I'm not really sure I would class my car as a project car, however I will be very slowly modifying it so this will be a thread to share a very slow project.

I found my car at the beginning of July after a few weeks of looking, a red 53 plate blob eye WRX with PPP.

It came with the following fitted.
Bola B1 18x8.5 alloy wheels
Tein lowering springs
J Performance cat back exhaust
Cheap Chinese dump valve
Cheap Chinese induction kit
Poorly wrapped carbon fibre vinyl bonnet scoop.
Tim Boost gauge.

I got the car home and was grinning ear to ear.

Tracking was done the next day as the steering was pulling me right.

Within the first week the air filter on the induction kit fell in half and I got a cel light to let me know the car was running to lean, I changed the filter and it has been ok since. It will have the air box back on when the car gets serviced at the end of this month.

Everything was good for a few days and then I started to experience a loss of boost, I rang a so called specialist who told me it was because I had used BP Ultimate and not V Power, I didn't believe this for a second so started looking for a boost leak, I fitted an OEM recirc valve and was straight back up to 1 bar of boost still running on the BP ultimate.

Since then I have:

Changed the AUX belts as the powering steering belt shredded all over the engine bay.

Got hold of stereo brackets and fitted a cheap pioneer head unit and single din storage pocket.

Found Paul at xtreme scoobies who has replaced my front o/s cv boots that where both split.

Attended my first meet with ESOC.

Booked an activity day for me and the scoob at north weald airfield.

Booked a cambelt, air filter and oil change in at Extreme scoobies.

 

To be fair the garage ws right, you shouldn't use bp ultimate on your car anyway....

 

Indeed. Seems the car runs fine on it for now, but best to change to either vPower or Tesco Momentum 99. Both are 99ron and perfect for our cars. I thought BP Ultimate would be ok until it was pointed out to me by several people on here.

It'll be interesting to see this car go through it's changes your doing, so good luck!

 

Ok, so I fully understand that Shell is best and it definitely makes the horses come out and play.

But is the use of other fuel enough to induce full retard? No. This was clearly not the case for me.

And if you think back 12 years to when my car would have been new... Was the quality of shell back then the same as it is now? No. So if my car was incapable of running on anything less then today's Shell v power nitro plus wouldn't Subaru have encountered many a complaint 12 years ago?

I do normally use v power though.

 

Yeah I normally use V power anyway.

Cheers, I'll see how I get on at my first track day and then decide what area of the car to tackle first.

I have sorted a few bits out for the interior for now and will get some pics up tomorrow.

 

V power was introduced in 2004, rebranded from optimax at 98ron, and I believe 98ron is the minimum for a uk impreza. So BP at 97ron is too low either way, its okay to go higher without a map, but not lower....

Unless you are luck enough to live in the vicinity ofthe 6 BP stations that are selling 102ron race fuel!

 

I can't find anything higher than 98RON here in Belfast since Shell disappeared. I'm almost sure they sold 99RON, I always ran my bikes on it.

 

Wow loads of info, thanks mate that definitely clears that up.

 

I received some goodies for my interior yesterday thanks to Funky power and Tegiwa.




Nardi deep corn 350mm leather steering wheel<br/>HKB Boss<br/>400mm Broadway convex





Buddy club type a gear ****

I did order the wrong boss though so I won't be able to fit the wheel just yet.

 

Also my silver trim for the centre of the dash was looking very worn with deep scratches and cuts. So I removed all the silver bits of trim from the car. filled scratches with plastic weld, sanded smooth and dropped it all in to be sprayed at a body shop close by.

Colour is matched fairly well to the original but is more metallic and has been lacquered so it is nice and glossy instead of a Matt finish. Which is just what I asked for








Also took this opportunity to fit my red JDM Hazard switch.





Even Luke approves 😺

 

Had my cambelt and oil changed yesterday. Also stock air box went on with a green cotton air filter.

And my new seats arrived today.





Ordered from gsm but a bit disappointed as one came with the wrong mounting plate and the other was missing, so won't be able to fit them yet

I'm still waiting for my boss from Tegiwa but they forewarned me it would be a couple of weeks.

 

a lot of new parts to be installed. im excited to see the outcome of this project