I am on my third scooby now all wagons (I have a thing for them).

The last time I had a scooby I was in a crash (not my fault, dosey mercedes driver) and my right ankle got damaged, so now I have to drive a automatic car, at least for the next couple of years.

After that I should be able to go back to manual which will mean a 6 speed box.

My current car is a 1994 WRX automatic wagon.

But for now my aim is to deal with the handling and look of the car but with a reliable engine.

My car has 100000 miles on the clock and I feel will need a rebuild soon just for peace of mind.

When I bought the car, lets call my car Jazz (after my first dog who looked a bit like scooby doo), The car was standard apart from from yellow stuff pads and a 2.5 decatted exhaust system, turbo back. However I have always had facelift models and so I have set about changing bits over to make it more like I wanted it, I have changed the whole front end to a facelift one and the steering wheel also, I have just bought a set of P1 17 inch alloys and a set of 4 pot brembo brakes which will go on soon.

I have fitted a set of front and rear alloy droplinks from API .

After thinking about what I need I guess the main thing is reliability and being able to go around a track 3 times a year and know the car will remain in one piece. So if I had a well mapped car with the opportuninty to expand should i want to that would be my plan. I am not after 500bhp, 350 to 400 would do me fine as long as I can keep it reliable. So I feel the main things are Forged piston and rods and a good rebuild so I know that all is good in the bottom end, also factor in the fact that this is not my main car and will be used minimally so 3000 miles a year maybe ambitious. I would like to add a mapable ecu and a set of bc coilovers. Things like anti lift kit etc that is fairly cheap can be added from month to month as needed however more expensive things would need to be done first and the most expensive is the engine so thats my main focus.

I dont need to go over the top but you see where I am coming from.

I would like a td05 and am wondering if I fitted this and had a ecu fitted and a refresh of a few pipes and top end bits if the engine would be ok but it does have 100k on it. I would like a fmic but would prefer a sti 8 tmic , as I like the look.

I basically want a car the runs as efficiently and well as possible but has enough power to be fun.

I dont have a endless anount of cash, but I will have enough to sort the engine out so now is the time to do it properly, if needed I can stay with the td04 turbo and there maybe other things I can cut back on but I dont want to compromise on the block.

Any help is much appreciated.

Wayne

 

I forgot to mention

I have fitted sti rear lamps.

I also have a STI type steering rack which I would like to fit.

 

I might be mistaken but I have worked on 4 auto wrx 's over the last 2 years and think you will struggle to get 400 bhp out of the auto box. I had a legacy gt which was running 300 bhp and the gearbox let go shortly after I upped the power. Also depending on which ecu you fit , you may find it not compatible with the gearbox, as even a Z4 out of a manual will work but throw up a gearbox fault code on start up.
I am doing another td04 swap to a td05 on another wrx automatic wagon on Monday morning(5th one) with some good supporting mods and I would expect it to hit around 260 - 280 bhp. Forging the engine will be good, but even a manual box can die after 350 bhp and they can take more than there auto counterparts. Your engine will take the power when it is forged, but the torque will kill your gearbox. Imho

 

I am aiming for around 320 bhp until I replace the gearbox but will settle for 300 bhp if needed , my main thing is reliability and fun. I want it to drive and handle well. Thanks for the advice. Is there anyway to strengthen the gearbox? Is the gearbox actually ok but its the torque converter that suffers? Or is it the clutch plate that slips?

 

Hi mate ,i have not tried to strengthen the box,as they have all been my mates cars,and out of the previous 4 cars,I have had 1 where the torque converter went into meltdown . You can try an apexi fc ecu with commander,but this does not work on all autos as some cars simply would not start with this plugged in and others would . 300 bhp should be fine ,but you may still get a gearbox fault code flash up when you start it up,but this tends to disappear after 20 seconds.I have fitted Z4 ecus in the past ,but the lad on monday wants a little more than 260 bhp ,so he has purchased the ecu below in a hope that it will work and get him there without killing the auto box . I will let you know how he gets on on monday evening.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...=STRK:MEWAX:IT

 

I am going to use a simtek or hks etc ecu so even if I rebuilt the engine in standard form it will perfom well the trick will be how the power goes through the gearbox, I know my auto has a separate ecu controlling it so maybe that can be mapped in some way.

Look forward to hearing how it goes.