dan83590

I'm not going to go into too much detail. Today I realised how many classic Imprezas are still on the road going strong. And I thought, so where are all the older fords, vauxhalls, and others?

Chocolate engines indeed!!

Jamz3k

how many of said old scoobies have had engine rebuilds?

Why would you wanna rebuild the engine of a old Vauxhall or Escort? they werent any good to start with

dazdavies

iTrader: (22)

I've owned four classic scoobies and every one of them has needed rebuilding.
Some of those have had replacement engines instead of a rebuild and the replacement engines have let go. Every Engine i've built with forged internals however has stayed in one piece.

Chocolate engines, indeed!

STI_Baly

iTrader: (23)

Agreed, and i think the funniest thing with some owners is that when they have them rebuilt they have them built to the original spec again......god knows why as it contributed to the failure in the first place....

b19man

i got a version 2 classic and its going to be rebuilt and if i had anything else i would of scrapped it

Zeon

What is the usual mileage that an engine needs to be rebuilt?

And what is the cause of it needing to be rebuilt? E.G. are cars that are running no modifications likely not to require rebuilding and that it only relates to ones that are running higher BHP.

Dedrater

You got to remember aswell though, that these engines get worked much harder than say a Vectra or the like, I reckon they are pretty solid.

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

How long is a piece of string: Driving hard regularly or for sustained periods is what eventually kills them; Engine wear is proportional to the load placed upon it. Especially if modified AND driven hard.

Add a few other things into the equation such as bad maintenance when oil change habits haven't been modified to suit the driving habits, sensor failures, dodgy mods, bad hearing (i.e mechanically deaf ) and you can have an engine that dies prematurely.

Put quite simply; With exception to failures caused by lean running, they often wear out to the point that there is excess oil leakage between the crank bearings and journals, which in turn starves the rest of the engine of oil. This is a gradual failure that goes unnoticed until one day the engine is put under heavy load (quick blast up the road) where it finally lets goes.

The trick is to detect that impeding failure before it happens. Unfortunately, thats not an exact science: So, is not easy. In extremes one can schedule routine rebuilds (ideal for track cars thrashed hard or running lots of HP) or regularly get the oil chemically analysed to ascertain if it contains any excess amounts of bearing materials (from wear), or a break down in its lubricity.

I'm pretty safe to say that very few people do the above and go for the "do nothing until it blows" methodology. That's not to say that what I've said is the right thing of doing things, just a different way:

Seeing I am able to strip and build engines myself (saving alot of labour), my principal goes that whenever the engine is out of the car, inspect the bottom end for wear. Through this, I found that of all the "good" second hand engines I've dealt with, I'd say 80% are past their prime and really should be rebuilt. Some of which just needed new piston rings, bearing shells and a de-sludge, so not very costly at all compared to the cost of a full rebuild after a catastrophic failure, which is what would have eventually happened.

On the flip side if you can't rebuild an engine yourself then any specialist engine work is expensive full stop.

Mo.k

iTrader: (5)

Not in my case, had mine for 3 years, no mods, used everyday as it should be then one day out the blue it spun No. 4 bearing with 85k miles on the clock.
MY98 turbo 2000.

Harryr34

iTrader: (9)

I drove my sti8 around for 6000 miles gently lolll then i realised my mistake and now it gets driven the way it should when it lets go, it is getting forged with a bigger turbo

Pete

Good write up that Ali......


Mine,s done 68k now and it,s been running 350/350 for about 4yrs..So i,ve got myself some money saved just incase.... fingers crossed it,ll last a while longer yet, probably the box will give up the ghost first...

MrRA

You've just opened a very large can of worms.

dan83590

I do my best!

moff1888

108,000 miles only an induction kit and exhaust. No rebuild.....Yet!!!
Kinda looking forward to a rebuild in a sick and twisted way.

The Rig

iTrader: (13)

im wondering if delimiting them adds to the chocolate theory ?

How many are uk turbos that go pop that can do more than 112mph etc and how many are imports that do more than 112mph ?

how many imprezas that are restricted have gone pop ????

SunnySideUp

My Impreza is still going strong at 9 years old and 92,000miles .... if you don't pi55 about with it and can drive properly these units go on for ever!

moff1888

Should have added to mine that it's a MY99 Uk Turbo nearly 10 years old bless her Toyo socks.

stuart2008sti

iTrader: (1)

mine is standard and at 9.5k ringland failure,motor being replaced.

scoobjam74

iTrader: (11)

mines a uk my96 its at 152000 miles and still on original engine and turbo i have had it since 122000 miles and i have had to do the head gaskets just after i bought it thats it ,so 30 thou hard driven miles its fully decated hks filter standard boost running 260 bhp used daily and also done a couple of track days i religiously change the oil ever 3 thou miles and let the oil get to temp before giving it some which most forget which takes 15 min and at least 5 miles also i have an oil cooler i think these are essential