QM533

Oh Bugger, driving down the M2 near Chatham Tuesday night decided as the road was clear to give the old girl a stretch of the legs, just coming up on the 150 mark and pop, pull over do not drive......... It seems the big ends dont like it when you thrash the ( Rally Bred?) car. So now I am stuck, I was saving for a Type R 3 dr, and I have £10k to spend... What is mine worth to anyone? Please dont take the mick on this, but I need a car pretty quick.

BedHog

M2? Surely your mistaken - you must mean 'private road'

Paul_M

Sounds like the oil couldn't handle the heat (literally!). High speed runs are the only time the car's running on boost for a prolonged period - fast B-road or even track driving only gets a few secs of boost at a time before you're on the brakes etc. The heat chucked out by the turbo is pretty substantial and will cause anything less than top-notch oil to go **** up pretty quickly.

What oil were you running BTW?

TonyBurns

iTrader: (3)

You also dont have the airflow going into your intercooler at those speeds so prolonged exposure will cause the engine to go bang due to as Paul states, heat.

Tony

Jaybird-UK

Or maybe he means 150 UUS (Units of Undisclosed Speed)

Sorry to hear abour you car

RICH WILD

At the end of the day mate, you're right, it's a rally car and rally cars ain't designed to do 150. The aerodynamics aren't the best at all. Whatever you get next, if it's an import Subaru you'll have this problem at these kind of speeds unless you take some precautions. I presume you were using octane booster to compensate for our poorer fuel, but even so, remember this car came from Japan where it is limited to 112mph, so it was never intended to do those kind of speeds.

This is why knocklinks etc are so important, they warn you of this kind of thing before it happens.

These cars are all about point and squirt out of bends, not high speeds, that's what Supras and wotnot are for.

Don't want to sound like I'm preaching after the fact, but just offering some hopefully helpful advice for the future as I hear the same kind of story all the time.

Carl2

I'm sorry, but if a manufacturer gives a car the power and gearing to do those speeds, IMO it is designed to do it. I wouldn't expect a car to go pop just because you give it a quick high speed thrash, unless it's modded and not properly set up.

SiPie

Carl2

Not being nasty here mate... but it's clear you don't know too much about Impreza's then...especially imports as they kind of have a habit of doing this. As Rich mentioned below, they are limited to 112mph in Japan and you've got to use SUL and Octane Booster over here to make up for the lower rating of fuel.. hence why the knocklink is essential to warn against this.

Stick around here for a few years and start conting how many times you hear of this happening

..and it will be piston No 2 or 3 that it'll happen to

PS Oh....forgot to mention...it happened to me

Carl2

I don't admit to knowing alot about Scoobies, but I have been on here for about a couple of years, and yes I have seen alot of problems with big ends going. (also mafs)
I have my own import (4x4 turbo,not a scooby) and I don't take it easy on it. It only gets optimax, and touch wood won't throw bearing just cos I thrash it.

SiPie

Chances are that if you stayed at 150mph for any period of time ... it would.

So may people jump on to the autobahn and think ... whey hey...

The minute you ease off the gas.... bang

NotoriousREV

considering a MY93 WRX is only geared for about 153 at the redline, if you held it at that speed for a while, I'm not overly suprised it went pop.

julian N/W wrx my93

i'm scared of doing 120 in my for any lenght of time just in cas she goes pop!
doing 6k revs at that speed, where as a bmw v8 is doing about 4k if that!!!!!!!
jdm my 93.

dpb

possibly your thinkin closed deck block /forged pistons (sti) ?....however as said car wasnt design for high speed runs - especially takin fuellin issues into consideration

micared

How far do you go ,precautions wise? My MY00 (tek 3, sti5 i/c,minor exhaust and intake mods) is run on RS10/60, optimax, has a boost gauge and knocklink, and I monitor intake temps. It's the latter that concerns me the most. I drove from Southampton to Epsom today and at a steady 4k rpm the temps (taken pre. throttle body) were generally 30 deg approx., and although that doesn't worry me, it made me wonder, what are acceptable constant intake temps? It's frightening to see how quickly temps rise when you use all of the acceleration from 4k rpm to 5.5 for even a few seconds in 5th gear, especially on a day as hot as this one.What do people here reckon is the acceptable max for extended periods.

NotoriousREV

If you're into doing high speed runs, is probably better to monitor EGT's and Knocklink activity rather than intake temps.

andyr

Any similar car taken to 150 is risking engine damage I'd have thought.
That sort of speed is fairly close to the absolute top speed of it and it's revving pretty quick.
A 1993 car is now over 10 years old and who knows what sort of treatment it's received in the past, it's service record, engine wear etc

Various gauges as suggested would make it safer but not safe since at 150 revving close to the redline once, for example, the EGT shows something's amiss, then it might only take seconds for the problem indicated to be terminal and if you're slightly slow in reducing the speed then Pop !
As mentined these cars are not built as mega high speed thrashers, more back road point-and-squirt cars where speeds are <100.

rossyboy

iTrader: (8)

This is why I have never taken my MY93 to the limit. Hit 125 once, but generally dont go over the 100 mark as I know that the gearing etc was only really designed for that 112 limit. Those sort of speeds are not really any use for the real world anyway, the speed you get there is more important Though I know its tempting to find out that max speed.

micared

NotoriousREV, steeling myself for an answer that makes me look foolish here, genuine question though, if I see that the intake temps are higher than I'd prefer and back off, isn't that having the same effect as reacting to excessive egt?

N1 SPAN

Sorry to hear about your probalem and I hope you get a new motor sorted swiftly.

I have to say that I would expect these cars to do their max speeds without a problem.

I know nothing about the jap ones but I don't see the difference. A European one should sit happily at that speed for lengthly periods and I am sure there are Germans out there to prove it.

NotoriousREV

I'm no real expert, but EGT is a better indicator of what is happening inside the engine. I'm not saying that monitoring intake temps isn't a good thing, but you can get high EGT's without high intake temps, and vice versa.

micared

Wouldn't the knocklink make itself seen, if there was anything temps wise (intake or EGT) out of the ordinary? I'm making the assumption that excessive heat would be a likely cause of det. Not looking to contradict anything you've already said , more wanting to be sure that I can rely on the setup I currently use. Also trying to avoid the dash having to play host to an impression of N.A.S.A.s control room!

bluep

I had a 94 wrx which had the limiter taken of by a apexi rev speed meter.In the mornings i travel to work on the motorway (about 70 miles) and most days dont pass any cars at all.This allows me to drive the car at whatever speed i want and for the last two and a half years i have regularly driven it at top speed 150 or so.In the time i have owned it, all i had to replace was the clutch and brake pads (clutch was gone before i got it).Anyway if you regularly service the car and use super unleaded(only 97 ron here)i would class the subaru as one of the most reliable cars that i owned and have since replaced it with a type r.Anyway sorry to here about your bad luck dont let it put you of mate.