FAO Anyone with mods: Advice sought
 

Hi all,

I'm thinking of making my Scooby a bit quicker. :norty: I'm thinking along the lines of full Decat and maybe a Ecutek 3 remap. I don't want daft power, just a reasonable increase right across the rev range with no loss of the cars civility or drivability. However, I'm very worried about the impact of such mods on reliability and the durability of the car. I need it to remain completely reliable and last the duration. It's an MY99 with just a H&S backbox at the moment. It's a really spotless car with very little mileage, thus I'm keen not to break it.

I know a lot of you have long-standing experience of mods. Anyone had the above kind of set up for a few years and care to comment on their experiences. Any advice? :)

Thanks and best wishes,

Those mods are more or less exactly what mine has....no less reliable, much nicer ownership prospect. If the tek3 and associated mods hadn't made the difference they did, I'd have sold the car.

Micared- Really, why's that mate?

When you say better ownership prospect, what do you mean and -if you don't mind me asking- how much did the work cost you? How long have you had the mods on for? Feel free to PM me if you don't want to make that public information.:-)

Best

The tek3 was, iirc, about £700 give or take, from Bob Rawle. I also purchased from him an sti panel filter which is generally regarded as one of the best on the market. I'd previously fitted a scoobysport/janspeed type uppipe and downpipe, which did improve things on their own. Think they were about £400 new. The car's had this stuff on for about 10 months now. What I mean by much nicer ownership prospect is that I was disappointed with the lack of performance when I first bought the car. I had a lightly modded corrado vr6 prior to buying the scoob, and it made the subaru feel slow by comparison. On paper the scoob is the quicker car, on the road it never felt it. Tek3 makes a huge difference to the driveability, like night and day on mine ( MY00 ), and had the added benefit of doing away with the irritation of the crap ecu on that model year.

It gets stupid when you start changing turbos. Don't do that and you'll keep reasonably sensible.

And slow. Just don't drive a car with a big turbo or big engine, you'll be doomed.

IMHO only, but don't you think the car will be 'faster' if the chassis is tweeked first?

Whiteline roll bars, some good springs, some neg camber, a wizzo alignment job and the best tyres you can get?

Civility (a Scooby?) and reliability are still there, and the car will be much quicker across country and a safer one also.
Then, take heed of John Banks, it gets weird after that and the chase for 400 bhp..
which the chassis can cope with!

911 :norty:

911- Point taken mate, I think the chassis could easily cope with the kind of output I'm going for. I'm only looking to restore what the Emissions rules have taken away I'd be happy with around PPP type power I think....well maybe a tad more! ;-)

I was thinking about getting the brakes attended to though, as I don't think they're up to much punishment. The standard 4 pot calipers seem strong enough, but a decent set of pads and some vented discs would do much to improve the situation I think. I was also thinking of a lazer allignment check- heard very good things abou it! :-)

Best.

Yes, sensible approach.
Traffic light grande prix's are ok for boy racing, but the real speed of the Impreza is the ability yo cover all roads so effectively.
A pad change (and new front discs if you can) will make a big difference if the pads are really good (expensive).

Good luck,

911