Good idea, I'll give it a shot - fingers crossed I don't fuck anything up.....

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To remove a stuck bolt try this-
Drill/Cut off its head as needed to drill and then tap a left hand thread inside.
Insert a left hand thread bolt and tighten up.
The direction that tightens the new bolt is the loosening direction of the old bolt.
There is some skill in choosing the size and drilling along the centre and aligning. Choose a thread size and head for the left hand bolt that enables you to get a big spanner on it.
-rubberbudgie- you may be past that, sometimes you can drill the stuck bolt and the remnants still won't come out, then you have drill even more and remove the case material and rethread with a bigger size bolt or an insert.

If you drill down far enough to get the head of the bolt off ( I usually use a 14 mm drill bit for this, after drilling a smaller pilot hole), the cam pulley should come off. Then the thread of the bolt should come out of the cam, as there's no longer tension on it, as long as some drop kick hasn't loctited it. I've done this plenty of times, especially on the AVCS 2.0 and 2.5 heads. there fffing tight from factory.

OK so far here is what I have found (on the LH side head anyway which was the side where most of the coolant was coming from) - obviously these are just my theories but seeing as my experience with diagnosing engines is at best very limited someone else my have a better idea so I'm all ears....







As you can see from the arrows it appears for whatever reason there is corrosion of the block and head right near the water jacket which when hit with a sudden jolt of 2.5bar pressure has given way sending coolant into the cylinder. There are no obvious cracks on either the head nor the block (which is a relief).

Question is though - would this corrosion of the block/head cause what has happened or is this just normal wear & tear corrosion that is to be expected in any engine and if so then I'm barking up the wrong tree.....
The head gasket itself is warped around those areas too which I would guess would be where it has leaked. And a straight edge test of the block and head surfaces doesn't seem to show any signs of warping.

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Keen to hear more about this, as mine was showing small signs of this but in a different way (also on the same side of the block).

1) One of the head bolts was rather corroded; and
2) On the top of the block one of the ten mill bolts locking down the fuel rail 'from memory', pretty much snapped in half with very minimal pressure.

Glad to see you finally finally got those bolts sorted RB, they were a true test of patience.

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It appears from the photo's that the head/block are fretting. Do Subaru use dowels on their blocks? Also do they use bolts or studs to secure the heads.

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This confuses me 'from a panel beaters perspective', they use bolts '6 on each side', but they are referred to as head studs?

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From factory they have bolts. Usually they are replaced with studs when built for a high performance application.

They do have dowels, 2 per head, hollow with a head stud inside.

lol.................a customer is still waiting atleast 4 or 5 months later. He is literally 'Flooded' with work from what it seems (mind the pun).

Well I've got one side done but am back at the same point with the other 2 now - although I've sorted my welder out so at least I can weld a bolt/nut onto it this time.

It has ARP head studs.

So am I right in saying that all I really need to do is to replace the head gasket, get the head and block surfaces machined and then put it back together??

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