[twiSTies]

This journal is in chronological order since I first bought the car. To view my most current mod list, click here.


5/20 Update:

I started with a bone stock car in October 05. My first mod was to get Toyo Proxes 4 all season tires for the winter. I then bought a K&N panel air filter and headed to Island Dragway. There I ran off my best stock time of 13.6 at 100.74 and headed home. My next mod was to get a Helix catted downpipe and a Cobb AP. I flashed to Stage 1 right away and noticed the difference in torque. I then ordered a K&N Typhoon. I installed that and liked the noise it made and noticed more midrange and topend pull. With the help of my friend, I then installed the Helix Downpipe. I flashed over to Stage 2 with the AP and my friend's description says it best, "It's like a damned motorbike!" I then decided to test a theory that only big dollar, brand name catbacks are worth spending money on for power and bought a 3" N1 Tsudo catback off ebay. The flange didn't line up and the stock hangers weren't stiff enough to stop it from moving around, so I had the flange rewelded and bought some extended length Kartboy hangers. The ebay catback was very loud and a full 3". The quality was perfectly fine and I recommend it to anyone. I then went and got dynotuned by Doug from TopSpeed in late March. My stock fuel pump wasn't keeping up with the Cobb stage 2 base map, so I had a Walbro 255 installed. Doug was able to get 306whp/341wtq out of my car. I then took the car back to Island Dragway and ran a 12.9 at 105.20. The car has more in it as it sits, so I plan on going to Cecil next weekend and finding out how much more. Since that 12.9, I've replaced the ebay catback for the Borla XR-1 because I wanted a stock looking muffler and more of a rumble to the sound. I bought it from Mad Dad and got the 3" flange adapter so the whole catback is a true 3". The Borla delivered and is quieter inside the car too. Absolutely love it and would recommend it to anyone.


I've been leaving out some important mods, though. A key reason behind me buying the Kartboy hangers was because the Cusco swaybar was hitting my stock catback. See I found someone selling barely used Cusco swaybars on here and picked them up quickly. I got 21mm front and 22-24mm adj rear bars. I also picked up replica strut tower bars and an h brace off of ebay for like $100. I also bought an Autospeed dead pedal for the interior, picked up a slightly used OEM subwoofer, bought TiC's Klunk Killer kit, Kartboy endlinks, a Cobb heat shield, and Static X turbo wrap. My check card was BUSY. I loved how the car handled but the ride quality sucked and I kept noticing the spring rate just not being up to par with the dampers. I bought some Tanabe GF210's based on everyones feedback on here and was set to put them until I started reading about their rates. My friend Justin B got all of his stuff through Myles at RaceCompEngineering, so I called them. I was persuaded to ditch the Tanabes and buy some Swift Springs. I also decided that I wanted to go bigger with my swaybars and picked up the Whiteline 27/29mm adj front bar and 24-26mm adj rear bar. I then topped off my order with Myles with front group n tophats and whiteline camber bolts.

See, my car has been busy since October I have to say thanks to a lot of people for their help and expertise in making my car what it is today: First of all, a HUGE thanks to Justin B. Without him I wouldn't even own an STi. To iwsti.com for having such a great, helpful community of knowledgeable people, to Doug and Cicio at TopSpeed for an unbelievable tune and customer service above and beyond any expectations (Cicio is the MAN), Chris at Hi-Rev for sending me all my power parts (except catback), to Mad Dad for the sweet Borla, and last but not least to nhluhr for providing so much technical information to this site that I spent days trying to absorb it all while learning through searching the forums here. To anyone looking to modify their STi, THESE ARE ALL THE GUYS TO TALK TO!!



without further adou, lots of car pics and info:

Dirty from snow!
























Here's my full mod list:

Power:
APS 65mm CAI
Helix Catted Downpipe
Borla XR-1 Catback w/ Mad Dad 3" adapter flange
Walbro 255 FP
Static X VF-39 Turbo Wrap
Cobb Heatshield
Cobb AP Stage 2 Protuned by Doug to 306whp/341wtq (with my old Typhoon and ebay catback)

Suspension:
ebay Front and Rear Strut Tower Bars
ebay H Brace
Whiteline 27-29mm Adjustable Front Swaybar
Whiteline 24-26mm Adjustable Rear Swaybar
Kartboy Rear Swaybar Endlinks
Swift Springs
Group N Front Strut Mounts
Whiteline Comfort ALK
Whiteline Front Camber Bolts w/ alignment set to -1.6 camber front/-1.3 camber rear/0 degrees toe F+R/4.6 degrees caster

Driveline:
TiC Klunk Killer
Cobb SS
TiC Pivot Bushing
TiC Shift Linkage Bushings
Kartboy Front and Rear Shifter Bushings

Interior:
JDM Red Hazard Button
JDM Auto Intercooler Spray Button
Autospeed Dead Pedal
OEM subwoofer

Exterior:
JDM Rear Spats
TopSpeed window sticker
removed dealer sticker

[nice-rice]

Yeah, she's dirty. Nice mods though.

[twiSTies]

Originally Posted by electronblur

Yeah, she's dirty. Nice mods though.

Thanks, these pics were taken over a week ago. I just got the springs from UPS today, i'll put them in this weekend

[Turboxer]

Dirty... Just how i like them. Well not always. Good luck with the springs.

[slowpok]

It Needs a day @ the spa a nice bath and vacum and a spring job

[Insane06STi]

Wow that looks good

[Cicio]

car is looking good man! your not too far from me, maybe we will get to hang out at a meet or something sometime!

[Nachos Libres]

Nice looking car. You should at least debadge that dealership emblem though.

[twiSTies]

Thanks guys Yesterday I put in longer exhaust hangers form kartboy to stop the rear swaybar from hitting my stock catback. I replaced the 3 that connect the axle back. It still hits over potholes but helped over the rest of the roads, so I'm going to have to pick up a 4th hanger and put that on at the midpipe. Only reason I'm having this problem is because I'm running the stock catback on an aftermarket DP.

I didn't get around to doing the springs, I need to rent a spring compressor...maybe I should do that today?

The car got washed the next day after these pics when the weather went up to the 50's. She's a lot cleaner now

[twiSTies]

Originally Posted by CicioSTi

car is looking good man! your not too far from me, maybe we will get to hang out at a meet or something sometime!

Yeah definitely, I'd like to meet more of the STi owners around here. I've met two of them so far, one with an 06 and another one with an 04.