JamieJerkovic

iTrader: (9)

Hi, im in the market for a hawk sti type uk but im aware of the headgasket and piston failure which is putting me off massively.

what do you guys think?

whats a rough price to have forged pistons, arp headstuds, cosworth headgasket etc?

jamie

wrx9181

iTrader: (2)

Why not just get a blob 05 sti
Best uk car out the box full stop

moneys

iTrader: (5)

ive got an 06 sti, superb car and i genuinely mean that, torque is amazing and it pulls lovely, mine has been mapped by TSL an runs 348 an 380lbft. Yes 10 days out of its warranty the HG went, no signs no nothing, I got a cosworth Gasket and uprated bolts fitted, I also needed another map as the head had been skimmed, luckily my pistons are solid as he inspected these when it was out, it was roughly £1150 for the engine work and then another 300 for the remap. piece of mind now though as i know the car is running sweet. If you go up near 400hp then your looking at possible piston failure, the way to look at it though is that it is more common than you think so a lot of them have already had the work done, if you went for one and they said all this had been done then dont think its a bad car as it certainly isnt. I had a bug before this and theyre great cars but the 2.5 pulls like a train

Dan-

i say blob for the money but im unsure myself what engine is better ive driven both only a wrx 2.5 and it seems to pull much nicer but thats just my opinion

on the head gasket thing 1st ive heard of that maby i missed somthing :P

JamieJerkovic

iTrader: (9)

Okay I'm looking at a 2006 sti.. So may be worth getting arp head studs and a gasket for peice of mind before anything?

juggers

iTrader: (1)

Go for a JDM 2.0L twinscroll bullet proof pretty sure theres a cracking one on here for £10k!

Dan-

sorry not post thread related but what is the point of twinscoll? my mate told me to fit one but i cant see any benfit from my 35

bustaMOVEs

iTrader: (31)

This.
Or a 2005 blob uk or jdm

juggers

iTrader: (1)

Throttle is more responsive and spools up quicker.

Dan-

ah okay, not really worth spashing the cash for over a 35 then! does it mean it boost lower than 4k

a5h

iTrader: (3)

If your thinking about modding it then I would stretch to some forged pistons to be safe. Otherwise you will just have to re build the motor down the line.

Infected by sti

iTrader: (6)

Imo yes its worth splashing the extra cash, they spool better than the vf35, i have just changed from a uk sti which was a very good car in all fairness to a jdm blob, and must be honest i prefer the jdm, although i do miss the burble of the uk car. I find they do spool earlier than the 35 and they rev harder with shorter gearing, its all about what you want really, if the 2.5 is giving you doubt then like juggers has said go for the jdm, you dont see that many threads of them going pop,HG failures or piston problems like the 2.5, but if you have the money to build a 2.5 then you shouldn have no probs should it fail, but take the cost of the uk car, then the repair costs ( should it go wrong ) then your soon over the price of a JDM spec car and would probably been cheaper to buy the JDM in the first place and use the Spare cash to buy some goodies

Infected by sti

iTrader: (6)

By the way the 2.5 sti dont run vf35's thinking of it lol they run a vf43 and spool slightly quicker on the 2.5 than what a vf35 does on the uk 2.0 sti or at least in my experience it does, others may disagree

Dan-

although i do miss the burble of the uk car

:O no burble on a jdm!

Pramas

i have a 06 sti, never had a problem with it at 370bhp and around similar torque although i wasn't hammering it. I too read about the weakness of this engine and every sound i heard i thought omg its going to break !
In reality that wasn't the case and its quite sound if its looked after.
Having said that drewtts built me a fully pinned and forged 2.5 block and i believe alyn at AS performance did the pinning, cost me 2k for the bottom end , say another £600 for the fittting and add in the arp headstuds and cosworth gasket, your looking at 3k and that is cheap compered to some.
It will be good for around 550 bhp however i will take to around 500 only.
My honest advice if you want a reliable engine is use someone who knows there stuff regardless of the price, iam just lucky drew is a legend up here

JamieJerkovic

iTrader: (9)

Okay. Thanks guys I'm not keen on paying 8-10 grand on a hawk sti and having to spend extra money to keep it running as much as I'd Love one I'd rather not be worried about when the head gasket or a piston is going to break on me

stevie1982

iTrader: (16)

Please don't be out of by all the 2.5 haters, I've had two now and they have been fine. Yes the 2.0 is stronger but the 2.5 makes for a great daily drive and the grunt is where it's at. Also the hawkeye is one of the nicest newage car subaru produced. For peace of mind and if you are willing then fair played have the engine forged and then forget about it but that's your call. Also to the jdm lovers out there the twin scroll is not to everyone's cup of tea, yes the have more electric toys out of the box but the twin scroll is not for everyone. So let's not say it's the be all and end all, to the OP go test drive the three and see which YOU will be happy to live with. If it's the 2.0ltr then you can always fit a hawkeye front end which would cost you the same as forging the 2.5 ;-)

S3LDM

I have Had my 2007 STI PPP nearly 3 years now and not a day’s trouble

Had it mapped 6 months ago to 353bhp with 385lbft and it made a whole lot of difference to the PPP'd car,

I looked into this head gasket and piston failure before buying mine and I found that the cause was a bad standard generic map by Subaru (or did not help things), however mine was PPP'd when it was new, I know that the PPP is a generic map but it a lot better than the factory standard map.

Don’t forget you get good and bad cars, and a factor to the head gasket and piston failure may be down to the owner driving it like he stole it every time he goes out in it, although not in all cases.

WRX Blues

HG failure does seem to be a reasonably common theme - mine failed at £40k miles so I went down the Cosworth/ARP route. Re-mapped to 360HP and 380lb/ft with no subsequent problems. That said, I do half expect piston failure at some stage...
All this aside, I have run 9 2l scoobs without any issues but my favourite by far is still the Hawkeye! Go for it - but keep £2k in the bank just in case

waldmanbrown

could go ou 2moro and get run over dose'nt stop you from crossing the road does it?

JamieJerkovic

iTrader: (9)

How much roughly are you looking at if its just the head gasket? I do really want one just if things are gunna go I'd rather not. The one I'm looking at has just done over 40k

WRX Blues

Cossie HG and ARP studs plus skim if required c £1200 - £1500 - budget for clutch (may as well be done at same time if wearing) as well (£350).

dawasdave

BUT you still look both ways before you cross the road

New_scooby_04

iTrader: (4)

Suggest the OP gives someone like David at APi a ring and asks him how much to address the HG and pistons of a 2.5.

Having had a 2.0 litre, driven a twin scroll 2.0 and owned a 2.5, it's the 2.5 for the road every time. Aint no replacement for displacement when it comes to spool and torque.

Depends how far you want to go though: the main disadvantage of the 2.5 is the tuning headroom you use. They are ok if well mapped within their limits; it's just that they won't tolerate having the boost turned up beyond 1.35bar on the std hardware, but 1.35 is all you need to get the car to about 350bhp and 380lbs ft on the std VF43 which will spool from absolutely nothing at that level.

waldmanbrown

good point However surely what ever scondhand car you buy its a lottery, nobody ever knows what previous owners have done to it and how theiy have treated it, and the older you go for the more you are increasing the odds of getting one which has had multiple owners all of which have diffrent driving styles and may have nacked it in other unseen ways. I was in this situation not so long ago and didnt really want to back to a 7-8 year old car so settled with the last of the 08 saloons.

JamieJerkovic

iTrader: (9)

Yes that's true. But I this is a well known problem and the majority say that its inevitable it will happen. It's roughly a 3 grand fix.

B0DSKI

iTrader: (17)

JDM's the way to go

waldmanbrown

Nothing is a dead cert apart from death and taxes. I think that you have pritty much answerd your own question in away now anyway