My new 2010 Subaru WRX

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Thanks!

took a pretty nice shot in @awptickes's driveway yesterday

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pic makes the car look really small
 
lol that's cause his garage is huge. you could pretty easily put 4 normal size cars in there.

but i was also going for the whole "rule of thirds" thing. bah whatever, im not a photographer, and i shot this with my iPhone lol.
 
Thanks!

166,500 and counting. Chassis, transmission, and turbo are all at this mileage. As well as all engine accessories (PS pump, AC compressor, and alternator are all factory parts since new)

Motor has about 65,000 on it since the rebuild back in 2013.
 
He drives to PA for tail, that adds up the mileage I'm sure. :p
 
I live in Baltimore.
Work is just north of DC (~45mi each way)
GF lives and goes to school in Philly (~95mi each way) i go up there at about 2x a month.
 
My yard is covered with leaves. I try to blow them off the grassy areas, but there's a lot of trees out here.
 
Hrm, I guess I didn't finish the thought.

The mouth of the driveway is totally covered with leaves, to the point where you can't see it. It makes for some fun times doing a leaf-induced burnout. I wonder what kind of burnout @GSRCRXsi 's car could do on 'em, lol.
 
on dry pavement and with the grip of the summer tires there's a good possibility something would break.

it's fine on slippery surfaces :)
 
So...

Stock block with drop in pistons.

IAG stage 1 block which is bearings, pistons.
or
IAG stage 1 plus block, bearings, pistons, bored and honed to 99.75mm for a tighter fitting piston.

My radiator failed, as soon as the temps spiked I got off the road, not sure what failed or is failing but something happened.

When the motor is cold, it sounds perfect. once the motor is up to temp, it has a sound coming from the drivers side head. at 95K miles I'm surprised something in the block didn't fail, but something in the head isn't right.



Almost like a rocker arm starts to stick once its up to temp.

Car goes to Andrewtech soon, pretty sure the motor will need to be pulled to fix the issue. with that being said I'm not fixing it even if its a $500 fix. no point in putting a 95K mile motor back in.

Originally I wanted to do a OEM short block and be done, MAYBE drop in pistons, but I just dont trust OEM stuff, it's a luck thing, it either last because you got lucky, or you spin a bearing or lose a ringland. 2015s are still having bearing failures within 2-3K miles of being brand new. Crazy...

Plan right now is to pull the motor/tran and have the transmission redone since the owner before me jacked up 4th and 5th, the cocktail made it better but still not right.

I use the car 99% of the as a backroad toy, debating on sticking with my VF48 which has around 10K miles on it, or selling that and getting a Blouch sp? 18G XT or 18G XT-R
 
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What does it sound like when you rev it?

It's really hard to tell from your vid. And sounds almost what mine sounds like sometimes. A lot of people will tell you that EJs are just noisy, and that it could be valve train noise, injector noise, or something else.

Maybe a bent or damaged valve from the high temps? Not sure. I'd def see what Andrewtech says about it.

As far as motor choises, I'd go with the Stage 1+. That's basically what I have. Except they rebuilt my block that way, I didn't buy a new shortblock for it.
 
Same, just faster lol. It's not basic valve train noise, no doubt.

Something clearly changed, it went from being a loud drive train to a loud drive train with a clank clank clank, something went or is going out. Bent valve I think would always clank, not only when it's up to temps. Assuming the oil has something to do with it, once its warm it thins out enough to allow for the clank clank clank to happen. Or maybe something metal is expanding. Either way, pretty sure the motor will need to come out, if so, reinstalling it would be stupid.

I'm debating on having IAG rebuild my block, it doesn't save a lot of money but anything is better than nothing. My only reason to go new would be, damn near everything on my car was a total Dickspickle, damn near everything has been replaced and the engine is the last thing once the trans is done.

Did they offer you any kind of warranty on the block? Not that it matters since half the cost is the labor.

Do you use any oil? How loud is your motor with the forged pistons? Thoughts on reliability VS a OEM stock block? Brand new OEM short block = $1900

Thoughts on Turbo? My turbo should be around $500 on the used market. it's pretty much new. XT is $1200? the XTR is $1500
 
I believe IAG has a standard warranty with any block they build. 1yr/12000mi. But you'll have to ask them to be sure. They tuned my new engine too so they did everything in my case.

Oil consumption on my motor is relatively low. It will consume about 0.75-1qt every 5000mi. But I also just change the oil at that point so I never have to top it off between oil changes or anything. I've noticed less oil consumption when running the Rotella T6 5w40 oil vs the Mobil 1 0w40 oil.

My motor is definitely louder on a cold start with the forged pistons but nothing crazy. Doesn't sound as loud as your vid. But once warmed up it purs pretty good. You'll have less piston slap noise if you go with the stage 1+ block. They will be able to dial in a tighter PTW clearance and it helps keep piston slap to a minimum.

Reliability of an IAG built stage 1/1+ block should be superior to an OEM block. IAG blueprints every block they build. They will tell you every clearance, and most of the time those clearances will be exactly the same. When they showed me mine, every PTWwas the same, every main was the same, every rod beating was the same. With an OEM block it's unlikely to get that precise since they have acceptable ranges.

Not sure about the turbo. I haven't looked into stock location turbos too much. I'm thinking about going with the Killer B "Spoolinator" kit when I get a new turbo. Look it up on NASIOC if you aren't familiar with it.
 
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