Hello all from Mountain Home Ar. I just purchased this 2018 WRX STI off of Facebook with a bad knocking motor with 41,000 miles and a lot of mods...hence the knocking motor...

I already have a new motor (shortblock) I purchased from the dealership in Springfield Missouri and have ordered all the gaskets, timing, water pump, thermostat, plugs and head stud kit to rebuild...it's coming into my shop on 19 Dec to do the work. I'll get it up and running then will trailer to a dyno tuner for a professional tune.

Why I am here is I'm hoping that someone recognizes the car and can get me in contact with the person who built it. I have a very good idea of the mods performed from the visual under the hood and car, but want to see if there is anything else beyond what I can see externally...it will help insure the follow-on tune is accurate.

Additionally, if anyone has a good reference of a tuner, closest to 72653, that you'd you'd recommend, I would appreciate it. I have tried Cobb before in my 2013 WRX and 2008 EVO X GSR (both of which I still have and are for sale), but am not impressed. Seeing how this 2018 STI, with 41K miles, with a Cobb tuner, and a blown motor...even less impressed. Not throwing them under the bus as there are other factors which could have taken out the motor, but the tunes seem to be very generic and these cars need to be specifically tuned as the are very sensitive to fuel and air changes...at least from what I've seen anyways. The guys at the dealership said they call the Cobb Access Port the Anxiety Port...if that tells you anything.






Anyways, thanks for the site, I hope I can contribute some as well. Lee

 

Yes we in UK are familiar with every US based car.
Get a grip Z

 

Hiya mate, welcome.

This is mainly a UK forum so highly unlikely to find the previous owner on here. But you're more than welcome to stick around and share your progress with the car.

 

I think you have stumbled on a UK based site by mistake buddy. We have or had a similar based open source "tune" called ecutek similar to the US cobb which is ok on lightly modded cars but useless on anything above a 400hp reliable build. I recommend researching tuners in youre area but be prepared to pay as a proper tune can take days of setting up if you use a stand alone ecu like a syvecs. Hope you get sorted mate n be nice to see a build post on here if you find time.

 

Exhibit A; the problem with forums today ….

Dudes first time here and first post back is a nice warm welcome…..

no wonder this place has died on its ****.

 

Yep…..stupid first reply to the op.
This is a .com forum not a .co.uk so not obvious it is UK based.
The website banner at top of screen has a random US spec car on it (Scion?)
It’s on the World Wide Web (there’s a clue there, it can be accessed anywhere in the world)