hey guys, i finally got a good run with my WRX

every time i went to the track, i would have exhaust leak problems causing major bogging issues and power loss

i thought it was the turbo gasket, but when i took the turbo off to check i saw a nice 2 inch long crack in the pipe!

so i welded that up with a friend and put the car back together(this was a couple weeks ago)

car ran much better, but still felt slow to me. i shrugged it off to the fact that i had just gotten used to the speed

so i went to the track today since a lot of SRT4's were going to meet up there. on the second run i ran a 13.47 at 92mph.

of all the WRX's/STI's that were there, only two ran faster times than me. one was an STI with full exhaust and intake and the other was a stage 4 02-03 WRX(bigger top mount, bigger turbo, supporting mods). the STI was .3 seconds faster than me, and the stage 4 WRX was .1 second faster than me(my WRX is stage 3, stock turbo).

so on the drive home, the front passenger fender lining ripped out of the car, making a very loud noise. when i got back to my home city i stopped to check it out. the inner lip of the fender was bent out a bit, and all the plastic lining was gone. i figured, oh well, **** happens. so when i get home, i take a closer look at the bent lip of the fender, and thats when i see it, a hole, half the size of my thumb nail, right in the side of one of the intercooler pipes!

from the looks of it the hole has been there for quite a while getting bigger the more i drove the car.

tomorrow morning im changing the oil in the car, ordering new fender lining, bending the lip of the fender back, and taking the pipe to have my friend weld it up.

then when it gets dark, i will retune the car and see how she feels.

Nice time. Those WRX's are fast. I hung out on the WRX forum for awile. Those things seem to have a lot of little things that go wrong with them. I wanted one till I found that out. If it can't be reliable stock, how is it going to handle a punch of mods? Being a owner of both a Celica, and a WRX, what do you think about the reliability issue?

-Bigmeanbulldog55+Jul 7, 2005 - 12:14 AM

reliability? once i fix the car, i will probably be making 130hp over stock levels

problems with the car? none

the only things that have gone wrong, are problems with the aftermarket parts, not the car itself, such as the cracked exhaust pipe.

it has been a stage 3 car since January, and as a stage 3 car, i put 9k miles on it, total, it has 17k miles and i put the car through its paces.

i feel that in stock trim the car is extremely reliable, with mods and SAFE tuning, reliable

a celica however, will definately outlast a WRX, but to be fair, the WRX weighs more, has more than 2 times the power of an ST and ~100 more hp than a GT, and drives twice as many wheels

many people complain about the tranny, my car doesnt like to go into first unless i am almost completely stopped(nearly all WRX's do this but i got mine used with 2700 mile, so a brand new one may be perfect, until the owner screws up), its pretty annoying, and im sure it would be a big problem if i autocrossed the car

1st and 2nd gear do tend to break, but that happens with even stock power and a harsh driver.

when i dynoed my car, it put more at the wheels than a stock WRX makes at the crank, and my tranny is running just like day one.

i am very happy with the car

Cool, got some pics?

Nice times. I'll never forget the first time I ran across one of those. August of '02. I was running my one Trans Am as a bolt on only car and lines up against one. I wasn't familiar with them at the time, and think to myself "Easy kill." Got to the end of the track, I went 13.4x@104.x and didn't see him, until I realized he was in my blind spot!!! He went 14.0@89. I was like "Woah." (think Bill and Ted). Good running cars.

can you give me some basic upgrade paths for modding a stock wrx? how much can you turn up the boost of the stock turbo, where is fuel cut, common mods, etc? i have a buddy with a wrx he wants to mod up.

What's your launch like? where do you launch, hows the clutch handle it, ect.

-lagos+Jul 7, 2005 - 9:27 AM

first mods should be up pipe and down pipe(dont get the HKS DP, and trim the heatsheild so it can be put back on).
any catback of his choice will be good
dont get a CAI, they cause unstable AFR's. stock airbox is good to 300+ hp
engine management is major on these cars, if he wants plug and play, he can get a Cobb Access Port and run the map that suits his amount of mods. i have a UTEC, it costs more, but has more features and full tuneability, to get tuneability with the access port, you either go to Cobb or buy their tuning software. tuning the utec is mandatory when you install it, or it wont have any more power and get horrible MPG
stock fuel cut is at 18psi, if he has a 02-03, its ok for him to get a MBC and turn it up to 16.5psi(stock is 13-14psi) 04+ have really bad problems with part throttle, full boost when you install a MBC, its bad enough to blow up engines.

once he has full exhaust and engine management, the car is ready for bigger turbo and injectors, should he feel the need for even more power.

me personally, i think i am going to try to hit 12's on the stock turbo with out the use of nitrous or anything higher than CA 91 octane


-SlowCelica94+Jul 7, 2005 - 9:50 AM

i get 2.0 60ft times, and that was with the boost leak, i want 1.8-1.9 60ft times once i get the car fixed(each 10th of a second u shave off the 60ft time usually shaves off 2 10ths of a second off the 1/4 mile time)

i used launch control, which keeps the revs at 5500 and makes boost. the launch control turns off when i let off the clutch

i let the clutch out fairly quickly, no burnt clutch smell, no weird pedal feel, like the tranny, feels just like day one

Once you get the boost bleed off problem taken car of, get agressive with it. You should have no problem seeing mid-low 1.7's in street trim.

-Fastbird+Jul 7, 2005 - 4:39 PM


thats true, but i still have the stock tires and stock suspension, so a 1.7 is gonna take some practice