gator gt
10-16-2005, 12:33 AM
DOH! headgasket failure. :(
Riding to work on Tuesday morn and look down to make sure I'm not doing very stupid speeds (just stupid speeding :-D ) and I see the temp needle PEGGED on H. Gee, I say to myself, thats never happened before. In 3 seconds time, it lowered itself to its normal position, halfway up the gauge. A little while later, it rose slightly above normal, then came back down.
Get to work and (sniff) I (sniff) smell (sniff) antifreeze. Oh great. Pop the hood and I see antifreeze residue on the top of the rez tank, A/C line from the condensor, the battery tray and the underbody tray below the rez tank. Curses....rez tank purged.
So I call my local dealer...yup. Its your headgaskets they say. I knew this day would come....but didn't want to see it. And rightly so when I got my bill....but in all fairness, I tacked on a few items and so did they. SINCE, the motor was coming out, I took advantage of it.
I ordered:
headgasket change (which includes, but not limited to: headgaskets (go figure), intake and exhaust gaskets, cam oil seals, t-stat, t-stat gasket, valve cover seals, new oil and new coolant)
clutch to be inspected...later ordered it to be changed (incl: fly, pilot bushing, disc and pressure plate) turned out the pressure plate fingers were weakening and breaking, pilot bushing didn't like its home and fell out of the fly when the tech pulled the clutch cover off and the fly had some blue-ing and heat cracks....disc was fine. CHANGE IT.
rear main seal (hey, motor is out and fly is coming off....only smart to do it then!)
oil separator plate (Subaru, for some reason changed this from aluminum to plastic during the 96-01 years I think....and changed it back to aluminum after it started to DUH, warp) I went to the replacement aluminum one.
o-ring associated with the rear main seal or oil separator plate..still not clear on that one.
and had them install the PDM Tran-Quil tranny sleeve kit for that hideously annoying squeaking the fork produces when it scores the cone of the tranny. no mas! Ordered it from Tarmac USA, oh, a year ago and its been sitting in my trunk for such an occasion.
well, they added on:
radiator: there was a 25 degree difference in temp readings (standard procedure to test temps when headgasket change is involved). Too much, so bring on the new rad. Kept old one for dad to recycle.. :D Supposedly, they won't honor the warranty of 12 months, unlimited mileage unless I do their recommeded complete system fix, which includes the rad if its bad enough. Fine, whats 300 when you're already in the couple thousand dollar range. :roll: somehow I got a new cap too. :-D
water pump: tech snapped both bolts to the t-stat housing....lets see, have him fiddle around for who-knows-how-long to tap and re-thread original water pump @ $93/hr or pay for a new water pump for $99 (actually paid $85....but thats a loyalty discount :-D ) no brainer...and that was before I saw the discount.
oil pan. mine was rusty as all get out on the front face. tech told me its only a matter of time before oil started to seep through the rust or water seeping in....and I believe him. That rust was scally and SCARY! I was afraid to slightly graze the front of that pan every oil change. Plus, I got a WRX oil pan with baffle plates on the inside which keep the sloshing down while turning for little to no oil starvation for the pump. same price as a regular oil pan!! :twisted:
Estimate was for $2700. I paid $2500. Not bad....not good, but not bad.
So there is my saga...and I'm sticking to it.
I asked the service manager one last time before I left that the warranty for 12 months/unlimited mileage covered what? "Everything we touched and fixed"
"Did you guys happen to caress the entire car?" was my question back to him.
"No" he said laughing shaking his head.
Can't blame me for trying.
Funny thing happened though...the tech comes up to me when I pick the car up and asked if I had the MAP reflashed. ??? What? He said the car idled real low and revved super smooth. I asked if he was talking generally about BD EJ25s or mine specifically. He said mine. I was a little shocked. He said it was the smoothest EJ25 he's seen. I said I hadn't tuned it (and I haven't) and while I did have a DIY grounding kit, I took it off before they got the car (along with the FSTB) so they wouldn't charge me more time to take that stuff off too. This tech has been working on Subaru engines for 10-12 years. He's the head tech in a shop of 7.
Clutch is right off the floor (new) and for some odd reason, she growls a bit louder. WOT is a roar I've never heard from it before. I like! :twisted: He said he didn't adjust the valves or cams either. I dunno. What I do know is that it pulls like a new engine now...oh boy, and just in time for the crisp fall air!!! New winter tires on the way too. Oh Merry Christmas GT, Merry Christmas!!
:roll: :lol:
GGT
Riding to work on Tuesday morn and look down to make sure I'm not doing very stupid speeds (just stupid speeding :-D ) and I see the temp needle PEGGED on H. Gee, I say to myself, thats never happened before. In 3 seconds time, it lowered itself to its normal position, halfway up the gauge. A little while later, it rose slightly above normal, then came back down.
Get to work and (sniff) I (sniff) smell (sniff) antifreeze. Oh great. Pop the hood and I see antifreeze residue on the top of the rez tank, A/C line from the condensor, the battery tray and the underbody tray below the rez tank. Curses....rez tank purged.
So I call my local dealer...yup. Its your headgaskets they say. I knew this day would come....but didn't want to see it. And rightly so when I got my bill....but in all fairness, I tacked on a few items and so did they. SINCE, the motor was coming out, I took advantage of it.
I ordered:
headgasket change (which includes, but not limited to: headgaskets (go figure), intake and exhaust gaskets, cam oil seals, t-stat, t-stat gasket, valve cover seals, new oil and new coolant)
clutch to be inspected...later ordered it to be changed (incl: fly, pilot bushing, disc and pressure plate) turned out the pressure plate fingers were weakening and breaking, pilot bushing didn't like its home and fell out of the fly when the tech pulled the clutch cover off and the fly had some blue-ing and heat cracks....disc was fine. CHANGE IT.
rear main seal (hey, motor is out and fly is coming off....only smart to do it then!)
oil separator plate (Subaru, for some reason changed this from aluminum to plastic during the 96-01 years I think....and changed it back to aluminum after it started to DUH, warp) I went to the replacement aluminum one.
o-ring associated with the rear main seal or oil separator plate..still not clear on that one.
and had them install the PDM Tran-Quil tranny sleeve kit for that hideously annoying squeaking the fork produces when it scores the cone of the tranny. no mas! Ordered it from Tarmac USA, oh, a year ago and its been sitting in my trunk for such an occasion.
well, they added on:
radiator: there was a 25 degree difference in temp readings (standard procedure to test temps when headgasket change is involved). Too much, so bring on the new rad. Kept old one for dad to recycle.. :D Supposedly, they won't honor the warranty of 12 months, unlimited mileage unless I do their recommeded complete system fix, which includes the rad if its bad enough. Fine, whats 300 when you're already in the couple thousand dollar range. :roll: somehow I got a new cap too. :-D
water pump: tech snapped both bolts to the t-stat housing....lets see, have him fiddle around for who-knows-how-long to tap and re-thread original water pump @ $93/hr or pay for a new water pump for $99 (actually paid $85....but thats a loyalty discount :-D ) no brainer...and that was before I saw the discount.
oil pan. mine was rusty as all get out on the front face. tech told me its only a matter of time before oil started to seep through the rust or water seeping in....and I believe him. That rust was scally and SCARY! I was afraid to slightly graze the front of that pan every oil change. Plus, I got a WRX oil pan with baffle plates on the inside which keep the sloshing down while turning for little to no oil starvation for the pump. same price as a regular oil pan!! :twisted:
Estimate was for $2700. I paid $2500. Not bad....not good, but not bad.
So there is my saga...and I'm sticking to it.
I asked the service manager one last time before I left that the warranty for 12 months/unlimited mileage covered what? "Everything we touched and fixed"
"Did you guys happen to caress the entire car?" was my question back to him.
"No" he said laughing shaking his head.
Can't blame me for trying.
Funny thing happened though...the tech comes up to me when I pick the car up and asked if I had the MAP reflashed. ??? What? He said the car idled real low and revved super smooth. I asked if he was talking generally about BD EJ25s or mine specifically. He said mine. I was a little shocked. He said it was the smoothest EJ25 he's seen. I said I hadn't tuned it (and I haven't) and while I did have a DIY grounding kit, I took it off before they got the car (along with the FSTB) so they wouldn't charge me more time to take that stuff off too. This tech has been working on Subaru engines for 10-12 years. He's the head tech in a shop of 7.
Clutch is right off the floor (new) and for some odd reason, she growls a bit louder. WOT is a roar I've never heard from it before. I like! :twisted: He said he didn't adjust the valves or cams either. I dunno. What I do know is that it pulls like a new engine now...oh boy, and just in time for the crisp fall air!!! New winter tires on the way too. Oh Merry Christmas GT, Merry Christmas!!
:roll: :lol:
GGT