last night i was on my way home from a meal,and my car was holding back.at high speed.(on my private track of course)

then i had to go to norwich this morning,it started ok and seemed to be running sweet enough.then,when i over took 2 slow sunday driver's it was holding back again and i smelt this like burning smell.and there was alot of blue smoke coming from the exhaust.so i quickly slowed down and stopped.
when i opened the bonnet i the first thing i noticed was that the dip stick had popped out and there was oil everywhere.and it seemed to me that it was running on 3 cylinders

so i dragged it home slowly.(2 miles max)


WHAT HAVE I DONE?

 

Hi Lee. Just left post on Scoobycity.
Cheers. Mark.

 

sounds serious, the dipstick pushed out signals excessive pressure in the crank area etc, possible gasket/piston failure?

doesn't sound good mate

 

ok lads cheers for that.was thinking something to do with piston failure

whats is it going to cost me?

 

Take knife ... remove arm and leg ...

Pete

 

Might not be that cheap Pete.

 

An engine that spits out its dipstick is sick indeed ..... I would cut off the other arm and leg!!

Pete

 

so how much?

 

How long is a piece of string??

£1000??

£2000??

£3000??

Until we know whats wrong how can we put a price on it?

Pete

 

Take it Api or get him to collect it. Engine out job and budget for £1.5-2k and if its less, at least you will feel your were lucky.

Andy

 

does seem like a piston has gone awol..... i'd do a compression test followed by dropping the sump to inspect further.

 

i would go for a figure of £2500

 

2 grand + VAT done here - finished ready to use. Properly rebuilt, Genuine Subaru parts, no B/sh*t Ready in 3 weeks. It's detted a piston crown off and the debris will have wrecked everything that moves below the piston line. The heads'll be full of crap too but they can be rescued.

Hows that sound??

David APi Engines / APi Impreza
www.apiengines.com

 

Sounds like £2350 to me

Pete

 

yeh thats just a rebuild wot about fixing whatever caused it to det a crown off ???

 

A few possibilities:

Low fuel in the tank causing aeriation and thus poor fuel mix at the injectors.
Low Octane fuel in the tank.
Failing fuel pump not supplying enough at pressure or volume. I.E.poor fuel mix.
MAF
Lambda
High road speed causing heat soak into top mount intercooler and then poor fuel mix again.

OR Any combination of the above.

David APi

 

Taking David's suggestions:

>Low fuel in the tank causing aeriation and thus poor fuel mix at the injectors.

Nowt to fix- just don't let the fuel needle bend around the red!!

>Low Octane fuel in the tank.

Nowt to fix- Use a -petrol station with a high turnover and use SUL as a minium.

>Failing fuel pump not supplying enough at pressure or volume. I.E.poor fuel mix.

About £120 for an uprated 255l then half hour or so to fit

>MAF

About £80 quid for a new MAF cartridge

>Lambda

About £120

High road speed causing heat soak into top mount intercooler and then poor fuel mix again.

Slow down....it's free!!

If you want warning of any of the above in the future I'd suggest investing in a Knocklink about £200 fitted.

NS04

 

cheerz then ladz.

think it will be sitting on my drive then for a while..or sold as non-runner

sod paying 2 odd grand on another engine

 

BTW... When you say high speed, are we talking over *coughs* 100 mph on your private test track? Have you been running the car on SUL and octane booster?

Ns04

 

How old and how many miles!? Just out of interest..

 

Fix it yourself for a few hundred ££

Pete

 

£2k??? You can get an engine for a few hundred and stick it in yourself! Or re-build it, its a learning curve but the EJ20 block is very simplistic!

 

Good luck !!

 

I've seen a few examples of people on here saying that API et al are expensive and they got their rebuild done "on the cheap" by greasy Bob's.


They then come back on here complaining that the car then runs like ****e or melts another piston/drops its bottom end about a week after the job.


Similar story with replacement engines. "Sti V engine Guvnor' yeah, got a minter* for you here, £800"

*coughs* Subaru Legacy cams.....

Pay to get it done right first time, or pay twice, your call!

Give it to someone like David and you'll get the job done right first time- could save you a lot of heartache and expense.

Ns04

 

The foundation of my house is deteriorating, the builder wanted 10 grand to sort it...........but it's Ok, I've just got a book on foundation repair, should be able to sort it for about £100

Ns04

 

Don't forget these guys started somewhere to! They weren't just BORN with the knowledge to rebuild an engine, and most people have more competence than the monkeys that work at authorised garages.

As for "blowing up the new engine 10 minutes later", alot of people just throw another block in without actually working out why the last one blew up! i.e. other duff components, or generally driving like a dick.

And believing that there is some kind of almighty power offered by specialists is just being gullible. I'm not saying that any of the these specialists may be monkeys I am just saying if you have common sense, time, patience and the tools why cant you just re-build/replace the engine yourself?

 

Of course, people like David would have started somewhere too, but I'd suggest that a rebuild was not the first task he undertook- the difference is people like him are trained and been doing it for decades and you KNOW will do a professional job - Also if a legit outfit does the job and something goes wrong, there is a warranty offered.

I wonder how long it would take the average Joe to do an engine rebuild properly -assuming that's not askng too much- If you work out how much you'd have to pay them for their time (lost earnings etc), I bet it would work out more.

It may be gullible to think that specialists have some almightly power, but its equally gulible to think that everyone will be equally capable of working on a scooby engine rebuild. It IS important to find a good specialist, a lot of people claim to know about Imprezas: I took mine to a garage for an MOT once and was assured over the phone that they knew about high performance 4WD cars including the Scooby. When I got it there, the first thing they wanted to do was put it the 2wd brake rollers. I pointed out the problem with this and just got a blank look. Needless to say, the car was MOT'd there.

Ns04

 

The problem is when your talking about a £2000 specialist engine re-build for a car that isn't worth much more than £2000 its self it starts getting a bit pointless!

I can understand people who are looking to gain extra performance going to specialists who know how to build "power safe" engines, but merely replacing an engine or re-building to standard tolerances doesn't take a rocket scientist and its a great what of learning. Like I said the Impreza lump is very simplistic compared to many other high performance cars and a good place to start.

 

Thanks NS,

I was trained - a long time ago, agreed - at a Ford main dealership that was actually owned by Ford. I started my appenticeship in the unit shop rebuilding engines, gearboxes and axles. I was trained in both practical and theoretical aspects of that repair work. I was sent to the Ford training college at Langley plant near Slough to do every specialist course that was offered all the way up to RS Escorts. Lotus twin cam and anything ekse that wasn't mainstream.

My training is comprehensive to say the least. I pass on the necessary bits to my guys here who build engines and gearboxes for just about any sort of Japanese car.

Even so we get problems that have us pondering how can that happen? or what shall we do for this guy and his engine?.

There are a number of ' engine builders ' out there who have nothing like my training and they manage OK. Then there are some others of course who don't come up to scratch by a long way, too.

The point surely is that if you wish to do your own thing, fine, l suggest a Subaru engine is not the best starting point for a complete novice.

I am happy to offer advice to anyone attempting the job - you just need to call me.

David APi Engines / APi Impreza
www.apiengines.com

 

Yes, I agree. That's exactly why I'd argue that you shouldn't buy a cheap scooby!!!

Maybe I should add the proviso of 'unless you were a competent mechanic (or knew one who worked for Beer and nuts!!!')

Ns04