Subaru Impreza STI 330s

[zafturbo]

Some of the roads around glenarm / Carnlough / cairncastle hillclimb and out over carnalbanagh into Ballymena are epic .never hardly pass another car on them .

 

[Gambit]

It's been away to OMA getting new headgaskets, heads skimmed/valves cleaned , valve seats and clearances all checked/adjusted. It's now back and sounds like a sewing machine at idle had sounded pretty noisy previously which turned out to be valve clearances all over the place

So took it a scalp out over hills out by larne line to make sure temps are all now sitting more like they should and no other issues bar a breather pipe popping off as clip wasnt fully seated.

Next up is more mapping time

 

[Mel]

How long did Michael keep it Up over Shanes Hill I see, it's going to be resurfaced soon as far as I know.

 

[Gambit]

How long did Michael keep it Up over Shanes Hill I see, it's going to be resurfaced soon as far as I know.

Yep shaneshill indeed, never been up there before just took a left of larne road to see where it led me to

Was only away for 6weeks...not too bad

 

[zafturbo]

Yep shaneshill indeed, never been up there before just took a left of larne road to see where it led me to

Was only away for 6weeks...not too bad

Such a fast road just about 1 mile on up from there .some serious fast stretches and very fast sweeping corners .love that road .

 

[300trophy]

That’s a brilliant road for a bit of staging. Other half is from Larne and before I persuaded her away from there I was along that road quite frequently - very fast in parts as @zafturbo says.

Car looks great, where you using the Golf as a daily while it was away?

 

[FM155]

Love that road too, the Laharna lanes rally has used it as a link road for the tests out that direction for the last few years. Not been down it in anything quick though..

 

[collyirwin11]

Saw you passing the Odyssey around 3.30ish, looked great. Maybe on return from your staging lol

 

[Gambit]

Such a fast road just about 1 mile on up from there .some serious fast stretches and very fast sweeping corners .love that road .

Yep first time on it and will certainly be back over it again!

That’s a brilliant road for a bit of staging. Other half is from Larne and before I persuaded her away from there I was along that road quite - very fast in parts as @zafturbo says.

Car looks great, where you using the Golf as a daily while it was away?

Yeah golf was on daily duties and never skipped a beat to be fair was actually up in your work one Friday afternoon getting an airbox from one of your new sales guys, only realised you worked up there after reading it on here last week!

Saw you passing the Odyssey around 3.30ish, looked great. Maybe on return from your staging lol

Yep would have been heading back about that time after its run up over the hills I'm guessing you weren't in the RS?

 

[collyirwin11]

Yep would have been heading back about that time after its run up over the hills I'm guessing you weren't in the RS?

Unfortunately not, wished I had, was a cracking day for it. Got it out today to make up for it though.

 

[Gambit]

Picked up P3 OBD Multi Gauge that slots in nicely to the driverside vent - doesnt look out of place at all

 

[da.murf]

Love the vent gauge. may be a silly question but do you block the vent prior to installation or just fire the gauge in? surely heat and Cold would affect the gauge?

 

[Gambit]

Love the vent gauge. may be a silly question but do you block the vent prior to installation or just fire the gauge in? surely heat and Cold would affect the gauge?

its still a fully functioning vent - supposedly tested for extreme temps and comes pre assembled in the vent so its all encased & bonded into the vent - the control box is mounted in the dash with just the display unit in the in the vent.

Hot or Cold? No problem!
Even though the P3 V3 installs in your air vent, we keep in mind that you need that heat and A/C while designing each gauge.

Electronics in a harsh climate? We've got that covered too.
We've torture-tested our gauges to the extreme. From frozen solid at -94 F to physically melting at hundreds of degrees, our gauges function far beyond the limits of the in-car environment.

P3 V3 OBD2 - Subaru WRX/STI/Forester Gauge (2008-2014)

P3 Gauges - The #1 source for custom integrated multi-function gauges! Connect with your car in an entirely new way! Why settle for just a boost gauge? The P3 Gauge is a swiss army knife of performance data, with design and integration that won't spoil the clean lines of your interior.

www.p3cars.com

 

[da.murf]

that is just cool!! nice subtle touch.

 

[Gambit]

Now that the super shiney 330s of @CharlySkunkWeed has left our shores...takes the look off my 6ft shiney one

Always going for the standard look but under bonnet tells a diff story

Next up on mods list is the revised
MY11 onwards front wishbones with far far better spherical bush set up

Should really paint front but itll get wrecked again in no time being a daily!

 

[Burt2000]

Driven past this today on cairnshill looked mint and nice presence on the road

 

[Gambit]

Finally....got a pair of the revised spec-c front suspension arms that came on facelift sti's far better rear bush setup with spherical bearing so should be a nice upgrade on the car

Just waiting on rear coilovers getting refurbed by bilstein then get it all fitted back onto car

 

[dh1079]

Good to see it back home was nice seeing the mk2 in the drive though

Change the wife’s car ?

 

[Gambit]

Good to see it back home was nice seeing the mk2 in the drive though

Change the wife’s car ?

Yeah was good having the mk2 out for the couple of months or so, it never put a foot out of place but just not suitable for daily duties too concerned about someone driving into me!!

Yep changed the wee polo for an a3, nice job she loves it

 

[dh1079]

Sport backs are brill car trying to get her into one

 

[Gambit]

After a lick of paint on the brake disc bells yesterday it got a wash n shine today pretty bored tbf

 

[dh1079]

Looking well buddy

 

[Gambit]

And 20mths later....I get to drive it again!

Short story
'Forged' Engine shít itself, got fixed and other stuff now its back after a long time....go straight to images

Long story
After the headgaskets & head rebuild job Michael @ OMA had warned me that he wasnt happy with the 'forged' bottom end in the car, he said the RCM headstuds has been bottomed out previously and had damaged the threads but he'd managed to get them torqued but was just letting me know

Shortly after oil started mixing in water something not very common in Subaru's it's usually the opposite...we tried a few things like new modine etc but still happening so he said two options we take it out and strip it or you drive it on to see can we pinpoint and sure if it fails it still has to come out.

With that in mind I just drove it on. It then failed in spectacular fashion one day and left me stranded at side of road. Got recovered by Fred back to house and done some initial investigation on the ok from Michael

Found a hole in side of cam cover then a bit of fishing I pulled out what looked like a head stud washer... so head stud pulled the threads in block allowing nut to unwind itself and then rattle around valve train before exiting the cam cover....only noticed by a slight smoke haze in rear view mirror. It was still running when I pulled over but something was very wrong given the amount of oil pissing of it


Then covid hit so OMA closed then when reopened I was put on the long term job list which meant a long wait to get to top of that list

But here it is

Fresh bottom end rebuild with 14mm headstud conversion, new matching rods (yes that's correct the original build has a mixed set) and a load of other **** done that was just plain wrong in the previous build although I probably pushed it past its limits also

Plus got the Spec C revised front wishbones fitted, bilstein rebuilt the cosworth rear struts for me and also got a nice RCM return to sump catch can setup installed instead of AOS just to tidy it up a bit more


Few pics of the original damage with oil running out of it and had sprayed wheel and also underside is now well rust protected/oiled....

And then just one of it home as of yesterday plus engine bay shot

Chuffed to get it back.....like getting a new car will probably cost me as much also

 

[Burt2000]

Good to see it back, at least you know it’s now done right with Michael doing it. Who did the original forged bottom end job?

 

[Gambit]

Good to see it back, at least you know it’s now done right with Michael doing it. Who did the original forged bottom end job?

Was originally built by Ali back in 2014 for the previous owner, I'd be pretty sure it was built to tolerate std 325bhp but then I pushed it further when I bought it, even the rcm headstuds where later amended to state on selling they where limited to 350bhp - it lasted for 5yrs before it went bang so decent enough length of time

It was also traded in rather than being sold by previous owner (and he was very weird also denied he even traded it) so something may even have happened after Ali built it so I wouldnt even question Ali's workmanship over it plus it was Ali who rang me to tell me where the car was and could be had for trade money at the time