2. Subaru Turbo EJ25 or Six Star headers
3. Don’t replace the head bolts, useless on Subaru due to the type of bolt material.
4. adjust the valves
5. add coolant according to Subaru’s recommendations
6. Never overheat the engine
I wouldn’t get a gasket kit – I just buy the parts piecemeal.
1. 2 head gaskets, 2 cam gaskets, 1 car retainer, 1 oil pump sump, 2 intake manifold gaskets from Subaru.
*** has good aftermarket seals, brown used to be a good indicator of newer/higher quality seal materials. Older Subaru intake manifold gaskets sucked – thin and flimsy – I haven’t bothered to try the aftermarket for newer stuff, so it might be good, it might not.
2. Valve cover gasket set from Rockauto or Advance Auto parts with discount code online, spark plugs. Gates Time Kit from Amazon.
3. You can often reuse exhaust manifold gaskets, the Subaru ones are very durable. For the same reason, they are not a bad idea to get from Subaru, but few other markets are as strong of a metal type as subaru. the more “cardboard” looking fire ring ones are not. But they are easily replaced anyway – just unbolt the manifold and slide on and off, so I usually leave them and only replace them if they don’t hold – the OEM gaskets often do this without loss.
The Gates kits on Amazon are good. In the past, if I want to be crazy, I’ve thrown the belt in kits and bought a Subaru belt. With an experienced mechanic, these belts can be done in 45 minutes – it’s not a bad idea to just plan to check the components at 50,000 miles no matter what you do.
Subaru timing components are certainly better… 0.5% better quality – but much more expensive – so if the extra $100 – $250 doesn’t bother you, definitely get it.
