Long story short...

[Pixyflash]

 

Long story short, I'm on my 4th Scooby and up till now they've been fantastic to drive, proper fun and bullet proof. 😁

 

My current STI, which I've owned for 18 months however has been somewhat problematic. 

It's a 2015 STI, UK version with no mods. Approx 55k on the clock and as far as I'm aware has had no history of problems. 

Unfortunately for me, last October on a return journey from Germany the head gasket went, only a pin hole leak, but gone nonetheless. 

My long time garage who I trust completely took control and off we went with a mixture of Subaru and RCM uprated parts: head gaskets (2 layer), head skimmed & pressure tested, high flow oil pump, water pump, timing belt, pulleys, clutch... you get the picture, and £4500 later we had her back and running like a dream. 

 

Fast forward to last week. 

 

On my way to work, under acceleration, she cut out and left me dead at 35mph... nothing, not even power steering.  

Got her started and limped to work with an unholy knocking when touching 2k rpm.

Had her trucked to my garage and they were stumped. 

Phoned me mid week saying that when they checked the sump we had a selection of different coloured metals to admire. 

They believe it's the 'Big End Shells' and in their opinion, and mine, we'd be better letting a Scooby specialist take her in and have a look. 

 

OK, that's not really a long story short, but I figured it'd be better than not having enough info. 😆

 

Repair? 

Rebuild? 

Pray?

 

So, what do I do & where do I get it done? 

 

Any advice would be most welcome. 

 

Ian 

[Tidgy]

hate to say it but if you posted saying your headgasket had gone i would have said you will need a full rebuild including full bottom end. my wifes forester did the headgasket a couple of months back, option was to do the bottom end or not. in the end we decided yes to the bottom end, sure enough when it was stripped they found problems with the crank being scored, worn bearings etc etc would have failed pretty quick if it was just the headgaskets done.

 

You need to decide what your gonna do longer term, are you planning on keeping the car? if so, its then a case of decided what you want from it, are you wanting to go for more power? a rebuild will be done the same way, but the spec of the parts going in will change. You also wont know exactly what condsition the engine is untill its stripped and assessed.Worst case the block could be destined for the skip.

Then its gonna be looking at if your budget will run to it.

The engine being built for my wife's forester is speced to run 500bhp and is north of £10k, spec being closed deck converted 2.5, nitrided crank, uprated rods and pistons, uprated heads incluidiong valves, valve springs etc etc etc the list is about 2 pages long, it's also high due to the old block and crank being toast, in fact i think the only thing left from the origional engine is the head castings lol

 

 

[Pixyflash]

 

Thanks for that Tidgy. 👍🏼

 

Guess I should have mentioned it here first, just figured that getting the HG done and spending on all the associated parts that I'd be covering myself. 😑

Never entered my head to the whole hog and rebuild.  

 

I see you're going with clinic for your rebuild. 

Do you have any other recommendations for a rebuild/replacement?  🤔

 

This is our only car now, and a relatively quick turn round would be nice, and you mentioned Clinic have a pretty full schedule. 

 

I know most Scooby specialists have at least 1 horror story so I could do with some pointers. 

 

 

Thanks in advance. 

 

Ian 

[Tidgy]

45 minutes ago, Pixyflash said:

 

Thanks for that Tidgy. 👍🏼

 

Guess I should have mentioned it here first, just figured that getting the HG done and spending on all the associated parts that I'd be covering myself. 😑

Never entered my head to the whole hog and rebuild.  

 

I see you're going with clinic for your rebuild. 

Do you have any other recommendations for a rebuild/replacement?  🤔

 

This is our only car now, and a relatively quick turn round would be nice, and you mentioned Clinic have a pretty full schedule. 

 

I know most Scooby specialists have at least 1 horror story so I could do with some pointers. 

 

 

Thanks in advance. 

 

Ian 

Clinic do all my work, had several engines in several cars from them, wouldnt go anywhere else 😄

They do have a fairly long time frame, 3 months ish, but worth the wait.

As far as replacement, the 2.5 is known for doing HG in stock form, so a replacement could well suffer the same issues, which then leads you down the rebuild route. As far as spec goes, as said, really depends on what you want and budget. Past 3 builds i've had, my old type r, current sti hawk and the wifes are all basiclyh the same spec, closed deck converted forged 2.5's. iot's my personal prefered choice but as i mentioend, not cheap. Best bet would be give them a ring for a chat and discuss options, outline prices etc

 

Some more info and pics of mine.