Ok guys, looks like I'MABUS next Wednesday, 98 Impreza 2.2 n/a, 105k on the clock. I will obviously be slow, and don't want to break anything. How can I get a good 60' in one of these things without breaking it?

Anybody want to buy a 2005 OBXT, 5MT, with a blown motor?

$3.50

Message 93moarboost or whatever his handle is here.

Ok, I need some budgeting help here. My 05 OBXT (130k miles, totally stock) has bad leakdown on cyl 3. The shop that tested it didn't go any further than that (besides noting that cyl 2 is fine), so I don't know if it's top end, bottom end, or both.
This car has been nickel-and-diming me for the last couple years, so I am pretty much fed up at this point.
So right now, it is probably worth about $1,000 as a parts car.
If I fix it, it looks like decent condition OBXTs are going for about $6,000 in this area. If it ran, this would be a good-condition car.

Can anybody here help me figure out how much it will cost to fix this if it is the top end, bottom end, or both? Of if there is any reliable/easy way to figure out which end it is before I pull the engine?
It looks like short blocks go from anywhere between $700 and $1,500 for a used/rebuilt to $2,000 for a new one.
Heads seem to be $600 for a pair of used ones, but I only saw one set on ebay, so I don't know if that's right or if they can even be bought easily.
Full engines from junkyards all have 130k+ miles on them, and are going for $2,500+. Not sure if those are longblocks or "turnkey," either. I don't like this idea much because there is no way to know if I am putting another bad engine in or not.

Assuming another $500 or so in random head studs, gaskets, belts, hoses, etc., anything but the heads-only option is quickly approaching the "is it worth it if I'm not going to keep it?" range of costs, and that doesn't count any money I may have to chip in for labor.

What do you experts have for insight? Is there some super-common failure in cylinder 3 on these cars? Some other common failure I can check for? We bore-scoped it (cyl 2 and 3) with a cheap scope and didn't see anything super obvious, though there were a couple very shiny spots on the piston and one pattern that could have been a crack in cyl 3, but it wasn't clear enough to tell.

they need to tell you where the leak was from. what's the point of doing a leakdown test if they're not checking the 2nd most important part.
usually, on those cars, it's valves.

a "new block" is 2100 from subaru, and it will be bare. your estimates are optimistic. realistically you're looking at 3 grand minimum no matter which way you go. unless you wanna buy some jank ebay unknown condition stuff, re-use gaskets, and generally just ghetto-rig it and hope for the best.

the way I see it, 3 grand minimum for the most budget refresh, and 5 grand minimum if you start upgrading internals. anything less and you're cutting corners somewhere.

Vlad, what do you think of the new FA motors?

He think's 'meh', and that subaru needs to figure out what direction they're going in. (Is use to EJ tuning)

I've a few FA tunes under my belt now, from stg1 to full bolt on + e85.

Bottom line: lots of improved technology. also lot's of cost cutting in various places.
So the pro and the con basically even each other out.

I agree, but unfortunately that ship has sailed. I was fed up and brought it to the dealer, and I was expecting some replaceable component. When they said it failed leakdown and needed a new top or bottom end, I was caught off guard and didn't think to push them to figure out which one.
$3k seems in line with most everything I can find, and that is parts only. I have a friend who will help me if I decide to fix it (lift, lots of experience, etc.), but he does charge people for work on the side so I would insist on throwing him at least some money. So between $3k in parts, a few hundred more in beer and cash for said friend, I'm getting very close to the break-even between selling it as-is now as a parts car (or donor), and selling it as a good condition driver.

It really seems like the headache won't be worth the limited amount of money I would get back.
Besides the steering wheel, the interior of the car is mint (it really is a shame it's now a parts car!). In the last 2 years, I have replaced the shocks/struts, one axle, bushings, all the wheel bearings, brake pads, a couple calipers and rotors, spark plugs, injectors, coils, steering rack, and a handful of other little things I am not remembering. In short, there are a lot of good parts on the car, or it would make a great shell for somebody to build up I think.
What would be a fair asking price? My initial thought is to wash it up nice, list it for $1500, hope I can get $1200, and take $1000 if interest seems low after a couple weeks.

Edit: Oh, it also has an exhaust leak that is super obvious and accentuated by the severe misfiring. That will be readily apparent to anybody who comes to look at the car.

Spaghetti noodle rods from the factory and pre-15 motors have questionable valve retainers.

Fix those two and you have a motor that Subaru transmissions won't live behind.

Smart choice. I see too many people dumping tons of money and time into a car, and then never able to sell it cause everyone else doesn't care and just want a deal.

List for 2k, and take anything over 1k because for sure it's worth at least that in major parts alone.

To be fair, the rods are probably not that much weaker than EJ, but because you can get serious boost/torque at a surprisingly low rpm, the stress/pressure put on them skyrockets.

In typical wrx fashion, Subaru keeps improving much of the technology to exceed that on the sti, then cuts costs in various places to remind you that you're still driving an economy car.

I'm about to re-tune a full bolt on one that's getting a built shortblock, I'm kind of excited to see what it does when you're not trying to baby the rods. 300+wtq at 2500rpm is really cool in a daily

To be fair, you are right. 12.5:1 comp and DI spool like a Miata engine can only dream of.

Fully built. Are you tuning for pump gas, E85 or flex fuel? What turbo? Built with a good tune on E85 and that 3 becomes a 4 with a few more RPMs

the FA in the wrx is 10.6:1, you're thinking of the twins
while similar to the twins, it's quite a bit different throughout. I think the largest contributor to the spool is dual avcs, twin scroll, bottom mount, well sized turbo.

this one is on e85, stock turbo, basically every other bolt on: perrin header, egr/tgv delete, intake, tmic, j pipe, exhaust.

I've seen quite a few of the top dawg tuners hit 400, but I haven't yet so I'm keeping my goals conservative until proven otherwise

Any more info with valve retainers? Keep it out of high rev's for day to day driving?

I still haven't gone past 5500rpm or so for my day to day driving, (not the project car lol)

lol

These uburu devices, I dun know dem.

http://new3.fjcdn.com/thumbnails/com...b7509393f.png?

Keep the stock rev limit.

Wait, I thought it's not even possible to accelerate in a FRS without revving past 5k :giggle:

But seriously: that engine is fine, esp in such a light and n/a car, no need to baby it. If I had one I'd probably drive it in anger all the time. Because driving a slow car at 10/10ths is actually kinda fun.
BRAAAAAAAP *shift, chirp* BRAAAAAAAAAAAP *powershift* BRAWAWAWAWAAAAAAAP................................ ............and there's 65mph :D

I still think they're incredibly sexy, and would still like to get one for a work commuter some day. Every time I see one that's not riced out, I just admire. Still impressive to me that such a cheap car can look so good