well i managed to figure out the powersteering problem.  they were all one peice which was why i couldnt find the part lol. so now after buying the car for 1600 i have 4900 left out of my loan.  i need roughly 1700 to get it looking sharp again. (it was wrecked) that fixing the drivetrain and getting the new bumper and right fender and getting them painted. (stock for all you JDM freaks out there... :P) and getting a new set of wheels ( 17x7 wrapped in toyo 205/40/17...)  do to the old ones being trashed in the wreck.  so that leaves me with 3200.... so im thinking hey! TURBO.....the internals are already forged (minus the crankshaft..which i plan on upgrading before hand) so i was wondering maybe what brand of turbo (9lbs...at the most prolly) would be within that budget...keeping in mind that ill prolly want to upgrade the injectors and get the rom tuned to accept them and whatnot. any advise?  or some sites i can go to to figure it out?.  THANKS bunches!!!!! ...i hope to be pulling 300 WHP out of this car by summer.  im kinda new at this tuning thing so any advise would be usefull as *** TY!  

I was always told the 96 vr6 engines respond very nicely to superchargers rather that turbo’s  

the vr6 can respond well to both turbo and supercharging.  a turbo is going to be your better choice if you are looking for a larger gain, but keep in mind that 300whp isnt going to be all that fun for daily driving.  the bottom end can easily support it; word is a stock VR block can handle upwards of 500, but the chassis is not that adept for that much power.  i dont have a good reason for upgrading the crank, btw.  

your best bet is to check out the forced induction and 12v vr6 forums on vwvortex.com, but i can tell you (i'm an old vw guy, just sold my mk3 vr6 actually) that there are a number of turbo kits available, some better than others.  eip is the company form the old days that was known for making the biggest power gains but they have a terrible rep for customer service and support.  bahn brenner makes a good kit, i understand to be reliable, and not terribly expensive.  

what are your goals with the car?  do you drag race?  if you don't, and plus if you are new to tuning, turbo might not be the best answer.  you might go the s-charge route; i had a friend with a mk3 VR + roots-type blower than could keep up with my 03 wrx easily enough, and it was easily drivable around town too.  

also think about 16" wheels; 17's on those cars can be a tight fit.  you will definitely need to roll your fenders to fit 17's on the car.  

when i bought the car it had already been running 17's so the wheels are good lol.  as far as what i plan to do with it..i just want to know its fast more than racing it.  i dont like being hard on the engine i just like tuning...i know smack me in the face lol. So in which case i should go super then?... as for the crank i just thought i might want to get a forged one...but hey of the stock one is good ( im slowly reading up on the car...i bought it cause it was vw and sexy lol) so yeah im not shure what the internals could handle.  right now the car is pushing right at 210 ( dynod ) WHP so its actually a really good base hp and *** its light as *** and props on owning the wrx you sir are my hero lol  

Sounds like either option would be good for you. If you aren’t going to push the car that hard and are running a mild boost setup (thats what it sounds like you would be content with) there will be no need to upgrade any internals. It is vital with both a supercharger and a turbocharger to buy a sufficient engine management system, a standalone ecu is really the only way to go.  Both will require maintenance but a turbo does require a little more maintenance.


Good Luck  

what mods do you have to make 210WHP right now?  normally you won't make that with a stock 12V VR unless you have all the BPU's including some fairly aggressive cams.  a stock mk3 should put down about 160WHP.

and once again, you won't need to upgrade any internals unless you are planning on making more than double the stock power level.  its that strong.