right my brother in law recently bought a uk 2000 my 99 i think, he drove it back from scotland to london no problems what so ever, did a service on it at weekend and less than 200 miles later its knocking, the engine had only covered roughly 700 - 800 miles since a rebuild when he bought it, i asked him all the usual ones like did he fill the oil filter fully and un plug crank and cam sensors and turn over till full pressure and he had, hes serviced all his (6) imprezas he's ever owned and this is the first time this has happened, the oil he used was valvoline 10w 40 heres a pic he sent me.

thoughts on if oil could be to blame and if anyone had similar issues

 

Important question is who built the engine & was there any proof of the engine being built?

 

think bloke bought car off built engine and has receipts for parts, was running perfect till the oil change

 

Hi,

Sori to hear the news

Maybe not much help - but as a quality pointer I'm using Valvoline in my UK Turbo Classic, albeit 15/50 with no issues (changed around 1000mls ago)

 

Alright mate,thoses pics indicate that the problem has been there a while as that wear is shocking to say the least and I would suggest it has been there from the time of build,which if its true and only done 8-900 hundred miles then clearly the builder did not measure things correctly when building!
Have to say it looks like the motor has run the bearing caps dry at some point.

 

rebuild time then