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Old 07-29-2022, 01:33 PM   #1
xXJukkaXx
Scooby Newbie
 
Member#: 361559
Join Date: Jul 2013
Chapter/Region: W. Canada
Vehicle:
2018 WRX Sport-Tech
CWP

Default Mello - Jukka's 2018 WRX Sport-Tech

After about 5 years out of a Subaru, I decided to pull the trigger on getting a new one last year and decided I should finally make a post about the progress I've made with it, plans for it going forward and bounce some ideas off fellow enthusiasts.

My old Subaru was my 2002 WRX which I unfortunately had to part out due to some serious rust and lack of time and money to address it's issues:


Back in 2021, I decided I wanted to get back into another Subaru and get rid of my daily driver for something more practical. My daily at the time was a slammed '98 Lexus GS300, which was fun and super comfy, but not the most practical vehicle for my 2 daughters and for year round driving.

I started looking around on some local forums, autotrader, and Kijiji (Canadian craigslist) and managed to come across this 2018 WRX Sport-Tech (premium for people in the US). It was just off lease and the price seemed too good to be true.

Went and took it for a test drive, had some minor issues like needing brakes in the rear of the vehicle, and the original owner (who purchased it out at the end of his lease) parking by feel leading to a damaged front bumper (scrapes, lots of chips, and 2 cracks up by the headlights). But, he was asking about $7K under what comparable vehicles were listed for at the time. Turns out the guy thought that when someone buys a vehicle privately, he thought that I paid him the taxes on it, which is why he listed so low. But we had already agreed on a price, he felt like the moron he was, and I walked away with the car for a screaming deal. We decided to call it Mello because my daughter thought it looked like a marshmallow.

The very first thing I did after picking it up was drove straight to my work and installed a Sprintbooster into it. Sprintbooster is the original throttle pedal booster, which allows you to dial in how much or how little delay is left in the throttle pedal reaction time. Being that the VA is drive by wire, and I loved the feeling of my drive by cable on my bugeye, the sprintbooster allowed me to dial in the sensativity of the throttle input to match to a similar feel. Super easy install, just left the doors open for about 15 minutes while I vacuumed the car out, unplugged the wiring from the throttle pedal, installed the sprintbooster unit and ran the wiring for the control module up through opening between the column and the knee bolster and mounted the control module.


The reason I love the Sprintbooster over any of the other competitor's on the market is the small size of the control/display module. It also has features built in like an anti-theft mode where it locks the pedal completely out unless you know the unlock code/sequence, and a valet mode, where you can dial in how much percentage input you want the pedal to get (ie, you can dial in only 20% input signal, so it will only open the throttle plate 20% even if your foot is buried into the pedal).

Next step was to get some OEM goodies for the car. Picked up a set of OEM rain guards, a JDM extended arm rest, and footwell lighting kit:


^also installed a Tomei shiftknob too


Since this was going to be my daily driver/family car, I wanted to keep the car quieter, but still wanted a bit more exhaust noise than the OEM exhaust. I managed to find a near new condition SPT STI Spec (resonated) catback not to far away from my house for $300. The guy essentially got it for free from a dealership when he was having some issues with his STI because the dealership kept blaming the issue he was having on his Tomei Expreme TI exhaust, so the gave him an SPT one to prove it was the Tomei exhaust causing the issue...it wasn't. So the solved the issue and gave this guy the exhaust for free.


Then, I decided I needed wheels. Being that I work for an Enkei distributor, I had to go with my absolute favorite wheel, the NT03+M. I was originally going to go with the standard Silver finish, but we just so happened to have a batch of SBC's come in at the right time and it was 100% the right choice:


I ran them with the tires that came on the car, a set of Continental DWS06's in the stock 245 sizing, but knew I needed to upgrade size in the spring.

Continuing in post #2
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Old 07-29-2022, 02:09 PM   #2
xXJukkaXx
Scooby Newbie
 
Member#: 361559
Join Date: Jul 2013
Chapter/Region: W. Canada
Vehicle:
2018 WRX Sport-Tech
CWP

Default

Keeping the OEM look, I bought a set of OEM Aero Splash guards. Keeps the flow of the body lines smooth and makes the car look lower too:


Next came the fun part....

The folks over at COBB decided to sponsor the car as a product showpiece for my company and the potential for the VA, so they sent me a TON of goodies.

Before installing any of them though, we decided to go throw the car on the dyno to see what it was making in bone stock form to get a baseline.

Car ended up making 222WHP and 231ft/lbs on 91 octane. Threw COBB's Stage 1 OTS tune on it, ran it again, made 238hp, 246ft/lbs on the same 91 octane. Tuner said it could've/should've made another 20hp/20ft/lbs if I was on 93 octane.

Anyways, it was time for surgery. Last time seeing the engine bay stock...


What was in all the COBB boxes?

They sent me their Redline Intake, Redline Engine Cover, TMIC, Charge pipe, AOS, BPV, EBCS, Stage 1+ drive train package (shiftknob, shifter bushing, shift stop, and short shifter plate), and some engine bay dress up goodies (rad cap, oil cap, battery tie down). We also installed a Group-N trans mount at the same time as the OEM one was looking a bit tired.

We also switched out the rubber from the Conti's to a set of Yokoaham Advan Apex's in 255 width to help fill out the 18x9.5 NT03's.

After all that got it back on the dyno again, and made 246hp, 270ft/lbs on the OTS Redline 91 octane tune. I haven't uploaded COBB's new Next Gen Stage 2 tune yet, so I'm curious about what that's going to do for power.


Then decided to do an impromptu cross country road trip with the car. My company opened up a new warehouse in Calgary, Alberta (where I used to live), so I drove from Toronto to Calary unexpectedly. The plan was to originally tow the car out but my work van was loaded to the tits, and couldn't handle the weight of everything loaded into it and the trailer and the car and everything packed into the car.

So I made it a whole 100km (60 miles) out of 3300km (2050 mile) trip before having to unload the WRX and start driving.

But 3 days later, I was back in Alberta

Even with the performance parts added to the car, I averaged 7.4L/100km (about 31.8 MPG) and about 670km per tank (416 miles to a tank). Not a single issue with the car at all, no burnt oil, no issues with any of the driveline, only 1 CEL from my dad doing a pull in 5th gear from a dig and getting an overboost code come up. But I could not be happier with the car.

Since moving out to Alberta, I've been busy with work and getting my house set up, but still managed to find a bit of time to do some more OEM+ upgrades on the car. I bought a set of 2018+ STI fog covers and modified them to still allow me to use the fogs behind them.




So what comes next? Well, I have a bunch of parts sitting in my garage and office still waiting to go on. I'm going to be ordering a new front bumper skin and OEM STI Lip, STI side skirt extensions, already have coilovers, swaybars, LCA's, Hawk pads, stoptech rotors and lines, Cusco Front strut brace, and am thinking of trying TOMEI's titanium cat straight pipe on the car as a J-Pipe alternative. I did also pick up some lower TGV deletes and EGR delete plates, but don't know if I want to jump down the ECUTek protuning side of things just yet.

Anyways, that's my build so far. I'll be posting more as I get more things to do with it. Love to hear some feedback on the build, anything you'd do differently, comments, etc.

Thanks!
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Old 07-29-2022, 02:28 PM   #3
xXJukkaXx
Scooby Newbie
 
Member#: 361559
Join Date: Jul 2013
Chapter/Region: W. Canada
Vehicle:
2018 WRX Sport-Tech
CWP

Default

Build Details

2018 WRX Sport-Tech

Exterior:
OEM Rainguards
OEM Aero Splash Guards
SMY V1 F1 light w/ integrated reverse light
2018+ STI Fog light covers modified to allow use of OEM Fogs
Yellow Lamin-X fog covers
Sonax CC36 Ceramic Coating
3M PPF (hood, fenders, A-pillars, roofline, eventually full front bumper)

Interior:
JDM Arm Rest Extension
JDM Fuse Box Cubby
OEM Footwell lighting kit
COBB Delrin Shift Knob OR STI Optional Leather Wrapped Shift Knob OR Killer B Delrin knob (depends on the day and weather)
COBB Shift Stop
OEM Auto dimming mirror
Garmin Mini2 Dash Cam
Weather Tech Floor liners, trunk liner & Sunshade

Engine:
COBB Redline Carbon Fiber intake
COBB Redline Carbon Engine Cover
COBB TMIC (Black)
COBB/IAG AOS
COBB Charge pipe
COBB BPV
COBB EBCS
COBB Oil Cap, Rad Cap, Battery Tie Down
PRL Motorsports TGV & EGR Deletes (not installed)
COBB Accessport - NextGen Stage 2 OTS Redline Tune

Transmission:
COBB Shift Plate
COBB Shifter Bushing
X-Clutch Stage 1 Clutch (on order)
Whiteline Trans Mount Bushings
STI Group-N Trans Mount

Brakes:
Hawk HPS Pads
Centric Blank Rotors
Stoptech Brake Lines (not installed yet)
Stoptech STR600 Brake Fluid

Exhaust:
SPT STI Spec Resonated Catback
Tomei Titanium Straight pipe (not installed yet)

Suspension:
TEIN Flex-Z Coilovers (not installed)
Whiteline Rear LCA's (not installed)
Whiteline Front Roll Center Adjustments (on order)
Whiteline Front and Rear Swaybar Kit (26mm Front Bar 22mm rear bar with support brackets & adjustable endlinks).
Cusco Front Strut Bar (not installed)

Wheels & Tires:
Summer - 18x9.5 +40 Enkei NT03+M in SBC
Muteki SR35 Lug nuts
Yokohama Advan Apex 255/35R18

Winter - 18x8 +40 Sparco Terra in Gunmetal
Yokohama Ice Guard IG53 245/40R18
Muteki Supertuner Nuts

Future plans
For track days, install my Tommy Kaira Recaro Speed SR2 seat or track down OEM STI Recaro seats
APR Performance Carbon Licence plate backing,
APR GTC 300 Wing on spare trunk lid OR S207 Replica spoiler (still deciding if I want to keep the OEM+ build or go more of a track car spec build)
New front bumper, STI optional front lip, STI optional side skirt extensions
X-Force Varex Valved Catback exhaust
Carbon mirror caps
Wrap roof in satin black vinyl
AEM Wideband
Killer B headers
Fluidampr Crank Pulley

Last edited by xXJukkaXx; 07-29-2022 at 03:43 PM.
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