TheLadiesMan's Grim Reaper Ride

[TheLadiesMan]

[CENTER]

"TheLadiesMan's" 2005 Subaru Impreza WRX STi

Table of Contents

Update 1: Car gets towed to Precision Tuning.
Update 2: Visit to the Shop and discuss our direction.
Update 3: Bad News & Good News
Update 4: FINALLY ITS BACK!!


___________Current Mod List__________

Engine
Hydra 2.6 EMS
Manley Turbo-Tuff Rods
Manley 8.5:1 Pistons
Cosworth High Volume Oil Pump
Cosworth Heads
Cosworth 278/274 Cams
ARP Head Studs
Garret GT3582R .82 A/R
Perrin Equal-Length Header
PT Custom Downpipe
Perrin Up-Pipe
Tial 44mm External Wastegate
COBB Tuning 3" Cat-Back
Aquamist HFS-5 Meth Injection
Perrin Front Mount Intercooler
Perrin Blow-Thru Boost Tube
Perrin Intake
Perrin Fuel Rails
Power Enterprise 850cc Injectors
Walbro 255lph Fuel Pump
JDM Subaru TGV Deletes
Cusco Motor & Trans Mounts
GReddy Type-R BOV


Cooling
PWR Aluminium Radiator w/ STI Rad Cap
Samco Radiator Hoses

Suspension
JDM STi Titanium Strut Bar
Perrin PSRS Mounts

Drivetrain
ACT HD Pressure Plate w/ 6-Puck Unsprung Disc
Agency Power SS Braided Clutch Line

Brakes
iRotors Drilled/Slotted Rotors
EBC "Yellow" Brake Pads

Wheels/tires
SSR Professor MS1 18x8.5 (F +47)(R +43)
Falken Azenis 615 255/40/18

Interior
Bride Gias Seats w/ Brackets
GReddy Profec B Spec II
Apex'i Auto Timer w/ HKS Harness
Defi Red Racer Boost & Oil Pressure Gauges
Autometer 2 Pod Cluster Bezel
Factory Short Shifter
JVC 7" In-Dash Touch Screen
Full Alpine + HiFonics Sound System
Sirius Satellite Radio

Exterior
Cleared Headlights
Lightwerkz Angel Eyes
WRX Trunk and Hood Scoop Swap



______________________________ ________________________

August of 2006. I had been researching what car to get for the last couple months. They weren't actually cars I expected to get but I still liked to dream. I had been looking at '03-'04 Mustang Cobras, 2.0l S2000s, and Evo 8s. In the end it came down to an S2000 which is cheaper and fun, but less practical and I already had a Miata at the time and didn't want another NA convertible. The STi was more expensive but more space, and more practical for all year round.



I purchased the car used from a Honda dealership in August of 2006. The car had 36k miles on it and needed brakes all around but otherwise was in good condition. My beautiful '98 Impreza 2.5RS was traded in towards this so that was the last time I got to see it. All the sales people at the dealership kept looking at it. When we sealed the deal for the STi, I walked outside to call work and let them know I'd be a little late. And I took a moment to get one last look at my 2.5RS. I did a lot of crazy shit with and in that car. My friends have great memories of it to.



August 2006 - March 2007. As usual I did not intend to mod the car cause it had some warranty left on it. But like always, I could not escape the bug. The first mod was a AEM CAI, 1 month after I bought the car. That was followed by a COBB Cat-Back after another month had passed. This exhaust is still on the car today. A few months after that I bought a COBB catted downpipe to finish the exhaust and v2 Accessport for the Stage 2 map. Last thing was the seats. I did not like the factory seats cause they had no bolstering which is necessary in a car like this. I picked up a pair of used replica Bride Brix 2s off of a dude in Brooklyn, NY. My friend and I drove out there to pick them up. He ended up having a gorgeous GC8 with a JDM 2.0l STi swap, full STi interior, STi Brembos, and a bunch of other crazy cool stuff. He was russian and said he regularly goes up to Canada to practice rallying on the frozen lakes. He was very nice and his car was awesome. I remember we met up at a big parking lot near his place, and he tells us to follow him, then busts a giant 4 wheel drift to make a u-turn in the pooring rain. My friend was in awe.

April of 2007. This was at a dyno day at Tune Time Performance I went to with my friends. At this time the car only had a AEM CAI, COBB TBE, and the Accessport v2 Stage 2 map. No ProTune. It pulled 282whp/279wtq on a hot day. I believe the low torque number in comparison to other pulls ive seen with similiar parts is because the map isn't designed for an intake. The HP number was right on but the torque was about 35ft/lbs lower then COBB's website pulls.







July - August 2007 During the summer I went to the Atco Raceway a few times with my friend Chris with his wife's Mustang Cobra. Best I could do with the hot days and my first time taking the car to the track was a 13.3 1/4 mile. I believe the trap speed was like 106 mph and 60' was a 2.00 on that run. Best 60' I could do was a 1.80. It was fun going down there. I had never been to Atco prior to that cause Englishtown Raceway is like 20 minutes from my house. But the drive down to Atco is very scenic and relaxing.




Late Greats Chevrolet Road Rally The other major event in August was a Late Greats Chevrolet Road Rally. I was driving and Chris was my co-driver. We decided to partake in this cause the starting line was at our job so we took the first half of the day off to represent. I had done the Pine Barrens Express Rally before in my '98 2.5RS but I decided to drop out half way/2 hours in because of mechanical issues. So this rally also ended up being very fun as we were making mistakes and I was driving like a mad man to make up time. I know a road rally is not about speed but I gotta make up time SOMEHOW. This was the most fun I'd had with the car yet. I was driving hard enough to get the EBC Yellow's heated up so they were squeelin like crazy coming to stops. Making spontaneous u-turns on the grass and road with the e-brake and what not. 2nd and 3rd place ended up coming down to the last stretch of road. A C5 Corvette and I literally raced from a light down the road where a cop popped up but we managed to pull into the finish area quickly. We took 2nd place only by 15 seconds behind 1st I believe, losing to a Father/Daughter team in a Triumph Spitfire. It was great fun and we ended up winning like $80 or so in gift certificates. I hope they do it again this year.



September of 2007 My birthday had recently passed and I had been researching and assembling an audio system for the car. I found the factory system to be lacking in the bass department which is a bummer since most of the music I listen to is dance/club music. In the end the system consisted of a JVC KW-AVX800 Headunit (bday present) with the JVC Sirius box, Alpine Type-R front components, and rear door speakers with an Alpine 1000w amp. Hi-Fonics 10" Sub in an Audio Integrations sub enclosure and a Hi-Fonics 600w Amp. And two Tsunami wiring kits (the big ones). I don't know much about audio as its not that big of a deal to me but I did the best research I could. I ended up making my own custom trunk enclosure in the spare tire area for the sub amp, cap, and junction blocks. It has 4 120mm blue LED computer case fans circulating air as I was concerned it would get too hot. The enclosure was covered in fabric and had a 14"x14" plexi-glass window to show off the 2 12" CCL blue lamps and the light up amp. This "simple" little boxed area took me forever to make as I had never done anything like this before and I did all the measurements, wood cutting, and fabric myself. The rest of the install I was assisted by my friend Frank. I thank him very much for staying up till 4 AM helping me get this done. In the end, the system is pretty good. It really shines when you watch movies though. It sounds like CRAZY good surround sound on certain movies, and the little 7" in-dash touch screen looks amazing to me.

What you can see in this picture is pretty self-explanatory.. The wiring isn't crazy $10,000 job clean but I did the best I could with the patience available lol.. The window is a bit dirty and scuffed up now cause it's been in the car over a year now and I would have to remove the window to clean the underside.. The top left picture is the Aquamist HFS-5 setup that Precision installs in November 08. Its hidden behind the subwoofer so you'd never see it. I have it setup so that when the headunit is turned off, all the stuff in the trunk gets turned off. Don't need all those fans and lights going if it isn't on now do we?



October of 2007 I had sold my precious '95 Miata during the summer. The money was put towards purchasing this Perrin GT3076R Kit, Perrin front mount, ACT Clutch, Perrin Header, Perrin Fuel Rails, the PE 850cc Injectors, PWR Radiator, and a bunch of other things. As usual the entire thing took forever because of waiting on parts. Perrin was in the middle of switching over to the new and improved 3" turbine housing. And the entire nation was on backorder for the ACT clutch kit for this car. Ended up with a 6 puck unsprung disc cause the idiot at Vivid Racing told me on the phone it was a full face disc. Viola.. It wasn't. Thanks. I had talked to Rich at Precision Tuning and listened to his suggestions on the setup. BTW the guys over there are great help and seem to run a great shop. So my friends and I got the car running at 2 AM of the day of the scheduled tune at Dynoflash/ICS. We had to wake up at 6 AM to start driving up there.



As a side note: While Al was tuning it, he commented that our install was very clean. He said he's seen installs done from shops across the country and said it was good in comparison and even on par with the installs seen at ICS. Even with us rushing to finish it up the night before. I'd like to thank my friends Chris and Frank for all the help with the install. I totally wouldn't have been able to do it without their help.









Dynoflash Tune. The car was dyno tuned for the whole new turbo setup at Dynoflash/ICS Performance. I HIGHLY suggest you DO NOT go there. The owner, George, of ICS seems like a good guy and I had a great time sitting at his shop listening to him. But Al is annoying. It took ALL day cause he said it wasn't boosting right and then broke my seat and told me to my face that it was like that when he got in. It wasn't cause hes a fat ass and he didn't know how to adjust the seat. This is the only video I have of the whole dyno tuning cause my friend is a retard. This isn't a full pull. He starts then lets off cause of some boost issue. At the end of the day the car pulled 404whp/403wtq at 20psi. Overall the day was a very memorable experience. Me and 3 other friends spent 14 hours sitting around at this place. But being in that environment.. A parking lot full of amazing machines. Watching a brand new RS4 and BMW M8 with CBE doing pulls down the traffic dense 2 lane roads. A supercharged Z06 do a burnout in the parking lot. George's own 600hp turbo M Coupe doing a burnout. It was awesome.







March of 2008. This year has been the worst year so far of my life for various reasons. So what better then to top it off with my engine blowing. And at the same time as me getting some sweet SSRs. Some stupid late night/early morning fun with a friend led to me busting the engine I guess. I found oil gushing out the turbo surge ports so it was sent to Blouch Turbo where I waited 2 weeks to find out it was fine and within factory specs. This lead to a compression and leak down test on the motor. Low numbers on the right side and a leak down test showed us air coming from the oil filler tube.



April - August 2008. A week before my 21st Bday and I got the car back.. It took WAAAAY longer then I expected or hoped for.. Ran into some problems along the way.. Amongst them, the heads turned out to be warped beyond repair. Car looks absolutely beautiful.. Already driven it about 140 miles on my first day having it back. It's a little rough around the edges but its not a final tune. The car does not have the Hydra, 35R, or Aquamist yet but they will hopefully be getting installed after the break-in period. The car sounds great.. Even without boost or high rpms it feels powerful.

Rich also mentioned he overheard my stereo system at some point and says its the best he's ever heard. The other guys agreed and Rich suggested I open up an audio shop lol. Rich's employee's apparently want me to install their systems. Not sure how true all this is but I can only go on what Rich told me.



November of 2008. Got the car back again.. This time with the extras. Car is making 480hp/430tq. The number seems a little low for the setup but I asked him to do a fairly conservative tune on it and my fuel setup is a major limiting factor. And because of the fuel issue, I can't really get the 35R into its sweet spot psi range. And because of that, I'm not taking full advantage of the cams. So this thing is really just waiting to be opened up. Rich and Cleo say there is another 20 or 30 horse left in it if I want to come back. But I'll keep it on the safe side this winter.

Regardless of the numbers, this thing HAULS. I think the number are understating it. As I mentioned previously, the old setup would have a surge of power at about 4k to 5k then would fall off. It really bothered me after awhile. Thankfully, that issue is gone. It pulls hard all the way to redline, and the wastegate dump really gives it that extra audible scream. Car idles and runs great, smooth just like a factory car. The only thing I have to do now is give it some time to warm up first. The Hydra does NOT like a cold engine so I just give it 5 or 10 minutes to idle, depending on the weather, before I drive off.

At some point in the future I'll do the dual Walbros and some bigger injectors.



December 2008 - June 2009. Car ran great and has been lots of fun. I had a part-time job during the winter and drove it too and from work perfectly fine. After being laid off from that job (seasonal crap) I was only able to drive the car once or twice a week because of gas. I did a trunk and hood scoop swap with an 05 OBP WRX with some local kids during the summer. They thought the car was very nice and couldn't wait to see me accelerate onto the highway lol. Gave an older Honda 999cc sport bike a run for its money on some back roads during the summer. Came to a stop sign and the guy pulled up along side with his buddy and gave compliments on the car. Said he was surprised when he pulled around to pass me but was almost unable to . He asked what was done to the car guessing it had a GT35R of some sort.

July - October 2009. After taking some pictures I felt that the 18 inch SSRs threw off the proportions of the car now with the WRX spoiler so I felt it was time for some new wheels in the size that I had originally wanted (17x9.5in). Also towards the end of summer as temperatures seemed to drop the car had a harder time with cold starts. It grew from the initial start, stall, start.. to 2 or 3 stalls then it ran fine. Hot starts were never a problem I don't think. I had also bought Crawford Performance Air/Oil Separator so I figured I should take the car down to Precision Tuning sometime soon to straighten all this out.

November 2009 - January 2010. Finally got around to bringing it to Precision. He was just going to take care of the little stuff as I longer really have a good place to work on the car and my own garage is barely big enough to fit the car in. Was also going to have him check out the cold start issue. When speaking to Rich he informed me that there was a possible manufacturing defect on some of the Manley wrist pins and he had an issue with one or two other customers engines going kaboom because of it. So he insisted this be taken care of and of course I did as well as I did not need that happening to my fresh motor. While Rich was dismantling the car he found the ACT 6-puck disc to be nearly done. I went down to the shop one day to see the motor ready to go in and see the clutch and decide what to do. I didn't like the jerkyness of the unsprung 6-puck and it wasnt what I originally wanted but ACT sorta forced it on me. We decided to replace it with an upgrade.. stronger plate I think and full face disc. Been so long since we discussed it I forgot the brand. One or two of his employees has been using the clutch on their own cars and they've been handling more power then my own car pretty well. During this time I managed to get my hands on some 17x9.5 +38 offset silver Enkei RPF1s from an Evo forum. After reading up a bit on fitting these I went ahead and bought them from the guy along with ARP extended wheel studs, new open ended slim lug nuts, matching locking lug nuts, and wheel spacers from other sources. The guy took forever to send the wheels but I eventually received them only to find that the tires were not as described (Like new). One had the steel belts showing on the inner tread and another tire had similar wear but to less of a degree. Immediately took photos of this and sent them to the seller asking for reimbursement for two new front tires. He proceeded to dick me around about money and Paypal but I gave him the benefit of the doubt. So that came around to screw me cause I replied to him again a week or two later and he has yet to respond. So stuck with buying two new tires. Brought all the stuff to Precision so they could put it all together.

February 2010. Rich has said that the car is back together and running and it seems the wheels are fitting as far as I know but I have not seen them on the car. The issue they are stuck on now is the cold start issue. Apparently the car is occasionally dumping fuel into cylinders which is causing it to flood, thus the hard starts. We talked over some options and eventually I figured what the hell, just do the do AN fuel lines, 1000cc injectors, and dual Walbro pumps. They are still having issues with it and cannot figure out what it is. I can't wait to get the car back as spring is slowly creeping up on us. I'm thinking of doing 2 piece rotors all around as they look like they need replacing, removing all the intercooler piping and having it re-powdercoated as its pretty torn up now from coolant on it or Precision grinding some off to weld on fittings and such. My friend also got a buffer and some pro level detailing stuff I guess so I'm hoping we can make the paint look real good come warmer weather. And might need to roll the fenders finally with these new wheels. Hoping to clean up some space in the garage to make it a little more usable and want to bring my tools back from from friends so I can start doing more tinkering. Still trying to sell the SSRs.. maybe I'll trade them for coil overs or something. The other issue is that my Nikon D40 fell off my desk sorta and cracked the screen. My jaw dropped from how it happened and that such a short fall did it.. I'm quite upset about that. I can hope that I sent it in for repairs and they can do something but I doubt that. Now I know to keep my camera in a padded safe on lock down.. sigh

[TheLadiesMan]

Reserve

[TheLadiesMan]

Reserve 2

[mxpunk]

should of swapped the RS.

[TheLadiesMan]

lol stfu I decided not to cause its an old crusty chassis. But if I ever have millions of dollars im definately ganna get another one.. version 6 the shit out of it.

tell me how to do the little post icon pick thing dammit..

[mxpunk]

fotobucket? i hear u on the crustyness..gc's are nice but everytime i ride in a gdb impreza it feels a hell of alot nicer and quieter. i remember going to the auto store over there in your hood and seeing this car in the parking lot, its clean!

nice car dude, sucks u had to be a retard and blow it up!

[TheLadiesMan]

lol I GUESS its clean.. The overall look is clean. Thats how I like my cars. But interms of details and actual cleanliness.. The car has muddy cat prints and big ass claw scratches on the hood now cause of the bitch where we have our "shop".

Point is: Don't look at the details

Like I said. Im hopefully going to put it back together and limp it home tomorrow if it runs and wash my baby.. Take some pics before who knows what happens next.

Edit: So you did come by that place when I was around? Hrmm.. Wonder who you were.. lol

[mxpunk]

i saw your car there before i knew you were on this forum. i ddidnt think an sti owner would frequent a website full of poor kids with rs's and L's .. lolol.

[TheLadiesMan]

Tsk tsk.. Avatar? Been here awhile.. Just never posted..

Plus dont get me wrong. I still LOVE GCs and GFs.. My god what I would do with either of them.. And if something happened to the current car like an accident and was forced to get rid of it. First thing id go for would be one of those two.

[TheLadiesMan]

Update

Todays goal was to limp the car from the garage where it was, to my house so I could figure out where to go from here and cause my friends g/fs mom is a stupid ho and said she wants all the cars out for no reason.

So I spent the first half of the day reassembling the car. When it was finally ready to be moved.. About a mile away from the garage I notice the temp gauge is skyrocketing. I decide to call it quits and pull over. It was time to decide whether this was going to be towed to my house where it would sit for who knows how long until we figured out how and where to fix it in the hopes of saving money on labor. Or, get it towed to the guys at Precision Tuning, 1 hour and maybe 30 miles away and have to pay for labor. We decided to go with the latter of the two.

Talked to Rich a bit. Their shop is very nice. I look forward to doing business with them.