I bought a Subaru yesterday...


MODEL: 1995, Subaru Impreza WRX type RA,

engine: MY04 STI short engine in with new head gaskets and checked the heads, head studsi ARP,td05 16g, cosworth baffle plate, ESL remap of the stock ECU, MOCAL oil cooler and oil filter relocation kit
K&N filter , custom FMIC, CAI , full milltek system with cat

Electronics: ESL remap of standard ECU, boost blitz gauge, turbo timer

Brakes:later model 4 and 2 piston calipers, grooved discs allround

extras: A/C

Was tuned after import by ZenPerformance to 320hp

Photos:






















Chat with ZenPerformance:

"...Yes I can confirm that we put an MY04 STI short engine in with new head gaskets and checked the heads, it also has ARP head studs cosworth baffle plate, ESL remap of the stock ECU and is a VERY tidy car IMHO. The rattle when cold is from the fact it has the STI short engine, and it may want the valve clearances adjusting, but the heads are solid follower heads (the good ones) so it’s a bit of work but you don’t have to go trying lots of new hydraulic followers. It was a very good car when I last saw it about 8 months ago
Cheers

Paul..."


"...The turbo is the original TD05 16g, it was running quite low boost, but I didn’t fit the manual boost controller, the engine should be good for about 420hp safely, from memory the car has 440cc injectors in, which will limit you to about 350hp.
I would use a good fully synth oil, like Millers CFS 10/40 or 10/50, Silkolene Pro-R etc.
Cheers
Paul..."

So what the hell did go wrong?

I was driving on a autoroute, wanted to check the Vmax, drove like 40second with 7000revs in the 5th, than a strange sound appeared.
At first I thought it is some of the sound deadening under the bonnet scoop.
When I was stpping having the earbox in neutral the engine turned off. After turning it on again I heard knocking sound. Car didn't accelarate any more as it did before, there were like sparkling flakes in the oil, after w while it isn't firing. It's crancking but that's it...

I'm polish but I currently stay in Paris. That happened 50miles south from Paris. The car is at a garage and I ave the time till Saturday to take it away from there.

How much could the repair cost?
Why did it happen? Is there an explanation?

What is the car wroth now?
How can I repair it now? Change the bottom end only?


Numbers on the engine are:

EJ20, 22222 64>AB

 

hi mate subarus are no good at top speed runs for long amounts of time.. 700 revs in 5th will be some serious speed..

hopefully some else will explain better..

and yes it looks like a new engien/bottome end is your only option

 

Thats very bad luck mate looks a nice car as well.

Its going to be at least £3000 for a bottom end rebuild, if it has gone.

What RON petrol was in the tank when your were flat out?

 

It was 97ron with the other half of the tank filled on a french station with Shell Vpower.

The engine sound:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a63CR...layer_embedded

 

Bottom end failure. Harsh luck

 

you drove it at 7000rpm for 40 seconds and your wondering why it when bang!!!!???
i pressume you were doing a top speed run.....

 

Not 40. I exaggerated. Ws like 6-7 seconds.

 

He has a front mount though so doubt it was caused with the high speed run. High speed run failures are ususally the result of air not flowing into the scoop at +100mph causing massive rises in intake temps. Its also an RA so top speed will only have been at circa 126mph

Id be looking into the map for possible causes, ideally you want an uprated ECU on there, probably a fueling error thats done it. Plus, just a newer block doesnt solve the weak bottom ends of subarus.

Good luck with it, had mine rebuilt by Scoobyclinic over Christmas they did a great job

 

in his first post states it has a esl board.

 

have you got and oil tmemp gauge?

 

No i didn't. But there is the big Mocal oil cooler and even after a long drive it was quite cool. I do hava a FMIC and the ECU is remapped.

Exactly that is a RA box so I reached "only" 125mph for a short while.

 

Yes but it was my understanding that early classics are far better having something like an Apexi, simtek ect over standard ecu with a piggy back on it.

Unless i have the ESL board wrong?

 

you have the esl board very wrong.

 

Fair enough

 

the fact the oil pumps on the engines are prone to failing is the cause of the bottom end failure at high revs in top gear, if the engine had all that work done i cant see why an uprated oil pump wasnt fitted, if it was down to intake temps or running lean it would have had det and melted a piston

 

Seeing as you know nothing of the car, perhaps you shouldn't comment. For instance it had a new cosworth oil pump fitted when the new shortblock went in, along with a new modine oil cooler, and a new external oil cooler core.

And as a matter of fact the oil pumps are not prone to failing anyway, or at least not until they ingest a lot of crap from the already failed engine.

I suspect the damage has been caused over time by the car not being serviced correctly as far as the oil cooler goes. Which needs a lot of priming either back filling from a pump, or cranking with the plugs out.

Paul

 

Thanks that you answered!!

The car will most probably be taken on a lorry to Poland where I will rebuild it as you advised me.

Another idea could it be caused by a fact that I did a hard breaking from 120mph - 0mph with the gearbox beeing in neutral, could the oil move to the front of the oil sump and make the 4th big end spin?

It's a bit late now but still I'm trying to figure out the cause for the failure and wheter I should blame myself. There was enough oil before the journey - it was checked

A bit off-topic but isn't it a bit dangerous to have the oil cooler installed over the turbo?

 

Get it re-built stronger and faster

Hard breaking from 120mph-0mph is not good after gunning it to 120mph. You should let the car settle at a steady pace before coming to a standstill.

From your previous posts. Your not really caring for your new purchase very well....
"Max speed runs at 7000RPM"
"hard braking from 120mph-0mph"


Be slightly gentler when its re-built and you should be ok Hope you get it sorted

 

Well it was not extreme braking. After running 120 a few seconds I settled at 90~80 and then I did brake.
But still whats worth a sports car when You can not drive it quickly and brake hard...

 

I was about to say the very same thing, but Paul beat me to it.

Oil pump failing indeed - what a load of tosh.

David APi

 

generally i thought that 2 ltr engines are much stronger than 2.5 ltr STIs. My collgue was driving his STI MY09 with top speed 247 kmh for over 10 minutes - nothing hapenned
but he is crazy - he killed 1 engine already

 

So finally I got the car back home - to Poland and started to work on it.
The engine is already out and dissasembled. While the engine will be rebuilt I will be also converting the car to LHD as we are unfortunately not allowed to register RHD cars over here...

So

#3 rod bering literally anihilated. It doesn't exist any more. Amazing how it dissappeared. Perhaps someone nasty stole it from me the night prior to failure

That's how the rod was moving:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8pQlvvSnmk

I have a hypothesis for the brakdown reason, but it could be completely so please correct me if I'm wrong:
Could it happen that the stronger oil pump sucked all the oil to the heads, and oil cooler, than the baffle plate which restricts the flow to the oil pickup caused there was not enough oil in the pan for the pickup to suck it?



The bearing in a well ... different from than usually





And the rod bearing next to the #3 rod.





Now I have to figure wheter this block is still fina after what happened. Unfortunately there were some metal flakes in the oil pump already, not as big as those on the photo but still.
Will the pump be reusable after a good clean?
What I will need for sure is:
all bearings, thrust washers, new crank, one or even 4 rods(what do You think?), all new gaskets, new modine.
Also I think the heads have to be inspected prior to reusing them.
Also any other suggestions wat should be done?

 

I wouldnt use the same oil pump as I'm sure there is no way of definatley cleaning all the debris out of it and as you are spending a fair bit of cash on the rebuild its silly to skimp on the pump and take the risk of debris from the original failure causing more problems in the future on the new engine.

 

A few photos. I am currently converting the car to LHD. Seems to be a lot of work but still a lot less than for example with a Nissan Skyline. I had a 1.6 Impreza as a donor car and many parts will bolt on directly.