Forester STI - new purchase
 

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.sco...8df57093c7.jpg
Hey everyone,
Relative newbie (back again).
After quite a while of on-off, will I - won't I, decision making, I am happy to say I've recently purchased an 05 Forester STI, and I am very pleased!

It has a little light cosmetic damage which will be a straight forward fix, and apart from a KN panel filter it is totally standard. So obviously I plan on gently modding it with the usual stuff (exhaust, map, suspension maybe).

I've been flicking through previous threads regarding the exhaust, but would just like a bit more info/advice if possible:

I like the HKS Silent Hi-Power setup, but would this fit with a H & S centre section? HKS don't seem to do a centre pipe for the Forester.
Failing that, I've looked at turbo back systems, but the cost of a sports Cat is putting me off. I notice several people have said it is not much better than the standard Cat, so if that is the case, would I be better off sticking to the mid and tail section, or going the whole de-Cat route and try to find a "friendly" MOT tester in the Cambridge area (wink wink).

Any advice would be greatfully recieved, thankyou.
P.S Apologies for the HUGE pictures.
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.sco...29ff991c40.jpg

Welcome :)

Thankyou.

What plans do you have, keeping it OEM or modding it?

BTW - Love the Forester :)

No idea about the answers to your questions, but that is a very nice Forester.

Just likely to do the basics at first, then see how things go.
When the cosmetic stuff is done it will look even better. Thanks.

Welcome back :thumb: like alot, good colour, enjoy ownership.

great reg :D

Thanks. Thought about black or white, but think I made the right choice.

Welcome back! I've had Subaru's for over 10 years now and currently drive a FSTI daily. Just great cars.


My last Subaru was crystal grey, yours looks lovely.


Foz and Impreza exhausts are a little different and I've tried a few options on mine now before settling with the current setup.


I started with OEM downpipe & OEM 2nd decat pipe, forester H&S resonated centre pipe & STI genome forester rear box.


I then fitted a prodrive sports cat downpipe (which bolted straight on) and had to have the 2nd decat pipe shortened by 4" to mate to the forester H&S centre pipe.


Then I went all out and bought an Impreza TSL de-resonated centre pipe and impreza TSL group N back box. To fit these I've had to make the centre pipe 4" longer (the irony) and the tailpipe 2" longer and change the hangers a little.


So the moral of the story is that you can fit an Impreza full system to the forester, but you'll have to make the tailpipe longer so it exits the rear bumper, put longer hanger rubbers on the rear box and mod the centre hanger a little.

To be honest, I don't really want to be messing around too much. Once I've got a pipe I just want it to fit.
Decided to go for the HKS Hi-Power Silent system, but finding anywhere with them in stock is proving nigh on impossible. Then going to add a centre pipe afterwards.

"I then fitted a prodrive sports cat downpipe (which bolted straight on) and had to have the 2nd decat pipe shortened by 4" to mate to the forester H&S centre pipe.".......I didn't realise there were 2 Cats??

There aren't unless you are fitting a newage wrx sti prodrive exhaust downpipe (STi forester 3 part exhaust similar to Classic impreza) which puts the "donut" joint in a different location (4" different)

Nice foz :thumb: I have fitted a Fujitsubo cat back to mine and plan on adding a prodrive cat once i have it mapped.

I always used to see a lady driving this in Southport, always at Tescos.

Haha, spot on! I picked it up a week or so back, from a bloke in Southport. Good price too!

At least you know it hasn't been ragged around by a boy racer lol.
I can see why you want an exhaust on it though, it was very quiet (as was my Widetrack STi with standard system).

It actually ruins the enjoyment of having a scoob, no one said it needs to be the ear bleeding but in the fozzie you cant hear it at all!

You should have gone to the below just outside Southport to get a custom built system:

http://www.pipewerxcars.com/

Oh Bugger!
 

Well, all seemed to be going nice and smoothly with the new motor. Was in the process of deciding which mods to go for and where to get the mapping done.
Then, purely by chance, found out that Zen Performance are located about 15mins away from me, so decided to pop in and introduce myself (as they seem to have a very good reputation).
The guys down there couldn't have been friendlier, and Richard even offered to go out for a quick spin with me and his laptop to do a quick check of things before doing anything else. Thats where "smoothly" ended. Turns out the car that I bought a couple of weeks ago has some mangled bearings :(

Options given to me were:

1. Put it back together, knowing that it would fail at some point, and/or sell it on (not my style)
2. Do a rebuild using mostly stock parts.
3. Do a rebuild with forged parts and try not to cry at the expense of it.

So, after a bit of a think about future plans, I've decided to go down the forged route. Not hugely happy, but a little pragmatic as well, knowing that I would have probably wanted or needed to do it at some point anyway.

Anyway, all the work is going to be done by Richard at Zen, so looking forward to seeing how it progresses.


P.S. Anyone want to buy a motorbike and kit........I could do with some cash:lol1:

Gutted for you . Have you got any comeback from the original seller?
At least you're in good hands with Zen. My Legacy was in there last week and I was really impressed with Richard.

Probably no point talking to seller. He described the rest of it pretty honestly, and we took it out for a good drive and nothing obvious was there (to me anyway, someone with more experience of Sti engines may have noticed the lower power). Was only once connected up to the laptop that an issue came up (something to do with oil pressure and pulleys) and then once the sump was taken off to find lots of really tiny shiny bits :(

Life can be a nut kicker sometimes!. sorry to hear about your car.

Good decision to go forged, you can look forward to having a car thats going to be joy to own, and peace of mind for adding future mods.

good luck

Ray

Thanks ray54. Once I get over the initial trepidation I'm sure I'll be looking forward to the new setup.

Cambs_stuart....nice Blitzen! I had an 05 model Blitzen in silver. Lovely car, great drive.

Gutted for you mate, but on the bright side you'll have an amazing car once this is done!

Same crappy 2.5 in them which is what put me off. Closed deck, rods, pistons and headstuds and then your set

Gutted for you, it seemed quite a genuine advert/sale?

TheWaterboy, yes all seemed genuine. Like I said, we hook it out for a drive and no obvious issues that I could tell.....

.....it gets worse!!

Turns out the turbo is about shot too!! Even Richard@Zen didn't realise until it got taken off in the engine strip down. Because of the original issue the turbo was never at full boost, so it didn't present as having any problems. So now looking for another turbo as well ��