rossmc88

Thanks for your reply.

Here's some more pictures that may be helpful

Here's a picture of the build up I found behind the cover, I don't know why there is a cover on the back of the block?

This picture shows the build up better

Is this more than there should be?

Here's some pictures of the block with the gaskets removed

I've posted on here a few times about the overheating problems I was having with my car. I replaced, thermostat, radiator, radiator cap and bypassed the heater matrix, flushed the system with a hose, put in new coolant and still had the same problem.

My header tank was bubbling and I thought it smelt a bit petrolly, so I have taken the engine out and stripped it to have a look at the headgaskets.I'm not sure what a blown headgasket looks like, can anyone see anything from the pics below:

This is the first time I've ever taken the head(s) off any car,

Any advice, info would be great,

Thanks

Ross

Thanks for all the info/advice

Does anyone have any experience with using importcarparts.co.uk? I was thinking of using them for buying bits for my head gasket replacement?

Any advice/info would be great,

Thanks

Ross

I have a leather gaitor ontop of my rubber gaitor, gives it some shape and holds it in place, I just tuck the gaiter in around the plastic surround

After replacing my radiator, thermostat. bypassing the heatrix matrix my car still over heats, so have decided to bite the bullet and take the heads off to see if the gaskets are faulty. I've never attempted a job as big as this, but I feel now is the time to have a crack.

I've got a nice big garage, engine crane and all the tools I need and the impreza doesn't look that hard to get the engine out of.

Since the engine was rebuilt 15k ago with these parts:

Closed deck block

nitrated crank

crank pully

main bearings

big end bearings (Tri-metal)

SH Tensioner/plate/roller

Upper roller

lower roller

tooth roller

gasket set

bolts

timing belt

piston rings

The engine is nice and quiet and smooth, and the ecu isn't reporting any faults. The rest of the car is perfect so I think it is justifying getting the head gasket done.

Would I be right in saying I could get away with replacing only the following:

Head gasket

water pump

head bolts

possibly an oil pump? (I'm not experieincing any oil pressure problems, would this possibly be a good saving not doing it?)

Obviously, fresh oil/filter, coolant and plugs

Since the belt, tensioner and rollers have only done 15k, I wasn't planning on replacing these

Any advice on the above would be great, where would the best place be to get parts? I'm a bit strapped for cash after just buying a house, so I'm budgeting about £400 and I'm going to do all the work myself.

Thanks

Ross

thanks for the reply. If its the head gasket that will be the end of the car for me since i dont have a spare 2-3k for a rebuild, thats why i made sure it had a rebuild before i bought it the car will be a joke if the engine has only lasted 10k. If it was the headgasket, do you think it would have been able to drive a whole week with no problems? Ill get a sniffer test done to get a better idea of what is wrong with the thing

Hi,

Having some grief as usual with my subaru I have a 1995 WRX Classic that is about to be set on fire. Before I bought the car, I had read about impreza's needing engine rebuilds, so I made sure I bought a car that had already had the engine rebuilt. Therefore my engine has 10k on it since it's rebuild, it was rebuilt with a closed deck block and nitrated crank, but apart from that it is standard running standard boost.

I was driving the car about for about 300 miles since I bought it then i noticed it started going up an extra couple of notches on the temp gauge and then going back down again. This went on for a week, so I checked the coolant and the header tank was empty! The heaters were blowing cold at this point, but they always had since I never tested them when I bought the car, lesson learnt there.

I decided to drain all the coolant out of the car, flushed the system out with a hose pipe, then refilled it with the correct coolant with a 50/50 mix. I also removed the thermostat and tested it was working properly which it was. When refilling the coolant, I don't know if it bled properly, but the process i followed was:

With the engine off, kept filling the header tank until I couldn't fill it anymore

Switched the engine on with the heaters on full, then continued to top up the header tank until i couldn't top it up anymore, i waiting until all the bubbles stopped coming out of it too. I waited a good half an hour before putting the cap back on.

The heaters never went hot, but I realised later that someone had unplugged the wires for the heater servo, so when I plugged them back in and the heaters worked

I've driven the car about for a week with no problems with a mixture of slow and fast driving, then tonight I noticed the heaters started blowing hot and cold intermittently every now and again. Then tonight the engine temp started creeping up past the half way on the scale and the heaters went cold, so I drove home, about 5 mins. The temp never reached the top of the scale though, but was higher than normal.

So I popped the bonnet and went to take the cap off the header tank expecting to see no coolant in it, instead the coolant burst out like a volcano and went all over the place.

Does anyone have any advice or suggestions on what to try next, or should I just burn it?

Any help would be amazing

Thanks

Ross

Has anyone had to change the 3 interior dash bulbs that light up the heater controls? I'm needing to get some blue ones, but I'm struggling to find some that fit. I bought some on ebay that were supposed to fit but it turns out they never:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...em=230325533477

Anyone know the correct fitment type so I can order the right ones this time?

Thanks

Ross