dimin

Thanks for confirming that, thought the box would have to come out, such a mongrel of a job without a hoist, etc. Pulled it tonight and got the transfer case off easy once that retaining bolt removed. Sure enough the main shaft nut had backed off. New nut, gaskets and put it all back together and hopefully good as new.

So have a V5 RA that has the common pop out of 5th issue. In process of trying to remove the transfer case, with the box still in the car. Following a tutorial off an overseas forum, Im now stuck with the shift rod stuck in the shift fork notches. No matter what I do it wont turn or move, and cant figure out how it disengages ? Anyone who has done this fix, is it correct that there is a collar under the DCCD top cover that needs removing? And if so I assume I would have to remove the box entirely to access this as there is limited room between box and chassis with it in the car. Any help appreciated, cheers !

Just bought an Evo 9 GSR, previously owned many Subarus(5 Stis V4-9, and 4 Legacys). Comparing to my V9 Sti, they are pretty comparable in power and response. I think the EJ207 is a smoother motor than the 4G63, but as we all know the Evo engine is a bit more stout and has more power potential in stock form. Interior I feel the Sti is better overall, feels more nicely finished, although the Evo has better seats and steering wheel. Where the Evo 9 beats out the V9 though is grip and handling, the steering is more responsive, it doesnt understeer as bad, feels more nimble, in my opinion. Havent driven far in it yet but thats my first impression so far. Dont get me wrong though I found the V9 to be very good in the handling stakes, the best of all the Sti\'s Ive owned in fact. Just the Evo feels another step up thanks to the AYC trickery, etc. Through the generations, I think both breeds have their pros and cons, both are excellent performance cars !

The 2.5L turbos are the ones with single scroll if I remember right ?

Thats a bit gutting. Worst case buy a new shortblock and reassemble it, providing your heads are ok. IMO it would be hard to sell as it is, would lose a lot of $$$ I would imagine, be better to repair the engine and sell it(or keep it and enjoy !)

Tough call, have owned a few versions of WRX, love the coupes, a V6 Sti R Ltd coupe would be my pick for the pre V7 era, last of the GC8, love the 2 door shape with big wing, nice lip, crystal headlights, and so capable out of the box. But my top vote goes for the V9 Sti, has the awesome looks of the V8 Sti with the better suspension, yaw sensing DCCD, and the nicer interior. Along with the usual Brembos, 6speed box, rigid GD chassis, well sorted engine with twinscroll turbo setup, and the reflashable ECU, IMO they\'re a great package. Also a lot less of them around compared to V8/7.

Looks good, not a bad price too ! Might look into doing this as Ive been teaching myself with tuning my V8 and 9 Sti\'s using ECUflash over the years , and lately been tuning the Link G3 in my Evo 1 for E85.

Lucky, I was gonna get him to assemble a forged long block for me when I was thinking of building up my V9, glad I didnt now. Didnt you post awhile back about a business ripping you off ? This was the guy I assume ?

V9 Sti, has 176k on it at the moment, was 160k when I bought it, imported to NZ at 150k. Still runs smooth as butter, but theres a few minor oil weeps appearing ( rocker cover gaskets as usual by the looks). Was running 250kw ATW for 6 months on E85 but Ive since returned it to stock fuelling and running a mild tune to try and keep it reliable, now that I have another car to toy with. Previous Subarus never really owned above 130k, had a couple of Legacy TT\'s that I owned briefly with 170ish ks, both unopened and ran mint. Highest K\'s car Ive had was 96 DC2 Integra Type R, 230k original motor, but was getting rather smoky in the high revs !

Thats a nice coupe, and one of the hardest to find too being a V6 and the Ltd edition, would imagine it would hold value well if kept tidy !

Yea stock turbo factory boost is around 18psi/1.3bar, at least all the V4-6 I\'ve had experience with are around there. 8psi will feel gutless as anything in comparison !

Keep a look out for a nice JDM 3in cat back second hand if you can- like Fujitsubo, HKS Silent Hi Power, or similar, theyre usually very well made and quieter than the cheap chinese crap. Then get a 3in Rage front pipe fitted as well, and a good hi flow panel filter. A Walbro or similar upgraded fuel pump, and if you can, do the parallel fuel rail mod, to keep the fuelling safe. Then a decent dyno tune, and you should have a very responsive 200 kw at the wheels no worries, with lots of midrange punch, which is plenty on the road to have some fun. And as said with the handling, upgraded rear sway bar, and sticky tyres is all thats needed IMO, the stock suspension is very good.

My favourite shapes... For the classic GC8s would be the 22B ultimately, but otherwise the V5/6 Sti Type R For the GDB\'s the V8/9 For the Legacys the BL/BP, I prefer the BL though, not a fan of wagons Worst, well the rest are all pretty good really, at least the 90s onwards. Not a fan of the V7 at all, seen some that look nice though. The most recent shape Legacys and Imprezas look like Camry/Corolla, bit plain and boring

I should of mentioned also that I paid 18k for my V9 a year ago, good score I thought ! Though it had done 160k when I got it(imported at 151k into the country) its still very tidy and drives just as well my V8 did with 100k on the clock - shows that k\'s on the odo dont mean a hell of a lot IMO. So keep your eyes peeled good deals come up especially people leaving the country, etc. tend to want to flick cars quick so good deals can be had if you\'re quick.

Yes V8 also have the DCCD. But the V9 has the yaw sensing DCCD similar to Mitsi\'s AYC, except it shifts power front to rear as opposed to side to side in the Evo\'s rear end. I owned a V8 a couple years ago till someone stole it, now have a V9 and I must say I like the V9 interior better, nicer centre console and steering wheel. Also the suspension has the bigger hubs and wider track as mentioned above, also wider wheels and tires 235 wide vs 225 on the V8. But TBH, I dont notice a huge difference in performance - they drive fairly similar. Oh, other bonus of the V9 is it has the factory immobilizer built into the ECU, so harder for thieving scum to make off with it. Other thing I suppose is that the V9 is a bit rarer/harder to find, and cant be imported so might hold value a little better.

My brother had an Evo 6.5 TME, nice car to drive, just intake and exhaust and STM tuned to 215kw atw if I remember right, and my V5 Sti RA with just a 2.5in exhaust was dead even with it 0-130ish. After driving it I felt it was a much smoother in power delivery, but the Sti RA felt alot more peppy and snappy to drive. Also dont like the gearshift feel of most Evos, reminds me of a 90s Hyundai at times ! Cant comment on V7 and up vs Evo 7 and up, I reckon V8/9 look better then the E7/8 though, and have a nicer interior - Evo ones look plain and boring apart from the nice Recaros the only upside over the Sti.

Thats a nice power and torque curve for that Kinugawa turbo, must pull pretty hard ! Im taking you have a FMIC with this ?

I also waited a while for my sheet ! They ended up taking a photo and emailing that. Nice figure too BTW what was the peak torque figure ?

I think the reason the V9 and 10 Sti\'s are up there in price is because theres few around and they cant be imported now, which drives up the price. Evo 8\'s and 9\'s are the same. Look at the likes of Evo 3s for instance, they are in the mid to high teens for prices for the same reason - not many around, especially nice ones, and theyre 15 years old! V7s on the otherhand, dime a dozen, and I suppose they dont appeal to as many people in the looks department, so not as sought after. As said they are definately the bang for buck of the GDB range. I dont think prices on the 8/9/10 will move much, keep an eye out though for people looking for a quick sale(ie going overseas or similar) and you might get a good deal !

We got given a budget old Nissan Avenir diesel wagon for a few days while the work van was getting repaired, did 520km on just over half a tank of diesel, pretty impressive economy !

Running around 1.5 bar peak, tapering back a little towards redline, the stock intake system is choking it somewhat ! But no dramas as I achieved the power I was after, so yep good outcome. [quote name='evowrx said: Talking to tony whiter on the issue...the problem they had was the E85 stripped the varnish s*** off the inside of the tank and clogged the injectors/filter. Killed a few drift cars rotors and nissan, gaz at least one engine. Changing your fuel filter often helps watch that too. Maybe pull it off and cut it open after 500km or something theyre cheap as chips. Have read about this happening, have put a brand new filter on, and will most likely put a new one again after a couple of tanks of E85. Will slice one open and see what effect there has been as well. Hoping they will roll it out to more stations around the place, I rang Gull and was told Pukekohe is the next in line for it at a new station theyre building there. So sounds like they only will implement it on new sites. Suppose its hard to justify installing all new tank and pump etc for a fuel thats not popular yet.

Just thought Id update this. After lots of researching, it seems alot of the corrosion issues and warnings of not to run ethanol in Subarus is pure myth. So decided to give it a crack myself. Replace all the rubber hoses in the engine bay with Gates biofuel compatible line, reused the stock fuel rails with Siemens 875cc injectors, plumbed parallel rails, Tomei FPR, and Walbro pump. Only stock rubber hoses are short length between the hard pipes and fuel tank, so will keep an eye on those to ensure there isnt any damage over time. Put a TD05 20G turbo on while I was at it. Drained the tank of 98 and filled it with Gull Force Pro, quick rescale of the injectors and it fired up and ran perfect. Took it to Gary Capper yesterday to get some power out of it and pulled a nice 250kw ATW. Lots of torque too. Only mods other than the fuelling and slightly bigger turbo is a 3in exhaust. Still on stock TMIC, intake and ECU. Very happy with the outcome it drives like a stock car on the E85, very smooth and the factory ECU controls everything nicely, whilst retaining all the factory good stuff like knock control, etc. Lucky for me its on pump here in Hamilton, be good if its rolled out to some more Gull stations round the country, but I can flash the ECU back to my 98 map anytime and run that if I need to travel long distance from home.

I got into the whole reflashing thing back when I had a V8 Sti, and now just getting back into dabbling with it on my V9. My advice is head over to the likes of romraider.com and openecu.com forums and research plenty about how it all works, before you dive in and change settings too much, etc. Removing speedcuts, applying launch control, etc is easy enough but tuning fuel/ignition/boost I wouldnt recommend without a good understanding of it all, and a wideband setup. Once you get the hang of it it is relatively easy, can be time consuming though.

Think 'scrivet' is the name for those annoying things

My uncle has been getting into photography in his spare time, and was itching to do a bit of car photography, so we headed out one of the local backroads for a few snaps...