First of all this is a great Message Board. I'm really impressed at the timeliness of replies.

 

Anyway, I recently sold my 86 Subaru GL Wagon to my little brother for a commuter vehicle while he's at college. At this time the car has approx 260K on the odometer and the seller told me the engine was rebuilt at about 130K. The original owner traded the car to Mountain Tech Subaru of Oregon City which I then bought about 2 years ago. It appears the head gasket has gone away. It had been running hot for a while and now there is a ton of white smoke in the exhaust.

 

I'm debating keeping it and repairing or just getting rid of it. The reason I'm thinking about keeping it is because the interior is unexpectedly well preserved and everything appears very well taken care of (I believe the one owner must have just driven it easy on the road and parked it in a garage). We did have to replace the right front axle (and I'm concerned that a dent in the right fender may be affecting the alignment of those components, i.e. "is it going to be subject to failure again soon?)

 

I've looked around and think it may be fun to put a turbocharged engine in or even a rebuilt n/a engine.

 

Is it worth it to keep and try to repair? Maybe I should just look for another car, maybe a Brat. I'd like to rallycross and stage rally and possibly even campaign a car in desert racing events in the Nevada, California, Mexico area.

 

Sorry about the lengthy post. I'll keep them shorter from now on.

 

Thanks,

Russ

if it's been loosing coolant for awhile and it's getting in the oil, then putting alot of time in it might not be a good idea. rod and main bearings don't last too long with too much coolant in the oil. normally the block may be fine, but with much coolant or water running with the oil it's questionable. depends how long and how much and where it's been loosing coolant.

Replace the engine. It's not too difficult, and a lot faster than rebuilding the old one. Adding Turbo will increase the difficulty level.