Daveo

Hi all,
I've been monitoring these forums for a month or so now so thought it was time I shared my experiences with you guys. Some of them will no doubt be familiar to some readers!!
I bought my scoob in Jan 02, a my99 v6 sti wagon, a yellow beast, standard except for a k&n filter and a set of gold stilauto 17" rims. The car had been imported new by David Hendry Cars and had had 1 owner and a measly 21k miles. Not everyone's cup of tea, i know, but i loved it.
I started on the modding route shortly after with a full HKS hiper system, turbo back. Loved it at first, good power increase but eventually got sick of the droning on the motorway/open road. So, on went a magnex cat back system and a standard front pipe with cat. Much more socially acceptable.
Things went ok for nearly a year, I still loved the car when suddenly without warning she developed a horrible rattling sound and a sickening seizure followed shortly afterwards. The car had only covered 40k and had been looked after meticulously by DH Cars (allegedly) and had only ever had Super unleaded/Optimax. I was gutted - especially as the warranty had just run out.
I entrusted the engine rebuild to Wincanton Motor Services in Somerset which is quite near to where i live, and to cut a long story short and having spoken to john down there, i have just recieved the car back and have had the following 'goodies' installed:

HKS 2.2 stroker kit
Arrow con rods
Piper repro cams
Fidanza Flywheel
Helix Clutch
Motorsport Fuel pump
Strengthened head bolts and all gaskets
Iridium spark plugs
Standard air box is back in with a Blitz cover and panel filter

I'm just in the process of running her back in then i'll be thinking of an ecu/piggyback upgrade to sort it all out.

So guys, money is now a bit tight (the rebuild was painfully expensive!) so am thinking of a Link (BR Developments?) Any ideas and comments on my 'scooby life' so far? !!!

Daveo

Neilo

i think you can tek 3 it, as its a 99 car??? i may be wrong but it might save you the expense of a new ECU when you can simply map the old one....

zhastaph

Yeah, an STi6 can be TEK3'd, BR Developments can help you out there and will only set you back about £6/700.



Too late to be of any use to you now, but at least it may help anybody else who sees this;

An STi6 shouldn't be run on SUL/Optimax alone and must be run on one of these PLUS a good octane booster. This is a known cause of piston or big end bearing failure on these cars.

If the MAF hasn't been changed on the car then this is also worth changing (only about 70/80 quid from a dealer) they are prone to failure on MY99/00 cars, which results in a lean mixture when on boost, and also a known cause of piston or big end failure.

Dark Blue Mark

Take heed of Zhap's post. Quite a few people have had STi5/6 blow ups, gone for a rebuild and its gone pop again before long. The culprit, little cheap and nasty air flow sensor not being replaced. The better tuners will know this and mark it as a potential cause of an engine failure.

MB

dij

The APEXi power FC is supposed to be a good option for remap too.
Andy F supplies and maps them for around the same price as the ecutec and its a complete ecu so you will still have the old one.

Its sad to hear about yet another engine failure,but this sort of thing does seem to happen with these engines even when you might think everythings been well looked after.

Getting a KL (knock link)is probably the most important thing to fit to your car at this stage so that you can monitor for det (even after the remap).

Im sure your new engine will transform your car and make up for the bad luck with the old engine.

Daveo

Thanks for the words of sympathy guys. Forgot to mention that John at Wincanton Motor Services where i got the rebuild done has flagged up the MAF as a possible cause of the failure and has a new one ready to go in.

Who is Andy F and how can i get hold of him? Can Andy deal with a knocklink as well?

cheers again fellas

Daveo

I've been in touch with Andy F and he's advised me to go for the apexi power fc - so gonna get that sorted hopefully.

By the way - popped into powerstation in Cheltenham today (cos i work in Chelts) and he wasn't interested in doing any mapping whatsoever on my car - says the v5/6/P1 are too much trouble!!!