SOLD my 2011 Built Sti, wanted to share my story for those considering heavy modding.

Had to start with the smiley face because I have ZERO regrets about driving a 420awhp as a daily driver for a couple years. I just wanted to share my path and help others make better decisions than I did to help save you some money, stress, and be on your way to more without . Purchased my 2011 black Subaru Sti hatch in December of 2010. For starters I'm 38 with three kids and I just wanted a fun car that could "do it all." The Subaru quickly proved it could replace my Toyota 4runner for all the bikes I haul around, alternate car for hauling our family, occasional track days (owning the sti made me get into the track, which I was not prior to owning), and driving in all conditions around the country. I had never modified a car in my life outside of putting some cool decals on my 1993 Acura Integra GR, ha. I'd been around a lot of gearhead stuff growing up as a motorcycle racer, etc. so the idea of having a "midlife crisis" toy was perfect and fun. I got consumed with reading thread after thread on the forums and started to learn who the big names were as far as vendors go so I started calling around to upgrade my Sti beyond the Cobb Stage 1 I was using. I drove to Cobb Plano Texas (800+ miles one way) for a 20gxt turbo swap and supporting mods for e85, since e85 is readily available around Louisville KY. Cobb did a great job installing the parts and the car felt very fast at 375/375 e85 awhp. I was able to switch the car back to 93 easily with the Cobb AP etc., MISTAKE #1: NO BUILT ENGINE but what I wasn't ready for was my ringland failure just 59 days after leaving Cobb. The stock block as most of us know is just not reliable in these modified GR cars with above 370 awhp. I'd highly suggest going built engine if you plan on doing anything above 350awp (mustang dyno) on these cars. Yes, there are success stories out there of guys stock blocks performing miracles, but the conservative trend would be to just spend the extra money and do it right the first time. I had Topspeed SS1 block put in my car, EL headers, AOS, and many other cooling modifications done to the car. I did just about everything but remove the AC from my car to help this car run cool and delivering fuel properly, be reliable, etc.
MISTAKE #2: Going through 4 fuel pumps...... the e85 I was using ate up 2 walbro's and 2 Aeromotives before I ended up with the modified Fuel Pump Assembly using a Walbro 485 (true e85 pump). I ran e85 4 tanks out of 5 in the summer and I ran 93 through the winter. I used 0w/50 eneos oil OR motul 5w40 8100 excess oil and did 1500 mile oil changes religiously for 2 years. Yes that was expensive but the right way to do this according to Topspeed, who was my right hand through owning this car. Great team of people there. Despite I was still going through fuel pumps every 4-5 months and was stranded on the highway once on a road trip. Not fun.
MISTAKE #3: using this car at the TRACK. Why? Well, even with all of my cooling modifications, etc. this car would get to a very scary Coolant Temp of 240+ after 15 minutes on the track and I'd just have to get off. So, every session I'd have to worry about the engine failing again. ( I was even running a low boost map on the track). If you get into track racing just get a less expensive track car like a Miata that can go all day. Eventually you'll migrate up to an S2000, Corvette, maybe even an EVO (oh no I said EVO on this forum- haha. Evo's just have a better track record for reliability as far as boosted track cars go). I wish my Subaru would have been a reliable track car with all the money I spent on it, but it just wasn't. It sure was quick though!


My car eventually started to run RICH and I had compression test done, full vacuum test, and comprehensive look at the tunes, Wideband gauge sensors replaced, etc. Nothing could explain the RICH condition. The funniest part is that the car felt much better running RICH than it did running at 14.7 cruising etc. The Once "little blip at 2900 rpms" was gone when the car was running rich. The Walbro 485 is way overkill but it ran perfect A/F ratios for 6 months prior to the car starting to run rich. The car just ran RICH out of the blue, no single incident pointed to it starting to run Rich. The car checked out 100% fine and my local shop, Topspeed, etc. just told me not to worry about it and it's fine. The car never even threw a code and felt great so I just moved on.

So, why did I sell the car? I was not even selling it? A guy drove my car and made an offer and I thought to myself hmmmmm this car has 53000 miles on it and it's heavily modified (over $20k in mods) so I saw it as a "get out of jail offer." I decided to sell the car now and get a track car and a quieter DD since I drive a lot and am on the phone a lot doing business in the car. It just made sense to sell it now. So, if you start to modify your car lay out a budget first and do it right the first time around. I thought I was doing it right, but I made too many trips adding parts to the car when I should have just done it all in 1 or 2 trips instead of (1 to CObb and 3 to Topspeed). I spent a lot extra in labor than I should have. I did all the easy stuff myself...exhaust, gauges, wrapping headers/DP, etc. Go built engine if you crave power or have the power bug, without a built engine you will always want more and it will come at the cost of spending more later. My Topspeed SS1 proved reliable. Well, until I got a call yesterday that the new owner has thrown a check engine code?? I can't control someone else driving the car. Potentially not letting the car warm up properly? Found out it's VERY IMPORTANT to let your car warm up until you rip her! Hopefully it's just a random "at idle" code that is nothing. See, I don't even own the car anymore and I'm still worrying about it. ha!

Everyone out there enjoy your STi's, they are very functional, fun, fast cars. I'll always be in an AWD or 4 wheel drive car or SUV! If you have any questions or have any input fire away! It was good being part of this community too, lots of good peeps here! Enjoy the cool weather this fall as those turbos will be spoolin up grins nicely!