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View Poll Results: miles on built motor?
5,000-10,000 51 32.69%
10,000-20,000 39 25.00%
20,000-30,000 11 7.05%
30,000+ 55 35.26%
Voters: 156. You may not vote on this poll

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Old 04-03-2009, 08:13 PM   #1
06-wrx-tr
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Default how many miles on your built motor?

like the title says. how many miles should be expected out of a "pro" built motor with decent internals? how many do you all have on yours and is it rsti,wrx or sti? what block are you running?(RAW, Rallispec, coswoth, cobb ect )

Last edited by 06-wrx-tr; 12-02-2009 at 05:51 PM.
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Old 04-03-2009, 11:59 PM   #2
hustleshark206
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I was gonna participate but there is no option for 0 miles.
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Old 04-04-2009, 12:00 AM   #3
Rickyh
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about 8500 on my 205.
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Old 04-04-2009, 12:26 AM   #4
godforbid67
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Quote:
Originally Posted by hustleshark206 View Post
I was gonna participate but there is no option for 0 miles.
haha me 2
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Old 04-04-2009, 12:32 AM   #5
ronzogonzo
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I have 23,693 beat the piss out of my car miles currently on my 257!!!
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Old 04-03-2009, 11:59 PM   #6
codesoccer
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i wish i had a built motor to participate in this poll
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Old 04-04-2009, 02:08 AM   #7
hybrid gti 2
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I have wondered about this since I am considering a built hybrid.
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Old 04-04-2009, 02:23 AM   #8
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I have a built RS-T. EJ253 block w/ SOHC heads. I have put on 10K mikes on the engine during my ownership, and previous owner has had roughly 8K miles on the same engine. Runs very well so far, and am about to get it retuned so it should run even better shortly!
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Old 04-04-2009, 02:33 AM   #9
csmithwrx'05
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Just broke 10K today. I drive it hard on a regular basis.

EJ257 Hybrid w/EJ205 heads, CP Pistons, Kelford 264/264 cams.
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Old 04-04-2009, 08:52 AM   #10
surfer5567
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30k on crawford s2 block and wrx heads...knocking on wood for now haha
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Old 04-04-2009, 09:53 AM   #11
wrxwhat
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40,000 miles on my built STI.

CP Pistons
Manley H-Beams
Crower valvesprings/retainers
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Old 04-04-2009, 10:44 AM   #12
SLOJOE
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i have somewhere between 25k-30k on my cobb stage 1 sb, i drive it hard every day and track it (drag strip/track days) a handfull of times every year still runs strong
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Old 04-06-2009, 01:00 PM   #13
Turbo_Mike
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11k street miles, 2 drift sessions, 5 drag events 3 drag practice, 03 WRX.

Downstroke EJ257 (2.3L)
100mm wisecos, eagle rods, bc272 cams/springs, 35R
Built by me
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Old 04-06-2009, 02:32 PM   #14
bbong
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Just broke 200 last weekend on my Raw1 longblock.
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Old 04-06-2009, 02:48 PM   #15
CKxx
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I have a cobb shortblock. 30k+ I show it no mercy.
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Old 04-06-2009, 03:52 PM   #16
kellygnsd
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Somewhere excess of 15K miles. Ran hard daily.
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Old 04-06-2009, 04:02 PM   #17
godforbid67
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how long should the average built engines last? i would hope they get near 100,000????
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Old 04-06-2009, 06:26 PM   #18
n2oiroc
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Quote:
Originally Posted by godforbid67 View Post
how long should the average built engines last? i would hope they get near 100,000????
no way. beaten like they should be, i would guess 50,000 tops before the rings start to wear hard.
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Old 04-06-2009, 08:57 PM   #19
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Quote:
Originally Posted by n2oiroc View Post
no way. beaten like they should be, i would guess 50,000 tops before the rings start to wear hard.
That's a good guess - if you put 2618 slugs in and set them to the usual amount of clearance (.003 - .004"), there's no way you're going to get stock-like cylinder/piston/ring wear. Every time you warm them up the pistons wobble around until they get hot and swell. That's simply the trade off for having pistons that are far more tolerant of abuse (i.e., detonation).

FWIW, I have a little over 40K on my $4K Cobb motor. It still runs great, makes beacoup power, and has good compression...but it is starting to burn more oil and the leakdown loss is, slowly, starting to go up. I figure maybe another 15K miles, 20K if I'm lucky, and then I'll have to make the decision to either rebuild/replace it and rebuild the heads, or move on to a different car.

Having said that, I'd do it exactly the same way all over again. The loss in longevity is worth, imo, the substantial increase in strength and ability to withstand the inevitable "uh oh." Simply put, I knew it was going to wear faster, but I also knew it wasn't going to catastrophically break and leave me stranded out in the boonies somewhere. The old "pay to play"...end of story.
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Old 04-06-2009, 11:27 PM   #20
CKxx
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Quote:
Originally Posted by flycaster View Post
That's a good guess - if you put 2618 slugs in and set them to the usual amount of clearance (.003 - .004"), there's no way you're going to get stock-like cylinder/piston/ring wear. Every time you warm them up the pistons wobble around until they get hot and swell. That's simply the trade off for having pistons that are far more tolerant of abuse (i.e., detonation).

FWIW, I have a little over 40K on my $4K Cobb motor. It still runs great, makes beacoup power, and has good compression...but it is starting to burn more oil and the leakdown loss is, slowly, starting to go up. I figure maybe another 15K miles, 20K if I'm lucky, and then I'll have to make the decision to either rebuild/replace it and rebuild the heads, or move on to a different car.

Having said that, I'd do it exactly the same way all over again. The loss in longevity is worth, imo, the substantial increase in strength and ability to withstand the inevitable "uh oh." Simply put, I knew it was going to wear faster, but I also knew it wasn't going to catastrophically break and leave me stranded out in the boonies somewhere. The old "pay to play"...end of story.
...Yea, mine has been developing a thirst for oil.
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Old 04-07-2009, 05:02 PM   #21
Element Tuning
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Quote:
Originally Posted by n2oiroc View Post
no way. beaten like they should be, i would guess 50,000 tops before the rings start to wear hard.
We've performed durability tests on our built engines and this is exactly correct. The part that takes the hardest beating is the top ring on a high HP Subaru. After tearing down our race engine after a season of racing and some street use (12k miles) pushing 500+ whp our top ring opened up about 2k. With 50k miles I would suspect a top ring end gap at least +8k. High rpm and high HP does not equal an engine that will remain fresh for a lifetime. Sure it will still be in one piece but it will not be making the power it once did. Luckily from what we've seen on our engines at least the rest of the motor stays really fresh (quality oil, frequent changes, proper crankcase pressure management, and great tuning).

Typically on our race car we do a complete disassembly at the end of the season to measure and inspect everything but we don't change anything but the rings (hone) and gaskets (skim the head) (unless something broke of course). We do this so we can actually get long term data from our engine program. If you replace everything with new parts you'll never learn anything about the parts life cycle under extreme circumstances.

If the car doesn't see a lot of redline use or as much heat and HP it will last longer. Frankly some of the newly builder X motors we've torn down have such loose ring end gaps they would be like stock motors with +100k miles. It's no wonder people complain about their built engines burning oil
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Old 04-08-2009, 04:53 PM   #22
sponaugle
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Element Tuning View Post
We've performed durability tests on our built engines and this is exactly correct. The part that takes the hardest beating is the top ring on a high HP Subaru. After tearing down our race engine after a season of racing and some street use (12k miles) pushing 500+ whp our top ring opened up about 2k. With 50k miles I would suspect a top ring end gap at least +8k. High rpm and high HP does not equal an engine that will remain fresh for a lifetime. Sure it will still be in one piece but it will not be making the power it once did. Luckily from what we've seen on our engines at least the rest of the motor stays really fresh (quality oil, frequent changes, proper crankcase pressure management, and great tuning).

Typically on our race car we do a complete disassembly at the end of the season to measure and inspect everything but we don't change anything but the rings (hone) and gaskets (skim the head) (unless something broke of course). We do this so we can actually get long term data from our engine program. If you replace everything with new parts you'll never learn anything about the parts life cycle under extreme circumstances.

If the car doesn't see a lot of redline use or as much heat and HP it will last longer. Frankly some of the newly builder X motors we've torn down have such loose ring end gaps they would be like stock motors with +100k miles. It's no wonder people complain about their built engines burning oil

Spot on. I tore down my 08 STI CP Piston block, and the end gaps were just a bit under 2 thous more open then when I put the pistons in 12k miles before. This was a hard 12k miles mind you, and an eventual overboost to 28psi cracked a cylinder liner, but the pistons looked perfect.

Jeff
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Old 04-08-2009, 05:09 PM   #23
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Originally Posted by sponaugle View Post
Spot on. I tore down my 08 STI CP Piston block, and the end gaps were just a bit under 2 thous more open then when I put the pistons in 12k miles before. This was a hard 12k miles mind you, and an eventual overboost to 28psi cracked a cylinder liner, but the pistons looked perfect.

Jeff
What were you using to tune the 08? I've overboosted quite a few times, 28-31psi, on 93 octane with no repercussions. (Hydra pulled all timing and dumped fuel)
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Old 04-06-2009, 06:35 PM   #24
godforbid67
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god damn, i did not know that. that sucks, i would probably have not spent all this money if i knew that was the case.
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Old 04-06-2009, 06:41 PM   #25
n2oiroc
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god damn, i did not know that. that sucks, i would probably have not spent all this money if i knew that was the case.
it really depends on how you treat it. if you treat it like a nice daily driver im sure it will last longer, but there is no way around the fact that looser pistons wear the rings more and that its a boosted 2.5 making a lot of power.
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