330s
 

hi i have just put my deposit down on a 09 330s im totaly new to scoobys and i know nothing about them so wondering how the 330s differs to the standerd sti... is it just an sti with the ppp also ive seen alot off bad news on here regarding engin failers and i realy do not want this to be happening to me.. what are the best way of preventing this from happening?? and are the 330s more prone to this as they are modded versions of the sti??.. also in the near future i intend to maybe do a few further mods.. what are the 09 sti capable of with standard turbo and internals??
many thanx Alex

Hi Alex and welcome. Good choice of scoob no matter what others say :-) . I'm not sure about the differences between the standard STI and the 330s apart from more toys in the cabin and a remap to 330 along with a different exhaust and 18 inch wheels. The weak point of the engine appears to be the piston ringlands, which fracture. Whether this will happen to your engine or not is pot luck, some go on forever, some go at 10k. I believe a tweak to the map (on the original) lessened the chances of a failure, but didn't stop it happening completely. If I were you, I'd look to drop in a forged bottom end (or pistons at a minimum) and run it on VPower or Momentum, then you should be good for high 300s, if not more. Have a look on the 80/09 hatches thread in the members gallery, you'll find more knowledgeable people in there.

To be totally honest mate you need to be prepared to 1. Have some engine work done i.e. forged pistons,uprated head gasket and head bolts.( Will cost a lot more if it fails first.) Or 2. Go and try a get some of your deposit back.

They are the only two scenarios I would entertain for the 330 or any other 2.5 to be honest, and most on here will probably agree.

forged internals on a standard car thats just stupid and will cost £1000s i run my car on v.power religiously.. i have seen plenty of theese with over 5ok miles some with 80+ k miles so they surley cant be that bad ??

The problem here is you don't know how its been used prior to your ownership, the problem could well be there already, I have rebuilt dozens of Hatch 2.5's one with only 7000 miles on with ringland failure, yes there are cars out there with big mileages on, usually sat on a motorway all day with no load applied to the engine, the bottom line is, it will eventually fail a ringland, fact, its just when.

As above go into 2.5 ownership with eyes open. I quite fancy a hatch but I'm surprised how they are holding value in the circumstances.

Remap would be my advice, had my old hatch done at 10k for piece of mind and sold at 30k+ and did not miss a beat, great cars.

you say you have re-built dozens.. what sort of price are you looking for a forged bottem end ?