To determine if my experiences were due to increasing power output would be beyond my scope of knowledge. Here’s the issues I had when all I had was an exhaust and tune:
- Blown turbo. This was caused from the oil return line bursting and draining the motor of oil. It’s common for the feed line to fail. Best bet is taking out the screen filter OUT of the line so the turbo gets more oil without resistance. Oil is filtered through your oil filter anyways, so if your line gets clogged, your oil filter isn’t doing it’s job.
- Blown motor. This was from a spun bearing. Most likely cause was the motor being drained of oil one month prior due to issue #1. Just took time to off the motor.
Even when unmodded, factory pistons are like glass. They crack/break ringlands easily. On my 2nd motor, this is what failed, but I also had about 80whp more give or take.
Next up is the transmission. It is virtually the same as the WRX 5MT transmission, which, like the pistons, is made from glass. Or so it seems. This usually is an issue in 300-400whp+ cars, but with higher mileage, I do not foresee power being the main issue, but I may be wrong.