My 1997 STI

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crzyone
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My 1997 STI

Post by crzyone »

So here is the GTRs replacement. It's no GTR, but that's kind of the point. Every time I got into my GTR I risked losing my licence and my job depends on having it. Plus now that I have a family it just isn't the car for me anymore.

In comes the STI. Japan imported, about 60k miles on it and nearly mint condition. I really like this car.

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These cars were rated at about 280hp due to the gentleman's agreement in Japan. All cars were restricted to 280 or less but many were much more. The STI was apparently around 300hp while cars like the GTRs were closer to 325. The 97 STI is only 2800lbs vs 3250 for a GTR. This car is physically much smaller and feels pretty nimble.

Of all the cars that were offered in trade to me, this is the only one I considered. I'm a huge fan of the show Initial D and this car is in it. The main characters father has one in the fourth season. It's the only car to flat out beat the main character in a race (due to his dad driving)

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So when I get my FD painted I will have 2 Initial D cars and I think that's pretty cool!

I will have to get a sound clip of the car. It sounds pretty badass. You definitely know when a Subaru with exhaust is in the area. The sound is unmistakable.
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Shaun41178(2)
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Re: My 1997 STI

Post by Shaun41178(2) »

you have to sit on the other side of the car to drive it? WTF. :-D

looks good. But why were these sti's rated higher hp than the USDM version? 2.5 liter still?
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crzyone
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Re: My 1997 STI

Post by crzyone »

The JDM STIs got the EJ20. Higher performance engine with forged internals and an 8000rpm redline. Guess they didn't think it would sell in Merica because the majority of people like more low end torque instead of high end power.
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Aaron
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Re: My 1997 STI

Post by Aaron »

Huh. I'm not a fan. But I'm glad you like it!
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crzyone
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Re: My 1997 STI

Post by crzyone »

What's not to be a fan of? It weighs as much as a fiero with 300hp and awd.

Thinking I should be able to massage 300whp out of it with its current parts and call it a day. Also going to buy some awesome studded winter tires and have some fun.

This type r also has DCCD. Too long to explain, manually controled center dif in short.
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Series8217
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Re: My 1997 STI

Post by Series8217 »

Awesome!

My housemate has a GC as well.

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Aaron
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Re: My 1997 STI

Post by Aaron »

No need to go into details, I'm just not a fan. Didn't particularly care for the Skyline though either. Drive what you like, that's why I drive an STi ass kicking Jeep ;)
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Re: My 1997 STI

Post by The Dark Side of Will »

Scoobies are cool. They do a better job at keeping their engines small, short in length and light weight than Audi does, despite having almost exactly the same driveline layout.

The strength of the 6 speed driveline and the ability of the engines to make power is undisputed. There's a lot of really good hardware and really good upgradability for very fair prices in the Subaru market.

That being said, I dig torque too much to make do with a 2.0.
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crzyone
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Re: My 1997 STI

Post by crzyone »

Funny thing is the EJ25 suffers from weak ring lands and blows it's self up at not much more than stock power levels. The EJ20 is a much stronger engine.

My car also has a 5 speed. I have to do some reading on it, see how strong it is. The later gen STIs have the 6 speed which is a stout transmission like you said.

So far my impression of this car is it's a good daily driver. It's not super quick stock but it does feel light weight and toss-able. I haven't driven it hard yet to feel out the AWD but I will. Have to make it to an auto x or road course to feel it out properly. I've been watching vids on the DCCD system and from what I see the car is actually faster around an auto x course with it in full lock. I didn't expect that, I thought it would suffer from major understeer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHZSgXXC2x8
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Re: My 1997 STI

Post by The Dark Side of Will »

I've heard interesting things about Subarus in terms of limited slip devices. I've heard claims that a helical front and open rear is faster on tarmac than open front and clutch pack rear, for example (obviously a lot of other factors at play in the setup). Tidbits like that could be very helpful for my Bad Idea BMW project, but good info is hard to find.
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Re: My 1997 STI

Post by CincinnatiFiero »

The two door STi, taking me back to my gran turismo 2 days!


Sweet car, I'm pretty sick of world rally blue but on a jdm 2 door car, its much more tolerable.
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crzyone
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Re: My 1997 STI

Post by crzyone »

Information is so hard to find. The Canadian Subaru forums are really lacking in any real information. There is a real lack of serious builds to learn from as well.

As far as I can tell the motors near peak power potential is around 300whp without a serious build. The EJ20K is an open deck design and is maybe weaker than the earlier EJ20G engines with a closed deck. Nobody really knows for sure though, it seems to all be hearsay.

So I have a ViPec ecu on order, new clutch and light weight flywheel. Also a walbro 255 drop in pump. I'm going to look at injector options, seems a lot of guys upgrade to later 555cc STI injectors. I want to keep this fairly simple so I'll likely go that rout as well.

Front mount intercoolers seem to be fairly cheap on e-bay so I'll likely go that rout instead of the restrictive top mount intercooler. My car already has a turbo back exhaust and the larger (?) Tomei 7760 turbo.

The only remaining bottlenecks are the factory unequal length exhaust manifolds (sound cool but bad for power) and the turbo inlet piping which gets routed under the intake manifold. Whoever came up with that design should go back to engineering school. I think I'll get to my 250-300whp goal before the snow flies. I don't want to go water/meth injection on this car, I want it set up to run pump gas and just be a fun reliable daily driver.

So far I really like this car. It's really light and with the DCCD bias set to minumum (30% front 70% rear) it's easy to get the rear end out and have some awd fun. Draws a lot of attention as well with the subaru rumble. So I'm happy with it for the most part. The lack of info is a little annoying but whatever. I'll learn more as I go on.

Did I mention late model STI Brembos bolt right up? :D I'll be getting a set soon for some bling. I do plan on taking this car to a time attack or 2 so I'll be upgrading as soon as I come across a decently priced set of calipers and rotors.
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crzyone
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Re: My 1997 STI

Post by crzyone »

Of course... As soon as I post that the max is 300whp I see this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqjDpZMT6Tk

430whp stock JDM EJ20... And reliable by the looks of it. I imagine he is running race fuel but I'm going to try and contact him for some info on his build.
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Aaron
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Re: My 1997 STI

Post by Aaron »

I'd shy away from the Walbro pump if I were you, had pretty bad luck with mine.
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crzyone
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Re: My 1997 STI

Post by crzyone »

Walbro pumps are probably the most copied pumps out there. I'm sure some of the bad rep is from fake Chinese pumps but they are generally considered to be a good pump. Plus, the kit I have for mine makes it a 100% drop in, even the wiring.

Car is going in Tuesday for it's new stage 2 comp clutch and light weight flywheel, will update when I take some pics.
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Re: My 1997 STI

Post by Emc209i »

Genuine Walbro fuel pumps are horse shit. They'll never get another cent from me. Ever.
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Aaron
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Re: My 1997 STI

Post by Aaron »

Agreed. Mine was genuine, and it vaporized the fuel and whined louder than the blower on a 3800.
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Re: My 1997 STI

Post by Unsafe At Any Speed »

Cool car.
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