Subaru EE20Z engine

Subaru engineers built the first opposition motor back in 1966. And up to 2008, “boxers” of the company were produced only with gasoline power units, to the delight of all fans of Subaru. Only the management was not satisfied with weak sales of new cars on the markets of Central Europe, so it was decided to release a car with a turbo-diesel engine.

And the result was the first horizontal opposition turbodiesel, which was equipped with Legacy, Outback and Forester. Later XV and Impreza were equipped with this engine.

Four-cylinder opposition engine is perfectly balanced. Unlike the classic in-line “four”, which can “pound” because of the unbalanced force of inertia of the second order, the opposition does not have such a problem. True, the motor is characterized by a minimum unbalanced second-order torque. So this power unit works very smoothly even without balancers. Its small size is also pleasing, because the turbodiesel turned out to be smaller than its gasoline counterpart with a volume of 2.0 liter. Its length is a couple of millimeters more than 35 cm, while the gasoline version has a length of 42 cm! This significant difference was achieved by reducing the diameter of the cylinders and the distance between them.

But in comparison with the gasoline engine, the diesel engine has noticeably increased the stroke of the pistons. But nevertheless, the geometry of CPG in this motor is optimal, because it is a “square” internal combustion engine, because the diameter of cylinders and the stroke of pistons have the same value (86 millimeters).

In addition, the designers had to increase the thickness of the crankshaft journals and piston pins – their size is superior to similar parts standing on the 3.0 petrol motor, but it is not even close to the diesel engine under consideration today in terms of torque produced.

The half-blocks of the EE20Z motor are made of aluminum, have an open cooling jacket, and on top is installed alloy cylinder head with a pair of camshafts and 8 valves in each. And there are 2 chains installed in the timing drive at once. But excluding all of the above factors, in front of us is a classic diesel. The turbocharger is made by IHI engineers, located under the right half-block. The EGR system is also present. But the Common Rail fuel system with electromagnetic injectors and fuel pump are supplied by Denso.

Technical characteristics

Vehicles on which the EE20Z 2.0 liter engine was installed:

What is with the reliability of the motor?

The first variants of this internal combustion engine became a real disappointment for fans of Japanese cars. The power unit quickly wore out the liners, because of which a wedge could appear, provoking the failure of the crankshaft. Usually it happened after 80-100 thousand mileage. However, the failed motors were replaced by Subaru under warranty. But only it applied only to the owners of cars, which were operated on the official markets of the company.

Simply speaking, diesel Subaru with jammed engine, brought from Central Europe to CIS countries, were not serviced under warranty. Therefore, it was necessary to look for a quality contract internal combustion engine, released after 2011.

Carbon filter

The most frequent headache for all owners of Subaru with a diesel engine, becomes a quickly clogging particulate filter. From constant use of the car in urban conditions, it gets clogged and the filter has to be burned, only it may not help. Apparently, there is an error in the software of the car, because of which the burning of the filter is limited to 12.5 minutes. Simply put, the probability of a failed burn is almost 100%. And as soon as the sensors detect two unsuccessful burns, the particulate filter error appears.

In addition, regular burns cause diesel to get into the oil. This works as follows: for piercing, diesel fuel is injected into the cylinder at the exhaust stroke. Thus, the diesel is heated to 650 degrees and burns through the filter.

There were enough situations with a noticeable increase in the level of liquid in the sump, and this is unacceptable for the opposition motor, in which the pistons work in a horizontal plane.
Partially solve this problem is helped by driving at high speed. Experienced drivers recommend to drive out of town at least once a week, where the car should be accelerated to 100 or more km/h and drive like this for at least 40-50 minutes.

But there is a radical solution to the problem: the particulate filter is dismantled and disconnected with the help of special software. In addition, the EGR system is removed. Thanks to this turbodiesel Subaru can be normally operated in urban conditions. But it does not do without disadvantages. First of all, ecology suffers from it. Well, and in the second – there is no normal firmware control unit, it is all artisanal developments of “garage masters”.

Today there is even a special service of particulate filter washing. It is worth to resort to it at least once in 50-80 thousand.

Patrubok from the intercooler

In addition, the service life of the particulate filter, and the entire engine, is affected by air leakage. And it happens due to the fact that the intercooler pipe often breaks. A gap appears, through which the air escapes. The problem is that the motor does not see any problem, the errors are simply not fixed. Even with a small load, the filling of the cylinders with compressed air is reduced, and the amount of diesel supplied corresponds to the volume of air measured by the flow meter. This leads to enrichment of the mixture. In principle, this does not affect the engine performance as much, but the particulate filter is clogged almost immediately.

Taking into account this problem, it is recommended to regularly check the integrity of the pipe. It is not uncommon for oil to start leaking through cracks. However, if the crack is large, you may hear a hissing sound of air escaping and a slight loss of traction. You can preventively change the spigot to a non-native, but with a good resource.

Generator clutch

Having started to change the belt of the attachment, it will not be superfluous to buy a new overrunning clutch of the generator pulley. A failed clutch, begins to quickly wear out the cogging belt. So do not bring it to this and install a new clutch in advance. As practice shows, its service life is 100-120 thousand.

Oil filter

According to experts, you should not save money on the oil filter, it is best to put exclusively original spare part, in the extreme case – a high-quality analog. Practice shows that budget filters have a disgusting passability, from which the oil pressure suffers.

The motor under consideration today should be filled with lubricating fluid with viscosity 0W-30, it will not hurt to have additives for the particulate filter. It is recommended to fill new oil after 10 thousand. Regarding pressure relief – this process is described in detail in the instruction manual. But it can also be reset with a dealer scanner.

Turbocharger

The first Subaru engines, which were released under Euro-4, have a compressor IHI RHV4 VF50. But to meet Euro-5 and 6 standards, Mitsubishi TD04L 04H compressor had to be installed. These turbochargers are similar in many respects, they have variable geometry, controlled by a vacuum actuator.

If we are talking about the first batch of cars, which had an IHI compressor, there were no special questions about its work, because the motors were changed faster than any faults could appear. And usually the engine was changed together with the turbine.

To be fair, there are enough negative factors, one way or another, but affecting the turbocharger operation, for example:

• Diesel getting into the oil that lubricates the shaft.
• A clogged particulate filter, causing backpressure in the exhaust tract.

In short, if the turbine failed – it almost certainly happened due to external factors.

But in general, there are no problems with turbocharger operation.

Glow plugs

There are no problems with glow plugs, they are quite capable of living 200 thousand and more. But if they have exhausted their resource, the error P1380 will appear. But their replacement – is not the easiest thing, the whole problem is that you have to disassemble the upper mounted components of the motor and pray that the candles were easy to unscrew. But as experience shows, rarely plugs often break off. So you will have to dismantle the entire motor, tilt the head off and drill out the broken plug.

Fuel system

On the Subare EE20Z motor, a Denso HP3 fuel injector and electromagnetic injectors are installed. As practice shows, there are no particular problems with them. Mainly because in recent years there are no problems with the quality of diesel fuel, on which the life of these units depends. But, of course, “metal fatigue” makes itself known and the first problems can appear at about 400 thousand.

The injectors on the motor under consideration today are on refractory washers. And as on all diesels, they can burn out. Of course, you should not let this happen, so it is recommended to change them after 100 thousand. The instruction manual states that you will have to remove the engine for this purpose. But it is not necessary to do this. It will be enough to suspend the engine and the box.

But not without unpleasant excesses. So, on the power units, released in 2009, there were observed malfunctions in the functionality of the valve-regulator, responsible for the supply of diesel. This problem fell under warranty repair. You can realize about this malfunction by the fact that the engine stops starting normally, refuses to idle. And yes, if you are going to change the fuel filter – look for an original part, the service life of which is about 30 thousand. If you put a Chinese analog, then prepare for the fact that it will have to be replaced after 10 thousand.

Transmission timing chains

Absolutely unkillable. Moreover, it is difficult to measure, but they do not stretch. They are quite capable of passing over 400 thousand.

Then what is wrong with the Subaru EE20Z motor?

The crankshaft of the engine considered today rests on supports made of steel, cast in the light-alloy cylinder block. And the whole problem is with the block: it is very weak and can easily deform. On many killed motors, serious cracks were found, going from the steel supports deep into the half-blocks.

The torque of the powertrain bends and breaks the geometry of the crankshaft bed. This causes the crankshaft to vibrate. From here begins and wear of the main liners, growing into dry friction and crankshaft wedge, after which it literally breaks into two parts. So the problem lies in the block. Even on live and quite working Subaru EE20Z motors, you can see serious cracks starting under the steel supports and colossal wear of the main liners. This is a completely engineering miscalculation.

The Japanese company couldn’t help but react to this. There have been several major redesigns of both the block and crankshaft. The latest version of the changes is dated spring 2010. And now the cars, which came off the assembly line after 2010 – are already equipped with quite sane cylinder block.

There are a couple of workshops in Europe, where artisanal repair blocks, released before 2010. They do it in the following way: they remove the standard supports and put much stronger, own castings.

And yes, it is worth adding that rapid wear of liners causes a dual-mass flywheel. If it is worn out, it loses balance and can not perform the damping function, so the crankshaft begins to work under additional load.

Sometimes during the flywheel and the whole clutch, you can see the rear crankshaft oil seal leaking. This is a clear indication that the wear of the main liners has begun. And yes, the dual mass flywheel has an effect on wear in all variants of the Subaru EE20Z motor.

So if you find the slightest problems in the clutch, let’s say, began to seize at the beginning / end of the stroke, there is barely audible noise or strong vibration, then you almost certainly have to replace the flywheel.

But from ourselves we can advise to take a turbodiesel Subaru exclusively with a variator. After all, in such a model there is no flywheel, which affects the engine so much. Absolutely all turbodiesel motors Subaru, working with a variator, are not subject to wear of the liners. These motors have earned their ambiguous, and rather negative reputation, precisely because of the liners and the failure of the crankshaft. Some motorists had to face this problem twice or even three times and purchase a new motor for their car.