Hi everyone.

Looking to buy a 2.5 2006 Hawkeye WRX. I've heard this engine is not as strong as the old 2.0 blocks. How would everyone rate the 2006 engine for strength/reliability?

Many thanks
James

 

Get a good one and it'll be fine.

Get a bad one and the engine will shìt itself.

Owning a 2.5 is not much fun when you're constantly watching the temperature guage and checking the header tank every time before starting it up.

If you are happy to live with the risk and get a good car, the 2.5 is a glorious thing to drive on the road.

But you can always look for one with a forged engine, a 2.0 Blob or a JDM car. I cannot recall anyone on here owning a JDM newage WRX so I'd imagine they're rare as rocking horse poo.

 

I own a 2010 WRX STi with the ppp fitted.
When I took it for its first MOT I discovered it had been de catted.
Put it on a rolling road & its putting out 350 bhp.
Great, but worried about damage to engine.
Advice please !

 

350 with a decat on standard PPP doesn't sound right.

Either the dyno is generous with its numbers or the car has been remapped elsewhere.

Did the car not come with any kind of service history, bills or receipts?

 

Thanks for replying Richard.
The car has the ppp certificate which boosts power from 296 bhp to 325 bhp.
Also full MD service history.Was wondering if the extra 25 bhp could be the result of de catting.

 

I wouldn't have thought decatting alone would produce that kind of increase, I would have thought it would need a map to get that kind of gain.

Either way if it is running a full decat without a remap then some would argue that's not good for the engine.

 

Your running on the boundaries of safe limits there. Most sensible thing to do is get the car mapped to support the mods that have been done. Forging is the way forward but it is of course more expense.

Good luck

 

What do you actually mean by decatted? as the PPP will have removed the 2nd Cat anyway.......................

 

Don

PPP just involves exchanging the quad silencer on the hatch, the 2nd cat is not touched.

 

The mechanic who did the MOT informed me both cats had been removed.

 

do all 2.5's suffer with this Ringland issue???
or was the issue rectified at factory at some point?? so only engines before XXXX *might* be effected.

Other than ringland.. are there any other inherent issues with the 2.5??
Head gasket IIRC?

or have i got it all wrong?
cheers

 

PPP doesn't remove the cats as it will never pass a genuine MOT that way Previously PPP involved a sports cat. I haven't seen a PPP on a late car to be certain one way or the other. We do have a Prodrive rear box here of a hatch so I guess that is from a PPP car.

350 is not correct it is too high but if the roller company ran the test in say 3rd gear instead of 4th [ for example ] you can skew the readings to get a figure that the customer seeks. You can do it by moving the intake air temp sensor around to a colder spot too.

But it is dangerous to run it anywhere near those figure if for some reason it is a genuine figure.

I would be looking for symptoms of head gasket failure - rising water temp when on boost. Cracked piston crowns make a noise like no other and those of us that deal with it daily can pick it out easily.

It can be fixed and fixed properly with a few sensible up grade parts fitted before it gets out of hand. Call us if we can help.

David APi
01926 614333

 

They don't " All do it " Viktor, it just seems like it. But it is a problem that you must expect.

Nothing has been done internally to the engines since the hatch came out in late 2007 to make it better. So having it repaired under guarantee by Subaru just moves the problem back another 40,000 KM's maybe before it happens again.

Fit proper forged pistons, 11 mm head studs, latest type head gaskets, a new oil pick up pipe and it'll be MUCH better and more reliable.

Once done like that, remap it properly with Ecutek or similar and it will be a great car.

Good Luck

David APi

 

My bad, they returned to 2nd cat replacement for the MY11 340R upgrade.....

 

Must admit I never thought the day would come when I would correct you on a Subaru topic

I am sure it won't happen again

 

Hi David,thanks for that. He ran the test in 4th gear.
I will give you a call.

 

Both cats have been removed.

 

 

Early hatches pre facelift shall we say on the 330 kit removed the 2nd cat pipe and replaced it with a bypass pipe, Fitted several of these kits.

The 320r kit retained all of the std exhaust system & the 340r kit had the bypass pipe fitted instead of the 2nd cat.

 

drive it like you stole it

Wrong fuel

fiddle with it adding mods

all add up to pop pop bang bang

I think you'll find most who've had problems either race around like its on police camera action or can't be sure how the cars been looked after/driven by previous owners.


the 2.5's aren't the classic 2.0 car that you stick a decat zorst on it and a filter and gain 40bhp for little money.

the new bread of car is a finely tuned factory sports car that doesn't want tinkering about with on a sunday with your mates lol




fingers crossed.. not now tempting fate... but my Sti 330s is fine and had 26k on the clock. serviced at main dealer.. and has warranty that runs out end of Jan next year

 

Didn't on mine Rob. In saying that mine was one of the very first PPP kits (I kept hounding Prodrive)

 

Partially vindicated then

 

Maybe a release at a later date to try and resolve some issues with the kit, I'm not sure but I know I fitted loads of them lol

 

 

You have been lucky with your STI or work for Subaru IM group. I had my engine fail at less than 20k miles and no mods or no track day driving either. To read the Subaru statement on alleged engine failure and all about the way people have put add ons to increase power and such like has caused these engine problems is an insult to their loyal Subaru owners who have shelled out around 30k to buy these failures..

 

My headgasket went last week 28k, 1 previous owner, i got the car at 22k, ran it standard til 27k, got it mapped which showed it had the original 2008 map on it, not the recall, 1000 miles later, headgasket failure.

 

Stock 2.5 = turd

Forged 2.5 = the engine it should have been to begin with

 

Out of interest, who mapped it?

 

what's interesting to me is the great number of failures in the UK even though you guys a have very good petrol....

Here we have failures....but it seems less. And our fuel is worthless.
So regardless of what fuel you run, your 2.5 may fail. That software must be absolutely sh|t. Coupled with the Doritos-made pistons, you have an issue.

But they last good here if you have done a remap. I wonder whether the UK's bigger variance in ambient temperatures add to the risk of having ringland failures. Here we don't have super low temps in winter as you guys have there.
So if you start the car in the morning at -20 celcius and drive off the expansion of components my worsen any weak points the Doritos pistons may have incurred during detonation events.

 

-20 never gets that cold.....