ScoobyNet.com - Subaru Enthusiast Forum - Fast Hatch to Mega Fast Hatch enginetuner style!!

I have owned my Subaru Impreza STI Type UK Hatchback now since June 2008. It was my first subaru after owning a number of "hot hatches" incuding a clio 182 and focus st. I always wanted a 4wd car but was never really a fan of the shape of evo's or subaru impreza's. So after waiting years for a 4wd focus rs that never arrived. The impreza hatchback seemed to be the perfect choice.

I would now love to show a load of pictures of when I first purchased the car, but a broken hard drive with no backup has made that impossible. :cry:

Within a few months of ownership, I soon got the modifying bug. First up was a prodrive performance pack which took the standard 300bhp car up to 330bhp with a load more torque.
I then wanted more and more power but at the same time it was becoming clear that there could be a major problem brewing. On the american forums there were many people reporting broken piston ringlands.
It then came to light that it was a major widespread problem that we now all know about :nono:
This made me look at my options, either I get rid of the car I have always wanted with no real alternative on the market in its price bracket, or I get this problem fixed.
I looked around and came across enginetuner. They were fairly local in comparison to other respected tuners on this forum. So I soon made contact with Alan and relayed my concerns about my chocolate pistons. He was full of information and invited me up to the garage to take a look around with no obligation whatsoever. After a full tour of the garage including engine workshop and dyno room. We sat down and discussed my options over a cup of tea. He suggested I have my engine forged with wiseco pistons and H-beam rods. Along with a new rcm oil pump, acl bearings, arp headstuds, cosworth gaskets and cosworth baffled sump. Alan said that along with a remap from Martyn this would give me my peace of mind back, with plenty of potential for bigger turbos and other mods in the future. It was a no-brainer for me, a few days later I left the car in their capable hands and drove off in one of their courtesy cars.
Fast forward a few weeks and I am back picking it up. Time to run it in, a base map installed and Alan has done the first 50 miles. So I have 950 miles to go until Martyn works his magic on the ecu. This didn't take long before I was back up to plymouth itching for the final remap. Before remapping a new hayward and scott exhaust and AEM caik was installed.
The result 355bhp/360ftlb

I was happy with the power for now and wasnt scared to use it anymore. So I turned my attention to handling.
A visit to litchfield imports resulted in full handling setup from their famous type 20 hatch. Including AST coilovers, whiteline bushes, front and rear arb's, front strut brace, and much lighter than standard rota g-force alloys with some new rubber. They then spent several hours getting the alignment absolutely spot on.

It was then service time and I ended up back at enginetuner. This for me always ends up being more expensive than it should be. Alan and Martyn are always keen to let you know what projects they are working on. Which makes you hungry for that next power hike!
Whilst doing the service and fitting my car with more suitable performance friction disks and pads. Martyn gave me some ideas for the next step. Which included a SC46 billet turbo, Cosworth front mount intercooler, ECUTEK 800cc injectors, bosch fuel pump with swirl pot, perrin intake, catch tank and a helix organic clutch. The plan was to get more power but keep the engine within its safe limits. So the target was set at 450bhp with similar torque. Once again I couldn't resist and left the car with enginetuner.

A few weeks later after a few problems getting certain parts I got the anticipated phone call to pick her back up. Here was the result

http://i1308.photobucket.com/albums/...ps2561adf9.jpg

The blue line is on straight vpower @ just under 1.5bar. The red line is my original graph from the standard car with ppp map.

A couple of months later and ecutek had released RaceRom for my car. This allowed me to have dual switchable maps, flat foot shifting, auto-blip on downshift and launch control. So off I went to plymouth again :)
This time I asked Martyn to do an 8% methanol map as my 2nd map on racerom. Why 8% you ask? Well for ease of use. 1x5ltr jerry can of methanol to a 60 litre tank.
The result was amazing 495bhp and over 500ftlb of torque @ 1.6bar (can't find the graph)
Here are some pictures of the car just before japfest 2011

http://i1308.photobucket.com/albums/...ps72473bb4.jpg
http://i1308.photobucket.com/albums/...psf53e0252.jpg
http://i1308.photobucket.com/albums/...ps686f7fab.jpg
http://i1308.photobucket.com/albums/...ps832bf32b.jpg

My car has now done just under 40000 miles and over 25000 miles on the forged engine. It hasnt skipped a beat and is a daily driver for me and the missus. Other than the oil every 3000 miles, nothing has been changed on this car for nearly 2 years.

This brings us to this new project :norty:
The car is now 4 years old and considering I havn't kept any car thats more than 2 years old its done well to keep me occupied. I started looking around to see what car might take my fancy. I literally couldnt find anything in its bracket for practicality, power and all out fun. Maybe I didn't look in the right place but can anyone find a 5 door hatchback with 400-500bhp, 4wd and still does 30mpg on a long run?
So thanks to top gear and mr. clarkson revealing to my wife that the impreza wouldn't be available in the uk anymore. She told me it might be an idea to keep it and maybe spend some money on improving it even further. Who am I to argue with the missus? :luvlove:

So last week I once again contacted Alan Jeffery @ enginetuner and told him that my missus wanted me to give him all my money. Funnily enough he obliged and invited me up. I had another tour of the garage and another cup of tea, while discussing the latest developments and seeing yet another forged hatchback flying out the door. Once again I was to leave my car at enginetuner. This time no courtesy car available to get home because they are so busy nowadays. No problem Alan said, I will give you a lift. Thats right, chauffeur driven 75 miles home by Mr. Jeffery himself.
I'm not going to reveal the whole spec of this new project straight away.
But we both agreed that the ej257 was at serious risk if we wanted to go higher than 500bhp so that will be coming out.
It's replacement an ej22 strokered to 2.35 :norty:
With the help of Alan and some pictures I hope to keep this thread updated stage by stage.
Thanks for reading.