Author Archives: Ron Sinclair

How to Avoid Blown Ringlands in your Subaru WRX or STI – Viking Speed Shop

This is a good read, and I’ve elaborated on some of the article’s listed items in the past (here, here, and here), but I’m not a mechanic nor do I claim to fully understand a combustion engine’s inner workings.  This article comes directly from Viking Speed Shop.

An excerpt:

While largely limited to the late model WRX and STI with the EJ255 and EJ257 motors, there’s been some concern raised about the sheer numbers of ringland failures being reported on the forums. Our goal with this article is to address why this is likely occurring and how you can guard yourself from it happening to your Subaru. Some of these may seem like common sense to most, but for many younger or first time turbo car owners it may be new.

Read more @ http://www.vikingspeedshop.com/how-to-avoid-blown-ringlands-in-your-subaru-wrx-or-sti/

2015 Subaru WRX STI vs. 2004 Subaru Impreza WRX STi

2015-subaru-wrx-sti-vs-2004-subaru-impreza-wrx-sti-feature-car-and-driver-photo-659390-s-original

http://www.caranddriver.com/features/2015-subaru-wrx-sti-vs-2004-subaru-impreza-wrx-sti-feature

Car & Driver pits the 2015 and 2004 Subaru WRX STIs against each other, finding that although there’s more than 10 years of development between them, they’re still awfully similar in performance.

This was a great read.  As well, the article comments can give reader insight (or laughs).

Enjoy!


Need A Stock Part but Don’t Care For Dealer Pricing?

If you need a stock part (maybe you’re going back to stock for emissions testing or because you’re trading the STI), but don’t want to deal with dealer pricng, I found a decent salvage yard that has a good internet presence.

Oak Leaf Salvage is located in Wisconsin but will ship parts.  They’ve a basic and advanced internet search feature, as well as an image search feature (in case you don’t know the name of the part).  For parts that aren’t showing up in the search queries, a contact form pops up that will allow direct correspondence with the salvage yard.

This particular salvage yard does have decent Subaru exposure (they post to IWSTI).

I’ve used salvage yard parts before.  I had a Mustang that burned out a power window.  My dad got a motor from a salvage yard that was local to him and I had it installed by a mechanic.  Never had an issue with that window again.  Salvage yards usually verify that the parts work.  If the parts are electrical, they can be tested with multimeters — if the part is mechanical and doesn’t have damage, it should work.

This is another parts option that I thought I’d share.  If Craigslist or eBay isn’t working out for you, try this place or any local salvage yard.

ReBlog – Subaru EJ25 Repair

http://emptyroadchronicles.com/2014/05/06/car-tech-the-subaru-headgasket/

 The OEM head gaskets on the EJ25D have a tendency to fail just as much as the sun has a tendency to rise in the east.  If you have one and the head gaskets have NOT been replaced, here is what you need to do to remedy a tragedy.

This is a pretty interesting article to read if you’re a gear-head and crave quirkiness…yes, the boxer design is quite quirky.

 

Mitsubishi to cease production of Lancer Evolution X – Left Lane News

http://www.leftlanenews.com/mitsubishi-to-cease-production-of-lancer-evolution-x.html

Mitsubishi has announced plans to wind down production of the Lancer Evolution performance sedan.  According to Japan’s Nikkan Jidosha Shimbun (Automotive News Daily), Mitsubishi will cease building the tenth iteration of its halo sports sedan, the Lancer Evolution X, by the end of this year.

 

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We knew it was coming…it was just a matter of when they would plan to stop the production line.  We are lucky they didn’t do it sooner.