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I used to be a mechanic and love subaru boxer engines. I drive an older 2001 but have had an older impreza 1.8l as well. I first got turned on to them when working on them at an independent shop. If you have mechanical ability they are so easy to work on. So easy to pull the motor, replace an alternator, water pump,radiator, its all just easy.
Iv had to do head gaskets on mine multiple times but still running the original engine and has over 200k miles on it. I cannot say its the right vehicle for someone who doesnt work on their own stuff if you do its easy work.

I did have a somewhat catastrophic failure almost two years ago with it. Lost compression on #3 cylinder. Pulled motor down and found one of the exhaust valves was bent and made contact with the piston 3 times. 3 different marks as the piston bent the valve each time it hit. I was really scratching my head as to why one of two valves would hit. Pulled valve springs off and found the issue right away. Both valve guides for exhaust valves on that cylinder were migrating further and further down till one got far enough to keep one of the valves from closing. The force of impact on the 3rd smack broke the tip of the guide off and then the valve was able to move back enough to stop hitting the piston.

I bought two new exhaust valves and one new guide and new valve stem seals, hammered new guide in and hammered one old guide in. Installed the springs threw the the heads on installed engine and been daily driving it for almost 2 years now and just did new spark plugs which is the first time iv done anything besides change oil.  

A boxer engine has its drawbacks but has its benefits too. For me living in the rockys the four wheel drive subaru's have make for an ideal daily driver. If id didnt have to deal with snow and ice 6 months out of the year a honda or toyota are better options for daily driver.

Boxer engine vehicles will never get as good of mileage as a transverse mounted engines out there due to the friction losses inherent in longitudinal mounted engines. But they are naturally balanced smooth running engines with a lower center of gravity. There are things to hate and things to love.

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My '99 Subie Outback has been reliable.  It had 28K on it when I bought it in 2020.  I just rolled it over 51,500.  I did the head gaskets at 30K, as well as all the seals/gaskets/belts/water pump.   So far, the only issue is the EJ25D motor(2.5L DOHC) likes to sip a little oil.  I average a pint every 3k.

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If that were true Porsches would all leak oil for the same reason.

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FLAT FOUR.  Stop buying into their marketing bullshit to make a fucking motor seem more amazing than sliced bread.

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I used to be a mechanic and love subaru boxer engines. I drive an older 2001 but have had an older impreza 1.8l as well. I first got turned on to them when working on them at an independent shop. If you have mechanical ability they are so easy to work on. So easy to pull the motor, replace an alternator, water pump,radiator, its all just easy.
Iv had to do head gaskets on mine multiple times but still running the original engine and has over 200k miles on it. I cannot say its the right vehicle for someone who doesnt work on their own stuff if you do its easy work.

I did have a somewhat catastrophic failure almost two years ago with it. Lost compression on #3 cylinder. Pulled motor down and found one of the exhaust valves was bent and made contact with the piston 3 times. 3 different marks as the piston bent the valve each time it hit. I was really scratching my head as to why one of two valves would hit. Pulled valve springs off and found the issue right away. Both valve guides for exhaust valves on that cylinder were migrating further and further down till one got far enough to keep one of the valves from closing. The force of impact on the 3rd smack broke the tip of the guide off and then the valve was able to move back enough to stop hitting the piston.

I bought two new exhaust valves and one new guide and new valve stem seals, hammered new guide in and hammered one old guide in. Installed the springs threw the the heads on installed engine and been daily driving it for almost 2 years now and just did new spark plugs which is the first time iv done anything besides change oil.  

A boxer engine has its drawbacks but has its benefits too. For me living in the rockys the four wheel drive subaru's have make for an ideal daily driver. If id didnt have to deal with snow and ice 6 months out of the year a honda or toyota are better options for daily driver.

Boxer engine vehicles will never get as good of mileage as a transverse mounted engines out there due to the friction losses inherent in longitudinal mounted engines. But they are naturally balanced smooth running engines with a lower center of gravity. There are things to hate and things to love.

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If you keep them stock and daily drive them they are great.
If you mod them and track them they will blow up.
Open deck design (like most modern open deck aluminum blocks) doesn't lends itself well to excessive boost.
The issue for people who actually track day their subaru is oil starvation. Subaru low oil level light only comes on at around 2-4 PSI.
I don't know why or how but if you corner hard even with baffles Subaru engines tend to have oil starvation issues, they will blow up sooner rather than later.
Any one who is serious about tracking the car and longevity puts in a dry sump system.
Average Subaru modder is a 22 year old fucktard with mommys and daddys credit card who will start bolting on and replacing parts on a subaru without a second thought untill the engine blows. And when it does "LOL SUBAR BLOW HEADGASKETS LOL".  No the only gasket issue is the gasket between the drivers seat and the steering wheel.

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You probably have some one misdiagnose a warped cylinder block as a blown headgasket.
Happens a lot to used subarus. Usualy some one mods a subaru and pushes it beyond limit, blows a head gasket and warps the block because open deck. Proper solution is to pull the engine machine it and rebuild it. So what do people do? Replace the head gasket and sell the car to an unsuspecting sucker.

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4 Door record lap.

The sound awesome.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPWSfzCfGJg

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The Subaru head gasket thing is blown way out of proportion after Subaru transitioned to phase 2 ej motors. They leak a little coolant externally and that’s it. I’ve done probably close to a thousand sets of them and each and everyone was leaking externally that was a stock motor. Besides the point I could hand a blind monkey the tools to do them and he could manage no problem.

When I was doing a fair bit of them I would schedule two of them a day and have both done before quitting time.

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The Subaru head gasket thing is blown way out of proportion after Subaru transitioned to phase 2 ej motors. They leak a little coolant externally and that’s it. I’ve done probably close to a thousand sets of them and each and everyone was leaking externally that was a stock motor. Besides the point I could hand a blind monkey the tools to do them and he could manage no problem.

When I was doing a fair bit of them I would schedule two of them a day and have both done before quitting time.

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What is the cause of the leaking coolant?  Not changing coolant often enough, or something else?  I've considered getting a Subaru but some of the stories have made me reconsider.  I like to keep my vehicles maintained though so if most of these issues are from people not doing regular maintenance then I guess I shouldn't worry.

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4 Door record lap.

The sound awesome.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPWSfzCfGJg

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What is the cause of the leaking coolant?  Not changing coolant often enough, or something else?  I've considered getting a Subaru but some of the stories have made me reconsider.  I like to keep my vehicles maintained though so if most of these issues are from people not doing regular maintenance then I guess I shouldn't worry.

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What's the secret to getting the passenger side valve cover to stay sealed on a turbo EJ?

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I may be weird, but I don’t consider an engine that needs head gaskets at 30k reliable.

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Boxer engines belong in the air, not on the ground.

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Porsche disagrees with that.


I've had two 911s (air cooled) and a Boxster. The engines are good. Sometimes those rear main seals don't hold up, though!

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Had 2 Subarus. Not a fan of the engines. They sound nice I suppose. Though I fail to see why you couldn't make an inline 4 sound like that if sound was you goal. Otherwise, you have double the cylinder banks. That's double the heads, double the timing components, double the camshafts, double the headgaskets, and more weight. All to end up with an engine that's harder to work on because most of the stuff that you're likely to have to mess with on an engine is now crammed up against the side of the engine bay. Ever try changing spark plugs on a Subaru?

"But muh lower center of gravity."
Meh, so what? Handling? Subaru don't handle any noticeably better than any other car in their weight class.
"But the lower hood line." Again, their hoods aren't really any lower than a car with an inline 4. Old wedge-nose Corollas and Accords have hood lines about as low as you could practically make them. All with a simpler, lighter inline 4.

So what's the actual point?
Whatever small benefits a flat 4 offers, Subaru doesn't really take advantage of anyway.

Subarus have their cool points. The engines aren't really one of them.

Edit: The brap brap sound typically associated with Subarus really has less to do with the engine and more to do with the unequal length headers. Which are also less efficient and make less power. If you want sound, you use those. If you want power, you use equal length headers. Which now make your boxer sound like pretty much any other 4 banger.