Imprezza STI - What would you do?

I have just fitting a set of those AST coilovers to my classic wagon got them second hand £350 18 month old with the adjustable top mount, It's like it's a different car! At the moment there quite a firm ride but i must admit it was worth every penny. So much quite ride too compared to my avo's
 
EddScott said:
Defis - IMO overly expensive and won't really help you. By the time you notice a reading doesn't look right the damage is done.
Click to expand...

I agree and disagree there, he'll be able to see when the oil is actually up to temp before driving it hard, most people's guess work is way out.

Oil pressure won't help in an all out failure, but it can help see if the oil pump is on it's way out or catch any irregularities before they develop into something damaging, you have to pretty diligent to notice any of that though, most people aren't.

As others have said, go with the uprated ARBs and droplinks, whiteline or perrin, 22mm adjustable front and back would probably be most suited.

Turbo timer is useless, just drive gently before you get home.

Flaps are personal preference, I'd put the money towards the performance.

If you're not happy with the suspension (rather than wanting shiny new stuff :p ), BC Racing coilovers are rated by a lot of owners, and a lot know what they're on about, they're also quite well regarded by a number of quality impreza specialists.

If you don't mind waiting a bit, you can get a great deal on them:

http://bbs.scoobynet.com/group-buys-356/781390-bc-racing-coilover-group-buy-486-75-a.html

Quite a sensation at the moment for the quality and performance they offer, even at the retail price. EDIT: Nevermind, just noticed it's gone the 21st, if you're lucky he'll have ordered some spares to fit your car if you want them, still good value at retail price though.

The VTA dump valve as said, isn't doing anything useful, and will be doing more than harm than good at the moment without a remap, it can be accommodated with a remap, but it's still not much use, get the recirc valve back on there.

Although if your budget is £1500, I'd go with a remap to get it running properly, put the recirc valve back on, whiteline/perrin ARBs and droplinks, then you'll have a few hundred spare, best to start going to a reputable specialist and talking with them about what you really want from the car, opposed to just seeing shiny bits and throwing money at them ;)

As posted before me, powerstation would be worth a visit, they're the nearest well known and reputable specialist near you, then you can work out what you really want to do with the car, and best manage your budget.
 
Last edited:
Mr_White said:
Although if your budget is £1500, I'd go with a remap to get it running properly, put the recirc valve back on, whiteline/perrin ARBs and droplinks, then you'll have a few hundred spare, best to start going to a reputable specialist and talking with them about what you really want from the car, opposed to just seeing shiny bits and throwing money at them ;)
Click to expand...



An excellent summing up.

You should aware that with a proper panel filter, a recirc, and remap you ought to be able to get about 320-330bhp. 340 is possible in theory, but pretty much only in theory. Then the bottleneck is the turbo: if you want more than 340bhp the turbo will need to be uprated at the very least. 350bhp could probably be done with just a turbo upgrade; any more power will probably need more and more other bits of kit.


M
 
Last edited:
Meridian said:
Don't - unless you've had the suspension upraded (which is not the same as lowered I might point out for some people) and you plan to put it around the track regularly, then they will make no difference whatsoever to a newage Impreza. Unlike the classics, the newage shell is plenty rigid enough already. The sway bar is fine (BTW, we call them anti-roll bars in this country), but get the Whiteline 22mm one. Drop-links are separate (I'm assuming that they are the other half of the combo?) in most cases. Whiteline are good, and well known on the scoob scene.

The turbo timer seems like overkill, and might interfere with the alarm system. Just learn not to switch the engine off immediately after hooning. Two minutes off-boost is enough to cool the turbo oil. It won't hurt to buy, it's just unnecessary.

I've nothing against mudflaps myself as I've got a set. Go ahead with those. The Scott Lowe ones are better though.

I've no problem with the defis - again, I have a set.

Lose the dump-valve, and get it replaced with a proper recirc. The noise the of the VTA makes you look like a ****, and it doesn't do anything useful. IMNSHO this also applies to lowering the suspension using coilovers etc. Unless you're doing a whole handling package (which should not be designed for you by people on a forum) they're make your ride harsh and your car look like something broke. If you want to go this route there are much better kits than Tien around.

Get a quality panel filter. I'm assuming that you still have a standard intake?

I agree with getting it on an RR - I'd guess that you're making about 300 rather than 320.


A question: how far do you plan to go?
Click to expand...


Ok, thanks for all the advice guys. So everyone seems to be agreed on what i should do is:

1. Lose the dump valve
2. Get it on a rolling road and get an ecutek remap
3. Drop Links + and Whiteline ARB'S
4. With regards to suspension, have a chat with the people up in power station and see if they can give me a good setup.

It does have a K+N panel filter, how good these are I dont know. As you can tell i dont really know much:)

BTW i do have a spare ECU, as someone reccomended, would i be able to use this ecu and remap this one?
 
I have just had a look at powerstations site now, and they do different chassis upgrade packages and tuning packages. Think this might be a good idea for me as I know then everything is set up properly
 
NitrogenY3K said:
Ok, thanks for all the advice guys. So everyone seems to be agreed on what i should do is:

1. Lose the dump valve
2. Get it on a rolling road and get an ecutek remap
3. Drop Links + and Whiteline ARB'S
4. With regards to suspension, have a chat with the people up in power station and see if they can give me a good setup.

It does have a K+N panel filter, how good these are I dont know. As you can tell i dont really know much:)

BTW i do have a spare ECU, as someone reccomended, would i be able to use this ecu and remap this one?
Click to expand...

K&N filters used to have a bit of a reputation for contaminating the MAF sensor with their oil, I'm not sure if it's the case now. Classic Impreza's suffered from fragile MAF (airflow) sensors, so we tended to use other filters like the STI ones from Japan or Green panel filters (both dry).

You could save one ECU and get the other remapped. If one is completely standard I'd save that one, and have the other one remapped. If it has a Prodrive PPP map it may not be much good without the parts that make up the full PPP kit anyway.

Btw you don't need to have them remapped on a rolling road. Bob Rawle does his mapping on-road, and his results are very good - as a consequence he always used to have a long list of people waiting to have their cars done by him.

When Bob remapped mine, he advised me to put a new fresh MAF sensor on it as a precaution. IIRC they're about £100 from Subaru so worth doing as a precaution. You might need to put slightly hotter rated sparkplugs in too before mapping, but your tuner should be able to advise on this.
 
NitrogenY3K said:
Ok, thanks for all the advice guys. So everyone seems to be agreed on what i should do is:

1. Lose the dump valve
2. Get it on a rolling road and get an ecutek remap
3. Drop Links + and Whiteline ARB'S
4. With regards to suspension, have a chat with the people up in power station and see if they can give me a good setup.

It does have a K+N panel filter, how good these are I dont know. As you can tell i dont really know much:)

BTW i do have a spare ECU, as someone reccomended, would i be able to use this ecu and remap this one?
Click to expand...

Personally I would keep the dump valve if you like it! I think there is far too much hating on dumpvalves and them being chav accessories.

I would get your spare ECU remapped and sell on your PPP'd ECU for a bit of cash back.

K&N panel filter is fine.
Sparkies you want some colder rated ones, 7's usually. You'll probably have 6's on there at the moment.

Suspension/handling wise, you've got the right idea :)
 
ScoobyDoo69 said:
Personally I would keep the dump valve if you like it! I think there is far too much hating on dumpvalves and them being chav accessories.

I would get your spare ECU remapped and sell on your PPP'd ECU for a bit of cash back.

K&N panel filter is fine.
Sparkies you want some colder rated ones, 7's usually. You'll probably have 6's on there at the moment.

Suspension/handling wise, you've got the right idea :)
Click to expand...

Thanks again guys. I have just contacted powerstation and told them what i want. They should be able to advice me on things like plugs and MAF sensors shoulnt they?
Are these guys any good at mapping?
 
You don't need to worry about the MAF sensor. That's a classic problem, not really something to worry about in the newages. Yes they can advise on plugs, probably better to have them done during a service or something.

They are good at mapping, but they do it completely on the rolling road from what I understand, so for me I wouldn't like to have my car remapped completely on the rolling road. So I'd go for someone like Bob Rawle who does it competely on the road!
 
ScoobyDoo69 said:
You don't need to worry about the MAF sensor. That's a classic problem, not really something to worry about in the newages. Yes they can advise on plugs, probably better to have them done during a service or something.

They are good at mapping, but they do it completely on the rolling road from what I understand, so for me I wouldn't like to have my car remapped completely on the rolling road. So I'd go for someone like Bob Rawle who does it competely on the road!
Click to expand...

Does bob rowle just to mapping or would does he dur tuning packages etc as well?
 
Well not so much a tuning package, as I think a good map with the kit thats already on the car would be great. More of a suspension package like the ones on power station.
But i could just get the engine sorted and mapped by bow rowle and then just get the suspension setup back in powerstation.
 
As I said, you don't need a tuning package - just a remap. That should get you 330bhp or so, which is near the limit of your turbo. Replacing that will be £1200 minimum (not including labour) unless you buy a second-hand one, which I would not recommend. Agree that you should get the standard ECU remapped and sell the Prodrive one. Note that your first remap will be expensive, as it will cost the mapper £450 or so to unlock the ECU. The mapping session itslef will be about £200-300 on top of that.

The standard STI clutch on that car is good for at least 400bhp, so yes, it's fine. I'll gloss over the fact that my 60k mile car is on its third clutch... As usual, a lot rests on your driving style.


M
 
Vampire said:
Yup, that's exactly what I did. :)
Click to expand...

I think this is what I will do, will leave it a month or 2 until i can save the cash for it, but i think it will be well worth it.

Meridian said:
As I said, you don't need a tuning package - just a remap. That should get you 330bhp or so, which is near the limit of your turbo. Replacing that will be £1200 minimum (not including labour) unless you buy a second-hand one, which I would not recommend. Agree that you should get the standard ECU remapped and sell the Prodrive one. Note that your first remap will be expensive, as it will cost the mapper £450 or so to unlock the ECU. The mapping session itslef will be about £200-300 on top of that.

The standard STI clutch on that car is good for at least 400bhp, so yes, it's fine. I'll gloss over the fact that my 60k mile car is on its third clutch... As usual, a lot rests on your driving style.


M
Click to expand...

Thanks for your all help mate, and all the others to.

Why does it cost so much to have the ECU unlocked then? as im not really sure how it all works.
 
Because you pay for a license for the software basically. ECUtek is what it's called. All mappers charge the same license fee, just their mapping fees differ.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom