Hi i'm a newby to the scooby world from Ireland

i have just bought a late 97 bog standard unmodified jdm sti impreza, i have heard a lot about them running lean and melting pistons if run on irish juice which is only available in 95ron. i contacted a reputable engine tuner and he told me that model could not be mapped with the standard ecu.
Is any or all of this true? Does it have to be remapped and can it be done without replacing ecu???
Any info appreciated

 

The ecu needs to be replaced on the 97/98 cars. I would say that ideally it needs a re-map. but it can be run with octane booster safe-ishly if you don't really push it to it's limits. If I had bought it, then I would have it re-mapped.

 

No way Jose would I run that on 95RON, with or without octane booster! Never knew about the poor RON options over there, useful to know. If you want to keep the engine in as good condition as possible and also get as close to the performance the factory intended or better, you need to get the ecu sorted in my uneducated opinion.

 

is a programmable ecu my only option or would an OE Ecu from a different year sti that can be programmed do? or would a uk sti Ecu do the trick? have i any other options?

 

The programmable ecu is the only option really. you could make an earlier ecu work, but the amount of parts needed would make it a similar cost to an after market ecu in the end, plus a lot more hassle. GEMS and Motec make implant ecus that you could use, but an Apex-i power FC would probably be the easiest and cheapest plug and play. There wasn't a UK STI or WRX of that year.