Hi all hope someone can help. I have a 1998 (R) impreza turbo all standard. My problem is that my bottom rad hose came off while driving, the only time i knew something was wrong was when my blowers started to blow cold air the water temp stayed at about half way all the time. When i stopped and turned the engine off i turned the ignition lights back on and the temp gauge went up but not right in to the red. When i got recovered home i took a look at it and the oil has been cooked. the car will turn over but i know the gasket has gone as there is exhaust fumes in my header tank and it just blows the water out the top of the header tank.
Does anyone know how hard it is to replace the head gaskets
Could there be more damage (How hardy are these engines)
Or should i just put a new engine in and how easy/hard is the jobs in question
hope someone can help and any help will be very much appreciated
Thanks in advance
Mark.

 

The engine has to come out to do the headgaskets, so you need to budget £1500+ for that repair.

If the heads need skimmed, DO get a thicker gasket to compensdate, so as to keep the compression ratio standard. I didn't, and mine went pop

While the engine is out and heads off, it's not TOO much more to have the block split and parts examined, then any problems can be put right before rebuilding, or the engine junked and a working one bought.