October 23, 2006 i drove to Milford, Connecticut and took delivery of my platinum silver metallic 2004 WRX STi from Dan Perkins Subaru.
she stayed stock for about 2 weeks before i picked up a helix catless downpipe and greddy evo2 catback off byron, who had decided to swap his exhaust out for something else., i then purchased a COBB Accessport to take care of the timing and fueling parameters…
then it took a trip to tweeter in saratoga and took care of the I.C.E.
It started with an alpine cde-9843 headunit running to a JL Audio A4300 4 channel running jl 6.5" evolution components in the front doors. no speakers were installed in the rear doors to keep the “staging” effect. also installed was a JL 12w3v3 sub in a 1.5 cubic foot slot ported box powered by a JBL cs300.1 monoblock amplifier.
by this time the snow was about to fly and a set of hankook snows were ordered to control the contact patch during the winter months.
around comes christmas and a autometer carbon fiber gauge cup and autometer carbon fiber sport comp boost gauge were affixed to the steering column.
the car ran this way for about a month when i decided to sell off the greddy catback for something a little throatier and picked up the new Buschur Racing 3" catback exhaust., also at this time a Kartboy short shifter was sourced and installed with turn in concepts shifter bushings.
it ran this way through the end of winter and in february i ordered new summer tires in the form of some yokohama avs es 100’s in 235/40/17. they were installed and the next day i went with justin mcgrath to imp motorsports in new jersey to be dyno’d. the dyno was soooo far off clibration that justins evo, at 30psi and
on meth injection only put down 234hp… my sti however showed signs of boost leaks and turbo failure as it would not build boost past 16.82 psi. at this time though it was tuned via open source and i was able to sell the Accessport.
i decided it was time for some suspension work and placed an order for whiteline front and rear 27mm solid sway bars and whiteline fully adjustable endlinks.
approx a week later i was on my way home from getting a free oil change done in queensbury when the OEM vf-39 turbo on the car puked and would not build ANY boost… so i had my choice of what way i wanted to go… oem again or continue to upgrade…upgrade i did
a Forced performance Green turbo ported with 3" inlet and 8cm^2 housing was sourced along with a perrin 3" turbo inlet hose, PE enterprised 850cc injectors and a walbro 255lph fuel pump. these parts were installed and a rough tune was flashed onto the car. a week later dom from getadomtune.com attempted to retune the car but it was acting up again and would not build more boost than 12-13 psi. 2 days later the green failed and an appointment was made with KTA motorsports to have the car dropped off, diagnosed and repaired… adam hennessey begins to tear into things while the turbo is sent back to FP for a rebuild. what he finds is a little shop of horrors. oiling issues, clogged pickup tubes, etc…all was repaired and the turbo returns freshly rebuilt (at a hefty cost…fuck fp btw) and installed. the car is still on a fairly rough tune by dom but running and hitting 17psi at WOT. a huge improvement over weeks prior. monday morning comes and im tooling up the northway and the engine suddenly loses all power and then dies out coasting to a stop just off the exit 19 offramp… the car is towed to the dealership i was working at and sits for 3 weeks until its towed to my house and given a resting place for the spring, summer and majority of the fall…
now its winter and i have scrimped and saved for the better part of 8 months to set the repairs into motion.
last week the car was towed to my current work at dodgeworld chrysler jeep in clifton park. ive contacted AR Fabrication out of virginia… and ordered a new powerplant…seeing as its being built at the moment and paid for i suppose i can release the info… carrillo rods, cp pistons, acl race bearings, 100mm bore. stock heads and cams will be put back onto the motor as i prefer the early spoolup the stock cams give as opposed to aftermarkets that sacrifice spool for top end performance. well, that and the fact itd put me in the poor house at $1,500 for cams alone. the stock tgv housings are being gutted and ported to improve flow and allow more clearance for the turbo inlet as well. the shortblock will be here within 2 weeks and installed before christmas to begin the breakin procedure… hope y’all like…
as she will sit in 2 weeks:
AR FAB built ej257 - carrillo rods, cp pistons, stock crank, acl race bearings
3" inlet 8cm^2 ported fp green turbo
pe 850cc injectors
walbro 255lph fuel pump
perrin 3" inlet hose
helix 3" catless ceramic coated downpipe with CEL fix
buschur racing 3" catback with bullet muffler
whiteline front and rear sway bars with adjustable whiteline endlinks
cusco front strut brace
goodridge stainless brake lines
kartboy short shifter with TiC shifter bushings
the alpine headunit and sub/box were stolen days after the engine blew while it was sitting in queensbury along with a nitrous express ntercooler setup i had in the trunk waiting to be installed. tunes will come in due time. i just cant wait for her to be up and rolling under her own power once again.
