legacy gt 2006 Legacy GT Flooded Engine. Help.

[DiosEddy]

Hello everybody,

 

first, I want to introduce myself and tell a little bit of me in sake of context. 

So, hi, I'm from México, I do not have a lot of car knowledge to be honest with you guys, just the basics, and since English is obviously not my mother tongue, well, my English is kind of bad... so with that being said please have patience with me if I do not understand some car terms or concepts in English, or even in general since my car knowledge is pretty much limited.

 

Now with the main topic. I own a 2006 Legacy GT since 2015, I bought it in the US and legally imported to México, the car had at that time around 180k miles and well, my father and I enjoy it for about 2 or 3 years, making all of the services correct and so on, but I had to move to another city and wasn't able to take the car with me, and my father could not keep using it, so the car was stopped and "abandoned" for quite some time, around 4 years.

Later on when I was able to use it again the engine was damaged, had some oil leaks and another issues that I never been able to acknowledge, long story short, we took the car to a specialist mechanic and revive it with OEM parts and so on, but the engine was never at its 100%, it still had some little issues with the TPS and the throttle body and other things... one day, one tragic day a heavy rain stormed my city and I got into a flooded pothole (a extremely large pothole, pretty common here in México tbh), I was able to get out of it but just run about 1/4 mile more and engine shut down dead, I tried to start it up a few times without achieving it, it cranked, but just didn't start.

The rest of the story is a little bit long, just tons of frustration dealing with the insurance company and so, but long story short, the car now starts but poorly, it shakes a damn lot, and it stalls every time you shift neutral. Anyways, the car is now stopped since April, and I haven't been able to repair it. So, I'm asking for your help, what would be the best possible solution? I'm honestly thinking on swapping the whole engine to another one that is in mint conditions, but I don't know if it needs to be an exact same engine from the exact same year, or if there’s a possibility to swap it for a newer version to get some sort of improvement because of better optimized engine, or to swap it for another model?

I don't know which could be the best option, or even which are the options that I have. What can you guys recommend me?

Sorry beforehand if it is poorly written, as I mentioned before, obviously English isn't my mother tongue and I'm writing this myself originally in English, I hope it is decently understandable.

 

 

[Max Capacity]

Sorry to hear your troubles. Sorry there was no reply sooner.

I guess that's because these cars are getting older now and a lot of us have moved on.

First off, do you have to repair this car ? It's not going to be cheap. 

Could be as simple as just corroded connections, but you would have to pop off each connector and inspect it. I think that would be the first step, before just jumping to replacing the engine or shortblock.

You can use a new OEM shortblock, ej257, about $2300 US with engine gasket set. You have your heads rebuilt, and reuse your other bolt on engine parts. You can click on my click here link to see that's what I did back April 2012.

[DiosEddy]

Hello Max Capacity, thank you so much for your reply, I really appreciate it a lot, I truly thought no one will reply at this point. 

 

First of all, no, is not a need to repair the car, but I do not want it to die just like that, honestly I won't know what to do with it if I do not repair it, like, throw it to the junk? is kind of hurtful, plus here in México is not that easy to throw away a car and get another one just like that, you know because of the economy and so. I rather repair and "rescue" that car than just throw it away and get another one which will be with high probability a worse one for the same price that could cost the repair.

As I said, I'm do not have much technical cars knowledge (nor English terminology), but the mechanic told me that because it lose some compression and according to how was the failure introduced, it might be valves so he suggest to rectify the cylinder heads and he thought that might be the solution, which I haven’t tried yet, although it might be the fastest, easiest, and cheapest possible solution, as I mentioned before, that engine have been already restored and repair like twice before, so, in my ignorance I was thinking on trying to find another legacy in the auction completely totaled, that might be cheap enough with a decent engine to swap it. I was thinking on a 2012 Legacy GT so it could be a newer and more optimized engine, because as far as I know this EJ255 Gen (2005 - 2006) have a notorious head gasket flaw. Starting from that thought line, that's what I suggest, to swap to another EJ255 but newer Gen, nevertheless I don't know how possible is to do that because of any kind of adaptability. I also thought on a STI engine (which I think it is indeed the EJ257 that you mentioned) just because of the power, but that would be a whim from me to do it, and probably completely unnecessary.

I rant a lot, I know haha, once again, I truly appreciate your time and your opinion, and ask once again, what could you think is the best idea? I don't know the difference about a long block and a short block either tbh, I need to do my own research in those subjects. Do you think is a best idea trying on to rectify the heads, or is it a good idea trying on to find a totaled (with a really good engine) car in the auction? or, as you suggest, to buy just the engine? 

I hope you have enough patience with me. Have a great day.

Best regards.

 

[KZJonny]

I would guess that if you don't have a lot of experience with these cars and are not so much mechanically inclined, you are in for a bit of a ride, and lots of work. Personally, I think these cars are worth the trouble, and not too hard to work on, but opinions on that might vary quite a lot.

Try to stick to an EJ255/257 out of a 2005-2009 GT, or similar WRX/STi. The engines from the 5th Gen do not mount the same way, and you probably don't want to try making new engine mounts on your own. That's pretty high skill level stuff. Even then the WRX engine blocks are the same or similar, but all the intake/turbo and engine management is different, you could only use the block and maybe the heads as well. The rest wouldn't be useful.

Short block = case main halves with crankshaft, connecting rods and pistons. (comes assembled)

Long block = Case main halves, crankshaft, connecting rods, pistons + heads: valves, camshafts and head assemblies. Maybe valve covers, but not usually, no accessories.

As far as repairing what you have: always an option, but if the engine has already been rebuilt a time or two, there may not be much left in the short block to rescue. Getting the actual numbers from the compression test would help give some clues. Also a leakdown test may help to indentify where the problem actually is, ie: valves vs. cylinder rings or head gaskets etc... So there is a little you can do for cheap before deciding how you want to spend your money fixing it, or IF you do.

In either case, your car isn't working, so if you are willing to spend some time with it, or can't get more testing done, you could try to pull the heads and have them worked on. Best case, it is leaky valves which fixes the problem and gets you running again, worst case they are fine and you can have a set of repaired heads to put onto to new short block. 

On the other hand, if you have the tools and a space to remove the engine and put another one in, most likely your cheapest route is to do what you said and find one that was in a collision but still runs. It's a risk because you won't know how it has been treated in the past, but doing an engines swap isn't terribly difficult and if the price is low enough at auction, you might save a lot of money vs. doing a complete engine rebuilt with a new short block etc...

Nobody here can tell you what to do, but if you come back around with some actual options and the prices for them where you are in Mexico, then we can certainly try to help out and offer some guidance. Say, the price to repair for you, vs. the price of a decent condition used LGT or whatever... Good luck with your research and repair work if decide to go that route.

[Max Capacity]

Read my click here link, you'll see what and how to R&R the engine and use a new ej257 short block. 

 

Oh, the engine in your car is an ej255, the ej257 SB is a direct bolt in. These engines have multi-layer HG's and done have the same HG issues the ej253 has.