DutchKev

iTrader: (1)

well its been a while since i have been here as i had to sell my old MY99 because of insurance problems

cut a long story short, I bought a mondeo V6 zetec s which lasted all of 3 months before my points came off my licence, then the subaru itch came back so i sold the mondeo and bought myself a red V4 wagon



took it for a service and my mechanic told me there was more water in the oil filter than oil i'd only had the car 3 weeks, in which time i'd changed the seized 2 pot callipers for a decent set of 4 pots with disc, pads and a full brake bleed

with the fact that the car may have HG issues, and the fact i always wanted a saloon over a wagon, i traded my wagon in against this:-



1998 uk turbo 2000 in reddish blue, 17" speedline st2 alloys, stainless backbox, sti hi rise spoiler, sti front splitter. needs a bit of attention to the bodywork but i was expecting that anyways

took the car out for a test drive, all was ok, car boosted fine, no nasty knocks, bangs etc from anywhere. the only problem i was told about that he was aware of was the fact that the thermostat had been changed recently but the coolant system wasn't bled / pressurised correctly as the heaters wernt getting upto temprature and had an air lock

so knowing how difficult subarus are to repressurise when filling the coolant, i took the car knowing this was an "easy fix"

boy was i wrong

when i initially bought the car, i drove it back from west brom to tamworth, the drive went fine with no problems untill i got to within 100 feet of my house, pulled onto the drive and noticed smoke from under the bonnet. popped the bonnet and smoke was billowing from under the expansion tank, so the car was left to cool down and left to stand for 4 days whilst i could get hold of my mechanic

took the car to him today and received the worst news possible - because i had drove the car with no coolant in it (will explain later) ive cooked the engine and possibly cracked the heads the smoke was oil coming from the blocks dripping onto the exhaust. further investigation showed the rear crank seal has gone and is leaking oil onto the exhaust as well.

this was all discovered after he flushed the coolant system for the blockage and ran the car to get it up to temperature.

the bottom rad hose STILL does not get hot, nor does the heaters. the car was with him for 4 hours, and in that time the coolant had completely drained from the car - BUT the floor was bone dry - so there is only 1 place it can be going

looks like i need to get the engine completely stripped down, get the heads sent off to be skimmed and pressure tested, as long as they're not too warped that is, refit with new metal head gaskets and then change the cambelt, air con belt, aux belt, water pump, plugs, filters etc

i would buy another engine, but then i've still got to have the belts and service done, as well as source the engine, collect and get that pressure tested and fitted etc, so ive decided to get this engine sorted instead.

i'm just praying i've not warped the heads too much - otherwise i'm gonna have to look for 2 new heads on top of everything else.

so i was hoping to get to some meets this summer but looks like that won't be happening anytime soon

Carlh

not much fun so far being back, then

Thats gutting, but if it gets all sorted, you'll be sorted and at least you know its sorted and not waiting for a "what if" as its already happened. (am trying to look on the bright side for you bud).

Anywho, welcome back and hopefully see you at the next meet