gorecki-sti

Hi all!

ive had my 2002 subaru STI sitting in my garage for the last 12 months, untouched, after it was diagnosed as having a blown head gasket (using some kind of water bucker/bubble test).

every mechanic i have contacted about a gasket repair costs can only give me some kind of massive price range (1 and $5000), which i can understand without seeing the engine yourself...

im from Australia so not looking for names of good mechanics or trusty businesses recommendations...rather I am still very uneducated when it comes to the engine, and would love to have a bit of a better understanding of my problem, and the how much im expected to pay for it!


All responses appreciated!

Cheers, Damian
0416561817
goreckiii@hotmail.com

kevo10

The problem is , not so much having a new head gasket or gaskets replaced, but the possibility that more damage has occurred than just the gaskets. The heads may have warped necessitating skimming .

gazzawrx

iTrader: (11)

Skimming the heads is no major issue, get them skimmed and pressure tested, i pay £60 for that here for both heads, whats caused the head gaskets to fail and whats the mileage on the engine?

gorecki-sti

i was driving at about 80km/hour to work on a long steady highway when the engine began rapidly overheating and suddenly cut off..
unfortunately i didnt think much of it and drove an extra 300 meters to work, followed by another 6km 12 hours later back home... hopefully this didnt completely disintegrate my engine :/ but it cut off about 3 or 4 times

a couple months prior i recieved a really dodgy tune (after installing TBE) which produced some strange graphs and left me wth a weak sounding/leaking turbo. This, plus driving hard on some weekends is probably what got me in this situation.

im guessing the engine has to be completely taken out for the job...what other replacements/upgrades should i consider in this time? car is sitting on 135000km and bought her at about 110000km.

Cheers, Damian

Tidgy

head gasket is full rebuild on impeza's so wont be cheap

Crank bearings will need to be done which means whole engine has to be stripped

ditchmyster

iTrader: (7)

Sounds like you've cooked it so it's going to be expensive.

Yes it's an engine out job and as above you'll need to do the crank bearings as well at the very least, personally I'd go for a full rebuild with new pistons as well. You could try and see what some of the Specialists on here would charge to crate one up and ship it to you. If nothing else the discussion would improve your understanding.

I would strongly suggest that you do your research and find out who is the best Subaru specialist engine builder in OZ and either source an engine from them or get yours rebuilt buy them, it may cost an extra 1000 bucks or more but it will be worth it, these engines are very particular about how you rebuild them, if not done properly then they have a habit of letting go again very soon afterwards which becomes very expensive very quickly, your average Joe mechanic that may well be quite good is not the man for the job, specialist knowledge is the order of the day with Subaru Turbo engines.

The motto on here is "Do it right, do it once"

Consider yourself warned.

gorecki-sti

wow...

full rebuild sounds scary and unfortunately i dont really know any specialists, so subie forums are be the best place to find one?

im guessing the ordinary mechanic at a subaru dealer or any other mainstream establishment would NOT be the man for the job...but probably the cheapest option? in this case i guess id sell the car straight after, otherwise if i decide to keep it i will definitely go for the full rebuild, but with a rebuild it could easily cost up to 7k, right? maybe i can get a full engine flown in from japan :/

ditchmyster

iTrader: (7)

I think your best bet is to get one shipped in from the UK, I thought Subarus were popular in OZ Surely there's a tuning scene for them down there, I know they're pretty popular in NZ as I saw loads out there when I was over a few years back.

You really need to find a forum closer to home as that will be your best option, you can buy a fresh forged engine here for as little as £2k, as long as the bottom end has been built by someone that really knows what they're doing, skimming and bolting your existing heads on and a head re-fresh isn't a major job and could be carried out by a competent mechanic provided he did a little research.

I rebuilt my engine myself with information from here, youtube and ScoobyClinic (my local specialist) quite a few others have done the same too.