Nostalgia attack, can buy back my favourite car I sold

[Mr Footlong]

Cool, well with me screwing a £350 alloy and a £300 tyre yesterday, getting my bank card blocked and being told the Scoob is still not right, life is great lol.....

Factoring in that for the 3 months I have had this car, I haven't got to drive it at all really and it has spent more time at the tuners than on my drive, I didn't think it was unfair to ask that the tuners let me know as soon as the final remap had been done yesterday. Didn't hear back from them so emailed last night and got this:

Hi Mr Impatient

Well it didn’t get to where the previous owner had it but it did make 411hp, 350lbft.
Engine runs a bit warm, so there may be an issue with the thermostat.
This could be causing the engine not to accept as much timing as is needed to continue upwards, as Simon kept seeing the ecu pulling timing
From various cylinders with no pattern emerging.
Don’t think we will have time to fit the D/Links in the morning but can try to get them done during the day.

Erm, why the hell didn't they put my car on first, then change the thermostat while the mapper was still there, then put it back on to map before he left? I don't think the thermostat will be causing all of what they are seeing...

[Shoppinit]

No, I don't think so either. Unless it's running properly hot in which case, what's it doing on the rollers?!

What fuel is in it?

That email would have pissed me off.

Get shot of the Scooby and put the past behind you!

[Mr Footlong]

Momentum 99 is in the tank, was a fresh tank full when I dropped her off on 02/09/13.

I have known the boss for years and that email doesn't read as it should, he isn't of the emoticon generation. I have spoken to him and after discussing it, we aren't discounting that when the belt jumped that a valve or two didn't get pinged but he says that if that is the case, it must be fairly slight.

He also mentioned the usual about different rollers being calibrated differently as we all know but I said that even the difference between a generous set of rollers an a stingy set when they are by the same manufacturer, being close to 10%, is a bit of an ask imo. Regardless, it wouldn't be that as the ecu was pulling timing so something isn't right.

Apparently it still has the std engine so 411 isn’t to bad although it supposed to have run more but is that a good thing with running std internals?
We have not yet made another date with Simon but will do soon for Oct’, it is ok to drive now as its fully tested by us with current mods mapped into the
Equation.
The coolant temps were a bit of a quandary, it didn’t actually overheat but ran hot 95’c (on the laptop, gauge was on) and the fans refused to cut out. This we are assuming is due to a lazy/faulty stat so we could start there but you need to try it to see what you think.
Will do the stat as requested and fit ALKit

From your point of view then do you want to carry on putting money into something that your hearts obviously not in? (sorry for being blunt it's not fluffy as that too had lots of problems on its return to you), it is a second hand car which has come with some problems that can take a while to rectify, but if the car doesn’t float your boat as something that you enjoy then perhaps it needs to be a vessel for another willing soul.

I am picking up tomorrow, will spank the arse off her for a while to make sure sure it all holds up before deciding what route to take. If it blows up, who gives a sh!t.

[Mr Footlong]

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOST! Good god how I have missed having a turbo. For how long I don't know, until the engine blows I guess. The replacement thermostat has sorted out the temps but Len and I are in agreement that the engine didn't come away unscathed from the cam jump. I am going to drive it until I either destroy the lump or I can't control the urge to go to a 2.5l lump stroked to 2.6 with closed deck inserts for good measure. Will have tons of torque and will be safe up to around 600hp.

The car doesn't hang around as it is, I spanked the backside of her from Newbury to Farnham (over 3/8th of a tank gone for a 33 mile trip )to see if she would hold up and she did. Came across a WRX and another UK STI and utterly battered both of them so better than nowt.

Frigging Diff went again about 5 miles away from home after behaving all of the time that she was at the tuners. It is now back to faulting within about 5 mins of driving and seems to make tight turning skittish.

All my boot repairs paid off as I jetwashed the car tonight, snow foamed her, washed then jetwashed again and to boot was bone dry, thank god. I have a load more things to do tomorrow including sticking the lights in the oven to take them apart and mod them.

This fecking car is a real love/hate thing for me. I feel that I have come this far with it so I need to see it through to the bitter end before I make up my mind for good. Yes that will mean that I have spent easily more fixing the car up/upgrading it that I bought it for but I like to think it is what any proper nutty petrolhead would do, to hell with logic. There is just something about the bonkers way that it attacks the road, feeling 50% in perfect control and 50% like it wants to kill you .

[Mr Footlong]

Ok, current status of the tinpot plasticfantastic ricer money pit. From this:




to this:





I have replacement front emblems sitting on the kitchen table waiting to be fitted. I haven't had a chance to take off the rear calipers to get them repainted. The bootlid isn't a great fit as I expected so I will have it off again when we have a couple of days rain-free and will modify the bootlid arms to allow me to fit it in closer to the rear window and will modify the lock to pull it down slight more flush with the wings. If the shutlines are still too bad then I will have the take the hit and sell it on.

I have one of the spare front lights in the oven currently as I am about to pull them apart and set about sanding/priming/satin blacking the bulb surrounds before transplanting them on to the factory HID lights on this car.

Looking to delete the pointless and ugly front scoop so I have ordered these two items and am hoping the my cuz in Washington can get them across the pond to me:

a20791e12436f71bf479a9_m.jpg (108.72 KiB) Viewed 2276 times

a20791613b968ef9703b09_m.jpg (41.76 KiB) Viewed 2276 times

Getting there I think?

[daytonamart]

Nice one Footers, it certainly looks the part. Alloys set it off perfectly imo. Time to sell now?

[hammy969]

Footers this is great to follow, much better than Eastenders or Coronations St.!!!!

[Mr Footlong]

Another week, another load of little things fixed. The local dealership now just keep my card details on file due to the daily orders I have been placing with them for odds and sods. Really nice guys as most of the orders are for under £10 a time, no fuss, get the parts next day.

The Jap factory lights have finally been done. Heated up, taken apart, same done to the UK set I had. Swapped the nice clear UK covers on to the JDM set after spraying the JDM ones black. Detango'd the UK lights and reassembled. Polished off some of the awful yellowing on the jap covers.

Not on the car yet but here they are, the rear set are the ones going on:

[Mr Footlong]

Lights are more or less in, waiting on some parts from Subaru to replace old parts. Again, from this, not really showing the awful lens yellowing:


To this as of today:

[Nobby]

Saw this and thought of you Footers

[Mr Footlong]

Christ I haven't seen that in years!

Have been splurging on the scoob a bit again. Managed to obtain a rare as hell black carpet from a Spec D Impreza in great condition so I can get rid of the STI blue one. Got a 10k old Hawkeye Spec D steering wheel as it is better than the one I modded. Got another gearknob for the hell of it and got hold of some OE centre console trims so I have torn out that fake carbon crap!

Trying to get hold of the Spec D black seats/door cards too but they go for not far off £500 on a good day, the carpet cost me £100 alone and the steering wheel another £200, why oh why can I not stop pouring money in to this thing. I haven't even driven it anywhere really since getting it back last!

In talks with a couple of the best Scoob engine builders about a 2.5L lump with closed deck inserts, stroked to 2.6L for the hell of it and with the AVCS heads from my 2L lump spliced in for good measure. Will give me more than 500 bhp and far more importantly lots more torque without the reliability issues from the normal 2.5 lump

Considering a long ratio DCCD box and rear diff to be a better match for higher speed runs/motorway runs but they are all north of 2.5k second hand.

[Mr Footlong]

Arse, think I have changed my mind now and will take a financial hammering as a result. Since finishing Chemo in August I have been working my arse off before I possibly have to start treatment again in Feb. Madam's shoebox has finally sold as of last weekend so she wants us moved in together asap, will be my first ever house purchase at the age of 36....

I have been giving her a lot of the money I have been making since August to beef up our deposit and stop me blowing it all on car crap. It is highly doubtful that the house we end up with will be able to fit three cars on the drive.

The car is an absolute bloody joy to drive angrily and is so acrobatic, but the idea that the engine will be going bang at some point despite all the money recently wasted on it and the DCCD system still having a mind of its own, just have me saying I am better off taking a loss of about 8k or so, selling on and putting that money in to the deposit.

Meh, all of this kept me entertained while I was ill this year and I will end up with entire house to modify at the end of it. Either that or blow the money on a 517 tranny for the 6...

[chunky79]

Great news about the sale of madams place of stay. You were never going to get the money back from any of your cars so best that it's this one going. Been a good write up and as you say, kept you occupied this year.

[Ian_C]

Sensible in some ways Footers. Yes its a difficult choice to sell a car for a loss that you have put money - and time - into, but its money back in your pocket, and you cannot spend even more on the car if its sold. Similar decisions for myself to make coming up, two fast petrols is an extravagance, and I won't be selling the 205!

[HOL]

I can see the attraction. I still miss my old Twin Scroll STI. Also sold back in 2008.