Short block or rebuild? '05 LGT wagon 5MT

My wife's '05 LGT wagon has had a turbo blow at ~30K which was replaced under the Subaru warranty. It now has ~125K and has burned an inordinate amount of oil ever since the turbo was replaced. I also found, when I removed the intake manifold to tighten the fuel feed hose clamps, that the turbo inlet hose was never put on properly and was leaking.
Not going to fight with the Subaru garage but I am going to re-do the engine.

My question is whether I should get a new short block from Heuberger for ~$1800 or should I get my motor rebuilt?

Except for the longer downtime I'm leaning towards getting my engine rebuilt. I figure for about the same price I can have forged pistons and maybe rods instead of the stock cast pistons.

Also, do you see any issue with getting my present heads gone through?

Hey, it's either rebuild the LGT or get the wife the Audi Allroad she's been excited about.

TIA

Well you be doing all the labor or paying ?

Yes have your heads rebuilt.


I bought the ej257 and had my machine shop take the heads off, rebuild them and put them on the new block.

in the grand scheme of things rebuild vs new the price difference is not really all that different and with rebuilding you could open the block and find out it is in worse shape than you thought resulting in more money. I just went through this whole process cause my turbo and motor went and i did not do either, im parting it out. For me it would have been about piece of mind knowing a new motor has 0 miles versus a used block.

What are your goals for the motor? Stock STi blocks are good for up to 350whp after that you would need some pistons and depending on what brand the price varies but it is additional cost.

I'll be doing the labor minus any machine work which may be required.

A short block would be easy and quick and seeing as the car is a DD and a kid hauler I don't foresee many mods beyond a turbo back, an up pipe, Perrin inlet tube, and a tune.

Max, why do these cars use oil?

Thanks guys.

I just went thought the same question, but blown turbo at 64k. if time is of the essence the short block may be the way to go. I had the luxury of it not being a dd. I tore it all down because I wanted to know what shape it was in. There was some scoring from debris but not bad so I went the rebuild route- polish the crank, hone the cylinders, surface the deck, replace crank bearings, rod bearings, rings with std size. On the heads a similar deal- polish cams, valve job, surfacing. One burned exhaust valve to be replaced- sodium valves are $67! Total machine shop cost about $800, plus gasket set, bearings, rings, valve.

I guess you could go short block and then tear down old one at your leisure and then figure if worth rebuilding and selling.

http://legacygt.com/forums/showthrea...-r-184106.html

There's my thread, it may help.