To the Super Street editors,

I'm a fairly regular reader of Super Street, and as a Subaru owner, I was utterly embarrassed at the last installment of Project Track Star STI - Stage Two: Engine Mods. Clearly whoever is in charge of that project car didn't do their homework, or sponsors/budget outweighed reason and intelligence.

Let's begin with the intake. First of all, most Subaru tuners agree that the stock intake is good for power levels of up to 400 HP. On the stock VF39, let alone with your basic mods, you're nowhere near that level, so an intake is debatably a waste of money to begin with. Now look at your intake choice. Due to the placement of the MAF sensor in the intake, STI's are really susceptible to poorly sized or designed intakes. Piping diameters different than stock will cause false readings, leading to lean or rich conditions (depending on whether the piping is larger or smaller than stock). Also, the stock airbox does a great job at creating a smooth, laminar airflow past the MAF. Aftermarket intakes, especially the short-ram style, tend to create much more turbulent airflow past the MAF, again skewing readings. There are a handful of intakes that have been designed with these things in mind, which have been shown to have no effect on the air-fuel ratio. These include the APS, Perrin, K&N Typhoon, SPT, Cobb, and TXS intakes - NOT the A'PEXi. The altered sensor readings can be accounted and tuned for with aftermarket engine management systems, but you tragically left this out of your upgrade plans, which brings me to my next problem.

Boost controller. Come on, really? No research at all? First of all, the AVCR is RPM based, and you WILL get ptfb (partial-throttle full-boost) on an STI with an EBC such as the AVCR. That's one easy way to grenade your motor. Also, at higher than stock boost levels, the ECU can't typically sustain proper air-fuel ratios. You REALLY need an engine management system on an STi. This isn't an Evo. Cobb Accessport, TurboXS UTEC, ECUTEK, Element Tuning Hydra - all great options. Get a true EM system, throw out the AVCR, and have the car professionally tuned, before something bad happens.

Now, the turbo timer. Again, your lack of research is clear, because turbo timers are essentially pointless on WRX/STIs. It's a water-cooled turbo, not oil-cooled, so coking is already a much lower risk. More importantly though, the coolant system design on the STI is such that the coolant exits the center housing of the turbo and rises up to a coolant reservoir (on top of the motor). Due to this design, when you shut the car off, coolant in the CHRA heats up and rises into the coolant reservoir, pulling fresh coolant in behind it. This continues until the turbo is well below the coking threshold temperature. Sure, it's never a good idea to shut off a car after hot-lapping it (for reasons other than the turbo), but a cool-down lap will be enough to preserve the life of the turbo - turbo timer not needed.

Honestly, I don't care if you guys blow up your project STI's motor. I wouldn't sympathize, because you have it coming, for not doing your homework, and then I would hopefully get to see you do a (well researched, perhaps?) engine build. What worries me is that readers with STIs will see what you did to your project car and copy it, without doing additional research. Please rethink your modifications for your next installment of Project Track Star STI.