Sorry but it just annoys me, a little, when people have an original question/brief when responses drill more cost into their solution with lots of requirement creep and additional cost for very little gain.
Maybe that's because requirements capture, costing and risk management are a big part of my day job.

I think you have 2 simple options :
1. Just get the headgasket fixed. It would be done in a few days and you know exactly what you have.
2. STi short engine, pinks and VFxx. A cheap way to 330BHP. But runs the risk that the short engine has faults or latent damage. The same could be said for the turbo.

Anything more than that you will be running into the area of depreciating gains and increasing risk.

I don't think I'd agree with that, all the suggestions have been largely in line with the OP, the only additional mentions are a 3 port solenoid, yes I know you can mess about with the pills but that's really not the best way to go about it as far as I'm aware. The only real additional suggestion has been the addition of an ECU that can run AVCS based on the fact that it appears possible to rejoin the WRX loom to take an STI ECU and therefore retain the AVCS. My suggestion was in fact to have this as a future upgrade path.

The use that Steves engine has means a simple HG replacement is likely to only be a short(ish) term solution and a replacement or rebuilt bottom end makes better long term sense to me. Replacing the short block again is a potentially expensive route as you need to factor in skimming, and gaskets (head and rocker) and again while the heads are off you may as well check/relap valves etc.

Or maybe we should all stop offering advice and opinions?

I've really done my research on engine issues on the WRX's having been through similar twice before!

In all the newage that I have mapped I have never felt the need to fit a 3-port. But hey it looks' good to some up the pub when you spout off your specification.

Infact I was handed a Prodrive 3-port once to fit and the cheap brittle plastic snapped whilst fitting, so we just cracked on with the 2-port.
The restrictor swap is only really needed on bug WRX as you cannot get any more then 1bar out of them, on a TD04, without changing the restrictor.

I have never had to swap out any others. But it is a way/means to control boost spike that's a lot cheaper then than another remap or the cost of a 3-port. But only if the problem presents itself, which I have never witnessed.

Just another few £££ wasted IMHO.

Steve's car has done very well over the years. If he has plenty of ££££ and will be content with plenty of head scratching, research and several bites at the cherry then I am sure he will fill his boots and crack on.

I have seen too many people throw £££££ at a repair using it as an excuse for an upgrade. Or even pulling a perfect engine and replacing it for an upgrade. Only to see 20BHP increase and lots of strife along the way.
I've seen people sucked into this and spend £18K only to achieve 30BHP over what the original stock setup could produce and again the road to achieve this extra 30BHP was not a smooth one.

I'm just throwing out there that when you stray from the simple you may wish you hadn't.
If done right the headgasket fix should see it right. It's just a shame that on the flat-four it's not so simple as whipping the head off on your drive.

Personally I would recommend Vince at RDS, that's where I would take mine if in the same situation. He will do it right, not cut corners and source most parts from Olly at RCM, who he knows well from his Rally background.
It may not be a quickjob as he's a touch laid back and never turns away work, from the more mundane to the exotic.
But it's where my money would go.

Steve's Bugeye WRX PPP
 

From what I've heard from several well known Subaru mechanics with 20 + years in the trade (including RCM who won't just replace head gaskets anymore due to this problem)
Replacing head gaskets on a leggy well used engine when they fail or are on there way out, leads to bottom end failure within a week or two normally, there are countless threads about this on multiple owners forums, from SES to NASIOC,

I would not be happy with the use that Steve intends for his car to simply do a head gasket replacement in light of this.

Indeed you could at 330bhp just use a standard Sti sized restrictor pill and 2 port, better to save the money until you decide to fit a nice big Turbo and spend lots of money :D

Well well, no need for a ding dong ladies :D

This was my original plan. Especially as CJ offered to help take the engine out/in. But heads would need skimming, time and effort and i'm back with the same 97,000 mile engine thats slappy (almost bordering on knocky) when cold. I count myself lucky that its not done the bottom end already, considering its just a WRX engine and the track work its done over the last 6 or 7 years.

If the engine is coming out, i'd like to do the job right. I'm not worried about dropping £1500 on an STI long engine plus a bit more for turbo etc (already had offers from people for inlet mani and pinks) - but i don't want to get into spending thousands obviously. If I start changing ECU then obviously it adds cost and complication.

At the same time, i'd like a bit more power (as do we all). The car doesn't thrill me anymore at 280bhp. It might not at 330bhp, but it'll help. At this stage I just don't know enough about what i need though... so this conversation is all about finding answers :)

If i could justify the cash, then the bug would be broken and i'd have a nice jdm or uk widetrack. But i've never really spent a lot of cash on the bug, its been a great car and i've got more pressing needs for spending cash on stuff other than the scoob these days.... (house, mainly!)

Hope it all works out what ever you decide Steve .

Give a couple of engine builders a ring and find out what they'd charge!

Couple of ideas to consider.

This will be the more expensive option but:
Have a chat to Paul Finch - see what he would charge for a forged rebuild on your engine reusing your crank if serviceable or even going for a 2.1.

Cheaper option could be to:
Give Andy Williams a ring or email (Williams motorsport) for a rebuild on your engine. My last rebuild was around £1.6k which was new bearings, gudgeon pins, Head Gaskets (Cosworth) and RCM Baffle plate. He's currently got this engine on eBay which I appreciate is higher than your original budget (based on the options you were considering) however I'm sure he will take your engine in Part Exchange and bolt your heads to the block. My original build was done on a part ex basis and he sent back the engine with all my ancillaries re-fitted.

Either way a strong build on your engine could well end up being a cost effective solution as while it may cost slightly more in the first instance you wouldn't end up with the ECU itch that non-functional AVCS would leave you!

When you do consider taking the engine out I've got an engine stand here if you want to borrow one?

If the engine is being rebuilt or replaced, I'd certainly echo Dave's comments that an uprated Oil pump would make sense - I also echo his comments that many builders won't do a simple HG replacement for fear of imminent failure afterwards, however I know that my builder (Andy Williams) does not fully subscribe to that school of thought in fact when my engine has the same symptoms as Steve's (Ok mine was a forged 2.5) he spilt the book halves (no cost) to check the bearings to prove that there was no reason to replace them by default if it was a minor HG issue (Gasses to oil with no water contamination of oil) - his findings from my engine was that the bearings were in perfect condition with only minimal signs of wear in one with milage.

Well.... this hasn't been updated in over a year!

Existing engine is still going, its done another Ring trip but no major head gasket/coolant issues so I guess the problem isn't getting any worse.

Did have some issues in Germany though, although not strictly engine related this time! Actuator on the turbo seized up which left me with the wastegate stuck open and no boost. Few repairs in Jackie's car park and the car ran boost again (got 2 more laps out of it!) and got home safely.

Actuator since replaced, still had a fluctuating boost issue but that had occasionally occurred before the ring trip too. Between 3-4k rpm it would just feel like the boost was dropping off before re-spooling and going again. Tried another boost solenoid but problem still there. Also had a problem with a flashing engine light on long 4th/5th gear pulls, which research suggested might be the neutral position switch on the gearbox.

Anyway, onto yesterday :) Huge thanks to Rob for spending the day at mine yesterday helping out, the scoob got new plugs, new oil (twice :cuckoo: ) and filter, new neutral position switch fitted, handbrake slack adjusted etc.

Oil was a mare, some of you have heard about Millers oil and jelly like lumps etc, well I had a bottle of it. See here...
http://www.southeastscoobies.co.uk/v...ad.php?t=21462

Wasn't happy with lumps going in the engine as it could block oil ways/filter etc, so we dropped it back out and put a newer bottle of Millers 10W-60 NT+ stuff in there (I already had it, hence didn't go with a different brand). What a waste of £50 of oil, but what can you do. Miller's say there isn't a problem apparently.... thankfully the newer NT+ stuff didn't have the same problem.

Still had boost fluctations so did a MAF swap (from Rob's scoob) and it was a lot better. So going to invest in a new genuine MAF, as mine's done 100k now. Will see how things go but I expect after that it will a case of getting a certain friendly mapper to hook up a laptop and see what's going on. ;)

I'll get there soon!! :ok:

Sounds like your getting to the bottom of it, That oil tho??? good choice to swap it over,

That's why I went across to Motul 300v :ok: glad mr rob worked his magic and glad ur hopefully getting to the bottom of the problem...

Can't see how MAF can impact boost unless it's throwing a permanent failure and going into limp.
Did you also look into your hot start cam position sensor issue.
Did you back off the actuator and re-log boost control ?

OK, but that's a bit strange then. It's not going into limp and the car drives fine with the current MAF both off boost and over 4.5k rpm. In the 3-4k rpm on WOT the boost spools, then stalls, then spools, then stalls. Trying to build speed quickly on the motorway in 4th/5th is pretty difficult.

All we found on Sunday was that Rob's MAF made a noticeable difference, hence the assumption that it's time for a new MAF. Could the ECU detect the different MAF and make an adjustmust whilst it re-learns??

Yep, swapped for a replacement camshaft position sensor. Hot starting seems much better now. Don't think it was related though, as we realised the code that was thrown at the brekkie meet (or as we thought) was a historic code logged that occurs whenever the bugs hit 6.5k rpm and it throws the light. I've had that code a hundred times, and with both camshaft sensors.

Yes. On a test drive afterwards it seemed a little better, but on another drive it seemed just as bad. The symptoms aren't always consistent, but not sure what is causing the variation. The boost logging I've got is only via an OBD port reader and bluebooth link to a phone app, so not sure of its accuracy.

Other observations - the plugs looked tired, plug gap was larger than new due to wear, I thought the best course of action would be to replace MAF so we know that is good and then get you to look at it and see what's going on :) You could look at it now, but if MAF is dodgy it might be wasted time?

Have you tried cleaning out all the pipes to and from the boost solenoid?

No, are they susceptible to getting filled with crud then? Could be an easy fix if that's the case....

There is a restrictor in the small boost pipe that connects to the turbo outlet nipple.
This is only 1.0mm on the PPP WRX (1.2mm on the WRX) so it can clog especially if over filled with oil.
The smaller the hole gets the more boost spike or overboost you will see.
Overboost will cause oscillation especially on motorway when trying to regulate part throttle boost in 5th

MAF only controls the fuelling above approx 3000rpm or when generating positive boost. Different model years have slighlty different cross over points from lambda closed loop control to MAF open loop fuelling.
It has no impact on boost control.
Hence why a dieing MAF causing lean running can kill an engine. It will still boost but will be too lean causing detonation.

OK, sounds like its time to take the hoses off and check them all first then. Never knew the pill was changed as part of the PPP???

the Millers oil issue was down to a specific batch and only ever related to the old style NT variant

no known issues before or since

Thanks Alyn. Does that mean Millers are offering a refund (or even replace with NT+) if they acknowledge a problem with it? :D I've got a nasty oil-coloured lump of jelly here that they can have for proof ;)

Well.... so here we are another two months down the line. And it looks like the scoob is sorted :mrgreen::mrgreen:

Huge thanks to Rob for giving up two weekends and assisting with much spannering, tea drinking and humour (of the shaft, nut and hole variety, mainly :angst: :lol: ). Plus, donating various spare bits & bobs and supplying plenty of new jubilees. But yeah, thanks mate, I'd never have got it sorted on my own :ok:

So... it looks like the turbo was the problem all along. Bought a second hand TD04 off a member on here in Hastings and Scott dropped it over as he was passing. As soon as we got my old TD04 off, we knew it wasn't right. There was a load of shaft movement, and you could see a paler area on the intake housing where the compressor wheel has been scrubbing. Add to that, it felt notchy when spinning it and a whole load heavier to turn by hand than the replacement and we thought we'd found the problem.

http://www.southeastscoobies.co.uk/v...015_121235.jpg

Twin turbo conversion? :cuckoo:

Uppipe was removed as it needed re-wrapping and to refresh old gaskets. In the process of removing the turbo, we also found that the OEM inlet hose was split in the rubber section. It looked like the jubilee had munched it up but it was only good for scrap. So we began destroying that to remove it, as taking the intake manifold off wasn't really on our wish list! Even with all the ports cut off, what an absolute pig of a job. There really is sod all space to manoeuvre it out of there...

The list of bits coming off the car grows....

http://www.southeastscoobies.co.uk/v...015_150023.jpg

http://www.southeastscoobies.co.uk/v...104_113412.jpg

New turbo inlet, found one that was still thick ply with reinforcing wire (and not cheap ebay tat) whilst still having removable aluminium ports (to aid installation) and not costing £250+ like a Samco or Perrin. There is no way in hell that we'd have got it installed with moving the manifold without removing the aluminium bits...
http://www.southeastscoobies.co.uk/v...023_101923.jpg

And then put it all back together again. Mostly in the right order! :-D
Took it for a test drive and it was clear that the fluctuating boost was gone, it pulled smooth all the way through. Thank fook for that. But in a last ditch attempt to annoy us, the car gave us two new gremlins... air had got in the power steering and wouldn't bleed out making the pump sound like a bag of bolts, and I randomly got a double-speed left indicator flash suggesting a bulb was out. No indicator on front morette, so whipped that out. Bulb fine... but:

http://www.southeastscoobies.co.uk/v...105_151123.jpg

Of all the random crap... so out with the soldering and a new spade connector. Job done.

Time for a power steering fluid flush. Wow, I'd no idea how bad that stuff could get. Used a vacuum pump to drain the reservoir, replace with fresh, run the pump, empty reservoir again and so on. This is what came out first time (on the left).

http://www.southeastscoobies.co.uk/v...108_153502.jpg

It stunk like a cross between burnt oil and old burnt circuit boards. And was way thicker than the fresh stuff... so time for the bin. Took about half an hour and six swaps to get it looking fresh in the system and that's resolved the problem.

Happy days. Even took it out for a nice drive in the sun last weekend:

http://www.southeastscoobies.co.uk/v...112_124804.jpg

http://www.southeastscoobies.co.uk/v...112_124819.jpg

So hopefully that's the scoob back to full health. A trackday at Bedford Autodrome is booked for 3 weeks time so that'll answer the question one way or another! :drive:

Been great fun spannering in your company and getting to work on your Scoob. Whilst nothing we did required a rocket science degree it was a great learning experience removing and replacing the turbo and that dreaded inlet pipe, we certainly learnt a lot along the way.

I’m proper chuffed after everything the car is running right, I really thought after the power steering and ridiculous indicator bulb issue someone had it in for us with that car, in the end it all seemed to iron out nicely, long may it stay that way.

As for the tea drinking... it was tasty and in good supply and the humour was not so tasty but matching in supply, if you can’t use endless innuendo and double entendres working on cars when can you use it!

Good work chaps car still looking good steve not planning on puting a vf tubby on her .

Excellent update steve and glad everything is back to working order :drive:

Intake is a common problem had to do mine on bug just before nurburg the first year i went, absolute pig to do, for anyone in the future, it is a lit easier to just take inlet manifold off to do. Don’t try to fight it, it is the far easiest method!

It probably is easier to remove manifold, but its all the other ancillaries attached to that... we really didn't want to get into!

A little fairy liquid rubbed on the new silicon hose stops it gripping up on everything it touches as you're sliding it in. And the first time it gets warm, the car smells lemony fresh :D

Good to see it's all happy again ,
I two had a split intake pipe in the same place as yours on my uk300,
I struggled , shouted and got super angry but with fairy as an aid the silicone pipe slid in just!

Can’t beat a bit of lube :ok:




Commence the abuse :lol:

Glad to hear it's now all sorted and the turbo was the culprit.
You can attack the ring again this year with a bit more confidence......but not too much eh!!!!!

Unless I break it at Bedford :lol:

Rob and I were bored this afternoon and looking for something to tinker with.... so operation track scoob has commenced :lol:

http://www.southeastscoobies.co.uk/v...119_150137.jpg

http://www.southeastscoobies.co.uk/v...119_150147.jpg

Also removed front speakers and head unit as it never gets used and they're old and naff. Whilst the door cards were off, I discovered (and remembered) that when I got the car I fully dynamatted the outer skin of the front doors about 10 years ago. Probably made sense at the time, yet its unnecessary weight now :lol:

It's certainly not coming off though, sticky as hell that is :boom:

Nice work gents :ok:

If you warm the dynamat with a hairdryer you can get about 20% of it off and cover yourself with the stickiest black goo known to man!

http://seiboncarbon.co.uk/s-style-ca...ront-pair.html

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...14de2a8650.jpg

Very clean car!!!

Yep. Don't think i'll be bothering with that, horrible job!

How much!? There's going to be less weight saved in a pair of carbon door cards than a race battery for a lot less money ;)

Thanks mate. She's not bad for 15 years old... :)

Dry ice works well, a bit difficult for the doors though unless you fancy putting the car on it's side :shock::lol:

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...4bdc05f807.jpg

What someone did on my old Blob


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

lol

At least you had the superlite stuff... but it looks like someone spent about 30 quid on each door!

Dynamat on a door panel is nearly as effective as the snow chains I spotted on this Peugeot a few years ago.

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4548/...6926c848_c.jpg

Made it easier for me, I just changed door cards


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk