Coolant issue - urgent help please

[SpydieNut]

Had my engine rebuilt a couple of thousand miles ago (cracked ringland), so now it's forged. An 09 plate Impreza STI. All has been fine since - gently run in for 1000 miles, changed oil etc. Checked oil and coolant weekly - no drop.

Today filled up, on the motorway again and after 1 hard acceleration, in 3rd, backed off and then shortly after noted the temp gauge was much closer the the 'red' area than it should be - normally sits right in the middle of the gauge.

Pulled off and see the coolant top-up lid had popped off and the coolant level in that tank is well above max - almost to the very top of the reservoir. The metal lid on the radiator seems warm but not hot, as does the hose leading into/from this, at the top. After a couple of minutes I open the metal lid - no 'his' of escaping pressure etc and apart from a very small amount of steam, nothing else.

Any ideas please.

Thank you

[SpydieNut]

Thanks guys - not sure. It seems better now. Initially the level of coolant in the reservoir wasn't dropping at all, but having left it a few minutes it had dropped to just below min. So I topped it back to max level with water closed up and started her up. Temp was back at normal and held steady.

Will take it easy on the way back and see - fingers crossed it was just he top popping off, although when I was checking levels, it was just looking at the level through the side of the reservoir, not taking the top off.

Fingers crossed - will update shortly

[SpydieNut]

Not fine. Driving 5 miles stop start through traffic, no problem. Hard accelation a couple of times and it's popped the top off the coolant reservoir again

[SpydieNut]

Head gasket maybe, but hopefully not, as apparently an uprated one was put in when the engine was rebuilt. ? Broken water pump.

Going to have to get it recovered to a local garage - the fluid in the reservoir remains well above max now, with the car off and both the reservoir and radiator caps open. Engine temp ok after stopping a few minutes, but now increases quite quickly after starting and heads towards red within a few hundred yards.

[SpydieNut]

Thanks again for the thoughts and suggestions. Going to have to get it recoverd as it's beyond what I can fix at the roadside and even though I'm now only 1.5 miles from home, I don't want to drive it any further for fear of causing more damage.

[SpydieNut]

i think you guys are right - unfortunately. The coolant that's sprayed inside the engine bay has an oily residue and also the oil level, which was at max when i checked it yesterday, is below minimum now

it's only 2 months and 2k miles since my rebuild - i've sent the chap a message a few hours ago, but had no reply yet. i get the feeling he's going to be difficult. the original rebuild took 9 months and you've never heard a list of excuses like it - he couldn't get parts, then the car wouldn't fire after he put the engine back in a second time - so time looking into that. other cars come in that were 'urgent', deaths in the family needing weekends to Ireland, annual leave, sickness etc etc. not sure why no-oneelse at the garage could work on my car??

i couldn't push things along at all - it was beyond frustrating. the fact he was 30 miles away and i was going through a divorce didn't help - only the fact he gave me a courtesy car made it slightly bearable. then afterwards he tried to charge me £400 extra for the car (never agreed before) as i'd exceeded the annual mileage of 9k (i did 12k in 9 months) which he apparently didn't know about first.

he was recommended, but has now sold that garage, although i believe is still working. but i'd really rather not take it back to him again.

[SpydieNut]

JonChalk said:

Whereabouts are you?

My brother's a huge Impreza nut & knows some good guys in the South West.

thank you for the thought, but i'm just north of Manchester

[SpydieNut]

MDMA . said:

tonyb1968 said:

Prosport was probably THE best garage in the north west, unfortunately Pete has been ill recently and he has rented out his unit now, still one of the best Subaru mechanics I know (he was working on these cars in the early to mid 80's when it was a farmers special )

WAS, being the past tense resting on 20 year old laurels. current results show this. until confirmed, hope for the best and hope you get it sorted. 9 months for an engine rebuild is just taking the piss. hindsight and all, may have been best to pull your car away from there sooner.

well it was very frustrating, but when he has the car with the engine out, in bits, it's hard to take it back unfortunately. then it developed another fault after they put the engine in again (just wouldn't fire) so they spent lots of time looking into that - trying to source a new ECU in case they'd fried mine when jump starting it. then the ECU codes were wrong and so more weeks went by trying to get the right code from Subaru. in the end it was a pin out of place on a replacement camshaft that had thrown the timing out.

he's replied to say he's back from Ireland tomorrow and will give me a call, but he's never heard of a headgasket going after using uprated gaskets (RCM) and head studs (ARP). but really, given how difficult it was to progress work when he had it before (and how long it took overall) and the fact it's gone so soon after being done, never mind the fact he's sold/rented his business, means i'm loathe to let him have it back again. it's my only car and i need it asap and he's very unlikely to have a courtesy car this time - *and* he's a good 45 min drive away.

so i've contacted CAMS in Blackburn and asked them to bring it in and sort it out.

[SpydieNut]

MDMA . said:

tonyb1968 said:

Prosport was probably THE best garage in the north west, unfortunately Pete has been ill recently and he has rented out his unit now, still one of the best Subaru mechanics I know (he was working on these cars in the early to mid 80's when it was a farmers special )

WAS, being the past tense resting on 20 year old laurels. current results show this. until confirmed, hope for the best and hope you get it sorted. 9 months for an engine rebuild is just taking the piss. hindsight and all, may have been best to pull your car away from there sooner.

Well it seems that's right on the money unfortunately

CAMS performance has stripped it down and the reason the head gasket went is that the studs weren't put in right. They were all different heights apparently (photos taken during dismantling) and the chap said he initially thought that 3 of them hadn't been tightened properly, as they felt like they had already been loosened. Sadly it's worse than that. When they took the studs out two of them brought the threads out of the block with them. So seems they were cross threaded and stripped. So now I need new half blocks - and how much labour to rebuild it, never mind another gasket set, new studs etc etc.

There were also various clips loose and the hose for the turbo was half folded into the pipe itself, instead of sitting nicely around the outside of it. The phrase Brian used to describe the work that had been done on my car was 'abysmal'.

Given that Pete has now sold his Subaru specialist workshop in Stockport, means I don't hold out much hope for redress. I suppose at the least heads aren't cracked or warped, but still, after spending £6k for Pete to rebuild the engine with forged internals means I really don't have funds for this.

st!! I loved that car when it was running, as it's just an awesome package. But I can't keep doing this. So I'm selling it and the only thing to decide it whether to just sell it as is, or fix and sell. I'll get priced for fixing it tomorrow as well as an idea of what it's worth as is, then I can decide.

Pete told me early on, when I mentioned I'd been referred to him, that you're only as good as your last car. That's certainly true!!