Finlayg

Allright cheers for the advice. Sounds like the consensus is that it is risky trying to fix the engine as it is probably buggered and my 2 options are either scrap it or buy a second hand engine. Not really what I wanted to hear but oh well haha. I'll only get about 300 NZD for the wreck. I guess parting it out is an option but I can't really be bothered. So that leaves me with getting another engine. There aren't any EJ22s in the country according to all the wreckers I called. How bad an option is an EJ20? I can get a sub 200,000km EJ25 for 450-600NZD depending on mileage. My main concern is that a similar mileage EJ25 is just going to have the same problem. How likely is it to happen to my replacement engine? If I did the head gasket on a new engine as a precaution it would probably cost another $500 pushing me to probably at least $1500 for total repairs. I need new tires and brake pads soon so that'll take me to pretty much the value of the car. That's probably not worth it. If I got a second hand EJ25 from a wrecker what other parts would you recommend?Obviously I need to do an oil change and new filter. My water pump probably needs replacing too. Anything else? My other batshit crazy idea is to chuck in a twin turbo EJ20 with manual transmission just for the laughs haha

It's a N/A EJ25 motor. EJ22s are very uncommon in NZ. EJ25s or EJ20s are generally all we have. Most Subaru's in the country from that era are 2.5l To answer someone's earlier question about how long I drove it at max temp. I honestly don't know. The day that it died I had only been driving 40 minutes total. The previous day I had done a 500km drive and hadn't noticed any smoke or issues whatsoever. Most of that was at night though so I couldn't really tell. Is it possible for a car to travel at high speeds with a blown head gasket? If not then I doubt the head gasket blew until the day it stopped running. My guess is that it failed pretty soon before it stopped working altogether.

1997 and 176,000km. It's been a good car but I'm not particularly attached to it. If only it was a manual haha

Hi everyone, New member but long time lurker (I've used several of the repair guides on this site). Joined up finally as I really need some advice from people who know what they're talking about. So last Sunday my normally reliable Grand Wagon failed spectacularly. I was on a cross island trip (New Zealand) cruising at 100kph. I noticed a slight film/smoke in my rear view mirror but thought nothing of it as my car had the cat removed 2 years ago and normally does this a little bit. I'd only been driving for about 40 minutes. Anyway I pulled into the next town to get petrol and as I slowed down the engine cut out and clouds of steam billowed put of the hood. This is when I noticed the temp gauge was maxed. The radiator was boiling and overflowing and a horrible smell was coming from the car. The local town's mechanic let it cool down and eventually it started back up. Didn't sound too bad tbh. He ran diagnostics and found an error in one of the cylinders. Head gasket is gone. Both him and I are worried I might have cracked /warped the head and caused any other number of problems as a result of how high the temp got. Thinking of doing the head gasket myself (something I've never done) but that might not be the only issue and this could start to get expensive for a pretty old car that is probably only worth 2500 NZD. It also needs new tyres and play in the R/H fixed. What you guys reckon? Is she worth the effort?