HEAD GASKET PROBLEMS!!
 

Hello people,i have a 98 impeza turbo, its fairly standad and have had e few problems with it. im on my second engine, the bottom end went on the 1st one,so i brought a recon wrx import engine for it, ran it about 4 months after that and it started overheating, i never let it boil as i know it's bad for the engine. did a coolant test to find out what i thought was up, head gasket gone!!!:cry: so parked it up in the garage and have not ran it for bout 4 months, but now it's time to get her sorted again!

am after some advice on parts for it! what exactly will it need?, im led to believe it'll need- full head gasket set, new head bolts, cambelt and oil &filter.
wheres the best place to get good quality gasket sets?? i,ve been looking at camskill, but aint sure which engine code it is, i know its an ej20, but being an import engine is it any different. are all the gaskets the same?? also im not exactly sure why it went. ive had boost problems, its been hitting 1.5 bar and im not sure if thats too much and could cause the problem?

any replys will be appriciated

den:thumb:

Think you will need the heads skimmed as well mate. You may want to phone David at API

Were any of the engines supplied by SMR Engines, per chance?

yes mate it was!! had no end of trouble getting the engine. suppose to have had new gaskets on it. why you ask that?????

Erm... I had one - it failed (HG as well).

Many others have had bad experiences - the most notable being The Voices' tale of woe.

If you do a search, you'll realise you've been "had" like the rest of us...

yeah im not suprised, what do you mean by the voices tale of woe??:wonder:

lol

"The Voices" is a SN member. He had a long thread on his bad experience with an SMR engine failing. Makes an for 'interesting' read...

[QUOTE=joz8968;9360949]lol

"The Voices" is a SN member. He had a long thread on his bad experience with an SMR engine failing. Makes an for 'interesting' read...[/QUOT

i'll have a search mate, just hope the engine will be ok after a rebuild!!!!!!

save yourself some money mate and don't buy new head bolts - They are re-usable ;)

Aren't hg quite dear to do depending on your budget why not get yourself a nice engine built so u get peace of mind. Also did they give you any warranties at all???

Yup a hg issue with skim will set you back between 800-1k to sort :(
Den, this could end up being quite costly for you :( SMR have a really bad reputation for "reconditioned" engines, well spray gunk and silver spray paint isnt what most people would call reconditioned but they do :mad:
They are also trading under the name of ideal engines I think now, David @ API pointed that one out a few weeks back, so really its best not to buy recon units but to get it fully rebuilt if possible (you may have to go that route also as if this one is shafted it may come to that :()

Tony:)

got warranty, but when i rang up to sort it, they couldn't find any record of me buying the motor, plus they never send me a receipt. suppose it's my fault for not chasing them, but i was keen to ket her fixed. and didn't expect to get ripped off like i did:mad:

we gonna strip the motor down next weekend and see where its at. see if it can be fixed and last until i can afford summit better. gonna start ringing round and seeing what budget i can afford on a build;)

thanks for the advice lads:thumb:

My HG repair is looking at costing £850, I've spent £750 so far and have been doing all the work myself. That's with a new Exedy clutch, STI tripple layer gaskets and all new timing gear on it.

You wouldn't get me re-using headbolts on a scoob engine..... regardless of what some may say!

Without even appreciating if the heads have lifted and if so by how much, could you possibly state they may be re-usable in any case.

It's only £35 for a new set of head bolts from importcarparts.co.uk, why take this risk? And if you think £35 is lot of money, then an impreza isn't the car for you

That of course is your choice, but seeing as Subaru themselves say that it is not necessary & Prodrive (who used to built our international spec Grp "N" engines) never used to change them on a re-build ;) I personaly would put the money towards something else. :)

HAHAHAHAH just come across the SMR thing, what a bunch of cocks! my original V limited had the headgasket fail at 15k and a total engine fail at 20k not bad for a recon LOL current scooby again has a smr lump DOH and the h/g is on its way out to!

dont forget crank bearings etc etc, when they go they put pressure on them, if not changed they die pretty rapidly.

Could you clarify this? Do you mean when the head gasket goes, this puts pressure on the bearings, therefore they will die pretty rapidly after the head repair?

Should you do this as a matter of course? Even if the bearings were only 15k old?

If your bearings are only 15k miles old, then you'll be fine.

It's only when the bottom end is old - say c.60-70k+ miles - is when it can be compromised by the restored pressure when new HGs are replaced...