Subaru engines

Hey all,

I heard quite a shocking thing today. Apparently the Subaru engines, more so those of the STI stable, have a tendency to have a very short lifespan. Is there any truth in this as far as you guys are concerned? And is the same also applicable to the engines of the Forester? Turbo or N/A variances?

When I bought the truck about a year or so ago, I noticed that the instructions to engage 4 wheel are partially rubbed out.

From what I gather it says...

To engage HI, shift while driving

To engage Lo, Stop, put truck in neutral, shift to 4 low fast and hard. Then put truck to drive.

Does this sound right? I find sometimes it makes a grinding noise. From what i have heard, that is normal. Also seems to pop out of 4wheel with a bang.

(also says do not drive on hard surfaces, its hard on it... must drive on dirt, snow etc.

Whats going on here? And does anyone have a good picture of there instructions on there visor?

From my experience, I've had several >200k miles, both N/A and Turbo.

I wouldn't consider that "very short lifespan".

I would guess that a number of the STi engines with a short lifespan are more due to tinkering with things without understanding what one is doing rather than engine design/part flaws.

^ I'd have to agree with that.

The old 2.5i's were known to have head gasket issues, but once replaced about 100,000 miles they were good.

For some reason the 2.5 GT's don't seem to have that issue.

But we learned years ago to get the turbo motors off the factory tune.

Old member HAMMERDOWN had his OEM engine run for 300,000 miles.

You need to keep up with routine maintenance like you should do with a car, which most people don't do.

I chose to replace my short block at 154,000 miles because of playing around with boost before having proper tunes. I now have 130,000 miles on the short block and rebuilt heads. the car was dyno'd at 21psi in Aug 2011. Still that same basic tune, chassis has 285,000 miles.

It's all in the Tune.

I have to agree with max.

I have had STI, WRX, 2.5i Outback, and legacy. Sold both my 04 STI and 09 WRX, both Dyno tuned, and both got blown up after I sold them. lol My outback I saw 3 weeks ago, and I sold it with 213K miles and it was solid, my 08 Legacy sold it at 168K miles and it was solid.

I baby all my cars and keep up on them. I followed maxcap and just bought a short block for my 06 LGT sitting in my garage I saved. lady driven 5mt, and bone stock blown turbo singing and smoking. Hell my Short block and heads might be just fine and I think they are after we looked it over. lol

I bought mine knowing what I was going to get into, and wanted a toy. Just get one and have some funds and take your time.

The JDM STi 2L, better known as the ej207 is a beast and can handle upwards of 500whp unopened reliably. Keep boost under 26psi or you might lift a head. Arp625+ and new headgaskets solves this and you can boost to 30psi+. Regapping piston rings for pump gas high HP stock builds is a great idea and common practice in the Honda community, GM and other except Subaru...

The 2.5L STI motor or EJ257 (EJ255 in legacy GT / outback XT) suffers from piston failure at the ringland. This only happens when the piston rings (which have too tight tolerances due to emissions) bind and can no longer expand further, exerting pressure on the ringland. Modifying your car, tracking, wide open throttle at low RPM and any behavior that heats these pistons too far can result in this very common failure.

08+ STi also had an issue where cruise control would lean out and heat up the rings and then when owners would step on it to pass on the freeway in 6th gear they would experience catastrophic failures.

The solution is to simply regap the piston rings and these engines are quite robust with the limiting factor being the thin aluminum cylinder walls which fail at 400wtq. FMIC also helps alot.

still. why do i drive a failure prone platform... (knowing all these ) ^

why o whey?