Looking for advice on engine swap.
Hello Fozzy friends. I am in a tough situation and would appreciate any sort of advice or guidance you care to share with me.
I have my 1998 Subaru Forester L 182k Miles. My DD, family car, winter car, and my wife and i love this car. I can tell you with confidence that it is in MINT condition... interior, engine bay, underbody. Immaculate! I have put what i would consider a decent amount into this car, drilled rotors, oversize calipers, wheels, tires, rack, sound system front to back, coilovers :icon_rolleyes: (switching to wrx suspesion soon as i figure this engine situation out)... Anyways, I want this car to stick around.... Now that you know how I feel about this car. On to the problem....:icon_sad:
The dreaded EJ25 head gasket. Wich now, after doing my research after the fact. I know is considered to be one of the worst head gasket issues.
I've considered these options:
I'd like to first add that I called shops around me out of curiosity on what they would charge and NO shops in my vicinity are willing to do this AT ALL. Didn't give me a price or anything, just said no.
1. Have a friend of a friend swap the gasket and try to sell it because even with refinishing the heads I hear story after story of it happening again even 3 times on the same engine... but this would pretty much screw someone else and he would charge me something around $1500 and like I said I want to keep the car around.
2.Find a used engine from $600-$1800 (without labor or tax) pulled out of another forester. However who knows what happened to some of these used engines and it will still have the original head gasket that is not a matter of IF it will go bad...but WHEN.
3. I found a shop in Fraser called American & Import engine rebuilders Home Page they offer 3 levels of engine rebuilding/remanufacturing whatever you want to call it from $1200 all the way to $3500... they clame they take apart the engine and refinish, replace, clean and fix whatever needs to be replaced and do full gaskets and all that.
However they still use most of my engine and it's ALLUMINUM components...they say they use brand new parts but I literaly have not found one good review about this place and am just scared they are going to rebuild my engine with the same parts and pretty much refinish the heads and replace the gasket. they DO offer a 3 year unlimited mile warranty on parts and labor however.
4. I buy a new engine with 0 miles for $2800 from Michigan Motor Exchange and $1100 labor to just let them do the entire swap for me... so like $4100. They also offer a 3 year 100k mile warranty on parts and labor.
If you've made it this far I appreciate your time very much and welcome any ideas or advice... thanks again!
Hello Fozzy friends. I am in a tough situation and would appreciate any sort of advice or guidance you care to share with me.
I have my 1998 Subaru Forester L 182k Miles. My DD, family car, winter car, and my wife and i love this car. I can tell you with confidence that it is in MINT condition... interior, engine bay, underbody. Immaculate! I have put what i would consider a decent amount into this car, drilled rotors, oversize calipers, wheels, tires, rack, sound system front to back, coilovers :icon_rolleyes: (switching to wrx suspesion soon as i figure this engine situation out)... Anyways, I want this car to stick around.... Now that you know how I feel about this car. On to the problem....:icon_sad:
The dreaded EJ25 head gasket. Wich now, after doing my research after the fact. I know is considered to be one of the worst head gasket issues.
I've considered these options:
I'd like to first add that I called shops around me out of curiosity on what they would charge and NO shops in my vicinity are willing to do this AT ALL. Didn't give me a price or anything, just said no.
1. Have a friend of a friend swap the gasket and try to sell it because even with refinishing the heads I hear story after story of it happening again even 3 times on the same engine... but this would pretty much screw someone else and he would charge me something around $1500 and like I said I want to keep the car around.
2.Find a used engine from $600-$1800 (without labor or tax) pulled out of another forester. However who knows what happened to some of these used engines and it will still have the original head gasket that is not a matter of IF it will go bad...but WHEN.
3. I found a shop in Fraser called American & Import engine rebuilders Home Page they offer 3 levels of engine rebuilding/remanufacturing whatever you want to call it from $1200 all the way to $3500... they clame they take apart the engine and refinish, replace, clean and fix whatever needs to be replaced and do full gaskets and all that.
However they still use most of my engine and it's ALLUMINUM components...they say they use brand new parts but I literaly have not found one good review about this place and am just scared they are going to rebuild my engine with the same parts and pretty much refinish the heads and replace the gasket. they DO offer a 3 year unlimited mile warranty on parts and labor however.
4. I buy a new engine with 0 miles for $2800 from Michigan Motor Exchange and $1100 labor to just let them do the entire swap for me... so like $4100. They also offer a 3 year 100k mile warranty on parts and labor.
If you've made it this far I appreciate your time very much and welcome any ideas or advice... thanks again!
Attachments
-
88.7 KB Views: 2,974