Hey,

 

My Dad recently bought a 94 white legacy turbo. The car has 80,000 km's on the clock and is one of the nicest and cleanest looking old subarus I've ever seen. The car had been written of due a fire that originated in the turbo. The fire melted anything plastic in the engine bay, and was bad enough that it made its way through the glove box and melted alot of wiring under the dash. This car was intended as a spares car for my sisters 93 rotten turbo legacy. Despite this car being written off it came with an ownership so we're looking into restoring it.

Would a fire that wasn't hot enough to warp the hood or fenders be bad enough to damage/warp the aluminum heads? What should I check for besides that? I'll post some pictures in the next couple of days

I never heard of heads getting warped from an engine fire. Now if the engine overheated, and that caused the fire, then yes, I'd check that, otherwise no.

A fire can get hot enough to melt an engine, but that usually involves the entire car burning. A ompression test will tell you what shape the engine is in. Also since everything seems to be on top of the engine, as oposed to other cars, it might be ok.

I would go to a junkyard and pull the under dash wiring harness. I would replace any rubber hoses that were not melted (if there is such a thing). The computer may be fried. If the fire caused any of the computer input/output wires to short, the puter may not be happy. Again the under hood harness just get from a junker. The alternator may not be happy either.

Sounds like an interesting project.

 

nipper