Well, we did little to the car but drive it, until I had a Major issue. Cylinder 3 and 4 misfires. compression test was done and I had 90psi in cylinder 4. It was then that i learned what the shortblock club is, and that I was about to become a member. Fortunately for me I have an excellent Mechanic and a very Understanding Wife.
so after a bunch of searching Started buying parts. All Genuine Subaru Gaskets, 11mm Sti oil pump, Sti heat treated crank, Sti Pistons, King Main and Crank bearings Full gates timing kit with new
water pump, block was machined and the heads were checked over completely. We added an Sti catless Up-pipe and Cnt Catless DP. we swapped out the stock dual mass flywheel for a F1 racing 14# flywheel meant for an 06 wrx, paired with an Exedy stage 1 clutch.
When we looked at the Vf-40 that comes stock it appeared to have a bit of shaft play. that and the fact that the Vf-40 has a poor reputation for reliability led me to pick up a Vf-52 from a 2013 wrx with 15k miles on it. Of course, all these things made a tune necessary. Granite state Dyno came through with a base tune to get the break in done. Got the car back together and drove it. was having a few issues with low idle and low oil pressure after my initial break in period. At 750mi I developed rod knock. back to the shop it went. the motor was broken back down and hot tanked again. it turns out that my oil pickup had failed and I was sucking air along with my oil. My builder Took care of EVERYTHING related to the failure. after the motor was reassembled I changed the oil at 100, 500, and 1k miles. since then it has run flawlessly.
To be continued....