Anyone in the market for an S204
 

My mate Baz asked me earlier if I knew anyone who'd be interested in his friends car which he's put up for sale.

http://www.appreciating-classics.com/car/subaru-s204/

Yeah that's very nice
I'd be interested if still on market in a few month

Anyone know this car?


Is the price about right?


It does look like a nice example.

Considering the mileage that is in immaculate condition! I like the carbon seats..... if I only had a spare 20k

Yes belongs to a member on here, nice genuine car with a good enthusiast owner.

I believe he gave it to them to sell on his behalf to avoid the hassle and tyre kickers.

Buy with confidence. :thumb:

edit to add; There is a thread on here about it somewhere or it gets mentioned (other than this one) I don't think the owner comes on here much.

If I didn't have a scoob I would have defo bought it one of the best examples I've seen to be honest, there's a s203 that's on for nearly £17k which has been hailstone damaged then repaired, its been paid out on the business insurance so car is still hip clear :confused:

The s204 looks a gem mate:thumb:

Have you read the advert properly?
It's had an engine rebuilt due to a cracked piston.
These cars have blueprinted engines from factory, I doubt the engine builder has built the engine with exactly the same tolerances as the factory.
The question I'd ask, why did the engine blow? It could be anything from bad maintenance to a failed sensor but if I were to pay 21k for a car I'd want the original engine from factory especially for such a limited edition model.
The car is way overpriced IMHO, Torque GT show indicative prices for S204 imported with similar mileage for £16k.

No just seen the pics:eek: that might be worse than hailstones...

:thumb:

About the engine rebuild. That's one way to look at it. The other way is that after 80 odd k miles the factory level of tolerance would have worn (as all engines do) and be long gone, so a full rebuild and refresh could be a good thing! Depending on the quality of the work done of course.

It's running 331 hp so must have been mapped and it's not impossible that somebody punched a piston in that process.

Or ran it on sh%t fuel.

The knock sensor should retard the ignition advance when knock is detected to prevent damage happening although I wouldn't do this test!

I hear what you say but I'd want details about the engine rebuilt, and I'd want to make sure all the correct STi parts have been used.
S204s run 320ps from factory.

knock sensor can only retard a max. pre-set amount its isn't infinite, not uncommon for the JDM cars to not cope with UK fuel due to the aggressive ignition maps they run
we have re-built various JDM STi's due to them using Hyperpeutic pistons and not failing in the same way the later 2.5 engines do......

I know of at least two Forester STis running OEM maps (on Shell V-power Nitro) for more than 60k miles without problems.

It's not something I'd risk personally though.

Interesting. What was the cause of failure in the ones you have rebuilt? Seems that JDM engines are not as bulletproof as it seems then or?

I don't know where the legend of blueprint engines in limited edition models comes from as it's total twaddle just used by some to sell imported cars in the past.

I'd want the original engine untouched / unopened if it were me, originality is everything on these limited edition cars.

Cannon, it's not legend, S203/S204 DO have blueprinted engines.
I read this in the STi site a long time ago.
I am sure Don will be able to help :D

Edit: found link: http://sti.jp/s204/technicalnote/engine.html

"Similarly to S203, adopting a dedicated large-diameter twin scroll turbo (ball bearing) realized a sense of power in the medium and high speed range without sacrificing low speed range. Especially emphasis on transient characteristics, we picked up a fancy pickup from low speed and demonstrated high torque throughout. As a result of paying attention to the acceleration feeling obtained by accelerator on from the sixth cruise, the peak torque increased as compared with S203. In addition, weight balance adjustment was applied to the inner parts of the rotating parts of the engine, realizing a comfortable rise feeling feeling.

In order to equalize the weight of the piston and the connecting rod, it weighs and selects manually. The crankshaft re-weighs the balance amount of the manufactured crank and adjusts and finishes it manually. As a result, it is possible to obtain a pleasant smooth engine rotation and to improve the durability during continuous high load operation.

This is the same content as the motor sports engine assembled by STI. "

By the way these cars run a sports catalyst from factory it seems so all they need is a UK map.

"While maintaining the exhaust gas purification performance, the ventilation resistance of the catalyst main body is reduced and the exhaust efficiency is improved."

I'd be interested to see the information.

Check above, post edited :)

I stand corrected, being repaired still devalues the car in my mind though given what you've posted above. :)

Agreed.

For clarity, this being my car, the engine wasn't rebuilt, it has a brand new replacement JDM shortblock.

I agree it would of been best all round, especially for my wallet if the engine hadn't needed fixing but sometimes life deals you a sh!t hand!

More info on this thread if you guys are interested.

https://www.scoobynet.com/1041800-s204-2.html

PS. You will not import a S204, or S203 for anywhere near 16k! This will be the auction price. An equivalent car to mine, similar miles etc will be 2 million YEN absolute minimum at auction, probably a bit more now. This equates to over 23k landed before servicing, registration etc.

All this says is the bottom end is balanced from factory, any decent engine builder should be able to balance an engine anyway so wouldnt make any difference imo as long as it was done after rebuild.