After only a few days ownership, my 96 wrx wagon's engine has blown up!

Picture the scene, I was driving home last night, doing about 60, went to accelerate up to 70 to get past a truck but the engine just shuddered, the oil light blinked on and it seemed to lose power. So I pulled in to the nearest garage, by this time, smoke was pouring out, so I lifted the bonnet and theres oil everywhere. Anyway, to cut a long story short, had it trailered to the garage this morning, when it arrived I was told that a hole had been punched straight through the block!

I've had it sent over to Jap Village in Horsham who quoted about £3000 max to sort it including competition pistons. This is for a new block, cambelt etc. and all the other bits and pieces.

Has this happened to anyone else and what do you think of the price, is it about right? Any information would be greatly appreciated, because as you might imagine I'm feeling rather gutted!

Thanks in advance.

 

What petrol do you run it on..??? have you had the oil changed recently..!!! if so what oil.

Dan

 

The chap I bought it off had just topped up all the levels, oil etc. I'm not sure which oil, but he does know what he's doing. I was running it on noral unleaded, which it was used to and been running fine on all weekend. Any thoughts?

 

Normal unleaded mate the WRX are jap import cars, designed to run on 100RON fuel, running it on 95RON NUL will cause the engine to det and blow itself to bits

Ideal fuel for that car would be 98RON optimax with octane boost to bring it as close to the 100RON mark as you can

Bad news mate, hope it doesnt hit you too hard in the wallet.

P

 

normal unleaded is ringing alarm bells in my head

*awaits experts responses*

Richie.

 

i hope those bells go away before bedtime ramdor or you may have trouble sleeping

 

Brun, sleeping I have no problems with its getting up, and all I hear is alarm bells 1st thing in the morning

Richie.

 

Aub,

I blew my jap import up also after 4 months of ownership. It was detting like mad. I was too inexperienced at the time to know the damage i was doing. I said ide get the problem fixed at the next service!! DOH

You could pick up a second hand engine block for £1000 no bother at all.

Fraid your going to learn that these cars can be a drain on the finances.

Guys are blown these frail engines up all the time. After all the engine is kinda like two motorbike engines strapped together.

If you do get it fixed. For God sake use optimax plus octane booster. Get yourself a knocklink and if you can afford it, a remap wouldnt go a miss!

 

these engines are not frail and are nothing like 2 motorbike engines strapped together. You just have to use the correct oils and fuels and maintain them properly. NUL on an import will blow it to pieces, you were given very bad advice when you purchased the car.

 

Normal unleaded is what did it, as mentioned the JDM spec cars are not designed to use 95ron fuel, or even 97 ron come to that. Once rebuilt use Optimax or 97 ron PLUS booster in addition and you should have no problems.

bob

 

Couldnt agree more about fuel and oils.

Still think the engines could have been designed better.

I'm just used to driving a Nissan 300zx twin turbo.

If you wanted, you could have run the car on cooking oil and filled the tank with cats p*** and it still would go like a dream - lol. Sorry m8 but having forked out over £3500 for repairs (not mods), i hope you can see my point.

 

What year did Optimax come on to the market and what did you guys do b4 it came out?

Ray

 

SUL and a sheg load of booster I expect... heh

Richie.

 

How many 2.0l turbo cars do you know that pump out 276bhp from the factory (evo and thats it), subaru must be doing something right, there is not much science involved in using the correct fuel for your car simple..!

If you read a buying guide for a jap import car the first thing that jumps out the page and slaps you in the face is use super unleaded at the very least..

Dan

 

Dan's right, you are not the first and won't be the last, doesn't help though I agree.

bob

 

"How many 2.0l turbo cars do you know that pump out 276bhp "

Yeah ok

I take it yours has run like a dream then ya lucky bugger. Hope it stays that way. There great cars when they run well!

 

its not all doom and gloom.. see here

Trouble is mate you cant just blame the engine, did you buy your car from brand new...??? If not you just never now whats happened to it or how its been treated before you bought it...!

Dan


[Edited by dhorwich - 4/7/2003 10:22:57 PM]

 

Aub, I'd be interested to hear how you get on with Japvillage as I'm looking for a Subaru-friendly dealer in the Horsham area.

 

While on the topic of fuel I'm about to put a Jap ECU in my car (not a Scoob, don't ask far too complicated !!!) that will require 100 RON. If you add the booster to 97 SUL what rating will you achieve and what brand of booster do people recommend ?

Thanks

 

NF seems to do a good job, I've also seen Millers mentioned a few times.

 

Its a shame that people give bad advice.

Never run a turbo charged car on NUL, simple. Even tho imports require more from the petrol than UK cars.

 

its more likely to be oil starvation to the 3rd piston and less to do with petrol

 

I disagree, what makes you say that? or are you just on the wind up!

 

Same happened to MY94 STI Import was going slightly faster at time but I got a quote of around 2 grand from TSL who make competition engines.... I sold it as it was couldnt justify spending that money on something I would probably do again.

And then did with the next car but that was slightly cheaper to repair.

 

Guys help me out here, I have had my UK Turbo for over 2 years and have only run her on normal unleaded, IS THIS WRONG??? never had a problem and the dealer said it would be fine.
Cheers
Colin

 

Uk cars are supposed to be safe on 95RON. I ran my 99 on it until i decided to sample SUL. It make the car run slightly smoother and feel a touch more urgent.
Anyway the extra cost of putting it in my tank is offset by the better fuel consumption i'm getting. I've gained 2mpg

 

Just finished rebuilding my STI 4 last night and had it running after knocking No 3 big end out! Still don`t know why it happened as I run Optimax only, no booster, so I may have answered my own question?!

Me and my mate Matt did all the work ourselves, I have little change from £1400, BUT i did have a BRAND new VF24 turbo, as the old was was f*cked, a billet flywheel, new clutch, performance up-pipe and de-cat down pipe, but it is very satisfying doing it yourself, and imho you take a lot of care and deliberation, because you don`t want to do it again!!

 

Nice one Joff, hope she goes ok for ya m8, thanks Brun

 

I've always run my scoobs on Optimax or SUL after advice from IWOC many years ago... HOWEVER, I'm here in the USA at the moment and Super Unleaded is only 92RON !!! 'Regular' is 87 and 'premium' is 89. god knows how the kids keep their rice rockets going.

I suppose thats why I have only seen one proper WRX turbo here - all the rest have bonnet scoops but don't seem to have a turbo!

rd

 

Many performance cars will run fine on NUL - the UK turbo's for example. But ask yourself this, what would you drink: Slightly brown water with bits in it from some dodgy well or crystal clear spring water? I hope you see my point. I ran the VTS on SUL even though it didn't need it!