Binjoau's 09 WRX MPS long rod-GTX35R Build Thread by binjoau

5 minute(s) of a 278 minute read

One more thing that did occur to me, my inlet and intercooler hoses were bone dry when I took them off a few days ago, no oil residue at all. Not sure if this indicates anything with the PCV valve but its something to mention perhaps.

7-29-2011

I think if the ticking is not an injector or something obvious I am going to bite the bullet and send the whole longblock out to P&L, I was talking to Terry today and they could re-ring it, refresh the heads, do the timing and new water pump, tensioner etc etc for a pretty good price.

Im in 2 minds about the car at the moment... do I send it out for a full longblock refresh, get the turbo rebuilt etc etc and call this summer quits or keep going as I am and risk possible damage.

7-30-2011

So tonight I pulled the injectors individually to see if that was the ticking. Sadly not.

To be honest it is sounding more and more like valvetrain noise, when I did the long screwdriver stethescope trick the noise is clearly coming from the drivers side head. So I think I may pull the engine and send it away.

I know it sucks very bad but I have tried my best, this will give me a chance to send away the turbo too and get it checked out.

Hell maybe il just send the whole car to somebody and get it back finished lol!

8-1-2011

So.... I lost a coilpack today, car started to run on 3 cylinders. Didi some quick diag and realised it was the coilpack. Annoying but not the end of the world.

I also pulled all the plugs and changed them for new ones since the oil consumption has slowed a bit. 3 of them have a light white colour to them which I read is burning oil and one plug (on the cylinder which the coilpack died) was dark in colour, almost dry fouled but not that dark.

according to NGK's website an accumulation thats white is from the burning of oil / fuel. Light gray is running correctly, whereas dark is rich or oil fouled

8-3-2011

Fitted the coilpack and she seems good to go, just going to take her for a little test drive and hope it stays fixed lol

8-4-2011

OMG what happened? I thought I signed in to the 80's reminiscance thread!!!!! haha, some of those tunes are catchy haha!

I was an 80's baby but sadly missed the sweet beats, I am English so grew up with the Spice Girls!!! 

Although if Posh spice did this I'd be happy ......... .

Anyway on to the car.....

so I feel bad writing about more problems but this is a thread after all....

The muffler shop removed the flex pipe and welded the flange on, inserted gasket and did up. So I had a little pull against my friend the other night and it was even, he drives a 2011 turbo Cobalt!!! I was like what the eff!

I also noticed car was sounding strange (blowing) so with a bit of poking around the flange had not been welded straight and the gasket had blown out!

Huge exhaust leak and a massive loss of power. So I went back and they sent me away with new gaskets. Tom (twin brother) and I changed them and tried again, not 5 miles down the road that gasket failed! I went back again, they gave me metal composite gaskets but you guessed it same again.

So I talked to the owner of the shop today and said I want the flange fixed or removed and straight pipe welded in. He responded... "well that will cost you....." and I cut him off and said "cost me???"

Now the conversation was along the lines of why should I pay when you didnt do it right? He tried to say oh your in the service industry you understand (I am a service advisor for GMC) and I said I understand that if my technicians dont fix something we stand behind our work. He moaned etc and eventually said fine il fix it but Im never touching that car again. I reminded him that if it was done correctly he wouldnt have to touch it again.

He didnt like that but irregardless I have an appointment to get it repaired. I dont think he realises how many people or vehciles I send to his shop as referrals (I deal with over 30 vehicles per day). I will never send anyone there again. Truly awful service.