muffitt.freeserve.co.uk

after having my 98 wrx engine rebuilt with a sti bottom end and wrc headgaskets to complement the rebuild i managed 1300miles in it when travelling down the m1 at a sedate 80 it decided to let go again,the last thing i changed before i had all this problem{as it was very reliable till now}was a full revolution exhaust system,the car made 309bhp from 289bhp and 298ibf torque,which i was happy with,but the company who did the rebuild asked if i had a bigger exhaust,they then said this was the cause of the 1st engine letting go and now the sti engine,does any one agree with this answer as i was under the impression that fitting an freeflow exhaust would help?especially the full system,i have now been told that i have to put the old down pipe on with cats an centre section to stop this from happening again,yes its an import thats never been touched till now,always had super and octane in it,any input would be gratefully appreciated as im at the end of my tether now as the car has been of the road for 7mnths due to all this,maybe cross over to the darkside and get an evo?many thanks clive.

Gez

What exactly did you have replaced during the rebuild???
Did you get an ecu remapp after the rebuild.
No need to cross over to the darkside. Even evo's let go. It depends how badly the engine is detting etc. One bit of really bad det and you can blow a hole in the piston. This can happen whe the car is 1 day old, 2months old or even 3 years old.

Gez

ustolemyname??stevieturbo

iTrader: (1)

They are blaming the exhaust for an engine failure?????
I think, I and everyone else here would agree that that is complete rubbish. Are they trying to get out of a warranty claim or something by saying this???

scoobyboy

agree with stevieturbo total rubbish sounds like they are trying to get out of a claim to me

R19KET

Can you be a little more specific, as to what let go.

Piston, bigend baring, rod, ????

It will help to identify what the possible cause is.

Like Stevie says, I very much doubt it would be solely due to just an exhaust, and as for "WRC" head gaskets, I'm afraid you've been mis-lead, there's no such thing !!!! the WRC cars DON'T run a head gasket, they run something called a "Coopers ring".

mARK.

T-uk

there are rebuilds and there are rebuilds.if it's done on the cheap trade it in straight away.

as gez says,a full list of what was changed is needed.

agree with the others too

Gez

An exhaust wouldnt be wholey responsible for engine failure. In worst case scenarios it would lean out A/F ratio and would only cause problems over a long period of time. If it was an exhaust, decat, induction kit etc running on std ecu then i would say that you are treading on thin ice. Again it wouldnt cause engine failure so soon. Many cars run these mods for quite a while before the go pop. I would get a complete list of waht was used in the rebuild and then we could help a bit more.


Cheers

Gez

S55DRJ

Does sound like a complete load of tosh!!

muffitt.freeserve.co.uk

just to reply to a few questions were it all started i had a revolution exhaust fitted then drove around for a few hundred miles then realised it was getting hot,it was at this time after the a.a and subaru dealer saying the headgasket had gone,so i found a garage who was recommended by a subaru dealer to do the work,this took 3months to after being told had to get special headgaskets from the backdoor of prodrive,the car ran 9miles when i picked it up when it threw the crank.What a noise!!!,so the a.a came god bless them,and it went back to the garage.So the garage said it would need a complete bottom end,one was sourced an sti item from central,it was put together which took another 3months and after parting with total of 3200pounds drove it for 1300miles at no more than 2300 revs and had the oil changed at 600miles, then decided to go a bit further afield then down the m1 it threw the crank again,so now iv been waiting 7wks today for the engine to go back to central,when the car was rebuilt as far as i know the ecu wasnt remapped or anything,do u have to have that done?pardon my ignorance,but they did say that because the cats arent in its running rich but would be ok.iv never raced an evo,but the bhp u get plus reliabilty compared to a scooby so iv been told is amazingly better,i might just ask for my money back and the car and take it somewhere else,thankyou for your feedback its deeply appreciated,just hope that sheds some more light to the end of the tunnel,would it be best to get it back and have the ecu remapped??many thanx clive.

Hoppy

Keep the faith and talk to Mark (R19KET). He will get your engine properly rebuilt and running as much power (safely) as you can handle/afford.

Richard.

ustolemyname??stevieturbo

iTrader: (1)

No harm to you, but I would get the car away from the garage who has been doing the work asap. I think it would be safe to say they arent qualified to be working on such a car.
Do not give them any more money.
It may be a run of bad luck, but the garage seems to be making things up, and telling you some strange things. As for a rebuild taking 3 months....that is ridiculous. There are very few parts that are not available in a matter of days to rebuild an engine. If the garage is doing it as a proper job, then I cant see any reason for it to take any more than 2 weeks, and even that is allowing a lot of time for messing about waiting on parts.

carl&vicky

If as you say it has thrown the crank twice.It can only stem from main end bearings either being fitted wrong or the wrong size.i have rebuilt many engines myself and have never come across such a problem as bad as this.I realize the boffins can go deeper with remaps fueling probs and so forth but main bearing is designed to take some **** . would be interested to know where they got the bits to rebuild from.

HKSubaru

mate where abouts are you in the country? I know of a bloke that does engine rebuilds and a bloke with parts, both very experienced and reliable.

R19KET

Clive,

IMO, the fact that you have had to bigend bearing failures, so soon after a re-build, infers a "build" issue.

I suspect that when your car first went in for a "head gasket", it wasn't properly inspected. It's likely that there was infact water in the oil, producing "emulsion" within the engine, and oil galleries. It's also possible that the bearings had already picked up, prior to the work being done, but not badly enough for you to be aware of.

This would explain the engine failing so soon after the head gasket being replaced.

On the second build, you say that the whole bottom end was replaced. Was a second hand engine used, with your heads, etc', or was a bottom end built for you ?.

£3200 is a lot of money for a standard engine re-build, UK, or STi.
The ONLY difference between a UK, and STI bottom end, is the STi's have forged pistons. The cranks, and the rods are the SAME.

You need to find out just what was used from your own engine, and what was replaced.

If parts were used from your old engine, such as the heads, oil pump, oil hoses, but not thoroughly cleaned, and flushed through first, bearing debri from the first failure would be present, and would be transported around the new engine very quickly.

The chances of a bearing picking up again, would just be a matter of time.

I would also consider that the people who built your engine (if it was re-built) "just put the parts together", without checking the crank/rod/bearing tolerances.

Unfortunately, this is common practice, and a MAJOR mistake. Brand new, off the shelf Subaru parts vary dramatically in their tolerances, to the point where I have a brand new crank, that would need re-grinding, before it could be used !!!!

VERY few companies offering "engine re-builds", go to the trouble of "Plasti gauging" the clearances, and checking the rest of the related tolerances.

This is CRITICAL, and if the "engine builder" doesn't do these checks, I would take your business elsewhere.

IMO, 1300 miles is totally unacceptable, and you should talk to whoever did the work, with a view to them addressing the problem at their own expense.

Mark.

T-uk

where I have a brand new crank, that would need re-grinding, before it could be used !!!!

I was told as soon as you re-grind a crank it is only fit for the bin.the hard face is removed and the shells run on the softer metal.

T-uk

muffitt,

do you have a oil pressure gauge,or did you ever notice the oil light flicker?

sounds to me like a failing oil pump,especially if they reused the original.

R19KET

Strange, I wonder why Subaru offer have under size bearings (or over size, depending on how you describe them), normally off the shelf ?

Given that you can scratch/damage the bearing surface with your finger nail, I think the last thing you need to worry about is the crank. The crank/bearing should never be touching anyway, they should always be running on a film of oil.

Is there any reason why the crank couldn't be re-treated after grinding ?

Mark.

motomc1

shame you have had so much greff takes the fun away .sound like some one should have been paying more atention on the rebuild.

muffitt.freeserve.co.uk

many thanks to all the replies,the garage that sorted out the work tell me the block is going away mon,it was a complete block,pistons,crank,rods,useing what i was told an sti,this was put together useing my cylinder heads and a new oil pump was fitted,the block was provided by central-subaru,and fitted together by a garage that was recommended by my subaru dealer as they wouldnt touch my car due to it bein an import.Its a version 4wrx was 286bhp when i got it then when i took it yr later it was 289 i was looking to break 300bhp and the rev exhaust did just that but then all this trouble started,at the time i asked around who could rebuild my engine to no reply,graham-goode wanted £2300just for the cylinder head doing,im in scarborough,was a good car though,raced many a r1 who got a shock behind them at 165 an still there.Its coming up seven weeks now since it went and the engine is just going away,the garage say the chap at central subaru have been away for 3weeks so that means its taken 4weeks to take out the the engine????????????anyway thankyou again for all the replies will keep you informed of how it goes,when i get it back is it best to get the ecu remapped or just disconnect the battery an reconnect to gain the new ron rateing?thats after running it in though (AGAIN!!!!!!!!)many thanks again much appreciated.clive. its horrible having all the boy novas,and saxos laughing as i do no more than 50,nite all.

firefox

Interesting that you are dealing with Central Subaru.

According to the court where I was trying to reclaim an unpaid dept from Central Subaru, they have gone into liquidation!!!

I think they have just written off their old debts and just started trading again!

Time to contact the court again.

J.


J.

Danny Fisher

Why is it that these car breakers that we use, all seem to be the 'EXPERTS' of the trade. They must know everything about every car/model.

J, good luck with the court thing.

Muff, good luck with getting her back running. Best bet would be to speak to Mark A.

Dan