Early Stages of Piston Failure - Get rid of or Fix?

[silverwrx19224]

I took my 2017 WRX with 45K miles to the a tuning/dyno shop this week and got news that no subie owner wants to hear. The shop said I have the beginnings of piston failure and I may have a cracked piston or ringland failure.

Before going to the shop the car seemed to be running fine but my Accessport numbers were really worrying me. I changed out my spark plugs and noticed cylinder 3 was super oily and burnt. I reinstalled new spark plugs and soon after my DAM dropped again from 1-0.5. This is when I decided to get a pro to look at the car.

After bringing the car to the shop the tech performed a leak down and compression test on cylinder 3 and said everything seemed normal. After a test drive the DAM dropped to something like .312. They obviously didn't want to put a hurt car on the dyno and told me the news.

He basically said you should either sell the car before things get worse for your wallet or get a new shortblock and tune it for a cost of around $5-8K.

That's too much money in my opinion and I am thinking about what to do.

Do I have to sell the car or do I have other options I havent thought of to save my subie?

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[BostonShaun]

I would think ringland failure would show up (or at least an indication) during the leak down test....

Maybe send a boroscope down into the cylinders to take a look for damaged/cracked pistons before anything drastic.

[silverwrx19224]

Originally Posted by BostonShaun

I would think ringland failure would show up (or at least an indication) during the leak down test....

Maybe send a boroscope down into the cylinders to take a look for damaged/cracked pistons before anything drastic.

I believe they did that and said the damage likely is on the side and they are unable to pinpoint where the damage could be

[Unabomber]

What shop did you go to as I'm 83% either they are wrong or you missunderstood them. I think its second opinion time. Post your location and I'll refer you to a shop worth a damn. Obviously if you've already been to one of the shops there worth a damn, apologies...but let me know and I'll help.

[silverwrx19224]

Originally Posted by Unabomber

What shop did you go to as I'm 83% either they are wrong or you missunderstood them. I think its second opinion time. Post your location and I'll refer you to a shop worth a damn. Obviously if you've already been to one of the shops there worth a damn, apologies...but let me know and I'll help.

I’m near Annapolis Maryland and went to Kinetic Autoworks. They sounded like they knew FA engines and had worked on it tuned a bunch

[Unabomber]

https://www.fastwrx.com/

https://sites.google.com/yates-auto.com/home/

Not sure which is closer or who has quicker availability, but either one of these is the nuclear bomb of Subaru knowledge in your area. I've driven 4 hours one way to go to both locations many times...that's how much I heart them both.

[silverwrx19224]

Originally Posted by Unabomber

https://www.fastwrx.com/

https://sites.google.com/yates-auto.com/home/

Not sure which is closer or who has quicker availability, but either one of these is the nuclear bomb of Subaru knowledge in your area. I've driven 4 hours one way to go to both locations many times...that's how much I heart them both.

I’ll check them out, I know fastwrx and have used them multiple times. Think it would be good to return the car to the stock tune before bringing it to them?

[Unabomber]

No, go see them as is, they care not about returning to stock as they ain't a dealer.

[silverwrx19224]

I went to Mach V and they inspected the car. They recommended I walnut blast the car. I will probably never return to the first shop. $750 vs selling or buying a new engine