My turn... What to do?

[entirelyturbo]

As much as this sucks, I'm glad I know now rather than to keep guessing.

Before:


After:


Patti has a blown headgasket. For sure. 100%. No doubt in anyone's mind.

I'm sure it had to do with that rallycross I did in February and the couple gallons of race gas I used for the race.

This puts me out of the Subaru Challenge in a couple weeks, and means that the racing slicks that I ordered Tuesday were in vain.

So let's get down to brass tax. I'm going one of two ways:

1) Since I'm replacing, upgrade. Get the engine up to about 160-170hp N/A. Pull the motor, send the heads off to get ported and polished, maybe bigger valves if I can find them, mild cams, maybe do some upgraded injectors and minor EM, etc. And anything else I can think of while I'm at it. A lot of money for sure, which I definitely don't have right now, but as time goes on, this car will become a pretty formidable performance machine and still be the same car I fell in love with when I was 16.

2) Say our goodbyes and junk it. I've got the Fit now, so transportation is no longer an issue. I've got other car projects I've been dreaming up and would like to start up.

If I may get a little philosophical for a minute, I read a rather profound "parable" in a book I'm reading called Lamb, by Christopher Moore. It goes as follows: "If you come to a river and find a boat at the edge, you will use that boat to cross it and it will serve you well, but once across the river, do you put the boat on your shoulders and carry it with you the rest of the journey?" Of course not. What was once useful is now only a burden.

This car has been absolutely unprecedented in its reliability. As I keep saying, this car has yet to fail to get me home. It has done a whole bunch of crazy stuff on the way, but it has always gotten me home. Even after the test in the pictures, I still drove it home and it never missed a beat (the leak hasn't gotten bad enough yet to cause any compression loss).

So that's why I'm kinda torn. Do I make this car into an N/A beast and perhaps pursue an amateur racing career or at least have a fun toy... and dump a whole bunch more money into it? Or do I let what just might be my favorite car on this planet go and move on?

[PhyrraM]

The unspoken option.....Don't simply cross the river, go up it - in the boat.

I can't comment on you keeping the car or not. That's something you'll figure out in time. Most that persue a N/A build end up dissapointed. As you well know, in the Subaru community it's all but proven that turbo is the cheaper (and for most, inevitable) way to power.

From experience. You cannot race a car that is sentimental to you. Rally-cross/Auto-cross...OK. No real chance for damage or total loss. But anything truely competitive and you'll hold back that last little bit until your car is just that, a car. A tool used to obtain a goal (usually winning) and nothing more.

Good luck!

[evolutionmovement]

Why not just change the HG's and be done? It's an afternoon. You could still make the Challenge.

But, too, there comes a point where something has served its purpose, as you seem to think you might have come to the point of, and it's time to move on. If the car, sentiment, is holding you back, then it is no longer useful. It's something I have trouble with myself (in regards to cars, at least - people are easy let go of when they become burdensome). Had I the money and could make up my mind on which project to pursue, I'd be building my own vehicle from scratch and would not let the wagon get in my way. Of course, I don't know if it would as I think I'd get it going again and dump the Mazda. But then, I'd probably need another Subaru as back up until I finished the scratch-vehicle and I don't know if I really have room for all those cars (I do technically, but don't want shit all over the place like white trash).

[beatersubi]

+1 on just the head gasket. Or take a day and do both, and slap your cams in while the heads are off.

If you get rid of her, you'll miss her.

[quicklook]

i miss all my sold vehicles.

got rid of them for one reason or another, usually needed money, but still pine for all of them.

[entirelyturbo]

I could do a quick HG job and forget any headwork and make it to the Challenge. And I'm considering that too.

But I know I'm too OCD to do it and be happy with it. I'd rather have the chance to at least do some headwork and make the engine run a little better and make a little more power, especially if I'm gonna be using it to horse-ass around.

I know that the turbo is a quick, cheap, and dirty way to make power, more so than N/A tuning. But for some reason, I just don't wanna go that route. I'd like to be in 2.5RS territory.

And I'll miss this car something fierce. I miss my XT bad enough as it is. I don't doubt for an instant that I'll have tears in my eyes if I do get rid of it.

But I'm also in far more debt than I should be right now, and we all know what the economy is doing. I honestly shouldn't be dumping more money into a hole... although it is a fun hole.

Yes, pun was intended.

[Aerotech]

As I write this, your car popped up in the header rotation

I vote for gastket, quick n' dirty, or a long block swap at the most. Be careful of plans to work the motor; it never bloody ends. A head gasket is how my whole journey started, I should have just fixed the original motor and kept the several grand$ I subsequently dumped into the car.

[Brat4by4]

make a little more power, especially if I'm gonna be using it to horse-ass around.

Dude, emphasis on a LITTLE more power. Honestly, you will never be happy with what it does. Please please please learn from all the people that have preceded you... dumping money into NA is just not going to cut it if you want power. I do believe the fastest all-motor 2.5 RS's run low 14's with enough work to buy a WRX outright.

If you are going to race it, fine. Take all the extra weight out (massive horse/weight gains). Put hotter cams and straight through exhaust and headers in it because you don't need horsepower throughout the whole rev range. Having the engine only run good in a 400 rpm band will not matter. Then have a blast with it. The car will be mucho fun.

You WILL seriously regret doing the in-between option of trying to make the car feel fast in a straight line with a full interior. Fix the headgasket and leave it or strip it down to a race car.

P.S. - And seriously a 2.5RS is a weak goal to work towards. I have personally walked all over the ones in my area. When we meet together they would want to see how the matched up, since supposedly they have 5 more hp stock for stock. All the GC & GD 2.5RS's were quite modded, all the way up to cams and piggyback computer will full exhaust. I literally just walked away from any of them with a stock EJ22t with nothing more than 3" exhaust on it.

[Richard]

I honestly shouldn't be dumping more money into a hole... although it is a fun hole.

I knew a girl like that.

[entirelyturbo]

Thanks all for the suggestions.

Will, understand that I'm not looking to spin the earth the other direction, or even keep up with turbo Subarus necessarily. I just want to play around without blowing anything up. I don't mind spending a little more money to soup up the car and keep it reliable (i.e. not just bolt a turbo onto it and see what happens).

But I have to have the money to spend first, and I need to make sure this is expendable money (which I've failed to do in the past).

Stay tuned. I'll decide soon what I'm gonna do.

[SemperGuard]

Everything I was going to say Will already did. There's no point in dropping 3 grand in order to make 30 more hp. If you're so apt to get rid of money, spend $200-300 for a roundtrip ticket for me to come down there and fix the hgs for you on the cheap and be done with it in a few hours. You'll have your car back Or spend 3 grand and have a stock turbo setup that will give you the same reliability that you're used to. Or spend a grand or so and put a 2.5 in there. Either way you're driving around a 3000 lb car, so 30 hp wont make that huge of a difference.

[BAC5.2]

There isn't a day that goes by that I miss the fun factor my old Legacy had. With all of the stupid fast cars I've driven in my day, nothing has been as fun as my Legacy was. I miss the car like I miss a leg. It was impossible to drive it and not smile.

I miss it, but I'm not sorry or sad that I got rid of it. I got rid of it because I had to make a change in my life. I had to pick my priorities and move in a direction that would be beneficial to me in the long run. Dumping money into a 15 year old car, however fast and fun it was, was not the way I needed to play the game.

I walked away from the Legacy sad and upset. But what I walked into provided me with far more joy and happiness.

I miss the car something fierce, but I don't miss getting rid of it.

Perhaps this is a similar decision time for you?

[93forestpearl]

You can replace the HG's for a couple hundred dollars. I don't see what all the hubbub is all about. I was making over 300whp on EJ22T HG's and 350 wtq. They are cheap and work well on the 22T longblock.


The only other person I've known to pop them is my friend who lost a wastegate line and saw 40psi(or more, the sensor was maxed) from a GT3076R. Most Subaru mechanics have never heard of a normal 22T headgasket failure.

[codfizzle]

Wow, your fist post said you're actually considering junking it? Over some head gaskets? And you love the car? Are you crazy? That's like junking your favorite car because it needs a new muffler or something. $100 at NAPA (seriously- I just priced them 5 minutes ago on the NAPA web site) and an afternoon, and you'll be right back to rockin out. I think that's much better than junking it; especially if you love the car that much. You can always do more mods later if that's what you want. That's just my 2 bits, but I'm a total softie when it comes to my Subarus. I don't think I could live without my 89 Justy (fun, fun, fun little car) or my 92 Leggy.

[entirelyturbo]

I haven't updated because nothing's happened. She's still sitting in the other garage with blown HGs.

I will say that I won't be attempting any N/A tuning... so don't worry, I won't make that mistake.

I learned a bit about N/A tuning (stuff I should have already known really), and yeah, like you guys said, I'd never be finished. Unless I guessed every single number right the first time (the exact cam profile, the exact amount of PnP'ing, the exact fuel and ign maps, etc. etc.) I'd honestly probably not make any more power than I make now. I'd have to throw some stuff in it, dyno it, be sorely disappointed and try something else, dyno it again, try something else again... all to make maybe 20 more hp.

Also, I don't know how much more power I want to put through the original 183k transmission.

So forget it.

I will absolutely be cleaning the heads up. I will NOT just change the HGs and bolt the heads right back on with no work. They will be getting machined, measured for warpage, valve job, etc. They will get new valve seals. They will get new HLAs.

First, I don't like half-assing stuff. Second, I don't want to do this again. That's why I want to get everything done now.

I suppose I'll start working on it at the beginning of next year.

codfizzle, I do love the car, but I've spent far more money on it than any normal, sane person would because of that unhealthy attachment. Regardless of how much I love it, I'm getting tired of spending money on it.

I'll very likely do the HGs and headwork, but the bodywork and redo of the wheel bearings is yet to be determined.

[entirelyturbo]

Okay... so I'm about as confused as I've ever been in my life.

The local dragstrip in town started the 2009 season tonight with Street Drags, where anyone with a roadworthy vehicle and $15 can race on the dragstrip.

I wrestled through a few cobwebs and got my Legacy out of the garage... fully aware of the blown headgaskets, honestly not really caring anymore.

I grabbed the title to the car and drove it to the racetrack, clear on the other side of the county. I was seriously thinking that if I blew the car up at the track, that I'd just beg someone at the track to buy it for a couple bucks and sign the title over to them.

So I ran the car... three times. It never lost power, never even overheated. I was astounded.

So afterwards, I got back on the highway and headed back home, with my eye on the temperature gauge the whole time. No movement at all, again no loss of power or anything...

... until I got home. As soon as I parked it and left it idling in my driveway while I went inside to open the garage door, the temperature gauge started rising.

This is without a doubt the most peculiar 'blown-headgasket' behavior I've ever seen. I thought for sure that beating the crap out of it on the dragstrip would push any leak over the edge until something major happened.

I'm now again having a really hard time with the thought of getting rid of this car. Its persistence in spite of its illness is most inspiring.

Any thoughts?

Oh, and please don't ask what my times were. That was my first-ever drag race.

[evolutionmovement]

I still think the primary failure mode is air collecting in the water pump pocket. A rapid change in rpm keeps changing the flow of coolant, moving the combustion gases around, but when you slow down to a steady rpm and lower coolant flow on top of it, the gases collect by the water pump and slowly envelop the impeller.

[beatersubi]

Unless its the water pump, itself.
Why the sudden insistence on getting rid of the car? If you weren't on the wrong coast, I'd take it off your hands.

[entirelyturbo]

Water pump and T-stat are roughly 65k miles. Not new, but not old enough to be suspect if you ask me.

Take a look through some of my earlier posts. Especially around 2003-2004, and during the wheel bearing fix.

I've threatened to sell her, junk her, and give her away. I've yelled at her, hit her, beat the shit out of her, left her sitting for months at a time.

This is the epitome of a love-hate relationship, and yet somehow it's lasted far longer than almost any of my relationships with humans.

So, I keep saying that I am gonna get rid of her by one means or another, but for some reason... I end up keeping her.

Keep in mind that this is my first car, and it took me all the way through high school and college, so I'm very attached to it.

The main issue now is that I've dumped far more money into the Subaru hobby in general, not just Patti, and I'm trying to be a responsible adult and save money for more important things, like getting out of debt or my planned return to school.

And this isn't helping.

[555BCTurbo]

Mike...come on!!



Spend $50 and get a gasket kit off Ebay, spend a day regasketing that sucka, and keep driving it...

[SemperGuard]

That overheating behavior doesn't sound odd to me. You have blown headgaskets, but that doesn't mean that you can't drive it a certain style and not have it overheat. Mine did the same thing. It was fine until it idled, because there wasn't enough heat exchange to keep it cool. When you take the heads off, you should measure the warpage before you send them out to be machined. If they're within spec why waste the money on machining them. You won't get more power, or more reliability, or more anything except more money dumped into the car if the heads aren't warped. A pair of headgaskets and intake gaskets is all you need, might not even need the intakes, and a day or so of work. It's easy shit man.

Drop the cash for a plane ticket for me out there, and I'll buy one for me back, about $100 each way. I'll bring the tools, you buy the parts, and I'll fix it for you. Simple as that.

[entirelyturbo]

I swear I've seen a pic very similar to this one before...



This part is definitely different though...


More details later.

[beatersubi]

So, you've made a decision?

[New92]

Where is the update???? Im twixt and twittered!! LOL!

[SubaruNation]

from the dead, and this is anticlimactic as hell right now