Nostalgia attack, can buy back my favourite car I sold

[Mr Footlong]

Sorry to bore. Popped in to TFS Racing on the way back from chemo and had a chat with the guys prior to dropping the steaming pile there on Friday and quickly got reminded of a fair few things and a couple of things I didn't know!

I have been told to steer clear of the EJ25 block and stick with a fully closed/stroked out EJ20. Big power smashes the run of the mill 2.5 blocks and the majority of the big power runners are on stroked 2L jobs. Pretty sure it is the bottom end after discussing my findings with them so she will be sitting on the drive getting everything else fixed up before the main job. They have agreed with me that it would be pointless trying to bore out the already bored lump as it will all be wafer-thin and that wasn't an option for me anyway.

I have been told that while 600 brake is doable on about 10K, it cannot be daily drive-friendly and madam has to be able to enjoy it too. 450-500BHP is about the limit, keeping a nice Helix clutch system in there which I have always got on with. They are adamant that she will school any of our beasts (don't think they know much about 750+C6 ones though ), which is what I used to do with her anyway, she just ran out of puff a touch above 140 or so.

Grabbed a replacement battery today to take the shot to sh!t one out of the equation tomorrow night, jerry can full of V-Power as the car is almost empty on 12 month-old fuel, bought a few litres of cheap, slippery as possible oil to dribble through what is left of the lump and have a friend with a Astra Diesel estate following me all the way home, a la forfeit car in Top Gear.

Had to use Google to figure out the way with the very least hills as she no likey! Roll on tomorrow night.

[Shoppinit]

What block is in it at the moment then?

500hp with that kind of weight should be monstrous fun. I definitely want a ride. Nothing can bring a grin to my face like a sorted Scooby making comedy induction and blow-off noises.

My mates old WRX could top out at 142mph. That was the rev limiter in 5th. Not much you can do about that other than mess with the gearing. Top speed is irrelevant anyway. 140 is more than enough.

[Mr Footlong]

That is low, was it an RA by any chance? They run a comically-low ratio box, where at motorway speeds it is buzzing away like a knat on crack. I have run the RA ratio box, the normal JDM ratio and the nice & tall UK ratio box, all in the same car (first one)! The RA ratio box was out in under 2 weeks of fitting!!!! Also, if memory serves the STI has a higher max rpm that the run of the mill WRX, the RA may be different though.

I am 99.99% certain it is a 2l open deck in there currently, stroked out to not far off 2.3 (I honestly don't remember the exact capacity), no sleeving used that I am aware of and the rebuild receipts back that.

Don't worry about the farty burble noises, I will never go to even length headers unless I have to, she has a Turbosmart BOV and an APS Wing mounted Cold Airfeed Kit so she makes all the right sounds

[Mr Footlong]

Well, that was fun. Got there last night in the sideways wind and pouring rain, with a box full of battery, oils, coolant, brake fluid, you name it. Battery tie down bar nuts were seized solid and rounded, brute force and ignorance managed to prize those off.

Battery on, found that the coolant tank was totally empty (should be almost full), the fresh oil that had been put in to the empty sump was already pitch black. Tyres all on sub-20 psi. A neighbour pulled up and was asking about the car. Explained I was taking her back to her rightful home to make her well again and was royally pissed off with how she had been treated. He confirmed what I thought, she had been sitting there for the last year, yet somehow has an MOT pass from March this year, right.......

Stuck my two jerry cans of V-Bastard in and fired her up. She started like a champ first time and sounded perfect until she warmed up, then started to struggle to idle. Managed the steep driveway hill start on the god awful clutch/lightweight flywheel the idiot had stuck in despite my warnings not to and off we trundled.

She did me proud. I stayed off the turbo and only went to around 3krpm but she pootled along at 60 up and down the hills on the 45 min drive home and didn't miss a beat. While the steering wheel was off to one side, she was tramlining nicely and the brakes well, forget about them currently, things just felt right with the world.

The grip, the grip the grip, oh the grip. Even in the pissing down rain she felt lovely going around tight stuff and just went wherever I pointed her with no fuss. Got home, rolled on to the driveway and she realised she was back and didn't have to show off for daddy anymore, hunted her idle briefly then turned herself off before I had to .

Got up this morning to find the 2 chav blokes from across the road (1 had a an old merc van stickered to death and with hulk green headlights, a lemon yellow micra with half the exhaust removed "BECAUSE RACE CAR" and the other has an old crappy civic with mis-matched body panels and also misses half its exhaust because race car) out on the pavement chatting and looking at the stable. RS6, STI, S3 on the drive and the Cupra kicked out on to the road. Ooh yeah. Is it rude to have that many cars and hardly drive? Care.

Off to the garage this morning and I actually don't care about the outcome, I have her back and that is all that matters.

[Shoppinit]

^ Brought a tear to my eye.

Who's going to be doing the work? Did you hear the big end noise when driving it? Maybe the engine isn't as borked as you think.

Makes me want to do a project, too. Maybe I'll turn my Golf II into a track day monster.

[Mr Footlong]

Feeling sick as a dog this morning but I welled up a little due to being so happy when I saw her on the drive today. TFS Racing in Aldershot will be doing the work. As much as I would like to be taking her to Subaru4you, it is a 45 min trip there every time and she isn't pristine again yet so I will try these guys. They do come highly recommended.

No noise from the engine while driving but even off the turbo the torque was good enough to allow me to feather the throttle all the way back even up the hills. Only when revving the engine to combat the idle hunting/moving off up hills etc could you get the noise.

While I am hoping that the engine won't be as bad as expected, I am trying to convince myself that if the engine has to come out for ANY reason, the same lump won't be going back in!

[Mr Footlong]

Shopp, just got back from dropping her off. have managed to find a few more problems such as instead of unscrewing a few screws to remove the centre console etc, someone just ripped it out, right rear shockers are making noises, power steering is making the usual tired noise when turning the wheels while driving, some cretin has managed to put holes in the rear window tint, blah blah.

Drove her through Aldershot and when not stalling at traffic lights etc, people loved her and the lovely deep burble echoing between the buildings..... Dropped her off, main guy was out. Got the younger guy to give her a rev and he laughed saying he had never heard one make that noise before, good start. Now I will just wait and see, have given them a budget of a grand for the engine if they can resurrect the current lump.

[Mr Footlong]

As suspected, Big end shot to <beep>. Looking at 2k for a fairly boggo rebuild from TFS, subject to not finding any other horrors in there. I am not happy rebuilding a previously failed/ rebored, failed again block.

They said that the rest of her has held up really well but the agreed that the brakes don't appear to be doing an awful amount.

Madam is going to kill me but I am thinking if I am already in for 2k on the engine, why not just say sod it and go for a proper job new lump, at least with the core built to my specifications? I could then get the ancillaries upgraded piecemeal. I can't see me waiting until the end of the year to get her going at all, no idea what I am going to tell madam. Sadly I know that she will just roll her eyes and let me get away with it, won't kick my backside or give me a reality check.

The real question for me is do I stick with this recommended, but new to me outfit, try "Surrey Subaru Specialists" in Camberley who I have never used before either, or stick to my tried & tested Subaru4you. Decisions decisions.

[Shoppinit]

Go with what you know, I would. Better the devil you know and all that. Where are you going to source a lump? What's the price difference?

[chunky79]

If you are going to keep her for a while then do a proper job.

[Mr Footlong]

I need to put a lot more research in to it but I am drawn to a Legacy 2.2l CDB and possibly enlarging that a little and the appropriate hardened internals. The problem is that I have been out of the Impreza game for sooooooo long now, it is like starting halfway again at best with my knowledge.

Dunc, not keeping her for a while, keeping her for good this time. the only way she is leaving my possession again is by getting wrapped around a tree/through a house with me behind the wheel.

[Shoppinit]

I wonder what the cost of a brand new lump is. Or are you going to try to source a low mile used one?

Half of the fun is reading up on what spec bits you need. There might have been some evolutions / innovations since you were last in the game, too.

What are those US 2.5 engines like? Or are they the same as the 2.5 you were talking about further up?

What about a supercharger?

[chunky79]

Proper job it is then.

[Mr Footlong]

Supercharging, nooooooooo thanks. Apart from what sounds like unimpressive gains, the vast majority of the ones done look hilarious - http://www.rs25.com/forums/f7/t107101-s ... ubaru.html

I have totally discounted 2.5 for now so I don't know if the US spec lump is CDB but I don't see why it would be better than the EU/JDM blocks.

[gingertoss]

Was it not the 2l JDM engines that were the strongest. As when Subaru changed the UK cars to 2.5 the jap car stayed 2l as they could rev harder. Or am I talking sh1te?

Anyway sure you will have fun with it Nick.