v7sport

I have a 98 turbo wagon with 31k that I bought with low mileage 22k on the clock in june 2003. It has an impeccable service history. I recently drove down from Glasgow to go to the Goodwood Revival staying overnight in Hampshire, so a steady 90mph, 450 mile trip. Next morning on way to the circuit, after hitting the rev limiter twice (an error of judgement), came the dreaded big end rattle, both coming on and off the throttle. Pulled up to inspect motor died, difficult to start. Rattle gets worse, recovery needed, Subaru dealer says never experienced big end problems before, subsequently read no 3 big end threads on this website, sinking feeling in stomach, reflect on fact that last service and oil change was 9k ago after being on touring holiday in Europe.
After reading about probable causes my question is this: what I do now? What is the point of spending on a reconditioned, same spec motor, that might go pop again.
What do you guys recommend I do?
If it is a design trait, not a user fault, have Subaru acknowledged this in any manner? Does this forum have any impact?
I can follow the good advice in the forum threads and take more care but I cannot understand how this apparently common design failure hasn't been addressed where it matters: at the Subaru factory.

dnb

Sorry to hear about another engine failure

I'm nowhere near an expert on this... However, there are a number of theories as to what the cause is. My thoughts are that the MAF could have been in the process of failing - thus the car runs too lean. I believe the ECU knock sensor stops working after 6000 RPM die to it not being able to decide between noise and det. So you could end up in the situation where the engine can det quite badly when you're at the limiter. No engine will survive long under those situations. The Scoob engine has a small crank bearing area too, which doesn't help things.

You'll not really know much more for certain until the engine is stripped.

Suppose you'd better include a knock link in the rebuild

I know there's a lot of talk here about big end failures - however I still believe it's not that wide spread. We just see more "big ends failed" threads than "My car worked fine yesterday (apart from the rear dampers)" threads.

What do do next depends on your budget and what plans you have for the car. An engine rebuild, I'd guess, has a large labour cost, so going for uprated internals is not going to drasticly increase the cost. However, if you don't intend to mod too much, it could be cheaper to go for a recon engine. (and a knock link!)

My car's done 78k miles now, and hasn't seen a dealer in the last 30k. It seems to be OK at the moment - however, I don't want to jinx it, so I'll shut up.

Leslie

It won't help by relying on the rev limiter to prevent over-revving, you must have been winding the engine up a lot, or leaving an oil change for 9K miles. Most people change oil at 3K or even sooner. Sorry to hear about the damage though.

Les

v7sport

Thanks dnb for tempering my frustration, I guess you are right about what appears in the forum, so I will calm down and be careful what I say to the dealer tasked with the rebuild.
Thanks for the suggestion about the mod.

v7sport

Leslie, thanks for your observation, however I have never before been near the rev limiter and try not to go above 6500rpm (I admitted to an error of judgement). In this instance it was for a fraction of a second each time and I would have thought any engineer designing a motor would have built in a safe tolerance or brought the limit down. I certainly don't rely on the limiter as a guide for anything.
As for the oil change the car had been on a gentle touring trip for four weeks and although I agree more regular changes would be prudent a motor should be capable of lasting 9000 miles (without ardous use) on good quality oil.
Taking on board your advice however when and if I get the motor back I will religiously change the oil at 3k.
The thing I can't swallow is that it's not as if I abuse the car (I have a classic racing motorcycle for that kick), never use it on the track and thought I was well within the design parameters of a modern machine.
I know people have difficulty accepting responsibilty and I'm not so blind to sense that you are laying some of that at my doorstep.
So is it a case of learn my lesson?