subject: Subaru Impreza Tuning [print this page] All the instruction you need right here to start modifying your subaru yourself with help form the subaru performance hand book, here is a quick overview of the Subaru and some tuning tips.
The Impreza has established itself as a fun performance car and is desired by tuners the world over. Leading the success of the Impreza in Rally (winning the WRC 1995-1997, and drivers tournament wins in 2001 and 2003) the car has sustained revision after revision creating the performance car we have today.
The distinctive boxer engine makes a lovely babel and provides a great base to . The WRX and STi engines are solid and reliable and can cope with a reasonable power hike. The engines come in 2.0 and (from 2001) 2.5 litre guise fitted with turbos and productive 200-350bhp determined by on the level of trim. The engines do need to be serviced and you must use the appropriate grade of oil otherwise they have a tendency to break under abuse.
So onto the Impreza tuning tips:-
The early (1992) WRX came with a 2.0 and 1.8l H4 engine so with the latter it would be worth doing an engine swap with the and better base of the 2.0 H4 block. Capability steadily increased over the years and cars were generally heavier as the years went on and fitted with uprated ventilated brake disks.
So what can be done to better the engines on the Impreza? One of the desirable and easiest mods to do is a remap which can release an extra 30-70bhp. For gains you need to uprate the other components of the engine such as by fitting a Big Turbo conversion kit or uprating the poorly mounted intercooler for a front mounted unit.
Some early models suffered from fuel starvation on long sweeping bends and this can be fixed by using a revised fuel pick up, for road use it rarely seemed to be a problem though (unless you like cornering at high speeds!)
If you are about subaru Impreza tuning then get a set of fast road cams, uprate the air intake and fit a stainless steel sports exhaust to maximise the flow through the engine. Internally the engine will benefit from port matching and a 3 or 5 angle valve job on the head. The sudden boost nature of big turbos can be tamed with a boost controllers.
It makes sense to talk about brake upgrades after all these power mods, it is one thing making the car go faster but you really need to think about some serious stopping power with some decent anchors. Vented and grooved disks do a better job than solid disks. It also pays to get larger disks and 6 or 8 pot calipers which give a greater stopping power and better brake feel.
Further reading we recommend for subaru enthusiasts. We suggest that if you want more information on modifying your car yourself then I would recommed consulting the following sources. We have a comprehensive subaru tuning guide which is aslo very informative, user friendly with years of tuning and performance tips, this is a must have.
