been advised to change my intercooler would a 97 uk turbo 2000 sti top mount intercooler,, be better than the current wrx 1 i av and would it fit mines an import, if that makes sense

 

What are ur future mods, as yes you make a small gain but it isnt a lot at all, not as much gain as say fitting a sti v7/8 IC.

 

as above fitting the sti7/8 intercooler is the same job as a wrx one and they are quite cheap at the moment.
i did this on my 98 classic (same engine as yours)



there is a bit of work involved as the are not a straight swap unless you can buy one already modded.

depending on where you want to go in the future you have to decide if it's worth it. i fitted mine then 5 months later when upping the power over 400bhp had to go for a front mount so paid twice.

any newer intercooler from a later spec car wrx/sti will make a massive difference over your standard one once you get it mapped properly.

here's an idea of whats involved.

Carl Davey, specialist Subaru Impreza parts supply

 

Do it right first time and fit a front mount.

 

the top mount looks alot of work, i'm only looking for around 300bhp, i was looking at the front mount and was told its not worth it unless i was going over 350bhp

 

if your just remapping you can just use the standard one.

if your changing the turbo, injectors then it would be def worth looking at.

as harvey says go straight for a front mount, i did'nt get why people kept saying it to start with but after doing both i now realise i could have saved loads by just going down the front mount route to start with.

good luck with whatever you decide.

 

at the moment the car as a full 3" decat with a cobra 5" back, 255 fuel pump is getting fitted tomorrow, been looking at 440cc injectors, i'm not that clued up on wat i'm doing so i'm kinda of relaying on you guys for advice, think i'll look at the front mount way

 

Just to add a little bit of information to help others:
Like PJ said above, fitting an STi 8 TMIC and doing it properly is a lot of work. A lot more work than fitting an FMIC. Everybody was raving about how good the STi 8 TMIC was so I fitted one to my STi 3 Wagon. Without an STi scoop and undertray the results were not acceptable and even with the STi 8 scoop and undertray, the results at 400 bhp were a long way behind the FMIC that is now fitted. While I gained a lot of information from doing this first hand I did waste a lot of time and money over going straight to a front mount.
All my cars and several cars I have done development work on have been fitted with air charge temperature guages and other instrumentation. I also have various Magnahelix guages to measure pressure differentials and pressure drop across intercoolers etc.
Version 1 and 2 cars already suffer high EGTs by 280 bhp.
Version 3 STi on the standard set up with TMIC at 335 bhp was already beyond the temperature scale of 70C ACT running nothing to 100 mph sprint so I guess any of these cars at 300 bhp will benefit from a front mount.
Version 5 and 6 cars will benefit from a front mount by 320 bhp and 350 bhp is starting to enter an unsafe area.
Early New Age cars are generally OK to 350 bhp.