that was supposed to come on the car from the factory. This would be news to me since I've never had a tune done or even had anything plugged into the OBDII port. They said that due to this, the AFE intake, and Nameless axelback they have flagged my VIN with SoA as "modded" and will not repair the botched attempt to repair my car. On top of that, they said I have to drop of the loaner andcome pick up my leaking car from the dealership tomorrow (Saturday) morning. I'm so pissed off right now.

I'd escalate with Subaru of America.

Yet another reason I avoid going to the dealer for minor work.

By the way, what dealer is this? We should all avoid dealers that try to ignore the Magnuson-Moss warranty act.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

[Bristecom]

You know, this sounds like a pretty severe issue. Oil leaking on the exhaust is not something we should have to deal with. And it potentially effects all of these cars. I think it is very important for Subaru and Toyota to be aware of this and take action to fully correct it such as redesigning that plate with a gasket.

[Lonewolf]

Originally Posted by jimbobrand

Update: After having my car in their shop for three days they finally notify me that after scanning my ECU and sending the info to the Subaru Tech Lines they said that my ECU seems to not have the tune that was supposed to come on the car from the factory. This would be news to me since I've never had a tune done or even had anything plugged into the OBDII port. They said that due to this, the AFE intake, and Nameless axelback they have flagged my VIN with SoA as "modded" and will not repair the botched attempt to repair my car. On top of that, they said I have to drop of the loaner andcome pick up my leaking car from the dealership tomorrow (Saturday) morning. I'm so pissed off right now.

They are trying to get out of this issue (and their incompetence) with this diversion tactic. Escalate with a regional service advisor for Subaru and Subie's customer service line. The ECU/intake has NOTHING to do with the plate having an issue with oil leaking since this is occurring on stock cars.

If they still want to jerk you around, file a safety complaint with the NHTSA that this is a safety issue. (Since a fire could be caused by this leak)

[jimbobrand]

Originally Posted by Foobar

I'd escalate with Subaru of America.

Yet another reason I avoid going to the dealer for minor work.

By the way, what dealer is this? We should all avoid dealers that try to ignore the Magnuson-Moss warranty act.

Originally Posted by Lonewolf

They are trying to get out of this issue (and their incompetence) with this diversion tactic. Escalate with a regional service advisor for Subaru and Subie's customer service line. The ECU/intake has NOTHING to do with the plate having an issue with oil leaking since this is occurring on stock cars.

If they still want to jerk you around, file a safety complaint with the NHTSA that this is a safety issue. (Since a fire could be caused by this leak)

Thanks guys! I agree with what the both of you have said and the tech is just trying to get out of fixing something he messed up. I could have fixed the issue myself (and may eventually do so) but as I've said before, I want this issue known by Subaru so others don't have this issue in the future. I'll keep the dealership's name to myself for the time being but will make it known if they choose to not make this right.

I got to the dealership this morning and the service advisor on duty totally understood where I was coming from and told me that we will wait for word from the Subaru Customer Service guy I've been dealing with before they wash their hands of me and my car. I'm still in the loaner car for now and waiting to hear back from Customer Service.

[Foobar]

Originally Posted by jimbobrand

I could have fixed the issue myself (and may eventually do so) but as I've said before, I want this issue known by Subaru so others don't have this issue in the future. I'll keep the dealership's name to myself for the time being but will make it known if they choose to not make this right.

You could have advised them without having them fix the car, but I get your point. You wanted to make sure everyone else would benefit from this information being captured.

As far as protecting this dealer, so long as you have to go through them to get this resolved, I understand, don't make things worse for yourself right now, but as soon as you get nowhere else with these guys, you'd be doing the FT86 community a disservice by protecting their identity, especially after they blatantly violated the Magnuson-Moss Warranty act by refusing to work on your car's cylinder head plate which has no bearing on the ECU, Intake, or muffler. That's just asinine of them to even suggest that. Just as you wanted to make sure everyone would benefit from the information being captured by Subaru regarding the fix, I believe we would benefit more from knowing which shady dealer to stay away from.

[theom]

Originally Posted by AndyB

First post here. I have a FRS with 6500 miles (manual) 2000 of which are track day miles. (I'm a driving instructor) My car started with the burning oil smell after my first track day. I pulled the plate, cleaned and re-sealed it with Permatex RTV taking care to do the one hour set time with the bolts finger tight before torquing them properly and allowing a 24 hour cure. This works until the next track time.

My theory is 2-fold The steel plate expands and contracts at a different rate than the aluminum head it is attached to thus causing tiny stress crack in the silicone sealant. The very thin 0w20 oil when hot finds its way through and it only takes one drop on the hot exhaust to make a whole lot of smell.

Second problem is when tracking, I think hard left hand turns puts/holds more oil in the heads, essentially filling up the void behind the plate to dribble out on the hot exhaust over the next few hundred miles.

I finally got tired of the re-sealing thing so I picked up a sheet of FelPro cork 1/16" gasket material and made a custom gasket. The cork swells when oil is in contact with it and allows the plate to move ever so independently from the aluminum head.

I have flogged the car for around 500 miles and not been able to cause the leak again.

Hope this helps.

Did you use anything to hold the FelPro to the plate?
Would it be bad to cover the whole plate with Felpro to keep it from flexing under the torque of the bolts. Or maybe just around the bolts as well at the circular area we need to seal?

[AndyB]

Originally Posted by theom

Did you use anything to hold the FelPro to the plate?
Would it be bad to cover the whole plate with Felpro to keep it from flexing under the torque of the bolts. Or maybe just around the bolts as well at the circular area we need to seal?

I simply placed the cork sheet on a piece of plywood, placed the plate over it and clamped it together. I drilled the three holes through the cork using the plywood backer to keep from tearing the cork. I then traced the outline of the plate and cut the whole thing out. I sprayed some gasket sealer/adhesive on the plate and the back side of the cork so that they would stick together, but the cork did curl a bit when I torqued the bolts.

I'm looking at this as a solution until the factory comes up with a cast or billet aluminum plate that will hold a real rubber o-ring or a real gasket. The cork sheet works fine but it is a cave man solution.

[theom]

Originally Posted by AndyB

I simply placed the cork sheet on a piece of plywood, placed the plate over it and clamped it together. I drilled the three holes through the cork using the plywood backer to keep from tearing the cork. I then traced the outline of the plate and cut the whole thing out. I sprayed some gasket sealer/adhesive on the plate and the back side of the cork so that they would stick together, but the cork did curl a bit when I torqued the bolts.

I'm looking at this as a solution until the factory comes up with a cast or billet aluminum plate that will hold a real rubber o-ring or a real gasket. The cork sheet works fine but it is a cave man solution.

Thanks,
One would hope the factory would develop a better plate soon. If not it's another opportunity for Perrin or some other aftermarket company to make a black crinkle finish plate with their name on it. I'd buy it assuming it would have a track machined in for a high temp O ring.

[disgruntld]

Woke up this morning and when I backed the car out of the garage had 2 little runs of oil on the ground. The oil on the dipstick seems not to have changed but had to get to work so couldn't investigaate further. Have duty today so will try to get under the car tomorrow.