staffychance

Hi can anyone give me an idea of cost to replace head gaskets on my 02 Wrx.

And any recommendations in the north east to do it?

Thanks in advance

IainMilford

iTrader: (15)

Circa £1K Make sure the heads are skimmed and you use reputable parts, being southern I cant help with any reccomendations, sure someone will be along soon, good luck!

johno01

AS PERFORMANCE is your way mate, happy days 👍👍

Vxr2010

i am assuming it’s a 2 litre rather than 2.5 , if the engine is on 90 or so k miles plus it may be worth doing the bottom end too , if it’s higher mileage it will go at some point then you have to get the heads done again , so ends up costing twice , from my engine builder around 25 to 30 per cent of 2 litre bottom ends will fail within a year or so of heads being done , the 2.5 about 75 per cent failure as i found out to my cost £££ , good head gaskets and use arp stud kit or similar head studs 👍 my second 2.5 re build i got a full re build done , bearing shells on number 3 ? were just starting to go , no signs of it going until it was stripped , crankshaft was ok so caught in time 👍

nicam49

Those laminated head gaskets are known to delaminate, and Subaru issued a 'fix' which was a bottle of Subaru coolant conditioner aka Holts Radweld at around 100k miles. There's a post on the subject somewhere.....
It's actually a YouTube vid...
https://youtu.be/J3eHEE--GwQ

stockcar

you can come and do all of our head gasket jobs for that price..............

JDM_Stig

iTrader: (3)

Are you saying its over a grand to change 2 x head gaskets?

Vxr2010

a good engine builder charged me around 2 k with a decent discount to do mine , the gaskets are around 160£ arp head bolts are nearly 300£ , head skimmed ? £ , oil filter and oil 70£ or so , coolant 20£ , engine out ?£ and labour ? £ , plus any other gaskets ie exhaust ones , but as i said above mileage dependant worth a rebuild ? as you pay £££ for a set of hg to be replaced , then the bottom end fails then you pay again £££

stockcar

not if its already removed from the car - if still in the car then yes very easily........
as above it also includes basic requirements like skimming, re-shimming heads, the valves often require lapped back in, etc.........before you even replace seals, gaskets, etc

if you just simply wanted 2x gaskets thrown somewhere near the engine then happy days at £1K all day long............

IainMilford

iTrader: (15)

“Circa” is a big number these days !!

stockcar

looking like "Circa £1K" means quite a lot more if you actually want the job undertaken correctly..........

WickedWizzzard

£1k?!?! Can’t be that the difference in price between north and south is heaven and earth.
New to the forum. Finally got my first Impreza (05 WRX wagon) couple of weeks ago, and as I was taking it to a garage today for a thorough check, it started overheating rapidly. Towed it to the garage and was told a head gasket is gone. Rough ballpark estimate: £3k. But I’m sure would end up being more. And that’s half the value of the car. Maybe not the best quote I could find, but still.

Matty81

if you can afford it, have the engine forged. because as some people have said, bottom ends etc start going after a while.

nicam49

My experience is: either just add the Subaru coolant conditioner (aka Holts Redweld) as per Subaru's advisory anyway, or if you must, just whip the heads off and fit new gaskets; don't interfere any further with the engine : more is less/less is more! Read my post#5 on this thread and view the youtube video.
I understand that these Subaru gaskets are laminated ones and the middle part of the sandwich (graphite?) starts to erode around. 100k miles. Subaru knew this and introduced the 'Subaru coolant conditioner' fix.
It worked for me, with a 20 year old Classic. I don't see any reason to have to go to the expense of having the heads skimmed 'cept it seems to be a mantra to be obeyed without question; "head gasket gone then must skim head"
Give the Holts stuff a try, I did and it worked for me (still is) 3 years on.

Vxr2010

the problem with adding a sealer your water channels start clogging up , then when is it going to let go , thicker head gaskets reduce the need for a skimmed head but until it’s skimmed then you don’t know how far were the heads out ?