The head gasket has gone on my car and I wanted to know what my options are. The car is heavily modified and well looked after. It is not abuse that has caused the gasket to go it just wear and tear.

It is not that bad, there is no white smoke or anything. Water is leaking out side the engine through the gasket. If I keep driving it it won't be long until the gasket gives and ends up mixing with the oil.

At the moment the car is 330bhp 305ft/lb. It is a 93 wrx.

I would rather not just stick in another wrx engine. If I was going down that route I'd go for an sti engine or something.

I am thinking about fixing the existing engine, but is there anything I can do to get more power out of the car?

How much labour (time) is involved, what bits are needed and costs?

Would I be better selling the car as it is? They don't seem to fetch much money at the moment? I've spend circa £20k on the car in two years so would rather not sell it for stupid money like £1500.

cheers

 

Mods to the car are as follows. I'd rather not split or sell but what do you think the car is worth in bits?

Walbro 255 Fuel Pump
Nismo 550cc Injectors
Custom Exhaust From Turbo Back Titanium Back Box
XS Power Stainles Headers & Up Pipe
Hybrid Front Mount Intercooler
Blitz Induction Kit
TD05 18g With Samco 90 degree hose
Apexi Power FC
Apexi AVCR
Datalogit Kit
4 Coil packs
4 NGK PFR7B Plugs
SX Fuel Regulator
Helix Catch Can
New Radiator

Full Respray
Face Lift Sport Bonnet
Sti 5 High Level Spoiler
Aero Splash Guards
Delocked Boot
Face Lift Grille
Face Lift Front Bumper
Face Lift Rear Bumper
Face Lift Crystal Side Lights
Face Lift Crystal Head Lights
Face Lift Crystal Fog Lights
Crystal Side Repeaters
Crystal Front Repeaters
P1 Style Front Splitter

Fox 18" Alloys Repainted In Gloss White
Falken FK451 225/35/18"
Subaru 4 Pot Brakes
New P1 Pads
New Rear Discs
EBC Red Stuff Rear Pads
Whiteline Rear Drop Links
Whiteline Rear Adjustable Anti Roll Bar
Apexi Carbon Fibre Front Strut Brace

Sti 555 Limited Edition Front/Rear Seats
Nomad Racing Indiglo AFR Guage
Nomad Racing Indiglo Boost Guage
Nomad Racing Inidglo Oil Temperature Guage
White Dial Kit
Kenwood KDC-W7031 Stereo
Kenwood AMP
Kenwood 12" Sub
Infiniti Front Components
Infiniti Rear Components
Custom Boot Install
M1-ATX 90W Intelligent Car PSU
VIA EPIA ME6000 LVDS Motherboard
Gain 7" In Dash LCD Monitor VGA/Touchscreen
10GB 2.5" Hard Drive
Windows XP Genuine Licence

Toad Cat 1 Alarm With Proximity Sensor

 

Be a shame to break it just for head gasket. I'd say replacement head gasket should be around 600 all in fitted by a decent garage. Could maybe sell some bits to fund that ?

Having said that I'd be interested in the in-car PC setup (screen/HD/Mobo etc).

 

You'll never get back what you put into the car, and TBH just get the HGs done, the only way to get any money out of your car would be to break it, which means time taken up and the possibility of a carcass of a car left on the driveway unable to move.

 

Good option that I took:
Call David at Welcome to the API website

I gave him a loose engine and they did the rest.
It has survived 380 x 370 for 3 years of 1.6 bar competition driving.

Tell him '911' sent you.

 

the gasket went on my P1 in december, had warrenty so put it to dealer but the bill was about £850 i think, the warrenty company maybe gat a special rate on labour though.

 

will check parts from the bill after breakfast

 

can get idone less than that I paid £350 for both heads from hdc subaru the only diff is you would have to skim one head so it will be a extra £75

 

You have obviously spent a lot of hard earned on your car so i would suggest that you just pay a little more and get the gasket changed.

 

here's my bill from the dealer, will show you the part required and part numbers.

<a href="http://photobucket.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m42/whitac/P1010002.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting"></a>

andy.

 

thanks for all the replies so far and thanks for the scan of the receipt.

the garage have called subaru and are waiting on a reply with prices for the parts.

I think I am going to fix the car as I have spent a lot of money on the car.

I was going to get the crank oil seal done as this has a little leak. They've also recommended doing the valve stem oil seals too. The car uses a little bit of oil but I am not sure if this is down to the crank seal or the valve stem seals.

What else could I get done at the same time? They said I could possibly get the head skimmed further. They also said I could go for better quality gaskets. Does anyone have any further information about this?

I want to try and make the engine stronger so I can perhaps push a little bit more power out of it.

I don't want to spend silly money though.

Lastly the car is running an apexi power fc. If I got the head skimmed etc would I need the car remapped again?

cheers

 

Unless there's some markings on the face of the head it shouldn't need skimming, just a good clean up and new gaskets, and if you skim a head then you'll need to do the other as the compression ratio will be uneven as the side that's been skimmed will be higher than the non-skimmed side.

 

are you postive on that? The garage seem to think it needs skimmed and pressure tested both sides?

I doubt it will be marked. The problem is only slight, there is not even white smoke coming out of the exhaust.

 

I doubt you will need to skim the heads (note both).

My Sti v3 had blown one side, and the other was on the way.
API pressure tested both heads before cleaning and fitting.
If you want to help the engine for the future have ARP head studs fitted and the right gaskets.
TBH this is why I went to API as they can do/supply it all and they do about 3 or 5 engines a WEEK!
They removed the heads infront of me so i could inspect the bores etc before work started (remember I supplied the engine 'un-dressed' as a long block)

The studs are expensive but they are the secret why the engine survives after such abuse on the hill climb racing I do.

Do not under estimate the role of the mapper in reliability of the finished product.

As a last 'sales pitch' for API, they can arrange collection/return of the engine if you are a long way away!

Should add I'm just an API customer on several occations.

Graham

 

£75 pound seems quite steep to skim the head did that include stripping and rebuilding the head at the same time