Hi all new to the forum and in need rof some help. I have a 93 wrx import with a few bells and whistles to bring her up to 310bhp but recently devolped a overheating problem. I suspect its the thermostat but my guts telling me its the headgeasket. Heres the symptoms ill start with the heaters they blow cold for ages after the engines up to temp i am getting a little white smoke from exhaust but that tends to ease of after shes up to temp so think thats just condensation in the exhaust the other day when it boiled over i found little bits of yellow plastic in the coolant which has me worried theres no "gunk" on the oil cap to suggest water in the oil ive ordered up a thermostat and will change it out on sat but if it is the headgasket i Neither have the time or a place to do such a job so will be a garage job what kind of price should i expect to pay and from the symptoms does it sound more likley to be hg or thermostat thanks

 

Sorry to say but it is more than likely headgasket..get a sniff test done to confirm but what you have stated is classic headgasket fail engine out job and its usually advised to get the bottem end done while its all out. the bottom end bearings tend to fail with a new HG because of the increased compression.. not always but is a shame to put it all back together and then have the bearings fail. My headgasket went so i dropped in a different engine while having the old one redone... the engine i dropped in is still going strong lol but again is a risk.

 

What kind of rough price will that be at a garage? Im hoping for 700 tops or ill just scrap the car lol

 

I think for £700 if the car is worth it and you feel like risking it a second hand engine might be the way to go but it would be a risk.

 

Yeah i was looking into a used engine rather than replacing the headgaskets ect is there anywhere than can do a deal for a trade in for my engine for a recon one? The car itself is really really clean and generally a good car its just this hg problem that lets it down

 

You wont get a recon engine for £700 quid lol but you probably will pick up a decent second hand one for that.

 

I would probably spend good moneh on a decent engine just wasnt willing to spend a huge amount on the engine thats in it right now lol

 

Whats the best way to find out if it is a head gasket the usual tests ie gunk in oil and coolant level flowing over are fine theres no oil in water or water in oil and when i fill the coolant and idle the car it doesnt overflow so not really sure how else to test for a headgasket failure but the pieces of plastic in the coolant im thinking might be from the water pump so might try changing out the water pump jn the hope its that

 

As said sniff test. . .

 

Its confirmed it is the head gasket was told will be 1500-2000 to fix wouldnt i just be better to spend that money on a recondition engine

 

It be double that for a decent built engine. Dont go buying some bodge thing from an back street builders or it will end in expensive tears.

 

what are the bells and whistles ?
Could these have any detrimental effect on the HG failures, It isnt worth replacing the engine if it will just go again,
not if cash is tight anyway.

 

Yes, we need to know what caused it to let go.

So what mods, and who mapped it?

 

I wonder what the little bits of yellow plastic are that you found in the coolant and where have they come from.