Head gasket - Updated

[coyote]

ah okay i spoke with them today about it they said theyed take it off for $165

That's fair enough, but are they willing to honour the MRT Ecutek warranty?

I've heard of many damaged engines and not a single successful claim on the so called "World's best warranty".

The 86/BRZ chumps are lining up have their cars Ecuwrecked. Fresh meat is always the tastiest.

[chubbs]

nope ive argued with them long enough about it all i told them there products shit and i want it off.

i dont wanna argue with them no more so ill pay to have the crap product off my car before it dose anymore damage

[BlackSTI]

I think this topic has had enough hatred of MRT by now

Did you purchase off the forum or independently?

Were you advised of it having overheated in the past?

Did you have the car inspected before purchase?

Bought from a member on the forum here, never advised of past problems, I am just annoyed I missed the revealing posts when I was looking through his history (It must have been late at night), so my fault for not getting it inspected etc.

That said, it's not at all unheard of for these cars to have head gasket/lifting issues, particularly when tuned. But my understanding of that is that it's not as simple as an overheating issue - in fact, I'd go so far as to guess that the overheating is a symptom of the head gasket issues, not the other way around.

My understanding was that ~180kW ATW is possible without replacing the turbo or intercooler, but that this would require exhaust and intake modifications (silicon hoses to replace the plastic piping on the intake side for example). To get 175kW ATW without supporting mods other than exhaust, the boost may have been set higher, and that could contribute to the failure you've seen.

Many of the things I've just mentioned are mentioned in those two threads you linked to...

I think I am going to have to get the mechanic to investigate a bit furthur, hopefully they have some thoughts, first thing he said when he found the HG issue was that the boost has probably been pumped to high. Thank you for the information. Included in the purchase of the car I got a ezy flash pro, which I *think* I can load the stock map back on, so I am wondering if that is a safer option until I find a reputable tuner to potentially redo it, my only thought is wondering if the stock tune will be fine with an upgraded exhaust (I may have to do some reading up). I may also look at if my intake has been upgraded from stock.

My head gasket went because of my tune. It's running to lean at 13:1 and it overheated.

Thats annoying mate, is it all getting sorted out?

[dr20t]

I think this topic has had enough hatred of MRT by now

There can never be enough commensurate with their rubbish

I really wish someone would close them down - but a fool and his penny are easily parted

[ysKn]

Bought from a member on the forum here, never advised of past problems, I am just annoyed I missed the revealing posts when I was looking through his history (It must have been late at night), so my fault for not getting it inspected etc.

Sorry to hear, mate.
Were you the one who bought from the guy that was claiming he was in a hurry to sell so he could purchase a 4WD to drive around Australia?

I'm looking to buy a Subaru with 2.5T engine, either WRX/STI/LTG/LTGSTI:
Anybody know how to tell if a head gasket is on its way out?
I know to look for telltale signs such as milky residue on dipstick and under oil cap, or oily residue in coolant reservoir, smoke out of exhaust, engine overheating, misfiring, but as I understand it, that is only applicable when the gasket has already blown.

[Robbks]

My head gasket went because of my tune. It's running to lean at 13:1 and it overheated.

I doubt that your engine overheated significantly JUST from running AFR's of 13:1.

A question
-at what parts of the tune does it actually run 13:1..?
my GT legacy used to run 13:1 on Wide Open Throttle (WOT) below 10psi at certain RPM ranges
and it would run happily day in day out on 13:1 up to 12-13psi on light to medium throttle and it never had overheating issues.
It was a twin-turbo and was almost always on boost

As bad as some of MRT's tunes and work have been on some customers' cars, you can't blame this failure on 13:1 AFR's alone.

[BlackSTI]

Sorry to hear, mate.
Were you the one who bought from the guy that was claiming he was in a hurry to sell so he could purchase a 4WD to drive around Australia?

I'm looking to buy a Subaru with 2.5T engine, either WRX/STI/LTG/LTGSTI:
Anybody know how to tell if a head gasket is on its way out?
I know to look for telltale signs such as milky residue on dipstick and under oil cap, or oily residue in coolant reservoir, smoke out of exhaust, engine overheating, misfiring, but as I understand it, that is only applicable when the gasket has already blown.

Correct, that's the one. I got it at an awesome price (so even after this is all sorted, i'll still be well ahead of other STIs $) so I'm not that worried, was kind of expecting something like this (alarm bells were ringing at the time). Now i'll know exactly what condition the engine is in and will know it should be good for a long while. The way I see it, is that this could have happened to a car that cost $30k plus.

All those symptoms sound about right, but I only probably saw the 'blown' stage...

Just had a talk to the mechanic, looks like the head may have lifted, implying too high a boost level?

[BlackSTI]

Sorry to hear, mate.
Were you the one who bought from the guy that was claiming he was in a hurry to sell so he could purchase a 4WD to drive around Australia?

I'm looking to buy a Subaru with 2.5T engine, either WRX/STI/LTG/LTGSTI:
Anybody know how to tell if a head gasket is on its way out?
I know to look for telltale signs such as milky residue on dipstick and under oil cap, or oily residue in coolant reservoir, smoke out of exhaust, engine overheating, misfiring, but as I understand it, that is only applicable when the gasket has already blown.

Correct, that's the one. I got it at an awesome price (so even after this is all sorted, i'll still be well ahead of other STIs $) so I'm not that worried, was kind of expecting something like this (alarm bells were ringing at the time). Now i'll know exactly what condition the engine is in and will know it should be good for a long while. The way I see it, is that this could have happened to a car that cost $30k plus.

All those symptoms sound about right, but I only probably saw the 'blown' stage...

Just had a talk to the mechanic, looks like the head may have lifted, implying too high a boost level?
Also getting a new clutch at the same time, as I think it was worn enough to warrant it while its all apart.

[chubbs]

My head gasket went because of my tune. It's running to lean at 13:1 and it overheated.

I doubt that your engine overheated significantly JUST from running AFR's of 13:1.

A question
-at what parts of the tune does it actually run 13:1..?
my GT legacy used to run 13:1 on Wide Open Throttle (WOT) below 10psi at certain RPM ranges
and it would run happily day in day out on 13:1 up to 12-13psi on light to medium throttle and it never had overheating issues.
It was a twin-turbo and was almost always on boost

As bad as some of MRT's tunes and work have been on some customers' cars, you can't blame this failure on 13:1 AFR's alone.

mines the same mate 13:1 on WOT, i had no overheating issues either i first noticed it when i checked my coolant reservoir and there was oil floating ontop. didnt have much loss of coolant and like i said no overheating. so i flushed the coolant and put fresh coolant in and same thing, then took it to phil lowe confirmed headgasket, he confirmed it was my tune running to lean and getting to hot exhaust side.

[Robbks]

ahh,
that makes sense. too lean, incorrect timing, and high egt's frying the gasket.
as opposed to "engine overheating" in the usual terms

[bass_straitener]

ahh,
that makes sense. too lean, incorrect timing, and high egt's frying the gasket.
as opposed to "engine overheating" in the usual terms

Where did you get all that from?

I couldn't glean that from the responses.

[Robbks]

then took it to phil lowe confirmed headgasket,
he confirmed it was my tune running to lean and getting to hot exhaust side.

Well i guess if it was too lean and detonating it's head off (from excessive timing) sending combustion chamber temps through the roof
or it was lean with overly advanced or retarded timing causing high EGT's.

either way, it's not really the AFR's causing the heat.
leaning out AFR's (with ideal timing) actually drops the temps until you hit stoich, then they go up again.

at the end of the day it's a 2.5 Subaru.
NA or turbo, own one at your own risk as it's probably gonna do the HG's

[KiDo_Tuning]

I think this topic has had enough hatred of MRT by now

There can never be enough commensurate with their rubbish

I really wish someone would close them down - but a fool and his penny are easily parted

There is a certain XC kitted SH9 Forester with a full TBE that apparently make over 230Kw ran against a VF52 SH9 Forester with dump pipe/TMIC at Willowbank... 0.3 seconds in it. SH9 is around 190Kw...

[dr20t]

Probably cos Iam is at 0.3

[Robbks]

Probably cos Iam is at 0.3

that's where mine is currently...