just got the blue beast

[bradleyb]

Well, after restraining myself for the past 2 years, I finally pulled the trigger and got the blue beast - STI with gold rims! In 2 weeks I have put 2k miles on the car and just can't wipe the ear to ear grin off my face - loving the torque and the AWD. I have got the car sliding on a few controlled corners so far and it is taking some getting used to the AWD pull. I am already getting used to the power and am feeling some mods in my near future - considering the Injen cold air and exhaust to get started. Howdy and unfortunately can't post a picture as cute as WRXSTIGIRL!

[EllinikoScooby]

Congrats on the purchase its a sweet ride, As for the intake you may wanna consider the APS piece first its top notch, second it matches your intake manifold.

[bigd]

welcome! congrats on the purchase. i've got a blue STi as well, its cool to wear the same color as the WRC car.. hehe

a few words on modding: do your research first, a lot of people mod their STi's and end up hurting performance.. you hit on (potentially) a couple tricky mods.

if you want to go with light engine tuning down the road you may want to stay away from intakes. the OEM intake actually breathes damn well. the STi accepts intakes quite well (unlike the WRX), but there's a hitch. with the stock ECU, the aftermarket intakes trick it into actually breathing more air than it is, causing it to run leaner, which is how you get more power (the STi runs pig rich to keep cool). engine management does this as well, so unless you get a UTEC or something thats completely tunable you're going to run too lean and end up with detonation and bad timing (you'll lose power). if you decide to go with a catback, you'll be fine, they'll sound cool but won't gain much in performance. the downpipe is where the restriction is.. if you decide to go with a turbo back (catback + downpipe) you'll need 1 or 2 things: if you go catless: a MIL eliminator from www.ponyexpressperformance.com and if you get highflow cats or go catless: you'll need to port the wastegate on your turbo to avoid boost creep. its not rocket science to do the work, but there's no way around it. if you remove the turbo yourself you can have it ported for about $50-70 labor. otherwise you pay for labor to remove/reinstall the turbo.

[WRXcelration]

+1 w/ bigd....well put

[bradleyb]

Thanks bigd for the advice! Thinking about going intake, downpipe, exhaust, ecutek at the same time. That said, I will be driving it stock for awhile to get used to the feel of the car - the biggest change over my Supra turbo is the AWD.... Can't wait to take it to Willow......

[bradleyb]

bigd, how much will the ecu make up for leaning out the car with the intake? The whole goal with my Supra was to try and lean out the car so that the electronics would respond and keep the injectors open longer. what do you think?

[BrianH]

congrats.

[bigd]

its not a problem if you get tunable engine management because you can adjust all of that stuff and compensate for an intake breathing more air than the computer perceives. (ie: either UTEC or AccessPort with the Tuner software- they're both the same price)

if you don't get EM, the intake will do its job.

if you do get engine management, theres a couple stages. the Cobb AccessPort is a piggyback system and works really well for a click and done setup, but its designed to use the OEM intake. if you want to get into the dangerous world of tuning fuel maps, etc or want ot have it professionally tuned, go with the Tuner software from Cobb (needs the AP first) or go straight to a UTEC. either one will give you full programmability.

if you lean the car out too much, it will detonate. thats bad. the car will see the problem, and adjust your timing to compensate for a "safer" environment.. that will hurt performance. be very very very careful when you start fooling with Air/Fuel Ratios (AFR) in the STi.


you can however, (instead of an aftermarket intake) do the "silencer delete".. do some searches for instructions, but you basically remove all the intake plumbing except for the air filter box. you hear the turbo more, and throttle response is slightly better.

[T0rque]

Congrats have fun!

[bradleyb]

thanks guys, I am very much looking forward to beginning the learning experience on here as I did when I got my Supra years ago! and the potential of the STI for the "fun factor" is just so hard to match

What clubs are popular out there for some "track action" - organized STI motoring? Can't wait to take this bad boy to the track!

[WRC_Obsessed]

Welcome!! Looks like you will have a lot of fun times in front of you.