Blew up the car -- carcass for sale

[c-lo]

bummer man. so what will you be looking at getting now?

[05LGTLtd]

I can understand the desire to walk away. My car has not run in a month. Has been at the shop for three weeks and I ended up buying a 00 miata to have something to drive. I miss my leggyGT but it was never the same car after the jump from stage 2 to stage 3 Evo16g. It just died one day about a month ago. No CAN or OBDII connect.

 

Hope you find out what happened. From everything I've heard the guys at TT are top notch. Good Luck

[John M]

The car sat for over a year last time the engine died. It was paid off but I refinanced it to be able to get all the things it needed to make the rebuild worthwhile. I drive a Dodge Ram most of the time so I have transportation.

 

It'll have to sit until it sells now; I have no way to pay for any repairs. I could manage the ~$400 to take it to TT for diagnosis but then what? If it's something I did, I can't pay to fix it and now the engine is out of the car. I'd have trouble with the other $400 to go pick it up even if it was 100% covered. I'm just too broke to play the turbo game anymore.

 

I'll probably replace it later on with a comfy highway cruiser. Right now my leading candidate is a Lincoln Continental but I really have no plans for anything soon. If I sold the truck I could get something more fun like an E55 AMG - they can be had in the mid 20s now. I like the SRT sedans too but when the price is the same as the Benz, the blown v8 wins every time.

[mattg]

Sorry to hear this, John.

[jagcars26]

Sorry to hear this, John.

 

Ditto from me John

[ClimberDHexMods]

If I sold the truck I could get something more fun like an E55 AMG - they can be had in the mid 20s now. I like the SRT sedans too but when the price is the same as the Benz, the blown v8 wins every time.

 

You would eventually need a second truck to sell to keep the E55 running. Unless you can do your own Mercedes repairs and source parts cheap. That sounds like all sorts of fun coming from Japanese cars... You would need a second car every time the E55 would have dash lights come on. There is a reason an E55 AMG costs so little... not like buying an old Lexus where the oil changes cost more than repairs.

[johnAWD]

Damn, John - sorry to hear this. I know the frustration involved when something breaks, but simply having something fail out of the blue is a whole 'nother animal.

 

Best of luck with whatever direction you take...

[John M]

You would eventually need a second truck to sell to keep the E55 running.

 

Don't forget, my brother owns a CL65 AMG. I've seen the cost of his regular maintenance, not to mention the water pump that was covered under warranty (and to think that a water pump would fail after 23k miles...) I've already spent more than $10k in the Subaru, and another engine rebuild would make it more like $13k+. The Benz couldn't be much worse! I do like the idea that the 6.1 Hemi would run need nothing but sparkplugs for another 100k miles. I doubt either is in my future since I need to keep the truck.

 

The funny thing is if I was selling the car running perfectly, people would be interested in a 22k mile LGT with an assload of aftermarket parts for $12k. Getting someone to buy at 9k and get it fixed is a completely different matter.

 

BTW, TurboTime has extended their offer to anyone who buys the car -- free teardown & diagnostics to find out what happened.

[ClimberDHexMods]

The funny thing is if I was selling the car running perfectly, people would be interested in a 22k mile LGT with an assload of aftermarket parts for $12k. Getting someone to buy at 9k and get it fixed is a completely different matter.

 

Most of the people who see it this way got there by first owning their own LGT, and don't want a second one. How many people out there actually want to do or be involved in a motor rebuild...

Really hope someone bites, otherwise would you be able to just buy a new short block, part out the mods, and sell it as a 22k mile LGT?

[John M]

At this point it'd be cheaper to have TurboTime fix whatever happens to be wrong rather than buy a new shortblock, find all the stock pieces I've tossed, and try to make it all OEM again. From day one I expected to keep this car forever so I did nothing with regard to being able to go back to stock.

 

The end result is the same: someone will get a 400whp LGT for around $12k, or possibly less if the damage turns out to be covered. If there's no interest, it'll sit till it sells or is paid off (in 3 more years). I just don't have any alternatives.

[BAC5.2]

I wish you could get it running enough to take it to Carmax. They'd give you KBB at least, modified or not.

[ClimberDHexMods]

At this point it'd be cheaper to have TurboTime fix whatever happens to be wrong rather than buy a new shortblock, find all the stock pieces I've tossed, and try to make it all OEM again. From day one I expected to keep this car forever so I did nothing with regard to being able to go back to stock.

 

The end result is the same: someone will get a 400whp LGT for around $12k, or possibly less if the damage turns out to be covered. If there's no interest, it'll sit till it sells or is paid off (in 3 more years). I just don't have any alternatives.

 

I sincerely hope that this can be accomplished so that you can get it done and over with if that is what you must do. FWIW you could literally propose to TT that you trade them a share of your car for the motor repair, and include for them an option to force sale, so that they have collateral to do the work, and will eventually get paid for it. If you own anything of value, it could be dropped off as collateral. Point is there is ALWAYS another way to make a deal. Some shop owners got to where they are by being pretty entrepreneurial and dare I say innovative. Wouldn't be surprised if you could make a deal so you can get this done

[John M]

Well, I'm more even more confused now. The damn thing cranks and idles fine, albeit with audible knocking from what sounds like the passenger side.

 

On a cold start the knock sum immediately went to 10 but stopped there. I logged everything I could think of to check and I'm drawing a blank. Even the vac is where it should be. Zero CELs, IAM is still 1.0

 

I've attached logs if anybody has any ideas.

 

It sounds like this, which is actually a belt tensioner (are they referring to the timing belt?)

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmZ1F8V8pc8]YouTube - Subaru STi rod knock, piston slap, spun bearing, belt tensioner[/ame]

 

All input is appreciated!

coldstart.csv

secondcrank.csv

[robbie_R]

Sounds like a snapped timing belt or a seized idler pulley.

 

Edit* Posted before reading the last page.

 

If it's bearing it won't always throw a code. We had a customer bring their car in for a rattle becuase it was driving fine. Sure enough new short block was ordered. I drove my blown motor in the Impreza 40kms with no cels, oil in it and no smoking. Just sounded like it was a jackhammer powering it.

 

Best of luck dude. Sounds like you need a rebuild.

[John M]

If it's a bearing I should find material in the oil if I drain the pan, right? There's nothing sparkly on the dipstick but I guess I'll know more if I drain it.

 

I can easily inspect the timing belt for damage but going inside to check the tensioner and other pullies is a far more involved job. I wouldn't want to mess with the timing belt anyway but I guess I could start the engine without the drive belts just to see if there's any noise from the tming belt components. This would be after the oil inspection of course.

 

Robbie - one of the problems with these cars is that they run so well even with damage. I ran 14.0 in the quarter not knowing I had 95 psi compression on 2 cylinders on the stock engine (ring lands).

 

I'll listen to the noise again today to see if it's a loud clicking (like the video above) or more of a metal-on-cement sounding clack of a rod.

[robbie_R]

That's the great thing in these cars is that no matter what they'll get you home. You won't usually find copper on the dip stick because it (if any) will sink to the bottom. You can drain it through a coffee filter kind of messy or cut your oil filter in half too.

[OBieXT]

Is it possible an injector stuck open flooding a cylinder to the point it hydralic locked the engine? It could be that the fuel then seeped past the piston as it sat eventually freeing the engine to turn again. An oil analysis might be able to shed some light on this.

[TOLGT]

Ouch that's bad news. Sorry you are going through this

[zarooo]

definitely keep us updated on this thread. i'm interested to see what the problem was and what the solution is...

[John M]

Just drained the oil -- no sign of any metal flake contamination. I assume I'm looking for something that looks like my paint job. There isn't anything in this oil at all, and it's about 1500 miles old.

 

I'll try to make a video of it and see if helps id the sound. It doesn't sound like the "ballpeen hammer" clack of most rod videos I've watched. It sounds more like an exhaust leak -- but of course it isn't.

 

I saw it listed that one symptom of a spun bearing is that the engine won't run. Well, it didn't crank when it first happened but now it starts as easily as it ever has. Full vac at idle, no lights, etc. I guess I could try an oil pressure gauge.

[John M]

No input?

 

What about noise from the oil pan? I got under the car while it was idling and there was no sound coming from the oil pan area. It's all on the top side of the engine.

 

I also read you can diagnose rod knock by removing plug wires one at a time. When you hit the right cylinder the noise diminishes or stops. Is this the case on Subarus?

[GTTuner]

No input?

 

What about noise from the oil pan? I got under the car while it was idling and there was no sound coming from the oil pan area. It's all on the top side of the engine.

 

I also read you can diagnose rod knock by removing plug wires one at a time. When you hit the right cylinder the noise diminishes or stops. Is this the case on Subarus?

 

That is one way to isolate a rod bearing or wrist pin issue. I would think if a rod bearing failed you'd hear it under the car pretty loud. Did you pull the timing cover and make sure no cam pulleys loosened? (I'm kind of jumping in here without reading previous posts)

 

Things to suspect; Loose flywheel or torque converter bolts; something in the valve train came apart, a wrist pin noise (didn't you just do pistons?), cam pulleys loose, etc.

 

A good sound clip would be ideal.

[GTTuner]

The other thing is the cam sprockets......I had a Ford 3V 5.4L that rapped so loud you thought the damn rod was coming thru the block. Turned out to be a bad cam phaser sprocket for the VVT. Just a thought........did you talk to Underdog? He had a hell of a time with the VVT cam phaser on his rebuild.

 

I wish I was closer to help you out.

[John M]

Haven't tried anything with the timing belt cover yet. It doesn't look too complicated so I may give it a shot. I don't know if the idler pulleys were changed when the Tbelt & tensioner were.

 

I noticed today that the crank pulley is wobbling slightly. It isn't huge but it is moving some where the others don't move at all. I may be able to get a video posted later on today so you can see the pulley and hear the noise.

 

Right now I need to figure out how likely it is that I could have caused the damage with a bad tune. If the chance is remote, it may be worth the $500ish it'd cost me to get the car back to TurboTime for diagnostics. If it could be the tune, I'll just sell as-is because I don't have the time for finger pointing.

[GTTuner]

I was just listening to the sound clip, damn I think it's in the valve train. Does it hit on all 4 or is it misfiring? From what I could hear it seemed quieter at higer RPM?